Phonological Knowledge permits native speakers 1

1
Phonological Knowledge permits native speakers 1

• ? to produce sounds that form meaningful
  utterances
• ? to recognize a foreign accent
• ? to invent words
• ? to add the appropriate phonetic segments to
  form plurals and past tenses
• to produce aspirated and unaspirated voiceless
  stops in the appropriate context

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman Nina Hyams.
2007. An Introduction to Language, 8th edition.
Boston, MA Thomson Wadsworth, p. 256.
2
Phonological Knowledge permits native speakers 2

• ? to know what is or is not a sound in ones
  language
• ? to know that different phonetic strings may
  represent the same morpheme
• ? to know which sounds can occur at the
  beginning or end of a word or syllable
• ? to know which sounds can occur next to each
  other within a syllable

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman Nina Hyams.
2007. An Introduction to Language, 8th edition.
Boston, MA Thomson Wadsworth, p. 256.
3
Language-Specific Rules

• ? Aspirated / unaspirated Rule English
  YES Chinese NO
• Tones differentiating syllables /
  words English NO Chinese YES
• ? Stops at end of words being devoiced English
  NO German YES

4
Regular English Plural Data

• A B C D
• cab cap bus child
• cad cat bush ox
• bag back buzz mouse
• love cuff garage criterion
• lathe faith match sheep
• cam badge
• can
• bang
• call
• bar
• spa
• boy

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman Nina Hyams.
2007. An Introduction to Language, 8th edition.
Boston, MA Thomson Wadsworth, pp. 256-257.
5
Analysis Procedure

• 1. Collect data.
• 2. Look for phonological patterns and the
  contexts (or environments) that show
  similarities or differences. (Any minimal
  pairs?)
• 3. Organize data according to patterns or
  contexts.
• 4. Identify the allomorphs and their associated
  environments.
• 5. Formulate a generalization or rule.

6
Environments for Regular Plurals

• Allomorph Environment Generalization
• z after voiced sound
• s after voiceless sound
• ?z after sibilant

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman Nina Hyams.
2007. An Introduction to Language, 8th edition.
Boston, MA Thomson Wadsworth, p. 257.
7
Regular Past Tense Data

• A B C D
• grab reap gloat run
• hug poke raid bring
• faze kiss hunt see
• roam watch roast eat
• play rush be
• call

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman Nina Hyams.
2007. An Introduction to Language, 8th edition.
Boston, MA Thomson Wadsworth, p. 259.
8
Phonemes

• Phonemes are not physical sounds. They are
  abstract mental representations of the
  phonological units of a langue, the units used to
  represent the forms of words in our mental
  lexicons. The phonological rules apply to the
  phonemic representation to determine the
  pronunciation of the words.

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman Nina Hyams.
2003. An Introduction to Language. Boston, MA
Wadsworth, p. 285.
9
Phoneme / Allophones

• pit p?
• spit p
• / p /
• tip p
• tip p

10
Chapter 7 Homework(Exercise 1, pp. 299-300)

• Initial Final
• a. / k / / g / cob gob back bag
• b. / m / / n / my nigh lime line
• c. / l / / r / lap rap seal seer
• d. / b / / v / bat vat cab calve
• e. / b / / m / bite might cub come

11
Chapter 7 Homework(Exercise 1, pp. 299-300)

• Initial Final
• f. / p / / f / pig fig
  goop goof
• g. / s / / ? / seat sheet
  gas gash
• h. / t ? / / d? / cheer jeer watch
  bridge
• i. / s / / z / sue zoo miss Ms

12
Chapter 7 Homework(Exercise 2, p. 300)

• Written word ? Pronunciation
• ? Each vowel should be pronounced.
  (No diphthongs No silent letters)
• ? Silent letter e pronounced / i /
• ? Letter a pronounced / ? /

13
Chapter 7 Homework(Exercise 2, p. 300)

• Oral word ? Written word
• ? Sound of vowel is written as the name of
  the vowel (long vowels)

14
Chapter 7 Homework(Exercise 3, p. 300)

• a. No minimal pairs
• b. Yes in complementary distribution
• c. CONTEXT for / r / ru, ri, ra, r? , ra
• CONTEXT for / l / final l, lg, ls
• c. Pronounce it / r / before a vowel
• Pronounce it / l / elsewhere (i.e., NOT
  before a vowel)
• Conclusion We have two allophones / r / and / l
  / belonging to one phoneme.

15
Allomorphs of in- (not)

• A
• inexcusable
• inattentive
• intolerable
• indefinable
• innovation
• insurmountable
• B
• impossible
• imbalance
• immaterial

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman Nina Hyams.
2003. An Introduction to Language. Boston, MA
Wadsworth, p. 281.
16
Allomorphs of in- (not)

• C
• incomplete
• inglorious
• D
• illegal
• irregular

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman Nina Hyams.
2003. An Introduction to Language. Boston, MA
Wadsworth, p. 281.