CHAPTER 3 ALLOMORPHS

TON DUC THANG UNIVERSITY
Faculty of Foreign Languages

MORPHOLOGY - 001167

Chapter 3:
ALLOMORPHS
Designed by Lam Quang Tuyet Minh

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CHAPTER 3
3.1 Definition of Allomorphs
3.2 Conditioning: Phonological and
Morphological
3.3 Types of allomorphs
3.3.1 Additive allomorphs
3.3.2 Replacive allomorphs
3.3.3 Suppletive allomorphs
3.3.4 Zero allomorphs
3.4 Homophones
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3.1 DEFINITION OF ALLOMORPHS
An allomorph is “any of the different forms of a
morpheme.”
[Richards, Platt & Weber, 1987:9]
e.g. long, length
morpheme
free allomorph
{long}

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/lɒŋ/

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bound allomorph
/leŋθ/

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3.1.1 CHARACTERISTICS
• Allomorphs of a morpheme have the same
meaning, either lexical and grammatical.
• They are in complementary distribution (CD).

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3.2. CONDITIONING
Selections of Allomorphs

Phonological

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Morphological

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3.2 CONDITIONING
3.2.1 Phonologically conditioned
- When the phonological environment determines
which allomorphs is used, the selection of
allomorphs is phonologically conditioned.
- The allomorphs are conditioned by phonetic
feature of the preceding sounds.

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3.2 CONDITIONING
3.2.1 Phonologically conditioned
e.g. The plural noun morpheme and third person singular
present tense morpheme {-s pl}: 3 morphemic forms /iz
~ s ~ z/
1. /-s/ after the voiceless consonants /p, t, k, f, Ɵ/
cat  cats /kæts/ = /kæt/ + /-s/
2. /-iz/ after the sibilant consonants /s, z, ʃ, ʒ, ʧ, dʒ/
box  boxes /boksiz/ = /boks/ + /-iz/
3. /-z/ after all vowels and other voiced consonants except
/z/, / ʒ/ and /dʒ/
arms  arms /a:mz/ = /a:m/ + /-z/

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3.2 CONDITIONING
3.2.1 Phonologically conditioned
e.g. The {-D pt} has 3 morphemic forms /iz ~ s ~ z/{ed pt} = /id ~ t ~ d/
1. /-id/ after the alveolar oral stop /t, d/
want  wanted /wontid/ = /wont/ + /-id/
2. /-t/ after other voiceless consonant sounds

fix  fixed /fikst/ = /fiks/ + /-t/
3. /-d/ after other voiced consonant sounds and vowel
sounds
show  showed /ʃəud/ = /ʃəu/ + /-d/
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3.2 CONDITIONING
• The occurrence of one or another of them
depends on its phonological environment.
• This pattern of occurrence is called
complementary distribution (CD).

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3.2 CONDITIONING
3.2.2 Morphologically Conditioned

The selection is conditioned by a particular
morpheme forming the context;
When we can describe the environment that

requires a certain allomorph by identifying
specific morphemes.

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3.2 CONDITIONING
1. irregular plural allomorphs
foot  feet = /fi:t/ + /u  i:/
tooth  teeth = /ti:Ɵ/ + /u:  i:/
2. irregular third-person singular present-tense allomorphs
have  has = /hæz/ + /v  z/

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3.2 CONDITIONING
3. irregular past tense allomorphs
find  found = /faund/ + /ai  au/
ring  rang = /ræng/ + /i  æ/
4. irregular past participle allomorphs
do  done = /dʌn / + /u:  ʌ/

tell  told = /təuld/ + /e  əu/

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3.3 TYPES OF ALLOMORPHS
(1) Additive
Consonant change
(2) Replacive

Vowel change

(3) Suppletive
(4) Zero

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3.3.1 ADDITIVE ALLOMORPHS
Additive allomorphs: To signify some difference

in meaning, something is added to a word.

e.g. played
thinking
children
mother’s

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3.3.2 REPLACIVE ALLOMORPHS
Replacive allomorphs:
To signify some difference in meaning, a sound is
used to replace another sound in a word.
e.g. drink  drank /dræŋk/ = /driŋk/ + /i æ/
build  built /bju:lt/ = /bjuld/ + /d  t/

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3.3.3 SUPPLETIVE ALLOMORPHS
Suppletive allomorphs:

To signify some difference in meaning, there

is a complete change in the shape of a
word.
e.g. go => went
be => is
bad => worse
good => best
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3.3.4 ZERO ALLOMORPHS
The zero allomorphs:

To signify some difference in meaning, there
is no change in the shape of a word.
e.g. hurt – hurt (past simple)
sheep – sheep (irregular noun plural)

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3.4 HOMOPHONES
Homophones: words that sound alike but differ in

meaning.
e.g. Do you like meet? /mit/ (track meet)
Did you like the meat? /mit/ (roast beef)
=> meet and meat are different morphemes.
It feels good. /-z/
Those frogs /-z/
John’s book /-z/
=> the three homophonous /-z/ are different
morphemes.

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HOMEWORK
Do exercises in:
[2]: 21-27
[3]: 158, 173-176
[4]: 73-95

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