Pronunciation of

Morphemes:
Morphophonology
Theora Elyjah T. Agojo
MaEd English
October 1, 2016

Introduction to Sub-fields of
Linguistics

Phonetics: Study of sounds and their

physical
properties:
Articulatory,
Acoustic and Auditory
Phonology: Study of linguistically
significant sound patterns.
Morphology: Study of word-formation
processes.
Syntax: Study of sentence structure.

Sub-fields of Linguistics
(cont..)
Semantics: Study of meaning of
linguistic expression.
Pragmatics: Study of contextual
meaning of linguistic expressions.
Discourse
analysis:
Study
of
language in texts.
Semiotics: Study of signs and sign
processes.

Some Interfaces of Linguistic Subfields

Phonetics and phonology are interrelated
and both focus on the sounds used in
human language.
Morphophonology: It deals with the
phonetic
alternations
of
phonemes/morphemes across morpheme
boundary.
Morphosyntax:
It
deals
with
morphological
alternations
due
to
sentence formation.

Morphophonology
It
is
also
termed
as
morphophonemics.
It
deals
with
the
phonetic
alternations of morphemes across
morpheme boundary.
A morphophonemic rule has the form
of a phonological rule, but is
restricted
to
a
particular
morphological environment.

 Morphophonemic variation occurs at

morpheme boundaries.
And it involves sounds that are
associated with separate phonemes.

Morphophonology
A words pronunciation can be
sensitive to morphological factors.
For example, in English,
electric /elektrik/ (the final sound
is a voiceless velar stop)
but when added with an /-ity/ suffix,
electricity /elektrisity/ (the /k/
changes to /s/, a voiceless alveolar
fricative)

What is a Phoneme?
Phoneme is the smallest unit of sound.
Phonemes combine together to form
morpheme or word.
For example, in English, the word
psychology is transcribed as /saikli/
And it consists of 10 symbols but 9
phonemes.
Spelling and pronunciation may not
match in a language.

What is a Phoneme?
Phoneme is the smallest unit of
sound.
Phonemes combine together to form
morpheme or word.
Find out how many phonemes are in
the word Block and Spring

What is a Morpheme?
Morpheme is the minimal meaningful
unit of word.
Morphemes combine to form words.
For example, in English, the word
disestablishment consists of 3
morphemes: dis-, establish and
ment
Out of these, only establish can
stand on its own. Rest, cannot.

What is a Morpheme?
Morpheme is the minimal meaningful
unit of word.
Morphemes combine to form words.
Find out the number of morphemes
in uncomfortable and
macronutrients.

The Pronunciation of
Morpheme: Plurals
The plural morpheme in English,
usually written as '-s', has at
least three allomorphs (unit of
meaning varies in sound without
changing meaning) depending on
what noun you attach it to:

The Pronunciation of
Morpheme: Plurals
[z] occurs after voiced
nonsibilant segments
[s] occurs after voiceless
nonsibilant segments
[z] occurs after sibilant
segments

Note: Assume that /z/ is the basic

or underlying form of the plural
1. Insert [] before the plural
morpheme /z/ when a regular
noun ends in a sibilant, giving
[z]
2. Change the plural morpheme
/z/ to a voiceless [s] when
preceded by a voiceless sound

 [-s]
tops
mitts
backs
puffs
bats

/taps/
/mits/
/bks/
/pafs/
/bats/

Environment: The final sound of

the base is voiceless (p, t, k, f, t
etc).

 [-z]
cobs
/kabz/
lids
/lidz/
bugs
/bagz/
wives
/waivz/
pins /pinz/
wings
/wiz/
peas
/piz/
days
/deiz/
Environment: The final sound of the base is
vowel, diphthong or a voiced consonant.

 [-z]
hisses
buzzes
judges
wishes

/hisz/
/bzz/
/z/
/wiz/

Environment: The final sound of the

base is a consonant that is sibilant (s,
z, , , , )

Plural allomorphy in English

State the distribution:
[-s] occurs after a voiceless
non-sibilant
/-z/
[-z] occurs a vowel, a
diphthong
or a voiced
consonant
[-z] occurs after a sibilant

Plural allomorphy in English

The
choice
of
plural
allomorph is determined by
the final sound of the base
word.
The underlying form is the
one which happens to be at
the widest distribution.

Pronunciation of Morpheme:
Past
The past simple tense and past
participle of all regular verbs end in -ed.
For example:
Work Worked
Worked
In addition, many adjectives are made
from the past participle and so end in
-ed. For example:
I like painted furniture.

There are three allomorphs for ed:

[Id] for /t/ /d/
[t] for voiceless; /p/ /f/ /s/ // /t/ /k/
[d] for all other sounds

Examples:
[Id]
/t/want
/d/ end
[t]
/p/ hope
/f/ laugh
/s/ fax
// wash
/t/ watch
/k/ like

[d]
wanted
play played
ended allow
allowed
beg begged
hoped
laughed
faxed
washed
watched
liked

The following -ed words used as

adjectives are pronounced with /d/:
aged
dogged
ragged
blessed
learned

wicked
crooked
naked
wretched

Morphophonological rule
Definition:
A morphophonemic rule has the form of a
phonological rule, but is restricted to a
particular morphological environment.
Discussion:
Morphophonemic rules are sensitive to their
environment, unlike phonological rules.
Whenever morphological information is
required to specify the environment for
anallophonicrule,
the
rule
is
morphophonemic.

Exercise:

An aged man
He blessed me.
They dogged him.
A learned professor
A wretched beggar

Sources:
Adam Szczegielniak (Introduction to Linguistic
Theory)
http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/adam/files/phonology.ppt.pdf

Bipasha Patgiri Program for Linguistics Assistant

Professor at EFL Department, TU