1.
Description
of inflectional morphemes
A free morpheme is a morpheme that can
stand by itself. As examples, house, have, good, fast, the, can, for,
etc. are free morphemes. While {en-}, {ex-}, {-Z1}, {-D1}, {-ing1}, etc. are
bound morphemes, because they cannot stand by themselves.
Bound morphemes are of three types: (a)
suffixes, (b) prefixes, and (c) bound bases.
- Suffixes
Suffixes are either
derivational or inflectional. Derivational suffixes may be final, while
inflectional suffixes are
always final. Derivational suffixes may change the parts of speech of the
stems, while inflectional suffixes never change the parts 0f the stems.
Examples:
{-ly}, {-ness}, {-less}, {-eer} in slowly, happiness, homeless, and mountaineer.
{-Z1}, {-D1}, and {-ing1} in classes, walked, and drinking.
b. Prefixes
Prefixes are always bound and they do not always
change the parts of speech of the stems.
Examples:
{en-}, {de-}, {dis-}, {in-} in endanger,
decode, disagree,infinite.
c. Bound bases
They are morphemes which serve as stems for derivational forms, but they never appear as
free morphemes.
Examples:
{-clude}, {-cieve}, {-sist} in include,
receive, consist.
2.
Classification
of Inflectional morphemes
A.
Types of Inflectional Morphemes
There
are eight types of inflectional morphemes in English. Each of them can be
presented as follows.
1. {-Z1} : The Plural Morpheme
2. {-Z2} : The Possessive Morpheme
3. {-Z3} : The Third Person Singular Present
Tense Morpheme
4. {-D1} : The Past Tense Morpheme.
5. {-D2} : The Past-participle Morpheme
6. {-ing1} : The Present-participle Morpheme.
7. {-er1} : The Comparative Morpheme.
8. {-est} :
The Superlative Morpheme.
B.
The Allomorphs of the Plural Morpheme
The
distribution of the allomorphs of the plural morpheme is presented in the
following diagram.
Diagram 5.1: The
distribution of plural allomorphs
1) /-s/: two books 
a. Phonologically 2)
/-z/: many boys
conditioned
allomorphs 3) /-iz/: four glasses
1. {-Z1}
1)
/-O/: many sheep
b. Morphologically 2) /-en/: two oxen
Conditioned Allomorph 3) /-v. change-/: two feet
4)
/-v. ch. – en/: many children
1) /-s/: Jack’s book
a.
Phonologically 2) /-z/: Robin’s hat
conditioned
allor.
2.
{-Z2}: 3) /-iz/: Rose’s dress
(Possessive
Morpheme)
b.
Morphologically 1. /-0/: students’ books
conditioned allor.
a. /-s/: John talks
3. {-Z3}: Third person b. /-z/: Jane swims
Singular present tense
morpheme
c. /-iz/: She sneeses
This morpheme has three allomorphs and all of them are phonologically
conditioned.
1) /-t/: He
worked
a. Ph. C. A 2) /-d/: She planned
4. . {-D1} 3) /-id/: She invited us.
Past tense
Morpheme b. M.C.A: 1) /-O/: She cut it
2) /-v.ch.-/: Jack broke it
3) /-c. ch./: He sent it
4) /compl. ch./ I went home
C.
Phonologically Conditioned Allomorphs
The first three allomorphs of the plural
morpheme are phonologically conditioned allomorphs. It means that the
distributions of the allomorphs are determined by the preceding phonemes. The
first allomorph, /-s/, is used when the preceding phoneme is a voiceless
consonant, except a hissing sound; the second phonologically conditioned
allomorph, /-z/, is used when the preceding phoneme is a vowel or a voiced
consonant, except an hissing sound; and the third phonologically conditioned
allomorph, /-iz/, is used when the preceding phoneme is a hissing sound.
D.
Morphologically Conditioned Allomorphs
These allomorphs are allomorphs whose
distributions are determined by the preceding morphemes. The first morphologically conditioned
allomorph, /-0/, is used when the preceding morpheme is sheep or fish. The second
morphologically conditioned allomorph, /-en/, is used when the preceding
morpheme is ox. The third
morphologically conditioned allomorph, /-vowel change-/, is used when the
preceding morpheme is foot, tooth, mouse,
ma, etc. There are other morphologically conditioned allomorphs which are
not included in this summary.
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