ALLOMORPHS

An allomorph is any of the difference forms of a morpheme (Richards, Platt & Webber 1987: 9). It is a word that has different sound but does not change the meaning. There are four kinds of allomorphs:

Note: a morpheme may have more than one phonemic form

1. Additive allomorph:

a. Past tense: /d/, /t / and /∂d/ (pronunciation). Examples:

/d/	/∂d/	/t/
Called	Parted	Talked
Played	Glided	Laughed
Begged	Needed	Watched
Seemed		Passed

b. Plural: /s/, /z/, /ez/ (pronunciation). Examples:

/s/	/z/	/∂z/
Books	Frogs	Houses
Cats	Wolves	Fizzes
Desks	Cars	Buses

2. Replacive allomorph
It has an infix or internal change of word. The example can be found at irregular verb or plural noun. 

Irregular verb	Plural
Drink-Drank-Drunk	Tooth-Teeth
Sing-Sang-Sung	Foot-Feet
Begin-Began-Begun	Man-Men
Sink-Sank-Sunk	Goose-Geese

3. Suppletive allomorph
It is a word that has a same meaning but the word is change totally. Examples:

Irregular verb	Plural
Eat-Ate-Eaten	Mouse-Mice
Bid-Bade-Bidden	Ox-Oxen
Break-Broke-Broken	Louse-Lice
Go-Went-Gone	Person-People

4. Zero allomorph /Ø/
A word that has no changed. Examples:

Irregular verb	Plural
Hurt-Hurt-Hurt	Sheep + -s(=Ø) = sheep
Hit-Hit-Hit	Deer + -s(=Ø) = Deer
Let-Let-Let	Pike-Pike
Set-Set-Set	Swine-Swine