INTRODUCTION
The study of the internal structure of words and the rules governing the formation of words in a language is the preoccupation of the branch of language study referred to as morphology. Although interest in the study of words, their meaning, structure and function has been a part of grammar from the classical to the medieval times, the study of word structure did not become a distinct level of grammatical analysis until the nineteenth century.
Early studies of word structure were more diachronic in nature, having more to do with the origins and evolution of languages from a study of word formation patterns of different languages. For instance, in the
nineteenth century Franz Bopp produced evidence based on the comparison of sound systems and word formation patterns of Sanskrit, Latin, Persian and Germanic languages to prove that these languages
evolved from the same ancestor. This supported a claim earlier made by William Jones in 1786 (cf Katamba 1993:1). Also, between 1819 and
1837, Jacob Grimm published his Deutsche Grammatik tracing the
common ancestry of the Germanic and other Indo- European languages through comparing their word formation patterns and sound systems.
Morphology in this century is synchronic in approach. This means that it focuses on studying the word structure of a language at some stage of its life rather than how the words of the language have changed in form and meaning over a period of time. In spite of the general acknowledgement in linguistic circles of the place of the study of words and its structure, the discipline of morphology has not received the attention given to other branches of language like phonology, phonetics and grammar. It was the works of the American structuralists which brought the study of morphology to the limelight. Nida’s 1949 course book titled Morphology streamlined the structuralist theory and practice and laid the criteria for the descriptive study of words.
Traditional grammar looked at the word as the basic unit of grammatical analysis but the structuralists show that words can be analysed in terms of the morpheme which is the smallest unit of speech that has semantic and grammatical meanings. While traditional grammar treated word structure as part of sentence structure under grammar, the structuralists’ approach saw morphology as a distinct branch of language study preoccupied with ‘the study of morphemes and their arrangements in forming words’ (Nida 1949:1).
3.1 Morphemes and Allomorphs
The analysis of words into morphemes starts with the identification of morphs. ‘A morph is a physical form representing some morpheme in a language’ (Katamba 1993:24). It is a distinctive recurrent sound segment or a sequence of sound segments. In the following sentences:
a. I ate the food.
b. You ate the food.
c. She eats the food.
d. I eat the food.
e. We eat the food.
f. You eat the food.
the morphs are:
a. /a / e. /ət/
b. /i:t/ f. /fu:d/
c. /wi:/ g. /ju:/
d. /s/ h /e t/
In the examples above each morph represents a separate morpheme. This is however not always the case. Sometimes, the same morpheme is represented by different morphs. For example, the plural morpheme {s} in English as in ‘books’/buks/ can be represented as {z} as in boys/b כ口z/. The past tense of regular verbs in English which is spelled ‘-ed’ is pronounced /t/, /d/, or / d/ depending on the last sound of the verb to which it is attached - its phonological environment.
The Morpheme
The morpheme has been explained as the smallest unit of speech that is meaningful (Udofot, 1999: 4). In other words it is the smallest meaningful unit of grammatical analysis. A word such as ‘pen’ is a single morpheme while ‘pens’ is made up of two morphemes: the normal meaning of ‘pen’ and the signal which indicates number. This information is obtained from the /z/ ending in /penz/. The plural morpheme has other variants namely: {s, z} and the zero plural morphemes / / as in ‘sheep’ . The term morpheme is sometimes identical with the term ‘word’ as for example in the words ‘boy’, ‘cat’, and ‘ church’ being morphemes and also words. When however, these words take the additional {s, z, z}, they cease to be single morphemes because they can be further broken down into parts (in this case the semantic element of the word and the signal for more than one). At other times, the term morpheme is seen as the next in rank to the word in the ranking of grammatical units: sentence, clause, phrase, word, morpheme (cf. Tomori 1977:16-17). In other words, a word is said to be a morpheme when it cannot be further broken down into parts without destroying the meaning.
Meaning is therefore very important in the study of morphology since morphemes are meaningful units. In the following examples: ‘paints,
painting, painted’ the words can be broken down into {pe nt} + {s};
{pe nt} + { }; {pe nt} + { d}. The word ‘paint’ has meaning in English while the /s/ indicates the present tense marker, / / the progressive marker and / d / is the past participle marker. (See Udofot, 1999. Much of the discussion in this module is adapted from this source)
The Allomorph
If different morphs represent the same morpheme, they are referred to as allomorphs of that morpheme. Thus, /t/, /d/ and / d/ are allomorphs of the past tense morpheme in English. The past tense morpheme is realized as
(a) / d/ if the verb ends in /d/ or /t/ as for instance in: mend /mend/;
mended /mend d/
want /w מnt/; wanted /w מnt d/.
(b) /d/ if the verb ends in a voiced sound except /d/ as in:
clean /kli: n/ cleaned / kli: nd/
beg /beg/ begged / begd/.
(c) /t/ after verbs ending in any voiceless consonant other than /t/ as in:
park /pa:k/ parked / pa:kt /
miss /m s/ missed / mist /.
The relationship between morphemes and allomorphs can be
diagrammatically represented as shown below using the past tense morpheme in English:
It can be said that / d/, /d/ and /t/ can be grouped together as allomorphs of the past tense morpheme. The notion of distribution is central to the identification of morphemes in any language. By distribution we mean the context in which a particular linguistic element occurs. A set of morphs are classified as allomorphs of the same morpheme if
(i) they represent the same meaning or serve the same grammatical function;
(ii) they occur in the same contexts.
When the above criteria are satisfied, the morphs are said to be in complementary distribution. Thus the three morphs / d, d, t / which are realizations of the regular past tense morpheme are in complementary distribution because each morph only occurs in the context described above and are therefore allomorphs of the same morpheme. Similarly, the negative morpheme which means not can be realized as / n /, / m / and / / as in the following examples:
inactive
/ nækt v /
indecent
/ nidi:snt /
impenitent
/ m。pen t。nt /
impossible
/ imp。s bl /
incomplete
/ k。mpli:t /
incorrigible
/ k。ridbl /
It can be noted that the nasal consonant in the various allomorphs of the morpheme {in} is pronounced the way it is depending on the nature of the sound that follows it:
/ im / is used before labial consonants like /p, b, m / as in
‘impossible’;
/ / is used before velar consonants like / k / and / g / as in
‘incorrigible’;
/ n/ is used elsewhere as for example before alveolar consonants
like / t, d, s, z, n / as in ‘indecent’;
The three allomorphs / m, , n / of the morpheme {in} are therefore in complementary distribution in that the use of one in one slot excludes the other.
Allomorphic Variations
An allomorph as already explained is a member of a family of a morpheme – a variant of a morpheme depending on the environment where it occurs. The plural morpheme {s} for example changes its nature depending on the phonological environment where it occurs. The addition of the {s} morpheme to a word obtains not only in the formation of plurals in English but also in the formation of possessives as, for instance, in goat, goat’s, John, John’s as well as in changes in verb patterns as a result of changes in person as in I dance, she dances. The three sets of {s} morphemes are generally referred to with the umbrella term the Z Morpheme. When the Z Morpheme relates to plural formation, it is called Z1 Morpheme; when it is concerned with the formation of possessives, it is referred to as Z2 Morpheme; when it has to do with changes in verb forms, it is referred to as Z3 or Concord Morpheme. The different kinds of Z Morpheme therefore are:
Z1 Plural
Z2 Possessive
Z3 Changes in verb forms
Z1 or Plural Morpheme
In English, the Z1 Morpheme has four allomorphs: /s/, /z/, / z/ and / /. The allomorph /s/ occurs with words ending in voiceless sounds except /s/, /ks/ and / tȓ / as in the following examples:
cats
books
cups
/kæts/
/buks/
/cΛps/
The /z/ allomorph occurs with words ending in voiced sounds including all vowels and voiced consonants as in the following examples:
mangoes / mængəuz/
boys / bGǺ z/
bags /bægz/
The allomorph / z / is selected by words which end in alveolar or alveo- palatal sibilants ( that is consonants with sharp hissing sounds
fishes /f ȓ z/
bushes /bυ ȓ z/
churches / tȓ 3: tȓ z/
The zero allomorph / / occurs with words which normally do not have plurals reflected in their morphological shapes as for instance in ‘sheep’ and ‘deer’ .
The Z2 or Possessive Morpheme
This morpheme is similar in distribution to the Z1 Morpheme. The only difference is in the orthographic convention. The possessives have the apostrophe in specific places in words whereas plurals are not written with apostrophes. The distribution of the Z2 morpheme is as follows:
/s/ occurs with words ending in voiceless sounds except the sibilant consonants as in Jack’s / dȢ æks/.
/z/ occurs after voiced sounds other than sibilants as in Jane’s / dȢ e nz/.
/ z/ occurs after the sibilants as in nurse’s /n3 :s z/.
/ / occurs with words which end with the sibilants which may be
plurals or words that naturally end with the letter ‘s’ as in Jones’ /
d ns/ and students/stju:d。nts/.
The possessive morpheme, unlike the plural morpheme, does not occur frequently because in real life people own things so the possessive morpheme tends to go more regularly with proper names. Also, the possessive is often replaced with of + noun phrase constructions as in: the custom of the country instead of the country’s customs. This type of construction is often preferable to possessives in some clumsy sounding cases as in the following:
The eve of St. Agnes instead of St. Agnes’ Eve;
The history of Nigeria instead of Nigeria’s history;
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Uyo instead of University of Uyo’s Vice Chancellor.
The Z3 or Concord Morpheme
This is the morpheme that shows changes in verb patterns occasioned by changes in person or number, as for instance, in:
I go, she goes.
Like the other Z morphemes, it is phonologically conditioned as
follows:
/s/ after voiceless consonants except sibilants as in walks /w
Gəks/.
/z/ after voiced sounds other than sibilants as in goes /g əȚ z/.
/ z/after sibilant sounds as in washes /w Gə ȓ z/.
The Z3 morpheme is also often referred to as the third person singular
present tense morpheme.
The D or Past Time Morpheme
The allomorphs /t, d, d/ are phonologically conditioned. In addition to
the allomorphs /t/, /d/ and / d/ there is a / / allomorph which occurs
where there is no change in the morphological shape of the verb, as for instance, in the verbs ‘hit’ and ‘put’ which have the same morphological shapes for both present and the past.
The phonological conditioning noted in the behaviour of the ZI, Z2, and Z3 morphemes is not peculiar to these morphemes. We have noted this behaviour with the D morpheme too and earlier in the various allomorphs of the morpheme {-in} The allomorphic variations so far discussed can be summarized as follows:
For the Z Morpheme
/s/ becomes [s] in voiceless environments except sibilants. /s/ becomes [z] in voiced environments except sibilants.
/s/ becomes [ z] after sibilants.
For the D morpheme
/d/ becomes [t] in voiceless environments except after /t/
/d/ becomes [d] in voiced environments except after /d/
/d/ becomes [ d] after /t/ and /d/
For any sibilant suffix in English
the different phonetic representations are as follows;
/s/ after voiceless consonants other than the sibilants.
/z/ after vowels and voiced consonants like / b, n, d /.
/ z/ after the alveolar and alveo- palatal sibilants:/ s, z, ȓ, 8, tȓ, d8/.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE (SAE) 1
Explain the terms morphology and morpheme
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE (SAE) 2
What is an allomorph?
4.0 CONCLUSION
The basic concept of the word structure in English is viewed differently by different Linguists. While traditional grammarians see the word as the basic unit of grammatical analysis, the structuralists see the morpheme as the basic unit of grammatical analysis. This is really what underscores the study of the morphology of English.
5.0 SUMMARY
Traditional grammar saw the word as the basic unit of grammatical analysis but the structuralists saw the morpheme as the smallest unit of grammatical analysis.
A morph is the physical representation of a morpheme in a language.
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of grammatical analysis.
An allomorph is a variant of a morpheme which occurs in a specific environment.
Allomorphs of a morpheme occur in complementary distribution
The Z morphemes and the D Morphemes have at least three allomorphs.
The Z1 or plural morpheme has four allomorphs - /s/, /z/, / z/
and / / .
The Z2 or possessive morpheme also has the following
allomorphs: /s/, /z/, / z/ and / /.
The Z3 or Concord morpheme has the following allomorphs:
/s/, /z/, / z/.
The D or past time morpheme has the following allomorphs:
/t/, /d/ and / d/ there is a / / allomorph which occurs
where the past and present tense forms are the same.
All allomorphs are phonologically conditioned.
6.0 TUTOR MARKED ASSIGNMENT (TMA)
1. Explain and give examples of the following: complementary distribution, Phonological conditioning.
2. Explain the term morpheme and discuss its usefulness in word formation.
7.0 REFERENCES / FURTHER READINGS
Katamba, F. (1993) Morphology. London: Macmillan: Lagos: Longman
Nida, E. (1949) Morphology: the Descriptive Analysis of Words. Ann
Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Tomori, S. H.O. (1977) The Morphology and Syntax of Present-day
English: an Introduction. Ibadan: Heinemann .
Udofot, I. (1999) An introduction to the morphology of English.
Uyo: Scholar’s Press.
Weal, E. (2016) English Grammar: Step by Step. Palo Alto, CA: Tenaya Press
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