Week 5 - Contrast Flashcards
what does Phonetic description of a language do?
identifies (all) the (major) PHONES that occur in words of a language
- their physical properties
Lexicon definition
The LEXICON of a Language:
a TECHNICAL CONCEPTION of DICTIONARY, VOCABULARY
the entries are; WORDS
WORDS: a unit combining form and meaning
What does phonology relate to:
What does it help us do?
- ORGANISATION OF SPEECH SOUNDS in LARGER UNITS to ENCODE MEANING
- phonetic properties which differentiate words in langs
- specific patterns of sounds in words (differ btwn lang)
**FOCUS on WORD-LEVEL meaning (cat vs cap), rather than non-categorical diffs in meaning (by intonation, etc)
Contrast definition (of technical notion)
Contrast is that the DISTINCTION between PARTICULAR PHONES, DIFFERENTIATES WORDS, with DISTINCT MEANINGS, in a language
i.e. distinction between phones ENCODES diff meanings at /word-level/
IF SO; phones said to CONTRAST, or BE CONTRASTIVE in that language.
Best way to demonstrate:
MINIMAL PAIR
tip and dip - [t] & [d] = contrastive (in eng)
NON CONTRASTIVE = if difference btwn 2 phones dont make a diff in meaning
eg. [t] and [t^h] in Eng.
Contrast is Language-Specific. Give an Example
- [n] and [n̪] do not contrast in English
- n [n] and [n̪] do contrast in Arrernte (+OTHERS)
> [ɐnəmə] - SIT
> [ɐn̪əmə] - RAIN
PHONEME DEFINITION
a unit that represents a range or set of phones that don’t contrast with each other in a given language (phonetic differences which do not alone differentiate words in the language)
/p/
slash brackets indicate phoneme as opposed to allophone
ALLOPHONE DEFINITION
Individual phones in a range or set
> if contrastive - allophones of different phonemes
> if NON-contrastive - allophones of the SAME phoneme
[p]
square brackets
Similarity of allophones of a phoneme
Allophones of phoneme typically, NOT NECESSARILY, phonetically similar
Arrernte /ə/ has allophones including [i][ʊ][ə]
- not always ‘nearly identical’
BUT /percieved/ similarity is in ear of listener (INFL. by Phonemic system of Lang they know)
Distribution of allophones of a phoneme
Partic allophone of phoneme may only occur in PARTICULAR PHONETIC CONTEXTS/ENVIRONMENTS
- word-initial
- syllable-final
- intervocalic (btwn vowels)
- BEFORE a particular (class of) segment(s), such as [i]
- AFTER a particular (class of) segment(s), such as [s]
- between…..
EG [n̪] allophone of English /n/ occurs only immediately before [θ] or [ð].
Distribution Definition
Distribution = RANGE of PHONETIC CONTEXTS an ALLOPHONE OCCURS in
If allophone occurs in RESTRICTED CONTEXT:
that allophone is
- CONDITIONED by that context
- PREDICTABLE, given that context
dist of [n̪] in English
- immediately before [θ] or [ð].
SO occurrence of [n̪] allophone of Eng /n/ = CONDITIONED by a following [θ]/[ð]
COMPLEMENTARY DISTRIBUTION
COMPLEMENTARY DISTRIBUTION:
if 2 phones NEVER OCCUR in SAME PHONETIC CONTEXTS - distributions are /mutually exclusive/ (complementary)
IF comp dist,
- diff between 2 phones NEVER ONLY DIFF between 2 words
SO: No Minimal Pairs - so, 2 phones NOT CONTRASTIVE
- LACK OF CONTRAST: ALLOPHONES OF THE SAME PHONEME √√√
FREE VARIATION
if 2 phones ALWAYS FREELY INTERCHANGEABLE in the SAME words with SAME MEANING
IF free var,
- diff between 2 phones NEVER ONLY DIFF between 2 words
- so, 2 phones NOT CONTRASTIVE
- LACK OF CONTRAST: ALLOPHONES OF THE SAME PHONEME √√√
The English vowel phoneme /ɪ/ has a range of allophones which are more or less interchangeable in a given word n [ɪ] … [ ɪ̞] … [ ɪ̝] … [ ɪ̠]… [ ɪ̟] …
Contrast occurs in Specific Phonetic contexts
Contrast if difference between them alone differentiates
- that says, Phones contrast in AT LEAST ONE PHONETIC CONTEXT
»_space; NOT necessarily ALL !!
Contrast NEUTRALISED in some contexts:
eg [p] and [p] contrast in English
-‘pit’ vs ‘bit’
BUT after [s] at the beginning of a syllable
- only [p] occurs.
... >> SO, NO *[sbɪn] vs [spɪn]
