Sometimes we use different letters or different pronunciations to express things that have the same meaning – we call these allomorphs. This article will define allomorphs, provide examples of allomorphs, and outline the different types of allomorphs.
Allomorph definition
An allomorph is a phonetic variant of a morpheme. Sometimes morphemes change their sound or their spelling but not their meaning. Each of these different forms is classed as an allomorph.
Allomorph and morphemes
Before we dive straight into allomorphs, let’s remind ourselves of what a morpheme is.
A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in a language. This means that a morpheme cannot be reduced beyond its current state without losing its basic meaning. This makes it different from a syllable, which is a word unit – morphemes can have any number of syllables.
Morphemes come in two varieties: free morphemes and bound morphemes.
Free morphemes
Free morphemes can stand alone. Most words are free morphemes – some examples include: house, smile, car, peacock, other book. Tthese words carry meaning on their own and are complete in themselves.
take the word ‘tall’ for example – it has a meaning on its own and you can’t break it down into smaller parts (such as t-all, ta-ll, or tal-l). ‘peacock’ is also a free morpheme; despite having more than one syllable, it cannot be broken down into smaller parts without losing its basic meaning.
Free morphemes are either lexical or functional.
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Lexical morphemes give us the main meaning of a sentence or text; they include nouns, adjectives and verbs.
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Functional morphemes help to hold the structure of a sentence together; they include prepositions (eg with), conjunctions (eg other), articles (eg the) and pronouns (eg here).
Bound morphemes
Bound morphemes cannot stand alone. They have to be bound to another morpheme to carry any meaning. Bound morphemes include prefixes, like -pre, -un, other -dis (e.g pre-screen, undone, disapprove), and suffixes, like -er, -ing other -est (e.g smaller, smiling, widest).
Now we have a good idea of what a morpheme is, let’s get back to allomorphs.
What is an allomorph?
To recap: an allomorph is each alternative form of a morpheme. This could be a variation in sound (pronunciation), or spelling, but never in function or meaning.
Allomorph example
Can you spot the allomorphs in the following sentence?
I bought an apple and a pear.
The answer is the infinite articles ‘a’, other ‘on’. In the sentence above we see both allomorphs: ‘on’ for when the word following it begins with a vowel, and ‘a’ for when the word following word starts with a consonant. Each form is spelled and pronounced differently, but the meaning is the same.
Allomorphs are like the same morpheme wearing different disguises – Pixabay
Different types of allomorphs
There is some debate about the different types of allomorphs. For the sake of clarity, we will take you through some examples of the three most common types of allomorphs in the English language: past tense allomorphs, plural allomorphs, other negative allomorphs.
Past tense allomorphs
In English, we add the morpheme ‘-edit‘ to the end of regular verbs to show the action was completed in the past. For example, ‘planted’, ‘washed’, other ‘fixed’.
‘-ed’ always has the same function (making a verb past), but is pronounced slightly differently depending on the verb it is bound to. For example, in ‘washed’ it is pronounced as a /t/ sound (ie wash/t/), and in ‘planted’ it’s pronounced as a /ɪd/ sound (ie plant /ɪd/).
Try saying these words out loud and you should notice a slight difference in the way the ‘-ed’ morpheme is pronounced.
Struggling to notice the difference? Say these past tense verbs out loud, focusing on the ‘ed’ morphemes:
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wanted
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rented
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rested
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printed
In each of these words, the ‘ed’ morpheme is pronounced as /ɪd/.
Now do the same with this set of words:
Notice how the ‘edit‘ morpheme is pronounced as /t/.
Each different pronunciation of the ‘ed’ morpheme is on allomorphas it varies in sound, but not function.
Plural allomorphs
We typically add ‘it’s or ‘it’ to nouns to create their plural form. These plural forms always have the same function, but their sound changes depending on the noun.
The plural morpheme has three common allomorphs: /s/, /z/ other /ɪz/. Which one we use depends on the phoneme that precedes it.
A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language – this could be a consonant, vowel, or diphthong. Some phonemes are voiced (meaning we use our voice box to make the sound) and some are unvoiced (meaning we don’t use our voice box).
When a noun ends in a voiceless consonants (ie ch, f, k, p, s, sh, t or th), the plural allomorph is spelled ‘-s’ or ‘-it’and is pronounced as a /s/ sound. for example, books, chips, other churches.
When a noun ends in a voiced phoneme (ie b, d, g, j, l, m, n, ng, r, sz, th, v, w, y, zand the bird sounds a, e, i, o, u), the plural form spelling remains ‘-s’ or ‘-it’, but the allomorph sound changes to /z/. For example, bees, zoo, other dogs.
When a noun ends in a sibilant (ie, s, ss, z), the sound of the allomorphic sound becomes /ɪz/. For example, buses, houses, other waltzes.
Other plural allomorphs include the ‘-en’ in words such as oxen, the ‘-ren’ in childrenand the ‘-ae’ in words such as formulas other antennae. These are all plural allomorphs as they serve the same function as the more common ‘-s’ other ‘-it’ suffixes.
Plural suffixes often depend on the etymology of the word. Words that are pluralized with ‘-ae’ (search as antenna/antennae) usually have Latin roots, whereas words that are pluralized with ‘-ren’ (search as child/children) tend to have Middle English or Germanic origins.
Negative allomorphs
Think of the prefixes we use to make a negative version of a word, eg. informal (not formal), impossible (not possible), unbelievable (not believable), and asymmetrical (not symmetrical). The prefixes ‘-in’, ‘-im’, ‘-un’, and ‘-a’ all serve the same function but are spelled differently, therefore, they are allomorphs of the same morpheme.
What is a null allomorph?
A null allomorph (also known as a zero allomorph, zero morph, or zero bound morpheme) has no visual or phonetic form – it is invisible! Some people even refer to null allomorphs as ‘ghost morphemes’. You can only tell where a null allomorph is by the context of the word.
Examples of null morphemes appear (or rather, don’t appear!) In the plurals for ‘sheep’, ‘fish’ and ‘deer. for example, ‘There are four sheep in the field’.
we don’t saysheep’ – the plural morpheme is invisible, and so it is a null allomorph.
Other examples of null morphemes are in the past tense forms of words such as ‘cut’ other ‘hit’.
There are four sheep in the yard – but never four sheeps – Pixabay
Allomorph – Key takeaways
- An allomorph is a phonetic variant of a morpheme. Sometimes morphemes change their sound or their spelling but not their meaning. Each of these different forms is classed as an allomorph.
- The infinite articles ‘a’ other ‘on’ are examples of allomorph, as they are different forms of the same morpheme.
- Past tense allomorphs include different pronunciations of the suffix ‘-ed’.
- Common plural allomorphs include the different pronunciations of the morphemes ‘-s’.
- Negative allomorphs include the prefixes we use to make a negative version of a word, such as ‘-in’. ‘-in the’, ‘-U.N’, other ‘-a’.
- A null allomorph (also known as a zero allomorph) has no visual or phonetic form – it is invisible! For example, the plural form of the word sheep is sheep.