2. Morphemes and morphs

Morphemes are abstract elements like phonemes.

In phonology - phoneme (a set of distinctive features) – phone (speech sound, a physical realization of a phoneme) – allophones ( a set of phones which are variants (free or positional) of the same phoneme)

phoneme allophones

[T ] + voiceless alveolar stop try - retroflex

tip - aspirated

button - glottalized

water – tapped

In morphology – morpheme (the smallest meaningful unit) – morph (specific phonemic realization of a morpheme) – allomorphs (a set of morphs that are variants of the same morpheme)

morpheme allomorphs

{Plural) dog + / z/

book + / s/

bus + / iz /

ox + / en /

{Negative} /un/ + happy,

/il/ + logical,

/ir/ + responsible

/im/ + possible

/in/ + decent,

Sometimes a morpheme has no phonemic realization. In such cases we speak of zero morphs.

1. Zero morphs may be positional allomorphs (appering with some roots only) as in

morphemes:	{SHEEP} + {Plural}	{PUT} + {Past}
morphs:	/ sheep/ + Ø	/put/ + Ø

b) It may also be that a morpheme has only a zero morph realization, e.g. {Singular} with nouns , boy + Ø

Allomorphy is not restricted to affixes. Some root morphemes may have more than one allomorph realization, e.g.

root allomorphy (suppletion)

morphemes:	{MOUSE} + {Plural}	{MOUSE}+ {Singular}
morphs:	/mice/ + Ø	/mouse/ + Ø

morphemes:	{GIVE} + {Past}	{GIVE}+ {Singular}
morphs:	/gave/ + Ø	/give/ + Ø

zero roots - indefinite article with plurals

morphemes:	{INDEFINITE} {NOUN} +{Plural)	{DEFINITE} {NOUN} +{Singular)
morphs:	Ø	/the/

In some circumstances a free morpheme may have a bound allomorph (an affix)

Such allomorphs are called clitics

Suffix clitics are called enclitics

In English clitics are formed by: modals, auxiliary forms of have, all forms of be, the negative morpheme not

I’+m (I am), shoot’+em (shoot them) (copula)

I’+ll (I will), I’+ d (I would) (modal)

I’+ve (I have), (Perfect auxiliary)

isn’+t (is not) (negation)

Prefix clitics are called proclitics

‘t+was ( it was)

‘t+is ( it is)