LT3214 Phonology Lecture 2 2024/25 PDF

LT3214 Phonology (Semester A, 2024/25) Lecture 2 [11 September 2024] Topic: Phonological features I Reading: Spencer, Ch.1, 1.2.2, p.25-35; Ch.4, 4.0-4.1, p.105-110; 4.3, p.117-121; Appendix 4.3, p.141-144 Week 3 [18 September 2024]: Public h...

LT3214 Phonology (Semester A, 2024/25) Lecture 2 [11 September 2024] Topic: Phonological features I Reading: Spencer, Ch.1, 1.2.2, p.25-35; Ch.4, 4.0-4.1, p.105-110; 4.3, p.117-121; Appendix 4.3, p.141-144 Week 3 [18 September 2024]: Public holiday (no class) LT3214 Phonology: Lecture 2 [11 September 2024] Slide 2 Phonological features: - Used in phonology to specify and categorize the speech sounds in language - Converted from the phonetic properties of the speech sounds - Considered as the components of the sound segments - Each sound is represented by a bundle of features (listed in [ ] without an order) - e.g., [ i ]: [-consonantal, +high, -back, -round, +ATR, +voiced, -nasal,......] - With binary (two) values: ‘+’ (with the property) and ‘‒’ (without the property) LT3214 Phonology: Lecture 2 [11 September 2024] Slide 3 Phonological features for [  ]: - ‘vowel’ = [-consonantal]: no constriction in the vocal tract - ‘high’ = [+high]: tongue dorsum raised close to the palate - ‘front’ = [-back]: no retraction of the tongue dorsum - ‘unrounded’ = [-round]: no lip rounding or protrusion - ‘tense’ = [+ATR]: advanced tongue root leading to tense articulation - ‘voiced’ = [+voiced]: produced with vocal fold vibration - ‘oral’ = [-nasal]: no air passing through the nasal cavity... LT3214 Phonology: Lecture 2 [11 September 2024] Slide 4 Used to define the possible sounds in languages: - e.g., British English: - ‘Front’ vowels: [ , , ,  ] as [-back, -round] (no *[-back, +round]) - ‘Back’ vowels: [ , , ,  ] as [+back, +round] vs. [ ,  ] as [+back, -round] - e.g., Cantonese: - ‘Front’ vowels: [ , , , a ] as [-back, -round] vs. [ ,  ] as [-back, +round] - ‘Back’ vowels: [ , ,  ] as [+back, +round] (no *[+back, -round]) LT3214 Phonology: Lecture 2 [11 September 2024] Slide 5 Used to show the contrasts of the sounds: - e.g., British English vowels: - ‘Front’ [ , , ,  ]: [-back] - ‘High’ [ ,  ] (‘heed, hid’): [+high, -low] - ‘Tense’ [  ]: [+ATR] vs. ‘Lax’ [  ]: [-ATR] - ‘Mid’ [  ] (‘head’): [-high, -low] - ‘Low’ [  ] (‘had’): [-high, +low] - ‘Back’ [ , , , , ,  ]: [+back] - ‘High’ [ ,  ] (‘cooed, could’; ‘who’d, hood’): [+high, -low] - ‘Tense’ [  ]: [+ATR] vs. ‘Lax’ [  ]: [-ATR] - ‘Mid’ [ ,  ] (‘cawed, cud’): [-high, -low] - ‘Rounded’ [  ]: [+round] vs. ‘Unrounded’ [  ]: [-round] - ‘Low’ [ ,  ] (‘cod, card’): [-high, +low] - ‘Rounded’ [  ]: [+round] vs. ‘Unrounded’ [  ]: [-round] LT3214 Phonology: Lecture 2 [11 September 2024] Slide 6 Used to describe the patterns of sound variation: - To categorize the sort of sounds as ‘target’ involved in the variation - To show the specific ‘structural change’ (changed phonetic property) of the ‘target’ - To categorize the sort of sounds as ‘determinant’ to trigger the variation LT3214 Phonology: Lecture 2 [11 September 2024] Slide 7 e.g., British English: ‘vowel nasalization’ [  ] - [ , , , , , , , , , ,  ] in ‘seem, sing, pen, bang, soon, woman, horn, sum, want, harm, earn’ - cf. [ , , , , , , , , , ,  ] in ‘seep, sick, pet, bag, suit, woolen, hall, sub, watch, hard, earth’ - ‘Vowels’ [ , , , , , , , , , ,  ] become ‘nasalized’ [ , , , , , , , , , ,  ] before ‘nasals’ [ , ,  ] - ‘Vowels’ = [-consonantal]: as the ‘target’ involved in the variation - ‘Nasalized’ = [+nasal]: as the ‘structural change’ (specific changed phonetic property) of the ‘target’ - ‘Nasals’ = [+nasal]: as the ‘determinant’ to trigger the variation LT3214 Phonology: Lecture 2 [11 September 2024] Slide 8 Used to write phonological rules and define possible rules: - Possible rule: [ , , , , , , , , , ,  ] → [ , , , , , , , , , ,  ] in ‘__ [ , ,  ]’ - [-consonantal] → [+nasal] in ‘__ [+nasal]’ - ‘→’ = become/change; ‘__’ = position of the ‘target’ - Impossible rule: *[ , , , , , , , , , ,  ] → [ , , , , , , , , ,  ] in ‘__ [ , ,  ]’ - Not likely [  ] ([-round]) → [  ] ([+round]) in ‘__ [+nasal]’ - Impossible rule: *[ , , , , , , , , , ,  ] → [ , , , , , , , , , ,  ] in ‘__ [ , ,  ]’ - Not likely [-consonantal] → [+nasal] in ‘__ [-nasal]’ LT3214 Phonology: Lecture 2 [11 September 2024] Slide 9 Used to capture the contrast and highlight the change of the sounds: - e.g., British English: ‘back’ [ , , , , ,  ] as [+back] vs. ‘front’ [ , , ,  ] as [-back] - [back] (tongue dorsum retraction): showing the contrast in tongue backness between ‘back’ and ‘front’ vowels - e.g., ‘Vowel nasalization’: [-consonantal] → [+nasal] - [+nasal]: specifying the change only from ‘oral’ ([-nasal]) to ‘nasalized’ ([+nasal]), with all the other phonetic properties of the ‘target’ remaining unchanged - If [-consonantal] = [  ], then [  ] (oral) → [  ] (nasalized), with all the other features, such as [+high, -back, -round, +ATR, +voiced, -consonantal] (‘high front unrounded tense voiced vowel’) remaining unchanged LT3214 Phonology: Lecture 2 [11 September 2024] Slide 10 Unary (one) value ‘+’ for the features not in binary opposition: - ‘Place’: [Labial] (lip), [Coronal] (tip/blade), [Dorsal] (dorsum), [Guttural] (pharyngeal/laryngeal region) - ‘−’ usually not used, as it cannot indicate the place property of the sounds - e.g., [-Labial] = [+Coronal]/[+Dorsal]/[+Guttural] - ‘+’ sign usually not shown - e.g., [(+)Labial] = [-Coronal, -Dorsal, -Guttural] - ‘+/‒’ used when ‘place’ in binary opposition - e.g., [+Labial] vs. [-Labial] ([+Coronal/+Dorsal/+Guttural], i.e., non-labial) LT3214 Phonology: Lecture 2 [11 September 2024] Slide 11 Variations among different feature systems: - Feature names: - e.g., ‘tense’: as [ATR] in Spencer’s system vs. [tense] in other systems - Number of features: - e.g., ‘front, central, back’ vowels: - Spencer’s system: ‘front’ as [-back] vs. ‘central/back’ as [+back] - Other systems: ‘front’ as [+front, -back] vs. ‘central’ as [-front, -back] vs. ‘back’ as [-front, +back] - Note: Spencer’s feature system adopted in this course LT3214 Phonology: Lecture 2 [11 September 2024] Slide 12 Spencer’s feature system: - ‘Major class’ features - ‘Vowel’ features - ‘Consonant’ (‘place’ and ‘manner’) features (To be covered - ‘Laryngeal’ features in Lecture 3) - ‘Prosody’ features LT3214 Phonology: Lecture 2 [11 September 2024] Slide 13 ‘Major class’ features: [consonantal], [approximant], [sonorant] - Used to specify the major categories of sound segments: ‘vowels’, ‘glides’, ‘consonants’ (‘obstruents’, ‘sonorants’) - [consonantal] ([cons]): produced with constriction in the vocal tract - ‘Consonants’ = [+cons]: no/small space between the upper and lower articulators leading to large constriction - ‘Vowels, glides’ = [-cons]: more space in the mouth leading to no/less constriction LT3214 Phonology: Lecture 2 [11 September 2024] Slide 14 Approximants [ , , ,  ] = [-cons]: - Named as ‘glides’ or ‘semi-vowels’ in phonology - Similar to ‘high vowels’ in articulation, but with short duration - (Non-labial) ‘palatal’ [  ] ~ ‘high front unrounded’ [  ] - ‘Labial-palatal’ [  ] ~ ‘high front rounded’ [  ] - ‘Labial-velar’ [  ] ~ ‘high back rounded’ [  ] - (Non-labial) ‘velar’ [  ] ~ ‘high back unrounded’ [  ] (palatal) (velar) LT3214 Phonology: Lecture 2 [11 September 2024] Slide 15 [approximant] ([approx]): constriction not narrow enough to generate friction - ‘Liquids’ (l/r-sounds) = [+approx]: generally referring to the frictionless ‘approximant, trill, tap, flap’ - ‘True consonants’ (‘plosive, fricative, affricate, nasal’) = [-approx]: produced with ‘closure/narrowing’ leading to large constriction - ‘Vowels, glides’ ([-cons]) = [+approx] LT3214 Phonology: Lecture 2 [11 September 2024] Slide 16 [sonorant] ([son]): no pressure rise in the vocal tract - ‘Sonorants’ (‘liquid, nasal’) = [+son]: airstream allowed to escape from the vocal tract (mouth/nasal cavity) - ‘Obstruents’ (‘plosive, fricative, affricate’) = [-son]: produced with ‘complete closure/narrow opening’ in the vocal tract - ‘Vowels, glides’ ([-cons]) = [+son] LT3214 Phonology: Lecture 2 [11 September 2024] Slide 17 Feature matrix of the major sound categories: Major sound categories [cons] [approx] [son] Obstruent (plosive, fricative, affricate) + ̶ ̶ Nasal + ̶ + Sonorant Liquid (approximant, trill, tap, flap) + + + Vowel, glide ̶ + + - Impossible combinations of the ‘major class’ features: - e.g., *[-cons, -approx, -son] (cf. [-cons, +approx, +son]) - e.g., *[+approx, -son] (cf. [+approx, +son]) - Note: no feature in Spencer’s system for distinguishing between ‘vowel’ and ‘glide’ (cf. [+/-syllabic] used in other systems) LT3214 Phonology: Lecture 2 [11 September 2024] Slide 18 ‘Vowel’ features: [high], [low], [back], [ATR], [round] - Designed to specify ‘vowels, glides’ ([-cons]) - With respect to the tongue dorsum position (vertical and horizontal) and lip-rounding characteristic - Also used to specify the consonant ‘place’ and ‘secondary articulation’ with the involvement of the tongue dorsum or lip protrusion (to be covered in Lecture 3) LT3214 Phonology: Lecture 2 [11 September 2024] Slide 19 [high]: tongue dorsum close to the palate vs. [low]: tongue dorsum on the floor of the mouth - ‘Close/high vowels, glides’ = [+high, -low] Lax - [ , ,  ] (lax forms of [ i, y, u ]) categorized as ‘high’ = [+high, -low] Mid - ‘Open/low vowels’ = [+low, -high] - [ ,  ] categorized as ‘low’ = [+low, -high] - ‘Mid vowels’ = [-high, -low] - Note: *[+high, +low] as impossible ([+high] must be [-low] vs. [+low] must be [-high]) LT3214 Phonology: Lecture 2 [11 September 2024] Slide 20 [ATR] (advanced tongue root): tongue root drawn forward - Only used to specify ‘vowels’; not *‘glides, consonants’ Lax - For distinguishing ‘high tense’ from ‘high lax’ vowels: advanced tongue root leads to tense articulation - ‘Tense vowels’ = [+ATR] - ‘Lax vowels’ = [-ATR] - For distinguishing ‘high-mid’ from other ‘mid’ vowels: advanced tongue root tends to raise the tongue position - ‘High-mid vowels’ = [+ATR] - ‘Low-mid vowels, [  ] (schwa)’ = [-ATR] - ‘Low vowels’ = [-ATR] (no tongue root advancement) LT3214 Phonology: Lecture 2 [11 September 2024] Slide 21 [back]: tongue dorsum retracted after the hard palate - ‘Front vowels, palatal glides (palatal) (velar) ([ ,  ])’ = [-back] - [ ,  ] (lax forms of [ i, y ]) categorized as ‘front’ = [-back] - ‘Back/central vowels, velar glides ([ w,  ])’ = [+back] - [  ] (lax form of [ u ]) categorized as ‘back’ = [+back] - Note: no feature in Spencer’s system for distinguishing between ‘central’ and ‘back’ vowels LT3214 Phonology: Lecture 2 [11 September 2024] Slide 22 [round]: lip rounding or protrusion - ‘Rounded vowels, labial glides ([ w,  ])’ = [+round] - [ ,  ] (lax forms of [ ,  ]) = [+round] - ‘Unrounded’ vowels, non-labial glides ([ ,  ])’ = [-round] - [  ] (lax form of [ i ]) = [-round] - [ ,  ] (neutral lip position) = [-round] - [  ] (as a variant of [  ]) = [-round] [End]