--- ### Quick Reminders - The [Course Study Guide](http://savethevowels.org/docs/l101_study_guide.html) is online. - The Phonetics/Phonology Quick Reference is helpful! - Schwa vs. Wedge - Read the article on my site! - Phonology is awesome --- # Phonology: The Sound Patterns of Language ### Will Styler - LIGN 101 --- ### Today's Plan - What is phonology? - Phonemic Analysis from three different perspectives - How to tell if your instructor is actually Batman - Writing phonological rules --- ### First, a note on notation - We're going to start differentiating words in IPA between // and [ ] - /tap/ means 'top' at an abstract level. - [tap] means that sequence of sounds at a surface level. - /tap/ exists in the speaker's mind, [tap] exits a person's mouth - More later... --- ### So, now we know roughly what speech is like - What sounds we're using in English - How to describe them - ... and some symbols we can use to talk about sounds, not letters --- ### ... so, we should just be able to put the sounds together and we’re good, right? --- ### /ɪ/ /k/ /p/ /s/ /d/ - [skɪp] - [kɪd] - [pɪk] - [sɪp] - [dɪp] - [kɪs] --- ### ... but wait - *[ɪ] - *[k] - *[pɪ] - *[pdɪ] - *[kpsdɪdspk] --- ### /s/ is the plural marker in English, right? - [skɪps] - [pɪks] - but... - *[kɪds] - Should be [kɪdz] - *[kɪss] - Should be [kɪsɪz] --- ### Wait. So clearly the plural marker is more than just 'add an s' - There are several versions, or "allomorphs", of the plural marking chunk (the 'morpheme') - Is this just a memorized pattern? - **What would /s/ become for new words?** --- ### The Wug Test - Developed by Jean Berko Gleason ---
--- ### Now there is another one. There are two... A) [wʌgs] B) [wʌgz] C) [wʌgɪs] D) [wʌgɪz]
--- ### What if it was a /wʌk/? There are two... A) [wʌks] B) [wʌkz] C) [wʌkɪs] D) [wʌkɪz]
--- ### What if it was a /wʌʃ/? There are two... A) [wʌʃs] B) [wʌʃz] C) [wʌʃɪs] D) [wʌʃɪz]
--- ![](humorimg/linguist_dubstep.jpg) --- ### How do we know this?! - ... and why are there three different versions of the plural marker in English?! --- # Phonology --- ### Phonology Phonology is the study of how sounds pattern in Language and languages --- ## What do phonologists study? --- ### Within-Language Phonological Questions - What sounds differentiate words? (Phonemic Analysis) - ... and what do speakers hear as being “the same sound”? - How do speakers tend to group sounds together? (Natural Classes) - What combinations are “legal” or preferred in the language? (Phonotactics) - How are syllables formed and what kinds are legal? (Syllable Structure) - How do we assign stress, pitch, and emphasis? (Metrical Phonology) - *How can we generate a theory that explains all of that?* --- ### Theoretical Linguistics - In theoretical linguistics, we have three big questions: - "How can we model human language and grammar?" - "Do these models describe what humans are doing in real language?" - "Are these models cognitively real?" --- ### How do we model the patterns we see in language? - Can we describe the patterns we're seeing through some linguistic analysis or abstraction? --- ### Sample models for Wug-taming - Are we choosing a form among many which does the fewest things we don't like? - "Do we just hate [gs] and [ʃs] clusters and avoid them by replacing them with something else?" - Are we just remembering the words we've heard said before, and doing the rest from analogy? - "Are you finding a form for /wʌg+s/ by thinking about /mʌg+s/?" - Are we using rules that transform 'underlying' sounds into one another? - "Does some process change /s/ into [z] or [ɪz]?" - **We're going to take this approach in this class!** --- ### How do these various approaches handle *real data from real languages*? - Do they **predict all the things** that really happen? - Do they **avoid predicting crazy things** that *never* happen? - How do they **account for exceptions** and other weird data? - Do they work for **all languages**, or just a subset? --- ### Are these models cognitively real? - Could they be naturally learned and acquired by humans? - Do they depend on assumptions that some information is *innate*? - Does this theory describe what's *actually happening* inside the human mind? - ... or is it just a tool for describing how languages work, which doesn't claim to be how *humans* make the choices? --- ### We're going to just scrape the surface of theoretical questions - ... but know that they're there, and they're *really* interesting. --- ### Phonology is not the same thing as phonetics - Phoneticians are more concerned with the physical processes of speech - Articulation, Perception, and the cognitive processes underlying both - Phonologists are more concerned with the patterns of sound structure in different languages - Markedness, phonotactics, rules, and cross-linguistic patterns --- ### You can learn about one by studying the other - ... and phonetic laboratory methods for studying phonological problems is a booming world - Phonetics 💕 Phonology --- ### ... but they are deeply different fields - Phonologists and phoneticians ask different questions - We respect each other, and often hang out, but we're not doing the same thing --- ## You've just jumped out of a plane ![](img/parachute.jpg) --- ### Now, you collect data, write a grammar, and write a dictionary - What are the meaningful chunks of words ('morphemes') in this language? - What are the words in this language? - How should this language be written? - Decisions will need to be made --- ### One of the key questions you'll face is 'which sounds matter to speakers' - Which sounds carry a *contrast* - Which sounds *define words* - Which sounds *cannot be changed without changing meanings* --- ### Phonemic Analysis - Determining which sound changes *affect the meaning* of a word in a language - Phonemic Sounds - ... which sound changes are *predictable*, and don't change word meanings - Allophonic Sounds - ... and which sound variations are completely unpredictable and meaningless - Free variation --- ### We're going to look at this process using three different perspectives - 1: By looking at data - 2: By looking at perception - 3: By looking at distributions --- ### This is a "threshold concept" - That's why I'm covering it from three directions - If you're struggling here, come to office hours - It's normal and natural to struggle here --- ## Phonemic Analysis I: Let's use some data! --- ### "Oh no. There are sounds everywhere!" - "People use a huge set of sounds, and I don't know which differences matter!" - "What changes in sounds are *random*, and don't affect the meanings?" - "What changes in sounds are *meaningful*, and change the meaning of a word?" - "What changes in sounds can be *predicted* based on the other elements of the word, and don't change the meaning?" - "What should I write down in my grammar or dictionary?" --- ### Does the difference between [t] and [t̪] change the meaning?
[t̪im]
[tim]
[t̪iz]
[tiz]
[t̪aj]
[taj]
[t̪ap]
[tap]
--- ### It doesn't change the meaning and there's no pattern - In English, it doesn't matter whether a /t/ is made as a dental sound [t̪] or an alveolar sound [t] - Speakers can do two things and nobody particularly cares - There's no pattern, no standard, just maddening chaos - This is **free variation**. --- ### Does the difference between [k] and [p] change the meaning?
[ki]
[pi]
[kat]
[pat]
[kæst]
[pæst]
[kap]
[pap]
[kul]
[pul]
--- ### The meaning is changed, and there's no pattern - When you change from /k/ to /p/, the meaning of the word changes - ... but we can't predict which will show up except by knowing the word we want - We see 'minimal pairs' (e.g. /ki/ and /pi/) where that segment is the only thing that's changed. - /k/ and /p/ are in a **contrastive** distribution - They represent **two different phonemes** --- ### Does the difference between [ej] and [ej:] change the meaning?
[sejf]
[sej:v]
[ejp]
[ej:b]
[mejt]
[mej:d]
[ejtʃ]
[ej:dʒ]
[ejk]
[ej:g]
[mejs]
[mej:z]
--- ### It doesn't change the meaning, but we can predict when it happens! - Changing from a short to long [ej] doesn't change the meaning for speakers - Vowel length is *predictable* based on the voicing of the next consonant - Short and long vowels are in a **complementary** distribution - They are **allophones of the same phoneme** ---
### How are you feeling about this material? A) 😃 I feel like I understand it well! B) 🙂 I'm following, no problem. C) 😐 I'm not quite sure if I get it. D) 😕 I feel a bit confused. E) 😭 I feel completely lost! --- ## Phonemic Analysis II: Let's think about perception --- ### Spanish speakers hear... - # "Cabo" - When somebody says either - # [kabo] or [kaβo] --- ### Spanish speakers hear... - # /b/ - When somebody says either - # [b] or [β] --- ### English has two /l/ sounds - Light l ([l] as in 'lip') - 'Dark' or Velarized l ([ɫ] as in 'pill') - The 'Dark' L happens at the end of a syllable --- ### English speakers hear... - # "Pill" - When somebody says either... - # [pɪl] or [pɪɫ] --- ### English speakers hear... - # /l/ - When somebody says either... - # [l] or [ɫ] --- ### Speakers of language hear... - # The phoneme - When somebody says... - # Any of the allophones of that phoneme --- ### Phonemes are groups of sounds which trade places predictably! - ... and that trading is opaque to speakers - The /l/ phoneme has two allophones in English: [l] and [ɫ] - As in 'lip' and 'pill' - The /t/ phoneme has many allophones in English: [t], [tʰ], [ʔ], [t˺], [ɾ], [ɾ̃] - As in 'stop', 'top', 'button', 'cat', 'later', 'winter' - Every sound produced is an allophone of some phoneme - ... but not every phoneme has multiple allophones ---
### How are you feeling about this material? A) 😃 I feel like I understand it well! B) 🙂 I'm following, no problem. C) 😐 I'm not quite sure if I get it. D) 😕 I feel a bit confused. E) 😭 I feel completely lost! --- ## Phonemic Analysis III: Looking at distributions --- ### Allophones are *predictable* - They always show up in specific environments, and don't affect the meaning of the word - [ɱ] shows up in English *only* when there's an /m/ before an /f/ - 'Same' [sejm] but 'Symphony' [sɪɱfəni] - [n̪] shows up in English *only* when there's an /n/ before an Interdental sound - 'Pine' [pajn] but 'Pine thug' [pajn̪ θʌɡ] - [ɫ] shows up in MUSE *only* at the end of a syllable - 'lip' [lɪp] but 'pill' [pɪɫ] --- ### Allophones show up according to rules - If a sound is *variant* that only shows up according to a *rule*, it's an allophone of another phoneme --- ### Phonemes are *unpredictable* - There is no pattern which dictates where they show up - They can occur in the same environments - They form 'minimal pairs', different words which differ only in that sound - (or sometimes near minimal pairs e.g., te[ð]er vs. mea[ʒ]ure) --- ### If a sound has its own identity in the language’s structure, it’s a phoneme. - If it’s just another 'persona', it’s an allophone --- ### To determine this, consider a simple question... --- ## Is Will Batman? - ![](people/will_batman_broken.jpg) --- ### How do you find out if your instructor is secretly Batman? - You look at the distributions! --- ### If you see Batman and Will in the same context, they’re two different people. - Finding two people talking to each other in the same place is a good indication that they're independent entities - Two different personas can't be in the same place at the same time! - They're in **contrastive** distribution - They happen in the same contexts - If two sounds show up in an identical context, *they're independent phonemes* --- ### If you only see Will when there's no crime, and only see Batman where there's crime... - This is a potential sign that Will *could be* the same being as Batman - If Will runs into the bathroom when crime happens and Batman emerges, that's pretty good evidence - We call this an "alternation" - They're in **complementary** distribution - One shows up in one context, the other in another context - *If two sounds only show up in different contexts, or a sound suddenly changes, they're probably allophones of one phoneme* --- ### Complementary Distributions (Batman and his alter-ego, Bruce Wayne) ![](img/batman.jpg)![](img/brucewayne.jpg) --- ### Contrastive Distribution (Batman and Superman, two different heroes) ![](img/batmansuperman.jpg) --- ### So, to sum up the pop culture references... - Batman and Bruce Wayne are really just one being - Bruce shows up in some circumstances, Batman in others - [ej] and [ej:] are just one sound /ej/ in English phonology - [ej] shows up in some places, [ej:] shows up in other ones - Batman and Will Styler are different individuals - ... or so Will wants you to think! --- ### So, that's three different perspectives on phonemic analysis - You can look at the data and see when the meaning changes - You can look at perception, and see what changes listeners "hear" - You can look at the distribution, and see what sounds occur when. ---
### How are you feeling about this material? A) 😃 I feel like I understand it well! B) 🙂 I'm following, no problem. C) 😐 I'm not quite sure if I get it. D) 😕 I feel a bit confused. E) 😭 I feel completely lost! --- ### Where does free variation fit in? ---
Is there a pattern which predicts which sound occurs?
Does changing that sound change the word's meaning?
Free Variation
NO
NO
Different Allophones
YES
NO
Different Phonemes
NO
YES
--- ## Cool. So... how do we do phonemic analysis? --- ### Step 0: Check for minimal pairs If you have a minimal pair where the meaning changes, the sounds are different phonemes and your work is done. Always. --- ### If you have a minimal pair, the sounds are different phonemes and your work is done.
--- ### Phonemic Analysis in four easy steps! - 0: Check for Minimal Pairs, if none... - 1: Collect all the environments the sound you’re interested in can occur in - 2: State the distribution of the sounds. - 3: Decide which allophone is the basic *underlying* form - 4: Write rules to derive the other allophone(s) from it based on environment --- ### 0: Check for Minimal Pairs, if none... - Please. PLEASE. --- ### 1: Collect all the environments the sound you’re interested in can occur in - Write down what follows and precedes them - Use __ to help focus your brain on the context --- ### 2: State the distribution of the sounds. - "This one occurs before/after/around/near __" - Sometimes you can only describe where one happens - Test hypotheses! ---
--- ### 3: Decide which allophone is the basic *underlying* form - Choose the one you can't predict - Often it's the “everywhere else” allophone --- ### 4: Write rules to derive the other allophone(s) from it based on environment - We'll talk about writing rules more shortly --- ### All sorts of environments trigger changes - Adjacent sound or sounds - Adjacent *types* of sound - Word boundaries - Syllable boundaries - Sounds or later earlier in the word - This is a bit more rare, but really neat! --- # Phonological Rules --- ### So, you've figured out that sounds are allophones of the same phoneme! - They're in a *complementary* distribution - You can predict which one will show up based on the environment - **How do I express that prediction to somebody else?** --- ### Phonological Rules You describe the distribution of the allophones of a phoneme with phonological rules --- ### Phonological Rule Format - "X turns into Y in environment Z" - “X -> Y” means “X turns into Y” - -> is an arrow, but just easier to type. - Then the “/” which means “in the environment” - Then you add a blank, representing where the sound goes that's getting transformed “__” - ... And you position that blank relative to the conditioning environment. --- ### If /n/ turns to an /ŋ/ before velar sounds... - /n/ -> [ŋ] / __ [velar sounds] - If it happened after velar sounds... - /n/ -> [ŋ] / [velar sounds] __ --- ### Other Symbols - "#" means “the boundary of a word” - “V” means “any vowel” - “C” means “any consonant” - "ø" means "Nothing" - A /t/ being deleted is /t/ -> ø / ... - A /t/ being inserted is ø -> [t] / ... --- ### All of this is on your quick reference chart - Use it! --- ### Some Phonological Rules - /t/ -> [t̪] /__[dental C] - /ej/ -> [ej:] / __[+voice] - /V/ -> [Ṽ] / __[nasal] - Bruce Wayne --> Batman / [Crime]__[Crime] --- ### Often, you'll describe entire groups of sounds in your rules - These groups will all share a 'feature' - 'voiceless', 'velar', 'consonants', 'high vowels' - [stops] -> [fricatives] / __[back vowels] - Any group of sounds which share an articulatory feature can be called a 'natural class' - We'll talk more about these next time --- ### You'll hear about 'allomorphs' - These are chunks of meaning ('morphemes') like the plural /s/ or past tense /d/ which change depending on nearby sounds - The English plural "s" can be [s], [z], or [ɪz] - Cats, Dogs, and Dishes - The English past tense "ed" can be [t], [d], or [əd] - "Walked", "Buzzed", "Rounded" --- # Here's some practice data! --- ### When do the three types of English Past Tense marker appear?
-t verbs
-d verbs
-ɪd verbs
[wakt]
[sɪnd]
[ɹʌstɪd]
[pæst]
[sʌnd]
[tʌftɪd]
[lɪkt]
[glʌvd]
[bɔɹdɪd]
[waʃt]
[buzd]
[pɪɾɪd]
[lust]
[stownd]
[sajtɪd]
--- ### One solution to these data * /-d/ -> [-t] / [voiceless C]__ * /-d/ -> [-d] / [voiced C]__ * /-d/ -> [-ɪd] / [alveolar stop/tap]__ - *The English past is more complicated than this, in practice!* --- ### Are [l] and [n] allophones in Russian?
[l]
Gloss
[n]
Gloss
[lʲet]
'year'
[sin]
'son'
[lʲublʲu]
'I love'
[nʲet]
'no'
[slon]
'elephant'
[maʃina]
'car'
[dʲelal]
'did'
[novʲi]
'new'
[bʲeli]
'white'
[rajon]
'district'
--- ### Nyet! There's a minimal pair! - If 'lʲet' and 'nʲet' differ in meaning and differ only by that segment, they can't be allophones of the same phoneme! --- ### Have some Spanish data with [d] and [ð]
[d]
Gloss
[ð]
Gloss
[daɲo]
'damage'
[kaða]
'each'
[pared]
'wall'
[seða]
'silk'
[red]
'network'
[reðes]
'networks'
[dentro]
'inside'
[oða]
'ode'
[vendo]
'I sell'
[kaðena]
'chain'
--- ### This one's awesome (and allophonic!) - /d/ -> [ð] / V__V - Also, /b/ -> [β] / V__V - And, /g/ -> [ɣ] / V__V - "Voiced stops become fricatives at the same place of articulation between vowels" ---
--- ### Whoa. You're doing Phonology! - Amazing! --- ### Wrapping up - Phonology is the study of how sounds pattern - Phonemic analysis is how we determine which sounds have an identity in the language - ... and which are just personas of other sounds - Will *may* be Batman - Phonology is fun! --- ### Next time - Four common phonological processes - Phonotactics - More data! ---
Thank you!