Morph: A morph is simply the phonetic representation of a morpheme, how the morpheme is said.
Morpheme: Smallest meaningful unit, cannot be further divided or analyzed
Allomorph: Allomorphs are different forms of the same morpheme, or basic unit of meaning.These can be different pronunciations or different spellings.
2. 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.
2
3. 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 /big/ and /ęr/.
Each morph represents a particular morpheme.
3
4. 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.
4
5. 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.
5
6. 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.
6
7. 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.
7
8. 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.
8
9. 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
9
10. 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
10
11. 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/
11
12. ALLOMORPH
The past form morpheme {ed} usually has also three allomorphos:
d as in ‘hunted’ h>ntd
t as in ‘fished’ fistt
id as in ‘buzzed’ buzid
12
13. TYPES OF ALLOMORPH
There are four types of allomorph
1. Additive allomorph
2. Replacive allomorph
3. Suppletive allomorph
4. Zero allomorph
13
14. 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
14
15. 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/.
15
16. 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.
16
17. 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)
17
Morph is the smallest meaningful part of a language when we break down a word into the smallest meaningful parts.
When the word can be segmented into parts. These segmented words are referred to as morph.
The bound morpheme is always requires another set of word to attach with to give new set of words.
These are open class of words that simply means that new lexical morphemes can be added.
It is closed words category that simply means that no new functional morphemes can be added in to this category.
Main difference between these two being that,
The addition of the derivational morphemes creates a new words or mostly changes the word classes/identity/category. while
The addition of the inflectional morphemes merely changes word form.
The affixes which precede free morphemes are called prefixes, and those which follow free morphemes are called suffixes.
Whether or not word class changes and how significantly meaning is affected, “derivation” always creates new word existing one ; while “inflection” is merely limited to change word form.