What is Morphology?, 3rd Edition

3 Morphology and Phonology

• 3.1 Allomorphs
• 3.2 Prosodic Morphology
  • 3.2.1 Phonotactic constraints
  • 3.2.2 Root-and-pattern morphology
  • 3.2.3 Reduplication
• 3.3 Primary and Secondary Affixes
• 3.4 Linguistic Exaptation, Leveling, and Analogy
• 3.5 Morphophonology and Secret Languages
• 3.6 Summary
• Kujamaat Jóola Morphophonology
• Vowel harmony
• A secondary affix
• Further Reading

This chapter explores some of the many interactions that take place between morphology and phonology. These interactions and the grammar that describes them are often called morphophonology or morphophonemics. We begin by looking at phonological processes such as assimilation and the effect they have on the shapes of morphemes. We then consider limitations on the phonological shape of morphological entities such as words and stems. From there we move on to two general types of affixes that are distinguished, in part, by phonological criteria. Their phonological behavior reveals details about their underlying structure and the point at which they attach to their bases. We conclude with a look at secret languages in which morphology and phonology interact to disguise the shapes of words.

We wrote in the preface that we expect our readers to have the rudimentary knowledge of linguistics that comes from taking an introductory course. To understand the discussion in this chapter, you need to know three terms that are often not introduced in such courses. They are onset, nucleus, and coda. The onset of a syllable is ...