Morphological Conditioning | Word formation | Morphological change

Morphological Conditioning in the Past Tense

        Phonological conditioning has a limited degree of regularity. There are a few irregular forms that do not follow the typical pattern of morphophonemic alterations. We can always explain why such variant forms as /t/d/id/ emerge for past tense and future tense.

For plural morphemes, use /s/z/iz/.

Explanation:

        However, in the case of the plural forms of kid - Kids and sheep - sheep, such an explanation are not viable. These forms are not phonologically conditioned, which means that the proximity of a sound has no effect on them. The word "en" is exclusive to children, oxen, and brothers. Such modifications are thought to be the result of morphological conditioning.

We will look at some of the most common kinds of morphological conditioning in the following sections

Zero Suffix: - 

        Certain English words do not change form when inflected for pluralizing or making into past tense form. These singular-plural, present-tense and past-tense forms are all the same.

Examples and explanations:

Set A (Singular)                     Set Bv(Plural)

Sheep                                       sheep

deer                                          deer

cattle                                         cattle

Set A (Present Tense)	Set B (Past Tense)
cut	cut
cut	put
hit	hit
beat	beat

But we know are in a present that set A words tense and that set B words are in the past tense. With this understanding, we use the words.

• There is a sheep   
• There are sheep

1. He cuts
2. He has cut

        We may claim that a plural zero suffix and a past tense zero suffix have been added to these forms. The shift is not due to an obvious change in the phonemic form of the morpheme (allomorph). They are claimed to go through a zero-modification process. This is shown by the q sign, which is known as a zero allomorph. 

As a result, sheep is written as / I :p + q/. and cut is denoted by / kt + q/

Vowel Change: - 

        Take another example: the plural form of man is men, the plural form of a woman is women, and the plural form of louse is lice. Nothing has been added to make them plural, but the vowel and diphthong have been changed.

/a/, /e/, /au/, /ai/

Examples and explanations:

Similarly, we may modify the vowels to form the past tense, as demonstrated below:

• find - found                /ai/ > /au/
• swim - swam                /i/ > /æ/
• bring - brought            /i/ > /]/
• seek - sought                /i:/ > / ɔ:/
• catch - caught                /æ/ > / ɔ:/
• feed - fed                /i:/ > /e/

        These alterations, too, cannot be explained by the phonetic change process. These are erratic modifications known as vowel mutation. Vowel mutation may also be found in verb formation, adjectivization, and noun formation, among other things. 

Consonant Change: -

        In addition to vowel changes, consonant changes affect pluralization. Some English words that end in /f/, such as leaf life, wife, knife, and shelf loaf, become plural by changing /f/ to /v/ and adding /z/. Here are several examples: -

Examples and explanations:

1. knife /naif/ > knives /naivz/
2. wolf /wulf/ > wolves /wulvz

        However, we may see irregularities here as well. Not all nouns ending in /f/ experience similar modifications; proof, roof, and reef, to mention a few, need /s/ to shift to plural form; however, the hoof is pluralized both by simply adding /s/ - hoofs - and by consonant change - hooves.

We see a consonant replacement in past tense creation as well –

• send        - sent
• bend        - bent         /d/ > /t/ 
• lend        - lent
• spend        - spent

        The list of numerous types of alterations that indicate pluralization and past tense development is rather lengthy. What is vital here is to comprehend the mechanism of various sorts of vowel and consonant alteration that occur in such processes. 

Suppletion: 

        In suppletion, instead of a partial alteration in the root (either a vowel change, a consonant change, or the addition of an s), the whole form of the root is replaced by a new -form. 

Examples and explanations:

        As a result, the past tense of "go" is "went," and the comparative of "bad" is "worse," "good" has "better" as a comparative, "moon" has "lunar" as an adjective, and "sea" has "marine" as an adjective; "tooth" is adjectivized as "dental," and "mouth" as oral. In these cases, we witness a full shift in the phonemic shape of the stem for changing form classes.