Science of Language - Midterm 2

Phonetics vs. Phonology

Phonetics:

- Physical, acoustic, & auditory properties of sounds

- Details about sounds

• EX: aspirated vs un-aspirated /p/

Phonology:

- Sound systems, patterns, & rules within a language

- Abstract groupings of sounds into classes

• EX: minimal pairs

Categories in Phonetics

- Articulation: how we produce sounds

- Acoustics: the nature of the sound signals that are produced

- Perception: the cognitive processing of acoustics that gives rise to percepts

Components of Speech System

- Respiratory system

- Phonatory system (laryngeal system)

- Articulatory system (supralaryngeal system)

Passive vs. Active Articulators

• Passive: Stationary surfaces. Upper lip, upper teeth, alveolar ridge, hard palate, soft palate (velum), and uvula.

• Active: Move to create a constriction. Primarily the lower lip, various parts of the tongue (tip, blade, back), and the glottis.

Allophones

Letters or combinations of letters that make the same sound (e.g., f and ph to write /f/ sound)

Digraph

Two letters to represent a single sound (e.g., oo, ea, ch, th)

Trigraph

Three letters represent one sound (e.g., tch, eau)

θ

- voiceless interdental fricative

- "th"

-> mouth

ð

- voiced interdental fricative

- voiced "th"

-> this

ʃ

- voiceless alveopalatal fricative

- "sh"

-> shoes

ʒ

- voiced alveopalatal fricative

- voiced "sh"

- measure

tʃ

- voiceless alveopalatal affricate

- "ch"

-> cheese

dʒ

- voiced alveopalatal affricate

- “𝐣”

-> gym

ɹ

- voiced retroflex rhotic liquid

- standard "r"

-> run

(also written as r)

ŋ

- voiced velar nasal stop

- "ng"

-> wing

ʔ

- voiceless glottal stop

- "ih"

-> mitten, Britain

(typically replaces /t/; typically before 'n' or in middle/end of word)

p

- voiceless bilabial (oral) stop

- "p"

-> pea

b

- voiced bilabial (oral) stop

- "b"

-> bad

t

- voiceless alveolar (oral) stop

- "t"

-> type

d

- voiced alveolar (oral) stop

- "d"

-> dog

k

- voiceless velar (oral) stop

- "k"

-> kite

g

- voiced velar (oral) stop

- "g"

-> go

m

- voiced bilabial nasal stop

- "m"

-> mom

n

- voiced alveolar nasal stop

- "n"

-> not

f

- voiceless labiodental fricative

- "f"

-> fight

v

- voiced labiodental fricative

- "v"

- vet

s

- primarily voiceless alveolar fricative

- "s"

-> sing

(can be voiced in plurals like "dogs")

z

- voiced alveolar fricative

- "z"

-> zoo

h

- primarily voiceless glottal fricative

- "h"

-> hot

(can be voiced when between vowels like in "behind")

w

- voiced velar glide

- "w"

-> win

𝐣

- voiced palatal glide

- "y"

-> you

l

- voiced alveolar (lateral) liquid

- "l"

-> lord

i

- high front tense vowel

- unrounded

- "ee"

-> baby

ɪ

- high front lax vowel

- unrounded

- "ih"

-> big

e

- higher-mid front tense vowel

- unrounded

- "ay"

-> bait

ɛ

- lower-mid front lax vowel

- unrounded

- "ehh"

-> bet

æ

- low front lax vowel

- unrounded

- "ahh"

-> apple

u

- high back tense vowel

- rounded

- "oo"

-> boot

ʊ

- high back lax vowel

- rounded

- "ooh"

-> book

ə

- mid central lax vowel

- unrounded

- "uh"

-> above

o

- higher mid back tense vowel

- rounded

- "oh"

-> boat

ʌ

- lower mid central lax vowel

- unrounded

- "uhh"

-> but

ɔ

- low-mid back tense vowel

- rounded

- "ough"

-> bought

a

- low back tense vowel

- unrounded

- "aah"

-> father

/aɪ/

- diphthong

- "ai"

-> light

/aʊ/

- diphthong

- "ow"

-> town

/ɔɪ/

- diphthong

- "oi"

-> coin

/oʊ/

- diphthong

- "oh"

-> slow

/eɪ/

- diphthong

- "ay"

-> play

Notes on IPA Symbols

- Letter 'c' transcribed as /k/ or /s/

- Letter 'q' transcribed as /k/ (/kw/ for 'qu')

- Letter 'y' transcribed as /𝐣/

- Use only a single consonant when transcribing a word written with double consonants (happy transcribed as /hæpɪ/)

- Letter 'x' transcribed as /ks/

Three Components of Consonants

- Place of articulation (what parts are involved)

- Manner of articulation (how they're involved)

- Voicing (vocal folds)

Bilabial

- Produced with both lips touching

- /p/, /b/, /m/

Labio-dental

- Lips and teeth

- /f/, /v/

Interdental

- Tongue between teeth

- /θ/, /ð/

Alveolar

- At alveolar ridge

- /t/, /d/, /n/, /s/, /z/, /l/

Alveo-palatal (Post-alveolar)

- Between alveolar ridge and palatal area

- /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/

Retroflex

- Bottom of tongue flips up and gets close to palatal area

- /ɻ/

Palatal

- Tongue against hard palate

- /𝐣/

Velar

- Tongue very close to soft palate (velum)

- /k/, /g/, /ŋ/, /w/

Glottal

- Obstructing airflow at glottis (space between vocal cords)

- /h/, /ʔ/

Grouping of POA

1) Labial: bilabial and labio-dental

2) Coronal: alveolar, alveopalatal, palatal

3) Dorsal/Velar: velar

Obstruents (Manner of Articulation)

(Plosive) Stops:

- complete closure of the articulators and obstruction of airflow

- voiceless: /p/, /t/, /k/

- voiced: /b/, /d/, /g/

Fricatives:

- two articulators are close; airstream partially obstructed and airflow

- voiceless: /f/, /θ/, /s/, /ʃ/, /h/

- voiced: /v/, /ð/, /z/, /ʒ/

Affricates:

- begin as a stop and immediately release into a fricative

- voiceless: /tʃ/

- voiced: /dʒ/

Sonorant Consonants (Manner of Articulation)

Nasal Stops:

- completely block airflow through mouth with lips or tongue while lowering the soft palate to allow air to escape freely through the nose (/m/, /n/, /ŋ/)

Approximants:

- one articulator close to another but vocal tract not narrowed to such an extent that turbulent airflow produced

- Glides: act like consonants but are produced with a smooth, vowel-like, open vocal tract, quickly transitioning into a following vowel (/w/ like "win"; /𝐣/ like "yes")

- Liquids: smooth, continuous airflow, resembling water flowing in a river

-> Rhotic Liquids: involve the tongue moving backwards ([ɻ])

-> Lateral Liquids: direct air around the sides of the tongue ([l])

(sonorants don't differ in voicing)

How are vowels described?

- High: tongue is close to the roof of the mouth, jaw is relatively closed

- Low: tongue is low in the mouth, jaw is dropped

- Front: tongue positioned in the front of the mouth, behind the teeth

- Back: tongue positioned towards the rear of the oral cavity, near the soft palate

- Tense: produced with more muscular tension and usually longer in duration

- Lax: produced with less muscular tension

- Rounded: protruding, circular lips

- Unrounded: keep lips relaxed or stretched

Diphthongs

Single syllables containing two distinct vowel sounds that glide together seamlessly

Transcriptions

- Phonemic/Broad: doesn't show much phonetic detail

- Phonetic/Narrow: shows phonetic details by using a wide variety of symbols and often diacritics

Phonemes vs. Allophones

- Phonemes signal a contrast in meaning b/w two words

- Allophones don't indicate a contrast in meaning → they're variations of the same phoneme

Minimal Pairs

- Changing from one phoneme to another causes a change in meaning (i.e., tip and dip)

-> If the sounds are different but do not make a meaningful contrast, they are allophones of the same phoneme (i.e., "pop" with aspirated /p/ at end and pop with unreleased /p/ at end)

Contrastive Distribution

Phonemes → Two or more sounds (phones) appear in the same phonetic environment and cause a change in meaning when substituted for one another [/p/ and /k/ in "pill" and "kill"] → Batman and Superman

Complementary Distribution

Allophones → Two or more distinct sounds (allophones) never occur in the same phonological or grammatical environment [aspirated /p/ vs. unaspirated /p/ in "pop"] → Clark Kent and Superman

Relationship Between Minimal Pairs and Phonemes:

A minimal pair proves that those two sounds are distinct phonemes in a language

Distinctive Features

A broader grouping; a way to talk about the similarities and differences between sounds

Natural Classes

Sounds are grouped into natural classes based on shared distinctive features (e.g. vowel vs. consonant)

Specific Distinctive Features

• ± [consonantal] (vowels vs. consonants)

• ± [sonorant] (+: vowels, glides, liquids, nasals)

• ± [continuant] (+: fricatives, sonorants [except

nasals!])

• ± [nasal]

• ± [syllabic] (vowels are [+syllabic], glides are not)

• Vowels: (± [high, low, back, round, tense])

• Place: (± [labial, coronal, dorsal])

• Voicing: (± voice)

Continuants vs. Sonorants

- Similar to each other -> can hold that sound definitively

- Continuant: air flow continuous through mouth

- Sonorant: continuous vocal fold vibration + clear resonant sound

Syllables

- A syllable is a unit of sound made up of phonemes, organized as: (Onset) - Nucleus - (Coda).

- The nucleus (usually a vowel) is required

- Onset and coda are optional

- Common structures: CV, CVC, CCV, V, VCC

• Cat: Onset 'C' (c), Nucleus 'V' (a), Coda 'C' (t).

• Tree: Onset 'CC' (tr), Nucleus 'V' (ee), no coda.

• I: No onset, Nucleus 'V' (I), no coda.

Phonological Rules

X -> Y/ A ___ B

("x becomes y in the context of ___" )

Syntax in Linguistic Theory

- Phonology: How sounds combine into syllables and words

- Morphology: How morphemes combine into words

- Syntax: How words combine into sentences

Grammaticality Judgements

- Phonology: Is this a possible word in English? (wug, blick, *bnick)

- Morphology: Is this a possible word in English? (tassable, wuggied, *wuggedify)

- Syntax: Is this a possible sentence in English? (The boy found the ball, *The boy found quickly)

Count vs. Mass Nouns

Count:

- have plural forms (bean, beans)

- cannot stand alone in singular (*bean is healthy)

- occur with "too many" (too many beans)

Mass:

- don't have plural forms (rice, *rices)

- can stand alone (rice is delicious)

- occur with "too much" (too much rice)

Noun Phrase (NP)

A phrase formed by a noun and all its modifiers and determiners (EX: "the big red ball," "the tall girl")

Verb Phrase (VP)

A group of words that includes a main verb plus all the accompanying helping verbs (EX: "is eating," "should have gone")

Prepositional Phrase (PP)

A group of words consisting of a preposition, its object, and any words that modify the object (EX: "under the bed," "with a gold spoon")

Constituency Tests

Determine whether a sequence of words forms a syntactic constituent (Substitution, Question asking, Clefting, and Conjunction)

Substitution

- NP: she, it, he, they (EX: "Mary moved the table into the kitchen" → "She moved the table into the kitchen" ; "Mary" substituted with "she")

- VP: do/did, do so/did so (EX: "Mary moved the table into the kitchen" → "Mary moved the table into the kitchen but in order to do so, she needed Sue's help" ; "moved the table into the kitchen" substituted with "do so")

- PP: here, there (EX: "Mary moved the table into the kitchen" → "Mary moved the table there" ; "the table into the kitchen" substituted with "there")

Question Asking

"Mary moved the table into the kitchen"

Who? → Mary (NP)

What did she move? → The table (NP)

Where? → Into the kitchen (PP)

Into where? → The kitchen (NP)

She did what? → Moved the table into the kitchen (VP)

Clefting

! NP And PP Only

It was X that Y, where X is a PP or an NP

"Mary moved the table into the kitchen"

- It was into the kitchen that Mary moved the table

- It was Mary that moved the table into the kitchen

Conjunction

Only phrases of the same type may be conjoined

- The old man AND Mary moved the table into the kitchen (NP and NP)

- Mary gulped AND moved the table into the kitchen (VP and VP)

Subject (Role of NP)

- The "doer" of the sentence

- Often the first NP of sentence

- Subject-verb agreement ("The student is happy" → "The students are happy")

- Nominative pronouns ("The student is happy" → "She is happy")

Direct Object [DO] (Role of NP)

- "Reciever" of action

- Often right after verb

- Passive Test ("Some mysterious person pushed Humpty-Dumpty" → "Humpty-Dumpty was pushed by some mysterious person")

Indirect Object [IO] (Role of NP)

- "Recipient" of DO

- IO inversion ("I gave a present to Lucy" → "I gave Lucy a present")

Object of a Preposition (Role of NP)

- After a preposition (but not the IO)

- EX: "I walked the dog to the park," "We sat in the movie theater"

Subject Complement (Role of NP)

- Tells us more about the subject

- Occurs after the copular verb (to be)

- EX: "Lucy is a teacher," "Karen won't be Megan's best friend"

Object Complement

- Tells us more about the object

- Often the second NP after the verb

- EX: "The people elected Barack Obama president of the USA," "Dorothy called the lion a traitor"

Personal Pronouns

- Nominative (subjects): I, you, she, he, it, we, you, they

- Accusative/objective (DO, IO, Obj of Prep): me, you, her, him, it, us, you, them

- (Genitive: my, your, her, his, its, our, your, their)

Reflexive Pronouns

- Used when the subject and the object in a sentence refer to the same person (myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves)

-> Snow White saw herself in the mirror

-> Snow White saw her in the mirror

* (her cannot be Snow White)

Demonstrative pronouns

- Replace NPs

- Show distance from the speaker

- Reflect numbers

-> I like this dress = I like this

Relative Pronouns

- Used in a relative clause (a sentence inside another sentence)

- When an NP is repeated in a relative clause, we find a relative pronoun in its place.

-> I know the woman WHO won a prize = I know the woman. The woman won a prize

Types of Verbs

- Transitive: direct object(s) only (like, borrow)

- Intransitive: no object attached to the verb; can have obj of preposition but no DO or IO (sleep, laugh)

- Ditransitive: two kinds of objects (give) [IO inversion ("I gave a present to Lucy" → "I gave Lucy a present")]

- Linking: followed by an adjective, describes the subject (feel, to be)

Adjectives

- Modify nouns (yellow sweater)

- Can often get -er and -est (for comparisons)

- Can be modified by adverbs -> called 'intensifiers' (very, awfully)