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Meeting 3 Morpheme, Morph, and Allomorph

The document discusses morphemes, which are the smallest units of language that have meaning. There are two types of morphemes: free morphemes, which can stand alone as words, and bound morphemes, which cannot stand alone and include prefixes and suffixes. The document also discusses related linguistic concepts including morphs, which are the physical forms that represent morphemes, and allomorphs, which are groups of morphs that represent the same morpheme. It provides examples of allomorphs and outlines the steps to determine the underlying representation or basic form of a morpheme.

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320 views23 pages

Meeting 3 Morpheme, Morph, and Allomorph

The document discusses morphemes, which are the smallest units of language that have meaning. There are two types of morphemes: free morphemes, which can stand alone as words, and bound morphemes, which cannot stand alone and include prefixes and suffixes. The document also discusses related linguistic concepts including morphs, which are the physical forms that represent morphemes, and allomorphs, which are groups of morphs that represent the same morpheme. It provides examples of allomorphs and outlines the steps to determine the underlying representation or basic form of a morpheme.

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seravyne
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Morpheme

Morpheme is the smallest unit of language that has its own


meaning

2 Types of Morphemes:
Free Morphemes: morphemes that can stand
alone as words
e.g. class, cat, study, beauty,
Bound Morphemes : Morphemes that cannot
stand alone as words
e.g. prefixes : in-, dis-, un-
suffixes : -ing, -ed, -s, -ness, -able
action: act + -ion
CW FM Bound Morpheme
(complex word)
complex word > not a morpheme
going go + -ing
CW FM BM
1. I put /placed it here yesterday (5 words)
CW CW
the verb put in sentence (1) has 2 morphemes:
- free morpheme : put
-bound morpheme : past tense morpheme
2. I put /place it here everyday
FM FM FM FM FM CW?
the verb put/place in (2) contains 1 morpheme
3. She took the money from me
CW : free morpheme take and
past tense morpheme
brought : complex word
morpheme: bring (FM)
: Past tense morpheme (BM)
Morph
Physical representation of a morpheme/ Pronunciation form of a
morpheme

word forms phonetic forms


wanted [wɒn.tɪd] [ɪd]: morph of past tense morpheme
played [pleɪd] [d] : morph ,,
claimed [kleɪmd] [d] : morph ,,
Stopped [həʊpt] [t] : morph ,,

Allomorph : a group of different morphs representing the same


morpheme
Past Tense morpheme has 3 allomorphs : [t], [d], [Id]
Basic Form of a morpheme
Past Tense Morpheme
[-t] occurs after verbs ending with voiceless C
[-d] occurs after verbs ending with voiced C or after Vowels
[-Id] occurs after verbs ending with [t] or [d]

/-d/ basic form of the past tense morpheme

[t] [Id] [d] allomorphs


after voiceless C after [t] or [d] elsewhere environment/distribution
3. Morpheme, Morph, dan Allomorph
Morpheme : the smallest unit of language that has its
own meaning
Morph : a physical form representing a morpheme in
a language
Allomorph : a group of different morphs representing
the same morpheme
Morpheme : Plural -s/-es cabs
Basic Morpheme/ the underlying form
It has the widest distribution
 /-z/ basic morpheme of the plural suffix

 [s] [z] [z] allomorphs


after voiceless non sibilant after sibilant segments elsewhere Environment
Kinds of Allomorphs
1. Phonologically conditioned allomorph
Allo­morph selected to represent the morpheme is one whose
phonological properties are similar to those of sounds found in a
neighboring allomorph of some other morpheme.
For example: [im], [in], and [i] : in the case of assimilation below
Basic Form of a morpheme
Past Tense Morpheme
[-t] occurs after verbs ending with voiceless C
[-d] occurs after verbs ending with voiced C or after Vowels
[-Id] occurs after verbs ending with [t] or [d]

/-d/ basic form of the past tense morpheme

[t] [Id] [d] allomorphs


after voiceless C after [t] or [d] elsewhere environment/distribution
Place of articulation
/in/ -> [im] / - [p], [b] place of articulation
assimilation
 Voicing State
/d/ -> [t] / [C -voiced] - voicing assimilation
2. Lexically conditioned allomorph
The form of allomorph which is dependent on the presence of
specific words
For example, the plural allomorph –en [n] occurring with the
stem child, as in children, and ox, as in oxen
The common representations of the plural morpheme are [s, ɪz,
z]
books [buks]
bags [bgz]
boxes [bksIz]
but for certain words like ‘child’, the plural form is not ‘childs’
but ‘children’ [tʃɪldrən], and for the word ‘ox’, the plural form is
oxen [ɒksən] - so the [ən] is a lexically conditioned
allomorph of the plural morpheme in English
3. Grammatically conditioned allomorphs

The choice of allomorph is dependent on the presence


of a particular grammatical element. in English the
presence of the past tense morpheme in the majority
of cases has no effect on the selection of the allomorph
that represents the verb itself. But, in certain verbs the
presence of the past tense morpheme requires the
selection of a special allomorph of the verb:
weep [wi:p] wept [wept]
sweep [swi:p] swept [swept]
take [teIk] took [tuk]
4. Suppletion
Allomorphs of a morpheme which are phonetically
unrelated
good [gud] better [betr]
bad [bd] worse [wɜːs]

The common form of degree of comparison morpheme -


er
smart [sma:t] smarter [sma:tr]
5. Zero allomorph
Allomorphs that do not have phonetic representation
Look at the verbs in the following sentences
a. I cut/walk on the grass everyday (cut present)
b. I cut/walked on the grass last week (cut, past)
the verb ‘cut’ in sentence (b) contains 2 morphemes: (1) ‘cut’ and (2) past tense
morpheme, but the realization of the past tense morpheme above is not overtly
expressed, and so it has a zero allomorph. Consider the following other examples
6. Portmanteau morph
is used to refer to cases like a single morph
simultaneously representing a bundle of
several different grammatical elements.
She walk-s [wks] to campus
The suffix represented with [-s] in the sentence
above is called a portmanteau morph because has 2
functions : 1. Subject Singular marker
2. Present Tense marker
They walked [wakt] home
Underlying Representation
(UR) = base form
• UR is the base form from which the various
allomorphs of a morpheme are derived by apply­
ing one or more phonological rules.
• UR is taken from one of the allomorphs
having the widest distribution
• To know UR, first of all we need to know the
environment of all the allomorphs
Case 1: Find the UR of the negative morpheme in-
Find one of the allomorphs having the widest distribution
UR /in/ Morpheme

[im] [i] [in] allomorphs


before labial before velar elsewhere distribution
The past tense morpheme
The present tense for singular subject
The plural morpheme
The steps to find UR
1. Find the data containing the same morpheme , with
the phonetic transcription
2 Identify the allomorphs
3. Identify the environment of the allomorphs
4. Find the UR, by looking at the allomorph having
the widest distribution
5. Draw a chart showing the UR, the allomorphs and
their distribution

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