noun
- variations in the form of a morpheme that do not change its meaning
Usage: linguistics
Examples
- The plural morpheme in English shows allomorphisms: -s in ‘cats’, -es in ‘boxes’, and -en in ‘children’.
- Students of linguistics study allomorphisms to understand how word forms change in different contexts.
- The past tense marker displays allomorphisms like -ed in ‘walked’ and -t in ‘slept’.
- Allomorphisms help explain why the same grammatical function can have different sounds.
- The professor explained how allomorphisms occur due to phonological conditioning.
- Understanding allomorphisms is crucial for analyzing morphological patterns in language.