Handout 7 Alternations Alternations Morpheme alternants are two different pronunciations of the same morpheme each of which is limited to a particular context An alternation is the relation between two morpheme alternants The sounds that differ in the alternants are alternating sounds Examples from English In English the tap R occurs only after a nonstop sonorant and before an unstressed syllabic sound Aspirated tH occurs only elsewhere at the beginning of a syllable Glottalized t occurs only after the syllable peak in a syllable Unaspirated t occurs only elsewhere Alternations meat mit meet mit kH i eIt create kH ieI tHIvIRi gEt gEt lAst aIt aIR bUk write get miRi miRIN kH i eIRIv gER laIf aIR meaty meeting creative creativity get a life get lost writer write a book Alternations mit and miR are morpheme alternants The latter occurs before an unstressed syllabic sound and the former occurs only elsewhere There is an alternation between the two which is indicated by mit miR The two alternants are distinguished by one having t where the other has R These sounds are also alternating t R Alternations Other morpheme alternants kH i eIt kH i eIR kH ieItH gEt gER aIt aIR Alternating sounds t R tH The alternating sounds are governed by the complementary distribution above The alternations are due to that distribution Alternations The alternant with the default allophones is the underlying form the one that occurs unless some phonological rule intervenes Underlying representation of alternating morphemes kH ieIt gEt aIt Alternations If two sounds alternate there must be a restriction on the distribution of one that doesn t apply to the other In this case the restriction is a complementary distribution Alternations are informative All it takes are a few alternating forms to signal that there is a restricted pattern of distribution Shona Zimbabwe Noun with a Noun like a Noun Noun gloss aNgane aNgase aNgaknifesad z anesad z asesad z apolentamesonemesosemesoeyesmv uRanEmv uRasEmv uRawaterndaRamanEndaRamasEndaRamamoneyNguRuBenENguRuBesENguRuBepig Shona Morphological analysis When we compare the with a Noun column to the Noun column we see that they differ in form in that the former has se or sE at the beginning They differ in meaning in that the forms with ne or nE have with in the gloss Therefore ne and nE must both mean with They are morpheme alternants Shona Morphological analysis By the same logic se sE must mean like The other morphemes are the items in the Noun column each with the meaning given in the Noun gloss column Example aNga knife Shona Phonological analysis We have seen two morpheme alternations ne nE and se sE The sounds that distinguish these alternants are the alternating sounds e E Because they alternate there must be some restriction on distribution that applies to one of these sounds but not the other Shona Phonological analysis To determine what this restriction is we look at where the alternants with e occur and try to make a generalization about that Then we do the same for E Consider the following additional data as well Shona Zimbabwe Emba cow pea lie epa gourd Ende lust ene fEmba sniff fema breathe Shona Phonological analysis The mid front lax vowel E occurs only before a sequence of a nasal followed by an obstruent The mid front tense vowel e occurs only elsewhere Phoneme e Tensing rule V high ATR nas son Shona Phonological analysis The alternating morphemes must take as their underlying form the one with the phonemes ne se The nondefault alternants nE and sE are created by the phonological rule The phonological rule doesn t refer to morphemes The alternation is just a side effect of the phonological distribution Shona Derivations Underlying representation ne aNga ne mv uRa Tensing nE mv uRa Surface representation ne aNga nEmv uRa Karok California Kenstowicz and Kisseberth 1979 73 Imperative1st sing 3rd sing Glosspasipnipasip upasip shoot kifnuknikifnuk ukifnuk stoop aktuvni aktuv u aktuv pluck at si tvaniSi tva usi tva steal suprihniSuprih usuprih measure Karok California niSkak jump 1st sing uskak jump 3rd sing nikSup point 1st sing uksup point 3rd sing nikSah laugh 1st sing uksah laugh 3rd sing Karok Morphemes The 1st singular differs from the imperative in having ni at the beginning Thus ni must mean 1st singular The 2nd singular differs from the imperative and the 1st singular in having u at the beginning Thus u must mean 2nd singular Karok Morphemes Comparing the row of items meaning shoot with the row of items meaning stoop they differ in that the former has pasip and the latter kifnuk Thus pasip means shoot and kifnuk means stoop By similar comparison we conclude that aktuv means pluck at Karok Morphemes Comparing the row of items meaning steal to the preceding ones we nd that the new material is either si tva in the imperative or Si tva in the 1st or 2nd singular This is an alternating morpheme si tva Si tva steal Karok Nonalternating morphemes ni u pasip kifnuk aktuv 1st singular 2nd singular shoot stoop pluck at Karok Alternating morphemes si tva Si tva suprih Suprih Skak skak kSup ksup ksah kSah steal measure jump point laugh Karok Alternating sounds Each pair of alternants differs in that one has s where the other has S Thus the alternating sounds are s S There must be a restriction on distribution involving these two sounds Karok Alternating sounds Statement of distribution S occurs only after V C0 back s occurs only elsewhere C0 is a shorthand for any number of C s from 0 on up indicating that the presence or absence of intervening consonants makes no difference Karok Analysis Phoneme s Rule Palatalization cor son cont ant V C0 back Karok Derivations Underlying representation ni si tva u si tva Palatalization ni Si tva Surface representation niSi tva usi tva References Kenstowicz Michael and Charles Kisseberth 1979 Generative Phonology Description and Theory Academic Press San Diego