Lecture 3 Phonology

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Lecture 3Phonology

• Phonological Representations

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Definition

• Phonological Representations are those mental
  images in terms of which knowledge of a sound
  system is couched.
• The BASIC units that comprise phonological
  representations are
• features
• segments
• syllables
• feet (metrical grids)

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Features

• Two Hypotheses
• Segments are groups of features.
• Segments are indivisible elements.

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Features

• Segments are not the ultimate (most primitive)
  units of phonological structure.
• They are composed of smaller elements.
• These sub-segmental building blocks are the
  FEATURES
• the units of phonological structure that make up
  the segments.

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Why Features?

• Features reflect the coordinated articulatory
  activities.
• Features capture natural classes.
• Features allow for precise understanding of the
  nature of allophonic variation.

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Coordinated Activities

• Speech is produced by a number of coordinated
  articulatory activities
• voicing tongue position lip rounding
• Each feature is rooted in an independently
  controllable aspect of speech production
• voicing tongue position lip rounding
• ?voice ?high ?round
• Thus, each feature or group of features defines a
  specific property of the segment.

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Matrix

• ??
• ?syllabic ? ? These define the segment as
• ?-consonantal ? ? consonant, vowel,
• ?sonorant ? ? or glide.
• ?-high ? ? These define the placement of
• ?low ? ? the tongue.
• ?back ? ?
• ?-round ? ? This defines lip rounding.
• ?tense ? ? This defines tenseness/laxness.

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Natural Classes

• Features define natural classes.
• They are central to phonological analysis.
• It is not only that individual phonemes such as
  /p/, /b/, /k/, and /g/ contrast in English.
• Rather, the entire class of voiced stops contrast
  with the class of voiceless stops.
• Therefore, it is the feature voice that is
  contrastive, not the individual segments.

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Vowels in English Front vs. Back

• Front Vowels Back Vowels
• /??/ /?/ /??/ /?/ /?/ /??/ /?/ /??/ /?/ /??/
• ?syllabic ? ?syllabic ?
• ?-consonantal ? ?-consonantal ?
• ?sonorant ? ?sonorant ?
• ?-back ? ?back ?

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Allophonic Variation

• Allophonic variation is not simply the
  substitution of one sound for another.
• It is the environmentally conditioned change or
  specification of a feature or features.

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Liquid-glide Devoicing

• In English, liquids and glides have voiceless
  allophones after syllable-initial voiceless stops
  and voiced allophones elsewhere.
• liquids and glides voiceless stops
• ?sonorant ? ? -voice / ? ?-syllabic ? _____
  
• ?-syllabic ? ?consonantal ?
• ?-nasal ? ?-continuant ?
• ?voice ? ?-delayed release ?

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The Syllable

• Definition
• It is a fundamental phonological unit consisting
  of a short sequence of segments, most typically a
  single vowel or diphthong possibly preceded and/
  or followed by one or more consonants.

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Syllable Structure

• There are four sub-syllabic elements
• The nucleus (N) is the only obligatory member it
  is a syllabic element (usually a vowel).
• The coda (C) consists of the elements that follow
  the nucleus in the same syllable.
• The rhyme (R) is made up of the nucleus and the
  coda.
• The onset (O) is made up of those elements that
  precede the rhyme in the same syllable.

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Syllable Structure

• Wd
• ?
• O R
• N C
• s p r ? n t

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Phonotactics

• Initial three-consonant clusters in English
• ? ? ?? ?? Nucleus
• ?? ??
• ?? ??
• ??
• Gaps
• spw, stl, and stw

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Syllabification

• Setting up syllables involves the following
  steps
• Assign vowels to syllable nuclei.
• Maximize onsets.
• Associate remaining consonants to codas.

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Assign vowels to syllable nuclei.

• ? ?
• R R
• N N
• e k s t r im

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Maximize onsets.

• ? ?
• /
• /
• /
• /
• /
  
• R O R
• /\
• N
  /
  \ N
• 
  / \
• e k s t r i
  m

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Associate remaining consonants to codas.

• ? ?
• /
• /
• /
• /
• /
  
• R O R
• \ /\ \
• N C /
  \ N C
• 
  / \
  
• e k s t r i m

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Syllabic Phonology

• Does the syllable play any role in phonological
  analysis?
• Native speakers demonstrate awareness of this
  unit of phonological structure.
• They will say that a word like accident has
  three syllables arranged as
• /?? . ?? . ????/.
• Language games like backward talk verify that the
  postulated syllable divisions correspond to those
  internalized by native speakers.
• One common form of backward talk is that of
  reversing whole syllables as units seg.ment
  becomes ment.seg.
• However, the central reason for treating
  syllables as units of phonological structure is
  their relevance to phonological analysis.

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Aspiration in English

• A B C
• ?????? tone ?????? stone ??.????.??
  tomato
• ????n kin skI?n skin k?.nu?? canoe
• p???n pan sp??n span p?.spa?I? perspire
• English voiceless stops are aspirated when
  initial in a stressed syllable.

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/r/-deletion in British English

• A B
• kA? car r?k rack
• ??? care ???.rI? caring
• kA?t cart krA?ft craft
• In British English, /r/ deletes in the coda.

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Heavy Syllables and Stress

• A B C
• v?.r??n.d? ?.????.?? sI?n?m?
• veranda aroma cinema
• cv.cvc.cv v.cv.cv cv.cv.cv
• L H L L H L L L L
• English nouns are stressed on the penultimate
  syllable when it is heavy otherwise, they are
  stressed on the antepenultimate syllable.

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Word Stress

• It is perceived prominence associated with one or
  more syllables in a word.
• Syllable position and/or content (e.g. weight)
  are essential in locating stressed elements.
• The formalization of stress rests on the use of
  units called metrical feet.
• The foot is an element of metrical structure
  whose building block is the syllable.

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Diversity of Stress Patterns

• Stress is word-initial. (Latvian)
• Stress is word-final. (French)
• Left/Right Flank

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Diversity of Stress Patterns

• Rightmost Heavy Syllable, Otherwise Leftmost
  Syllable (Classical Arabic)
• Leftmost Heavy Syllable, Otherwise Rightmost
  Syllable (Komi - Russia)
• Rightmost Heavy Syllable, Otherwise Rightmost
  Syllable (W. Cheremis - Russia)
• Leftmost Heavy Syllable, Otherwise Leftmost
  Syllable (Russian)
• Syllable Weight
• Left/Right Flank

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Diversity of Stress Patterns

• Main stress initial secondary stresses on odd
  numbered syllables
• (Ono - New Guinea)
• Main stress on the second syllable secondary
  stresses on even numbered syllables
• (Araucanian - Chile)
• Rhythm
• Left/Right Flank

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Diversity of Stress Patterns

• Stress a final superheavy syllable.
• Otherwise, stress a heavy penult.
• Otherwise, stress a heavy antepenult.
• Otherwise, stress the penult or the antepenult,
  whichever is separated by an even/odd number of
  light syllable from the preceding heavy syllable,
  or in the absence of such a syllable, from the
  beginning of the word.
• (Urban Hijazi Arabic/Negev Bedouin Arabic)

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Diversity of Stress Patterns

• Syllable Weight
• Rhythm
• Left/Right Flank

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Principles

• Boundedness
• The distance between the constituents head and
  the boundary is restricted to one element
• (???)(???)(???) (???????)
• bounded unbounded

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Principles

• Headedness
• Constituents are either right-headed or
  left-headed
• Foot Level ( ??? ) ( ??? )
• iambic trochaic
• Word Level ( ??? ) ( ??? )
• rightmost leftmost

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Principles

• Quantity-sensitivity
• Heavy syllables attract stress
• Syllabic trochee ( ??? ) (quantity-insensit
  ive)
• Moraic trochee ( LL? )( H? ) (quantity-sens
  itive)
• Iamb ( LL? )( H? )( LH? ) (quantity-sensiti
  ve)

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Principles

• Exhaustivity
• Elements are exhaustively parsed into higher
  constituents
• (?)(??)(??) exhaustive parsing
• (??)(??)(??)? non-exhaustive parsing

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Devices

• Extrametricality
• Peripheral elements are excluded form foot
  structure
• (??)(??)(??)lt?gt
• final syllable marked extrametrical

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Devices

• Directionality
• Footing proceeds from left to right or from
  right to left
• (??)(??)(??)? left-to-right
• ?(??)(??)(??) right-to-left

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Summing up

• The pattering of phonological units is based upon
  general elements and principles.
• They are applicable to the study of any human
  language.
• The atoms of phonological representation are the
  feature values.
• Features are grouped into segment-sized
  constituents.
• The segments are grouped, around vowels, into
  syllabic constituents.
• Syllables relate to each other in terms of
  relative prominence
• Interacting with features and segmental
  processes, a limited set of parameters accounts
  for syllabification and metrification.

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Rules or ConstraintsinPhonological Analysis

• Optimality Theory