Download MORPHEME, MORPH, AND ALLOMORPH

ROOT (BASE), STEM
Root: is the irreducible core of word, with absolutely nothing else
attached to it (It has potential of being attached). It is a part that is
always present, possibly with some modification, in the various
manifestations of a lexeme. For example ‘walk’ becomes walks,
walking, or walked.
‘good’ become better, or well.
Root can also be called as base (any unit whatsoever to which affixes
of any kind can be added). The affixes can be inflectional or
derivational.
Stem is that part of a word that is in existence before any inflectional
affixes. (i.e. those affixes whose presence is required by the syntax
such as markers of singular and plural number in nouns, tense in
verbs etc.) For example:
‘workers’: work is a root, worker is a stem.
‘ cats’: cat is a stem (root).
MORPHEME, MORPH, AND ALLOMORPH
The morpheme is the smallest difference in the shape of a word that
correlates with the smallest different in word of sentence meaning or
in grammatical structure.
A morph is a physical form representing some morpheme in a
language. It is a recurrent distinctive sound (phoneme) or sequence
of sounds (phonemes)
Example:
Morpheme
Morph
I
/ai/
she
/∫i:/
he
/hi:/
car
/ka:/
park
/pa:k/
mend
/mend/
MORPHEME, MORPH, ALLOMORPH (Cont….)
Allomorph is different morphs represent the same morpheme (The
same morpheme that is represented by several morphs).
Example:
The morpheme -ed are represented by the following morphs:
a. /Id/ if the verb ends in /d/ or /t/
/mend/ - /mendId/, /peint/ - /peintId/
‘mend –mended’, ‘paint – painted’
b. /d/ after a verb ending in any voiced sound except /d/
/kli:n/ - /kli:nd/, /weI/ - /weId/
‘clean – cleaned’, ‘weigh – weighed’
c. /t/ after a verb ending in any voiceless consonant other than /t/
/pa:k/ - /pa:kt/, /mIs/ - /mIst/
‘park – parked’, ‘miss – missed’
MORPHEME, MORPH, ALLOMORPH (Cont….)
The other examples of allomorphs can also be found in the following
examples:
Morpheme –s (plural marker) is represented by the following
morphs:
a. /-Iz/ if a noun ends in alveolar or alveolar-palatal sibilant (i.e.
consonant with a sharp, hissing sound).
fish – fishes, box – boxes , beach – beaches, bridge – bridges, etc.
b. /-s/ if a noun ends in a non-strident voiceless consonant (i.e. any
one of the sounds / p t k f Ө /
cup – cups, leek – leeks, book – books, cart – carts.
c. /-z/ if a noun ends in a voiced nonstrident segment; this includes
all vowels and the consonants /b d g d m n l r w j/
key – keys, shoe – shoes, mug – mugs, bag – bags, room –
rooms,etc.