Understanding Phonology: Phonemes, Rules, and Suprasegmental Features

1. Chapter 3 Phonology, phonotactics, and suprasegmentals

2. Phonology, phonotactics, and suprasegmentals 1. Phonemes 2. Phonemic rules 3. Phonological processes 4. Phonotactics 5. Suprasegmental features 5.1 Stress 5.2 Intonation 6. Syllable structure

3. 1. Phonemes •Phoneme: a distinctive or contrastive sound in a language; makes a difference in meaning; has communicative value; differentiates one word from another; occurs in the same phonetic environments •minimal pairs: a set of different words consisting of all the same sounds except for one. /ðæt/ VS /fæt/ /pæt/ VS /pεt/ •allophone: predictable variant of a phoneme; nondistintive; noncontrastive; conditioned by the phonetic environment; positional variants; are in complementary distribution; language specific, Japanese [l] [r] •Complementary distribution: they never occur in the same environment •Marginal phoneme: a language might have a few marginal phonemes: /x/ in English for example.

4. 2. Phonemic rules • The different environments in which the allophones of a given phoneme are found. • Examples of phonemic rules in English:

5. 2. Phonemic rules1

6. 2. Phonemic rules2

7. 2. Phonemic rules3

8. 2. Phonemic rules4

9. 2. Phonemic rules5

10. 3. Phonological processes • phonological rules • These are the general processes of phonological change involved in allophonic variation which apply to classes of sounds that share one or more features. • Similar to the phonemic rules discussed previously. Instead of set of rules for a single phoneme, rules for classes of sounds that share one or more features.

12. 1. All consonants are labialized before rounded vowels.

13. 2. Liquids and nasals have a syllabic function following a consonant word finally. Syllabic forms are not generated following liquids (/l, r/)

14. 3. • Alveolar sounds are dentalized before a dental.

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24. 4. Phonotactics Constraints on positions and sequences of sounds in a language; language-specific Positions to consider: word-initial, -medial, -final syllable-initial, in monosyllabic or polysyllabic words

25. 4. Phonotactics (continued 2) Some of the important positional constraints in English:

26. 4. Phonotactics (continued 3) Consonant clusters:

27. 4. Phonotactics (continued 4)

28. 4. Phonotactics (continued 5) Final consonant clusters: two-consonant combinations:

29. 4. Phonotactics (continued 6)

30. 5. Suprasegmental Features Articulatory features superimposed over more than one segment (vowel or consonant). A. Word-Level Stress (Accent): -a rise in air pressure -activity of larynx may increase; higher pitch -stressed syllable is longer, louder •English is stress-timed. •Turkish is syllable-timed; spoken at a roughly constant rate.

31. 5. Suprasegmental Features, Word Stress (2) • Primary Stress ʹ • Secondary Stress ‵ • Unstressed còmputátion

32. 5. Suprasegmental Features, Word Stress (2) How do we find the stressed syllable? How would I know? The test in our text book (tapping finger while reading the word) works only for people who already know the perfect pronunciation of the word, such as native speakers. Rules: •For Germanic words: Stress is on the first syllable: ápple, fáther, húnger •For Germanic prefixed verbs: withdráw •For Romance words: Stress falls on the penultimate syllable: admónish •For Romance, two-consonants, or tense vowels at the end: adápt •In conclusion, stress system of Modern English is complex and not entirely predictable.

33. 5. Suprasegmental Features, Word Stress (2)

34. 1. (Continued) But there are exceptions also: respéct respéct rewárd rewárd cómment cómment (v)díffer (v)defér

35. 2. Stress can distinguish a word from a phrase. wálkout  they wálk óut púshover  púsh óver

36. 3. Stress patterns in derivationally related words distinguish parts of speech.

37. 4. Depending on the dialect, stress can differ for the same word.

38. 5. Unstressed vowels may be reduced to /ə/.

39. 6. The vowel in a second half of the compound is reduced. mán fóreman /ˡmæn/ /ˡfɔrmən/

42. Phrase-level Stress

43. 5.2 Intonation

44. 6. Syllable Structure •Syllable (Sy): Meaningful segments •A syllable must consist of a vowel; acoustic peak, nucleus (Nu) (C)(C)(C) Vo (C)(C)(C)(C) Onset (On) Nucleus (Nu) Coda (Co)

45. Syllable division: •Polysyllabic + no medial consonant, division is between vowels

46. •Polysyllabic + one medial consonant + stress follows the consonant, then the medial consonant forms the onset of the second syllable:

47. •initial syllable stressed , then ambisyllabic

48. unstressed syllables before and after a consonant, again ambisyllabic

49. Word medial consonant cluster + stressed vowel, then consonant cluster forms the Onset of the second syllable

50. Stressed vowel + consonant cluster, then initial consonant is ambisyllabic, rest of the cluster forms the onset of the second syllable