The Interaction of Morphology and Phonology

English Plural, Possessive, and Third-Person Singular Morphemes

Regular nouns have several pronunciations of the plural morpheme as in lips [lɪp + s], seeds [sid + z], and
fuses [fjuz + әz]. The surface forms for these different pronunciations of a morpheme are called its
allomorphs. As the following lists demonstrate, the allomorphs of the plural morpheme are determined
by the character of the final sound of the singular form.
Allomorphs of the English ‘plural’ morpheme

[әz] [s] [z]

bushes cats pens

judges tips seeds
peaches books dogs
buses whiffs cars
fuses births rays

These lists indicate the pattern of distribution for the plural allomorphs of English.

1. [әz] occurs on nouns ending in /s z ʃ ʒ t ʃ dʒ / (a natural class called sibilants).

2. [s ] occurs following all other voiceless sounds.
3. [z] occurs following all other voiced sounds.

You may want to think of arguments for positing one of the three allomorphs as the abstract underlying
form of the plural morpheme. We will assume that it is /z/. From this underlying form, all three
allomorphs must be derivable by general rules that apply to all regular nouns.
From an underlying /z/, a rule such as the following would derive the [әz] allomorph that follows
sibilants; note that + marks a morpheme boundary and # marks a word boundary.

Schwa Insertion Rule A

/z/ [әz] / sibilant + ___#

(Schwa is inserted before a word-final /z/ that follows a morpheme ending in a sibilant.)

In order to derive the allomorph [s] from the underlying morpheme /z/ following voiceless sounds, a
rule that partially assimilates the voiced /z/ to the unvoiced sound of the stem morpheme would be
needed.

Assimilation Rule A

/z/ voiceless / voiceless + ___#

(Word-final /z/ is devoiced following a morpheme that ends in a voiceless sound.)

In order to derive the correct forms of all regular plural nouns, these two rules must have considerable
generality. Table 1 below illustrates this for the nouns coops, judges, and weeds. (DNA means a rule
does not apply because some necessary condition is missing: slanted lines / / represent underlying
forms; square brackets [ ] represent forms derived by application of a phonological rule.)

TABLE 1
Derivation of English Plural Nouns

COOPS PIECES WEEDS

Underlying forms /kup+z/ /pis+z/ /wid+z/

Schwa insertion DNA applies DNA

Derived form [kup + z] [pis + әz] [wid + z]

Assimilation applies DNA DNA

Surface form [kup + s] [pis + әz] [wid + z]

You may be surprised to know that our rules for deriving the plural forms of regular nouns have
wide applicability in English. For two extremely common inflectional morphemes of English-namely, the
possessive marker on nouns (judge’s, cat’s, and dog’s) and the third-person singular marker on verbs
(teaches, laughs, and swims)- for the distribution of their allomorph is parallel to the distribution plurals.
Possessive Morpheme on Nouns
[s] for: ship, cat, Jack . . .
[z] for: John, arm, dog . . .
[әz] for: church, judge, fish . . .

Third-Person Singular Morpheme on Verbs

[s] for: leap, eat, kick, laugh . . .
[z] for: hurry, seem, lean, crave, see . . .
[әz] for: preach, tease, judge, buzz, rush . . .

If we posit /z/ as the underlying phonological form of these morphemes, the very same rules
that derive the correct allomorphs of the plural morpheme will also derive the correct allomorphs of the
possessive morpheme of nouns and the third-person singular morpheme of verbs. (Unlike plurals, some
of which are irregular, all nouns have regular possessive morpheme allomorphs, and all verbs are regular
with respect to the third-person singular morpheme except for is, has, says, and does.)

English Past-Tense Morpheme

The inflectional morpheme that marks the past tense of regular verbs in English has three
allomorphs:

[t] for: wish, kiss, talk, strip, preach . . .

[d] for: wave, bathe, play, lie, stir, tease, roam, ruin . . .
[әd] for: want, wade, wait, hoot, plant, seed . . .
 If we posit /d/ as the underlying phonological form of the past-tense morpheme, we need only two
simple rules to derive the past-tense forms on all regular verbs.
Schwa Insertion Rule B

/d/ [әd] / alveolar stop + ____#

(Schwa is inserted preceding a word-final /d/ that follows a morpheme ending in an alveolar stop.)

Assimilation Rule B

/d/ voiceless / voiceless + ____#

(Word-final /d/ is realized as [t] following a morpheme that ends in a voiceless sound.)

Derivations of the past-tense forms of the verb wish, want and wave are provided in Table 2 as
examples.

TABLE 2
Derivation of English Past-Tense Verbs

WAVED WISHED WANTED

________

Underlying forms /wev+d/ /wɪʃ + d/ /wαnt+d/

Schwa insertion DNA DNA applies

Derived form [wev+d] [wɪʃ + d] [wαnt + әd]

Assimilation DNA applies DNA

Surface form [wev+d] [wɪʃ + t] [wαnt + әd ]

________

The last two sets of rules show striking similarities in the schwa insertion processes and in the
assimilation processes required to generate the correct forms of the plural and possessive forms of
nouns, third-person singular forms of verbs, and the past-tense forms of verbs. (In some theories of
phonology that do not rely on derivation as we have, schwa insertion would follow from an “Obligatory
Contour Principle.” The OCP prohibits neighboring sounds from being identical in some respects. Such
alternative ways of formulating phonological phenomena lie beyond the scope of this chapter.)

Reference:

Finegan, E. (2008). Language: Its Structure and Use.5 th ed. United States of America: Thomson
Wadsworth