Chapter 1.
The Study of Phonology
1.1 Introduction
1.2 The Phonetic Basis of Phonological Descriptions
1.3 The Psychological Basis of Phonology
1.4 General Principles of Phonology
1.5 Applications of Phonology
1.6 Summary
1.1 Introduction
- Phonology is the science of speech sounds and sound patterns.
- Sound Patterns
a. the set of sounds that occur in a given language
b. the permmissible arrangements of the sounds in words
c. the processes for adding, deleting, or changing sounds
- Although all languages share certain basic properties, it is highly unlikely that any two languages have exactly the same sound pattern.
a. the set of sounds :
ü and ö in fünf and können in German
ð and θ in this and thin in English
b. permissible sound sequence:
kn in Knabe and Knie
st and sp in stop and spot
c. sound process
b, d, and g are pronounced as if they ended with p, t, and k as in Dieb, Hund, and Tag. English does not substitute the sounds p for b, t for d, and k for g in final position, as the words bib, bid, and bigillustrate.
- The patterned interaction of German sounds differs from that of English sounds. Hoever, the sound patterns of English and German also share many characteristics.
- All languages have as part of their sound inventories both vowels and consonants.
- In all languages, vowels and consonants are arranged into syllables.
- All languages have syllables at least some of which consists of a single consonant followed by a vowel.
- Linguistic Universals
- true linguistic universals: characteristics common to all languages
- near universals: features found in almost all languages. ex) n
- implicational universal: the presence of one feature in a language implies the presence of another. ex) d implies t.
1.2. The Phonetic Basis of Phonological Descriptions
- Articulatory phonetics is concerned with defining and classifying speech sounds according to how they are produced.
- Phonetics points up facts about how sounds are made and gives names to these facts.
- Phonetic classes are relevant to the statement of phonological rules.
- Because the groups of sounds that enter into rules are not random, we can state rules in terms of phonetic properties.
ex) Voiced stops become voiceless stops.
1.3. The Psychological Basis of Phonology
- Even though phonetics can identify many properties of speech sounds, only certain of these properties play a role in phonology.
- absolute values: precise values for the length, loudness, and pitch of sounds can be measured.
- Although the absolute values of length, loudness, and pitch are not important in phonology, the relative values of these properties play a significant role.
- The mind is disposed to consider some aspects of sound as more significant linguistically than others.
- This disposition seems to constrain quite narrowly both the kinds of sounds that can occur in human language and their arrangement in words.
- This disposition narrowly limits the kind of phonological processes that can occur in languages.
- If there were no such dispositions, a much wider range of processes would logically be expected to occur than is actually observed.
- Human beings are genetically programmed to accept certain sounds and processes as relevant to language and to reject all others.
1.4. General Principles of Phonology
- two main goals of phonology
- to set forth the general principles which characterize all languages
- to write adequate descriptions of the sound patterns of particular languages.
- Language inventories are limited in various ways. For example, both the set of consonatns and the set of vowels in a language must include certain types of sounds.
- The set of consonats seems always to include at least two voiceless stops.
- The set of vowels almost always includes a, i, and u.
- There are restrictions on the orders in which sounds can occur in a given language.
- CVCV
- CVC: dog, cat
- CCV: glimse,
- CCCV: splint, stream
- The arrangement of sounds in words is often limited in other ways as well.
- Every word must contain at least one vowel-like segment.
- There are limitations on the co-occurrence of certain vowels with certain consonants in the same syllable.
- The phonological processes that occur in languages are also quite limited.
- No language has a rule that completely reverses the order of sounds in a word or a rule that inserts some sound between each two adjacent sounds of a word.
- The German rule which changes voiced stops to voiceless stops in final position in quite natural.
- One of the important goals of linguistic research, then, is to discover the general principles which limit phonological inventories, orders of sounds, and processes.
- A descrtiption of the phonology of a language can be viewed as an instance of general principles.
- Given general principles of phonology, we can predict a great many things about the sound systems of languages not previously observed or described by linguists.
1.5. Applications of Phonology
1.6. Summary
A. sound pattern:
B. Phonology states the general principles which determine the characteristics of all sound systems.
C. Phonology has both a physical and a psychological aspect.
Applications to psychology, philosophy, and the teaching of foreign language.