LCD720 – 04/01/09

1. LCD720 – 04/01/09 Phonology and grammar

2. Announcements • Midterm • Grades on Blackboard • Reminder • 10% of your grade is for participation • Final paper • Guidelines are on Blackboard • Due on May 13 before class • Submit on Blackboard (or e-mail) • In Word (not pdf)

3. Homework • Construct a fill-in-the-blanks exercise for teaching contractions/blendings • Form groups of three, and try out your exercise on your two fellow students • Which items (blanks) worked well? • Which items didn’t work that well? Why? What changes do you suggest?

4. Interfaces, or How pronunciation is involved in other parts of language knowledge and skills • Listening: perception • Grammar • Orthography (spelling) Today

5. Phonology and grammar • A morpheme may be pronounced differently depending on its phonological environment (morphophonology) • E.g., past tense -ed • Pronunciation problems can affect grammar • Morphemes (regular and irregular forms) • Word classes (nouns vs. verbs) • Pronunciation needs to be addressed in the grammar lesson

6. Phonology and regular morphemes • English has 8 regular morphological inflections • -s • Plural nouns • Possessive • Third-person singular present tense • -ed • Past tense • Past participle / passive • Present participle: -ing • Comparative degree: -er • Superlative degree: -est -s and -ed change depending on the phonological environment; -ing, -er, and -est don’t change

7. -s morphemes Note: Pronunciation of all three morphemes is the same, even if the spelling isn’t • Remember the rules • Examples: /z/ /s/ /əz/ • boys boats buses (plurals) • sees makes uses (3rd sg verb) • Marvin’s Mike’s Rose’s (possessive) • /z/ is the basic form (after vowels and voiced consonants) • /z/ becomes /s/ after voiceless consonants • /z/ becomes /əz/ after sibilants • Sibilants: /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /ʧ/, /ʤ/

8. -s morphemes • Possessive of regular plural nouns • The girl’s book vs. The girls’ book • The pronunciation is the same • Possessive of irregular plural nouns • Men’s clothing, children’s toys • ’s is added to the irregular plural form • The same rules apply for contractions of is, has and does • /z/ His name’s John • /s/ It’s raining • (/əz/ Rich’s sick)

9. Teaching -s morphemes • Usually these three morphemes are not presented simultaneously • Students should be reminded of the rules of the previously introduced morpheme • Go through the five stages • Consciousness raising • (Listening discrimination): • Instead: e.g., fill-in-the-blanks with spoken text • Controlled practice • Guided practice • Communicative practice

10. Which allomorph? • Plural allomorphs: • Do you hear /z/, /s/ or /əz/? • Past tense allomorphs: • Do you hear /d/, /t/ or /əd/?

11. Regular past tense -ed • Give examples; describe the rules • What is the basic form? • When does the form change, and why? • What other verb forms have –ed? • What activities do you propose for each of the five stages, and why? • What difficulties may arise when you develop an activity, e.g., should you avoid certain verbs?

12. My answers…

13. -ed • Examples: /d/ /t/ /əd/ • cried walked chatted • robbed kissed added • /d/ is the basic form (after vowels and voiced consonants) • /d/ becomes /t/ after voiceless consonants • /d/ becomes /əd/ after /t/ and /d/

14. Teaching -ed • Relevant for simple past, present/past perfect, and passive • Similar to teaching –s • Go through the five steps • Consciousness raising • (Listening discrimination): • Instead: e.g., fill-in-the-blanks with spoken text • Controlled, guided, communicative practice • Caveat: Many highly frequent verbs are irregular (was, had, did, made, …) • Make sure the exercises elicit regular verbs

15. More morphophonology • -ing (progressive, gerunds) • -er and –est (comparatives, superlatives) • Irregular forms (nouns, verbs) • Part-of-speech alternations

16. -ing • -ing is used for progressive participles • walking, reading, studying • -ing can be pronounced as -in’ • Ain’t misbehavin’ • Depends on formality and on the speaker • Does not depend on the phonological environment

17. -er and -est • -er and -est have the same meaning as more and most (periphrastic forms) -er/more -est/most • big bigger biggest *more big *most big • beautiful more beautiful most beautiful *beautifuller *beautifullest • When to use -er and -est, and when more and most? • There are rules, but they’re not as strict as for -s and -ed • What rules do you know? (see next slide)

18. Hint: The morphology has to do with the phonology -er and -est What rules for -er/-est vs. more/most? • big – bigger – biggest • small – smaller – smallest • happy – happier – happiest • friendly – friendlier – friendliest • narrow – narrower – narrowest • curious – more curious – most curious • slowly – more slowly – most … • independent – more …– most … • tender – more … – most … (tenderer/tenderest?) • stupid – more stupid – most stupid stupider? stupidest? • handsome – more handsome – most handsome handsomer? handsomest? Try to think of more examples

19. -er/-est vs. more/most • -er/-est • One-syllable words • big – bigger – biggest • small – smaller – smallest • large – larger – largest • Two-syllable words that end in –y • happy – happier – happiest • Many two-syllable adjectives that end in unstressed –ly, -ow, or –le • friendly – friendlier – friendliest • narrow – narrower – narrowest • gentle – gentler – gentlest Or: more / most friendly

20. -er/-est vs. more/most • more/most • Many two-syllable adverbs ending in -ly • slowly – more slowly – most slowly • Other two-syllables adjectives and adverbs • curious – more curious – most curious • Adjectives and adverbs of three or more syllables • independent – more independent – most independent

21. -er/-est vs. more/most Depends on formality • Variable cases • Two-syllables adjectives that end in –er or –ure • tender – more tender – most tender • tender – tenderer – tenderest • Two-syllable adjectives that end in a weakly stressed vowel, with final /d/ or /t/ • stupid – more stupid – most stupid • stupid – stupider – stupidest • Two-syllable adjectives that end in weakly stressed -some • handsome – more handsome – most handsome • handsome – handsomer – handsomest

22. Teaching comparative and superlative forms • Don’t introduce all rules at once • This will overwhelm the student • Start with the clearest, most basic rules • One-syllable words get -er/-est • Two-syllable words in -y get -er/-est • Longer words (three or more syllables) get more/most • Give a lot of examples • When there are many rules and exceptions, it’s often easier to learn by analogy to examples

23. Why is “curiouser” not “good English”? What rule did Alice forget?

24. -er/-est or more/most? And why? -er/-est -er/-est -er/-est more/most more/most either more/most -er/-est more/most more/most more/most -er/-est none! one syllable two syllables, -y two syllables, -le ≥ 3 syllables two syllables, other two syllables, -ly ≥ 3 syllables two syllabes, -t/-d two syllables, other ≥ 3 syllables ≥ 3 syllables one syllable can’t get better than perfect • short • noisy • simple • personalized • stylish • costly • fabulous • quiet • careful • appealing • easily • pale • perfect

25. Irregular forms: Nouns • Some irregular forms come from Latin and Greek • criterion – criteria; datum – data • Other irregular forms have a Germanic origin Vowel change • foot – feet; man – men • This is still used in modern German • Mann – Männer (“man” – “men”) f/v alternation • leaf – leaves; wife – wives; shelf – shelves • Historically /f/ became /v/ between two vowels (when the ‘e’ in leaves, wives, shelves was still pronounced) θ/ð alternation • bath/baths; truth/truths (θ in singular, ð in plural)

26. Irregular forms: Verbs • Two very frequent verbs • be: am/is/are – was/were – been • go: go – went – gone • Other frequent, irregular verbs have recognizable patterns • E.g., /ɪ-æ-ʌ/ pattern • sing – sang – sung; begin – began – begun • These patterns are remnants of older rules • Students can use these regularities to learn the verb forms

27. Irregular forms: Verbs • Some examples: verbs that get or have -t / -d (‘weak verbs’) • /d/ => /t/ • build – built – built; send – sent – sent • no change • let – let – let; hit – hit – hit • /iy/ + /d/ => /ɛ/ + /t/ • creep – crept – crept • leave – left – left • Vowel shortening (/iy/ => /ɛ/; /ay/ => /ɪ/) • feed – fed – fed; slide – slid – slid • And more…

28. Irregular forms: Verbs • Some examples: vowel change (‘strong verbs’) • Three different vowels • sing – sang – sung; begin – began – begun • Same vowel in past and past participle • dig – dug – dug; win – won – won • /ay/ - /ow/ - /ɪ/ + -en • drive – drove – driven; write – wrote – written • Vowel change in past tense only • run – ran – run; come – came – come • And more…

29. Teaching irregular forms • Don’t present all rules at once • This will overwhelm the students • Present exceptions, and a few rules • am/is/are – was/were – been; go – went – gone • /ɪ-æ-ʌ/ pattern: sing – sang – sung • /d/ => /t/: send – sent – sent • no change: hit – hit – hit • Give a lot of examples • When there are many rules and exceptions, it’s often easier to learn by analogy • When students memorize the forms, they will discover some of the patterns on their own

30. Part-of-speech alternations • Remember: • Sometimes, nouns and verbs have a different stress pattern • CONDUCT (n) vs. conDUCT (v) • REBel (n) vs. reBEL (v) • Note: this is not a rule, just a pattern for some words • There are other systematic differences between nouns and verbs as well...

31. Part-of-speech alternations • /s/-/z/, /θ/-/ð/, /f/-/v/ alternations between nouns and verbs noun verb • use/use /yuws/ /yuwz/ • loss/lose /lɑs/ /luwz/ • advice/advise /ədvays/ /ədvayz/ • teeth/teethe /tiyθ/ /tiyð/ • life/live /layf/ /lɪv/ • proof/prove /pruwf/ /pruwv/ • Remember: Voicing of consonants affects the length of the preceding vowel

32. Part-of-speech alternations • No stress vs. light stress • DUplicate (n) vs. DUpliCATE (v) /ət/ /eyt/ • Location of stress • CONDUCT (n) vs. conDUCT (v) • PROJECT (n) vs. proJECT (v) • Remember: No stress vs. light/strong stress affects vowel reduction • Can you think of more examples?

33. Teaching part-of-speech alternations • Don’t present all rules at once • This will overwhelm the students • Present a few rules • advice/advise; life/live • DUplicate (n) vs. DUpliCATE (v) • CONDUCT (n) vs. conDUCT (v) • Give a lot of examples • When there are many rules and exceptions, it’s often easier to learn by analogy • Caveat: Don’t assume students know either the correct pronunciation or the part of speech of any of these words

34. Teaching phonology and grammar • Address pronunciation as soon as these grammar items are introduced • Pronunciation (and perception) of past tense, plural, possessive, etc. should be an integral part of the grammar lesson • Students need to be able to hear the affixes and stress patterns correctly, so they can learn from the input • Students need to be able to pronounce the suffixes and stress patterns correctly • Remember that students may have problems with both the grammar and the phonology (clusters, stress, etc.)

35. Why are third person -s and past tense -d so difficult to learn? • Despite being very frequent • They are difficult to hear (low perceptual salience): • very short • in clusters • in unstressed syllables • /s, z/ and /t, d/ are just one sound and not a separate syllable • Compare -ing, -er, -est

36. Perceptual salience • Identify the word • Word 1 • Word 2 • Word 3 • Identify the word • Word 1 • Word 2 • Word 3 • Identify the sound • Sound 1 • Sound 2 • Sound 3 • Identify the sound • Sound 1 • Sound 2 • Sound 3 added /əd/ played /d/ crunched /t/ kisses /əz/ ribs /z/ ships /s/

37. Why are third person -s and past tense -d so difficult to learn? • They have three different allomorphs • /s, z, əz/ and /d, t, əd/ • Compare -ing: usually /ɪŋ/, sometimes /ɪn/ • Compare -er/-est: forms don’t change • Similar sounding morphemes • Third person -s sounds the same as plural -s, possessive -s, and contractions of is and has • Compare: -er and –est are usually comparatives

38. Why are third person -s and past tense -d so difficult to learn? • They have complex meanings • -s: Third person singular present tense (3 things!) • Compare plural –s: plural (1 thing) • L1 interference • If L1 doesn’t have subject–verb agreement or past tense, -s and -ed may be more difficult to learn • They don’t add much meaning (past tense is often clear from context or adverbial phrases) • Further reading: Meta-analysis by Goldschneider & DeKeyser (2001, in Language Learning)

39. Reflection • If a student pronounces cats as /kæt/ and dogs as /dɑg/, how can a teacher determine whether the student has a grammatical problem or a pronunciation problem? • Do you recall learning any phonological differences in the parts of speech of English? • Native speakers • L2 speakers

40. Reflection What would you do as a teacher? • A student pronounces all past tenses as /əd/ • A student pronounces all words ending in -ate as /eyt/ regardless of the part of speech • A student asks why the plural of wife is wives, but the plural of chief is chiefs

41. Next class (April 22) • Read Chapter 9, but skip: • The Alphabet • Stressed and Unstressed Vowels and their spelling patterns • Word-Internal Palatalization • Read Chapter 2 from Phonics they use (on BB) • Can you modify these activities for older children and adult? • Homework assignment (not graded, not to be handed in) on Blackboard. • Bring to class, and be ready to discuss