Flashcards on Morphemes, Allomorphs, and Word Formation
Morphemes, Allomorphs, and Word Formation for Students
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Morphology (linguistics)
10 cards
Card 1
Question: What is a morpheme in morphology?
Answer: A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in a language (e.g., the possessive -'s).
Card 2
Question: What is an allomorph?
Answer: An allomorph is a variation in pronunciation of a single morpheme that occurs in different contexts (e.g., -'s pronounced as [-z], [-s], or [-ɪz]).
Card 3
Question: Give an example showing a morpheme and one of its allomorphs.
Answer: The possessive morpheme -'s: written as -'s (morpheme) but pronounced [-z] in "dog's", [-s] in "fiancé's", and [-ɪz] in "Bess's" (allomorphs).
Card 4
Question: What are the three contexts discussed where morphemes vs allomorphs are experienced?
Answer: The plural, the possessive, and the third person singular suffixes (all behave similarly phonologically).
Card 5
Question: List the plural allomorph [-ɪz] distribution with examples.
Answer: [-ɪz] occurs when nouns end in sibilant or fricative sounds: bush → bushes, judge → judges, peach → peaches, bus → buses, fuse → fuses.
Card 6
Question: List the plural allomorph [-z] distribution with examples.
Answer: [-z] occurs when nouns end in voiced sounds: dog → dogs, friend → friends, pen → pens, seed → seeds, car → cars.
Card 7
Question: List the plural allomorph [-s] distribution with examples.
Answer: [-s] occurs when nouns end in voiceless sounds: (examples implied by pattern: ends in /t, p, k, θ/) e.g., (pattern applies to words ending in those so
Card 8
Question: What pattern determines which allomorph of the plural morpheme appears?
Answer: The final sound of the noun: sibilant/fricative → [-ɪz]; voiced non-sibilant → [-z]; voiceless → [-s].
Card 9
Question: How do possessive and third person singular suffixes behave compared to plural suffixes?
Answer: They show the same distribution patterns of allomorphs based on the final sound of the base word ([-ɪz], [-z], [-s]).
Card 10
Question: Provide example possessive forms illustrating each allomorph.
Answer: Bess's → [-ɪz] coat; John's → [-z] car; Phillip's → [-s] fiancé.