语言学Lecture5 Phonology

Lecture Five Phonology
Wang Xiang
Phonology
Phonology is the study of the sound patterns and sound systems. It is concerned with the liguistic patterning of sounds in human languages, with its primary aim being to discover the principles that govern how sounds are organized in languages. Can /ŋ/ begin a syllable?
Dark [l]: before consonants or at the end of words.
The sounds in complementary distribution and also phonetically similar are allophones of the same phoneme.
Phoneme (音位): Minimal distinctive unit in the sound system of a language. [p] and [b] are different phonemes. Why?
pit and bit; pig and big; tap and tab
The same manner of articulFra Baidu bibliotektion: plosive.
The only difference: /b/: voiced; /p/: voiceless.
/p/ and /b/ can occur in the same environment and distinguish meaning.
P. 34 No.3 (1) What distinctive feature makes /f/ and /v/ different? [voiced]
(2) Can you specify the distinctive features for the following phonemes? (a) /∫ / [voiceless] + [fricative] + [palatal] (b) /k/ (c) /n/ [voiceless] + [plosive] + [velar] [voiced] + [nasal] + [alveolar]
Three Types of Distribution
Contrastive distribution(对比分布) — two or more sounds can occur in the same environment and the substitution of one sound for another brings about a change of meaning: e.g. big, pig
(c) /li:f/ /fi:l/ (d) /fi:l/ /fel/
(e) /sip/ /zip/ (f) /beit/ /bit/ g) /sai/ /sei/ (h) /tip/ /pit/ (I) /keit/ /feit/
When all the contrasting pairs of a language have been discovered, the phonemes of that language have been found.
Phoneme is abstract.
It is not a sound that is pronounced, but a collection of distinctive phonetic features. E.g. /p/ as a phoneme: voicelessness, bilabiality, and plosiveness Each language can be shown to operate with a relatively small number of phonemes (15-80). No two languages have the same phonemic system.
[k¬ ] in final position.
―不完全爆破”: 在某些情况下, 发爆破音时, 气流不冲破阻碍, 而 只是发音器官在口腔中形成阻碍, 并稍做停顿, 也就是说, 做好要 发出这个爆破音的准备, 但不要发出音来。
(2) Is there any other way of charactering the complementary distribution of clear [l] and dark [ł]? [l] before vowels; [ł] elsewhere.
different initial or ending sounds: [p] and [b].
Are dark [l] and clear [l] different phonemes?
/fi:ł/ /fi:l/ All different phones cannot distinguish meaning. Different phonemes can.
Environment and Distribution(分布)
Environment of a sound: what precedes and follows it. (1) [phit] [#-i] (2) [bju:tiful]
[j-t]
(3) [neim] [ei-#]
Distribution of sound: all the possible environments in which the sound in question can occur. e.g. the distribution of the sound [n] (1) name, net (2) pin, fan (3) sent, band (4) snail, snow (5) any, money initially finally before the consonants after the consonants intervocalically
Phonetics
Study substance (raw material) General Particular languages Study speech sounds from Study the functional units a physical point of view within the linguistic system Actual sounds Abstract system
Free variation: two sounds appear in the same environment and the substitution of one sound for another does not cause a change in meaning. /p/
[ph]: initially (pear)
Allophone 音位变体
— the actual realization of a phoneme, the variants in different contexts.
e.g. /l/: [ł] or [l]
/p/: [ph] or [p]
Q: Do allophones have the ability to distinguish meanings? Note: what distinguishes meaning in one language does not necessarily do so in another language.
Phonetics and Phonology
The differences between phonetics and phonology: approach and focus. Phonetics is of general nature. all the speech sounds used in all human languages Phonology focuses on the system of sounds of a particular language. how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication
pin and bin, rope and robe
Minimal pair (最小对立体)
a group of two words that have different meanings and are only distinguishable by one sound. e.g. ―ship‖ and ―sheep‖ /i/ and /i:/ Practice: Which of the following is a minimal pair? (a) /sit/ /sæt/ (b) /net/ /ten/
P. 33 In-class activities No. 2
(1) Characterize how the allophones of the phoneme /k/ are complementarily distributed.
[kh] in initial position
[k] after /s/
The sounds that are in contrastive distribution are different phonemes.
Complementary distribution — two or more sounds can occur in different (never in the same environment), but predictable environments. e.g. Allophones of the same phoneme. Clear [l] and dark [l] are in complementary distribution. Clear [l]: before vowels
Phonology Study form, system, pattern
Phones (音素), Phonemes (音位), and Allophones (音
位变体)
Phone: the smallest perceptible discrete segment of sounds in a stream of speech. In /helθ/, /h/ , /e/ , /l/, /θ/ are four phones.
English: [spit] and [sphit]
Chinese: “ba” and “pa”
Phonemic contrast (音位对立)
— phonetically similar sounds which are two distinctive phonemes. e.g. /p/ and /b/ The same place of articulation: lips.
[p¬ ]: finally (stop)
[p]: elsewhere (speak)
In reality, the final sound [p] is either unreleased or unaspirated, without a resulting difference in meaning.
The sounds that are always in free variation are allophones of the same phoneme.