More Grammar Notes - Phoneme Calls!
Jan. 21st, 2009 12:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
major_kerinaBeyond the sounds...Phonology
Phonemes are the distinctive sounds - a change in sound produces a change in meaning -
Beat (bit) Meat (mit)
Feet (fit) Neat (nit)
Cheat [wedge]cit) Seat (sit) (new meaning in each).
Otherwise the sounds are the same. Initial sounds in the same environment, they then contrast in the same environment. They are denoted by virgules...(//)s
Minimal Pairs - Two words that differ by only one sound, found in the same location in both. Boat (bot) and Moat (mot) and Nod (nad) and Cod (kad) - examples.
There was practice - (which are minimal pairs?)
set and sat
slim and dim
tip and pit
past and best
run and fun
must and dust
Phonemes - must be uniquely identified (from every other). The features that distinguish it. So superfluous descriptors. Little detail.
In consonants - you need voicing, place of articulation, and manner (which we learned before). Then dumb practice of a few.
No two features identify phonemes. You need all three to make it so. Distinctive features of the language. Universal inventory. Then Thai...
Aspiration is not a distinctive feature that changes meaning. Pear is an example...you don't need to aspirate to change the overall meaning. Phonological rules make for a dialect.
Native speakers - better ear for detecting differences in phoneme changes. What they hear is configuration and filter. It only makes for an accent if unimportant features change.
Phonemes are not actually sounds (abstractions). Allophones are what you hear - the physical realizations (each have several such). Allophones are predictable (sign for the symbol of Phonemes). Many can be similar (aspirated p and unaspirated - both p).
Consider Phoneme as "TREE" then Allophones are kinds of trees (elm for instance). It has detail to be an allophone. So...Phoneme "T" and then aspirated T. One has minimal detail (voiceless alveolar stop - phoneme) and one has maximal detail (voiceless aspirated alveolar stop)...wait...wut? That's just one more bit of detail... Oh well, moving on...
Allophones do not contrast in the same environment (dust to rust - phoneme). Two can occur and not change the word - free variation - example - Stop - can be said two ways in the final position of P (puff of air release). They NEVER CHANGE meaning in the same environment (sounds like something which will be on the test).
They are also conditioned by phonological environment - they occur in different places - P T K voiceless stops...only aspirated when they are the first sound of a syllable (pot tone and cat - you get a puff of air out your mouth). Now try spot stone and scat...no aspiration. How to tell otherwise...say them together to note a difference.
Aspirated (absolutely initial syllable position) and Unaspirationed (everywhere else) at least...so what else? There are more.
Other cases - L - a single phoneme of English with at least two allophones...(example - lift and last) normal voiced alveolar lateral liquid (pre-vocalic)...then after vowels (elbow bell and fall)...the tongue is raised towards the velum...dark L or velarized L...post vocalic. Russia has different phonemes for this kind of L.
Vowels also have this as well. Some words - pay attention to the length of vowel
Bow.....Boat
See .... Seen
Bay .... Bait
Too .... Tune
Non Lengthened and Lengthened vowels. Left - open syllables (lengthened - vowel (sounding) end). Right - closed syllables (consonant end - not lengthened)
Here's the rules of capture allophones.
For aspiration - Three parts
Input (the sound is going to be changed) - Output (change being made) - Environment (where being made)
Input ex (minus voice minus continuant minus delayed release = voiceless stop) becomes Output (+aspirated) to environment *period* = syllable boundary / - where the rule takes place = become after a syllable boundary...so that's the environment...where it takes place in the word.
Another rule (dammit) the velarization of laterals (L) = Lateral only L. L become velarized after vowels. Not velarized elsewhere.
Another rule vowel lengthening (+vocalic = vowel) > (+lengthened) - / ____(last sound in a syllable...open syllables). Now you know how to write the rules of English (and hopefully break a few too).
Complimentary Distribution - Patterns to allophones! Works - each allophone appears in one environment and it doesn't overlap.
So - we have the Phoneme = X it has three Allophones - X1 X2 X3 > they point to a different environment (A B or C) and none of them equal one another. Allegory - Children in the Phone Family...each child has a different room.
Some more voiceless stops have two types (aspirated and unaspirated). See our example about syllable position before. And Velarized L (before and after vowels...two mutually exclusive environments).
*it's around this point that I stopped giving a shit but slogged through all this anyway*
Complimentary Distribution - Normal distribution - why? - one answer - Assimilation (We are the Vowels...). Different environments induce these different states.
Activity Pairs! Get a mirror...you can steal anyone's mirror to do this.
twelve tell
dwell deli
quick kick
shoe she
juice jest
sweet seat
How is the first sound articulated? - You should see that first sound on the left is round in its sound and not round in the 2nd set.
Why is this? It's Assimilation. They are followed by round sounds like U and W. They assimilate the rounding property. They become rounded allophones by their particular environment (before round sounds). And unrounded appear by not being before rounded sounds. A rounded sound gets a half-moon at the bottom to distinguish them.
In assimilation rules, the output is always the same as the environment (it only occurs in one particular environment and as a feature from it).
The input acquires a feature (the output) that is the same as the relevant feature in the environment.
[ + consonants ] ----> [ + round ] / ______ [ + round ]
Here's another rule
In English an alveolar consonant before a dental becomes dental.
ten [n] tenth [n1]
man [n] month [n1]
well [l] wealth [l1]
hell [l] health [l1]
[ + alveolar ] ----> [ + dentalized ] / ___ [ + dental]
In English, a vowel before a nasal becomes nasalized.
Men Mit
Tone Tote
Bum Bus
Long Lot
[ + vowel ] ----> [ + nasal ] / ___ [ + nasal]
Now you need to explain everything I just wrote! Find an infant. You have ten minutes.
Nasalization only occurs before nasal consonants. Non-Nasaled...everywhere else. That's complimentary distribution.
Natural Classes! Remove your clothes!
Okay...not Au Natural Classes...more like -
A natural class can be described with fewer features than can any one sound in the class.
/t/ is a voiceless alveolar stop
/p/ /t/ /k/ are voiceless stops (a natural class) -less features describing them.
/p/ /t/ /k/ /b/ /d/ /g/ are stops (a larger natural class).
This is good to know because I like memorizing classes together to know them all and not get them mixed up.
The concept of natural classes is important because phonological processes such as aspiration (applies to voiceless stops), rounding (all consonants), nasalization (all vowels), and dentalization (all alveolars) apply to natural classes.
The environments that trigger these phonological processes are also comprised of natural classes. So...in rounding...all consonants...but where? Look at the previous and see where they are classified as that happening in?
Some do not form natural classes (loners)...no commonality between them that excludes all others. T L and M can't form a class...since they have nothing in common by classification (and yet they're still best friends and have a game night on Thursdays).
Let's practice this!
Which groups of sounds below form a natural class (you need ALL of them)
/m/ /n/ /eng\ (yes - nasals)
/b\ \d\ \g\ \t\ (not united by commonality...need to lose T)
/f\ \s\ \theta\ \s-wedge\ \h\ (all the voiceless fricatives yes)
/w\ \z\ \l\ \r\ (not a class)
/l\ \r\ \w\ \j\ (is a natural class...IMPORTANT!...it is the class of non-nasal consonant sonorants of english...important later)
/b/ /d/ /g/ (yes...natural class of voiced stops)
Allophones and parsing - final topic (YESSSSSSSS!)
The “stream of speech” does not have word boundaries except for certain types of pauses. (we do not speak like this...just people on NPR)
Nevertheless, interlocutors “hear” and understand the words in a conversation.
Environment determines which allo-phone of a given phoneme will occur.
This behavior is captured in phonological rule (seen previously). We know these rules.
Speakers of a language know the phonological rules of their language.
They use that information for the parsing of segmental sequences.
Two strings of otherwise identical phonemes will be parsed differently depending on the allophones representing the phonemes.
Example - That's tough (aspirated) ...not aspirated it becomes That stuff.
Ice Cream and then I scream (there's a bunch of phonetic stuff but it's in IPA and it's not supported to paste here)
You use your innate, allophonic knowledge to interpret it all.
And that's it ^^ For now. Tomorrow I hope to finish the last lecture...then I grill myself with exercises until I'm prepared for the 27TH X_X...evil test...
Phonemes are the distinctive sounds - a change in sound produces a change in meaning -
Beat (bit) Meat (mit)
Feet (fit) Neat (nit)
Cheat [wedge]cit) Seat (sit) (new meaning in each).
Otherwise the sounds are the same. Initial sounds in the same environment, they then contrast in the same environment. They are denoted by virgules...(//)s
Minimal Pairs - Two words that differ by only one sound, found in the same location in both. Boat (bot) and Moat (mot) and Nod (nad) and Cod (kad) - examples.
There was practice - (which are minimal pairs?)
set and sat
slim and dim
tip and pit
past and best
run and fun
must and dust
Phonemes - must be uniquely identified (from every other). The features that distinguish it. So superfluous descriptors. Little detail.
In consonants - you need voicing, place of articulation, and manner (which we learned before). Then dumb practice of a few.
No two features identify phonemes. You need all three to make it so. Distinctive features of the language. Universal inventory. Then Thai...
Aspiration is not a distinctive feature that changes meaning. Pear is an example...you don't need to aspirate to change the overall meaning. Phonological rules make for a dialect.
Native speakers - better ear for detecting differences in phoneme changes. What they hear is configuration and filter. It only makes for an accent if unimportant features change.
Phonemes are not actually sounds (abstractions). Allophones are what you hear - the physical realizations (each have several such). Allophones are predictable (sign for the symbol of Phonemes). Many can be similar (aspirated p and unaspirated - both p).
Consider Phoneme as "TREE" then Allophones are kinds of trees (elm for instance). It has detail to be an allophone. So...Phoneme "T" and then aspirated T. One has minimal detail (voiceless alveolar stop - phoneme) and one has maximal detail (voiceless aspirated alveolar stop)...wait...wut? That's just one more bit of detail... Oh well, moving on...
Allophones do not contrast in the same environment (dust to rust - phoneme). Two can occur and not change the word - free variation - example - Stop - can be said two ways in the final position of P (puff of air release). They NEVER CHANGE meaning in the same environment (sounds like something which will be on the test).
They are also conditioned by phonological environment - they occur in different places - P T K voiceless stops...only aspirated when they are the first sound of a syllable (pot tone and cat - you get a puff of air out your mouth). Now try spot stone and scat...no aspiration. How to tell otherwise...say them together to note a difference.
Aspirated (absolutely initial syllable position) and Unaspirationed (everywhere else) at least...so what else? There are more.
Other cases - L - a single phoneme of English with at least two allophones...(example - lift and last) normal voiced alveolar lateral liquid (pre-vocalic)...then after vowels (elbow bell and fall)...the tongue is raised towards the velum...dark L or velarized L...post vocalic. Russia has different phonemes for this kind of L.
Vowels also have this as well. Some words - pay attention to the length of vowel
Bow.....Boat
See .... Seen
Bay .... Bait
Too .... Tune
Non Lengthened and Lengthened vowels. Left - open syllables (lengthened - vowel (sounding) end). Right - closed syllables (consonant end - not lengthened)
Here's the rules of capture allophones.
For aspiration - Three parts
Input (the sound is going to be changed) - Output (change being made) - Environment (where being made)
Input ex (minus voice minus continuant minus delayed release = voiceless stop) becomes Output (+aspirated) to environment *period* = syllable boundary / - where the rule takes place = become after a syllable boundary...so that's the environment...where it takes place in the word.
Another rule (dammit) the velarization of laterals (L) = Lateral only L. L become velarized after vowels. Not velarized elsewhere.
Another rule vowel lengthening (+vocalic = vowel) > (+lengthened) - / ____(last sound in a syllable...open syllables). Now you know how to write the rules of English (and hopefully break a few too).
Complimentary Distribution - Patterns to allophones! Works - each allophone appears in one environment and it doesn't overlap.
So - we have the Phoneme = X it has three Allophones - X1 X2 X3 > they point to a different environment (A B or C) and none of them equal one another. Allegory - Children in the Phone Family...each child has a different room.
Some more voiceless stops have two types (aspirated and unaspirated). See our example about syllable position before. And Velarized L (before and after vowels...two mutually exclusive environments).
*it's around this point that I stopped giving a shit but slogged through all this anyway*
Complimentary Distribution - Normal distribution - why? - one answer - Assimilation (We are the Vowels...). Different environments induce these different states.
Activity Pairs! Get a mirror...you can steal anyone's mirror to do this.
twelve tell
dwell deli
quick kick
shoe she
juice jest
sweet seat
How is the first sound articulated? - You should see that first sound on the left is round in its sound and not round in the 2nd set.
Why is this? It's Assimilation. They are followed by round sounds like U and W. They assimilate the rounding property. They become rounded allophones by their particular environment (before round sounds). And unrounded appear by not being before rounded sounds. A rounded sound gets a half-moon at the bottom to distinguish them.
In assimilation rules, the output is always the same as the environment (it only occurs in one particular environment and as a feature from it).
The input acquires a feature (the output) that is the same as the relevant feature in the environment.
[ + consonants ] ----> [ + round ] / ______ [ + round ]
Here's another rule
In English an alveolar consonant before a dental becomes dental.
ten [n] tenth [n1]
man [n] month [n1]
well [l] wealth [l1]
hell [l] health [l1]
[ + alveolar ] ----> [ + dentalized ] / ___ [ + dental]
In English, a vowel before a nasal becomes nasalized.
Men Mit
Tone Tote
Bum Bus
Long Lot
[ + vowel ] ----> [ + nasal ] / ___ [ + nasal]
Now you need to explain everything I just wrote! Find an infant. You have ten minutes.
Nasalization only occurs before nasal consonants. Non-Nasaled...everywhere else. That's complimentary distribution.
Natural Classes! Remove your clothes!
Okay...not Au Natural Classes...more like -
A natural class can be described with fewer features than can any one sound in the class.
/t/ is a voiceless alveolar stop
/p/ /t/ /k/ are voiceless stops (a natural class) -less features describing them.
/p/ /t/ /k/ /b/ /d/ /g/ are stops (a larger natural class).
This is good to know because I like memorizing classes together to know them all and not get them mixed up.
The concept of natural classes is important because phonological processes such as aspiration (applies to voiceless stops), rounding (all consonants), nasalization (all vowels), and dentalization (all alveolars) apply to natural classes.
The environments that trigger these phonological processes are also comprised of natural classes. So...in rounding...all consonants...but where? Look at the previous and see where they are classified as that happening in?
Some do not form natural classes (loners)...no commonality between them that excludes all others. T L and M can't form a class...since they have nothing in common by classification (and yet they're still best friends and have a game night on Thursdays).
Let's practice this!
Which groups of sounds below form a natural class (you need ALL of them)
/m/ /n/ /eng\ (yes - nasals)
/b\ \d\ \g\ \t\ (not united by commonality...need to lose T)
/f\ \s\ \theta\ \s-wedge\ \h\ (all the voiceless fricatives yes)
/w\ \z\ \l\ \r\ (not a class)
/l\ \r\ \w\ \j\ (is a natural class...IMPORTANT!...it is the class of non-nasal consonant sonorants of english...important later)
/b/ /d/ /g/ (yes...natural class of voiced stops)
Allophones and parsing - final topic (YESSSSSSSS!)
The “stream of speech” does not have word boundaries except for certain types of pauses. (we do not speak like this...just people on NPR)
Nevertheless, interlocutors “hear” and understand the words in a conversation.
Environment determines which allo-phone of a given phoneme will occur.
This behavior is captured in phonological rule (seen previously). We know these rules.
Speakers of a language know the phonological rules of their language.
They use that information for the parsing of segmental sequences.
Two strings of otherwise identical phonemes will be parsed differently depending on the allophones representing the phonemes.
Example - That's tough (aspirated) ...not aspirated it becomes That stuff.
Ice Cream and then I scream (there's a bunch of phonetic stuff but it's in IPA and it's not supported to paste here)
You use your innate, allophonic knowledge to interpret it all.
And that's it ^^ For now. Tomorrow I hope to finish the last lecture...then I grill myself with exercises until I'm prepared for the 27TH X_X...evil test...
