Topic 3 Phonologyl 1. Phonetics and phonologyl Phonetics is of a general nature; it studies all the speech sounds used in all human languages: how they are produced, how they differ from each other, what phonetic features they possess, how they can be classified, etc.l Phonology aims at the system of sounds of a particular language. What applies to one language may not apply to another. Ways of combining speech sounds can be different across languages.l 2. Phone, Phoneme, and AllophonelPhone: A phone is a phonic unit or segment. All the speech sounds we produce are phones. Take the sounds in the following words for example: feel, leaf, top, stop f i: l s t.Phoneme: lThe basic unit of phonology is phoneme. It is a unit that is of distinctive value. It is an abstract unit. It is a collection of distinctive phonetic features. Phonemes are usually put between two slashes: /p/ /b/ / / Examples of Distinctive featuresl p b m lStop + + +lLabial + + +lVoiced + +lNasal +Allophone: lPhonemes are abstract units and cannot be read out. Its realization in certain phonetic environments results in allophones, variants of the phoneme. Allophones are put between two brackets. p ph, tth, k 4. Minimal Pairs, Complementary DistributionlMinimal Pairs :If two words are identical in form except for one sound segment that occurs in the same place in the string. i.e. fine vs. vine; crick vs. creek, bowl vs. dole; lobe vs. load; thigh vs. thylMinimal set: beat, bit, bait, bet, bat, biteComplementary DistributionlIf two or more phones never occur in the same phonological context, they are in complementary distribution. Allophones of one phoneme are usually in complementary distribution. In English the velar nasal and the glottal glide h are in complementary distribution; is not found word initially and h does not occur word finally. 5. Some rules in phonologylSequential ruleslThe phonological system determines which phonemes can begin a word, end a word, and follow each other. If we are asked to arrange the following sounds k l b l, results may be: lbki, ilbk, bkil, ilkb, blik, klib, kilb. The first four are not possible words in English.lThe rules that govern the combination of sounds in a particular language are called sequential rules. lIf three consonants should cluster together at the beginning of a word, the combination should obey the following rules: l1. The first phoneme must be /s/.l2. The second phoneme must be /p/ or /t/ or /k/.l3. The third phoneme must be /l/ or /r/ or /w/. lI.e. spring, strict, square, splendid, scream. lAnother familiar sequential rule in English is that affricates and the sibilants s z are not to be followed by another sibilant. Hence: teachteaches, oozeoozes, kisskisses, but stomachstomachs Assimilation ruleslThe Assimilation rule assimilates one sound to another by “copying a feature of neighboring sounds, thus making the two phones similar. lNasalizationlMore examples: the alveolar prefix in- may become different sounds in indiscrete, incorrect, impossible, irregular, illegalDeletion rule lSometimes a sound is deleted although it is orthographically represented. Examples are design, castle, tomb, comb 6. Suprasegmental features stress, tone, intonationlThe phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments are called suprasegmental features, some of which are stress, intonation, and tone. 6.1. Stresslword stress and sentence stressl The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning.l Noun-verb: import, producel Compounds-phrase: running dog , green house6.2. TonelTones are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibrations of the vocal cords. Pitch variations can distinguish meaning just like phonemes; therefore the tone is a suprasegmental feature.l English is not a tone language. Chinese is a tone language.6.3. IntonationlWhen pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as intonation. l When spoken in different tones, the same string of words may have different meanings.l He didnt come because it rained.l l