Phonology

not all sounds can go together in a word

some phonetic details are predictable, given the environment

Contrast: and

For instance, shore and sore mean different things. They are a minimal pair.

English Minimal Pairs

Japanese English“do” “cut viciously with knife”

! acceptable in words like see

Both languages have both sounds

predictable before [i]

not predictable

Predictable

before voiced consonant

before unvoiced consonant

Predictable

Complementary distribution

before unvoiced

consonantno yes

before voiced consonant yes no

Complementary distribution

Two sounds X and Y are in complementary distribution if Y never occurs in any of the phonetic environments in which X occurs.

i.e. a minimal pair could never be exhibited

English non-contrasts

Hindi contrasts

“fruit”“moment”“strength

•two sounds are in contrast•a minimal pair can be found

(they can occur in the same contexts) •the sounds belong to different phonemes

•two sounds are psychologically nondistinct•no minimal pair can be found

(forced by complementary distribution)•they are allophones of the same phoneme

What about and ?

The flap in English vs. Spanish

Predictably, /t/ surfaces as in English[ ]Flapping:

in environments where it is surrounded by vowels, the 2nd of which is stressless

in Spanish, the flap is contrastive

[pita] “century plant”“funeral pyre”

Nasality

‘luxurious’‘stalk’‘scold’‘ascend’‘forbid’‘eat’‘house’‘car’

Malay

‘but’ ‘hand’‘very’ ‘train’

French

Example problem

Formalizing vowel shortening

“in the environment”

[e] !" / [voiceless consonant]

Formalizing vowel shortening

“in the environment”

“is realized as”

[e] !" / [voiceless consonant]

Formalizing vowel shortening

“in the environment”

“is realized as”“before”

[e] !" / [voiceless consonant]

Formalizing vowel shortening

happens with other Vs too, e.g.coat/codelap/lab

“in the environment”

“is realized as”“before”

[e] !" / [voiceless consonant]

Uninsightful !

"""""""""""""""""""""#

$

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%&

!"

!

"""""""""""""""""""""#

$

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%&

/

!

""""""""""""#

$

%%%%%%%%%%%%&

Better

[V] !" [V̆] /!

+ consonant! voice

"

Better

[V] !" [V̆] /!

+ consonant! voice

"

a natural class

English flapping

[t] !" [ ] /!! consonant

" #! consonant! stress

$

The TheoryPostulate two levels

1. underlying form (string of phonemes that are distinctive in this language)

2. surface or phonetic form (specifying particular phones in a language-independent way)

and provide phonological rules that derive the surface form from the underlying form.The rule format we will use is A ! B/ C D “A rewritten as B in the context where it ispreceeded by C and followed by D.”

Any of A,B,C,D might be written more generally as a feature matrix

!

"#+ feature" feature

...

$

%&

A feature matrix makes positive or negative reference to a combination of phonologicalfeatures like nasal, voiced, high, a!ricate etc. Such combinations specify natural classes.

English voicing data indicates that /r/ patterns with /l/.

(1)

brew prowgreen tripdrip creepfrog prayshrimp

so do /j/ and /w/

(2)

beauty putridDuane twinGwen quickview cuteswimthwack

!

"#+ sonorant+ voice! nasal

$

%& "'! voice

(/

!

"""""#

+ consonant! sonorant! continuant! delayedrelease! voice

$

%%%%%&

“English liquids & glides become voiceless after voiceless stops.”

Phonological features

Phonological features

CORONAL made with the tongue tip or blade raised

Lebanese definite article “the” is /il/before non-coronal before coronal

si]b]

an] s]

Phonological features