Descriptive Linguistics

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Descriptive Linguistics

• Phonetics and Phonology

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Phonetics and Phonology

• Phonetics how sounds are produced and what their
  physical properties are
• Phonology the organization of sounds in a
  language

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Phonology

• The Organization of Sounds in a Language

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Phonology

• Languages differ regarding which sounds speakers
  consider to be separate sounds

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Phonology

• Languages differ regarding which sounds speakers
  consider to be separate sounds
• English sit s?t versus seat sit

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Phonology

• Languages differ regarding which sounds speakers
  consider to be separate sounds
• English sit s?t versus seat sit
• Spanish sí yes si versus singular singular
  s?ngular

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Separate Sounds

• English and Spanish both have the phones i and
  ?

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Separate Sounds

• English and Spanish both have the phones i and
  ?
• BUT

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Separate Sounds

• English and Spanish both have the phones i and
  ?
• BUT
• English speakers feel they are separate sounds
• Spanish speakers feel they are the same sound

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Why???
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How are sounds organized differently in English
and Spanish?
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English

• i and ? are separate phonemes

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English

• i and ? are separate phonemes
• Different phonemes make different words.

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Spanish

• i and ? are allophones of the same phoneme

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Spanish

• i and ? are allophones of the same phoneme
• i and ? are used in different places in a word

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Spanish

• i and ? are allophones of the same phoneme
• i and ? are used in different places in a
  word
• i when the syllable ends in a vowel
• ? when the syllable ends in a consonant

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English
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Spanish
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Spanish versus English

• One phoneme
• Two allophones of that phoneme

• Two separate phonemes
• Each phoneme has one allophone

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Phonemes and their Allophones
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Phonemes and their Allophones

• Different allophones of a phoneme usually occur
  in different places in the word

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Phonemes and their Allophones

• Different allophones of a phoneme usually occur
  in different places in the word
• English voiceless stop phonemes (/p/, /t/ and
  /k/) have a special allophone at the beginning of
  the word

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Phonemes and their Allophones

• Different allophones of a phoneme usually occur
  in different places in the word
• English voiceless stops (/p/, /t/ and /k/) have a
  special allophone at the beginning of the word
• pop phap
• tot that
• cock khak

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Aspiration

• ph, th and kh mean that the stop consonant
  is pronounced with a puff of air

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Aspiration

• ph, th and kh mean that the stop consonant
  is pronounced with a puff of air
• These are aspirated stops

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Are English aspirated stops separate phonemes
from unaspirated stops?

• Is there a specific environment in which
  aspirated stops occur?

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Are English aspirated stops separate phonemes
from unaspirated stops?

• Is there a specific environment in which
  aspirated stops occur?
• Does the choice of aspirated or unaspirated stop
  change what word is being pronounced?

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Are English aspirated stops separate phonemes
from unaspirated stops?

• Is there a specific environment in which
  aspirated stops occur?

YES!
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Are English aspirated stops separate phonemes
from unaspirated stops?

• Does the choice of aspirated or unaspirated stop
  change what word is being pronounced?

NO!
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Are English aspirated stops separate phonemes
from unaspirated stops?

• Is there a specific environment in which
  aspirated stops occur? YES!
• Does the choice of aspirated or unaspirated stop
  change what word is being pronounced? NO!

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Are English aspirated stops separate phonemes
from unaspirated stops?

• Thus, aspirated and unaspirated stops are not
  separate phonemes.

• They are both allophones of the same phoneme.

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English Aspirated Stops

• Complementary distribution
• Dont affect meaning
• Thus allophones of the same phoneme.

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Allophones of Same Phoneme

• Complementary distribution
• Dont affect meaning

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Separate Phonemes
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Separate Phonemes

• Contrastive distribution

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Separate Phonemes

• Contrastive distribution
• occur in same position in word

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Separate Phonemes

• Contrastive distribution
• occur in same position in word
• Change meaning

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English versus Korean
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English versus Korean

• Both have voiceless aspirated consonants as
  phones
• Are Korean voiceless aspirated stops separate
  phonemes from voiceless unaspirated stops?

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Korean

• phal arm
• pal foot

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Korean

• tha ride
• ta all
• phi blood
• pi rain
• khi height
• ki energy

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Korean

• phi blood
• pi rain
• khi height
• ki energy

Are aspirated and unaspirated stops in
complementary or contrastive distribution in
Korean?
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Korean
Are aspirated and unaspirated stops in
complementary or contrastive distribution in
Korean?
Contrastive distribution
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Korean

• Are unaspirated and aspirated voiceless stops
  separate phonemes or allophones of the same
  phoneme?

They are separate phonemes.
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Because Korean aspirated and unaspirated stops
are in contrastive distribution
they are separate phonemes
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English

• Because English aspirated and unaspirated stop
  consonants are in complementary distribution

they are allophones of the same phoneme
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Free Variation
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Free Variation

• Sometimes sounds can be pronounced two ways
• sip s?p
• s?ph

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Free Variation

• Sometimes sounds can be pronounced two ways
• sip s?p
• s?ph
• Meaning same
• Free variation

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Free Variation

• Phones in free variation are allophones of the
  same phoneme
• Phones in free variation are not spearate phonemes

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Phonological Rules
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Phonological Rules

• Phonological rules connect phonemes to their
  allophones
• Rule The phoneme /p/ is pronounced as the phone
  ph when it occurs at the beginning of a word.
• More formally /p/ ph/ _____

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Phonological Rules

• /p/ ph/ _____
• is pronounced as
• / when it is
• beginning or end of word
• _____ the position of the phoneme in
  question

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Phonological Rules

• /p/ ph/ _____
• is pronounced as
• / when it is
• beginning or end of word
• __ the position of the phoneme in question

The phoneme /p/ is pronounced as ph when it is
at the beginning of a word.
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Distinctive Features
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Distinctive Features

• Are phones the atoms of phonology?

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Distinctive Features

• Can phones be broken down into smaller parts?

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Phones are combinations of distinctive features

• The distinctive features of the vowel a
• vocalic, -consonantal, low, back, lax

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Phones are combinations of distinctive features

• The distinctive features of the vowel a
• vocalic, -consonantal, low, back, lax
• You can read the distinctive features off the
  chart of vowels

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Phones are combinations of distinctive features

• The distinctive features of the vowel a
• vocalic, -consonantal, low, back, lax,
  unrounded
• You can read the distinctive features off the
  chart of vowels

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Phones are combinations of distinctive features

• The consonant w or ? as in where is composed of
  the following distinctive features
• consonantal, -vocalic, glide, -voiced
• The distinctive features can be read off the
  consonant chart
• (More advanced courses may use different feature
  sets that cannot be read off the charts.)

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Phonological rules use distinctive features to
capture generalizations
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The English Aspiration Rule

• p ph/ _____
• t th/______
• k kh/______

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The English Aspiration Rule

• p ph/ _____
• t th/______
• k kh/______
• Does this miss a generalization?

YES!!!
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The English Aspiration Rule

• p ph/ _____
• t th/______
• k kh/______
• p, t, k are all voiceless stops.

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The English Aspiration Rule

• p ph/ _____
• t th/______
• k kh/______
• p, t, k are all voiceless stops.
• Voiceless stops are aspirated when they are in
  the beginning of the word.

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The English Aspiration Rule

• p ph/ _____
• t th/______
• k kh/______
• Voiceless stops are aspirated when they are in
  the beginning of the word.

Consonantal -Vocalic Stop -Voiced
aspirated
___________
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The English Aspiration Rule
Consonantal -Vocalic Stop -Voiced
aspirated
___________
Voiceless stops are aspirated when they are in
the beginning of the word.
By expressing the rule in terms of distinctive
features we can capture the scientific
generalization
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Phonetics Goals

• Learn how English sounds are made
• Learn how our anatomy influences how we make
  speech sounds

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What is the challenge?

• Cineradiography demos two English utterances and
  one in French, from the X-Ray Film Database
  project
• http//pavlov.psyc.queensu.ca/munhallk/05_databas
  e.htm

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Speech Production Mechanism
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The Vocal Tract
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How are consonants formed?

• Consonants (often) block or interfere with the
  passing of air from the lungs.

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Some Factors in Consonant Formation

• State of the glottis (vocal folds)
• Place of articulation
• Manner of articulation

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Some Factors in Consonant Formation

• State of the glottis (vocal folds)
• Folds open (voiceless, no hum) - h, p, t, k.

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Some Factors in Consonant Formation

• State of the glottis (vocal folds)
• Folds near each other (voiced, humming) - a, i,
  b, d, g.

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Some Factors in Consonant Formation

• Place of articulation
• where is the air blocked or interfered with?
• p The air is blocked at the two lips
• The place of articulation is bilabial

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Some Factors in Consonant Formation

• Places of articulation
• Two lips (bilabial)
• Lip and upper teeth (labiodental)
• Between teeth (interdental)
• Alveolar ridge (alveolar)
• Hard palate (palatal)
• Velum (velar)
• Glottis (glottal)

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Some Factors in Consonant Formation

• Manner of articulation
• Stop air passage blocked p, d, k...

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Some Factors in Consonant Formation

• Manner of articulation
• Stop (p, d, k...)
• Fricative air interfered with z, v, s etc.

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Some Factors in Consonant Formation

• Manner of articulation
• Stop (p, d, k...)
• Fricatives (s, z, v...)
• Affricate air blocked and released

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Some Factors in Consonant Formation

• Manner of articulation
• Stop (p, d, k...)
• Fricatives (s, z, v...)
• Affricate air blocked and released
• t? - church, d? - judge

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Some Factors in Consonant Formation

• Manner of articulation
• Stop (p, d, k...)
• Fricative (s, z, v...)
• Affricate t? - church, d? - judge
• Together these are called Obstruents

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Some Factors in Consonant Formation

• Manner of articulation
• Stop (p, d, k...)
• Fricative (s, z, v...)
• Affricate t? - church, d? - judge
• Nasal m, n, ?

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Some Factors in Consonant Formation

• Manner of articulation
• Stop (p, d, k...)
• Fricative (s, z, v...)
• Affricate t? - church, d? - judge
• Nasal m, n, ?
• Lateral Liquid l

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Some Factors in Consonant Formation

• Manner of articulation
• Stop (p, d, k...)
• Fricative (s, z, v...)
• Affricate t? - church, d? - judge
• Nasal m, n, ?
• Lateral Liquid l
• Retroflex Liquid r

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Some Factors in Consonant Formation

• Manner of articulation
• Stop (p, d, k...)
• Fricative (s, z, v...)
• Affricate t? - church, d? - judge
• Nasal m, n, ?
• Lateral Liquid l
• Retroflex Liquid r
• Glide w, y

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Some Factors in Consonant Formation

• State of the glottis (vocal folds)
• Place of articulation
• Manner of articulation
• Interactive Sagittal Section (from Daniel Currie
  Halls website)
• http//www.chass.utoronto.ca/danhall/phonetics/sa
  mmy.html

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Classification of Consonants

• p is a voiceless bilabial stop
• n is a voiced alveolar nasal
• y is a voiced palatal glide
• etc.

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More Phonetics Goalsthe IPA

• Learn the IPA International Phonetic Alphabet
  symbols for English
• Learn to read IPA with correct pronunciation of
  English words
• Learn to transcribe English using IPA symbols

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English Consonants
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How are vowels made?

• The shape of the vocal tract determines what
  vowel is heard.

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How do we control, the shape of the vocal tract?

• Tongue height
• Tongue front/back
• Lip rounding
• Peter Ladefogeds Vowels and Consonants
• http//hctv.humnet.ucla.edu/departments/linguistic
  s/VowelsandConsonants/vowels/chapter11/tongue.html

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Example i as in key

• Tongue is high
• Tongue is front
• Lips are not rounded
• The vowel i is a high front unrounded vowel

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Example a as in Mom

• Tongue is low
• Tongue is back
• Lips are not rounded
• a is a low back unrounded vowel

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English Vowels
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Diphthongs

• Two part vowel

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Diphthongs

• Two part vowel
• Combination of vowel and glide

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Diphthongs

• Two part vowel
• Combination of vowel and glide
• Single syllable

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Diphthongs

• Two part vowel
• Combination of vowel and glide
• Single syllable
• e.g. ay as in buy bay
• ey as in bay bey
• aw as in cow kaw etc.

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What you need to know about the classification of
sounds

• The categories that are used for vowels and
  consonants
• What description categorization goes with each
  symbol

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For next time

• T, 4/3 Discussion sections
• DUE
• File 3.6 Exercises 2, 3, 4, 5 a - m, 6 a - m
• ?File 4.5 Exercises 1.1, 1.3
• Please practice transcription, vowel and
  consonant charts, and review files Files 3.1 -
  3.4, 4.1-4.4
• TH, 4/5 Lecture on Morphology
• Files 5.1, 5.3, 5.4