Phonology
? Definition
? Phonetics vs phonology
? The phoneme theory
– Distinctiveness in speech sounds
– Phoneme and allophone
– Minimal pairs
– Principles in deciding on phonemes
Definition
? Phonology is the study of sound system – the
inventory of distinctive sounds that occur in a
language and the patterns into which they fall,
Phonology vs Phonetics
? Phonetics deals with how speech sounds are actually
made,transmitted and received,Phonology,on the
other hand,deals specifically with the ways those
sounds are organized into the individual languages,
? Phonetics is the study of all the sounds that the human
voice is capable of creating whereas phonology is the
study of a subset of those sounds that constitute
language and meaning,
? Phonology is language specific,It deals with speech
sounds within the context of a specific language.
Distinctiveness in Speech Sounds
? Speech sounds are different from each other in a
number of ways,such as,place of articulation,
manner of articulation,voicing,nasality,
aspiration,tongue height,etc,Some of the
differences are distinctive in that they serve to
distinguish between words in a given language,In
English,for example,the difference between /p/
and /b/,/l/ and /e/ are distinctive,Substituting one
sound for the other changes the meaning of a word.
Phoneme and Allophone
? Phoneme,a sound which is capable of
distinguishing one word from another in a
given language.
? Allophone,the different members of a
phoneme.
? A phoneme is represented by one of its
allophones in a particular phonetic situation.
Minimal pairs
? Word forms which are identical everywhere
except one sound segment at the same
position,
? Examples,pin/bin,pin/pen,pin/ping
Principles for Deciding Phonemes
? Contrastive distribution
? Free variation
? Complimentary distribution
? Phonetic similarity
Contrastive Distribution
? If speech sounds occur in the same phonetic
environment and the substitution of one for
another results in a different word,then they
are said to be in contrastive distribution.
? Sounds in contrastive distribution should be
assigned to different phonemes.
? Example,/gud/ and /ga:d/
Free Variation
? If two sounds occurring in the same environment
do not contrast,that is,the substitution of one for
another does not produce a different word,but
merely a different pronunciation of the same word,
then the two sounds are in free variation.
? Sounds in free variation should be assigned to the
same phoneme.
? Example,/lan/ and /nan/ in Hunan dialect
Complementary Distribution
? When two sounds never occur in the same
environment,they are said to be in
complementary distribution.
? Sounds in complementary distribution may
be assigned to the same phoneme.
? Example,spot/ pot/ stop
Phonetic Similarity
? Complementary distribution is not the only
condition to identify two sounds as of the
same phoneme,They must satisfy some
other conditions as well,One condition for
two sounds in complementary distribution
to belong to the same phoneme is that they
must be phonetic similar.
? Example,/h/ and /n/
? Definition
? Phonetics vs phonology
? The phoneme theory
– Distinctiveness in speech sounds
– Phoneme and allophone
– Minimal pairs
– Principles in deciding on phonemes
Definition
? Phonology is the study of sound system – the
inventory of distinctive sounds that occur in a
language and the patterns into which they fall,
Phonology vs Phonetics
? Phonetics deals with how speech sounds are actually
made,transmitted and received,Phonology,on the
other hand,deals specifically with the ways those
sounds are organized into the individual languages,
? Phonetics is the study of all the sounds that the human
voice is capable of creating whereas phonology is the
study of a subset of those sounds that constitute
language and meaning,
? Phonology is language specific,It deals with speech
sounds within the context of a specific language.
Distinctiveness in Speech Sounds
? Speech sounds are different from each other in a
number of ways,such as,place of articulation,
manner of articulation,voicing,nasality,
aspiration,tongue height,etc,Some of the
differences are distinctive in that they serve to
distinguish between words in a given language,In
English,for example,the difference between /p/
and /b/,/l/ and /e/ are distinctive,Substituting one
sound for the other changes the meaning of a word.
Phoneme and Allophone
? Phoneme,a sound which is capable of
distinguishing one word from another in a
given language.
? Allophone,the different members of a
phoneme.
? A phoneme is represented by one of its
allophones in a particular phonetic situation.
Minimal pairs
? Word forms which are identical everywhere
except one sound segment at the same
position,
? Examples,pin/bin,pin/pen,pin/ping
Principles for Deciding Phonemes
? Contrastive distribution
? Free variation
? Complimentary distribution
? Phonetic similarity
Contrastive Distribution
? If speech sounds occur in the same phonetic
environment and the substitution of one for
another results in a different word,then they
are said to be in contrastive distribution.
? Sounds in contrastive distribution should be
assigned to different phonemes.
? Example,/gud/ and /ga:d/
Free Variation
? If two sounds occurring in the same environment
do not contrast,that is,the substitution of one for
another does not produce a different word,but
merely a different pronunciation of the same word,
then the two sounds are in free variation.
? Sounds in free variation should be assigned to the
same phoneme.
? Example,/lan/ and /nan/ in Hunan dialect
Complementary Distribution
? When two sounds never occur in the same
environment,they are said to be in
complementary distribution.
? Sounds in complementary distribution may
be assigned to the same phoneme.
? Example,spot/ pot/ stop
Phonetic Similarity
? Complementary distribution is not the only
condition to identify two sounds as of the
same phoneme,They must satisfy some
other conditions as well,One condition for
two sounds in complementary distribution
to belong to the same phoneme is that they
must be phonetic similar.
? Example,/h/ and /n/
