Transcript 8-MorphologyIV

Morphology, Part 4:
Allomorphy
February 2, 2012
Internal Change
• A (slightly) more common word-formation process in
English is internal change.
• = changing sounds inside a root creates a new word.
• Also known as alternations
sing
~
sang
present/past
drive
~
drove
present/past
foot
~
feet
singular/plural
mouse
~
mice
singular/plural
import
~
import
noun/verb
present
~
present
noun/verb
By the way...
• Some internal change processes have (limited)
productivity in English
• What’s the past tense of “sing”?
sang
sung
• ring?
rang
rung
• bring?
brang?
brung?
brought?
brought?
Internal Change Quick Write
•
46 total responses.
1. Did you vake? Yes, I…
•
vook (2); vade (1)
2. Did you slike? Yes, I…
•
Everybody said “sliked”!
3. Did you neak? Yes, I…
•
nuck (1)
Internal Change Quick Write
4. Did you mide? Yes, I…
• mid (6); mode (5); made (1); midden (1); midded (1)
5. Did you strink? Yes, I…
• strunk (10); strank (6)
6. Did you lun? Yes, I…
• lan (5); lunded (1)
• Internal changes are made for the new forms to the extent
that they resemble phonologically similar forms already in
the language. (ride, drink, run)
Last but not least
• Sometimes an affix changes form, depending on what kind
of root it attaches to.
• Consider English /in-/
• combines with adjectives to form adjectives
• means “the opposite of”
• Examples:
/in-/ + accurate =
inaccurate
/in-/ + tolerant
=
intolerant
/in-/ + direct
=
indirect
Allomorphy
• What’s going on in these cases?
/in-/ + legible
=
illegible
/in-/ + regular
=
irregular
/in-/ + legal
=
illegal
• There are two new forms of the affix: /il-/ and /ir-/
• These are called allomorphs.
• Allomorphs = “different forms”
Allomorphy
• What’s going on here?
/in-/ + probable =
improbable
/in-/ + mobile
=
immobile
/in-/ + possible
=
impossible
• /in-/ changes to /im-/ before both /p/ and /m/.
• /p/ and /m/ are both produced with the lips.
To explain patterns like this, we’re going to need to know
something about how we actually produce the sounds of
English.
We have to study Phonetics!
Allomorphy
• Another English example:
a dog
an owl
a noise
an orange
a strawberry
an apple
• Here’s another:
• walked
invited
• sprayed
needed
• stopped
hated
• fired
landed
• What’s the pattern?
Allomorphy
• One last pattern:
• cats
matches
• judges
dogs
• chairs
passes
• When do we add an extra syllable?
• How does the pattern compare to the formation of third
person singular verbs?
• waits, loves, shows, finds…
• watches, hatches, kisses, spazzes…
• The pattern is based entirely on the sounds involved;
• not on the meaning of the morphemes.
Allomorphy
• Italian Quick Write
• Finally: Let’s work on some practice morphology
exercises…