Phonology, part 2

October 29, 2012

• While you work on another Quick Write, here’s a funny painting of Superman based on a kid’s drawing:

Weekday Update• We’re still working on grading the mid-terms…

• Hopefully they’ll be back on Friday.

• Today: more phonology

• = we’ll look at distributions again from a slightly different angle.

• Then we’ll discuss some reasons why linguists believe that phonology is part of what you “know” as a speaker of a language

• ...even though it is subconscious knowledge

• But before we get into that, let’s take a look at the last Quick Write…

A Noble Spirit

A Noble Spirit

A Noble Spirit

Allomorphy• What’s going on here?

/in-/ + probable = improbable

/in-/ + mobile = immobile

/in-/ + possible = impossible

• /in-/ changes to /im-/ before both /p/ and /m/.

• /p/ and /m/ are both produced with the lips.

To explain patterns like this, we’re going to need to know something about how we actually produce the sounds of English.

We have to study Phonetics!

Place Assimilation• Place assimilation occurs when:

• One consonant’s place of articulation becomes identical to that of a neighboring consonant.

• /n/ often takes on the place of articulation of a following consonant.

• ‘unpleasant’

• ‘month’

• ‘engrossed’

• Likewise, alveolars--except for /s/ and /z/--assimilate to following dentals

Ex: width, tenth, wealth

Where Were We?• In phonology, there are both phonemes and allophones.

• Phonemes are contrastive sounds.

• Change meaning in minimal pairs, etc.

• Represent mental abstractions.

• Allophones are variants of phonemes.

• They appear in particular phonetic environments.

• Represent observable, concrete reality.

• There are formal rules that determine when a phoneme becomes an allophone in some environment.

• /Phoneme/ [Allophone] / Environment

Where Were We?• For example:

• In English, [t] and [th] are allophones of the phoneme /t/.

• /t/ [th] / at the beginning of stressed syllables

• (unless it’s preceded by /s/)

• In “Japanese”, [s] and are allophones of the same phoneme.

• Example rule (Japanese):

/s/ / __ [i]

(__ [i] = before an [i])

Explanations• Question:

How do we know that the /s/ changes to an in Japanese, and not the other way around?

• Answer #1:

• It’s the simplest way to describe the pattern.

• Answer #2:

• Japanese speakers think of the sounds as “the same”, at some level.

• Remember: we’re trying to describe the phonological rules (grammar) that speakers of a language “know”.

Distributions• Question:

How do we know that the /s/ changes to an in Japanese, and not the other way around?

• However, if we’re not speakers of Japanese…

• We have to take into consideration the distribution of the two sounds.

• The distribution is the set of phonetic environments in which a sound appears.

• Two kinds of distributions:

• contrastive

• complementary

Contrastive Distribution• Two sounds are in contrastive distribution when they can both appear in the same phonetic environment.

• Sounds that change the meaning of words in a minimal pair are in contrastive distribution.

• (Because they contrast with each other)

•Example:

‘bit’ vs. ‘pit’ [bIt] vs. [phIt]

[b] and [ph] belong to different phonemes

• Note the distribution:

• the sounds surrounding [b] and [ph] in this example are exactly the same.

Complementary Distribution• When sounds are in complementary distribution, they never appear in the same phonetic environment.

Complementary Distribution• When sounds are in complementary distribution, they never appear in the same phonetic environment.

all possible phonetic environments

sound 1 appears in these environments

sound 2 appears in these environments

Complementary Distribution• When sounds are in complementary distribution, they never appear in the same phonetic environment.

all possible phonetic environments

there is no overlap in where the two sounds appear

Examples• [s] and are in complementary distribution in Japanese

• appears before the vowel [i]

• [s] never appears before [i], but it appears most everywhere else

• [th] and [t] are in complementary distribution in English

• [t] appears after the consonant [s], and at the end of syllables

• [th] appears at the beginning of stressed syllables, but never after [s]

• Sounds that are in complementary distribution are generally allophones of the same phoneme

Types of Allophones• A restricted allophone is one that appears in only a limited set of phonetic environments.

• in Japanese (only before [i])

• [t] in English (only after [s])

• A basic allophone is one that appears in a less restricted set of environments.

• The basic allophone is also supposed to represent the phoneme in speakers’ heads.

• [s] in Japanese (phoneme = /s/)

More Japanese Words• What is the distribution of [h], [ç] and [f] in the following Japanese words?

([ç] is a voiceless palatal fricative)

[çito] ‘person’ [haha] ‘mother’

[çifu] ‘skin’ [asaçi] ‘morning sun’

[heta] ‘awkward’ [fune] ‘ship’

[hon] ‘book’ [hai] ‘chopsticks’

[fuhenfuto:] ‘neutrality’

• Q: Are they in complementary or contrastive distribution?

Some Rules• In Japanese,

[h] appears before [a], [o], and [e]

[f] appears before [u]

[ç] appears before [i]

• Q: Which is the basic allophone, and which are restricted?

• [h] is the basic allophone; [f] and [ç] are the derived allophones.

• Two phonological rules account for the distribution:

/h/ [f] / ___ [u]

/h/ [ç] / ___ [i]

Distributions• A “distribution” is simply the collection of phonetic

environments in which a sound may appear.

• Phonetic environment = the sounds surrounding the phoneme or allophone in question.

1. Contrastive distribution:

• Two sounds can both appear in the same phonetic environment.

• And they can change the meaning of a word (as in a minimal pair).

• The two sounds are allophones of different phonemes.

Complementary Distribution• When sounds are in complementary distribution, they never appear in the same phonetic environment.

• (They appear in non-overlapping environments.)

• [h], [ç] and [f] are in complementary distribution in “Japanese”

• [ç] appears before the vowel [i]

• [f] appears before the vowel [u]

• [h] appears before all the other vowels.

• Sounds that are in complementary distribution are generally allophones of the same phoneme.

• The phoneme just changes shape, depending on the context….

Enter…the Batman

An Analogy• Consider Commissioner Gordon. He knows a couple of guys:

• Batman

• Bruce Wayne

• He’s noticed that he never sees them together, in the same place, at the same time.

• In fact, one of them (Batman) really only shows up in certain situations…

The Distribution of Batman and Bruce Wayne

• Batman appears when:

• The Joker is on a crime spree.

• The Penguin has kidnapped the mayor’s daughter.

• Catwoman just broke out of jail, etc.

• Bruce Wayne appears when:

• They’re at a philanthrophy convention.

• The auto show is in town.

• He’s jogging in Central Park, etc.

Conditioning Environments• Do these environments have anything in common?

• The Joker is on a crime spree.

• The Penguin has kidnapped the mayor’s daughter.

• Catwoman just broke out of jail, etc.

• They’re all crimefighting/supervillain situations

• Do these environments have anything in common?

• They’re at a philanthrophy convention.

• The auto show is in town.

• He’s jogging in Central Park, etc.

• They’re just non-crimefighting normal people stuff (“elsewhere”) situations…

Complementary Distribution• Bruce Wayne and Batman are in complementary distribution

• They never appear together in the same place, at the same time

Bruce Wayne appears here

Batman appears here

crimefighting situations

other situations

Analyzing Distributions

1. Given two sounds in a language, treat them like Batman and Bruce Wayne.

• Ask yourself: is it possible to show that they’re meaningfully different sounds (or people)?

2. Try to force them into the same situation together

• In the case of Batman and Bruce Wayne, invite them both to the same party.

• In the case of sounds, see if they ever appear in the same phonetic environment

Strategy, continued3. Describe what kind of phonetic environment each sound

appears in.

• Figure out if there is anything in common among the various phonetic environments in which each sound appears.

• If two different sounds never appear in the same phonetic environment, they’re in complementary distribution.

You can then assume that they’re allophones of the same phoneme.

Restricted and Basic• A sound that only appears in a limited set of environments is the restricted allophone.

• Ex: Batman only appears in crimefighting situations, so…

• Batman is the restricted “allo-person”

• A sound that appears more generally is the basic allophone.

• Bruce Wayne is the basic “allo-person”.

• In Japanese:

• [f] only appears before [u] restricted allophone

• [h] appears before [a], [e], [o] basic allophone

Phonological Rules• In general, you can assume:

• The basic allophone is the representation of the underlying phoneme.

• The appearance of the restricted phoneme is conditioned by its environment.

4. You can write a rule for the conditioned allophone:

/Bruce Wayne/ [Batman] / __ crimefighting situations

/h/ [f] / ___ [u]

Non-Complementary• What happens if you find two sounds in the same

environment?

• There are two possibilities:

1. They are in contrastive distribution

• …if they contrast between the meanings of different words

2. They are in “free variation”

• …if they do not change the meaning of the words

Free Variation• = Two different sounds appear in the same environment, but they don’t change the meaning of the word.

• Ex: vs . “kit”

• and are allophones of the same phoneme.

• They are in free variation.

• = you can freely substitute one for the other.

• Another example (some dialects of English):

• “thought”

• “thought”

• Also witness: Tina Fey