Plural and Past Tense Markers in Morphophonology

Introduction

The concept of the structure of language evokes the idea of language as an artifact or being

broken down into various components, Crystal (34). The English language has rule or structure

governing the production of speeches or words at different levels but our area of concern will be

on phonetics/phonology and morphology. We will take a look at the connection between

morphology and phonology with examples from plural and Past tense markers.

Morphology

Morphology is derived from the Greek word “morph” and “log” morph means structure and log

means study, meaning the study of form. In linguistics, morphology is the scientific study of

forms and structure of words in language, Alagbe (20). Morphology is the study of the smallest

units of meaning in a language, such as prefixes, suffixes. Morpheme is the major element of

morphological analysis that account for the internal structure of words, Alagbe (21).

Morphological processes are; affixation, borrowing, reduplication, compounding, neologism etc.

Phonology

Phonology is the study of how speech sounds behave in a particular language or languages

generally. It is the link between phonetics and the rest of linguistics, Alagbe (82). Phonology is

the branch of linguistics that studies how languages systematically organize their sounds or signs

to convey meaning. ¹ It can be contrasted with phonetics, which is the study of the physical

production and perception of speech sounds or signs. Phonology can be divided into two

subfields: diachronic phonology and synchronic phonology. Diachronic phonology examines

how sound systems change over time, while synchronic phonology describes the sound patterns

that occur within a language at a given point in its history.

Some of the topics that phonology deals with are: Phonemes, allophones, syllables, stress,

intonation, features, rules. Phonology is a fascinating and complex field of study that can reveal a

lot about the structure and history of languages.

Morphophonology

Morphophonology is the study of how the sounds and shapes of words change depending on

their context and meaning. It is a branch of linguistics that combines morphology (the study of

word formation and structure) and phonology (the study of sound patterns and systems).

Morphophonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how the sounds of words change

depending on their morphological structure. N. S. Trubetskoi, the founder of morphophonemics,

formulated the discipline’s three main tasks:

I. to establish the distinguishing phonological features of morphemes of different

classes (for example, inflexions, as distinct from roots or suffixes);

II. to formulate rules for transforming morphemes in morphemic combinations;

III. to create a theory of morphological sound alternation.

Since morphophonemics includes the study of regularities in the occurrence of variant morphs of

a single morpheme—regularities dependent on a morpheme’s phonemic composition and, at the

same time, its morphological environment—some scholars place morphophonemics under

phonology (representatives of transformational and generative grammars), other scholars place it

under morphology (the French linguistic school), and still others regard it as the connecting link

between phonology and grammar.

Morphophonology can also be used to analyze the historical development of languages and how

they are related to each other. By comparing the sound changes of morphemes across different

languages, linguists can reconstruct the original forms of words and their meanings. For

example, the Latin word for ‘father’ was ‘pater’, which became ‘padre’ in Spanish, ‘père’ in

French, ‘padre’ in Italian, and ‘father’ in English. These words are all derived from the same

root, but they have undergone different morphophonological changes over time.

Morphophonemic characteristics may include alternations, the overlap and truncation of

morphemes, stress shifts, and so on. Recognizing them is important for describing the

morphological structure of a word, for determining the specific nature of the grammatical

structure of a language (especially in constructing paradigms and word-formation series), and for

comparing languages according to their typology and roots. Phonology is the study of the

patterns and rules of sounds in a language, such as vowels, consonants, and tones.

Morphophonology examines how these two aspects of language interact and influence each

other.

Some of the topics that morphophonology deals with are:

Allomorphy: the variation in the form of a morpheme (a minimal unit of meaning) in different

environments. For example, the indefinite article in English has two allomorphs: a and an. The

choice of allomorph depends on the initial sound of the following word: a before a consonant

sound, and an before a vowel sound.

Alternation: the change in the sound or shape of a morpheme or a word due to the influence of

another morpheme or word. For example, in English, some verbs have vowel alternations in their
past tense forms, such as sing -> sang, run -> ran, etc. These alternations are often related to the

historical development of the language and its sound system.

Sandhi: the modification of sounds at word or morpheme boundaries. For example, in English,

the word and can be pronounced as /ænd/, /ənd/, or /n/ depending on the surrounding sounds and

the speech rate. Sandhi can also affect the stress or tone of words or syllables.

Morphophonemic rules: the principles or processes that describe how morphemes and words are

pronounced in different contexts. For example, in English, there is a rule that deletes the final /t/

or /d/ of a word when it is followed by another word that begins with a consonant. This is why

we say “las’ night” instead of “last night”.

Morphophonological analysis often involves an attempt to give a series of formal rules or

constraints that successfully predict the regular sound changes occurring in the morphemes of a

given language. Such a series of rules converts a theoretical underlying representation into a

surface form that is actually heard. The units of which the underlying representations of

morphemes are composed are sometimes called morphophonemes.

Morphophonemic rules governing past tense markers in morphophonology are the

following:

Past Tense Marker: The past tense is a verb tense that is used to talk about things that happened

or existed before now. The past tense of regular verbs in English is formed by adding the suffix

or morpheme “-ed” to the base form of the verb. However, the pronunciation of this suffix varies

depending on the final sound of the base form.

Voicing Rule: The pronunciation of the past tense marker depends on the final sound of the base

verb. If the base form ends in a voiceless consonant (such as /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, /s/, etc.), the past
tense suffix is pronounced as /t/. For example, laughed /læft/, asked /æskt/, worked /wɜrkt/. If the

base form ends in a voiced consonant (such as /b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, /z/, etc.) or a vowel, the past tense

suffix is pronounced as /d/. For example, robbed /rɑbd/, played /pleɪd/, hugged /hʌgd/.

Insertion Rule: If the base form ends in /t/ or /d/, an extra syllable /ɪd/ is inserted between the

base form and the past tense suffix. For example, waited /weɪtɪd/, ended /ɛndɪd/. This rule

prevents the occurrence of two identical consonants in a row.

Verbs to which you add -d Verbs to which you add -id Verbs to which you add-

Crued /kraɪ̯ d/ sounded /saʊndɪd/ stomped /stɒmpt/

Climbed /klaɪmd/ waited /weɪtɪd/ jumped /dʒʌmpt/

Played /pleɪd/ shouted /ʃaʊtɪd/ walked /wɔːkt/

Smiled /ˈsmaɪl/ raided /reɪdɪd/ flipped /flɪpt/

Robbed /rɒbd/ treated /triːtɪd/ laughed /lɑːft/etc.

Morphophonemic Rules Guiding the Plural Markers:

Plural is a word that means more than one. For example, the word “dog” is singular, but the word

“dogs” is plural. There are different rules for making nouns plural in English, depending on the

ending of the word. Morphophonemic rules are the principles that explain how the pronunciation

of a word changes when it is combined with other words or morphemes. For example, the plural

marker in English is usually spelled as -s or -es, but it can have different pronunciations

depending on the final sound of the word it attaches to. The plural marker can be pronounced

as /s/, /z/, or /ɪz/, and these variations are explained by morphophonemic rules.
Some of the morphophonemic rules that guide the plural markers in English are:

1. If the word ends in a voiceless consonant (except /t/), the plural marker is pronounced

as /s/. For example, cat -> cats /kæts/, book -> books /bʊks/, etc.

2. If the word ends in a voiced consonant (except /d/) or a vowel, the plural marker is

pronounced as /z/. For example, dog -> dogs /dɒgz/, bee -> bees /biz/, etc.

3. If the word ends in /t/ or /d/, the plural marker is pronounced as /ɪd/ and an extra syllable

is added. For example, wait -> waited /weɪtɪd/, need - needed /nidɪd/, etc.

These rules are based on the voicing and place of articulation of the final sound of the word.

Voicing refers to whether the vocal cords vibrate or not when producing the sound, and place of

articulation refers to where the airflow is obstructed in the mouth. The plural marker tends to

match the voicing of the final sound, and it avoids creating clusters of identical sounds.

These rules are based on the ending, the vowel, and the stress of the word. The plural marker

tends to avoid creating complex consonant clusters, and it may cause changes in the vowel

quality or the stress pattern. Morphophonemic rules are useful for understanding how languages

organize their sounds and morphemes, and how they create variations in pronunciation

Nouns to which you add –z Nouns to which you add –iz Nouns to which you add –s

Days /deɪz/ lunches /lʌntʃɪz/ cats /kats/

Bugs /bʌɡz/ judges /ˈdʒʌdʒɪz/ rats /ræts/

Pears /pɛəz/ dishes /ˈdɪʃɪz/ shapes /ʃeɪps/

Birds /bɜːdz/ horses /ˈhɔrsɪz/ rocks /rɒks/

Pigs /pɪɡz/ buses /bʌsɪz/ cups /kʌps/

Works Cited

Alagbe A A.

National Taiwan University, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Oxford

University
Press 2023.

Phonology | Phonetics, Speech Sounds, Articulation | Britannica.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition. The Gale Group, Inc. 2010

https://www.britannica.com/science/phonology.

Morphophonology – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphophonology.