THE SOUND PATTERNS OF LANGUAGE

1. THE SOUND PATTERNS OF LANGUAGE

2. What phonologists do? • Making explicit statements about the sound patterns of individual languages in order to discover something about linguistic knowledge that people must have in order to use these patterns. • Discovering the general principles that underlie the patterning of sounds in human language.

3. Phonolgy the mental representation of sounds as part of a symbolic cognitive system; how abstract sound categories are manipulated in the processing of language

4. Phonemes • The phonological elements of a language are the basic, distinctive sounds • In English, these are the following (for a dialect of Standard American English) • consonants: p, t, k, b, d, g, č, , f, θ, s, š, h, v, ð, z, ž, m, n, ŋ, l, r, w, y • vowels: i, u, I, U, e, o, ε, ə, o:, æ, a, ay, aw, oy

5. Allophones • Phoneme= the abstract unit or sound-type • There are often differences in the way a phoneme is pronounced in a specific context. The variant pronunciations are called allophones ("other sounds") • When it is important to make this difference: • we'll use [square brackets] to indicate sounds from a phonetic point of view, i.e. focusing on their physical properties and the details of actual pronunciation; • and we'll use /slashes/ to indicate sounds from a phonological point of view, i.e. as part of an abstract representation independent of potential differences in the way the sound in pronounced in specific contexts. • In other words, in the ideal case, [ ] = allophone, / / = phoneme.

6. Aspiration Example: spin- pin • pin contains an aspirated version of /p/, with a puff of air after the stop is released; this is written [ph] • spin contains a plain /p/, without a puff of air after the stop; this is written as just [p]

7. Minimal Pairs • A minimal pair consists of two forms with distinct meanings that differ by only one segment found in the same position in each form. • Example: pill till kill These sounds are said to be "distinctive" because they can be used to make contrasts between different words (contrastive distribution).

8. Minimal set • When a group of words can be differentiated, each one from the others, by changing one phoneme • Example: feat fit fat fate fought foot

9. Phonotactics • The set of constraints on how sequences of segments pattern. • Possible initial three-consonant clusters in English p t k (((l ) r (w) j p t k s

10. Syllable- structure • the onset or consonant(s) at the beginning of the syllable • English normally permits up to two consonants • but in addition, [s] can be added to the beginning of many syllables as well, making up to three consonants • all sounds can occur in this position except for [ŋ] • the nucleus or vowel that is the core of the syllable • sometimes a consonant can serve as the nucleus, as in the second syllable of kitten. • the coda or consonant(s) at the end of the syllable • English normally permits up to two consonants at the end (belt, jump, arc) • but in addition, certain sounds such as [s, t, θ] can be piled up (belts, sixths)

11. Above the segment: Syllables Internal structure of the syllable ‘sprint’ σ Consonant(s) Vowel Consonant(s) Onset (O) Rime (R) Nucleus (N) Coda (C) s p r i n t

12. ArticulatoryProcesses • Assimilation • Dissimilation • Deletion • Epenthesis • Metathesis • Vowel reduction

13. Assimilation: Two sounds becoming more alike • Regressive Assimilation • Assimilation in which a sound influences the preceding segment. • E.g. indefinite, impossible, incomplete • Progressive Assimilation • Assimilation in which a sound influences the following segment. • E.g. books, bags

14. Dissimilation • Change to a sound less like the other, e.g.: ‘laurel’ for earlier ‘laurer’

15. Deletion • A process that removes a segment from a certain phonetic context. • In English, a schwa [Ə] is often deleted when the next vowel in the word is stressed. suppose səˈpəʊz sˈpoʊz

16. Epenthesis • A process that inserts a segment into a particular environment. • For example: • ‘something’ pronounced as ‘somepthing’

17. Metathesis • A process that reorders a sequence of segments • For example: • Brid (Old English)  Bird (Modern English)

18. Syllabification • An optimal syllable consists of a sonority peak, corresponding to the nucleus, optionally flanked by segments which decrease in sonority the further they occur from the nucleus. • *vu.lgar is incorrect, because the sonority slope of the cluster decreases towards the syllable nucleus, while it should increase

19. Syllabification in Government Phonology • Whether a consonant is a governor (T) or a governee (R) is determined by their complexity. To some extent, complexity reflects sonority in that the more complex the segment, the less sonorous it is. • Thus, a more complex segment always governs the less complex one regardless of their linear order in a string: g  l; l  g (T R;R  T)

20. (a) vul.gar (b) co.bra R O N O N /\ /\ v ʌ l  g ǝ kɔ b  r ǝ The rightward governing relation defines branching onsets (br), and the leftward direction specifies a relation between an onset and the preceding non-vocalic complement of a branching rhyme, that is, the coda (l.g)

21. Suprasegmentals • Refers to phonetic phenomena such as stress, duration, intonation (melody), and tone (pitch) • Many English words function as nouns or verbs depending on the position of stress: Import – N import – V Permit – N permit – V Contact – N contact – V Stress also differentiates noun phrases from compound nouns: Blackbird – NP blackbird – comp. noun