4 DISCUSSION
In linguistics, there are different views on the concept
of allomorph, some scientists study allomorph in the
form of variants of one morpheme, some research it
in the form of morphological alternations, while other
scientists analyze it as alternations of lexical
morpheme, other scientists call it with such concepts
as alternations of lexical morpheme or the
phenomenon of phoneme variation.
Uzbek linguist Azim Hojiyev (2009) considers
the concept of allomorph as a variant of a morpheme
and defines it as follows: “An auxiliary morpheme in
which one can be used instead of another in any
context of a morpheme is a variant of a morpheme.
For example, the morphs -day, -dek in Uzbek can be
added freely. Therefore, variants of the affix such as
gulday-guldek in the variant case are types of the affix
in terms of phonetic sound composition” (p. 21).
Another Uzbek linguist M.T. Iriskulov (2009)
added to the above information of Azim Hajiyev, that
the allomorphic component is defined as follows:
“Morph and morpheme are not always equal to each
other. A morpheme, a linguistic unit, can be
represented in speech by one morph and by several
morphs. The meaning of direction in Uzbek language
is implementation with various suffixes: - ga, - ka, -
qa. One such morpheme is represented by three
morphs. Morphs that usually belong to a morpheme
are called variants or allomorphs of that morpheme.
So, allomorphs are morphs that have different forms
but have the same meaning and form one morpheme”
(p. 144). Also, as an example of allomorphs, the
scientist cites suffixal allomorphs representing the
plural in the Russian language, such as [и], [ы], [а],
[я].
According to Azim Hajiyev, variants
(allomorphs) of one morpheme are interchangeable,
but linguists M.T. Iriskulov and R. Rasulov (2010)
disagree and put forward the opinion that allomorphs
cannot exchange places and explain it as follows:
“Allomorph is a variant of a morpheme, and as a
separate morph, it participates only in the
composition of the corresponding word form. Each
morph, which is observed as an allomorph, has a
limited possibility of application, it appears only in
conditions that are favourable for it, and it is added
selectively. One morph-allomorph is not used instead
of the other” (p. 221). The scientist cites these Uzbek
examples as proof of his opinion: tonggi - tongki,
kechki - kechgi. As the scientist continues his theory,
“the phonetic situation, phonetic form and semantics
do not allow this. So, allomorphs appear in such a
form as the used word forms are accepted”.
Analyzing the opinions of linguists, it can be said
that allomorphs are variants of one morpheme. But
here a controversial question is raised: are allomorphs
interchangeable or not? Finding an answer to this
question requires studying the theories and views of
other linguists.
Allomorphism is being explained as the result of
the application of phonological processes examining
languages such as English. There is another claim
regarding allomorphy apart from the conventional.
According to Carstairs, 1987, there is a need to
distinguish phonologically-conditioned allomorphy
from lexically or grammatically conditioned one
(Carstairs, 1987). Ralli, 2007, has also claimed in her
paper that, “non-phonologically conditioned
allomorphy occupies a central position in
morphology” (Ralli, 2007).On the basis of the
(Carstairs, 1987) and (Ralli, 2007) claims, allomorph
can be defined as “syntactic variation of a phoneme is
also called allomorphy”(p.35).
In European linguistics, there is a slightly
different approach to the concept of allomorph, and
the Russian linguist Yarstseva (1990) gives the
following definition using the term morpheme
exchange: “The morpheme, which is the main unit of
morphology, is understood as a phoneme, similar to
an abstract invariant that comes in the form of a
specific variant - morph (allomorphs): the use of a
morpheme in different variants is different positions -
such as grammatical position (in these cases, in the
form of grammatical or morphological variants
comes) is also related to phonetic position (in these
cases the morpheme comes in phonetic form). For
example, in Russian “писать” - “пишу” the base
morpheme grammatical position (invariant form-true
variant form) and various morpheme exchanges
English noun plural suffixes [s] - [z] - [iz] are
phonetically conditioned occurs in the position (p.
313)”. The scientist proves his ideas through the
following examples: bats - bats, birds - birds, boxes -
boxes.
Apparently, Yartseva also put forward the
opinion that each of the allomorphs has its own
position, they are not interchangeable. In order to
determine the nature of allomorphs in the Persian
language, which is the main object of our article, we
will turn to the theory and views of the Iranian linguist
Iron Kalbosi (1992) in order to determine what kind
of view there is on the concept of allomorph in Iranian
linguistics. In his books on the grammar of the
Persian language, the scientist calls the morph (vāž)
and defines it as follows: “The smallest unit of
language that has a meaning or form is called a morph
and is used in the formation of words as grammatical