CH 3

Phonology is a study which deals with the sequen

tial and conditioned patterning of sounds in a langua

ge. Therefore, phonological knowledge permits a spe

aker to produce sounds which form meaningful utter

ances, to recognize a foreign “accent,” to make up ne

w words, to add the appropriate phonetic segments t

o form plurals and past tenses, to produce “aspirated

” and “unaspirated” voiceless stops in the appropriat

e context, to know what is or is not a sound in one’s l

anguage, and to know different phonetic strings may

represent the same “meaning unit.”

Since the grammar of the language represents the totality of one’s linguistic knowledge, knowledge of the sound patterns—the phonological component—must be part of this grammar.

I. Phonemes:

The phonological units of language

A. Definition and Examples 

Phonemes are the phonological units of languag

e. They are contrastive segmental units composed

of distinctive features, which differentiate words.

As we know, each word differs from the other wor

ds in both form and meaning. The difference betw

een sip and zip “signaled” by the fact that the initia

l sound of the first word is s [s] and the initial soun

d of the second word is z [z] .

The forms of the two words--that is , their

sounds--are identical except for the initial

consonant. [s] and [z] can therefore distinguish or

contrast words. They are distinctive sounds in

English. Such distinctive sounds are called

phonemes.

  B. Minimal pair 

To see whether substituting one sound for another results in a different word is the first rule to determine the phonemes. If it does, the two sounds represent different phonemes. If it does, the two sounds represent different phonemes. When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment that occurs in the same place in the string the two words are called a minimal pair. Sink and zink are a minimal pair, as are fine and vine, and chunk and junk.

 C. Free variation  

Some speakers of English substitute a glottal stop fo

r the [ t ] at the end of words such as don’t or can’t or

in the middle of words like bottle or button. The subs

titution of the glottal stop does not change the meani

ngs; [dont] and [don] do not contrast in meaning, no

r do [batl] or[bal]. A glottal stop is therefore not a

phoneme in English since it is not a distinctive sound.

These sounds [ t ] and [ ] are in free variation in th

ese words. So we know some sounds may occur in th

e identical environment without changing the meanin

g of the word, then we say they are in free variation.

  II.    Distinctive Features 

A. Definition and Examples 

When a feature distinguishes one phoneme

from another it is a distinctive feature ( or a

phonemic feature). When two words are exactly

alike phonetically except for one feature, the

phonetic difference is distinctive, since this difference

alone accounts for the contrast or difference in

meaning. In order for two phonetic forms to differ

and to contrast meanings, there must be some

phonetic difference between the substituted sounds.

The minimal pairs seal [sil] and zeal[zil] sho

w that [ s ] and [ z] represent two contrasting pho

nemes in English. We know that the only differe

nce between [ s ] and [ z] is a voicing difference; [

s ] is voiceless and [ z ] is voiced. It is this phoneti

c feature that distinguishes two words. Voicing t

hus plays a special role in English (and in any oth

er languages). It also distinguishes feel and veal [

f ] / [ v ] and cap and cab [ p ]/ [ b ].

  B. Binary valued Features

A feature can be thought of as having two

values, + which signifies its presence and - which

signifies its absence. [ b ] is therefore [+ voiced ]

and [ p ] is [ - voiced ]. Similarly, the presence or

absence of nasality can be designated as [ - nasal ]

or [ + nasal ], with [ m ] being [ + nasal ] and [ b ]

or [ p ] being [- nasal ]. Ass the phonetic features

can be specified in this manner.

  C.    Phones and Allophones

 

Phone a phonetic unit or segment. While

allophones are predictable phonetic variants that

are phonetically similar and in complementary

distribution.

 

D.    Complementary Distribution 

When two or more sounds never occur in the s

ame phonemic context or environment they are sai

d to be in complementary distribution. When oral v

owels occur, nasal vowels do not occur, and vice ve

rsa. It is in this sense that the phones are said to co

mplement each other or to be in complementary dis

tribution.

We may then define a phoneme as a set of pho

netically similar sounds which are in complementar

y distribution with each other. Also, the phones m

ust be phonetically similar, that is, share most of the

same feature values. In English, the velar nasal [ ] and the glottal glide [ h ] are in complementary dist

ribution; [] is not found word initially and [ h ] doe

s not occur word finally. But they share very few fe

ature values; [] is a velar nasal voiced stop; [ h ] is

a glottal voiceless glide. Therefore, they are not allo

phones of the same phoneme; / / and / h /are differ

ent phonemes.

  E. Predictability of Redundant Features 

When a feature is predictable by rule, it a re

dundant feature.Nasality is a redundant feature in

English vowels, but is a nonredundant ( distinctive

or phonemic ) feature for English consonants. We

have to learn that the word meaning “mean begins

with a nasal bilabial stop [ m ] and that the word m

eaning ‘bean” begins with an oral bilabial stop [ b ].

But we do not have to learn that the vowels in bea

n and mean and comb and sing and so on are nasali

zed since they occur before nasal consonants and ar

e thus redundantly, predictably nasal.

  III. Sequential Constraints 

Some words never occur together in a lang

uage; actually, they determine what are possible

but nonoccuring words in a language, and what p

honetic string are “impossible” or “illegal.” For e

xample, after a consonant like /b/, /g/, /k/, or /p/, a

nother stop consonant is not permitted by the rul

es of the grammar. If a word begins with an /l/ or

an /r/ , every speaker “knows” that the next segm

ent must be a vowel. That is why /lbk/ does not s

ound like an English word. It violates the restrict

ions on the sequencing of phonemes.

  IV. Nature classes 

Phonological rules often refer to entire clas

ses of sounds rather than to individual sounds. Th

ere are natural classes, characterized by the phon

etic properties or features that pertain to all the m

embers of each class, such as voiceless sounds, voi

ced sounds, stops, fricatives, consonants, vowels, o

r, using +’s and -‘s, the class specified as [ - voice

d ] or [ + consonantal ] or [ - continuant ] or [ + na

sal ]

 V. More on Prosodic Phonology 

A. Intonation

In this chapter we have discussed the use of pho

netic features to distinguish meaning. We can see t

hat pitch can be a phonemic feature in languages s

uch as Chinese, or Thai, or Akan. Such relative pit

ches are referred to phonologically as contrasting t

ones. We also pointed out that there are languages

that are not tone languages, such as English.

In English, syntactic differences may be show

n by different intonation contours. A sentence wh

ich is ambiguous when it is written may be unam

biguous when spoken. For example:

If Tristram wanted Isolde to follow him,.....

(a) Tristram left directions for Isolde to follow.

Tristram left a set of directions he wanted

Isolde to use.

(b) Tristram left directions for Isolde to follow.

The way we have indecated petch is of course

highly oversimplified. Before the big rise in pitch

the voice does not remain on the same monotone l

ow pitch. Thus pitch plays an important role in b

oth tone languages and intonation languages, but

in different ways.

B. Word stress 

In English and many other languages, one or more

of the syllables in each content word are stressed.

The stressed syllable is marked by in the following

examples:

pervert (noun) as in “My neighbor is a

pervert.”

pervert (verb) as in “Don‘t pervert the idea.”

The stress pattern of a word may differ from

dialect to dialect. For example, in most varieties of

American English the word laboratory has two

stressed syllables; in one dialect of British English

it receives only one stress. In fact, in the British

version one vowel “drops out” completely because

it is not stressed.

Just as stressed syllables in poetry reveal the m

etrical structure of the verse, phonological stress p

atterns relate to the metrical structure of a langua

ge.

Stress is a property of a syllable rather than a s

egment, so it is a prosodic or suprasegmental featu

re.

To produce a stressed a syllable, one may chan

ge the pitch (usually by raising it), make the syllabl

e louder, or make it longer.

C. Sentence and Phrase Stress 

When words are combined into phrases and sentences,

one of the syllables receives greater stress than all others.

That is, just as there is only one primary stress in a word

spoken in isolation, only one of the vowels in a phrase (or

sentence) receives primary stress or accent; all the other

stressed vowels are “reduced” to secondary stress.

1 1 1 2

tight + rope → tightrope (“a rope for acrobatics”)

1 1 2 1

tight + rope → tightrope (“a rope drawn taut”)

 

In English we place primary stress on an adjec

tive followed by a noun when the two words are c

ombined in a compound noun, but we place the st

ress on the noun when the words are not joined in

this way.

 

Compound Noun Adjective + Noun

 

White House white house

 

These minimal pairs show that stress may be

predictable if phonological rules include nonphon

ological information; that is, the phonology is not i

ndependent of the rest of the grammar. The stress

differences between the noun and verb pairs discu

ssed in the previous section are also predictable fr

om the word category.

 VI. The Rules of Phonology  

A. Introduction 

The relationship between the phonemic represent

ations that are stored and the phonetic representatio

ns that reflect the pronunciation of these words is “r

ule-governed.”

The phonemic representation need only include

the nonpredictable distinctive features of the string o

f phonemes that represent the words. The phonetic r

epresentation derived by applying these rules includ

es all the linguistically relevant phonetic aspects of t

he sounds.

B. Five Rules of Phonology 

1.   Assimilation Rules 

It assimilate one segment to another by “copying

” or “spreading” a feature of a sequential phoneme o

n to its neighboring segment, thus making the two ph

ones more similar.

Assimilation rules are caused by articulatory or p

hysiological process because we incline to increase th

e ease of articulation, that is, to make it easier to mo

ve the articulators when we speak.

Assimilation rules in language reflect what pho

neticians often call coarticulation- the spreading o

f phonetic features either in anticipation of sounds

or the perservation of articulatory process.

The English vowel nazalization rule applies to

the phonemicrepresentation of words and shows t

he assimilatiory nature of the rule.

Vowels may also become devoiced or voiceless i

n a voiceless environment. In Japaness, high vowe

ls are devoiced when preceded and followed by voi

celess obstruent; in words like “sukiyaki” the /u/be

comes/u/.

 2.   Dissimilation rules 

A segment becomes less similar to another segm

ent rather than more similar. A ”classsic” example

of disimilation in Latin and the results of the proce

ss show up in modern day English. There were a d

erivational suffix -alis in Lain that was added to no

uns to form adjectives. When the suffix was added

to a noun which contained the liquid / l / the suffix

was changed to -aris, that is, the liquid / l / was cha

nged to the liquid / r /.

These words came into English as a adjectives

ending in -al or in its disimilated form -ar as shown

in the following examples.

-al -ar

anecdot -al angul -ar

annu -al annul -ar

ment -al simil -ar

3.   Feature Addition Rules

The aspiration rule in English, which aspirates

voiceless stops in certain contexts, simply adds a no

ndistinctive feature. The assimilation rules don’t a

dd new features but change phonemic feature value

s, whereas the aspiration rule add a new feature no

t present in phonemic matrices

The aspiration rule can apply only to the

voiceless stops / p /, / t /, / k /, because the

specification of the class of sounds on the left of the

arrow is unique to this class, but only when one of

the segments occurs in the environment specified

after the slash, at the beginning of a syllable (/$)

before a stressed vowel.

 

4. Segment Deletion rules and addition Rules

 

Phonological rules can delete or add entire phonemic segment. In French, word-final consonants are deleted when the following word begins with a consonant ( oral or nasal) or a liquid, but are retained when the following word begins with vowel or a glide.

Eg: /ptit livr/ /pti livr/ “small picture”

/ptit ami/ /ptit ami/ “small friend”

We can state the French rule simply as:

[ +consonantal ] Ø / # # [ +consonantal]

“Deletion rules “ also show up as “optional rules”

in fast speech or casual speech in English. They r

esult in the common contractions changing he is

[hi z] to he’s [hiz] or I will [aj wl] to I’ll [ajl]. I

n ordinary everyday speech most of us also “delet

e” the unstressed vowels, such as we usually prono

unce mystery into mystry, general into genral.

In Spanish, a rule inserts an [ e ] at the begi

nning of a word that otherwise would begin with

an [ s ] followed by another consonant, for exam

ple, escuela “school,” estampa “stamp,” and espi

na “spine”.

 

5.   Movement (Metathesis) Rules 

Phonological rules may also move phonemes from

one place in the string to another. In some dialects

of English, the word “ask” is pronounced [ks], bu

t the world asking is pronounced [skst]. In these d

ialects a metathesis rule “switches” the / s / and / k /

in certain context.

D. From One to Many and from Many to One 

1.   The same phone may be an allophone of two or

more phonemes, as [ m ] was shown to be an allop

hone of both / b / and / m / in Alan.

2.   Given the phonemic representation and the phonol

ogical rules, we can always derive the correct pho

netic transcription. / t / and / d / re both phonem

es, but they become a flap [D] when they occurs b

etween a stressed and unstressed vowel. From th

e instance, we can know that two distinct phonem

es may be realized phonetically as the same soun

d.  

3.   There is none to one relation between phonemes

and phones in the all languages.

E. The Function of Phonological Rules 

In the broadest sense , any rule which , in some

analysis , is posited as involved in deriving a

pronunciation from an underlying phonological

from an underlying phonological representation.

In this conception, both rules appealing to

phonological and lexical information and purely

phonetic rules are included.

However , this lable has been restricted to some

proper subset of would exclude rules appealing to

morpholexical information like ‘preterite’ or ‘abla

uting verb[ while including rules appealing to majo

r.

Word classes like ‘noun’ or ‘Latinate

vocabulary’ ; others would exclude all such rules;

both groups might include as exclude purely

phonetic (allophonic) rules independently. Some

would exclude purely morphophonemic rules,

while others would apply the term ‘ phonological

rules’ only to such rules, excluding all others

types . In Natural generative phonology , the term

is applied only to phonetic (allophonic) rules , all

other typed being excluded.

 

F. Slips of the Tongue  

Any speech error in which a segment or a

feature occurs in an unintended position : ‘bread

and breakfast’ for bed and breakfast,‘ piss and

stretch” for pitch and stress , ‘ pig and vat’ for big

and fat.

G. The Pronunciation of Morphemes 

A phonotactic constraint which is stated for s

ingle morphemes, rather than for entire words. For

example , English has the constraint C →[+ cor] / a

u _ for morphemes, but not has wards endowment c

owboy.

 

H. Morphophonemics

A branch of linguistics which analyses the phono

logical on grammatical factors that determine the fo

rm of phonemes; also called morphophonology , mor

phonology, and morphonemics. The basic unit recog

nized in such and analysis is the morphophoneme ; f

or example , the notion of ‘plural’ in English nouns i

ncludes / s/ ( as in cats) , /z/ (as in dogs) , /z/ (as in ho

rses), zero( as in sheep), and several other forms.

I. More Sequential Constraints 

Any statement , in some particular framework

or description , which prohibits some derivation ,

process , structure or combination of elements

which world otherwise be allowed.