Chapter7Phonemic Analysis

PHONOLOGY (Lane 335)

What is Phonology?

It’s a field of linguistics which studies the distribution of sounds in a language as well as the interaction between those different sounds.

What is Phonology?

Phonology tackles the following questions:

What sounds in a language are predictable? What is the phonetic context that predict the

occurrence of these sounds? Which sounds affect the meaning of words?

Phonetics Vs Phonology

Phonetics: studies how speech sounds are produced, their physical properties & how they are interpreted.

Phonology: studies the organization of speech sounds in a particular language.

Distinctive and Non-distinctive Sounds Distinctive (contrastive) Sounds: make a difference in

meaning; e.g. /p/ & /b/ in pin, bin.

Non-distinctive (non-contrastive) Sounds: Does Not make a difference in meaning; e.g. /p/ in pin & spin.

Example:/t/ in : top [thɒp]Stop [stɒp]Little [liɾ l]Kitten [kiʔ n]Hunter [hʌ nr] (non-distinctive)

Phoneme and Allophone A phoneme: a class of speech sounds that are identified

by a native speaker as the same sound; e.g. /t/; unpredictable

A phoneme is an abstract representation & can’t be pronounced (not a speech sound)

An allophone: the actual phonetic segment produced by a speaker & has been classified as belonging to some phoneme; e.g. [th]; predictable

Or an allophone: the various ways that a phoneme is pronounced; e.g. [ʔ], [ɾ]

Phoneme and Allophone

The phonological system of a language has two levels:1- the more concrete level which involves the physical

reality of phonetics segments, the allophones represented by [ ](greater number).

2- The abstract (underlying) level which involves phonemes represented by / / (small inventory).

/p/ has 3 allophones ([p], [ph], [p? ])

Similar to natural sciences (H2O is realized as ice, water, & water vapor)

Distribution of Speech Sounds The distribution of a phone: the set of phonetic environments

in which it occurs.

Contrastive Sounds: if two sounds are separate phonemes, they are contrastive

(interchanging the two, change the meaning of a word)

Non-contrastive Sounds: if two phones are allophones of the same phoneme, they are non-contrastive

(interchanging the phones, doesn’t change the meaning of a word)

Minimal Pairs

A way to determine whether sounds are distinctive or not.

Defined as a pair of words with different meanings which are pronounced exactly the same way except for one sound that differs.

In some languages, no minimal pairs, but we can establish phonemes

Near Minima Pairs ‘mission’ & ‘vision’ Example: [ti:m] and [di:m]: /t/ & /d/ are separate phonemes. [ti:m] & [ti:n]

Kinds of Phonemic Distribution Overlapping Distribution: when the sets of phonetic environments

in which two sounds occur are partially or completely identical.

bait [bet] date [det]lobe [lob] load [lod]knobs [nabz] nods [nadz]bleat [blit]Two Kinds:1- contrastive distribution (give different meanings= belong to

different phonemes = appear in minimal pairs)2- Free Variation (never cause a contrast in meaning = allophones

of the same phoneme = no minimal pairs)

Kinds of Phonemic Distribution Complementary Distribution (mutually exclusive, non-

overlapping): when sounds DON’T occur in the same phonetic environment

spat [spæt] pat [phæt]spool [spul] pool [phul]speak [spik] peek [phik]

No minimal pairs for such sounds Phones in CD are allophones of a single phoneme The appearance of one allophone or the other is

PREDICTABLE.

Phonological Rules

Two levels of representation:

1- underlying (phonemic, mental)

2- surface (phonetic)

Why do we need rules?

- link the two levels

- show when a particular allophone should show up on the surface

Phonological Rules

PHONEMIC LEVEL(underlying form)

RULES

PHONETIC LEVEL(surface form)

Phonological Rules

state that some item becomes some other item in some specific environment

The common way of expressing rules:

A B/ X____ Y

A becomes ( ) B in the environment of (/) being preceded by X and followed by Y

____ represents the position of the item affected by the rule

Phonological Rules

Example:

˷ ˷ [fæn]: /æ/ /æ//____/n/

Vowels in English are nasalized before any nasal stop.

[+ syllabic] [+nasal]/ __ [+nasal]

Choosing the Underlying Form How we decide on the representation at the

phonemic level?

Phonemes and their allophones SHARE some phonetic features

The choice is “phonetically natural” Take the form which has the widest distribution

(occurs in the largest number of environments)

Phonetic naturalness & Phonological Analysis Natural means “to be expected”, “frequently found

across languages”

Does NOT mean “English-like”

No words in English begin with onset clusters like [ps], [pn], [pt].

Clusters appear word initial in other languages like German, Greek, & French.

Phonetic Similarity

To choose the phonemic form, we have to consider phonetic similarity.

Example: [h] occurs syllable-initially [hæ m] [ŋ ] occurs only syllable-finally [brɪ ŋ]

Not allophones of the same phoneme

They lack phonetic similarity [h]: non-nasal, obstruent, continuant [ŋ] nasal, sonorant, non-continuant

Pattern Congruity Phonologists consider the consequences of choosing one

morpheme over the other

Pattern Congruity: the systematic organization of the set of phonemes and their distribution.

Choosing an allophone depends on the overall patterns found in the phonological system (pattern congruity)

For example:In English: obstruent clusters have uniform voicingEither all members of the cluster are [+ voice], or [- voice]. ‘Mixed voice’ DON’T occur phonemically

Process Naturalness In choosing the underlying form, the linking processes

should be considered

pass [pæ s] pass you [pæʃ ju] this [ðɪ s] this year [ðɪʃjiə ]

[s] appears in more environments

Assimilation: [s] alveolar [+coronal, +anterior] becomes [ʃ] palato-

alveolar [+coronal, - anterior] when followed by [j] palatal [+ coronal, - anterior]

Phonology

Phonology is concerned with the organization of the system underlying the speech sounds

The phonemic level represents native speakers’ knowledge of the sound system of their language

Phonology vs. phonetics

Phonology: is a cognitive study deals with the representation of knowledge in the mind

Phonetics: deals with the physical properties of speech sounds