Functional aspect of speech sounds

1.

1. Functional aspect of speech
sounds.
2. Modification of sounds in speech
Phoneme definition
Aspects of phonemic analysis
Allophones as speech representations of
Phonemes
Modifications of consonants
Modifications of vowels

2.

Phonemes and Allophones
Stream of sounds → segments
What is a sound? [t] and [d] differentiate the
meaning of words: [tu:] — [du:] [tik] — [dik]
[t]: take, at the (aleveolar — dental)
Phoneme: sound in contrastive sense
Allophone: sounds that are variants of phoneme
PHONEME — family of sounds
ALLOPHONES — members of the family

3.

Phoneme definition
The phoneme is a minimal abstract linguistic unit
realized in speech in the form of speech sounds
opposable to other phonemes of the same
language to distinguish the meaning of
morphemes and words.
Three aspects of phoneme:
Functional
Material
Abstract

4.

Views of the phoneme fall into 4 main classes:
1) the “mentalistic” or “psychological” view: an ideal
“mental image” or a target at which the speaker aims (B. de
Courtenay).
2) the so-called “functional” view: as a set of oppositions (N.
Trubezkoy).
3) “abstract” view: as essentially independent of speech
sounds (L. Hjelmslev of Copenhagen linguistic school).
4)“physical” view: as a “family” of related sounds
related in character; not occurring in the same phonetic
context as any other (D. Jones).

5.

Phoneme
Firstly, the phoneme is a functional unit
(distinctive function).
e.g.: bath-path, light-like; He was heard badly He was hurt badly
Secondly, the phoneme is material, real and
objective (constitutive function).
e.g.: door — darn — down; deal — day — did;
bedtime — god dog; dry — dream; breadth;
dweller
Thirdly, the phoneme is abstract and
generalizing, one linguistic unit (recognitive
function).

6.

Phoneme and Allophones
An allophone is a sound that can represent a
particular phoneme. Principal/subsidiary allophones;
positional/combinatory; stylistic, dialectal, individual,
occasional (phones).
A phoneme is used for sounds in contrastive sense;
allophone for sounds which are variants of a phoneme
(different environments, non-contrastive)
Articulatory features: distinctive (relevant) — nondistinctive (irrelevant).
E.g. port-court (occlusive, labial-backlingual and velar)
aspirated-non-aspirated, non-palatalized-palatalized
toy-stop; do-did

7.

Minimal pairs

8.

Distinctive features
Invariant of the phoneme — includes
functionally relevant features:
e.g [t]: occlusive, forelingual and fortis
occlusive → constrictive, [t] → [s] (tea-sea; tick-sick);
forelingual → backlingual, [t] → [k] (bat-back; tick-kick);
fortis → lenis ,[t] → [d] (bet-bed; tear-bear).
Types of relations (distribution):
Contrastive
Complementary
Free variation

9.

Phonological and phonetic
mistakes
If any allophone of some phoneme is replaced
by an allophone of a different phoneme, the
mistake is called phonological, because the
meaning of the word is affected.
e.g.: [det – ded], [bi:t - bɪt], [bed - bæd] (debtdead; beat-bit, bed-bad).
If an allophone of the phoneme is replaced by
another allophone of the same phoneme the
mistake is called phonetic (foreign accent).
e.g.: palataliztion, aspiration

10.

State the difference bw the allopnones in the
pairs below:
pat — pit; trick — tick; cradle — trade; in the desk
– in a desk; stop Mary – stop Peter; glow – go;
garden — guide
Are the following mistakes phonetic or
phonological?
beat – [bɪt] bad – [bed] work – [wɔ:k]
meat – [mɪt]
bar – [baʳ]
days – [deɪs]
star – [stʰa:]
tease – [tˈi:z]

11.

Sort out the oppositions according to the
following features:
bilabial/labio-dental,
fore-lingual/backlingual,
alveolar/inter-dental
ni:z – ði:z
sɔ:t — kɔ:t
bu:ð- bu:t
Ɵɪk — dɪk
fɔ:m — wɔ:m
traɪ - kraɪ
mɔ: - fɔ:
gru: - tru:
wi:k – vi:l

12.

Sort out the oppositions according to the
following features:
front/central,
mid/open,
diphthong/monophthong
mæn – men
pɔ:k — pɜʊk li:k - lʌk
bed — bɜ:d
stɛə — stɜ:
mæd — mʌd bɜʊt — baʊ
sɔ:t – set
nɒt - naɪt

13.

Modifications of sounds in
connected speech
1) Connected speech
2) Phonological processes
3) Adjustments in connected speech
4) Sound alternations

14.

What is connected speech?
In spoken discourse, English words typically “run
together.”
They aren’t pronounced in an isolated fashion
within the stream of speech.

15.

Connected speech defined
Connected speech, also commonly referred to as
reduced speech or sandhi-variation, involves
the contracted forms, reductions, elisions,
and liaisons used by native speakers in their
oral speech.
Connected speech features reinforce the
regularity of English rhythm and help preserve
its stress-timed rhythm.

16.

The law of economy
All languages exhibit some type of sandhivariation in spoken utterances.
According to linguists this “ …results from a
simple law of economy, whereby the organs of
speech, instead of taking a new position for
each sound, tend to draw sounds together with
the purpose of saving time and energy.”
Rogerson (2006)

17.

Modifications of sound
Phonemes and allophones
Stages of articulation:
(1) the on-glide, or the initial stage (экскурсия),
(2) the retention-stage, or the medial stage
(выдержка) , and
(3) the off-glide (release), or the final stage
(рекурсия)
Economy of effort
Co-articulation

18.

Types of junction
(a) a consonant to a following vowel (C + V), as
in the word [mi:] me;
(b) a vowel to a following consonant (V + C), as
in the word [σn] on;
(c) two consonants (C + C), as in the word [bləυ]
blow;
(d) two vowels (V + V), as in the word [riæləti]
reality

19.

Adjustments in connected speech include:
Linking – the smooth connection of speech
e.g. Whaddayawant?
Elision – loss of sounds in sound-clusters
e.g. windmill – /winmil/
Intrusion – intrusion of sounds for smooth
pronunciation e.g. Asia and Africa ['eiʃ ərənd'æfrikə]
Assimilation – alteration of a speech sound to make it
more similar to its neighbours (simplification).
Accommodation – slight modification under the
influence of a neighbouring sound
Reduction – quantitative changes

20.

Types of modifications
assimilation:
C <→ C; V <→ V
accommodation: C <→ V; C <→ V
vowel reduction: weakening in unstressed
positions
elision: complete loss of sounds

21.

Assimilation
Regressive
e.g.: right now [t] is affected by the following
nasal [n] and is pronounced with the nasal
plosion);
Progressive
e.g.: suffix -s is voiceless after a voiceless
phoneme, and it is voiced after a voiced
phoneme – [si:ts – si:dz]; [sets – selz]).
The English plural is either /z/ or /s/ when it
occurs after a non-sibilant sound. The voicing
feature is taken from the final consonant of the
base. e.g. works [s] || runs / plays [z]

22.

Assimilation
Historical:
words borrowed from Norman-French:
permission, measure,
etc. (adaptation of the articulation of [s] and [z] to
the articulation of the [j]-phoneme: [pəˈmɪʃ(ə)n],
[ˈmeʒə].
Living (functioning)
Obligatory (has to be mastered in learning)
Non-obligatory (stylistic)

23.

Assimilations
Complete: e.g. in rapid casual speech [t] will
become [p] before a bilabial consonant, as in
that person [ðæpˈpɜ:sn].
Partial: e.g. tree - [t] becomes post-alveolar
under the influence of the following [r], but it
retains its distinctive features and is still
constrictive, forelingual and fortis.

24.

Assimilations of place (plosives and nasals)
1) the alveolar [t – d - n] before interdental [θ ð] become dental:
at the, in the, seventh, said that;
2) the alveolar [t - d] become post-alveolar
before post-alveolar [r]: tree, dry, get rid of;
3) the alveolar [t - d] become affricates before
the palatal [j]: fortune [ˈfɔ:ʧu(:)n], did you
[ˈdɪʤu(:)];
4) the alveolar [t - d] are bilabial before a
bilabial consonant (in rapid casual speech):
meat pie [ˈmi:p-paɪ];

25.

Assimilations of place (plosives and nasals)
5) the bilabial [m] is labio-dental before the
labio-dental [f-v]:
some fruit;
6) the alveolar [n] assimilates to the velar
consonants, becoming velar [η]: donkey
[ˈdɒηkɪ];
7) the alveolar [n] is palato-alveolar before by
[ʧ-ʤ]: (bunch, change);
8) the alveolar [s-z] are post-alveolar before
[ ]: does she [ˈdʌʃʃi], horse-shoe [ˈhɔ:ʃʃu:].

26.

Assimilations of manner
loss of plosion:
glad to see you, great trouble
lateral plosion:
settle, at last
nasal plosion:
not now, at night

27.

Assimilations of voice:
- regressive assimilation of voice before
voiceless fortis (the preceding voiced lenis
consonant becomes devoiced): e.g. of course
[əfˈkɔ:s]. NOTE: the voiceless fortis consonant
will never become voiced and lenis (e.g. I like
this [aɪ ˈlaɪk ðɪs]).
- progressive assimilation: suffixes “-ed” of
regular verbs, “-s” of plural nouns and
possessives. [t] after voiceless consonants
(except t) and [d] after vowels and voiced
consonants (except d),e.g. described
[dɪsˈkraɪbd] – passed [pa:st], cats [kæts] - dogs
[dɒgz], Pete’s [pɪts] - David’s [ˈdeɪvɪdz].

28.

Accomodations
Lip position: consonants become labialized under the
influence of the neighbouring back vowels : boot,
moon, etc.
The position of the soft palate: nasalization in
vowels under the influence of the neighbouring nasal
sonorants [m][n] : meaning, end, some interesting
men.
Elision e.g.: next day [neksˈdeɪ], acts [æks]; all right
[ɔ:ˈraɪt], always [ˈɔ:wɪz]; final –f is often lost before
consonants as in waste of time [ˈweɪst əˈtaɪm]; the
initial h- may be lost in the pronouns and auxiliary
verbs in casual speech as in What has he said? [ˈwɒt
əz i ˈsed]; examples of historical elision in English:
know [nɜʊ], castle [ka:sl], listen [ˈlɪsn].

29.

English vowels in connected
speech
Quantitative modification: shortening of length
in unstressed position e.g. window, ˈphoneme
and before a voiceless consonant e.g. heat,
past,
Qualitative modification: reduction of quality on
unstressed positions, e.g. statesman
[ˈsteɪtsmən]; economic [ˌi:kəˈnɒmɪk]
Elision: omission in colloquial speech in
unstressed position e.g. perhaps [pʰˈhæps],
today [tʰˈdeɪ], correct [kˈrekt].

30.

Stylistic modifications
most vowels in unstressed positions are neutralized,
specially in grammatical words: because [bɪkəz],
according to [əˈkədɪη], have [əv];
the diphthongoids [i:] and [u:] become diphthongs and
then monophthongs: believe [bəˈlɪv], few [fiʊ];
diphthongs are monophthongized and then might
undergo qualitative reduction as well: where [wɛ], really
[ˈrɛlɪ], now they [ˈna ðe] – [ˈnʌ ðə];
vowel elision is very frequent: it’s [ts], different
[ˈdɪfr(ə)nt], phonetics [ˈfnetɪks];
the degree of voicing or devoicing of consonants
increases and ends with the elision of the sound: must
be [mʌst bi - mʌst bpi - mʌst pi - mʌs pi];

31.

the glottal stop is often observed before the
modified plosive consonant: Great Britain
[ˈgreɪʔ ˈpbrɪtn], couldn’t come [ˈkʊdηʔ
ˈkʌm];
the palatal [j] affects the manner of
articulation of the preceding [t-d] and [s-z]:
as you like [əʒ u ˈlaɪk], last year
[ˈla:sʧˈjɪə], student [ˈsʧu:dnt];
there is a strong tendency for elision of
consonants: and the [ən ðə], a box of
matches [əˈbɒks əˈmæʧəz].

32.

33.

Hiyamac= Hi ya Mac!
Lobuddy= Hello buddy
Binearlong?= Been here long?
Cuplours= Couple hours
Ketchanenny?= Catching any?
Goddafew= Got a few
Kindarthy?= What kind are they?
Bassencarp= Bass and Carp
Enysizetoum?= Any size to them?
Cuplapowns= Couple of pounds
Hittinard?= Hitting hard?
Sordalite= Sort of light
Wachoozin?=What you using?
Gobbawurms= Gob of worms
Fishanonboddum?= Fishing on the bottom?
Rydonnaboddum= Riding on the bottom
“Whatchadrinkin?” – What are you drinking?
“Jugagimbeam” – A jug of Jim Beam
Igoddago= I got to go
Tubad= Too bad
Seeyaround= See ya around
Yeahtakideezy= Yeah take it easy
Guluk!= Good Luck!

34.

1) Classify these words and word combinations
according to the type of assimilation
(complete/partial, progressive/regressive):
symphony, just think, will you come, next
time, often, tell the teacher, glad to see, right
shoe, Ryan’s coat, treat, clean the board,
cycle, stubborn, eagle, hot pie, plum pudding,
opened, that’s the thing, open the book.

35.

2) State the type of sound modifications in the
following words and word combinations:
blackboard, could you, thanks, mean, set
three, give me, tune, ˈrecord, obˈject, locks,
pools, is she, lounge, inch, dark garden,
little, Ann’s, named, hotel, written, Kate’s,
don’t go, sportsman, ˈobject, London,
literature, schedule.