More Phonetic Transcription Practice

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More Phonetic Transcription Practice
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Phonology

• The Study of Fun!

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Levels of Representation

• The most fundamental, and most difficult, concept
  of phonology is this
• What we think of as a single sound can actually
  be different sounds at two different levels
• an underlying, unconscious, unstated level
• a physical, surface level

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For example

• Say the words cop /kap/ and keep /kip/ aloud.
• Notice that the place of articulation is slightly
  different the /k/ in keep is produced slightly
  farther forward than the /k/ in cop (it is
  palatalized).
• Although they are physically and acoustically
  different, to a native speaker of English, they
  sound the same because in your mind they are the
  same.
• This unconscious level is called the underlying
  level, while the physical reality is called the
  surface level.

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Another example

• Compare the words pit /p?t/ and spit /sp?t/.
• Notice that you produce a small puff of air
  (aspiration) when you say pit but not when you
  say spit.
• Again, although a native speaker unconsciously
  thinks that the two /p/ sounds are the same,
  physically they are quite different.

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Distinctive and Nondistinctive Sounds

• We say that palatalization and aspiration are
  nondistinctive sounds in English that is, they
  are not used to distinguish words from each
  other.
• Similarly, the voicing of a bilabial stop (the
  difference between /b/ and /p/) is a distinctive
  sound in English, but not in Korean.

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Phonemes and Allophones

• For native English speakers, the reason the /p/
  sounds in pit and spit are perceived to be
  the same is that they both contain the phoneme
  /p/.
• We refer to p and p? (the nondistinctive
  surface level variations) as allophones of the
  phoneme /p/.
• Note that in other languages (Hindi and Thai, for
  example) aspiration is distinctive /p/ and /p?/
  are separate phonemes.

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So in English, p and p? are allophones of
the phoneme /p/

• phoneme (underlying) allophones
  (surface)

p (regular /p/)
/p/
p? (aspirated /p/)
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And in English, k and k? are allophones of
the phoneme /k/

• phoneme (underlying) allophones
  (surface)

k (regular /k/)
/k/
k? (palatalized /k/)
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An Analogy

• phoneme (underlying) allophones
  (surface)
• Temperature describes the environment in which we
  see each allomorph of the phoneme H2O.

ice when temperature is less than 0?
water when temperature is between 0? and 100?
/H2O/
steam when temperature is over 100?
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The Systematicity of Phonology

• Just as with our water analogy, the allophones of
  a phoneme follow systematic rules governing when
  they appear.
• Note that the /p/ in pit is always aspirated,
  while the /p/ in spit is never aspirated.
• How can we describe these rules?

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Phonological Environment

• Native speakers unconsciously and automatically
  apply phonological rules depending on the
  environment in which a phoneme is used.
• The environment of a sound is basically made up
  of two main factors

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Phonological Environment

• The position of a phoneme within a word
• word initial
• word internal
• word final
• The phonemes surrounding sounds
• the preceding sound
• the following sound

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Quick Exercise

• For each phoneme in the word below, describe its
  environment in terms of position in the word and
  surrounding sounds.
• risk r?sk
• r
• ?
• s
• k

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Determining the Relationship Between Sounds

• Given two sounds in a language, we want to
  determine Are they phonemes, or allophones of
  one phoneme?
• If the two sounds are separate phonemes (like /p/
  and /b/ in English), native speakers of that
  language will recognize them as being different.
• If two sounds are allophones of a single phoneme
  (like kJ and k in English), native speakers
  will interpret them as being the same sound.

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Contrastive Sounds

• If native speakers of a language recognize two
  sounds as distinct, they are said to be
  contrastive in that language.
• The way to prove two sounds are contrastive is to
  find a minimal pair two words with different
  meanings that have exactly the same sounds in the
  same order except for a single difference.

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For example, in English

• Each of the following pairs of words is a minimal
  pair with respect to k and g.
• When two sounds occur in the exact same
  environments, they are said to be in overlapping
  distribution.

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Important Points

• Minimal pairs prove contrast between two sounds
  contrastive sounds are necessarily different
  phonemes.
• Minimal pairs are created by putting two sounds
  in the same phonological environment (overlapping
  distribution).

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Quick Exercise

• Which of the following two words comprise a
  minimal pair proving that s and t are
  contrastive in English?

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Non-Contrastive Sounds

• When native speakers do not recognize two
  different sounds as distinct, they are said to be
  non-contrastive. Notice that there are no minimal
  pairs with respect to k and k?.

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Non-Contrastive Sounds

• If we are unable to find two sounds in the exact
  same environment, we can conclude that they are
  in complementary distribution.
• That is, where one of the sounds is used (its
  environment), the other never occurs, and vice
  versa.
• We can see, for example, that k? always occurs
  before front vowels, and k never does.

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Important Points

• When two sounds are non-contrastive, we cant
  create a minimal pair non-contrastive sounds are
  necessarily allophones of the same phoneme.
• If two sounds cannot be put in overlapping
  distribution to create a minimal pair, theyre in
  complementary distribution.

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Back to Systematicity

• Allophonic variation - the surface level forms
  that a phoneme can take - is 100 systematic.
• For example, we dont randomly palatalize /k/ a
  limited number of sounds follow k?, and they
  belong to a single natural class, in this case
  front vowels.

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Memory-Jogging Exercise

• Complete each natural class by adding the missing
  phoneme that shares all the features of the ones
  provided.
• /m/, /n/
• /p/, /t/
• /v/, /?/, /z/
• /u/, /?/, /o/, /?/
• /i/, /?/, /u/

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Fridays Exam

• Will cover
• Week 1 Introductory Material
• Linguistic competence vs. performance, true
  language vs. communication systems, descriptive
  vs. prescriptive grammars, arbitrariness, etc.
• Week 2 Phonetics
• Transcription, articulatory phonetics, natural
  classes
• Week 3 Phonology
• Terminology (allophone vs. phoneme, complementary
  vs. overlapping distribution, distinctive vs.
  nondistinctive sounds, one phonology problem)