linguistics 2

7/30/2019 Linguistics 2

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PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGYChapter 2


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PRODUCTION OF SOUNDS Human language displays a wide variety of sounds, but

humans are not capable of producing all the sounds with the

vocal tract in speech.

The class of possible speech sounds is not only finite, but also

universal.

Any human is able to pronounce these sounds, regardless of

racial or cultural background.


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SCOPE OF PHONETICS Speech is a purposeful human

activity.

Phonetics is the scientific studyof speech and is concerned withdefining and classifying speechsounds according to how theyare produced.

A complex set of physical

operations takes place when aspoken message goes from aspeaker to a hearer.


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SCOPE OF PHONETICS

First, there is physiological activity in the brain of the speaker.Then the brain sends instructions to a variety of muscles ofvocal organs.

The result is a range of muscle contractions and physicalmovement of structures such as the rib-cage(), the larynx

(), the tongue and so on. In turn, these movements give rise to an aerodynamic phase of

the speech chain, whereby air flows through the vocal tract.This airflow interacts with continued movement of structuressuch as the vocal folds, tongue, lips and soft palate() to

produce the different features of speech. This modified airflow through the vocal tract impinges on the

air surrounding the speaker.


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SCOPE OF PHONETICS

Eventually, the sound waves reach the ear of the hearer,and again we have a series of physical operations thatallow the hearer to convert sound waves (basically themovement of air molecules) into a message understood

in the brain. The ear contains a number of sections (the outer,

middle and inner ear) whose function is to convertsound waves into physical movement, and then physicalmovement into electrochemical activity along the

neurological pathways from the inner ear to the relevantparts of the brain. Here the message is decoded by thedifferent speech and language components of the brain.


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From this speech chain, wecan see that the speechchain consists of threestages: the production of themessage, the transmission

of the message and thereception of the message.

Alveolor ridge

MandibleVelum

Uvula

Epiglottis


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SCOPE OF PHONETICS

Phonetics studies the above facets of speech.

However, the neurological facets of production andreception are often considered falling outside the

scope of phonetics proper. Generally, the study of phonetics is composed of

three separate fields:

articulatory phonetics

acoustic phonetics

auditory phonetics .


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Articulatory phonetics deals with theidentification and classification of individualsounds. It attempts to provide a framework of

the nature of speech sounds and how they areproduced.

Acoustic phonetics focuses on the analysis andmeasurement of sound waves.

Auditory phonetics is concerned with theperception of speech.


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ARTICULATION OF SOUNDS

A wide range of physical activity is involved in

the production of the speech sounds in human

language. Vocal organs often articulate or move

against each other in the production of speech.

Vocal organs refer to all the parts of the human

body that are related to speech production.


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Most speech in natural language involves apulmonic egressive airstream, which flowsupwards from the lungs, through the larynx andthen into the pharynx , oral and/or nasal cavities.

Phoneticians use the term phonation to refer tothe range of modifications to this airflow as itpasses through the glottis within the larynx. Theglottis is the space between the vocal folds, which

can be pulled together, kept apart, and subject tovarying degrees of tension.


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ARTICULATION OF SOUNDS

Voice: Sounds may be either voiced and voiceless, that is, the vocal

folds are either vibrating or not.

With voicelessness the glottis is open, resulting from abduction

of the vocal folds. Voiced phonation is produced through the vibration of the vocal

folds which are produced with the cooperation of bothmuscular and aerodynamic forces, with the balance of theseforces altering subtly during the vibratory cycle.


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When describing individual sound segments,

phoneticians and linguists often employ two

parameters to examine how sounds are articulated:

manner of articulation

place of articulation


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MANNER OF ARTICULATION

The manner of articulation is very important during theproduction of the sound. It is based on the size of the airpassage. When the articulators are brought close togetherand the airflow in the oral cavity is completely blocked,

the resultant manner of articulation is termed a stop Stops are divided into two types: oral stops (plosives),

and nasal stops (nasals).

Plosives are formed by creating a complete closure.

Nasal stops have a complete closure in the oral cavity,but air is allowed to escape freely through the nasalcavity because the velum is lowered.


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Fricative : When the articulators close together but not soclose as to block the airflow completely, fricatives are produced.

Affricative : Affricates are produced by stopping theairstream from the lungs and then slowly releasing it withfriction.


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Approximant: Approximants are produced with a much widerpassage of air so that the airflow for voiced approximants remainssmooth and does not become turbulent. Approximants can be central(e.g. [r]) or lateral (e.g. [l]).

Trill : Trills involve a series of rapid repetition of one articulatorstriking another (or both articulators striking each other in the caseof the two lips). This sort of trill can be found in English 'r' in certainregional accents (e.g. some Scottish accents).

Tap : The tap (or 'flap' or 'flick') is a momentary variant of the trill. Taps

can involve an active articulator striking a passive one, and then returningto its place of rest. This is the type of tap found in American English, where itis used for 't' in words like 'better', or in older forms of British English for 'r' in'Harry'.


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PLACE OF ARTICULATION

The place of articulation is another way to observe howsounds are articulated. When describing the place ofarticulation, we usually consider is the place within thevocal tract where the articulators form a stricture.

Bilabials are articulations made with the upper andlower lips brought together.

Dentals are produced by the front of the tonguetouching the back of the upper front teeth.

Post-alveolars are produced right at the back edge ofthe alveolar ridge, just before its boundary with the archof the hard palate.


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Retroflex sounds are produced with the tongue tip or blade curledback to touch or nearly touch the hard palate at the top of the mouth.For example, some speakers use a retroflex approximant as theirrealization of 'r' in words like 'red'.

Uvular sounds are made by raising and retracting the back of thetongue to the very end of the soft palate (the uvula). None of thesesounds occur in English, but the voiced uvular fricative and trill areboth varieties of 'r' in standard French.

Glottals are produced with the two pieces of vocal folds pushedtowards each other. The English sound [h] in such words as 'hat' and'hold' is thought to be a glottal stop.


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Labiodentals are articulations produced with the lower lipapproximating to the underside of the upper front teeth. Forexample, in English the [f] in fat and the [v] in vat arelabiodental fricatives.

Alveolars are produced by the tip and/or blade of the tonguetouching or nearly touching the gum ridge behind the upperteeth. [t, d]

Palatal sounds are produced by the front upper surface ofthe tongue and the hard palate at the top of the mouth.English has only one palatal sound, [j], as in 'yes' and 'yet'.


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Velar sounds are produced with the back of the tongue dorsum

raised up to the soft palate (or velum) at the back of the mouth.

[k] [g]

Pharyngeal sounds are produced with the back and root of the

tongue retracted into the upper pharynx. Pharyngeal

consonants are not common.


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VOWELS

Vowels are made by egressive pulmonic airflow throughvibrating or constricted vocal folds and through the vocaltract, and the sound is modified in the oral cavity.However, vowels are more difficult than consonants to

describe articulatorily.

The primary criteria for the classification of vowels are:(1) the distance between the top of the tongue and theroof of the mouth and (2) the retraction and extension of

the tongue.

A secondary criterion is the rounding of the lips.


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The distance between the top of the tongue andthe roof of the mouth is defined in terms of therelative degrees of openness of the oral cavity.

Openness corresponds to jaw opening, as well asto the relative height of the tongue. Thus, we haveclose vowels, open vowels, low vowels and highvowels.

Vowels may be subdivided into monophthongsand diphthongs .


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ENGLISH SPEECH SOUNDS English has many vowel sounds. According to

Roach (1991), there are:

seven short vowels

five long vowels

eight diphthongs

five triphthongs English is said to have 24 consonants


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English has six plosive consonants: /p/, /t/, /k/,/b/, /d/, /g/.

nine fricatives.

two affricates:

three nasals: three approximants: r, j, w.

one lateral consonant: l


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THE TRANSCRIPTION OF SOUNDS Phoneticians try to transcribe as accurately as

possible, i.e. by recording all the articulatorydetails that exist in speech.

Since the sixteenth century, efforts have been

made to devise a universal system for transcribingthe speech sounds.

The best-known system, the International PhoneticAlphabet (IPA), has been developing since 1888.

IPA transcription uses these symbols to write the

sound in whichever language it is heard, whether itis English, Spanish, Turkmen or any other.


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The sounds symbols allow us to represent

many nuances of articulation. There are two

kinds of transcription: narrow transcription and

broad transcription .


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PHONOLOGY

Phonology is the study of the sound patterns in human language.

Each word differs from the other words in both form and meaning.

Each lexical entry includes, along with information about the

semantic and syntactic nature of the morpheme, an underlying

representation.

The underlying representation contains that information about the

pronunciation of a morpheme that is not predictable on the basis of

general rules. The segments of an underlying representation are

called phonemes.


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PHONOLOGY

For example, the difference in meaning between "seed" and "deed" lies

in the fact that the initial sound of the first word is s [s] and the initial

sound of the second word is d [d].

The forms of the two words are identical except for the initial consonants.

What makes the two words different in meaning is the consonants [s]and [d].

Thus, these are called distinctive sounds, or phonemes in English.

Phoneme is the minimum phonemic unit that is not further analyzable

into smaller units susceptible of concomitant occurrence.

However, a phoneme is the abstract set of units as the basis of our

speech. The phonemes themselves are abstract, but there are many

slightly different ways in which we make the sounds that represent these

phonemes.


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Allophonethe phonetic variants of a phoneme

In phonemic analysis, we may come across sounds that do not change the

meaning when we make a substitution. For example, the consonants at the

beginning of "shoe" and "she" have very different sound qualities. For "shoe",

the lips are rounded, because of the influence of the following vowel [u]; for

"she", the lips are spread. If we now substitute one of these sounds for the

other, we do not get a change of meaning - only a rather strange-sounding

pronunciation.

In a similar way, when we pronounce the l sounds of such words as "leaf"

and "pool", we can feel that the first l is articulated much further forward in

the mouth than the second. In English, these are allophones of a single /l/phoneme.


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MINIMAL PAIR

Traditionally, the term 'phoneme' is used to refer to a speech sound that,

when substituted for another, brings out a change in meaning.

For example, in the English word 'tip', there are three separate speech

sounds or phonemes, that is /t, i, p/. In a further English word 'lip', there are

three speech sounds, /l, i, p/. The only difference between 'tip' and 'lip' is

the initial sound in each word and the meaning of the words.

When we substitute /t/ for /l/ in this way and bring about a change in

meaning, we say that the sounds in question are phonemes and that there

is a phonemic distinction between them.

A pair of phonemes is also known as a minimal pair.

For instance, "deed" and "seed" are minimal pairs, but "deed" and "dog" are

not because the vowel and final consonant in these two sounds are

different.


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DISTINCTIVE FEATURES

Every language has a limited number of phonological oppositions. In order

to find out these oppositions, distinctive features can be used to distinguish

one phoneme from another or one group of sounds from another group.

Distinctive features are often shown in the form of a binary opposition. The

features can be shown either present [+] or absent [-].

Tongue body features The three features related to the position of the body of the tongue are

[high], [low], and [back]. The neutral position is approximately the position at

which the vowel of the English word bed is articulated.


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DISTINCTIVE FEATURES

The Features RoundedThe feature [rounded] distinguishes sound with lip rounding from those

without.


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The Features High and Back in Consonants

Manner FeaturesThere are a number of features which distinguish sounds on the basis of the

manner of their articulation. For instance, the feature [interrupted]

characterizes sound in which the airstream is completely blocked duringpart of their articulation. Thus, stops and affricates are [+interrupted]

whereas fricatives, nasals, liquids, glides and vowels are [-interrupted]


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SEQUENTIAL CONSTRAINTS It is not difficult to show that speakers

have knowledge of such sequential

rules.

For example, the four different

phonemes of English of k, b, l, i can bearranged to form the English words in

the following picture.


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SEQUENTIAL CONSTRAINTS In English, these are the only permissible arrangements of

these phonemes, but *[lbki], *[bkil], *[ilkb] and so on are not

possible in the language. Our knowledge of English tells us that

certain strings of phonemes are permissible and others are not.

Thus, we can see that after a consonant like [b], [g], [k], or [p],another similar consonant is not permitted by the rules of the

grammar.

If a word begins with an [l] or an [r], every English speaker

knows that the next segment must be a vowel. *[lbik] does notsound like an English word because it does not conform to the

restrictions on the sequencing of phonemes.


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Another sequential constraint in English pertains to clusters (one or more

consonants) of nasal consonants followed by nonnasal (oral) stops within

words.

This constraint states that only homorganic nasal + nonnasal consonant

clusters may occur. Homorganic consonants are those which are articulated

at the same place of articulation, that is, labial, alveolar, palatal, velar. For

example,


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COMPLEMENTARY DISTRIBUTION When two or more sounds never occur in an identical phonemic context or

environment, they are said to be in complementary distribution. That is to

say, complementary distribution refers to the case in which one of two or

more sounds occur in a context to the exclusion of other sound(s), i.e. in a

context in which the other sound(s) never occur(s).

For example, [h] and in English, as in hat and ring, are not only in non-

contrastive distribution but also in complementary distribution since [h]

never occurs in English in word-final position and never in word-initial

position.


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When occurring after a word (or syllable) initial [s], the voiceless stops are

shown in the following:


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SYLLABLE Structurally, the syllable may be divided into three parts: the onset, the peak,

and the coda.

Some syllables have an onset and no coda.

Some syllables may have no onset but a coda. In this case, we say the initial

syllable has a zero onset.


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STRESS Stress is generally defined as syllable prominence. In other words, a syllable

that is more prominent than the other syllables in a word or phrase is said to

be stressed.

In many languages, including English, some syllables within a word are

relatively more prominent than others.

For example, in the word 'message', the first syllable is more prominent than

the second. In the word 'massage', however, the reverse is true.


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PITCH

Pitch is a suprasegmental quality which extends

over individual segments and longer stretches of

speech. Pitch is the perceived frequency of a

sound wave. Perceived pitch is largely determined

by the frequency of vibration of the vocal folds,

and to some extent by the intensity of the sound. Falling pitch is more common in language than

rising pitch.

(1) John's going to tonight's party. ()

(2) John's going to tonight's party? ()


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INTONATION AND TONE Intonations refer to the pitch differences that

extend over phonetic units larger than the syllable.By means of intonation, syllables are grouped intophrases, and phrases into sentences.

In English a phrase usually has one or two

different terminations. The most common phrasalintonation ends on a falling pitch; the other endson a more or less level pitch.

Tone refers to pitch variations. In some languages,the same sequence of segments may havedifferent meanings if uttered at different relative

pitches. Putonghua, probably the most widely studied tone

language, has four contrastive tones, high, rise,fall and fall-rise. These tones distinguish fourdifferent meanings of some sound sequences.


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INTONATION AND TONE

Tone refers to pitch variations. In some languages,the same sequence of segments may havedifferent meanings if uttered at different relative

pitches. The function of tone is quite differentfrom that of stress. Tones do not mark thebeginning and ending of words, nor do they evenindicate to the speaker how many words there are

in an utterance.


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End of Lecture

Thank you for your attention

linguistics 2

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