Morphological Rules and Etymology, Allomorphy

Ghoti = fish (Shaw)

Morphological Rules

Etymology: the study of history of words: phonetic change, semantic change

Allomorphy

Unchanging: “phil”: love, philosophy, zoophilia, philology; “riv” river, arrive

Irregular Allomorphy:

Grim’s Law

a. b – p slippery – lubricus b. p – f father – pater c. bh – b brother - bhratar

d – t ten – decem t – th three – tres dh – d bind - bandh

g – k yoke - iugum k – x (h) horn – cornu gh – g guest – hostis

bear, fer, pher, bhar

heart, kardia, cordia, hrd

two, duo, duo, dva

E, L, G, S

Regular Allomorphy

Syn “together, with”

Symmetry

Syllable

Synchronic

Origins of Allomorphy

Phonetic change

Pel “push” compel, compulsion, pulse

Greek: “onym” anonimous, pseudonym

Latin “nom” nominal, nominate

Ease in pronunciation

Know, knee, hwat, hwo, hwere

“homo+onym”=homonym

“in+possible”=impossible

Age of borrowing

Problem – parabola bol “throw”

Aut-opsy – auta-rchy

Automobile

Antagoinstic – antarctic

Anti-retained

Frequency in use: the more a word is used more likely the change is

Youse - you

“hypo”, “neo”, “omni”

Origin of word

An - naranha

Abnormal – apolitical, “pend” expensive, “fend” defense

Transparency in use (meaning driven)

Unfullfilled – emphatic, lenght, depth, warmth, midtown, subclass

adapted from

Akmajian, A & et al, (2001):“Linguistics: An Introduction to Language and Communication” MIT, Cambridge,USA

Stockwell, R. & D. Minkova,(2003): “English Words: History and Structure”, CUP, Cambridge, UK

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