Allomorph and Zero Allomorph

Allomorph and Zero Allomorph

Allomorphs is variant of a morpheme. Such variance occurs due to the phonological conditioning of the surrounding sound. For example the “(s)” morpheme in English which indicates plurality or third person singular present tense has three allomorphs:

Cat(s) / kaets/              Pig(s) / pigz/                Horse(s) / ho:sez/

Thus, orthographically the same “s” manifestation hold, but phonologically, there variants, /s/ /z/ and /ez/ making up the three allomorph of the morpheme (s).

Another example is the past tense morpheme “(ed)”, with the three allomorph /t/ /d/ and /ed/

   

1.            After an alveolar stop /d/, the allomorph /-ǝd/

Parted /partǝd/.

2      After a voiceless consonant other than /t/, the allomorph /-t/

        Laughed /lӕft/.

        Possed    /paest/.

                 

3      After a voiced consonant other than /d/, the allomorph /-d/

        Begged /bεgd/.

        Seemed /simd/

 NOTE: These three phonemic forms of “{ed}” are not interchangeable. They are positional variants. They are allomorphs belong to the same morpheme.

Zero Allomorph is the term given ti the unit involved whem a morpheme change status from one type of morpheme to another without any addition or subtraction of any of its parts. Zero allamorph is spoken of, therefore, in a situation where there is no overt change in the item. It is indicated by the sign { Ø }

For example:

1.      Masculine + {ess}’ = feminime

Prince + ess = princess

Baron + ess = baroness

2.      Masculine + lexical change’ = feminime

Drake + lexical change = duck

Rooster + lexical change = hen

3.      Masculine + { Ø }= feminime

Doctor + { Ø } = Doctor

Zebra + { Ø } = zebra

Referencse 

a linguistic primer for malaysian