Phonemes and Allophones Phonemes and Allophones Minimal Pairs and - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Phonemes and Allophones Readings and Other Materials Introduction Aspiration in English Phonemes and Allophones Phonemes and Allophones Minimal Pairs and Complementary Distribution Summary

Phonemes and Course Readings Allophones Readings and Other Materials Course Readings Handouts Introduction Aspiration in English The following readings have been posted to the Moodle Phonemes and course site: Allophones Minimal Pairs and ◮ Contemporary Linguistics: Chapter 3 (pp. 59-69) Complementary Distribution ◮ Language Files: Chapter 3.1 (pp. 101-108) Summary

Phonemes and Handouts for This Lecture Allophones Readings and Other Materials Course Readings Handouts Introduction I have also posted to the course website the following Aspiration in English handout, which you might find useful over the next couple Phonemes and Allophones classes: Minimal Pairs and ◮ “Important Vocabulary Items for Phonology” Complementary Distribution Summary (You’ll probably want to have it with you for next class...)

Phonemes and A Review of Where We Are Allophones Readings and The Fundamental Question: Other Materials What are the rules and mental representations that Introduction Aspiration in underlie our ability to speak and understand a language? English Phonemes and Allophones Last Class: Minimal Pairs and Complementary ◮ There are rules that affect the pronunciation of words. Distribution ◮ The study of these rules is phonology . Summary ◮ There is a phonological rule for breaking down words into syllables (syllabification).

Phonemes and A Review of Where We Are Allophones Readings and The Fundamental Question: Other Materials What are the rules and mental representations that Introduction Aspiration in underlie our ability to speak and understand a language? English Phonemes and Allophones Last Class: Minimal Pairs and Complementary ◮ There are rules that affect the pronunciation of words. Distribution ◮ The study of these rules is phonology . Summary ◮ There is a phonological rule for breaking down words into syllables (syllabification). This Class: There are phonological rules that affect the pronunciation of single, individual phones.

Phonemes and An Oversimplification Revealed Allophones Readings and Other Materials Introduction Right now, we’d transcribe these words as follows: Aspiration in English The Facts ‘top’ [tAp] ‘cop’ [kAp] ‘pop’ [pAp] The Rule ‘stool’ [stul] ‘school’ [skul] ‘spool’ [spul] Phonemes and Allophones ‘eat’ [it] ‘eke’ [ik] ‘eep’ [ip] Minimal Pairs and Complementary Distribution Under this transcription: Summary ◮ All the words in the 1 st column share a sound: [t] ◮ All the words in the 2 nd column share a sound: [k] ◮ All the words in the 3 rd column share a sound: [p]

Phonemes and An Oversimplification Revealed Allophones Readings and Other Materials Right now, we’d transcribe these words as follows: Introduction Aspiration in ‘top’ [tAp] ‘cop’ [kAp] ‘pop’ [pAp] English The Facts ‘stool’ [stul] ‘school’ [skul] ‘spool’ [spul] The Rule ‘eat’ [it] ‘eke’ [ik] ‘eep’ [ip] Phonemes and Allophones Minimal Pairs and Problem: Complementary Distribution The actual ‘t’-sounds in the 1 st column are a bit different Summary from each other. ◮ Put your hand in front of your mouth and say “top”. ◮ There’s a strong burst of air when you say the “t”. ◮ This burst isn’t there when you say “stool” and “eat”.

Phonemes and An Oversimplification Revealed Allophones Readings and Other Materials Right now, we’d transcribe these words as follows: Introduction Aspiration in ‘top’ [tAp] ‘cop’ [kAp] ‘pop’ [pAp] English The Facts ‘stool’ [stul] ‘school’ [skul] ‘spool’ [spul] The Rule Phonemes and ‘eat’ [it] ‘eke’ [ik] ‘eep’ [ip] Allophones Minimal Pairs and Complementary Problem: Distribution The actual ‘k’-sounds in the 2 nd column are a bit different Summary from each other. ◮ Put your hand in front of your mouth and say “cop”. ◮ There’s a strong burst of air when you say the “c”. ◮ This burst isn’t there with “school” and “eke”.

Phonemes and An Oversimplification Revealed Allophones Readings and Other Materials Right now, we’d transcribe these words as follows: Introduction Aspiration in ‘top’ [tAp] ‘cop’ [kAp] ‘pop’ [pAp] English The Facts ‘stool’ [stul] ‘school’ [skul] ‘spool’ [spul] The Rule ‘eat’ [it] ‘eke’ [ik] ‘eep’ [ip] Phonemes and Allophones Minimal Pairs and Problem: Complementary Distribution The actual ‘p’-sounds in the 3 rd column are a bit different Summary from each other. ◮ Put your hand in front of your mouth and say “pop”. ◮ There’s a strong burst of air when you say the “p”. ◮ This burst isn’t there when you say “spool” and “eep”.

Phonemes and Aspiration Allophones Readings and Vocabulary: Other Materials Introduction The strong burst of air when you pronounce [t]/[k]/[p] in Aspiration in “top”/“cop”/“pop” is called aspiration . English The Facts The Rule IPA Representation: Phonemes and Allophones Aspiration on a consonant C is represented in IPA by a Minimal Pairs and superscripted “h” (C h ). Complementary Distribution Summary Therefore the following is a more accurate transcription of the words we saw before: [t h Ap] [k h Ap] [p h Ap] ‘top’ ‘cop’ ‘pop’ [stul] [skul] [spul] ‘stool’ ‘school’ ‘spool’ ‘eat’ [it] ‘eke’ [ik] ‘eep’ [ip]

Phonemes and Aspiration and Phonology Allophones Readings and Key Observation: Other Materials English speakers don’t just aspirate any old consonant they Introduction want. Aspiration in English The Facts ◮ Normal pronunciation requires aspiration to be on [t] in The Rule “top” Phonemes and Allophones ◮ Normal pronunciation requires no aspiration on [t] in Minimal Pairs and Complementary “stool” and “eat”. Distribution Summary Conclusion: Part of knowing English is knowing where aspiration can (and must) go . Question: How is this information represented in our brains?

Phonemes and Towards the Aspiration Rule Allophones Readings and Wrong Hypothesis: Other Materials Maybe we just memorize it on a word-by-word basis? Introduction ◮ When we learn a word like ‘cop’, we learn: Aspiration in English ◮ The phones that compose it: [kAp] The Facts The Rule ◮ Whether any phones are aspirated: [k h Ap] Phonemes and Allophones Minimal Pairs and Complementary Distribution Summary

Phonemes and Towards the Aspiration Rule Allophones Readings and Wrong Hypothesis: Other Materials Maybe we just memorize it on a word-by-word basis? Introduction ◮ When we learn a word like ‘cop’, we learn: Aspiration in English ◮ The phones that compose it: [kAp] The Facts The Rule ◮ Whether any phones are aspirated: [k h Ap] Phonemes and Allophones Problem for Wrong Hypothesis: Minimal Pairs and Complementary English speakers know where aspiration must go in Distribution words they’ve never heard before. Summary ◮ Read the following words to yourselves silently. “torble” “corble” “porble” “stib” “skib” “spib” “ort” “ork” “orp”

Phonemes and Towards the Aspiration Rule Allophones Readings and Wrong Hypothesis: Other Materials Maybe we just memorize it on a word-by-word basis? Introduction ◮ When we learn a word like ‘cop’, we learn: Aspiration in English ◮ The phones that compose it: [kAp] The Facts The Rule ◮ Whether any phones are aspirated: [k h Ap] Phonemes and Allophones Problem for Wrong Hypothesis: Minimal Pairs and Complementary English speakers know where aspiration must go in Distribution words they’ve never heard before. Summary ◮ Now say them with your hand in front of your mouth “torble” “corble” “porble” “stib” “skib” “spib” “ort” “ork” “orp”

Phonemes and Towards the Aspiration Rule Allophones Readings and Wrong Hypothesis: Other Materials Maybe we just memorize it on a word-by-word basis? Introduction ◮ When we learn a word like ‘cop’, we learn: Aspiration in English ◮ The phones that compose it: [kAp] The Facts The Rule ◮ Whether any phones are aspirated: [k h Ap] Phonemes and Allophones Problem for Wrong Hypothesis: Minimal Pairs and Complementary English speakers know where aspiration must go in Distribution words they’ve never heard before. Summary ◮ You probably pronounced them as follows: [t h Oôbl [k h Oôbl [p h Oôbl “torble” ] “corble” ] “porble” ] " " " “stib” [stIb] “skib” [skIb] “spib” [spIb] “ort” [Oôt] “ork” [Oôk] “orp” [Oôp]

Phonemes and Towards the Aspiration Rule Allophones Readings and Other Materials Introduction Conclusion: Aspiration in ◮ Since you’d never heard those made-up words before... English The Facts ◮ Your knowledge of where aspiration goes couldn’t have The Rule Phonemes and been memorized... Allophones ◮ So the ‘Wrong Hypothesis’ is wrong... Minimal Pairs and Complementary Distribution Summary