Lecture Notes: Morphemes and Allomorphs

Introduction

• Welcome and introduction to the topic of morphemes and allomorphs.
• Reference to Part 1 of Morphology and other related videos on phonemes and allophones for foundational understanding.

Morpheme

• Defined as the smallest element of meaning in a language.
• Represented as an abstract mental concept, not physically tangible.
• Cannot be broken into smaller meaningful parts.

Allomorph

• Defined as one of several phonetic realizations of a morpheme.
• Analogous to the phoneme-allophone relationship.

Examples of Morphemes and Allomorphs

Plural Morpheme in English

• Mental representation of plurality.
• Allomorphs include:
  • /s/ as in cats (following voiceless sounds like /t/)
  • /z/ as in dogs (following voiced sounds like /g/)
  • /ɪz/ as in horses (following sibilant sounds like /s/)
  • Zero morph for words like sheep and moose (same form for singular and plural)

Past Tense Morpheme in English

• Mental representation of past tense.
• Allomorphs include:
  • /d/ as in called (following voiced sounds like /l/)
  • /t/ as in passed (following voiceless sounds like /s/)
  • /ɪd/ as in wanted (following stop sounds)
  • Zero morph in words like put and cut (same form for present and past)

Prefix "in-" in English

• Represents negation or absence (e.g., inability).
• Allomorphs include:
  • /ɪn/ as in inability (before vowels)
  • /ɪŋ/ as in incomplete (influence of following velar sounds)
  • /ɪm/ as in input (influence of following bilabial sounds)

Phonological Processes

• Assimilation: Key process where a sound changes to become more like a neighboring sound.
• Influences choice of allomorph based on phonetic environment.

Sociolinguistic Variation

• Variation in allomorph usage can indicate different dialects or language fluency.

Conclusion

• Summary of distinctions between morphemes and allomorphs.
• Encouragement to watch additional videos for deeper understanding.
• Upcoming video on morphological analysis in diverse languages.

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• Recommendation: Review Part 1 of Morphology and related phonology videos for foundational concepts.
• Stay tuned for Part 3 focusing on morphological analysis techniques.