Quiz 2 Flashcards
Phonology vs. Phonetics
Phonetics: the study of the physical properties of signs and sounds, including the anatomy and the properties of the sound waves
Phonology: the study of systematic rules and constraints that characterize human speech sounds and signs in and across languages
What is Phonology?
- The study of the abstract patterns that characterize speech sounds and signs
Ease of production
We want to be efficient, pronouncing things with the least effort necessary
Ease of perception
We want to be understood, which depends on there being perceptible distinctions between different words
Phonemes
- Smallest unit of speech distinguishing one word (or word element) from another
- Use slash brackets //
Allophones
- The varieties of sounds inside the basket
- Two versions of the same sound
- Are within a system
- Use square brackets [ ]
Phonotactics
The study of which sounds are and are not allowed in a given language; possible words
Natural Classes
- Groups of sounds
- Can often be found grouped in the same column(s) or row(s) in the IPA chart
- Must include ALL of the phones of a language that have the property in question
- Vary (slightly) from language to language
Environment
- A description of the kinds of phones that are adjacent or in the same word as the phone of interest
Distribution
- A summary of all of the kinds of environments a phone can appear in
- Usually simplified as much as possible using natural classes
Alternation
A relationship between two phones that are allophones of each other
Minimal Pairs
- Two words that are EXACTLY the same except for one phone
- The one phone that is different appears in the same environment fro both words
Finding Patterns in Distributions
Look for:
- What comes BEFORE it
- What comes AFTER it
- What it comes in BETWEEN
Complementary Distribution
- When the environments for two phones NEVER overlap
- Each sound can never appear in the same environment that the other can occur in
- Evidence that two phones are allophones of one phoneme
Contrastive Distribution
- When the environments for two phones DO overlap
- There is at least one environment that both phones share
- Evidence that two phones belong to different phonemes
Phonological Rules
- x -> y / a_b
- They are a hypothesis about the phonological structure of language
Free Variation
- Non-phonological cause of allophonic variation
- When there is variation in how to pronounce a phone that is not predictable based on the phonological environment
Sociolinguistic Factors
- Pronunciation differs depending on whether someone is speaking formally or casually
- Different speaker pronounce things differently depending on their age, socioeconomic status, regional dialect, gender, sexual orientation, etc…
Morphology
The study of the structure of words
Morphemes
The smallest meaningful units in language
Base
A morpheme or group of morphemes that has had another morpheme added to it
Roots
- The ‘core’ stem of a word
- A word constituent that cannot be further divided into morphemes
Affix
A morpheme that attaches onto a base
Types of Affixes
Prefix: attaches to the beginning of the base
Suffix: attaches to the end of the base
Infix: inserted inside the base (not in English)
Circumfix: inserted around the base (not in English)
Bound vs. Free Morpheme
Bound: CANNOT appear on its own
Free: CAN appear on its own
Parts of Speech
- Are not told apart by its traditional meaning
- Use syntactic and morphological distribution to determine a word’s meaning/behaviour
Syntactic Distribution
What words can it appear before, after or in between?
Morphological Distribution
- What inflectional and derivational fixes can it take?
- These are language-specific
Hierarchical Structure of Words
- Lines will never cross in morphology trees
- Three determining features for order:
1. The meaning
2. Whether each step in the construction makes a possible word
3. The properties of the affixes (what par they attach to & what it makes)
Derivational Fixes
Morphology that changes the meaning or category of its base
Inflectional Fixes
Morphology that expresses grammatical information appropriate to a word’s category
Why Phonology is Better
- Never pronounce something the same way twice
- There’s no clear division between pronunciations (continuum)
- Different languages treat the same phone differently
