systematically use a selection of these sounds in order to express meaning. That is to say, phonology is concerned with the linguistic patterning of sounds in human languages, with its primary aim being to discover the principles that govern the way sounds are organized in languages, and to explain the variations that occur. 2.8 Phonemes and allophones 2.8.1 Minimal pairs
Minimal pairs are two words in a language which differ from each other by only one distinctive sound and which also differ in meaning. E.g. the English words tie and die are minimal pairs as they differ in meaning and in their initial phonemes /t/ and /d/. By identifying the minimal pairs of a language, a phonologist can find out which sound substitutions cause differences of meaning. 2.8.2 The phoneme theory 2.8.3 Allophones
A phoneme is the smallest linguistic unit of sound that can signal a difference in meaning. Any of the different forms of a phoneme is called its allophones. E.g. in English, when the phoneme /?/ occurs at the beginning of the word like peak /????/, it is said with a little puff of air, it is
aspirated. But when /?/ occurs in the word like speak /?????/, it is said without the puff of the air, it is unaspirated. Both the aspirated [??] in peak and the unaspirated [?=] in speak have the same phonemic function, i.e. they are both heard and identified as /?/ and not as /?/; they are both allophones of the phoneme /?/. 2.9 Phonological processes 2.9.1 Assimilation
Assimilation: A process by which one sound takes on some or all the characteristics of a neighboring sound.
Regressive assimilation: If a following sound is influencing a preceding sound, we call it regressive assimilation. Progressive assimilation: If a preceding sound is influencing a following sound, we call it progressive assimilation. Devoicing: A process by which voiced sounds become voiceless. Devoicing of voiced consonants often occurs in English when they are at the end of a word.
2.9.2 Phonological processes and phonological rules The changes in assimilation, nasalization, dentalization, and velarization are all phonological processes in which a target or affected segment undergoes a structural change in certain environments or contexts. In each process the change is
conditioned or triggered by a following sound or, in the case of progressive assimilation, a preceding sound. Consequently, we can say that any phonological process must have three aspects to it: a set of sounds to undergo the process; a set of sounds produced by the process; a set of situations in which the process applies.
We can represent the process by mans of an arrow: voiced fricative → voiceless / __________ voiceless. This is a phonological rule. The slash (/) specifies the environment in which the change takes place. The bar (called the focus bar) indicates the position of the target segment. So the rule reads: a voiced fricative is transformed into the corresponding voiceless sound when it appears before a voiceless sound. 2.9.3 Rule ordering
[No much to say, so omitted – icywarmtea] 2.10 Distinctive features
Distinctive feature: A particular characteristic which distinguishes one distinctive sound unit of a language from another or one group of sounds from another group.
Binary feature: A property of a phoneme or a word which can be used to describe the phoneme or word. A binary feature is either present or absent. Binary features are also used to
describe the semantic properties of words. 2.11 Syllables
Suprasegmental features: Suprasegmental features are those aspects of speech that involve more than single sound segments. The principal suprasegmental features are syllables, stress, tone, and intonation.
Syllable: A unit in speech which is often longer than one sound and smaller than a whole word.
Open syllable: A syllable which ends in a vowel. Closed syllable: A syllable which ends in a consonant. Maximal onset principle: The principle which states that when there is a choice as to where to place a consonant, it is put into the onset rather than the coda. E.g. The correct syllabification of the word country should be /???????/. It shouldn’t be /???????/ or /???????/ according to this principle. Chapter 3 Lexicon 3.1 What is word? 1. What is a lexeme?
A lexeme is the smallest unit in the meaning system of a language that can be distinguished from other similar units. It is an abstract unit. It can occur in many different forms
in actual spoken or written sentences, and is regarded as the same lexeme even when inflected. E.g. the word “write” is the lexeme of “write, writes, wrote, writing and written.” 2. What is a morpheme?
A morpheme is the smallest unit of language in terms of relationship between expression and content, a unit that cannot be divided into further smaller units without destroying or drastically altering the meaning, whether it is lexical or grammatical. E.g. the word “boxes” has two morphemes: “box” and “es,” neither of which permits further division or analysis shapes if we don’t want to sacrifice its meaning. 3. What is an allomorph?
An allomorph is the alternate shapes of the same morpheme. E.g. the variants of the plurality “-s” makes the allomorphs thereof in the following examples: map – maps, mouse – mice, ox – oxen, tooth – teeth, etc. 4. What is a word?
A word is the smallest of the linguistic units that can constitute, by itself, a complete utterance in speech or writing.
3.1.1 Three senses of “word”