Allomorph

            Allomorph, a chameleon in English, is different realization of a single morpheme. Chameleon, a type of lizard that can change the color of its skin to look like the colors that are around it, has the same characteristic with allomorph. A single morpheme can be pronounced by one or more different representations that depends on environment. English has three allomorphs in each the present tense, past tense and the plural morphemes. What I mean here is present tense verbs in the third person singular, such as “he”, “she” and “it” that have to be followed suffix –s after the verbs.

            Allomorph in the present tense is divided into three kinds of suffix –s sounds. They are /s/, /z/ and /ɪz/ which depend on environment. –s sound is pronounced /s/ when the neighbouring sounds are voiceless nonsibilant segments, such as [p], [t], [k], [f], and [ɵ]. (As we know, neighbouring sound is the environment or the final word like “runs” the neigbouring sound is “-n-”, because it appears before the suffix -s .) Examples for /s/ sound in the present tense are “sleeps” for neighbouring sound [p], “eats” for [t], “speaks” for [k], and etcetera. Many examples that I cannot explain in this paper and those are just a little example. /z/ sound occurs when the environment or the neighbouring sounds are voiced nonsibilant segments, such as [b], [d], [g], [v], [ð], [m], [n], [ŋ], [l], and [r]. The examples of the verb are grabs, needs, begs, claims, runs and etcetera. In this paper, underlying letters are the neighbouring segments. /ɪz/ sound happens when the neighbouring sounds are sibilant segments, such as [s], [ʃ], [z], [ʒ], [tʃ], and [dʒ]. The little examples are passes, pushes, watches, and etcetera.

            Allomorph in the past tense in regular verb is divided into three kinds of suffix –ed; they are /t/, /d/, and /ɪd/. /t/ sound occurs when the final sounds or neigbouring sounds of the verbs are voiceless and nonsibilant segments. They are [p], [k], [f] and [ɵ], for instance stopped, talked and etcetera. If the neighbouring sounds of the verbs are voiced and nonsibilant segments, which are [b], [g], [v], [ð], [m], [n], [ŋ], [l], must be pronounced by /d/ sound, such as grabbed, hugged and etcetera. When the verb ends with non-nasal alveolar stop (/t/ or /d/), /ɪd/ is added to form the past tense. In this case, “wanted” and “blended” are the examples.

            Allomorph in the plural morphemes are divided into three pronounciation. What I mean here is regular plural morphemes. To show the things that are more than one in English, we just put suffix –s in the final word of the noun. –s itself has different pronounciations, /s/, /z/ and /ɪz/. The rule is almost the same with allomorph in the past and present verbs. First, the pronounciation of the suffix –s after the voiceless non-sibilant segments ([p], [t], [k], [f], and [ɵ]) are /s/, for example tips, cups, and books. Second, if the end of the noun word is voiced non-sibilant sounds or segments (here, segment and sound are the same terms) like [b], [d], [g], [v], [ð], [m], [n], [ŋ], [l], the pronounciation is /z/, such as pens, bags and palms. For sibilant segments like [s], [ʃ], [z], [ʒ], [tʃ], and [dʒ], the pronounciation of the suffix –s is /ɪz/, for instance buses, roses and beaches. In irregular plural noun, the form always changes or just keep in one form. As the examples of the plural noun form that always change are child-children, mouse-mice, man-men, woman-women, and so on.

            Zero allomorph is the condition of allomorph when the changes of the morphemes are irregular. It happens in the verb and plural noun form. In the verb, suppletion or irregular verb is zero allomorph, for example put-put-put, go-went-gone, come-came-come and those kinds of verbs. Nouns that do not have any changes when it is changed into plural also called zero allomorph. In this case, “fish” is one of example of zero allomorph. In singular or plural form, “fish” do not have any changes in the form. “I have a fish” and “I have many fish”, these two sentences must use “fish” not “fishes”. That is the rule. There are still a lot of examples of zero allomorph in plural nouns, such as deer, sheep and offspring.

            Allomorph that occurs in the most environment is called underlying representation. In the plural, /z/ sound happens in the most plural allomorph. So, /z/ sound is the underlying representation in plural nouns. In the past, /d/ sound is the underlying representation because /d/ sound ends the pronounciation of the verbs mostly.