Download - Phoneme and feature theory
1
DIFFERENCE?
kit
skill
sack
We pronounce them differently but we know they are the
same sound.
How do we know two sounds are the same or different?
[kh]Initial
/k/
[ko]after s
[k]elsewhere
2
3
PHONOLOGY Phonology is how speech sounds are
organized and affect one another in
pronunciation.
Key terms: Phone Phoneme allophone
This organization is explained in phonological rules
4
CONCEPTUALITY
Articulatory phonetics
Real sounds = phones
• [p], [t], [k]• [i], [æ]
• Phonology
• system and rules of sound patterns
• Abstractions = phoneme
• /p/, /t/, /k/• /i/, /æ/
• Inventory of sounds and how they are realized.
5
Phonetics•Pho
ne
Phonology•Pho
neme
PHONEME
a PHONEME is the minimal distinctive (contrastive ) linguistic sound
Phoneme Mental unit Meaningful Not realized
Phone Physical/
environmental unit
Meaningless Realized
Allophone Phonetic unit Variation of
phoneme
variations
7
phoneme (from the Greek: φώνημα, phōnēma, "a sound
uttered") is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances. (Wikipedia)
Segment: "any discrete unit that can be identified, either physically or auditorily, in the stream of speech."
1. separate and individual,
such as consonants and vowels,
2. occur in a distinct temporal order
multiple segments vowels, consonants
supra-segmentaltone,stress,
length,intonation secondary articulations
nasalizationvowel harmony
Marginal segmentsonomatopoeic words,
interjections, loan words
Source: Wikipedia
8
PHONEME
A unit of speech that can be used to differentiate
words(e.g.“cat”/kaet/vs.“bat”/baet/).
Phonemes identify minimal pairs in a language.
The set of phonemes in a language subject to interpretation;
most languages have 20 to 40 phonemes.
The phoneme cannot therefore be acoustically defined. The
phoneme is instead a feature of language structure.
9
What sort of entity is
the phoneme?
what is the contentof the
phoneme
how does one
identify phonemes
Issues
10
1. WHAT SORT OF ENTITY IS THE PHONEME?
Twaddell (1935) 1) phoneme is a physical reality
“count for practical purposes as if they were one and the same.” JONES (1967: 258)
2) it is a psychological notion a mental or psychological reality the phoneme is a constant acoustic and auditory image (Sommerfelt); a
thought sound (Beni); a sound idea (Trubetzkoy); a psychological equivalent of an empirical sound (UÓaszyn);
In modern terms: phoneme is some sort of mental representation
TWADDELL criticized this mental phenomenon
11
2. WHAT IS THE CONTENT OF THE PHONEME
What are phonemes made of? How are they represented?
what position specific phoneme takes in the
given phonemic system.
Which phoneme is in the opposition to a specific phoneme
Sapir (1925, 1933) Sapir’s “point in the pattern.”
phoneme as a set of contrastively underspecified features
underspecified, in the sense that it consists only of
contrastive properties and other features are omitted
This notion further corresponded to the theory of Distinctive feature
⇒ this underspecification theory has been proposed under generative phonology under
the name Modified Contrastive Specification
12
CONTINUE… Prague School: Phonemic make-up or content
phonemic make-up(Jakobson) phonemic content of the phoneme (Trubetzkoy)
those properties which are common to all variants of a phoneme
Each phoneme has a definable phonemic content only because the system of distinctive oppositions shows a definite order or structure.
13
14
3. HOW DOES ONE IDENTIFY PHONEMES
Practical aspect of phoneme: phonemic analysis
whether a sound is a single phoneme (/ts/,/nd/, or /oe/) a sequence of phonemes (/t-s/, /n-d/, or /s-j/).
Minimal pair Differ in one phonological element (phone, phoneme, toneme
or chroneme ) complementary distribution Contrastive distribution Free variation Mutation methods
15
VIEWS OF WHAT THE PHONEME IS Empiricist notion: Twaddell
the phoneme is a collection of sounds (a fictitious unit )
Mentalist: Chomsky ( realistic view) the phoneme is the mental category that corresponds
to a coherent set of sounds in a language
American structuralist tradition: a phoneme is defined according to its allophones and
environments
generative tradition: a phoneme is defined as a set of distinctive features.
16
BLOOMFIELD’S PHONEME “The smallest units which make a difference in meaning”
“A minimum unit of distinctive sound feature” (p. 77). non-mentalistic unit
He identifies “primary” (segmental sounds) and “secondary” (stress and tone) phonemes according to their function in language (primary: syllable forming; secondary: structuring larger units).
Phonemes are defined by their participation in structural sets. (syllabic, open-syllable, closed syllable, non-syllabic, initial, medial, final, initial cluster, final cluster, etc.)
17
COMMON PHONEMIC RULES
Aspiration [h] Unreleased Stop [ ̚ ] Flap [ɾ] Dental Consonants [⊓] Velarization [ɫ] Voicelessness [˚] Vowel lengthening [׃] Vowel nasalization [~]
18
Phonemic Awareness is a subset of
phonological awareness in which listeners are able to
hear, identify and manipulate phonemes, the smallest units of sound that can differentiate meaning.
Separating the spoken word "cat" into three distinct
phonemes,
/k/, /æ/, and /t/, requires phonemic awareness skill.
Phonemic Awareness
19
20
Isolating Hear and isolate sounds in initial, medial or final
positions in word (e.g. bat, ball, bell, pal)
Segmenting Pronounce each phoneme in order as it occurs in word
(bat >> b-a-t)
Blending Combine phonemes to make a word (hear sh-ip and
say ship)
Manipulating Add or delete sounds in word to make new word (add a “t” to an” and say ant; replace the sound “d” in
sad with a “t” and say sat)
COMMON TYPES OF PHONEMIC AWARENESS
21
THEORETICAL TIMELINE OF PHONEME
Ancient forerunners of modern descriptive linguistics (P¯ANINI, PATAÑJALI
(India), the Greeks & “Anon” (Iceland, 12th C.)) clearly recognized the
systematic nature between distinctive sound properties and the identity of
words in their languages
DE SAUSSURE (1857-1913) used “phonème”, first as a term for speech
sounds, later as a purely functional entity.
A. Dufriche-Desgenettes 1873
French word phonème as a speech soundSource: B. Elan Dresher
22
TIMELINE… Structuralism (Ferdinand de Saussure(1879), E. Sapir, and L. Bloomfield)
Tried to eliminate cognitive and psycholinguistic function of phoneme
Used to refer to a hypothesized sound in a proto-language together with its
reflexes in the daughter languages
Polish Kazan school (Jan Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay and MikoÓaj Kruszewski
1875–1895)
As an abstract set of alternating invariant psycho phonetic elements : fonema,
Prague School 1926–1935
the first group to formulate an explicit phonological theory
Generative linguistics (Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle) modern phonology
What:• Distinctive Feature Theory
When:• 1939, 1949 ( around 1050s)
Who:• Roman Osipovich Jakobson
Russianlinguist literary theorist
Where:• Czech Academies
How:• by considering the phonological
concepts of de Saussure and Hjelmslev
De Saussure’s emphasized on the differential function
of linguistic elements .
Jakobson and Trubetzkoy attached great importance to
the oppositions among phonemes rather than to the
phonemes themselves
The notion of component features is already implicit in
the idea of opposition. The notion was made explicit
by Jakobson’s and Trubetzkoy’s recognition of such
features as ‘differential qualities’ or ‘relevant
properties’. (binary features + - )
Jakobson’s greatest insight, distinctive
feature, (after the phoneme) belongs to the
(Functional) Structuralist Phonology.
Jakobson (1939, 1949) drawing on earlier
phonological concepts of de Saussure and
Hjelmslev, pointed to the limited number of
“differential qualities” or “distinctive
features” that appeared to be available to
languages.
Original set appeared in Jakobson, Fant and Halle: 12
features
Chomsky and Halle : 45 features
Most modern phonologists:
A binary system of indexing features: a segment either
possesses or does not any one particular features.
English (with around 45 phonemes) would be six, giving
us 26 or 64 segments
JAKOBSON AND HALLE: 12 FEATURES
All of the features are polar oppositions, allowing relative values
Each feature is binary, with only two opposed values along a single dimension.
They employed features listed with articulatory correlates as well as acoustic cues.
i) The vocalic portionii) The presence of release burstiii) Duration of the closure intervaliv) rise-time of the fricative timev) Duration of the fricative noise
Protensity
Sonority
Tonality
Sonority
Markedness hierarchy of distinctive features
Saussurean hypotheses
Universal structural-
functional theory of phonology
If the word high-handed falls out of use, then synonyms like arrogant and presumptuous will extend their uses. If we drop the final f or v the results in English are not momentous (we might still recognize belie as belief from the context), but not if the final s is dropped (we should then have to find some new way of indicating plurals).
DISTINCTIVE FEATURE THEORY
THREE PRINCIPLES SURROUNDING THE DISTINCTIVE FEATURE SET
It should be able to characterize all contrasting segments in human languages
It should be able to capture natural classes in a clear fashion
It should be transparent with regard to phonetic correlates
DISTINCTIVE FEATURES …
Are minimal linguistic units Are limited Only binary oppositions are accepted The universal set of cognitive properties Are associated with speech sound Determine the contrast between speech
sounds Describe the ways in which these sounds
change Define the natural classes ( set of sounds)
NATURAL CLASSES
A natural class of sounds in a language consists on those sounds which share certain distinctive feature to the exclusion of all other sounds in a language.
They often pattern together in similar ways.
The labio-velar sound [w] as in ‘wit’ can not follow a specific group of sounds in English; [w] may follow [d] or [k] sounds as in ‘dwell’,’quell’ But can not follow natural class of ‘labials’ and
‘labio-dentals’ [ f,v,b,p]
FEATURE VALUE
The distinctive feature values for the sounds of a language are arranged as a matrix with + or – or 0 (non-relevant values
obstruents
vowels
glides liquids nasals
[consonental]
+ - - + +
[Vocalic] - + - - -
[sonarant] - + + + +
examples [p b z θ] [i: a] [j w] [l r] [m n]
FEATURES AND MARKEDNESS OF SPEECH SOUND
Implicational law Most common sound: unmarked Progressively rarer sounds: marked
The relationship that holds between them is called implicational law