The Status of Morphonology and the Concept of "Morphoneme"

Resumen

The article is devoted to the analytical, scientific and theoretical justification of the status of
morphonology as an independent linguistic discipline and the units of its description. The
paper defines the theoretical and analytical line of research in the context of a number of
works substantiating certain aspects of the conceptual problematic field of morphonology as a
scientific discipline. The emergence of morphonology as a science is associated with the
name of N.S. Trubetskoy, who introduced such concepts as "alternant" and "morphoneme".
Among the modern morphonological schools, we consider the American schools of
descriptive linguistics and the schools of generative grammar, as well as the Moscow
morphonological school, the foundations of which were laid in the works of prof. V.A.
Red’kin and developed in the works of his students. Prof. V.A. Red’kin singled out two
morphonological units, two morphonemes – stress and alternation of phonemes. Im S.B.
singled out the 3rd morphonological unit – a derivational affix, which forms a paradigm,
within which suffixes are options. The choice of a suffix depends on morphonological rules:
on the stress and the consonant outcome of the stem of the generator. The suffix, in turn, can
determine the stress and consonant outcome of the derivative. Then the stress, the alternation
of phonemes, considered as morphonemes, and the units, considered as allomorphs, can be
combined into a certain, wider hierarchy of morphonological units. In this case, the structure
of the morphonological unit turns out to be more complex than that traditionally attributed to
the morphoneme and allomorph. As a result, a hierarchy of causal dependencies becomes
apparent and reveals the identification of morphonological phenomena.