Distributional classification

of morphemes

Prepared by Usyukevich O., Bolotova A.

 Distributional Types of Morphemes

1) The/boat/s/were/gain/ing/speed 2) un-pardon-able

The analyzed lingual material is divided into
morphs – a combination of phonemes that has a
meaning which cannot be subdivided into
smaller meaningful units.
The environment of a unit may be either ‘right’ or
‘left’: in this word the left environment of the root is
the negative prefix un-, the right environment of the
root is the qualitative
suffix -able. The root -pardon- is the right
environment for the prefix, and the left environment
for the suffix.
 Three types of distribution

Contrastive Non-contrastive Complimentary

Environment Identical Identical Different

Meaning Different Identical Identical

Worked – Learned – Boys – men –

Example working learnt mice – oxen

different morphemes free variants allomorphs

 Contrastive distribution

The morphs are said to be in contrastive distribution if their meanings (functions) are different. Such
morphs constitute different morphemes.

Example:

the suffixes -(e)d and -ing in the verb-forms returned, returning

 Non-contrastive distribution

The morphs are said to be in non-contrastive distribution if their meaning (function) is the same. Such
morphs constitute ‘free alternants’ (free variants) of the same morpheme.

Example:

the suffixes -(e)d and -t in the verb-forms learned, learnt

 Complementary distribution

Complementary distribution can be understood as relation of formally different morphs having the same function in
different environments. Two or more morphs are said to be in complementary distribution if they have the same meaning
and the difference in their form is explained by different environments. They are considered to be the allomorphs of the
same morpheme, i.d. an allomorph is a linguistics term for a variant form of a morph.

Examples:

1) The plural morpheme –s. It occurs is several allomorphs depending on its phonological environment namely /-s/, /-
z/, /-iz/ which stand in phonemic complementary distribution.

2) The past tense morpheme –ed occurs in several allomorphs /-id/, /-t/, /-d/.

3) The plural allomorph -en in oxen, children and the zero suffix of sheep stand in morphemic complementary
distribution with the other allomorphs of the plural morpheme.
 5 criteria of classifying morphemes
DEGREE OF SELF-DEPENDENCE

FORMAL PRESENTATION GRAMMATICAL ALTERNATIONS

CRITERI
A

LINEAR CHARACTERISTICS SEGMENTAL RELATION

 Degree of self-dependence
Bound morphemes cannot form words by themselves,
they are identified only as component segmental parts
of words. Free morphemes can build up words by
themselves.
Morphemes
Example:
handful
the root hand is a free morpheme
the suffix -ful is a bound morpheme. Free Bound Semi-bound
There are very few productive bound morphemes in e.g. e.g. e.g.
helpless helpless should do
the morphological system of English. Most of them are
homonymous:
1) the morpheme -(e)s [-z, -s, -iz]: the plural of nouns, the
possessive case of nouns, the third person singular present of
verbs;
2) the morpheme -(e)d [-d, -t, -id]: the past and past participle of
verbs; The auxiliary word-morphemes do, be, have, will, shall,
3) the morpheme -ing: the gerund and present participle; would, should, adverbial elements more, most, the infinitive
4) the the morphemes -er, -est: the comparative and superlative particle to, articles can be called ‘semi-
degrees of adjectives and adverbs. bound’ morphemes, since, being used as separate
elements of speech strings, they form categorial unities with
 Formal presentation

Overt morphemes are explicit not zeroed

morphemes building up words. Covert morphemes
are implicit morphemes, i.d. a morpheme having no
explicit representation in the actual expression (a
contrastive absence of morpheme expressing a Morphemes
certain function). The notion of covert morpheme
coincides with the notion of zero morpheme.

Example:

dogs – two morphemes, both overt: one lexical (root) and Covert
Overt
e.g.
one grammatical expressing the plural. e.g.
pen
pens
(zero morpheme)
dog – two morphemes, the overt root and the covert
grammatical suffix of the singular.
 Grammatical alternation

Additive morphemes are outer

grammatical suffixes, since, as a rule,
they are opposed to the absence of Morphemes
morphemes in grammatical alternation.
look+ed;
small+er,
The root phonemes of grammatical
interchange are considered as replacive
morphemes, since they replace one Additive Replacive
another in the paradigmatic forms. e.g. e.g.
dr-i-ve — dr-o-ve — dr-i-ven; worked sung
m-a-n — m-e-n; etc.
This type of grammatical means can be
understood as a kind of partial
suppletivity.
 Linear characteristic
The continuous morpheme is an uninterrupted
string of phonemes building up a morpheme.
The discontinuous morpheme is a grammatical
unit built up of an interrupted string of
Morphemes
phonemes. It is seen in the analytical grammatical
form comprising an auxiliary word and a
grammatical suffix.

Example:
Continuous
be ... ing — for the continuous verb forms Discontinuous
e.g.
(e.g. is going); e.g.
work
is working
have ... en — for the perfect verb forms
(e.g. has gone);

be ... en — for the passive verb forms

(e.g. is taken)
 Segmental relation

Supra-segmental morphemes are intonation

contours, accents, pauses.
Morphemes
These elements of language form the
secondary line of speech, accompanying its
primary phonemic line. These units are
functionally connected not with morphemes,
but with larger elements of language: words,
word groups, sentences, supra-sentential Supra-
Segmental
constructions. segmental
e.g.
e.g. intonation contours,
any morpheme
accents, pauses