Morphophonemic variation in English
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Many morphemes of English have more than one way of being pronounced; this is often not reflected in the spelling of the morpheme. Such variations affect both affixes and roots. Sometimes the pronunciation varies because of nearby sounds; sometimes there is no logic to it — its motivation lies in forgotten history.
The pronunciation variants of a morpheme are called allomorphs. The phenomenon of variation in the pronunciation of a morpheme is called allomorphic variation or morphophonemic variation (since it is the phonemic makeup of a morpheme that is varying). The variations themselves are sometimes called morphophonological processes.
The English past-tense morpheme has three allomorphs: /@d/, /t/, and /d/. (Remember, /@/ is being used to stand for schwa.)
| Morpheme: Past tense '-d'/'-ed' |
| Allomorphs: /@d/, /t/, /d/ |
| Distribution: /@d/ after /t/ and /d/, /t/ after other voiceless consonants, /d/ after other voiced Cs and vowels |
Motivation: Phonological. /d/ occurs after vowels and voiced consonants other than /d/; /t/ occurs after voiceless consonants other than /t/; and /@d/ occurs after the alveolar stops /t/ and /d/.
| /@d/ after /t/ and /d/ | /t/ after other voiceless consonants | /d/ after other voiced Cs and vowels |
| faded, stated, petted, sounded | kissed, leaped, fluffed, stocked | buzzed, played, mooned, sued |
Unmotivated allomorphy: A change in the pronunciation of a morpheme that is not based on the phonological surroundings. Most of these simply must be memorized.
Examples:
- 'Electric' usually has final /k/; but has final /s/ in 'electricity'. The morpheme 'electric' has two allomorphs: 'electri/k/' and 'electri/s/-'; the second occurs only when the suffix -ity' is attached to the word.
- Words such as 'life', 'shelf', 'leaf' have a final /f/ in most forms, but when they are pluralized, the base has a final /v/: 'lives', 'shelves', 'leaves'. Thus these words have two allomorphs: one final in /f/ in the singular ('life', 'shelf', 'leaf') and one final in /v/, which occurs only when the plural suffix is added: 'live-', 'shelv-', 'leav-'. Notice that not all words that end in /f/ undergo this change: the plural of the noun 'proof' is not 'prooves'. Dialects differ in how they pluralize words such as 'roof', 'hoof'; some people say 'roofs' while others say 'rooves'; some say 'hoofs' and others 'hooves'. The plural of 'loaf' is 'loaves', but the plural of 'oaf' is not 'oaves' but 'oafs'. A learner of English has to memorize which words change from /f/ to /v/ and which don't.
Labels: Morphology
