TASK 1: Individual work ( 20% )

a) Read and make sort notes on how two sounds in English are produced

The sound should be a part of the kbsr/ kssr English Syllabus

The sounds may be consonants, vowels or diftong

Your notes should include the points and manner of articulation

in producing these sounds.

Consonants are defined as the sounds articulated by temporary obstruction in

the air stream which passes through the mouth. The obstruction made by the

articulators may be `total', `intermittent', `partial', or may merely constitute a

narrowing sufficient to cause friction. In the articulation of consonants almost all

articulators are involved. Especially the position of the soft palate causes the division

of consonants into `oral consonants' and `nasal consonants'. when the soft palate is

raised, `oral consonants' are produced; the soft palate is lowered, `nasal consonants'

are produced. In English /m/, /n/, and / /are nasal consonants and rest of all are oral

consonants. The function of vocal cords also causes the division of consonants as

`voiceless' and `voiced'. When vocal cords are kept apart, voiceless consonants

as /p, t, k, c, f, 0, s, s, h/ are produced whereas their vibrations produce voiced

consonants as /b, d, g, j, v,.

Consonants in phonetics are referred to as `contains' which often appear as

the marginal elements in the `syllable'. They seldom form nucleus of the syllable

except some case. The consonants `n' and `l' in the second syllable of the words

`button' and `apple' form nucleus. Consonants are identified or classified in terms of

`voicing', `place of articulation', and `manner of articulation'. Consonants as

discussed above are classified in terms of:

1. voicing

2. place of articulation

3. manner of articulation

1. VOICING OF CONSONANTSOn the basis of voicing, consonants are divided into `voiced consonants' and

`voiceless consonants'. Voiced consonants are those which are articulated with the

vibration of the vocal cords. In English voiced consonants are /b, d, g, j, v, , z, z/.

Voiceless consonants are articulated without vibration of vocal cords or it may be

said that during the production of voiceless consonants vocal cords are kept apart.

Examples: /p, t, k, c, f, 0, s, s, h/.

POINT OF ARTICULATION On the basis of the points of articulation, consonants are divided as:

1. Bilabial (or labial): Both lips as the primary articulators articulate with each other.

Examples: /p/, /b/, /m/, /w/.

Letters

Sounds Examples

b [b] baby, best, buy, bring, blind, absent, about, number, labour, robber, tub

p [p] paper, person, pick, pour, public, repair, apple, keep, top, crisp

m [m] make, men, mind, mother, must, my, common, summer, name, form, team

w [w] wall, war, way, west, wind, word, would, swear, swim, twenty, twist

2. Labio-dental: The lower lip articulates with the upper teeth.

Examples: /f/, /v/.

Letters Sounds Examples

f [f] fast, female, five, forest, fund, fry, flight, often, deaf, cuff

v [v] vast, vein, vivid, voice, even, review, invest, give, move, active

3. Interdental: The tip and the rims of the tongue articulate with the upper teeth.

Examples: /o/, / /.

4. Alveolar: The blade, or top and blade of the tongue articulates with the

alveolar ridge (the upper teeth ridge).

Examples: /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /n/, /l/, /r/.

Letters

Sounds Examples

d [d] day, dear, die, door, duty, admire, hidden, lady, kind, ride, ended

s [s][z]

send, simple, song, system, street, lost, kiss, release;cause, present, reason, realism, advise, always, is, was

t [t] task, tell, time, tone, tune, hotel, attentive, student, boat, rest

5. Palato-alveolar: The blade, or the tip and blade of the tongue articulates with

the alveolar ridge and there is at the same time a raising of the front of the tongue

towards the hard palate.

Examples: /c/, /j/, /s/, /z/, /j/.

6. Velar: A glottal obstruction, or a narrowing causing friction and vibration

between the vocal cords. However, some consonants in this category may be

produced without vibration between the vocal cords.

Examples: /k/, /g/, /h/, / /.

2. PLACE OF ARTICULATIONThe possible places of articulation form a continuum along the upper surface of the

vocal tract; therefore the places listed above should be seen as arbitrary (but

conventional) divisions which can be modified if necessary through the use of

additional categories, e.g., "interdentally", "alveolar-palatal" or "prevelar". English

exemplifies several places of articulation: bilabial [p], [b] and [m]; labiodental [f], [v]

and [ ] (the "m" in "triumph" is labiodental, in harmony with the following [f] sound);

dental [ ] and [ð]; alveolar [t], [d], [n], [s], [z], [ ], [l]; post alveolar [ ]; palatal [j]; and

velar [k], [ ] and [ ].

Uvular place of articulation is illustrated by the formal pronunciation of "r" in

French or German (a uvular trill [R], or, often, a voiced fricative), as heard, for

example, in classical singing.

Pharyngeal place of articulation will probably take considerably more practise

for you to perfect, partly because until you can produce and identify the other

fricatives formed in the back of the mouth (i.e. [x], [ ], [ ], [h] and [ ]), you will not be

confident that you are not forming any of these when you are attempting to produce

pharyngeal friction. Friction in the pharynx is created by drawing the root of the

tongue backwards, almost as if being strangled, though not quite as extreme. Once

you can control the distinction between velar, uvular and glottal friction, the ability to

regulate pharyngeal friction will develop with practise.

3. MANNER OF ARTICULATION The manner of articulation describes the different types of obstructions made by the

articulators. These obstructions may be total, intermittent, partial or may merely

constitute a narrowing sufficient to cause friction. According to the manner of

articulation consonants are divided into `plosives', `affricates', `fricatives', `lateral',

`retroflex', and `nasals'.

Plosives (stops): For this, there occurs a complete closure at some point in

the vocal tract, behind which the air pressure builds up and is released

explosively.

Examples: /p/, /t/, /k/, /b/, /d/, /g/.

Affricates: For this, a complete closure appears at some point in the mouth,

behind which the air pressure builds up; the separation of the articulators is

slow with that of a plosive, so that friction is a characteristic second element of

the sound.

Examples: /c/, /j/.

Fricatives: Two articulators approximate to such an extend that the air

stream passes through them with friction. The sounds produced in this way

are called fricatives. Fricatives may be voiced as /v/, / /, /z/, /z/ and voiceless

as /f/, /0/, /s/, /s/, /h/. Fricatives differ also in the shape of the narrow opening

in which they are produced. In /f/, /v/, /0/, / / it is relatively wide from side to

side but very narrow from top to bottom. Because of this slit like shape of the

opening, these sounds are called `slit fricatives'. In contrast, in /s/, /z/, /c/, /j/,

the opening is much narrower from side to side and deeper from top to

bottom. These sounds are called `groove fricative'.

Lateral: For lateral, a partial closure is made at some point in the mouth, the

air stream being allowed to escape from one or both sides of the contact. For

example, /l/ in `loud' or `late'.

Retroflex: In the production of this sound, the tip of the tongue is raised

towards the alveolar ridge without touching it. The sides of the tongue are

pressed against the upper back teeth. As the sound is produced, air flows out

over the tip of the tongue and vocal cords vibrate.

Example: /r/.

Nasals: These sounds are produced with a complete closure at some point in

the mouth but the soft palate is lowered and hence the oral cavity is blocked

and air escapes through nasal cavity. These sounds are continuants. In the

voiced form, they have no noise component. They are, to this extent, vowel

like.

Examples: /m/, /n/, / /.

Example consonants with one word in KBSR/KSSR Syllabus

b) Read and make short notes on the following terms and how they are related to

word formation processes ( eg. Coinage, conversion, back-information, blending etc)

1. Free morpheme

2. Bound morpheme

3. Derivational morpheme

4. Inflection morpheme

Morphemes are what make up words. Often, morphemes are thought of as

words but that is not alwaystrue. Some single morphemes are words while other

words have two or more morphemes within them.Morphemes are also thought of as

syllables but this is incorrect. Many words have two or more syllablesbut only one

morpheme. Banana, apple, papaya, and nanny are just a few examples. On the

otherhand, many words have two morphemes and only one syllable; examples

include cats, runs, and barked.Morpheme a combination of sounds that have a meaning. A morpheme does

notnecessarily have to be a word.Example: the word cats has two morphemes. Cat is a morpheme, and s is amorpheme. Every morpheme is either a base or an affix.

An affix can be either a prefixor a suffix. Cat is the base morpheme, and s is a suffix.

Affix a morpheme that comes at the beginning (prefix) or the ending (suffix) of

a base morpheme. Note: An affix usually is a morpheme that cannot stand

alone.

Examples: -ful, -ly, -ity, -ness. A few exceptions are able, like, and less.

Base a morpheme that gives a word its meaning. The base morpheme cat

gives the wordcats its meaning: a particular type of animal.

Prefix: an affix that comes before a base morpheme. The in the word inspect

is a prefix.

suffix: an affix that comes after a base morpheme. The s in cats is a suffix.

a) Free morpheme

1. Free morpheme a morpheme that can stand alone as a word without another

morpheme.It does not need anything attached to it to make a word. Cat is a free

morpheme."A word like 'house' or 'dog' is called a free morpheme because it can occur

in isolation and cannot be divided into smaller meaning units. . . . The word 'quickest'

. . . is composed of two morphemes, one bound and one free. The word 'quick' is the

free morpheme and carries the basic meaning of the word. The 'est' makes the word

a superlative and is a bound morpheme because it cannot stand alone and be

meaningful." (Donald G. Ellis, From Language to Communication.Lawrence Erlbaum,

1999).

2. Bound morphemeMorphemes which cannot occur on its own as an independent (or separate)

word. Affixes (prefix, suffix, infix and circumfix) are all bound morphemes.

3. Derivational morphemeDerivational morphemeshave clear semantic content. In this sense they are like

content words, except that they are not words. . . . [W]hen a derivational morpheme

is added to a base, it adds meaning. The derived word may also be of a different

grammatical class than the original word, as shown by suffixes such as -able and -ly.

When a verb is suffixed with -able, the result is an adjective, as in desire + able.

When the suffix -en is added to an adjective, a verb is derived, as in dark + en. One

may form a noun from an adjective, as in sweet + ie."

(Victoria Fromkin, Robert Rodman, and Nina Hyams, An Introduction to Language,

10th ed. Cengage, 2013)

Derivational morphemes are used to change the grammatical categories of

words. For example, the derivational morpheme -er is used to transform the

verbbake into the nounbaker. The morpheme -ly changes the adjectivequick into the

adverbquickly. We can change adjectives such as happy into nouns such as

happiness by using the derivational morpheme -ness. Other common suffixes

include -ism, -tion, -able, -mentand -al. Derivational morphemes can also be

prefixes, such as un-, in-, pre- and a-.

"Derivational morphemes can be added to free morphemesor to other

derivational morphemes. For example, the verb transform consists of the root word

form and the prefix trans-, a derivational morpheme. It can become the noun transformation by adding the derivational morpheme -ation. By adding -al to -ation, the adjective transformational is created."(Lynne Hebert Remson, "Oral

Language." Literacy for the New Millennium, ed. by Barbara J. Guzzetti.Praeger,

2007)

4. Inflectional morphemeInflectional morphemes are bound morphemes that alter the grammatical state of the

root or stem. They do not carry any meaning on their own, as is the nature of bound

morphemes, but serve a critical function in inflected languages such as English. (It

should be noted, however, that English is more of an analytic language, one that

depends more heavily on sentence structure than conjugations and declensions.)

These bound morphemes express such concepts as tense, number, gender, case,

aspect, and so on. In other words, they are grammatical markers. Unlike derivational

morphemes they do not change the syntactic category of a word. A verb remains a

verb no matter the inflectional morpheme, and a noun a noun. Additionally, they

cannot be joined to incomplete morphemes. For example, you can add the

derivational bound morpheme "atic" to "unsystem" to get "unsystematic." You

cannot, however, add a possessive marker to make "unsystem's."

English used to be highly inflected and had a very rich variety of inflectional

morphemes. Now, however, there are only eight left. They are:

-s third person singular present She waits at home.

-edpast tense She waited at home.

-ingprogressive She is waiting at home.

-enpast participle She has eaten the donut.

-splural She ate the donuts.

-'spossessive Lisa's hair is short.

-ercomparative Lisa has shorter hair than Mary.

-estsuperlative Lisa has the shortest hair.

Inflectional morphemes typically follow derivational morphemes in the hierarchy of

morpheme structure. IE, they occur last, at the end of the morpheme, not before any

derivational morphemes. It is, for example, "unlikely hoods" for more than one

unlikely hood, not something like "unlikelyshood."

Some words do not take the regular inflectional morphemes; they are irregular, or,

more technically, suppletive. The past tense of "buy" is not "buyer," but "bought."

This is an irregularity that is simply memorized.

The examples were taken from An Introduction to Language, Sixth Ed. by Victoria

Fromkin and Robert Rodman.

GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS OF

FREE MORPHEME

BOUND MORPHEME

DERIVTIONAL MORPHEME

INFLECTIONAL MORPHEME

BOUND MORPHEME* A sound or a combination of sound that cannot stand alone as a word.* The S in cats is a bound morpheme and it does not have any meaning without the free morpheme catAFFIX* DERIVATIONAL* INFLECTIONALROOT* GRUNTLEFREE MORPHEME* A Morpheme that can stand alone s word without another morpheme.* it does not need nything ttched to it to make a word.* Cat is a free morphemeOPEN CLASS* NOUNS* VERBS* ADJECTIVES* DVERBS

MORPHEME* A combination of sound that have meaning* Example:the words cats has two morpheme.Cat is a morpheme and s is a morpheme..morpheme is either a base or an affixBOUND MORPHEME* A sound or a combination of sound that cannot stand alone as a word.* The S in cats is a bound morpheme and it does not have any meaning without the free morpheme catAFFIX* DERIVATIONAL* INFLECTIONALROOT* GRUNTLEFREE MORPHEME* A Morpheme that can stand alone s word without another morpheme.* it does not need nything ttched to it to make a word.* Cat is a free morphemeOPEN CLASS* NOUNS* VERBS* ADJECTIVES* DVERBSCLOSED CLASS* DETERMINERS*CONJUNCTIONS*PREPOSITIONS*PRONOUNS*A UXILIARY

ONE MORPHEME Boy ( one syllable)Desire, lady, water ( two syllables)

Crocodile ( three syllables)

TWO MORPHEME Boy + ishDesire +able

THREE MORPHEME Boy + ish + nessDesire + able + ity

FOUR MORPHEME Gentle + man + li + nessUn + desire + able + ity

MORE THAN FOUR Un + gentle + man + li + ness

EXAMPLE OF MORPHEME

Bound morpheme ( affixes ) must be attached to the word.

They are prefixes, infixes, suffixes and circumfixes.

Such as { clued } as in include, exclude, preclude or they may be grammatical ( such as { PLU} = PLURAL as in boys, girls, and cats

Free morphemes are those that can stand alone.

EXAMPLE:

Girl, system, desire, hope, act, phone , happy

DERIVATIONAL MORPHEMES

INFLECTIONAL MORPHEMES

ROOT + DERIVATIONAL MORPHEME a new word with a new meaning . ( Usually change grammatical class )

N + DERIVATIONAL MORPHEME Adj.

EX : Boy + ish

VERB + DERIVATIONAL MORPHEME NounEX: Acquit + al, clear + ance

Adj. + DERIVATIONAL MORPHEME AdverbEX: Exact + ly , quiet + ly

Inflectional morpheme have grammatical meaning or function in the sentence.

They never change part of speech. For example:

BOUND MORPHEME : EX> to in connection with verb ( an infinitive with to )

BOUND MORPHEME : EX, S , edHe sails the ocean blue

-S third – person singular

present

She waitS at home

- Ed pst tense

She waited at home

- Ing progressive She is eatingthe donuts- En past prticiple Mary has eaten the donuts

- S plural She ate the donuts- S possessive Lisa ‘ s hair is short

- Er comparative Lisa has short hair than

Kate- Est superlative Lisa has the shortest hair

EXAMPLE WORDS USING INFLECTIONAL AND DERIVATIONAL MORPHEME

INFLECTIONAL DERIVATIONAL

MORPHEME MORPHEME

worked

cats

walking

speaks

John's

faster

slowest

modernise

drinkable

national

nonsense

infrequent

overexcited

dishonest

The morphemes in the list on the left contribute in some way to the insertion of the

words in a particular grammatical context, so that the word agrees with this context

in terms of tense, number, person etc. The changes in meaning that these

morphemes bring are minimal. These are called inflectional morphemes, note that

these are all suffixes.

The morphemes in the list on the right bring considerable semantic changes to the

word, often word class is changed, e.g. modern (adj.)> modernise (v.); drink (v.) >

drinkable (adj.); nation (n.) > national (adj). These are called derivational morphemes because they are used to derive new words. Derivational morphemes

may be prefixes or suffixes.