Page 287 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Unit 21: Morphology: Morph, Morpheme, Allomorph

21.3 Allomorphs Notes

It frequently happens that a particular morpheme is not represented everywhere by the same morph,
but by different morphs in different environments. The alternative phonological manifestation or
representations of such a morpheme are called allomorphs or ‘morpheme alternants’ or ‘morpheme
variants’. An allomorph, therefore, is a non-distinctive variant of a morpheme. Or, it may be called a
family or class of morphs which are phonemically and semantically identical, that is, an allomorph is
“a family of morphs which are alike in two ways: (i) in the allophones of which they are composed
and, (ii) in the meaning which they have”.
The allomorphs are phonologically conditioned. Their forms are dependent on the adjacent phonemes.
Or else, they are morphologically conditioned. That is, when morphemes are affected by their
phonolgical environment ‘sandhi’, they become allomorphs. For example, /-z/,/-s/,/-iz/ and / ∅ /
are the various allomorphs of the plural morpheme {-z} in English.
The study of different shapes of allomorphs is half-way between phonology and morphology, and is
sometimes referred to as morphophonology or morphonology. In America where phonology is
considered as part of descriptive linguistics synchronic linguistics has relied on phonemic analysis,
the term morphophonemics is used for this aspect of grammar.
21.4 Phonological Conditioning

The English plural morpheme provides very good examples of both phonologically and
morphologically conditioned allomprphs. /-s/,/-z/, and / iz/ are all phonolgically conditioned
allomorphs of the English plural mor-pheme.
1. /-s/ appears with morphs ending in /p, t, k, f, θ /.
2. /-z/ appears with morphs ending in /b, d, g, v, ð m, n, ŋ, 1, r, y, w,/

3. /-iz/ appears with morphs ending in /z, ∫ ,z, t∫ , dz/
These generalizations can be exemplified in the following manner:
form taking forms taking forms taking
/s/ /z/ /iz/
cups/k Λ ps/ hubs/h Λ bz/ classes /kla: siz/
hats/ h æ ts/ hands/h æ ndz/ mazes/meiziz/
thanks/ θ æ ŋks/ dogs/d gz/ dishes/di ∫ iz/

coughs /k fs/ gloves/gl Λ vz/ garages/g æ raz iz/
hycinths/hai sins θ s/ rims/rimz/ churches/ t∫ Λ v ∫ iz/
e
If we study these data to find a principle governing this distribution we will discover that these
generalizations can be restated in even more general and precise terms, as given below:
1. /-s/ appears after morphs ending in voiceless morphemes, except the sibilants and affricates.
2. /-z/ appears after morphs ending in voiced morphemes except the sibilants and affricates.
3. /iz/ appears after morphs ending in sibilants and affricates.
That is, the linguist has stated the conditions or explained what factors are responsible for the particular
physical form of the plural. Since the factors in this case are the preceding sound segments, he classifies
this as phonological conditioning.
Another example of this phonological conditioning is the past tense morpheme of English [-ed]. It is
also regularly represented by three phonologically conditioned allomorphs /t/,/d/ and /-id/. The
rule governing their distribution is as follows:

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