Week 2 Flashcards

1
Q

In what way is a human natural language not uniform?

A

Within one language, there is a lot of variation in the lexicon, sound production, morpho-syntax, etc.

Speakers of a speech community may use a different dialect which sets them apart from other speakers of the speech community who speak a different dialect.

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2
Q

Dialect

A

A variety of a language spoken by a group of people that is characterised by systematic differences in vocabulary and grammar (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics) from other varieties in the same language.

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3
Q

What are examples of dialectal variation?

A

United Kingdom
1. East Anglia: I walk
2. Southwest + North: I walks

USA
1. AAVE: I walk

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4
Q

Human language =

A

A lexicon and a grammar.

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5
Q

What are examples of language variation?

A

Variation in sound production between speakers:

  1. Physical: size and length of the vocal cords (women-men, children-adults-elderly).
  2. Individual:
    • Idiolect (particular words, rising intonation)
    • Situational (informal-formal)
    • Emotional (excited-uninterested)
  3. Social: peer groups, social class, prestige.
  4. Regional:
    • Bristol accent (rhotic)
    • Brummie (Birmingham (non-r)
    • Different accents in London
    • Vowels in SAE, SSBE, AusEN.

An example of pronunciation variation is /i:/.

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6
Q

Varieties in Scotland and East Anglia

A

Scotland:
1. Highland Scottish
2. Lowland Scottish
3. Glaswegian

East Anglia:
1. Cambridgeshire
2. Essex
3. Norfolk
4. Suffolk

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7
Q

In rhotic varieties of English, where does [ɹ] occur?

In non-rhotic varieties of English, where does [ɹ] occur?

A

In rhotic varieties, it occurs both preceding and following vowels: red, bread, barren, far.

In non-rhotic varieties, it occurs only before vowels and has been lost in other contexts.
bark [ba:k]
far [fa:]
far out [faɹ ‘aʊt] = linking r

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8
Q

Are most American English dialects rhotic or not? If yes, what are the rules here?

What about Southern varieties of British English?

A

Most dialects of American English are indeed rhotic.

Vowels preceding [ɹ] are typically rhotacised. In central vowels, this may affect the entire vowel, as in sure [ʃɚ], butter [‘bʌɾɚ].

Australian English and New Zealand English are non-rhotic. The historical loss of [ɹ] has led to the creation of centring diphthongs.

near [nɪə]
square [skwɛə]
cure [kjʊə]

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9
Q

Centring diphthongs

A

The historical loss of [ɹ] has led to the creation of centring diphthongs.

near [nɪə]
square [skwɛə]
cure [kjʊə]

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10
Q

What is the difference between a Standard American English newscaster and a British English one?

A

In the SAE newscaster (West-US), /ɔ:/ (caught) has completely merged with /ɑ:/ (cot).

The British English newscaster has:
caught /ɔ:/
cot /ɒ/
cart /ɑ:/

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11
Q

What does it mean to have different vowel systems? And what is an example of this?

A

It means that there are “different phonologies”.

Standard Southern British English distinguishes between:
• /æ/ and /ɑ:/
• /ʊ/ and /u:/
• /ɒ/ and /ɔ/

Standard Scottish English (SSE) does not distinguish between these.

SSBE has some vowel contrasts which SSE lacks.

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12
Q

How do the vowels differ between SSBE (RP) and SSE (regional variation)? What happened to the SSE vowels?

A

SSBE SSE
TRAP æ æ
PALM ɑ: æ
GOOSE u: u:
FOOT ʊ u:
LOT ɒ ɔ:
THOUGHT ɔ: ɔ:

The SSE vowels merged together in pairs from SSBE.
• /æ/ and /ɑ:/ → /æ/
• /u:/ and /ʊ/ → /u:/
• /ɒ/ and /ɔ:/ → /ɔ:/

Check: w2, slide 18.

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13
Q

What is an example of same vowel contrast?

A

SSBE and General American English both distinguish between /æ/ and /ɑ:/. The two dialects therefore have the same vowel contrasts.

However, they have different distributions.

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14
Q

What is different between SSBE and GA in terms of the basic vowel pronunciations?

A

The ‘bath’ vowel; SSBE /ɑ:/ - GA /æ/.

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15
Q

What are examples of variation within the language?

A
  1. Phonemes: contrastive distribution; can make a difference in meaning.
  2. Allophones: complementary distribution; no distinction in meaning, but in the position of the word where sound A occurs, B cannot be used (e.g. English “l” variants).
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16
Q

What are the different allophones of l’s in English and what are examples? In which distribution are these l’s found?

A

Clear: [l] = lead, lure, relax, blue
Occurs at the beginning of a syllable.

Dark: [ɬ] = feel, felt, milk, mildew
Occurs at the end of a syllable.

Devoiced: [l ̥] = please, clue, acclaim
Occurs after voiceless stops.

Substituting one allophone for another doesn’t give a different word; at worst, it gives a funny pronunciation of the same word.

The allophones of /l/ are in complementary distribution.

17
Q

Allophones of /i:/

A

English /i:/ can appear as:
• [iə] before ‘dark l’
• [i:] elsewhere

18
Q

How do you distinguish between orthography, phonemic transcription, phonetic transcription?

A

<peel> orthography (spelling)

/pi:l/ phonemic transcription (broad)

[phiəł] phonetic transcription (narrow)
</peel>

19
Q

Phonological derivation (rule ordering)

A

English /i:/ can appear as:
• [iə] before ‘dark l’
• [i:] elsewhere

Phonological form: /pi:l/
Rule: /p/ → pʰ, beginning of stressed syl.
Rule 1: /l/ → /ł/ end of a syllable
Rule 2: /i:/ → iə before ł
Phonetic realisation: [pʰiəł]

20
Q

What are some morphological alternations in prefixes (e.g. [in])?

A

in + possible → i[mp]ossible
in + tolerant → i[nt]ollerant
in + complete → i[ŋk]omplete

One underlying form (/ɪn/), alternations accounted for by ‘rules’ (nasal place assimilation).

21
Q

How do /m/ and /ɪn/ change in anticipation of a following sound?

A

/m/ → [m]
Some cats
Some pots
Some dogs
Some animals
Some sense

/ɪn/ splits into different ways:
1. [ɪm] - [p, b] impossible
2. [ɪŋ] - [k, g] incomplete
3. [ɪn] happens elsewhere; evident, indifferent, insensitive.

22
Q

How can speakers of English interpret [m] in two different ways? And how can they do that?

A
  1. As the realisation of /m/ (e.g. [m] in ‘some people’).
  2. As the realisation of /n/ (e.g. [m] in ‘input’, ‘imperfect’).

How?
→ knowledge of phonemes (mental representations)
→ knowledge of rules
• A → B / C —— D
/n/ → [m] / —— /p/

23
Q

What is regressive place assimilation, and what is an example of that?

A

A consonant sound that normally has one place of articulation (like labial, velar, alveolar) will shift its place to match a consonant that comes after it. This can make a word easier to pronounce.

(1) When saying “input,” many speakers naturally change the [n] sound, which is alveolar (tongue against alveolar ridge), to a [m] sound, which is bilabial, to match the following bilabial [p]. So, “input” may be pronounced as [ɪmpʊt].

(2) The pronunciation of “incomplete” as [ɪŋkəmˈpliːt] with [ŋ] (velar nasal sound) instead of [n] is an example of regressive place assimilation.

24
Q

What other nasals can be target of place assimilation?

A

Only /n/, others nasals cannot be target of place assimilation.

25
Q

How can a stop become nasalised, so a velar nasal stop?

A

When the property place of articulation spreads from the velar stop to the preceding nasal, making it a velar nasal stop.

In [ɪŋk], the place of ‘ŋ’ and ‘k’ are [dorsal].

26
Q

Default rule

A

A default rule films in “neutral” or “unmarked” characteristics of sounds where the phonological system has no strong preference.

/ɪn/ = place alveolar (default/standard)

27
Q

VPM of [ʍ]

A

Voiceless labial-velar fricative, appears in SSE.

28
Q

Is [ʍ] an allophone in SSE?

A

No, it’s not a variant pronunciation of [w]. The SSE forms show that [w] occurs in exactly the same context as [ʍ], which implies that they are in contrastive distribution. Both are phonemes in SSE.

World like Wales (initial /w/) and whales (initial /ʍ/) are therefore minimal pairs in SSE.

29
Q

Homophones

A

In GA and RP, Wales and whales are pronounced the same. GA and RP have /w/ in the context where SSE contrasts /w/ with /ʍ/.

30
Q

What is systematic variation? How can this arise?

A

“In GA and RP, Wales and whales are pronounced the same. GA and RP have /w/ in the context where SSE contrasts /w/ with /ʍ/.”

This is a case of systematic variation; GA and RP have “one phoneme less” than SSE.

How did this variation arise? We know that OE had a contrast between /w/ and /ʍ/ (<hw>). This contrast was kept in some English varieties, like SSE. Other varieties underwent **phonemic merger**.</hw>

See w2, workgroup slide 3.

31
Q

What is a phonemic merger, and how does it relate to the pronunciation of Wales and whales in different varieties of English?

A

A phonemic merger occurs when two distinct phonemes in a language collapse into a single phoneme, eliminating the contrast.

In GA and RP, Wales and whales are homophones, both pronounced with /w/. This reflects a phonemic merger where the historical contrast between /w/ and /ʍ/ (once spelled as <hw> in Old English) was lost. In contrast, some varieties, like SSE, retain /ʍ/, preserving the distinction. As a result, GA and RP have "one phoneme less" than SSE in this context.</hw>

32
Q

What is an example of distributional variation

A

GA and SSE have [r] while RP hasn’t, which is a case of distributional variation. These varieties are rhotic because /r/ is realised regardless of its position in the syllable. RP is non-rhotic; /r/ is realised in onsets only.

In the RP forms where /r/ is missing, we find a long vowel instead. This suggests that the lengthened vowel ‘makes up’ for the missing /r/.

33
Q

Compensatory lengthening

A

In the RP forms where /r/ is missing, we find a long vowel instead. This suggests that the lengthened vowel ‘makes up’ for the missing /r/.

This process is called compensatory lengthening with the help of timing positions; the timing position of the ‘lost’ /r/ is associated with the vowel, making it long.