Re^6: Apocalypse 12

[tphyahoo]

in reply to Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Apocalypse 12
in thread Apocalypse 12

Definition of alomorph:

A variant phonological representation of a morpheme; "the 
final sounds of `bets' and `beds' and `horses' and `oxen' 
are allomorphs of the English plural morpheme"

UPDATE:

For those without ancient languages... greek and latin roots. Basically morph is shape, allo is "different" or "another".

Another definition for allomorph seems a bit closer to Larry's reply: "An allomorph is one of two or more complementary morphs which manifest a morpheme in its different phonological or morphological environments."

So, I guess in the computer context, an allomorph is an object that manifests differently depending on the context.

[TimToady]

I was using "allomorph" neither in the linguistic sense you quoted, nor in the crystalographic sense you omitted, but in the more general sense of "an abstract object that can manifest different shapes in different contexts." When you read a dictionary entry with two related but specific meanings, you really ought to expect that those meanings are allomorphs of a single underlying meaning, especially when that general meaning is easily derived from the meanings of the Greek morphemes in question.