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Aspects Of Uneme Morphology
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Principle 1
Forms with
the same meaning are instances of the same morpheme. This means that
elements that have the same form and the same meaning.
For example in English language.
Break – Breaks
Take – Takes
Chalk – chalks
From the above examples we can see the use of ‘s’ which signifies single morpheme.
Principle 2
Forms
with the same meaning but different sound shapes may be instances of
the same morpheme if their distribution does not overlap. For example,
the regular plural marker in English has several allomorphs – voiceless
alveolar fricative /s/, voiced alveolar fricative /z/, schwa plus voiced
alveolar fricative /iz/, syllabic alveolar nasal /n/, and schwa/Ø/
Seat /s/
Blade /z/
Pray /iz/
Ox /n/
Dish /Ø/
Principle 3
Not
all morphemes are segmental. This means that not all morphemes can be
segmented and be pronounced on their own. They are dependent on other
morphemes for their realization.
Run – ran
Steal – stole
Drink – drank
Principle 4
A
morpheme may have zero as one of its allomorph provided it has a non –
zero allomorph. These are morphemes that have zero plural form and the
zero plural is an allomorph of the usual plural /z/. This is an analytic
procedure, not theoretical point.
For example.
Geese – Goose
Man – Men
Feet – Foot
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 5]
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