Intro Week 4 2 PDF

Phonemic analysis Phonemes and allophones A basic idea in phonology is how to distinguish sounds When speakers think of two sounds as ‘the same’: [ph Il] ‘pill’ [spIl] ‘spill’ Test: Sounds in complementary distribution are allophones When speakers...

Phonemic analysis Phonemes and allophones A basic idea in phonology is how to distinguish sounds When speakers think of two sounds as ‘the same’: [ph Il] ‘pill’ [spIl] ‘spill’ Test: Sounds in complementary distribution are allophones When speakers think of two sounds as ‘different’: [ph Il] ‘pill’ [bIl] ‘bill’ Test: Sounds in the same position that change the meaning of the word are contrastive and are phonemes Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 3 / 48  Phonemic analysis How is this useful? Phonological knowledge: the speaker knows a set of rules (=competence) that convert underlying representations into actual surface pronunciations (=performance) The study of a (single) language requires constructing the phonemic inventory which is the set of sounds that are distinctive Are speakers aware of their phonemic inventory? Yes (often by knowing what is not a speech sound e.g. clicks) No (e.g. allophones) Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 4 / 48  Phonemic analysis Getting practical A linguist finds a group of speakers of the language under investigation S/he starts asking for words and word meanings Transcribe the words by using the IPA Construct the phonemic inventory To do that, the linguist needs to figure out phonemes, allophones and the rules where allophones appear Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 5 / 48  Phonemic analysis Steps to determine phonemes Phonemic analysis is the process of defining the phonemes (or allophones) of a particular language Step 1: Collect the appropriate set of data Step 2: Look for minimal pairs. If there are minimal pairs, the sounds are separate phonemes. Step 3: If not, continue by listing the environment where each sound investigated is found Step 4: Look for the pattern and state the rule for which allophones occur where Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 6 / 48  Phonemic analysis [k] and [x] in Florentine Italian Task: Do [k] and [x] belong to different phonemes or are they allophones of the same phoneme? laxasa ‘the house’ kwando ‘when’ poxo ‘little’ kapella ‘chapel’ bixa ‘stack’ blaïko ‘white’ amixo ‘friend’ makkina ‘machine’ fixi ‘figs’ kabina ‘booth’ kwuxo ‘cook’ Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 8 / 48  Phonemic analysis Words with [k] Task: Do [k] and [x] belong to different phonemes or are they allophones of the same phoneme? Step 1: Find the words with [k] laxasa ‘the house’ kwando ‘when’ poxo ‘little’ kapella ‘chapel’ bixa ‘stack’ blaïko ‘white’ amixo ‘friend’ makkina ‘machine’ fixi ‘figs’ kabina ‘booth’ kwuxo ‘cook’ Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 9 / 48  Phonemic analysis Words with [x] Task: Do [k] and [x] belong to different phonemes or are they allophones of the same phoneme? Step 1: Find the words with [x] laxasa ‘the house’ kwando ‘when’ poxo ‘little’ kapella ‘chapel’ bixa ‘stack’ blaïko ‘white’ amixo ‘friend’ makkina ‘machine’ fixi ‘figs’ kabina ‘booth’ kwuxo ‘cook’ Step 2: Look for minimal pairs. If there are minimal pairs, the sounds are separate phonemes. Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 10 / 48  Phonemic analysis Special symbols : it indicates the position of the sound investigated Example: a string ‘axa’ is a a #: it indicates the edge of a word #: word-final sound Example: a string ‘ax’ is a # # : word-initial sound Example: a string ‘xa’ is # a Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 11 / 48  Phonemic analysis Environments for [k] and [x] in Florentine Italian laxasa ‘the house’ kwando ‘when’ poxo ‘little’ kapella ‘chapel’ bixa ‘stack’ blaïko ‘white’ amixo ‘friend’ makkina ‘machine’ fixi ‘figs’ kabina ‘booth’ kwuxo ‘cook’ Step 3: If there are no minimal pairs, continue by listing the environment where each sound investigated is found [x] [k] a a # w o o # a i a ï o i o a k i i k i u o Do not repeat the same environments, e.g. for [k], kapella, kabina –> # a Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 12 / 48  Phonemic analysis Look for patterns Step 4: Look for patterns and make a generalization [x] [k] a a # w o o # a i a ï o i o a k i i k i u o [x] occurs only between vowels [k] occurs if a consonant precedes or follows, or if [k] is in a word-initial position [x] and [k] are found in complementary distribution: allophones of the same phoneme Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 13 / 48  Phonemic analysis How do we decide the (underlying) phoneme? Since [x] occurs in a more specific environment (only between vowels), we call [k] the elsewhere The elsewhere allophone is the underlying phoneme (in other words, /k/ is pronounced as [x] between vowels) Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 14 / 48  Phonemic analysis Visual representation Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 15 / 48  Phonemic analysis Rule notation “x becomes y between A and B” x ! y/A B Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 16 / 48  Phonemic analysis Rule notation “x becomes y after A” x ! y/A Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 17 / 48  Phonemic analysis Rule notation “x becomes y before B” x ! y/ B Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 18 / 48  Phonemic analysis Rule notation Step 4: Look for the pattern and state the rule for which allophones occur where “k becomes x between vowels” k ! x/V V Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 19 / 48  Phonemic analysis The underlying phoneme Is one allophone always underlying (basic)? ‘Light l’ and ‘dark l’ in English leaf [lif] feel [fië] loop [lup] pool [ph uë] led [lEd] dell [dEë] lame [lem] male [meë] blame [blem] help [hEëp] [ë] is in the syllable coda [l] is in the syllable onset Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 20 / 48  Phonemic analysis Remember:The syllable structure Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 21 / 48  Phonemic analysis The underlying phoneme Is one allophone always underlying (basic)? ‘Light l’ and ‘dark l’ in English leaf [lif] feel [fië] loop [lup] pool [ph uë] led [lEd] dell [dEë] lame [lem] male [meë] blame [blem] help [hEëp] Does /l/ become [ë] in the syllable code, or /ë/ becomes [l] in the syllable onset? Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 22 / 48  Phonemic analysis Visual representation Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 23 / 48  Phonemic analysis One further wrinkle How do you pronounce ‘at you’ (e.g. ‘when I look at you’)? [ætP ju] [ætSju] Same context (unpredictable), but the meaning of the word does not change Free variation: two sounds occur in the same environment, but the difference between the two sounds does not change one word into another Therefore, [tP ] and [tS] are both allophones of /t/ Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 24 / 48  Phonemic analysis Positional neutralization When two sounds are contrastive in one position and not contrastive in another, the contrast is neutralized The two sounds belong to two different phonemes, if minimal pairs exist /t/ and /d/ ‘mate’ vs ‘made’ ‘time’ vs. ‘dime’ But also: ‘city’ [sIRi] ‘lady’ [leIRi] /t/ and /d/ become [R] between two vowels, the second of which is unstressed For some people ‘patty’ and ‘paddy’ are pronounced the same How do we differentiate? Context! Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 25 / 48  Phonemic analysis www.paddynotpatty.com Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 26 / 48  Phonemic analysis Phonemic analysis summary Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 27 / 48  Phonotactic constraints and alternations Mating habits of sounds Phonotactics: phono=sound, tacti=touching Why is [dOg] ‘dog’ a word, but [Ogd] isn’t? Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 29 / 48  Phonotactic constraints and alternations A big ‘dog’ world Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 30 / 48  Phonotactic constraints and alternations Mating habits of sounds In Basque, ‘dog’ is txakur. Can txakur be an English word? What about the Swahili [mbwa] ‘dog’? Speakers know what strings of sounds are part of their language’s phonotactics Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 31 / 48  Phonotactic constraints and alternations Possible words Are the following nonsense words possible words in English? A.‘zrope’ B. ‘mriddle’ C. ‘blose’ Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 32 / 48  Phonotactic constraints and alternations Possible words Halle’s (1962) distinction: Actual word: English speakers happens to associate a meaning with a string of sounds, e.g. [bôIk] Possible word: It does not happen to mean anything but it does not violate the phonotactic constraints of English [blIk] Impossible word: Words that violate the phonotactic constraints *[bnIk] Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 33 / 48  Phonotactic constraints and alternations Alternations Alternations are ‘mating habits’ based on phonotactic rules ‘Linguistics’: [liNgwIstIks] Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 34 / 48  Phonotactic constraints and alternations Alternations ‘Linguistics’: [liNgwIstIks] Nasals must have the same place of articulation with a following stop We can write a rule! [n] ! [N] / [g] Or better: [alveolar nasal] ! [velar] / [velar] Or better: [alveolar nasal] ! [↵-place] / [↵-place consonant] Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 35 / 48  Phonotactic constraints and alternations Aspiration (1) Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 36 / 48  Phonotactic constraints and alternations Aspiration (2) Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 37 / 48  Phonotactic constraints and alternations Aspiration Aspirated stops appear at the beginning of a word, whereas unaspirated stops appear after [s]; Aspirated stops appear before a vowel or a sonorant consonant, whereas unaspirated stops appear at the end of a word. Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 38 / 48  Phonotactic constraints and alternations Alternations and aspiration When the stress shifts to the suffix vowel, the pronunciation of the preceding consonant changes to become aspirated. (6) Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 39 / 48  More on English Flapping The flap is a distinct phoneme of English (7) Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 42 / 48  More on English Encountering foreign languages When English speakers learn a new word, voiceless consonants will be aspirated or unaspirated according to the general rule for the distribution of aspiration. When English speakers learn a language which does not have the same distribution of aspirated and unaspirated consonants as in English, they encounter difficulties in pronunciation. Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 43 / 48  More on English Flapping Rule: An alveolar stop becomes a flap when it is followed by an unstressed syllabic and is preceded by a vowel or glide. Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 44 / 48  More on English Flapping (8) Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 45 / 48  More on English Flapping Flapping is not limited to the voiceless alveolar stop /t/: underlying /d/ also is a flap in this context: Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 46 / 48  More on English Glottal stop The bare roots on the left show the underlying /t/ which has not changed to glottal stop, and on the right, addition of the /n/ conditions the change of /t/ to a glottal stop. (9) Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 47 / 48  More on English Glottal stop (12) Week 4 LNG 100 Introduction to Linguistics 48 / 48