Phonology

•Phonology•Study Focus•Phonology•Phoneme•Allophone•Minimal pairs•Complementary distribution •Suprasegmental features• 1. What is phonology?•Phonology aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication. •What is a sound pattern?•(1) the set of sounds that occur in a given language；•(2) the permissible arrangements of these sounds in words；•(3) the processes of adding, deleting, or changing sounds.•The English language•English has many words with the pattern consonant-vowel-consonant. •Many words contain consonant clusters.•English consonant clusters are quite limited in the sounds they may contain. •No more than three consonants may occur at the beginning of a word. •When three initial consonants do occur, the first must be /s/.•Every word must contain at least one vowel-like segment, except interjections like sh! •There are limitations on the co-occurrence(共现) of certain vowels with certain consonants in the same syllable.E.g. the vowel of house does not occur before a final /b, p, m, f, v/.• 2.Phonology and phonetics•Phonology and phonetics are both concerned with speech sounds, but they differ in their approach and focus:•Example: How is the sound [l] studied in phonetics and phonologyThe difference between the clear [l] and dark [ɫ]•clear [l]:leaf [li:f]black[blæk]lose [lu:z]•dark [ɫ]:pool[pu:ɫ]milk [mɪɫk]full [fʊɫ] or [f̩ɫ]•The two sounds are fundamentally the same, since they have one and the same function in communication, in distinguishing between words and meanings despite their difference in pronunciation.•The distribution pattern of the different versions of the [l] sound, a complementarypattern.•We use clear [l] before a vowel, such as loaf, and dark [ɫ] at the end of a word after avowel or before a consonant.• 3. Phone, phoneme, and allophone3.1 Phone音素• A phone is a phonetic unit (语音单位)or segment(音段). The speech sounds we hear andproduce during linguistic communication are all phones.•Phones are individual sounds as they occur in speech.• A phone does not necessarily distinguish meaning.[mi:t] and [ni:t][spit] and [sp h it]3.2 Phoneme音位•The smallest unit of sound in a language which can distinguish two words. •(a) the words pan and ban differ only in their initial sound: pan begins with /p/ and banwith /b/.•(b) ban and bin differ only in their vowels: /æ/ and /i/.•Therefore, /p/, /b/, /æ/ and /i/ are phonemes of English.•The number of phonemes varies from one language to another. •Characteristics of phonemes• A phoneme is a phonological unit(音系单位).•It is a unit that is of distinctive value.•It is an abstract unit. It is not any particular sound, but rather it is represented or realizedby a certain phone in a certain phonetic context.• E.g. the unaspirated [p] and the aspirated [p h] are all phones of the phoneme /p/.• A phoneme is capable of distinguishing meaning.•We can tell the difference among /mæn/, /pæn/, /bæn/, /tæn/, /ræn/, /kæn/, /æn/ because they all contain a different phoneme.3.3 Allophone音位变体•The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments.•The unaspirated [p]（不送气）and the aspirated [p h]（送气）are allophones（音位变体）of the phoneme /p/（音位）.•The phoneme /l/ can be realized as clear [l]（清晰）and dark [ɫ] （模糊）.（They are the allophones of the phoneme /l/.• 4.Phonemic contrast, complementary distribution, minimal pair •Phonetically similar sounds might be related in two ways:phonemic contrast(音位对立)complementary distribution (互补分布)•Phonemic contrast: If two phonetically similar sounds are two distinctive phonemes, they form a phonemic contrast.e.g. /p/ and /b/ in /pit/ and /bit/***Complementary distributionComplementary distribution refers to the situation in which phones never occur in the same phonetic environment.•If two phonetically similar sounds are allophones of the same phoneme, then they do not distinguish meaning, but complement each other in distribution, i.e. they occur in different phonetic environments. So allophones are said to be in complementary distribution.We use clear [l] before a vowel, such as loaf, and dark [ɫ] at the end of a word after a vowel or before a consonant.•Minimal pair最小对立体• A basic way to determine the phonemes of a language is to see if substituting one sound for another results in a change of meaning.•If it does, the two sounds then represent different phonemes.•An easy way to do this is to find the minimal pairs.When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two sound combinations are said to form a minimal pair.•bear pear•big pig•bill pill•pill till•till kill•bear pear•big pig•bill pill•pill till•till kill•Accordingly, we can conclude that /b/ /p/ /t/ /k/ are phonemes in English. •Minimal set•feat, fit, fat, fate, fought, foot•big, pig, rig, fig, dig, wig• 5.Phonological rules•Sequential rules序列规则•Assimilation rules 同化规则•Deletion rule省略规则•Sequential rules: rules that govern the combination of sounds in a particular language.For example，if a word begins with a [l] or a [r], then the next sound must be a vowel. •Student‟s presentation：Topic：initial sound is /s/•If three consonants should cluster together at the beginning of a word, the combinationshould obey the following three rules:(1)The first phoneme must be /s/(2) The second phoneme must be /p/ or /t/ or /k/(3)The third phoneme must be /l/ or /r/ or /w/•Based on the sequential rules, we can tell what arrangements of sounds can formpossible words in a language.blik, klib, bilk, kilbspring, strict, square•Assimilation rules: The assimilation rule assimilates one sound to another by …copying‟a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones similar. •When a speech sound changes, and becomes more like another sound which follows itor precedes it, this is called assimilation.•The [i:] sound is nasalized in words like bean, green, team, scream.•The alveolar nasal [n] is assimilated to a velar nasal [ŋ] in the word incorrect, because [k] is a velar stop.•The sound assimilation (for ease of articulation) is reflected in the spelling (word formation):•In English, the negative prefix appears as im- before words such as possible: As possible starts with a bilabial sound, the prefix im- ends in a bilabial sound.•Why not inpossible?•Can you explain intolerant?•How about illegal and irregular?•Progressive assimilation•Regressive assimilation•Reciprocal assimilation•What‟s this?•It‟s easy.•What‟s happened?•I used to…•In bed•Ten minutes•Don‟t be late.•Good-bye•In case•I don‟t care.•Good girl•This shape•This year•Has she come?•Where‟s yours?•education•situation•Deletion rule: The deletion rule determines when a sound is to be deleted although it isorthographically represented (present in the spelling).sign signaturedesign designationparadigm paradigmatic•The rule: delete a [g] when it occurs before a final nasal consonant.• 6. Suprasegmental features超切分特征•Syllable•Stress•Tone (pitch movement)•Intonation6.1 Syllable• A unit in speech which is often longer than one sound and smaller than a whole word. •The syllable is defined by the way in which vowels and consonants combine to form various sequences.•Vowels can form a syllable on their own or they can be the center of a syllable. •Consonants are at the beginning or end of syllables and with a few exceptions, do not usually form syllables on their own.6.2 Stress•The pronunciation of a word or syllable with more force than the surrounding words or syllables.•Word stress and sentence stress•Word stress refers to the relative force given to the syllable(s) of a word. •The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning. •Sentence stress refers to the relative force given to the components of a sentence.•Student’s presentation:Topic 1: word stress and part of speechTopic 2: sentence stressI bought an English-Chinese dictionary.•Group-discussion•I am painting my living room blue.•我有一本朋友送的英汉词典。