LNGS 401 Lecture Notes 2 PDF

LNGS 401 Lecture Notes 2 November 12, 2024 Dr. Fusheini Hudu Distinctiveness and redundancy in phonological features.  One of the observations we made last year is that, some segmental features are distinctive, others are redundant.  We made t...

LNGS 401 Lecture Notes 2 November 12, 2024 Dr. Fusheini Hudu Distinctiveness and redundancy in phonological features.  One of the observations we made last year is that, some segmental features are distinctive, others are redundant.  We made the point that certain features are naturally part of certain segments (vowels or consonants). For this reason, when describing these segments, we do not have to include these features before their presence is accepted. Such features are called redundant features for such segments.  To understand this better, let us use an analogy with human description. In primary school, when you were asked to write an essay titled “my best friend”, there were certain features of your best friend that you certainly did not include in describing your best friend. You did not add that your best friend has two legs, one head, two eyes, two ears, two arms, ten fingers etc.  Why did you leave these out? Because every human being normally has them, and so we assume that your best friend also has them. Even though it is true that your friend has them, it is redundant to include them in your description, as they don’t define your best friend. They are not distinctive to your best friend.  You also did not describe your best friend as a hungry person because you found him hungry after failing to eat for 12 hours. It is right to say that anyone who fails to eat for 12 hours will get hungry, but it is not right to describe that state of hunger as a defining feature of anyone.  It is the same with sounds. If you describe a vowel, a glide, a nasal or a liquid as [+voice], it is like describing your friend as having two legs. However, if the vowel, glide, nasal or liquid were to lose its natural voicing and become devoiced, that would make it unique (just as it is unique for a person to lose one leg). In that case, you can add the lack of voicing to your description.  However, if you take any vowel, you must indicate whether it is high or low, front or back. This is because not every vowel is high, not every vowel is low, not every vowel is front etc. It is like describing the height and complexion of your friend. You need to do that because not every person is tall, not every person is short, not every person is dark etc.  It means that for all vowels (but not for all consonants), voicing is a redundant feature but height and frontness are distinctive features. Similarly, for consonants in many languages of the world, the features [labial], [coronal], [dorsal] are distinctive.  In all languages of the world, changing a vowel within a word from [+voice] to [-voice], if it is possible for you to do so, will not change the meaning of the word. But most languages, changing the height feature from [+high] to [-high] will change the meaning of the word (e.g. English [bit] vs. [bɛt]). Similarly, changing the frontness feature from [+back] to [-back] can also change the meaning (e.g. English [biːt] vs. [buːt].  In English and many languages, changing the place of articulation of a voiceless consonant in a word from [+labial] to [+coronal] or [+dorsal] will change the meaning of the word (e.g. [kɔt] vs. [kɔk] vs. [kɔp]).  This means that distinctive features contribute towards meaning, redundant features do not contribute towards meaning. a. From the explanation and the examples given above, we can draw two conclusions: a. Whenever two sounds are separate phonemes in a language, there is at least one distinctive feature making them different sounds. From the above examples, /i/ and /ɛ/ are different vowels because the distinctive feature [high]. /iː/ and /uː/ are different Dr. F. Hudu. LNGS 401 Lecture Notes (Lecture 2: November 12, 2024) page 1 of 7  vowels because of the distinctive feature [front]. b. Whenever you have a minimal set of words, there is one or more distinctive features responsible for the meaning difference between the words. The English words [kɔt], [kɔk] and [kɔp] are different because the features [labial], [coronal] and [dorsal] are distinctive.  For redundant features, because they are predictable, we can always tell whether they are part of the specification of a sound or not, just as we can always tell that failure to eat for 12 hours will make one hungry. For this reason, their presence or absence does not lead to a meaning change.  For instance, when pronouncing an English word with a voiceless plosive (e.g. /k, t, p/) at the start of a syllable that is stressed, the voiceless plosive will get aspirated (e.g. ['tʰaɪm]. However, when you choose to pronounce it without the aspiration (['taɪm]), that will not change the meaning.  Because its presence in English can always be predicted, they do not contribute towards meaning, and for that matter, do not have to be specified. They can be ignored.  We have thus seen three differences between distinctive and redundant features: Distinctive features are Redundant features a. not predictable. Are predictable b. contribute towards meaning Do not contribute towards meaning c. cannot be ignored, must be specified Do not have to be specified, can be ignored  Remember that, in most cases, distinctiveness and redundancy are language-specific. Each language decides on whether to make a certain feature distinctive or not, just as each language decides on whether to make a certain sound a phoneme or not.  A feature can be distinctive in one language but redundant in another language.  Also, what is distinctive for a category of sounds in a language (e.g. vowels) may be redundant for another category of sounds in the same language (e.g. consonants). For instance, [±nasal] is distinctive for consonants but redundant for vowels in English and many languages of the world.  Below, the list of some, not all distinctive and redundant features for English vowels and consonants are listed. Study them closely and do the following: ◦ Come up with minimal sets of words similar to those shown in the examples above which demonstrate that the each of the distinctive features shown below is indeed, distinctive in English. Focus on the features that were not shown in the examples. ◦ Look for more distinctive features in English and support their distinctiveness using minimal set of words. English consonants Distinctive features Redundant features [±voice], [±sonorant], [±labial], [±coronal] [±spread glottis.], [±const. glottis], [±dorsal], [±delayed release], [±nasal] [±round] English vowels Distinctive features Redundant features [±high], [±low], [±front], [±back], [±nasal], [±long], [±lateral], [±voice] [±tense], [±round] [±sonorant] etc.  Why do we need this distinction between distinctive and redundant features. For several reasons. Dr. F. Hudu. LNGS 401 Lecture Notes (Lecture 2: November 12, 2024) page 2 of 7  One has to do with rule writing using features.  When we represent sounds, there are two levels of representation: the underlying representation (UR) and the surface representation (SR).  UR = distinctive features. The underlying representation only captures the features that are distinctive for a particular language, features that are required to build meaning and thus cannot be predicted (remember being tall or short, fair or dark cannot be predicted about your friend and must be state).  SR = redundant features: The surface representation captures features that are not distinctive. These features only surface in specific and predictable environments (remember being hungry for failing to eat can be predicted and will not be part of the description of your friend).  Thus, we can write a language-specific rule to account for the distribution of a surface feature.  For instance, there is a rule that makes all English vowels nasal when these vowels appear right before a nasal sound. For this rule to apply, the vowel and the following nasal must be part of the same syllable.  There are three ways of stating this rule, as discussed in LNGS 301. 1. In words: A vowel is nasalised when it precedes a nasal within the same syllable. 2. With segments: /V/ → [Ṽ] / ____[N] ]σ 3. With features: [+syl] → [+nasal] / __[+nasal] ]σ.  As you may have realised, stating the rule with segments or features take the form: /UR/ → [SR] / environment: More analogy with human description:  In actual fact, the way we go about stating phonological rules is not different from the way we communicate and state observations on a daily basis. Let’s illustrate this with how we describe human beings.  In everyday interactions, we make statements like the following: a When I attend three lectures a day I get tired in the evening (that’s a student talking) b After talking for two consecutive hours, I get tired (that’s a lecturer talking). c Anyone who delays lunch till 3:00pm will get very hungry.  When we translate any of the above rules into features. Number (b), for instance, will look like: /lecturer/ → [tired lecturer] / two hour lecture ____ Practice Exercise: Translate the statement behind every successful man is a woman into features.  Note that rules are only possible when we are dealing with redundant features. a Phonemes are made up of contrastive features b Redundant features surface in allophones, they make certain sounds allophones of other sounds: (e.g. In English, [ĩ] is an allophone of /i/, [tʰ] is an allophone of /t/).  Just as rules in life depend on changing circumstances in which human beings find themselves, rules in phonology are due to the changing environments in which sounds find themselves.  Keep this in mind when we treat phonological processes. Dr. F. Hudu. LNGS 401 Lecture Notes (Lecture 2: November 12, 2024) page 3 of 7