We report a case of dysgraphic performance in which we have documented
the selective preservation of suffix spelling in the context of the p
honologically plausible spelling of word stems (e.g. surfed spelled as
sourphed, and not as sourpht). The preservation of suffix spelling is
observed consistently in spite of the fact that the spelling for the
suffix corresponds to more than one phonological form. We argue that t
he interpretation of such an error pattern requires that we assume tha
t the stem material is processed via phonology-to-orthography conversi
on, whereas the suffix material is processed lexically. We conclude th
at the results are incompatible with an exclusively whole-word view of
lexical representation and processing and requires, instead, that we
assume a lexical orthographic system in which morphologically complex
forms are represented in a compositional manner.