Morphophonology, Zero modification, Free and Bound Morphemes

 Morphophonology

The plural morpheme in English, represented by the allomorphs /s/, /z/, and /iz/, follows predictable patterns based on the phonological ending of the noun's base form.(ie, it depends on whether the base word ends with voiced or voiceless sounds). This phonological conditioning determines when each allomorph is used. Morphophonemic alterations, termed morphophonology, result from the interaction between phonetic sounds in close proximity. Allomorphs /-z/, /-s/, and /-iz/ are phonologically conditioned, occurring predictably in specific environments. The sound that influences another sound is the conditioning sound, while the affected sound is the conditioned sound.

Zero Modification

Certain nouns like deer, sheep, and cattle have the same form for both singular and plural. The process of pluralisation does not make any visible change in the phonemic shape of such morphemes. Such changes are called zero modification. The sign /∅/ is used to indicate that a plural morpheme has been added to the root by labelling it as zero allomorph. Examples: deer + /∅/, cattle +/∅/. Similarly, past tense verbs like cut, put, and hit also feature a zero allomorph.

Free and Bound morphemes

Free morphemes are morphemes that can stand alone as separate words. They can exist without the assistance of any other element. Content words such as eat, sea, red, and man are free morphemes. 

Bound morphemes are morphemes that can not stand as separate words. Morphemes like un-, in-, -hood, and dis- in words like unkind, inevitable, boyhood, and disdain can be joined to any other word in the same form class  to form new words.

Bound morphemes depend on free morphemes for their existence. Bound morphemes like the endings in "eater," "boys," and "quicker" cannot.

What is the Difference between Morpheme and Morph or Allomorph?

    In Morphology (study of morphemes or how morphemes join to form words) a morpheme is the minimal meaningful unit in a language. For example the word 'human', 'legal' 'mortal' are morphemes. A morph is a word segment that represents one morpheme. In another words, a morpheme is an abstract unit of meaning and a morph is formal unit with a physical shape. To make it more clear, morpheme is conceptual and it is the description of what a morph is or does to a word; on the other hand morph is the concrete form of a morpheme. 

    For example, the morpheme meaning 'negative forming' is represented in adjectives using different morphs such as 'in' as in inhuman, 'il' as in illegal, 'im' as immortal, 'ir' as irregular, 'non' as in non-existent, 'dis' as in dishonest, 'ig' as in ignoble

    As the examples above shows, the morpheme meaning 'negative forming' can be given shape by various morphs; though various morphs are used, each morph represents the morpheme 'negative meaning'

    Allomorphs are the phonetically variant forms of a morpheme. 

Example- 1. The plural morpheme -s/-es is phonologically realized in words cats, dogs and watches as /s/, /z/ and /iz/ respectively. The same morpheme has got different phonetic representation, hence they are the allomorphs of 'plural morpheme -s'

Example-2. The English past tense morpheme that we spell -ed has various phonetic representations. It is realized as /t/as in hiked (after voiceless /k/) realized as /d/in explained (after voiced /n/) realized as /id/in accepted (after either /t/ or /d/)