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PHONEMIC ANALYSIS

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Syllabic consonants. A possibility is to add new cons. Phonemes to the existing list: syllabic l,r,n as in bottle, button, Hungary ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: PHONEMIC ANALYSIS


1
PHONEMIC ANALYSIS
2
General assumption
  • Speech is composed of phonemes
  • Whenever a speech sound is produced, it is
    possible to identify which phoneme the sound in
    question belongs to.
  • Still, there are various problems!

3
AFFRICATES
  • Phonetically, they are composed of a plosive
    fricative
  • But, it is possible to treat each affricate as a
    single consonant phoneme (one-phoneme analysis)
  • They can also be treated as composed of two
    phonemes each, all of which are established as
    independent phonemes in English (two-phoneme
    analysis)

4
/t??t?/ /d??d?/
  • In the first case they would be considered as
    consisting of 3 phonemes, in the second case of 5
    phonemes
  • Which analysis is preferable?
  • In the 2-phoneme analysis (no separtion of
    affricates) the total number of phonemes is
    smaller and should be preferred as more
    economical (the most efficient codes do not use
    unnecessary symbols)

5
Still,
  • 1-phoneme analysis is generally chosen by
    phonologists as preferable
  • The arguments for
  • 1. Phonetic/allophonic argument phonetic quality
    of /t/ and /?/ in /t?/ and /d?/ is different from
    realisations of the sounds mentioned found
    elsewhere, e.g. Different quality of /t/ in
    watch apes vs. what shapes
  • - still, this argument is weak

6
2. Distribution
  • The proposed phonemes have distributions similar
    to other consonants, while other combinations of
    plosive fricative do not /t?/ and /d?/ are
    found initially, medially and finally while no
    other combination has such a wide distribution.
  • However, there are several consonants in English
    accepted as phonemes in spite of not being free
    to occur in all positions (think of r, w, j, h,
    ?, ?/

7
3. Combining with other cons.
  • Free combining to form clusters would support the
    1-phoneme analysis
  • Initially they never occur in clusters
  • Finally, they can be followed by t,d and preceded
    by l, n
  • Another combination pre-final l,n can occur with
    post-final t,d e.g. squelched, hindged
  • So, /t?/ and /d?/ do not combine freely to form
    clusters, particularly not initially

8
Two-phoneme analysis
  • Initial /t?/ and /d?/ would have to be
    interpreted as initial t,d post-initial ?,?
    (besides l,r,w,j) which can combine with t,d, only

9
4. Intuition of the native speaker
  • Rather difficult to discover what native speakers
    (if untrained in phonetics and phonology) think
    or feel

10
Other problems
  • Sounds transcribed as hw, hj
  • Velar nasal ? (should it be treated as a separate
    phoneme or an allophone of the phoneme n
    occurring before g)

11
The English vowel system
  • Treating all long vowels and diphthongs as
    composed of two vowel phonemes e.g. long vowels
    can be seen as containing short vowels twice,
    triphthongs would be composed of a basic vowel
    one of ?,? ? (which makes three phonemes
    altogether)

12
Another way of treating long vowels and diphthongs
  • As composed of a vowel a consonant (j, w, h,
    r), e.g. /ei/ - /ej/, /??/ - /?w/,
  • /??/ - /?h/, /i/ - /ij/. /a/ - /ah/, /u/ -
    /uw/
  • Thus, inequality of distribution is corrected
    for consonants that do not otherwise occur
    finally in a syllable.

13
More about long vowels
  • Remember NEUTRALISATION of /i/ and /i/ to /i/
    i.e. Cases where contrasts between phonemes which
    exist in other places disappear in certain
    contexts

14
Syllabic consonants
  • A possibility is to add new cons. Phonemes to the
    existing list syllabic l,r,n as in bottle,
    button, Hungary

15
Clusters of s plosive
  • P, t, k in syllable initial position are
    aspirated, but when preceded by s they become
    unaspirated and could perhaps be transcribed as
    b, d, g because contrast between these two groups
    of consonants become neutralised in this context

16
Schwa /?/
  • /?/ can be treated as an allophone of several
    vowels, not only of /?/ in unstressed syllables,
    e.g.
  • Economy vs. economic
  • German vs. Germanic

17
DISTICTIVE FEATURES
  • Distinctive feature analysis is one of many
    different ways of treating the notion of phoneme.
  • The principle phonemes are not minimum,
    independent, indivisible units but combinations
    of different features.
  • In a table showing presence or absence of
    features in different consonants there would be
    no phonemes with the same combination of s and
    s otherwise, they could not be treated as
    different phonemes

18
Thank you!
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