Lastly, morphemes which are complementary to each other in distribution, and which satisfy certain other criteria, may be conveniently considered as being merely alternants (positional variants) of one morpheme. Thus the /s/ which occurs in 'The book- are here', the /z/ which occurs in 'The boy-are here', and the – / æ/ + /e/ which occurs in 'The man- are here' may all be included in one morphemic unit {s} which has these three variants in these three environments.
- Harris (1945a), Pag. 121