phoneme and feature theory

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DIFFERENCE?

kit

skill

sack

We pronounce them differently but we know they are the

same sound.

How do we know two sounds are the same or different?

[kh]Initial

/k/

[ko]after s

[k]elsewhere

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PHONOLOGY Phonology is how speech sounds are

organized and affect one another in

pronunciation.

Key terms: Phone Phoneme allophone

This organization is explained in phonological rules

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CONCEPTUALITY

Articulatory phonetics

Real sounds = phones

• [p], [t], [k]• [i], [æ]

• Phonology

• system and rules of sound patterns

• Abstractions = phoneme

• /p/, /t/, /k/• /i/, /æ/

• Inventory of sounds and how they are realized.

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Phonetics•Pho

ne

Phonology•Pho

neme

PHONEME

a PHONEME is the minimal distinctive (contrastive ) linguistic sound

Phoneme Mental unit Meaningful Not realized

Phone Physical/

environmental unit

Meaningless Realized

Allophone Phonetic unit Variation of

phoneme

variations

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phoneme (from the Greek: φώνημα, phōnēma, "a sound

uttered") is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances. (Wikipedia)

Segment: "any discrete unit that can be identified, either physically or auditorily, in the stream of speech."

1. separate and individual,

such as consonants and vowels,

2. occur in a distinct temporal order

multiple segments vowels, consonants

supra-segmentaltone,stress,

length,intonation secondary articulations

nasalizationvowel harmony

Marginal segmentsonomatopoeic words,

interjections, loan words

Source: Wikipedia

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PHONEME

A unit of speech that can be used to differentiate

words(e.g.“cat”/kaet/vs.“bat”/baet/).

Phonemes identify minimal pairs in a language.

The set of phonemes in a language subject to interpretation;

most languages have 20 to 40 phonemes.

The phoneme cannot therefore be acoustically defined. The

phoneme is instead a feature of language structure.

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What sort of entity is

the phoneme?

what is the contentof the

phoneme

how does one

identify phonemes

Issues

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1. WHAT SORT OF ENTITY IS THE PHONEME?

Twaddell (1935) 1) phoneme is a physical reality

“count for practical purposes as if they were one and the same.” JONES (1967: 258)

2) it is a psychological notion a mental or psychological reality the phoneme is a constant acoustic and auditory image (Sommerfelt); a

thought sound (Beni); a sound idea (Trubetzkoy); a psychological equivalent of an empirical sound (UÓaszyn);

In modern terms: phoneme is some sort of mental representation

TWADDELL criticized this mental phenomenon

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2. WHAT IS THE CONTENT OF THE PHONEME

What are phonemes made of? How are they represented?

what position specific phoneme takes in the

given phonemic system.

Which phoneme is in the opposition to a specific phoneme

Sapir (1925, 1933) Sapir’s “point in the pattern.”

phoneme as a set of contrastively underspecified features

underspecified, in the sense that it consists only of

contrastive properties and other features are omitted

This notion further corresponded to the theory of Distinctive feature

⇒ this underspecification theory has been proposed under generative phonology under

the name Modified Contrastive Specification

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CONTINUE… Prague School: Phonemic make-up or content

phonemic make-up(Jakobson) phonemic content of the phoneme (Trubetzkoy)

those properties which are common to all variants of a phoneme

Each phoneme has a definable phonemic content only because the system of distinctive oppositions shows a definite order or structure.

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3. HOW DOES ONE IDENTIFY PHONEMES

Practical aspect of phoneme: phonemic analysis

whether a sound is a single phoneme (/ts/,/nd/, or /oe/) a sequence of phonemes (/t-s/, /n-d/, or /s-j/).

Minimal pair Differ in one phonological element (phone, phoneme, toneme

or chroneme ) complementary distribution Contrastive distribution Free variation Mutation methods

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VIEWS OF WHAT THE PHONEME IS Empiricist notion: Twaddell

the phoneme is a collection of sounds (a fictitious unit )

Mentalist: Chomsky ( realistic view) the phoneme is the mental category that corresponds

to a coherent set of sounds in a language

American structuralist tradition: a phoneme is defined according to its allophones and

environments

generative tradition: a phoneme is defined as a set of distinctive features.

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BLOOMFIELD’S PHONEME “The smallest units which make a difference in meaning”

“A minimum unit of distinctive sound feature” (p. 77). non-mentalistic unit

He identifies “primary” (segmental sounds) and “secondary” (stress and tone) phonemes according to their function in language (primary: syllable forming; secondary: structuring larger units).

Phonemes are defined by their participation in structural sets. (syllabic, open-syllable, closed syllable, non-syllabic, initial, medial, final, initial cluster, final cluster, etc.)

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COMMON PHONEMIC RULES

Aspiration [h] Unreleased Stop [ ̚ ] Flap [ɾ] Dental Consonants [⊓] Velarization [ɫ] Voicelessness [˚] Vowel lengthening [׃] Vowel nasalization [~]

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Phonemic Awareness is a subset of 

phonological awareness in which listeners are able to

hear, identify and manipulate phonemes, the smallest units of sound that can differentiate meaning.

Separating the spoken word "cat" into three distinct

phonemes,

/k/, /æ/, and /t/, requires phonemic awareness skill. 

Phonemic Awareness

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Isolating Hear and isolate sounds in initial, medial or final

positions in word (e.g. bat, ball, bell, pal)

Segmenting Pronounce each phoneme in order as it occurs in word

(bat >> b-a-t)

Blending Combine phonemes to make a word (hear sh-ip and

say ship)

Manipulating Add or delete sounds in word to make new word (add a “t” to an” and say ant; replace the sound “d” in

sad with a “t” and say sat)

COMMON TYPES OF PHONEMIC AWARENESS

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THEORETICAL TIMELINE OF PHONEME

Ancient forerunners of modern descriptive linguistics (P¯ANINI, PATAÑJALI

(India), the Greeks & “Anon” (Iceland, 12th C.)) clearly recognized the

systematic nature between distinctive sound properties and the identity of

words in their languages

DE SAUSSURE (1857-1913) used “phonème”, first as a term for speech

sounds, later as a purely functional entity.

A. Dufriche-Desgenettes 1873

French word phonème as a speech soundSource: B. Elan Dresher

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TIMELINE… Structuralism (Ferdinand de Saussure(1879), E. Sapir, and L. Bloomfield)

Tried to eliminate cognitive and psycholinguistic function of phoneme

Used to refer to a hypothesized sound in a proto-language together with its

reflexes in the daughter languages

Polish Kazan school (Jan Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay and MikoÓaj Kruszewski

1875–1895)

As an abstract set of alternating invariant psycho phonetic elements : fonema,

Prague School 1926–1935

the first group to formulate an explicit phonological theory

Generative linguistics (Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle) modern phonology

What:• Distinctive Feature Theory

When:• 1939, 1949 ( around 1050s)

Who:• Roman Osipovich Jakobson

Russianlinguist literary theorist

Where:• Czech Academies

How:• by considering the phonological

concepts of de Saussure and Hjelmslev

De Saussure’s emphasized on the differential function

of linguistic elements .

Jakobson and Trubetzkoy attached great importance to

the oppositions among phonemes rather than to the

phonemes themselves

The notion of component features is already implicit in

the idea of opposition. The notion was made explicit

by Jakobson’s and Trubetzkoy’s recognition of such

features as ‘differential qualities’ or ‘relevant

properties’. (binary features + - )

Jakobson’s greatest insight, distinctive

feature, (after the phoneme) belongs to the

(Functional) Structuralist Phonology.

Jakobson (1939, 1949) drawing on earlier

phonological concepts of de Saussure and

Hjelmslev, pointed to the limited number of

“differential qualities” or “distinctive

features” that appeared to be available to

languages.

Original set appeared in Jakobson, Fant and Halle: 12

features

Chomsky and Halle : 45 features

Most modern phonologists:

A binary system of indexing features: a segment either

possesses or does not any one particular features.

English (with around 45 phonemes) would be six, giving

us 26 or 64 segments

JAKOBSON AND HALLE: 12 FEATURES

All of the features are polar oppositions, allowing relative values

Each feature is binary, with only two opposed values along a single dimension.

They employed features listed with articulatory correlates as well as acoustic cues.

i) The vocalic portionii) The presence of release burstiii) Duration of the closure intervaliv) rise-time of the fricative timev) Duration of the fricative noise

Protensity

Sonority

Tonality

Sonority

Markedness hierarchy of distinctive features

Saussurean hypotheses

Universal structural-

functional theory of phonology

If the word high-handed falls out of use, then synonyms like arrogant and presumptuous will extend their uses. If we drop the final f or v the results in English are not momentous (we might still recognize belie as belief from the context), but not if the final s is dropped (we should then have to find some new way of indicating plurals).

DISTINCTIVE FEATURE THEORY

THREE PRINCIPLES SURROUNDING THE DISTINCTIVE FEATURE SET

It should be able to characterize all contrasting segments in human languages

It should be able to capture natural classes in a clear fashion

It should be transparent with regard to phonetic correlates

DISTINCTIVE FEATURES …

Are minimal linguistic units Are limited Only binary oppositions are accepted The universal set of cognitive properties Are associated with speech sound Determine the contrast between speech

sounds Describe the ways in which these sounds

change Define the natural classes ( set of sounds)

NATURAL CLASSES

A natural class of sounds in a language consists on those sounds which share certain distinctive feature to the exclusion of all other sounds in a language.

They often pattern together in similar ways.

The labio-velar sound [w] as in ‘wit’ can not follow a specific group of sounds in English; [w] may follow [d] or [k] sounds as in ‘dwell’,’quell’ But can not follow natural class of ‘labials’ and

‘labio-dentals’ [ f,v,b,p]

FEATURE VALUE

The distinctive feature values for the sounds of a language are arranged as a matrix with + or – or 0 (non-relevant values

obstruents

vowels

glides liquids nasals

[consonental]

+ - - + +

[Vocalic] - + - - -

[sonarant] - + + + +

examples [p b z θ] [i: a] [j w] [l r] [m n]

FEATURES AND MARKEDNESS OF SPEECH SOUND

Implicational law Most common sound: unmarked Progressively rarer sounds: marked

The relationship that holds between them is called implicational law