Null allomorph

In morpheme-based morphology, a null allomorph or zero allomorph is a special kind of allomorph which has the form of a null morpheme. Because there are contexts in which the underlying morpheme still appears in the surface structure, a "real" null morpheme could be re-defined as a morpheme which never occurs in the surface representation of words. The phenomenon itself is known as null allomorphy or total morpheme blocking. ^[1]

English

An example of null allomorphy in English is the phrase two fish-Ø which can also be two fish-es. In addition, the forms of many auxiliary verbs such as do may have null allomorphs, especially in children's language.^[2]

German

Null allomorphy occurs a lot in the grammar of the German language. The singular form of the dative case of masculine and neuter nouns such as der Mann (the man) has an optional grammatical suffix -e: dem Mann-e. However, this suffix is somewhat archaic today and is mainly used in written language. In other cases, its null allomorph occurs: dem Mann-Ø.

Dutch

Null allomorphs also occur in the Dutch language, be it to a lesser degree than in German. That is, many Dutch compound words have an interfix -s, the use of which is completely optional: Dutch people both say doodkist and doodskist ("coffin"), and both spellingprobleem and spellingsprobleem ("spelling problem")^[3].

See also

• Alternation (linguistics)
• Morphophonology

References

1. ^ http://169.229.248.181/dissertations/Pycha_dissertation_2008.pdf
2. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=jTZ5Fq6DJSQC&pg=PA146&lpg=PA146&dq=%22null+allomorph%22&source=bl&ots=PCbu_xLSuI&sig=biTtfkqwPyyQbLIMwBNZaQ1uxiA&hl=nl&ei=6lHOSsTEN86Q-Abc1b2KAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6#v=onepage&q=%22null%20allomorph%22&f=fals
3. ^ (Dutch)[1]

This linguistics article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Units of linguistic morphology Grammar Linguistics stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу Null Stern Hotel Zero ring Look at other dictionaries: Null morpheme — In morpheme based morphology, a null morpheme is a morpheme that is realized by a phonologically null affix (an empty string of phonological segments). In simpler terms, a null morpheme is an invisible affix. It is also called a zero morpheme;… …   Wikipedia Nullallomorph — Ein Nullallomorph (auch: Ø Allomorph, Null Allomorph, Nullendung) ist eine besondere Form von Allomorph. Es ist ein „Nicht Zeichen“, „das einer Stelle in einem Flexionsparadigma entspricht“.[1] Durch ein Nullallomorph werden Morpheme… …   Deutsch Wikipedia Tübatulabal language — Infobox Language name=Tübatulabal region=Kern River, California, United States speakers=Possibly 6Gordon (2005).] familycolor=American fam1=Uto Aztecan fam2=Northern iso2=nai iso3=tubTübatulabal (IPA: IPA|təˈbɑtələˌbɑl ) is a Uto Aztecan language …   Wikipedia Morphologie (Sprache) — Die Morphologie (weitere Bezeichnungen: Morphematik, Morphemik, Pleremik) als Teilbereich der Linguistik widmet sich der Erforschung der kleinsten bedeutungs oder funktionstragenden Elemente einer Sprache, der Morpheme. Viele Morpheme (Einheit… …   Deutsch Wikipedia Morphologie (Linguistik) — Unter Morphologie (auch: Morphematik oder Morphemik) versteht man in der Sprachwissenschaft ein Teilgebiet der Grammatik. Die Morphologie befasst sich mit der inneren Struktur von Wörtern und widmet sich der Erforschung der kleinsten bedeutungs… …   Deutsch Wikipedia List of linguistics topics — Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Someone who engages in this study is called a linguist. See also the List of basic linguistics topics, the List of phonetics topics, the List of linguists, and the List of cognitive science… …   Wikipedia Maidu language — Northeastern Maidu Májdy Spoken in United States Region California Native speakers 1 or 2  (date missing) …   Wikipedia Tlingit noun — Like nouns in many Native American languages, the Tlingit noun is easily conceptualized but difficult to formally define. It can be simple or compound, and can be derived from verb forms as well as other nouns. It is marked for case, but not… …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2025 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”