Jan 14 Lecture

Question 1

What are allomorphs?

Answer 1

The realizations/variants that you get with a morpheme.

Question 2

What is phonological allomorphy?

Answer 2

The allomorph can be described by a corresponding morphophonological rule (ie. a/an)

Question 3

What is suppletive allomorphy?

Answer 3

When it is not possible to state a rule to describe the morpheme (ie. good/better - irregular)

Question 4

What is weak suppletive allomorphy?

Answer 4

When the allomorph is irregular, but there is some relationship between the two (ie. teach/taught, buy/bought)

Question 5

What are the three types of conditioning?

Answer 5

phonological, morphological, lexical

Question 6

State the 11 different forms of plural in English

Answer 6

1. Regular - dogs, cats, houses
2. Umlaut (only the vowel changes) - mice, women
3. Zero plural - moose, sheep
4. -i plurals - cacti, octopi
5. -en plurals - children, brethren
6. -es plurals - axes, crises
7. -a plurals - data, media, strata
8. -ae plurals - alumnae, formulae
9. -ata plurals - schemata (schema)
10. -im plurals (from Hebrew) - cherubim
11. Random ones - dice

Question 7

What is the difference between phonological and lexical conditioning?

Answer 7

phonological is where the phonological condition (such final segment) determines the allomorph (-z, -s, -ez). Lexical conditioning is where the allowable morpheme is part of the lexeme - doesn’t rely on phonology.

Question 8

What is morphological conditioning?

Answer 8

The choice of the allomorph is determined by the grammatical context.