ENG 503

Descriptive Linguistics

MORPHEME, MORPH, ALLOMORPH

Presented by:
Carlo B. Laru-an
Angelie Christine Pomado
Winna Gulmatico
Charlene B. Torre
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INTRODUCTION

 Morph: A morph is simply the phonetic representation of a morpheme, how the morpheme is said.
Cats - '-s' morpheme is pronounced /s/
Dogs - '-s' morpheme is pronounced /z/
Houses - '-s' morpheme is pronounced / ɪz/
This / s/, / z/, / iz/ are the different sound of same morpheme {-s}.

 Morpheme: Smallest meaningful unit, cannot be further divided or analyzed

Ex: Unthinkable = 'un-' 'think' and '-able‘
Ex: Books = Book and s.

 Allomorph: Allomorphs are different forms of the same morpheme, or basic unit of meaning.
These can be different pronunciations or different spellings.
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MORPH

 A morph is a meaningful group of phones which can not be subdivided into smaller
meaningful units. (Francis, 1958:170).
1. Weakness : weak/ness/es. (Each of these parts is a morph).
2. Books : Book/s. (Each of these parts is a morph).
3. Holiday : Holy/day (Each of these parts is a morph).

Segmented words are referred to as morph.

The word bigger is segmented into two morph which can be written orthographically as big
and er and in phonological transcription as /b ig/ and / ęr/.
Each morph represents a particular morpheme.
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TYPES OF MORPHEMES

 Free morpheme
 Bound Morpheme

 A free morpheme is one that can stand alone with the specific meaning.
Ex: Book, Table, Stand, bag etc.

 A bound morpheme is one that can not be stand alone with the meaning. It always added
to one or more morphemes to form a meaningful word.
Ex: Replay, Cheaply, Shorten, unable, brighten etc.
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FREE MORPHEMES

 The Free morpheme is of two types.

Lexical morpheme
Lexical morphemes are morphemes that carry the main messages we convey.
These can be ordinary noun, verbs and adjective.
Ex: Girl, tiger, long, black, look, kill etc.
 The lexical morphemes are of open class.
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FREE MORPHEMES

 Functional morphemes

Acts as a functional words in a language.

Mostly conjunctions, prepositions, articles and pronouns.
Ex: And , when, but, near, in, the, that, it etc.
 It is of closed class words.
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BOUND MORPHEMES

 Bound morpheme is also of two types.

1. Derivational morphemes
2. Inflectional morphemes

Main difference between these two morphemes

,
Derivational morphemes creates a new words or mostly changes the word
classes/identity/category.

Inflectional morphemes merely changes word form.

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BOUND MORPHEMES

 Bound morpheme mostly refers to morphemes that can occur as affixes.

 Two types of affixes prefixes (x-R), and suffixes (y-R).

Examples:
 Prefixes: dis-, un-, pre-, trans-, bi- etc
 Suffixes: -ly, -ness, -ish, -ity, -er, -en etc

 Prefixes: Disadvantage, unable, preview, transport, bilingual etc.

 Suffixes: Simply, whiteness, boyish, simplicity, greener, forgotten etc.
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BOUND MORPHEMES

 Derivational morpheme

Derivational morpheme used to create new word. New word with a new
meaning.

Noun + Derivational Morpheme > > > Adj. Ex. Boy + ish
Verb + Derivational Morpheme > > > Noun Ex. clear + ance
Adj. + Derivational Morpheme > > > Adverb Ex. Exact + ly
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BOUND MORPHEMES

 Inflectional morpheme

Inflectional morpheme changes the form but not the word class or the central meaning
of the word.

Main function : marking grammatical distinction

Cat VS. Cats = = = Singular VS. Plural

Collects VS. Collected = = = Present VS. Past
Loud VS. Louder = = = Positive VS. Comparative
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ALLOMORPH

 Variations of Morphemes.
 Allomorphs are different forms of the same morpheme, or basic unit of meaning.
 These can be different pronunciations or different spellings.

The plural morphemes in English, usually written as {s}, has at least 3 allomorphs:

s as in judges / yudgis/

z as in dogs / dogz/

IZ as in boxes / boksiz/
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ALLOMORPH

The past form morpheme {ed}usually has also three allomorphos:

d asin ‘hunted’ h>ntd

t as in ‘fished’ fistt
id as in buzzed’ buzid
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TYPES OF ALLOMORPH

 There are four types of allomorph

1. Additive allomorph

2. Replacive allomorph

3. Suppletive allomorph

4. Zero allomorph
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ADDITIVE ALLOMORPH

 To signify some difference in meaning, something is added to a word.

The past tense form of most English verbs is formed by adding the suffix –ed which can be
pronounced as either / -t/, or / -d / or / -Id/:

ask + - ed / a : sk/ + / -t/

liv(e) + ed / llv/ + / -d/

Need + - ed / nid:d/ + / -Id

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REPLACIVE ALLOMORPH

 To signify some difference in meaning, a sound is used to replace another sound

in a word.
The / I/ in Drink is replaced by the / ae/ in Drank to signal the simple past.

This is symbolized as follows:

/ drænk/ = / drΙnk/ + / Ι > æ / .
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SUPPLETIVE ALLOMORPH

 To signify some difference in meaning, there is a complete change in the shape

of a word.

Go + suppletive allomorph of {-D1} = went

Be + suppletive allomorph of {-S3} = is

Bad + suppletive allomorph of {-er1} = worse

Good + suppletive allomorph of {-est1} = best.
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ZERO ALLOMORPH

 Zero allomorph is the term given to the unit involved when a morpheme change
status form one type of morpheme to another without any condition or subtraction
of its parts.

Sheep (singular) + Ø > > > Sheep (plural)

Lawyer (singular) + Ø > > > Lawyer (plural)
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DIFFERENT CONDITIONED ALLOMORPH

Taken from the notes by Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar

http://SBANJAR.kau.edu.sa/
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ANY QUESTIONS
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REFERENCES

 https:/ / wiegecko.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/morph-and-allomorph/
 http:/ / okyhiory.blogspot.in/2012/04/linguistics-morphology.html
 http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-morphology-morphs-allomorphs-morphemes-
whats-254498
 http:/ / www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/111660-Morpheme-and-Morph
 http:/ / pediaa.com/difference-between-morpheme-and-allomorph/
 http:/ / www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/111681-morph-and-morpheme
 http:/ / www-01.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryoflinguisticTerms/
 Classroom lecture notes
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