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Introduction to Phonological Analysis

Roland Raoul KOUASSI

Readings •  Katamba, Francis, Introduc)on to Phonology (Longman, 1989) Chomsky, Noam & Morris Halle. (1968). The Sound Pa4ern of English. New York: Harper & Row.

•  Gussenhoven, Carlos & Haike Jacobs. (2nd ediKon) (2005). Understanding Phonology. London: Arnold.

•  Handbook of the Interna/onal Phone/c Associa/on. (1999). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

•  Kenstowicz, Michael. (1994). Phonology in genera)ve grammar. Oxford: Blackwell.

•  Maddieson, Ian. (1984). Pa4erns of sounds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

•  Ogden, David. (2005). Introducing phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

•  Roca, Iggy & Wyn Johnson. (1999). A Course in Phonology. Oxford: Blackwell.

The 6ield of linguistic science • Sounds

• Words

• Phrases and sentences Meaning

• Speakers

Beyond Language and across 6ields

•  Link to mind

•  Link to society

•  Link to geography

•  Link to neurology

•  Link to forensic science ....

Phonetics • PhoneKcs is the science of speech sounds •  The phoneKcian invesKgates physical sounds produced through the vocal organs of human beings during communicaKon

• He idenKfies facts such as: phonaKon characterisKcs; acousKc phenomena; auditory facts

•  Thus the three main branches of phoneKcs: arKculatory; acousKc; auditory

Phonology •  InvesKgates the sound system and the systemaFc use of these sounds to encode meaning.

•  The phonologist tracks down those sounds that are part of the linguisKc knowledge of the “ideal competent speaker”

•  S/he uncovers the sound system and the possible sound pa^erns, located in the human brain, and which help create and discriminate meanings.

THE TASKS OF THE PHONOLOGIST •  To idenKfy the characterisKcs of parKcular phonological

system, •  To specify the types of differences that can be found in general, and in characterize mulKple pairs of elements (e.g., voicing separates p from b)

•  To formulate general laws governing the relaKons of these correlaKons to one another within parKcular phonological systems

•  To account for historical change in terms of the phonological system

•  To found phoneKc studies on an acousKc rather than an arKculatory basis, since it is the producKon of sound that is the goal of linguisKc phoneKc events and that gives them their social character

Tasks, cont’d •  What sounds does a language use to build morphemes? (INVENTORY)

•  What are the allowable combinaFons of sounds? (PHONOTACTICS)

•  How do sounds change in different structural contexts? (ALTERNATIONS)

•  Which system underlies all the phoneFc alternaFons? (SOUND SYSTEM or PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEM)

•  To account for historical change in terms of the whole phonological system but not single sounds.

•  o formulate general laws to account for these phenomena (THEORIZATION)

Phonetics vs. phonology

PhoneFc string Phonological string

Orthographic string

[əˈpɪɚ] /æpiæ/ Appear [ˈstɑ:ɾɚ] /stærtɜ/ Starter [kˈmɛnsmnt] /kɔmɛnsmɛnt/ commencement [ˈpʰi:pɫ] /pi:pl/ People [ˈgɑ:tʃə] /gɔt ju/ Got you [awiʃəˈhæpnəs] /ai wiʃ ju hæpinis/ I wish you

happiness

A History of Phonology

Pre-‐structuralism •  Shiva Sutras, (The Shiva Sutras are a brief but highly organized list of phonemes)

•  In ancient India, by the Sanskrit grammarian, Panini (4th cent. BC) in his text of Sanskrit phonology

•  The Shiva Sutras describe a phonemic notaKonal system •  The notaKonal system introduces different clusters of phonemes significant in Sanskrit morphology

•  The Shiva Sutras were part of Panini’s 3,959 rules of Sanskrit morphology in the grammar known as Ashtadhyayi (अ"ा$यायी Aṣṭādhyāyi, meaning "eight chapters

Pre-‐structuralism, cont’d

•  The Polish scholar Jan Baudouin de Courtenay, (together with his former student Mikolaj Kruszewski) coined the word phoneme in 1876

•  This can be seen as the starKng point of modern phonology

•  In 1916, Ferdinand de Saussure’s posthumous book is published: Cours de linguis)que generale

Structural Phonology •  1920-‐1940: the Prague LinguisKc Circle: Roman Jakobson and Nikolai Trubetzkoy

• At the InternaKonal Congress of LinguisKcs, held in 1928, the members of the Prague LinguisKc Circle presented the famous Proposi/on 22 or Prague Circle Manifesto: this marked the beginning of a new science: phonology

•  In 1939, the Principles of Phonology of Prince Nikolai Sergeyevich Trubetzkoy is published. It retakes and enriches the ideas in the Manifesto.

•  It is considered the foundaKon of the Prague School of phonology

Critics of Structural Phonology • On the phonological representaKon • On the phonemic unit.

Post-‐Structural Phonology •  Started with Roman Jakobson: 1939-‐1949 •  He pointed to the limited number of “differenKal qualiKes” or “disKncKve features” that appeared to be available to languages: the disKncKve feature theory

•  Jakobson, Roman; Fant, Gunnar; and Halle, Morris. (1952). Preliminaries to speech analysis: The dis)nc)ve features and their correlates. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 1952

Generative Phonology •  In 1968 Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle published The Sound Pa4ern of English (SPE), the basis for GeneraKve Phonology

•  In this view, phonological representaKons are sequences of segments made up of disKncKve features.

•  These features were an expansion of earlier work by Roman Jakobson, Gunnar Fant, and Morris Halle

•  GeneraKve phonology is a component of GeneraKve Grammar

A Generative and Transformational Grammar Model (Based on David W. Lightfoot, 1982)

Phrase structure rules Lexicon

Initial Phrase Marker Transformational Rules (Movement Rules) Surface Structure

Phonological Rules Semantic

Interpretation Rules Logical Form

Semantic Representation Phonetic

Representation

Autosegmental Phonology •  A theoreKcal framework for phonological analysis devised by John A. Goldsmith in his PhD dissertaKon in 1976 at MIT

•  In autosegmental phonology, representaKons consist of more than one linear sequence of segments.

•  Each linear sequence consKtutes a )er; and each Ker is autonomous (autosegments) and related to the other Kers by associa)on lines.

•  Autosegmental phonology is therefore a mul)linear or nonlinear theory

•  The working hypothesis of autosegmental phonology is that a large part of phonological generalizaKon can be interpreted as a reconstrucKon or reorganizaKon of the autosegments in representaKon

Parameter

Faari, in Margi (Nigeria)

Some Structural Phonology Tenets •  The phoneme: •  It is the smallest contrasKve unit in the sound system of a language; the smallest unit that serves to disKnguish between meanings of words.

•  The Phonological RepresentaFon: •  In the analysis of the phonological facts, structural phonologists proposed a phonological representa)on which is to account for the surface phoneKc string. This representaKon is linear and concatenate. This concatenaKon was built with phonemic units.

•  The organizaFon of the sound system: •  Based on the concept of Opposi)on

Opposition •  A phonic property can only be disKncKve in funcKon insofar as it is opposed to another phonic property

•  OpposiKons of sound capable of differenKaKng the lexical meaning of two words in a parKcular language are phonological or phonologically disKncKve or disKncKve opposiKons (/v/ vs /f/)

•  In contrast, those opposiKons of sound that do not have this property are phonologically irrelevant or nondisKncKve. (/r/ vs []

Types of Oppositions •  Bilateral: the basis for comparison, that is, the sum of the properKes common to both opposiKon members, is common to these two opposiKon members alone. It does not recur in any other member of the same system

•  Mul/lateral: the basis for comparison of a mulKlateral opposiKon, on the other hand, is not limited exclusively to the two respecKve opposiKon members. It also extends to other members of the same system

•  Propor/onal: if the relaKon between its members is idenKcal with the relaKon between the members of another opposiKon or several other opposiKons of the same system.

Types of Oppositions, cont’d •  Isolated: if the phonemic system does not have any other pair of phonemes whose members would be related to each in the way as the opposiKon is

•  Priva/ve: one member is characterized by the presence, the other by the absence, of a mark. (the marked vs. the unmarked)

•  Gradual: the members are characterized by various degrees or gradaKons of the same property

•  Equipollent: both members are logically equivalent, that is, they are neither considered as two degrees of one property nor as the absence or presence of a property. Most frequent in any system

Types of Oppositions, cont’d •  Constant dis/nc/ve opposi/on: ...in posiKons of relevance: the capacity of differenKaKng meaning and maintain this opposiKon

•  Neutralizable opposi/on: ...in posiKons of neutralizaKon in some contexts.

•  An Archiphoneme is used in this case. •  Examples:

•  ɔ and ɔ →ɔ / -‐Nasals (in French) •  forKs consonant and lenis consonant →forKs consonant /-‐# (in German, Russian…) Examples in Russian: Zub (tooth); Drug (friend); Kod (code); Krov (blood)

Identifying Phonological Units •  The minimal pair process •  A minimal pair or phonemic microsystem is a pair of words that have different meanings by differing in form at one and only one specific syntagma/c or structural posi/on.

•  So: •  i. Two words •  ii. One difference in form •  iii. This difference occurs at the same structural posiKon •  iv. This difference brings about a difference in the signified / meaning / semanKc content

Examples

• Baule: asiɛ vs asiɛ •  French: banque vs bac •  English: lot vs let; •  Spanish: gasto (cost) vs gusto (taste) • Russian: Dom (house) vs Dym (fume); Son (dream) vs Syn (son)

Identifying Phonological Units, cont’d

•  The CommutaFon Process •  In linguisKcs commutaKon is the subsKtuKon of a unit for another in order to observe several consequences or verify a set of previously stated hypotheses.

•  This operaKon aims at deducing the disKncKveness of a unit or a set of units

•  In phonology, commuKng is subsKtuKng one sound for another a test the relevance of the difference

•  Examples: •  [tʌʧ] [tɪʧ] ; [lɔːd] vs [læd]

Identifying Phonological Units, cont’d •  The PermutaFon Process: • PermutaKon is a reciprocal posiKon change. •  It is a process through which two units exchange their syntagmaKc contexts of occurrence.

•  Examples: •  [pæt] vs [tæp] •  [tɛk] vs [kɛt] •  [taɪm] vs [maɪt] •  [təʊn] vs [nəʊt]

PHONOLOGICAL OPERATIONS •  AssimilaKon Processes •  Vowel ReducKon to Schwa •  Weak syllable deleKon •  Final Consonant DeleKon (let vs let go) •  MonophthongizaKon (example of Ebonics ɑɪ→ɑː) •  Unreleasing of stops. •  AspiraKon •  VelarizaKon •  PalatalizaKon •  LabializaKon (/d/ in day vs in do) •  NasalizaKon (a in at vs in ant) •  Flapping

The Syllable •  The syllable is the basic unit of speech studied on both the phoneKc and phonological levels.

•  Linguists generally agree that syllables have a linear structure. It is made of several consKtuents.

•  The basic structure of the syllable is made of an onset and a rhyme.

σ

Onset Rhyme

•  The Rhyme is also composed of a Nucleus and a Coda.

σ

Onset Rhyme

Nucleus Coda

Phonological Features •  All features are privaKve (ie. binary). This means that a phoneme either has the feature eg. [+VOICE] or it doesn't have the feature eg. [-‐VOICE]

•  There is a difference between PHONETIC and PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES

•  DisKncKve Features are Phonological Features. •  PhoneKcs Features are surface realisaKons of underlying Phonological Features.

•  A phonological feature may be realised by more than one phoneKc feature, eg. [flat] is realised by labialisaKon, velarisaKon and pharyngealisaKon

•  A small set of features is able to differenKate between the phonemes of any single language

•  DisKncKve features may be defined in terms of arKculatory or acousKc features, but Jakobson's features are primarily based on acousKc descripKons

Characteristics of features •  Features establish natural classes •  Binarity •  Economy •  PhoneKc interpretaKon

MAJOR CLASS FEATURES

syll cons son cont delrel Vowels + -‐ + + 0 oral stops -‐ + -‐ -‐ -‐ Affricates -‐ + -‐ -‐ + nasal stops -‐ + + -‐ 0 FricaKves -‐ + -‐ + 0 Liquids -‐ + + + 0 semi-‐vowels -‐ -‐ + + 0

MAIN FEATURES •  syllabic / non-‐syllabic [syll]: Syllabic sounds consKtute a syllable peak (sonority peak). [+syll] refers to vowels and to syllabic consonants. [-‐syll] refers to all non-‐syllabic consonants (including semi-‐vowels).

•  consonantal / non-‐consonantal [cons]: Consonantal sounds are produced with at least approximant stricture. That is consonantal sounds involve vocal tract constricKon significantly greater that that which occurs for vowels. [+cons] refers to all consonants except for semi-‐vowels (which o�en have resonant stricture). [-‐cons] refers to vowels and semi-‐vowels.

•  sonorant / obstruent [son]: Sonorant sounds are produced with vocal tract configuraKon that permits air pressure on both sides of any constricKon to be approximately equal to the air pressure outside the mouth. Obstruents possess constricKon (stricture) that is sufficient to result in significantly greater air pressure behind the constricKon than occurs in front of the constricKon and outside the mouth. [+son] refers to vowels and approximants (glides and semi-‐vowels). [-‐son] refers to stops, fricaKves and affricates.

MAIN FEATURES, cont’d •  coronal / non-‐coronal [cor]: "Coronal sounds are produced by raising the tongue

blade toward the teeth or the hard palate; noncoronal sounds are produced without such a gesture." (HC) This feature is intended for use with consonants only. [+cor] refers to dentals (not including labio-‐dentals) alveolars, post-‐alveolars, palato-‐alveolars, palatals. [-‐cor] refers to labials, velars, uvulars, pharyngeals.

•  anterior / posterior [ant]: "Anterior sounds are produced with a primary constricKon at or in front of the alveolar ridge. Posterior sounds are produced with a primary constricKon behind the alveolar ridge." (HC) This feature is intended to be applied to consonants. [+ant] refers to labials, dentals and alveolars. [-‐ant] refers to post-‐alveolars, palato-‐alveolars, retroflex, palatals, velars, uvulars, pharyngeals.

•  labial / non-‐labial [lab]: Labial sounds involve rounding or constricKon at the lips. [+lab] refers to labial and labialized consonants and to rounded vowels. [-‐lab] refers to all other sounds.

•  distributed / non-‐distributed [distr]: "Distributed sounds are produced with a constricKon that extends for a considerable distance along the midsaggital axis of the oral tract; nondistributed sounds are produced with a constricKon that extends for only a short distance in this direcKon." (HC) [+distr] refers to sounds produced with the blade or front of the tongue, or bilabial sounds. [-‐distr] refers to sounds produced with the Kp of the tongue. This feature can disKnguish between palatal and retroflex sounds, between bilabial and labiodental sounds, between lamino-‐dental and apico-‐dental sounds.

MAIN FEATURES, cont’d •  high / non-‐high [high]: "High sounds are produced by raising the body of the tongue toward the palate; nonhigh sounds are produced without such a gesture." (HC) [+high] refers to palatals, velars, palatalized consonants, velarized consonants, high vowels, semi-‐vowels. [-‐high] refers to all other sounds. Note, however, the discussion above on how this feature is used in combinaKon with [mid] to describe the disKncKon between four contrasKve vowel heights.

•  mid / non-‐mid [mid]: Mid sounds are produced with tongue height approximately half way between the tongue posiKons appropriate for [+high] and [+low]. This vowel height feature is only required when a language has four levels of height contrast and remains unspecified for languages with fewer vowel height contrasts. [+mid] refers to vowels with intermediate vowel height. [-‐mid] refers to all other sounds.

•  low / non-‐low [low]: "Low sounds are produced by drawing the body of the tongue down away from the roof of the mouth; nonlow sounds are produced without such a gesture." [+low] refers to low vowels, pharyngeal consonants, pharyngealized consonants.

MAIN FEATURES, cont’d •  back / non-‐back [back]: "Back sounds are produced with the tongue body

relaKvely retracted; nonback or front sounds are produced with the tongue body relaKvely advanced." (HC) [+back] refers to Velars, uvulars, pharyngeals, velarized consonants, pharyngealized consonants, central vowels, central semi-‐vowels, back vowels, back semi-‐vowels. [-‐back] refers to all other sounds.

•  front / non-‐front [front]: This is an addiKonal vowel feature added to assist in the descripKon of the vowel systems of languages such as Australian English. To describe the central vowels of Australian English its necessary to define them as [-‐back, -‐front].

•  conFnuant / stop [cont]: "ConKnuants are formed with a vocal tract configuraKon allowing the airstream to flow through the midsaggital region of the oral tract: stops are produced with a sustained occlusion in this region." (HC) For some reason it has been tradiKonal to include lateral consonants as stops in disKncKve feature theory. Since laterals can have approximant, fricaKve or stop (click) stricture there seems to be no jusKficaKon in including all laterals with the stops, and in this course laterals are not necessarily stops (as is the case for the lateral clicks) but can also be conKnuants (as is the case for the lateral approximants and fricaKves. [+cont] refers to vowels, approximants, fricaKves. [-‐cont] refers to nasal stops, oral stops.

MAIN FEATURES, cont’d •  lateral / central [lat]: "Lateral sounds, the most familiar of which is [l], are produced with the tongue placed in such a way as to prevent the airstream from flowing outward through the center of the mouth, while allowing it to pass over one or both sides of the tongue; central sounds do not invoke such a constricKon." (HC) [+lat] refers to lateral approximants, lateral fricaKves, lateral clicks. [-‐lat] refers to all other sounds.

•  nasal / oral [nas]: "Nasal sounds are produced by lowering the velum and allowing the air to pass outward through the nose; oral sounds are produced with the velum raised to prevent the passage of air through the nose." (HC) [+nas] refers to nasal stops, nasalized consonants, nasalized vowels. [-‐nas] refers to all other sounds.

•  tense / lax [tense]: The tradiKonal definiKon of this feature claims that [+tense] vowels involve a greater degree of constricKon then [-‐tense] (lax) vowels. Tense vowels need not be any different to lax vowels in terms of constricKon

MAIN FEATURES, cont’d •  sibilant / non-‐sibilant [sib]: Sibilants are those fricaKves with large amounts of

acousKc energy at high frequencies. [+sib] refers to [s ʃ z ʒ]. [-‐sib] refers to all other sounds.

•  spread glo^s / non-‐spread glo^s [spread]: "Spread or aspirated sounds are produced with the vocal cords drawn apart producing a nonperiodic (noise) component in the acousKc signal; nonspread or unaspirated sounds are produced without this gesture." (HC) [+spread] refers to aspirated consonants, breathy voiced or murmured consonants, voiceless vowels, voiceless approximants. [-‐spread] refers to all other sounds. It should be stressed that during the occlusion of both voiceless aspirated and voiceless unaspirated (0 VOT) stops the glo�s is open. The difference is during the period following release where, for aspirated stops, the glo�s stays open much longer than for unaspirated stops.

•  constricted glo^s / non-‐constricted glo^s [constr]: "Constricted or gloâlized sounds are produced with the vocal cords drawn together, prevenKng normal vocal cord vibraKon; nonconstricted (nongloâlized) sounds are produced without such a gesture." (HC) [+constr] refers to ejecKves, implosives, gloâlized or laryngealized consonants, gloâlized or laryngealized vowels. [-‐constr] refers to all other sounds.

•  voiced / voiceless [voice]: "Voiced sounds are produced with a laryngeal configuraKon permi�ng periodic vibraKon of the vocal cords; voiceless sounds lack such periodic vibraKon." (HC) [+voice] refers to all voiced sounds. [-‐voice] refers to all voiceless sounds.

Conclusion •  In this course, students have learned the basic concepts and processes of phonological analysis. They are advised to apply on other examples in English, but also encouraged to invesKgate their first languages.

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