Understanding Phonology Doing Phonology Summary P honology Darrell Larsen Linguistics 101 Darrell Larsen Phonology
Understanding Phonology Doing Phonology Summary O utline 1 U nderstanding P honology Basics Phonology vs. Phonetics Distribution of Sounds Distinctive Features 2 D oing P honology How to Solve a Phonology Problem Example Phonology Problem Writing Phonological Rules 3 S ummary Darrell Larsen Phonology
Basics Understanding Phonology Phonology vs. Phonetics Doing Phonology Distribution of Sounds Summary Distinctive Features W hat I s P honology ? D efinition the study of the sound systems of languages and the mental representation of sounds sound system = inventory of sounds + rules + constraints Darrell Larsen Phonology
Basics Understanding Phonology Phonology vs. Phonetics Doing Phonology Distribution of Sounds Summary Distinctive Features W hy D o W e N eed P honology ? to account for how sounds are groups together despite being phonetically distinct. to explain regular sound alternations (e.g. aspiration of /p t k/) to explain how we extend these alternations to novel words to explain how we extend these alternations to mistakes like spoonerisms Darrell Larsen Phonology
Basics Understanding Phonology Phonology vs. Phonetics Doing Phonology Distribution of Sounds Summary Distinctive Features W hy D o W e N eed P honology ? to explain how we pronounce loan words to explain how we determine what possible words of our language are to save storage space etc Darrell Larsen Phonology
Basics Understanding Phonology Phonology vs. Phonetics Doing Phonology Distribution of Sounds Summary Distinctive Features H ow D o P honetics and P honology D iffer ? Phonetics: concerned with actual pronunciation concerned with articulation Phonology: focuses on mental representations of sounds has rules mapping mental representations to pronunciations Darrell Larsen Phonology
Basics Understanding Phonology Phonology vs. Phonetics Doing Phonology Distribution of Sounds Summary Distinctive Features H ow D o P honetics and P honology D iffer ? P honetics P honology The /k/ in call [ k h Al ] and in key The /k/ in call and key have the h i ] are phonetically distinct. same mental representation. [ k ff / kAl / → [ k h Al ] h i ] / ki / → [ k ff Darrell Larsen Phonology
Basics Understanding Phonology Phonology vs. Phonetics Doing Phonology Distribution of Sounds Summary Distinctive Features H ow D o P honetics and P honology D iffer ? L etter A nalogy a A P seudo - phonetics P seudo - phonology The symbols above are distinct. The symbols above belong to a single mental representation of the letter ‘a’. Darrell Larsen Phonology
Basics Understanding Phonology Phonology vs. Phonetics Doing Phonology Distribution of Sounds Summary Distinctive Features F rom P honology to P honetics Phonology is the starting point, while phonetics is the ‘output’ of phonology. Phonological rules change sounds from mental representations ( phonemes ) into phonetic forms. Darrell Larsen Phonology
Basics Understanding Phonology Phonology vs. Phonetics Doing Phonology Distribution of Sounds Summary Distinctive Features F rom P honology to P honetics L etter A nalogy The single letter ‘a’ is written as � a � or � A � in accordance with the following (simplified) set of rules: Use � A � at the beginning of a sentence. Use � A � at the beginning of a proper noun. Use � a � elsewhere. Darrell Larsen Phonology
Basics Understanding Phonology Phonology vs. Phonetics Doing Phonology Distribution of Sounds Summary Distinctive Features F rom P honology to P honetics A ctual E xample The single phoneme /k/ is pronounced as [k] or [k ff ] in accordance with the following (simplified) set of rules: Use [k ff ] in front of the vowel /i/. Use [k] elsewhere. Darrell Larsen Phonology
Basics Understanding Phonology Phonology vs. Phonetics Doing Phonology Distribution of Sounds Summary Distinctive Features P honemes and A llophones T he B asics A speech sound in isolation is a phone . The mental representation of a sound is a phoneme . Allophones are phonetic realizations of phonemes. Allophones are generally minimally distinct from phonemes. A phoneme consists of one or more allophones . Every speech sound we produce is an allophone of some phoneme. Darrell Larsen Phonology
Basics Understanding Phonology Phonology vs. Phonetics Doing Phonology Distribution of Sounds Summary Distinctive Features P honemes and A llophones N otation Allophones are written between square brackets [ ]. Phonemes are written between forward slashes / /. Darrell Larsen Phonology
Basics Understanding Phonology Phonology vs. Phonetics Doing Phonology Distribution of Sounds Summary Distinctive Features F rom P honology to P honetics P honemes & A llophones Native speakers generally think of sounds at the phonemic level. Phoneme Allophone Example [t] ‘stop’ [t ^ ] ‘cat’ [ P ] ‘cat’ /t/ [t h ] ‘tie’ [ R ] ‘atom’ [t S ] ‘train’ Darrell Larsen Phonology
Basics Understanding Phonology Phonology vs. Phonetics Doing Phonology Distribution of Sounds Summary Distinctive Features T ypes of D istributions When comparing the speech sounds of a language, we can classify their relative distribution as one of the following: contrastive 1 complementary 2 free variation 3 Darrell Larsen Phonology
Basics Understanding Phonology Phonology vs. Phonetics Doing Phonology Distribution of Sounds Summary Distinctive Features C ontrastive D istribution Two sounds are contrastive when: they occur in the same environment, and 1 replacing one sound with the other can change a word’s 2 meaning Q uestion Are [s] and [z] contrastive in English? Are [k] and [k h ] contrastive in English? Darrell Larsen Phonology
Basics Understanding Phonology Phonology vs. Phonetics Doing Phonology Distribution of Sounds Summary Distinctive Features C ontrastive D istribution Two contrastive phones are allophones of different phonemes. Two non-contrastive phones are allophones of the same phoneme. Q uestion Do [s] and [z] belong to the same phoneme or different phonemes in English? How about [k] and [k h ]? Darrell Larsen Phonology
Basics Understanding Phonology Phonology vs. Phonetics Doing Phonology Distribution of Sounds Summary Distinctive Features C ontrastive D istribution M inimal P airs Minimal pairs provide evidence that two phones are in contrastive distribution A minimal pair is two words... with the same number of sound segments, and 1 which differ in segment only, and 2 which have different meanings 3 M inimal P airs N ot M inimal P airs [ bin ] ‘bean’ [ min ] ‘mean’ [ sænd ] ‘sand’ [ stænd ] ‘stand’ [ m2d ] ‘mud’ [ T2d ] ‘thud’ [ bin ] ‘bean’ [ bæm ] ‘bam’ [ k h æf ] ‘calf’ [ k h æt ] ‘cat’ [ k h æP ] [ læf ] ’laugh’ Darrell Larsen Phonology
Basics Understanding Phonology Phonology vs. Phonetics Doing Phonology Distribution of Sounds Summary Distinctive Features C omplementary D istribution Sounds in complementary distribution ... never occur in the same environment 1 occur in predictable environments (with respect to each other) 2 Sounds in complementary distribution are allophones of the same phoneme. Q uestion Are [p] and [p h ] in complementary distribution in English? How about [t] and [d]? Darrell Larsen Phonology
Basics Understanding Phonology Phonology vs. Phonetics Doing Phonology Distribution of Sounds Summary Distinctive Features F ree V ariation Two sounds are free variation when: they occur in the same environment, and 1 replacing one with the other does not change the meaning 2 Sounds in free variation are allophones of the same phoneme. Q uestion Are released [b] and unreleased [b ^ ] in free variation word-finally? Are released [b] and unreleased [b ^ ] in free variation word-initially? Darrell Larsen Phonology
Basics Understanding Phonology Phonology vs. Phonetics Doing Phonology Distribution of Sounds Summary Distinctive Features C rosslinguistic V ariation The distribution of any two sounds is language-specific. English [su] ‘sue’ Finnish [ku : si] ‘six’ [zu] ‘zoo’ [ku : zi] ‘six’ English [pi] - Korean [pi] ‘rain’ [p h i] [p h i] ‘pee’/‘pea’ ‘blood Darrell Larsen Phonology
Basics Understanding Phonology Phonology vs. Phonetics Doing Phonology Distribution of Sounds Summary Distinctive Features M ultiple D istributions The distribution of two sounds may vary depending on the environment. Consider the sounds [t], [t ^ ] and [ P ] in English [ k h æP ] ‘cat’ [ kæt ] [ kæt^ ] ‘stop’ [ stap ] *[ st^ap ] *[ sPap ] Darrell Larsen Phonology
Basics Understanding Phonology Phonology vs. Phonetics Doing Phonology Distribution of Sounds Summary Distinctive Features M ultiple D istributions A phone may be allophones of more than one phoneme. E.g., [ R ] can be an allophone of /t/ or /d/. [ @t h amIk ] ‘atom’ [ æR@m ] cf. ‘atomic’ ‘addict’ [ æRIkt ] cf. ‘addictive’ [ @dIktIv ] Darrell Larsen Phonology
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