ALLOMORPH

PREPARED BY:
NADIYA BINTI KHALIK
MOHD FADHLI BIN DAUD
FARHANA BT MOHD FAUZI
PISMP 5 SNED 1
 Allomorph is a linguistics term
for a variant form of morpheme.

 In some cases a morpheme has

more than one allomorph.

Concept of allomorph occurs

when a unit of meaning can vary
in sound (phonologically), but the
meaning is remain the same.
It is used in linguistics to explain the
comprehension of variation in sound
for a specific morpheme.

 In some cases a morpheme has

more than one allomorph.
 This happens when the same
meaning unit like [past] for past
tense or [pl] for plural has more than
one sound form
Past: one feature [past]
kick / kick-ed
leave / lef-t
hit / hit-Ø
 Different allomorphs of a
morpheme are part of the same
morpheme, but are found in
particular contexts.
The same is true of the different allomorphs
of a morpheme
Which allomorph of a morpheme is found
depends on its context;

Example: consider [pl] for English plural. It

normally has the pronunciation –s (i.e. /z/),
but
moose / moose- Ø
ox / ox-en
box/*box-en/box-es
So, the special allomorphs depend on the
noun
 Regular and irregular
allomorph
In the examples above, the different allomorphs
have a distinct status. One of them is regular.
This is the default form that appears when
speakers are using new words: (one blork,
two blorks)
For another allomorphs, speakers have to
memorize the fact that the allomorph is what
it is
Example: It cannot be predicted from other
facts that the plural of ox is ox-en
Demonstration: The regular plural is /z/;
consider one box, two box-es.
 Default cases like the /z/
plural are called regular.
Allomorphs that have to be
memorized are called
irregular.
Irregular allomorphs block
regular allomorphs from
occurring (ox-en, not *ox-es
or *ox-en-s).
Two types of Allomorph

The Plural morpheme in

English has different sound-
forms: dog-s/cat-s/church-
es
These are predictable,
based on the
phonological context
 In the case of Past Tense
allomorphy, it is not predictable
from the phonology which affix
appears

We can find verbs with the same

(or similar) sound form, but with
different allomorphs:
break/broke, not stake/*stoke
In English, the negative prefix
‘in’ has several allomorph. For
examples:
1.in-capable
2.il-logical
3.im-probable
4.ir-relevent