Introduction to Cognitive ScienceIntroduction to Cognitive ScienceLinguistics componentLinguistics component

(17th October 2000, 11:40-12:30)(17th October 2000, 11:40-12:30)

Topic: Phonology and MorphologyTopic: Phonology and Morphology

Lecturer: Dr BodomoLecturer: Dr Bodomo

Department of LinguisticsDepartment of Linguistics

email: abbodomo@hkusua.hku.hkemail: abbodomo@hkusua.hku.hk

KeywordsKeywords

Phonology phonetics phone phoneme tone stress toneme tonology

morphology inflectional morpholog

y derivational morpholo

gy morph morpheme morphophonology morphophoneme

IntroductionIntroduction ThemeTheme

– A survey of how linguistic knowledge at the level of phonology and morphology is represented in the minds of speakers of a language.

ObjectiveObjective– an understanding of the basic terms and issues in phonolog

y and morphology

– an interface approach: rather than rigidly discussing these issues from phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics, we will look at how phonology interfaces with morphology and how syntax interfaces with semantics.

PhonologyPhonology A field of cognitive science that investigates how sound A field of cognitive science that investigates how sound

systems of a language are represented in the minds of systems of a language are represented in the minds of speakersspeakers

Stillings et al (1995:220) gives a concise specification of Stillings et al (1995:220) gives a concise specification of what phonological knowledge as represented in the minds what phonological knowledge as represented in the minds

of speakers is:of speakers is: – The phonological component of a grammar consists of a The phonological component of a grammar consists of a

list of the words of that language, with the pronunciation list of the words of that language, with the pronunciation of each word given as a faithful acoustic image coupled of each word given as a faithful acoustic image coupled with direct instructions to the vocal tract about how to prwith direct instructions to the vocal tract about how to produce that image, and instructions to the perceptual systeoduce that image, and instructions to the perceptual system about how to recognize it.m about how to recognize it.

Phonetics and Phonology: Phonetics and Phonology: a distinctiona distinction

PhoneticsPhonetics– a science that a science that

deals with the deals with the articulatory and articulatory and acoustic acoustic propertiesproperties of of sounds produced sounds produced by the vocal tractby the vocal tract

PhonologyPhonology– how a set of the how a set of the

sounds produced sounds produced by the vocal tract by the vocal tract are organized into are organized into meaningful sound meaningful sound unitsunits in each in each languagelanguage

IPA chart (please refer to your own copy)

For instance, given a list of sounds that can be produced by the vocal tract, such as in the IPA chart (Phonetics), only a set of these sounds are meaningful in each of English, Cantonese and Dagaare (Phonology).

Phonetics and Phonology (cont.)Phonetics and Phonology (cont.)

Sets of meaningful sounds in Sets of meaningful sounds in English, Cantonese, and DagaareEnglish, Cantonese, and Dagaare

EnglishEnglish: : vowels: a, e, i, , o, u ; consonants:b, d, f, g, k, l, m, n, s, r, p, t, v, w, x, y, z

Dagaare: Dagaare:

These meaningful sound units are called phonemes.phonemes.

PhonemesPhonemes

Concrete sounds or phones give us the abstract concept phoneme – a minimal meaningful sound unit

basic units in phonologybasic units in phonology– phonemephoneme– allophoneallophone

phonemes in BROWN DOG as conceptualised/ rphonemes in BROWN DOG as conceptualised/ represented in the minds of speakers:epresented in the minds of speakers:– /b/ /r/ /au/ /n/ + /d/ //b/ /r/ /au/ /n/ + /d/ ///braun dbraun d

AllophonesAllophones Variants of a phonemeVariants of a phoneme Examples:Examples:

– English:English: [[pp] and [] and [pphh]] as in /as in /

– Cantonese:Cantonese: [[nn] and [] and [ll] as in /] as in /nei5nei5/ and // and /lei5lei5/ / you you

– Dagaare:Dagaare: [[hh] and [] and [zz] as in /] as in /zazaaa/ and // and /hahaaa/ / yesterdayyesterday

Minimal pairsMinimal pairs Method for identifyinMethod for identifyin

g phonemes - analysing phonemes - analysing minimal pairsg minimal pairs

a a minimal pairminimal pair: : a pair a pair of words that are identof words that are identical except for a contrical except for a contrast in ONE sound .ast in ONE sound .

Examples in English, Cantonese, anExamples in English, Cantonese, and Dagaare:d Dagaare:

– EnglishEnglish //ssip/ip/ /s/, / /s/, /ttip/ ip/ /t/ /t/ //ppit/ it/ /p/, / /p/, /bbit/ it/ /b/ /b/

– DagaareDagaare /la/lagege/ / to enclose to enclose /l /l/ ; / ;

/ ta/ tagege/ / to pull to pull /t/ /t/

Suprasegmental phonemes:Suprasegmental phonemes: Tone and Stress Tone and Stress

Tone– meaningful pitch

variations on syllables

StressStress– the amount of force

used in pronouncing a syllable

Stress and Tone can indicate differences in meaning among pairs of words

Word stress in EnglishWord stress in English Syllables may be stressed or unstressed in En

glish, and some variations of stressed on syllables of a word may cause differences in meaning.

– Teachers in this course are going to ensure an 'increase of marks for cognitive science students.

– Teachers in this course are so kind that they will in'crease your marks.

Tone in CantoneseTone in Cantonese

Cantonese: TONESCantonese: TONES 6 tonemes: 6 tonemes:

– high (tone 1), high rising (2), mid level (3), lohigh (tone 1), high rising (2), mid level (3), low falling (4), low rising (5), low level (6)w falling (4), low rising (5), low level (6)

Tone in DagaareTone in Dagaare Two tonemes - high and lowTwo tonemes - high and low

/nyu/ - to drink /u/

/nyu / - to smell /u/

Phonological rulesPhonological rules

/Underlying phonological representations/

| Phonological rules

| [Phonetic representation]

Phonological rules in Phonological rules in English, Cantonese, and DagaareEnglish, Cantonese, and Dagaare

English •/p/ [ph] / # —•a stop is aspirated in word initial position.•*pit but phit

Dagaare•a /d/ becomes [r] in secondary syllable position:•*dide but [dire] ‘eating’

Cantonese•Final stops like /p/ /t/ /k/ are not pronounced.•E.g.

MorphologyMorphology the field of cognitive science which studies the field of cognitive science which studies

how knowledge about the form or internal how knowledge about the form or internal structure of words are represented and structure of words are represented and processed in the minds of speakers.processed in the minds of speakers.

divided into two main parts, divided into two main parts, inflectional inflectional morphologymorphology and and derivational morphologyderivational morphology

Basic units of morphology: morpheme, Basic units of morphology: morpheme, allomorphallomorph

MorphemesMorphemes A morpheme is minimal distinctive unit of grammar

(Crystal 1997). A morpheme is an abstract term that must be captured by a concrete realization, the morph – discrete

speech unit e.g. {brown} {dog}{brown} {dog} – [In morphology we represent units with braces.]

{Brown} {dog-s}{Brown} {dog-s} Free morpheme: {brown} {dog} (these can stand on

their own) Bound morpheme: (-those that must be attached to

another morpheme e.g. {–s}{–s}))

Morphology (cont.)Morphology (cont.) inflectional morphology and derivational morphology. Inflectional morphology : knowledge through which

speakers of a language create several paradigms of the same word to express various grammatical categories like number, person, tense, aspect, case, and gender:Number in English:

{paper} – {paper-s}{dog} – {dog-z}{prize} – {prize-iz}

But also:{child} – {child-ren}{foot} – {feet}{sheep – sheep} : zero morph

The various plural variations are said to be allomorphs of the same plural morpheme.

Examples of inflectional morphemes (cont.)Examples of inflectional morphemes (cont.)

Person and number in French:– Je {mang-e} – I eat– Tu {mang-es} – You eat– Il {mang-e} – He/she/it eat– Nous {mang-eons} – we eat – Vous {mang-ez} – You (pl) e

at– Ils {mang-ent} – They eat

Aspect in Cantonese:– {maai5} ‘buy’ –

{maai5-zo2} ‘has bought’

– {wan2} ‘play’ – {wan2-gan2} ‘is playing’

Derivational morphologyDerivational morphology

Derivational morphology or word formation morphology on the other hand, is concerned with the speaker knowledge that underlies processes that form new words out of existing ones by adding various affixes, which are pieces of words.

English: Causative verbs from nouns and adjectives– {energy} – {energ-ize}

– {sterile} – {steril-ize}

– {penal} – {penal-ize }

Examples of derivational morpheExamples of derivational morphemes (cont.)mes (cont.)

CantoneseCantonese::– {zai2}{zai2} (little/small) as (little/small) as

in: in:

– {dang3 {dang3 zai2zai2} (small } (small chair), chair),

– {syu1 {syu1 zai2zai2} (booklet)} (booklet)

– { toei2 { toei2 zai2zai2} (small } (small table)...table)...

Dagaare: agentive noDagaare: agentive nouns from verbsuns from verbs– {di} ‘to eat’ - {di-raa}

‘eater’ ‘some one who can eat a lot’

– {zo} ‘to run’ – {zo-raa} – ‘runner’, ‘athlete’

– {y} ‘roam’ – {yoraa} ‘roamer’, ‘tourist’

MorphophonologyMorphophonology While it is possible to talk of phonology and

morphology independently, in reality, knowledge about these two areas are intertwined, and speakers process these as such.

Sometimes, speakers represent knowledge about phonemes (meaningful sound units) based on knowledge about some grammatical environments.

MorphophonologyMorphophonologyor morphophonemicsmorphophonemics, as it is known in North America

the aspect of cognitive science that studies the classificatthe aspect of cognitive science that studies the classification of phonological aspects of knowledge representation ion of phonological aspects of knowledge representation based on knowledge about the grammatical aspects that based on knowledge about the grammatical aspects that affect these phonological representations and vice versa.affect these phonological representations and vice versa.

Morphophoneme: – in parallel with a phoneme. While phonemes are written surro

unded by slashes / /, morphophonemes are surrounded by brabraces {}ces {}.. They are often written in CAPITALSCAPITALS (Crystal 1997).

Morphophonemic example in Morphophonemic example in EnglishEnglish

phonologically unpredictable singular – plural alternation of words:– Knife – knives– Thief – thieves– But NOT ofBut NOT of

Chief – *chieves (chiefs)

The morphophoneme: {F}{F} would then have morphoallophones like [f][f] for singular and [v][v] for plural of these words.

Hence the need to emphasize their interrelationship.

Other examples of morphophonological phenomena

Word or lexical stress is a morphophonemic operation

Example: in describing the rules of pronunciation we often appeal to positions of the word in which the sound is:– aspiration in Englishaspiration in English: a voiceless stop in word initial pos

ition is aspirated, elsewhere i.e. in word median and word final, it is unaspirated. This is not just a phonological rule but a morphophenemic rule.

CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION Phonology and morphology are two salient aspects of the ta

cit knowledge of speakers of a language. It is at these levels of mental representations that speakers capture the sounds and structure of words and other minimal meaningful units of speech.

An interface approach emphasizes that these two must not be separated into watertight compartments, but must recognize that there is an intimate interrelationship between them. This interrelationship is explored in the cognitive area of morphophonology.

Morphology can also interface with syntax to give us morphosyntax. Syntax is going to be one of the topics of discussion in the next lecture.

ReferencesReferences Crystal, David. 1997. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Pho

netics. Blackwell Publishers. Lepore, Ernest and Zenon Pylyshyn (eds). 1999. What Is

Cognitive Science. Blackwell Publishers. (especially chapters 10, 11, 12, and 13).

Stillings, Neil and others. 1995. Cognitive Science: An Introduction. MIT Press. (especially chapters 6).

Trask, R. L. 1993. A Dictionary of Grammatical Terms in Linguistics. Routledge.

Wilson, R. and Frank C. Neil (eds) 1999. The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences. MIT Press