Difference Between Morph, Allomorph, Morpheme
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Describe the difference between a morpheme, a morph and an allomorph.
UniversitÐt Duisburg – Essen
Anglistik Tutorium
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Morphemes, morphs and allomorps: extended definiton…….3
1. Introduction
What we are talking about when it comes to usage of the terms morpheme, morph and allomorph is usually innately related to linguistic science, respectively the study of human and other communication systems.
However, one might also be concerned with the fact that the hierarchical term of which morpheme, morph and allomorph are subbranches, namely Morphology, was firstly introduced by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832) to describe the study of forms in nature and the evolution of those forms in order to meet higher standards.
Although the implied meaning of the term morphology, which is the study of forms, hasnt changed within the process of transferring it to make it usable in linguisitc sciences, the knowledge that lies beneath it had undergone several changes to make it fit the linguisic needs more appropriately.
In linguisitc science, Morphology approaches to, since there is no uniform definition of “word”, define words as structural units which are composed of at least one base morpheme and one or more additional or decomposable morphemes (Study Guide Morphology, Antje Lahne, ).
This point of view is opposed within lingusitic science to other approaches to define “word”, e.g. semantic approaches that simply define “word” as an independent unit of meaning.
The focus of this manuscript is to give a short description of the three main subbranches of morphology that are morphemes, morphs and allomorphs and further to display and explain the differences that occur between the interconnection of these within a certain language or system of communication.
2. Morphemes, morphs and allomorphs: extended definitions
2.1. What is a morpheme?
Morphemes are the smallest linguistic elements capable of either having a grammatical meaning or a grammatical function (Yule, The Study of Language, 2006, 63). They can be furtherly subdivided into the categories free morphemes and bound morphemes.
Free morphemes can occur as independent words or units of meaning whereas bound morphemes cannot be used as single units of meaning by themselves but rather as combinatory elements that make up a unit of meaning by combination of the same.
2.2. What is a morph?
Morphs are the concrete elements which realize or represent morphemes in a specific context (Yule, The Study of Language, 2006, 67). The meaning of the term “morpheme” can be described as abstract definition of those word formation parts that can be used to display a specific process of word formation, whereas a morph is more likely to stand for and display the specific word part(s) that a morpheme is made up of. In other words, the morpheme plural is the abstract term that implies the usage of all plural morphs that can be used to realize the morpheme plural.
2.3. What is an allomorph?
A group of allomorphs basically are the compund of all realizable morphs that belong to the same morpheme. An allomorph must always be considered as one of a group of allomorphs for a morph can only be granted the status “allomorph” when it serves the same purpose as other
(allo-)morphs for the same morpheme.
3. Differences between morphemes, morphs and allomorphs in linguistic science
In the following paragraph, I will try to illustrate the differences and processes of interconnection between three substantial parts of linguisitc morphology by using a proper example. To start off with, the morpheme plural is a good indicator to display the differences between morphemes, morphs and allomorphs.
The morpheme plural is the abstract indicator to make the reader know that he or she has to think of all the different morphs that are used to realize a transformation of a specific singular term to a plural form of the same term regarding the context. This process of transformation can be achieved by adding the known suffixes (respectively morphs) that indicate a plural form to the term of interest, such as