phonological rules

distinctive features and of k

Distinctive features [+/-] 

• +/- nasal, +/- oral

• +/- consonant, +/- vocalic/vowel 

• +/- high, +/- low (tongue position) 

• +/- back, +/- front (tongue position) 

• + /- voice, +/- voiceless 

• +/- continuant, +/- stop

Example: /k/

• + oral / - nasal

• + cons / - vowel

• + high / - low

• + back / - front

• + unvoiced / - voice

• + stop (plosive) / - continuant

Phonological rules specify:

• The class of sounds affected by the rule

• The context or phonetic environment in which it occurs

• The phonetic changes that occur to those phones in that context
  

rule writing conventions

• A rule can always be expressed in words:

• E.g.  “A voiceless stop consonant in English (i.e. /p/, /t/, /k/) becomes aspirated in syllable-initial position.”

• The same rule can be expressed as a kind of equation using shorthand symbols:

• E.g. [-voice, -continuant, +stop] → [+aspirated] / #___

Symbols: 

• [+/- _] = Distinctive feature (e.g. [+nasal])

• ____ = Position of the segment that is changing

• → = “Becomes”

• # = Syllable boundary (used instead of the textbook's $)

• / = “In the context of”

• ( ) = Optional segment

• C = Consonant

• V = Vowel

phonological rules can do 5 things

1. Change feature values
     [+consonant, +voice] ➙ [-voice] / #[-voice]
     → A voiced consonant is devoiced when it occurs after a voiceless syllable-initial phone – i.e. in clusters.
   
   

2. Add new features
     → e.g. add nasal feature, add aspiration
   
   

3. Delete segments
     → e.g. unstressed vowels
     /fæktǝriː/ ➙ /fæktriː/
   
   

4. Add segments
     → e.g.
     spy ➙ /sǝpɑe/
     law and order ➙ /loːr ǝn oːdǝ/
   
   

5. Reorder segments
     → e.g.
     ask ➙ /ɐːks/
     animal ➙ /æmǝnǝl/

look at the rest of phonological rules lecture