Presentation topics

a) The distribution of sounds in

the phonology of English

b) Stress in Complex Words

c) English Weak Forms

The distribution of sounds in the phonology of English

a) Contrastive distribution

d) Complementary distribution

g) Defective distribution

Contrastive distributionContrastive = difference in meaning

E.g. / ʌ / vs. / æ /

/ kæt / vs. / kʌt /

-Notion of minimal pair test

-Exceptions: Free variation.

Better [ ˈbetə ] (RP)[ ˈbeɾɚ ] (GAm)[ ˈbeʔə ] ( Cockney)[ ˈbeɾæ ] (Caribbean) 

Complementary distribution-Allophones

Mutually exclusive

E.g. German

Ich laut-ach laut

euch vs. auch/ ɔʏç / / aʊx/

Defective distribution

Distributional problems

/ h /

- Not present in final position

- It is said that is a voiceless vowel. Prevocalic and intervocalic position

- Elided in weak forms e.g. I saw her.

/ ŋ /

- Not present in initial position

- Only present with short vowels

- In medial position can have two possible pronunciations

Either with / ŋg / and / ŋ/ (morphological structure)

Hunger vs. hanger

Stress in complex words Affix words vs. compound words

Compound words : made from two or more independent words, e.g. ice-cream and bad-tempered.

Affix words : words made adding an affix to the stem

Affix words

Suffixes (after the stem) vs. Prefixes (before the stem)

SuffixesEffects on word stress a) No changeb) Shiftc) Carry the primary stress

a) No change

-hood : mother motherhood-ful : use useful-ing : walk walking-en : sweet sweeten -ness : dark darkness-less : harm harmless-ish : Kent Kentish

b) Shift

(a)-tion : pronounce pronunciation(i)-ty: sincere sincerity -ic : period periodic-ual: context contextual-ian: music musician

c) Carry the primary stress

-ette : major majorette -ese : journal journalese-phobia: homo homophobia-ee : examine examinee-(a)holic: shop shopaholic-esque: Chaplin Chaplinesque

English weak formsSyllable timed vs. Stress timed

Spanish vs. English

-----------------------------------------------------------------------Function words vs. Content words

Auxiliary verbs Main verbsPrepositions adjectivesConjunctions nounsPronouns adverbs

English sentence

Weakening process

-I just lost my wallet.

-We wanted to say ‘hullo’.

-Would you fancy a cuppa, my dear?

[ ˈƟæŋk jə ˈveɹ̨ɩ ˈmʌʧ ]