subject General Lingüistc Spanish

1. THE ALLOMORPHS
BY HIDALI VELEZ CORRALES

2. DEFINITION
• ALLOMORPHS: Variations of Morphemes.
Allomorphs are different forms of the same
morpheme, or basic unit of meaning. These
can be different pronunciations or different
spellings.
An allomorphs is «any of the differents forms
of a morpheme» ( Richards, Platt &
weber, 1987)

3. The allomorphs of a morpheme are derived
from phonological rules and any morphonemic
rules that may apply to that morpheme.
Examples of allomorphs:
1. The plural morphemes in English, usually
written as s , has at least 3 allomorphons:
 s as in judges yudgis
 z as in dogs
dogz
 IZ as in boxes
boksiz

4. 2. The past form morpheme ed usually has also
three allomorphos:
 d as in ‘hunted’
h>ntd
 t as in ‘fished’
fistt
 id as in ‘buzzed’
buzid
3. The negative morpheme changes ‘n’ the
prefix in to the consononant of the word it
prefixes:

5. 



iI
im
ir
in
as in ‘illegal’
as in ‘impatient’
as in ‘irregular’
as in ‘inconsiderate’
I’li:gl
Im’petsnt
Iregjele®
Inken’sideret

6. TYPES OF ALLOMORPHS
1. ADDITIVE ALLOMORPHS
 The suffix – ed wich can be pronounced as
either / -t/, or /-d/ or /-Id/:
 ask + - ed / a : sk/ + / -t/
 liv(e) + ed / llv/ + / -d/
 Need + - ed /nid:d/ + / -Id

7. REPLACIVE ALLOMORPHS
• The / I / in Drink is replaced by the /ae/
• In Drank to signal the simple past.

8. SUPPLETIVE ALLOMORPHS
 GO + the suppletive allomorph of - D1 =
went
 Be + the suppletive allomorph of - S3 = is
 Bad + the suppletive allomorph of - er1 =
worse
 Good + the suppletive allomorph of - est1 =
best.

9. ZERO ALLOMORPH
 The past tense form of hurt is formed by
adding the zero allomorph of -D1 to this
word.
 HURT
HURT