Morphology 5

Morphology 5
Trương Văn Ánh
Trường Đại học Sài Gòn
Additional Chapter
Morphophonemic changes in English
When morphemes are clustered or grouped in words, then changes in the phonological structures of these words occur. Such changes are called
morphophonemic changes.
In the process of analysis of these changes, we compare the different allomorphs of a given morpheme whereby we call one of them the normal form in comparison to which other forms are variations of the normal form. The normal form is in fact the one that has the widest distribution.









What we can do is to compare the allomorphs of a given morpheme and to call one of them the normal form and describe the others as variations or changes from default value.
There are some common types of morphophonemic changes in English:
(a) Loss of phonemes
- The phoneme /n/ of the negative prefix{in-} is lost before the morphemes beginning with sonorant sounds /m/; /r/; /l/ and /n/.
e.g. immobile ; irregular, illimitable










- The phoneme /t/ is lost when changing word class (adjective to a noun).
e.g. different → difference; democrat → democracy
(b) Addition of phonemes
e.g. solemn / `sɔləm / → solemnize / `sɔləm naiz / (phoneme /n/ is added).
long / lɔη/ → longer / lɔηgə/ (phoneme /g/ is added).
sword → swordsman; sale → salesgirl; craft → craftsman
( the phoneme /s/ is added )









(c) Simple change of phonemes
e.g. path / pæθ / → paths/ pæðz /; mouth → mouths, etc.
The phoneme / θ / is changed to / ð / when pluralized.
(d) Assimilation - Dissimilation
- Assimilation is the process of replacing a sound by another sound under the influence of a third sound which is near to it in the word or sentence.
e.g. resist / rizist /; consist / kənsist/ etc.
The change of /z/ to /s/ under the influence of /n/.









There is another change due to assimilation of /n/ to /m/ before /b/,/p/,/m/
e.g. impossible, imperfect, immoral, etc.
Prefix {in-} has the allomorph {im} before /p/, /b/, /m/
- Dissimilation is the opposite of assimilation. It takes place when the combining of two morphemes bring together two identical phonemes, resulting in the change of one of them to a phoneme less like its neighbour.
e.g. The Prefix {in-} has the allomorph {-ig} as in ignoble








(e) Synthesis
There is the fusion of the two phonemes brought together by morpheme combination into a single new phoneme.
e.g. {moist} {-ure}: / mɔist / + /ju:/ → / mɔistʃƏ/ (f) Stress shift, gradation
In many cases the addition of an affix to a word is accompanied by a shift in stress called stress shift.
e.g. línguist → lingúistics ;
The process of derivation including stress shift involves vowel change. This kind of change is called gradation. e.g. sýmbol → symbólic









(f) Suppletion
This type of morphophonemic change is the occurrence of the allomorph completely different in phonemic structure from the normal form.
The essential here is semantic similarity and complementary distribution. Different allomorphs are suppletive forms.
e.g. The verb : {go} = {went}; {sell} = {sold }
The adjective ; {-er} = more - ; etc.









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Inflectional Paradigms
A paradigm is a set of related forms having the same stem but different affixes. Here is a derivational paradigm with the stem head: ahead, behead, header, headlong, headship, heady, subhead.
Inflectional paradigms are formed by the words to which inflectional affixes are attached. There are four of them.
1. Noun paradigm
Forms: Stem Plural possessive Plural + Poss.
woman women woman’s women’s
{-s pl} {-s ps} {-s pl ps}
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Meaning of Noun Possessive Morpheme
- Possessive: Lan’s dress (belongs to)
- Characterization or description: men’s coat (for)
- Origin: Michelle’s novels
America’s products
- Measure (time, value, space): an hour’s wait, a dollar’s worth, a stone’s throw
- Subject of act: John’s flight
- Object of action: The boy’s punishment
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2. Pronoun paradigm
Singular prenominal substitution
Subject object possessive possession
1st I me my mine
2nd you you your yours
3rd Male he him his his
Female she her her hers
N it it its its
Plural
1st we us our ours
2nd you you your yours
3rd they them their theirs
Interr. Who whom whose whose
Relative
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3. Verb Paradigm
Forms: Stem Third Present Past Past
Inflectional person participle tense participle
Suffixes singular {-ing vb} {-ed pt} {-ed pp}
{s 3rd}
show shows showing showed showed
ring rings ringing rang rung
put puts putting put put
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4. Comparable paradigm
Stem Comparative Superlative
Inflectional {-er cp} {-est sp}
Suffixes
Models: tall taller tallest
lively livelier liveliest
friendly friendlier friendliest
soon sooner soonest
near nearer nearest
In paradigms the meaning of the stem remains constant; the suffixes produce the differences in meaning among the forms of each paradigm.
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PARTS OF SPEECH
The major classes of lexical morphemes, which are the basis of words, are traditionally known as the parts of speech.
The word classes can be put into three groups as follows:
+ Form-classes:
There are five of form classes: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and uninflected words. Membership of each class is determined by the form of a word.
+ Positional classes:
There are four main positional classes: nominal,
verbal, adjectival, and adverbial. Membership in
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these classes is determined by position or word order in the sentences.
+ Structure-classes:
Structure classes are small, stable, and closed. Members of structure-classes include: qualifiers, prepositions, determiners, auxiliaries, interjections, conjunctions and pronouns.





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