Ch' 6 PHONOLOGY

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Ch. 6 PHONOLOGY

• Introduction to English Linguistics
• Jungtae Kim, Ph.D.
• 2008.05.15

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Phonology

• The study of the sound system of language
• The rules that govern pronunciation
• Phonology lt-- Greek phone voice
• The psychological system underlying production
  the actual physical articulation of speech
• See the five e.g. in p. 105
• Fight vocal tract
• War physically one continuous motion, but are
  psychologically segments
• Pea, see, me, key phonemic alphabet, a system
  of transcription in which one symbol represents
  one segment
• P vs. b labial / p vs. k -- distinctive
  features
• Cab vs. cad long vowel gt cap, cat short vowel
  the same level of representation but different
  one another ? Phonological rules

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Vocal Tract

• See Figure 6.1 Cross-section of the Vocal Tract
• Lips, 2) teeth, 3) tongue, 4) alveolar ridge, 5)
  palate, 6) velum, 7) uvula, 8) pharynx, 9)
  epiglottis, 10) esophagus, 11) larynx, 12) trachea

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Segments

• Speech sounds continuous
• We hear speech, but we perceive segments.
• War we hear a sound, but we perceive a series
  of three discrete segments w-a-r
• Speech what we are actually doing when we talk
  and listen
• Phonology refers to the segments and rules in
  terms of which we organize our interpretation of
  speech.

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Phonemic Alphabet

• Phoneme One type of segment that we perceive
  when we hear speech.
• See the Vowels phonemic symbol e.g. in p. 108
• See the Figure 6.2 Vowel phonemes of English
• See the Consonants phonemic symbol e.g. in p.
  111
• See the Figure 6.3 Consonant phoneme of English
• Placement of articulation
• Bilabial, Labiodental, Interdental, Alveolar,
  Palatal, Velar, Glottal
• Manner of articulation
• Stops, Fricatives, Affricates, Nasals,
  Liquids and Glides
• Consonants obstruents vs. sonorants
• Voicing voiced vs. voiceless -- the vocal cords
  - vibrating or not
• See the Figure 6.3 Consonant phonemes of English

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Levels of Representation

• Two segments might, at the same time, be both the
  same and different.
• e.g., cab, cad vs. cap, cat
• Allophonic variation
• Allophones the systematic variations of a sound,
  /t/ ? as transcribed in square brackets
• See the Figure 6.4 Phonemic and phonetic levels
  of representation
• Two level of representation
• Phonemic phonemes are described
• Phonetic allophones (systematic variants) of
  phonemes are described

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• /t/ in hit released or unreleased
• /t/ in hit me a glottal stop
• /t/ in Betty an alveolar flap

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Phonological Rules

• Because levels of phonological representation are
  not always identical to one another, part of
  phonology consists of rules that essentially
  translate segments on one level into segments on
  another level.
• Aspiration
• using phonemic and phonetic representations
• See the e.g., in p. 119
• sip, appear, pepper, space, papaya
• /p/ has two allophones vs.
• RULE
• /p/ becomes when it both begins a
  syllable and is followed by a stressed vowel.

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• Vowel lengthening
• See the e.g., in p. 121
• heat, seize, keel, leaf, heed, cease, leave
• /i/ has two allophones vs.
• RULE The phoneme /i/ becomes lengthened when it
  precedes a voiced consonant (C).
• Vowel Nasalization
• See the e.g., in p. 122
• map, pan, pad, Pam, gnat, pang
• / / has two allophones vs.
• Nasal consonants / /, / /, / /
• RULE / / becomes when it is followed by a
  nasal consonant.
• Assimilation rule a segment becomes more like a
  neighboring segment in some way.

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• Flapping
• See the e.g. in p. 124
• ride, dire, rider, write, tire, writer,
  lender, Easter, attack, adobe
• Both /t/ and /d/ become (an alveolar flap)
• RULE /t/ and /d/ become when they occur
  between two vowels, stressed and unstressed.
• Flapping is a special case of neutralization, a
  process that obliterates the contrast between two
  segments in a particular environment.

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• Rule Ordering
• It is quite common for one form to reflect the
  application of more than one phonological rule.
• See the e.g., potato in p. 125
• Phonemic form
• Aspiration
• Flapping
• Phonetic form
• See the e.g., potato in p. 125
• Phonemic form
• Flapping
• Aspiration
• Phonetic form
• Two rules can be exchangeable in the order.

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• The order in which two rules apply does make a
  difference.
• See the e.g. in p. 125 in some dialects of
  English
• handball
• handbag
• handmade
• RULE
• 1. Consonant Cluster Reduction a segment was
  deleted.
• 2. Nasal Assimilation
• The Rule ordering is important
• See the Rule breaking e.gs. In p. 126