Weby Yolannisa 0311 11 044 English A2 Intriduction to Linguitics The sound patterns of language In this respect there is an important

difference between phonology and phonetics. Phonetics is dependent on technical apparatus; rapid and continuous technical development, especially in recent years, has resulted in a steadily increasing growth of our phonetic knowledge. Older phonetic studiesare therefore regarded by everybody as outdated and of historical interest only. It is not quite the same with phonology. phonological analysis does not produce new concrete facts which must be acknowledged by everybody in the same way as phonetics. the phonological schools differ chiefly in having different general views due to the historicalphilosophical context in which they are placed. Phonology The aim of phonology is to examine the way sounds are organized in languages and to explain the variations that occur. While it is physically possible to produce a wide range of sounds, only a relatively small number of these are used in a language. For example, a nasal preceding plosive, such as in mbeke does not occur in English at the beginning of a word, but it does in several African languages. This is not because English speakers cannot produce the specific sequence of sounds, but because of the way speech sounds in a particular language are organized. In phonology, the most characteristic properties of different sounds, known as features, are compared to develop rules underlying the use of sounds in groups of languages. Systematic surveys of a representative number of languages are necessary to be able to generalize about sound systems, and to relate the findings to other areas of language (e.g. syntax and morphology). The UPSID database (UCLA Phonological Segment Inventory Database), developed by Ian Maddieson and colleagues in the 1980s, contains inventories of over 450 languages of the world. This database, as well as the Stanford Phonology Archive, has become a popular tool in teaching and in phonological and phonetic research.

A detailed description of a language is not only of interest for the sake of having a survey of different languages of the world but is also essential to be able to teach foreign learners a language, or to treat children who are not acquiring the sound system of their language properly, or people who have lost the capacity to speak through injury or illness. In addition, speech technology communication systems require knowledge of the structure of a language. Phoneme Each of these meaning-distinguishing sounds in a language is describe as a phoneme.When we considered the basis of alphabetic writing, we were actually working with the concept of the phonemes as the single sound type which came to be represented by a single symbol.It is in this sense that the phoneme / t / is described as a sound type, of which all the different spoken versions of { t } are tokens.Note that slash marks are conventiolly used to indicate a phoneme, / t /, an abstract segment , as opposed to the square brackets, [ t ], used for each phonetic , or phisically produced segment. An essential property of a phonemes is that it funtions contrastively.We know that there are two phonemes / f / and / v / in English because they are the only bases of the contrast in meaning between the forms fat and vat, or fine and vine.This contrastive property is the basic operational test for detemining the phonemes which exist in a language.We substitute one sound for another in a word and there is a change of meaning, then two sounds represent different phonemes. Distinctive Features A phoneme can be described by several articulatory and acoustical features. One of the main aims of phonology is to identify the set of distinctive features required to describe the sounds of a language. Distinctive features serve to distinguish one phoneme from another. It is important to describe these detailed aspects of speech sounds, in order to understand how sets of sounds are related.Tables 1 and 2 list some distinctive features (not exhaustive) of some English vowels and consonants. If a feature is present, it is marked with a (_) sign; if it is not present, it is marked with a minus (_) sign. The features front, back, high, low, and round refer to the position of the tongue in the vocal tract. For front sounds, the body of the tongue is fronted re its neutral position (for the / /, a schwa), for back sounds it is retracted re its neutral position. For high sounds, the body of the tongue is raised re the / /, while for low sounds it is lowered re the / /. Rounded sounds are produced with protruding lips. Voicing refers to the presence or absence of vocal fold vibration.

The feature continuant distinguishes between stops (nasal stops included) and other sounds. Anterior sounds are produced with the tongue tip at or before the alveolar ridge in the vocal tract, and coronal sounds are produced with the tongue tip or blade raised (it includes some palatal consonants). Strident sounds are fricatives or affricates (_stop _ fricative) with high-frequency noise (a hissing sound). Nasal sounds are produced with the velum lowered, resulting in airflow through the oral and nasal cavities. The notion of distinctive features is not only relevant for analysis purposes but also for the description of phonological processes. Some phonological processes, such as for instance assimilation, affect certain combinations of features more than others, and this should be reflected in the phonological representation.This is possible if it is assumed that each distinctive feature is free to act independent of the other features it may be associated with. This approach consisting of interconnecting levels (tiers) is known as autosegmental phonology: each feature can influence a neighboring sound segment, irrespective of whether other associated features do so. In particular, feature geometry describes the (nonlinear) action of one feature on another by representing their relationship as hierarchical (tree) structures. Suprasegmentals Until now, we have considered the individual phonemes of a sound system. However, several phonological processes affect units that are larger than phonemes, such as syllables, words, phrases, and sentences. In some languages, words contain (with some exceptions) only front or back vowels (e.g. Turkish). The analysis of phonological features in terms of units larger than a phoneme is dealt with by prosodic phonology, and autosegmental phonology. Another branch of phonology, suprasegmental phonology, deals with aspects of pitch, loudness, tempo, rhythm, and tone. A phonological theory concerned with organizing phonemes into groups of relative prominence that emphasizes the relationship between phonemes and rhythm, and intonational stress is known as metrical phonology. Optimality Theory Until now, phonological processes have been addressed by means of rules and derivations (derivational Generative Phonology). Application of one rule often affects the subsequent application of some other rule. However, during the last decade, Optimality theory has obtained a dominant role in phonology. This approach has introduced an alternative way of modeling the relationship between words and sounds. Rather than trying to define how a languages words may be derived by combining given phonemes according to certain rules, Optimality theory approaches the problem from the opposite direction: in
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principle, any combination of features/sounds is assumed to be possible, but each language imposes certain constraints in a language-specific way on the endless possibilities. The constraints are assumed to be universal while they may be ranked differently, which allows for language- specific grammars. Miniman pairs and sets When two words such as pat and bat are identical in form except for a contrast in one phoneme, occurring in the same position, the two words are decribed as minimal pair. For example, we can tell that the sounds [f ] and [v] represent two phonemes in English because they contrast in words like fine and vine, which differ only in terms of the voicing of the initial fricative but which have very different meanings. Two words that contrast in meaning and have only one different sound are known as minimal pairs. The following are minimal pairs in English (we transcribe phonemes using slashes / /): bat vat /b/ /v/ bat pat /b/ /p/ pat fat /p/ /f/ hid heed /I/ /i/ hid head /I/ /E/ head had /E/ // Such pairs have been used frequently in tests of English as a second language to determine non-native speakers ability to understand the contrast in meaning resulting from the minimal sound contrast. When a group of words are differentiated, each one from the others, by changing one phoneme ( always in the same positions ), then we have a minimal set. hid heed head had hard hod hoard hood whod /I/ /i/ /E/ // /a/ /A/ /O/ /U/ /u/ One sight provided by this type of exercise with phonemes is that we can see that there are indeed definite patterns to the types of sound combinations permitted in a language.In English, the minimal set we have just listed does not include forms such as lig or vig. As far as I know, these are not English words, but they can be viewed as possible English words.That is your, phonological knowledge of the pattern of sound in ENGLISH words would allow you treat these forms as acceptable if, at some future time, they came into use. When we examine the possible minimal pairs and minimal series in a language, we can determine the phonemic inventory in that language: that is the speech sounds which make up the system of that language. The phonemic inventories of languages differ greatly. Some
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are quite large and others are quite small . If we examine the words of a language closely, we discover that a single phoneme can have a range of different pronunciations. The following English words (note that [l] and [n] indicate a voiceless [l] and [n] ): /p/ pin [phIn] spin [spIn] /l/ leap [li:p] sleep [sli:p] /n/ knees [ni:z] sneeze [sni:z] /h/ who [hu:] huge [ju:D ] In each pair of words, the sound is phonetically different because of the different environment (e.g. /p/ is [ph] initially but [p] after /s/), but the sounds are still perceived by speakers of English as the same phoneme as there is no meaningful contrast between the sounds, and substituting one for another would not produce a different word, just an unusual pronunciation of the same word. Phones and Allophones We have already established that, while a phoneme is an abstract unit of sound, there can be different phonetic realizations of any phoneme.These phonetic units are technically described as phones.It has been noted by phoneticians that, in English, there is a difference in pronunciation of the / i / sound in words like seed and seen. Allophones are the phonetic variations of distinctively used sounds. Sounds that are not distinctive are also known as redundant. In English, aspiration is a redundant feature. However, in Thai, aspiration is distinctive, as the use of aspiration affects the meaning of the utterance. By substituting one sound for the other (the commutation test), it is possible to determine the phonemes of a language. Some scholars have viewed the phoneme as a family of sounds (allophones) in which (i) the members of the family exhibit a certain family resemblance, and (ii) no member of the family ever occurs in a phonetic context where another member of the family could occur. The technical terms for these two properties of allophones of the same phoneme are (i) PHONETIC SIMILARITY and (ii) COMPLEMENTARY DISTRIBUTION. In

transcriptions, if the units being transcribed are phonemes rather than allophones, it is customary to enclose the symbols in slant lines: /l/. If, on the other hand, the transcription specifies allophones, square brackets are used: []. There is a general tendency for phonetically-based writing systems to have separate symbols for distinct phonemes, while allophones of the same phoneme are not separately represented. It is important to notice that sounds which are allophones of the same phoneme in one language may in other languages operate as distinct phonemes. In Russian, for example,
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sounds very similar to clear [l] and dark [l] can make a difference of meaning: /ml/ moth v. /m/ pier. Such differences between allophonic status and phonemic status can cause difficulties for learners; English learners of Russian will have no trouble learning Russian /m/ pier, with dark [l] in the final position, but may be expected to find /ml/ moth problematic because of the clear [l] in a position where it would not appear in English. Some allophones in English Other examples of sets of English sounds which are allophones of one phoneme include the following: (a) At the beginning of a stressed syllable, voiceless plosives are strongly aspirated in other words, after the lip closure of /p/ is released, the vocal cords do not begin to vibrate for the vowel immediately, but only after a perceptible delay, giving rise to a puff of breath before the vowel proper begins. When preceded by /s/, on the other hand, these plosives are unaspirated; the vocal cords in this case begin to vibrate immediately after lip closure is released, and no puff of breath intervenes. Thus pin is pronounced [phn], whereas spin is [spn]. The strongly aspirated [ph] never occurs after /s/, and the unaspirated [p] never occurs at the very beginning of a syllable. Again, at the end of a syllable, /p/ may be slightly aspirated. However, if followed by a /t/ (as in chapter), the closure for the /p/ is very likely not to be released until the release of the /t/ closure occurs . Again, an utterancefinal /p/ (as in Come on up!) is quite likely not to be released at all. (b) Any vowel followed by a voiceless sound is shorter than the same vowel phoneme followed by a voiced sound. For example, the vowel of beat is shorter than that of bead, the vowel of bit is shorter than that of bid, and the vowel of rice is shorter than that of rise. Shorter vowels of this kind are not to be confused with the short vowels which contrast with long vowels e.g. the vowel of bid in contrast with the vowel of bead. The difference between short and long in bid/bead is a difference between two distinct phonemes, whereas the difference between shorter and longer in beat/bead, bit/bid, and rice/ rise is an allophonic one. We shall refer to the shorter vowels of the allophonic pairs as shortened, and to the longer members as non-shortened; where necessary, the shortened allophone of /i:/ will be transcribed [i], without a length mark. (c) English /r/ has at least four different allophones: it is voiceless after voiceless aspirated plosives (the delay in the onset of vocal cord vibration is likely to persist through most or all of the /r/ in such cases), and voiced elsewhere. After the alveolar plosives /t/ and /d/, the tongue tip is close enough to the alveolar ridge to set up turbulence in the air stream, giving a fricative sound , this fricative is voiceless
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after the aspirated /t/ and voiced after /d/. After sounds other than /t/ and /d/, or initially in a word, there is no turbulence, and the sound is an approximant. (d) For many speakers the long o phoneme has a much more back pronunciation before dark [l] than before other sounds: coat is pronounced [kut] (where the vowel begins as a central vowel) while coal is [ku] (in which the beginning of the vowel is fully back). For the terms central and back, see . For some purposes, alphones of the same phoneme may need to be recognised as importanta beginner learning English as a foreign language, for example, may well have to practise making the difference between clear and dark [l], and that between shortened [i] and non-shortened [i:] etc., if his pronunciation is to sound right. For other purposes, however, these differences can safely be ignored: English spelling, for instance, loses nothing in clarity by noting both clear and dark [l] with the same letter l, shortened [i] and nonshortened [i:] with the same set of possibilities e-e (as in concrete), ea (as in bead), ee (as in meet), etc., all the allophones of /r/ with the same letter r, and central and back long o o-e (as in vote), oa (as in boat), etc.

Rules Phonological rules make statements about which allophones of a phoneme will occur in a specific context. The change of one item to another item in a certain environment can be stated by a rule. The validity of the rule can then be tested against other examples to determine exceptions between sounds within and across languages. Rules are important for discovering the universal principles governing the use of sounds in languages. It is necessary to specify the item(s) affected, the change(s) that takes place (indicated by ), and the environment in which the change occurs (indicated by /). In linear rule writing, the original state of affairs is given on the left of the arrow and the structural change and environment on the right of the arrow. For example, in English, vowels are nasalized before a nasal stop. This can be stated as follows: e.g. // [~]/ ___ /n/ .It is also possible to use brace notation to describe one process in two different environments. The following example states that /t/ can be pronounced as a glottal stop before a consonant or the end of a word (such as in button). By using parentheses and braces it is possible to formulate rules of greater complexity. Moreover, the Greek alphabet, or alpha notation, can be used to match features in different places in the rule. While some rules state how features are affected by the context of other features (feature-changing rules, such as nasalization, glottalization, flapping), other

rules can affect the entire segment. For example, in English a schwa is inserted between a final liquid and a nasal, as in [film] (instead of /film/). Given the presence of certain features, one can predict the value of other features in that segment. For example, there are no rounded front vowels in English.If a vowel is specified as [- back] it is also [-round]. It is therefore not necessary to specify [-round]. A blank indicates that the feature is predictable by a phonologicalrule of the language. Similarly, if a phoneme is [_nasal] it is also [_voiced] in English. Sometimes, nasal phonemes are devoiced after an initial /s/ [snu'p]. However, this does not affect the meaning of the word, as is the case in Burmese where /ma/ means health and /ma' / means order (therefore, they are different phonemes).

References Colinge N.E.( 2005 ) An encyclopaedia of lang Taylor & Francis Books, Inc Strazny Philipp ( 2005) Encyclopedia of linguistics Taylor & Francis Books, Inc Trask R.L ( 2005 ) Key concepts in language and linguistics Taylor & Francis Books, Inc Davies Alan & Catherine Elder ( 2004 ) The handbook of applied linguistics Blackwell Publishing Ltd Yule George ( 1994 ) The study of language : an introduction Cambridge University Press