Simple Sentence a simple sentence consists of just one independent clause: Mary had a little lamb. Compound Sentence

88. MORPHEME AND ALLOMORPHEMES
What is a Morpheme?

A morpheme is the smallest meaningful elements of a language. It cannot be further broken into smaller parts. The specialty is that a morpheme has a meaning. For example, when we say bag, cat, dog, elephant, these are all morphemes as they cannot be segmented into smaller parts any further. Mainly, in linguistics, we identify two types of morphemes. They are,

• Free morphemes
• Bound morphemes
If a morpheme has the ability to stand on its own without the support of another form, we identify it as a free morpheme. But, if it cannot stand on its own and requires the assistance of another form, we identify it as a bound morpheme. Prefixes and suffixes are some examples for bound morphemes. If a bound morpheme wishes to convey a meaning, it needs to be intertwined with another form. For example, the morpheme ‘ness’ conveys no meaning, but when connected with another morpheme such as ‘attractive’, it conveys a meaning as it becomes ‘attractiveness’.
What is an Allomorph?
Allomorphs are the different varieties that exist of the same morpheme. Based on the context, these can bring about changes in the spelling and also in pronunciation. When one allomorph of a morpheme is replaced with another it can change the meaning completely. Let us attempt to understand the function of the allomorph through an example of the morpheme plural. Under this single morpheme, there are 3 variant allomorphs. They are,
• /s/ – cats
• /z/ or – dogs
• /iz/ – matches
Note how the pronunciation defers in each case. Even though a single morpheme is in play, it has different allomorphs that bring about changes not only in the pronunciation, but also in the spellings. It has to be remembered in mind that the allomorph is always conditioned by its phonetic environment. Also, in some cases, the morpheme plural takes a complete different turn.
• Ox- oxen
• Man- men
• Sheep –sheep
In each case, the morpheme plural is different. This highlights that even though it is a single morpheme plural, it has a variety of allomorphs. Not only in the morpheme plural, but in the past participle also the varied allomorphs can be identified.