Introduction to Linguistics Sound System and Word

Introduction to Linguistics
Sound System and Word Formation
Class 3
a. A little more phonetics
b. Prosody Continued
Exercises / Revision on Phonetics and Phonology
Dylan Glynn
www.dsglynn.univ-paris8.fr
[email protected]
Phonetics
a return to sounds....
Revision
Distinctive feature
Place of articulation & manner of articulation
features –
place - bilabial, labiodental, interdental, alveolar, palatal, palatal-alveolar, velar, glottal
manner - plosive, fricative, nasal, lateral, glide, palatalization, clicks...
voice, tense, tone,
3.1
Place of articulation
Place of articulation
həpɑ, hətɑ, həkɑ
Bilabial
Labiodental
Interdental
Alveolar
Stop
p
b
Fricative
f
v
θ
ð
Affricate
Nasal
m
Lateral
Rhotic
Glide
w
Unshaded = voiceless, shaded = voiced.
(This table is nice to remember.)
t
s
d
z
n
l
r
3
Palatal
ʃ
ʧ
ʒ
ʤ
j
Velar
k
Glottal
g
ŋ
h
Manner of articulation
həәdɛ, həәnɛ, həәsɛ
More distinctive features – Labial - Labialdental
Ewe (Niger-Cogno)
More distinctive features - Palatalisation
Russian (Indo-European)
vyt j
‘to howl’
v j it j
‘to weave’
sok
‘juice’
s j ok
‘he lashed’
zof
‘call’
z j ok
‘yawn’
More distinctive features – Laterals
Zulu (Niger-Congo)
More distinctive features – Tone
Thai (Tai–Kadai)
Spectrogram
A visualisation of amplitude of frequencies over time
Although these are difficult to use and you will work with them later in yr
studies, let us a quick look at them now.
Homework
1. Download Wave Surfer
2. In a langauge you speak (any langauge), think of a minimal pair (a word
which is distinguished by a single feature of one of its phonemes). If you can’t
think of a minimal pair, just any two phonemes that are distinguished by a
single feature
3. Record yourself producing the two phonemes with Wave Surfer
4. Look to see if you can see a difference in the spectrogram. Save the file.
Prosody – Recap!
Prosody - Rhythm, Stress and Intonation
Joshua Steele (1779) Prosodia Rationalis
Rhythm – speed structure (vitesse)
Stress – volume structure (intensité / niveau sonore)
Intonation – pitch structure (tonalité / hauteur)
These structures in langauge are more complex in English than in French
Rhythm
Syllable-timed languages –
Japanese, French, Finnish, Hungarian, Icelandic, Polish, Cantonese, Mandarin,
Georgian, Welsh, Italian, Slovene, Spanish
Stress-timed languages –
Arabic, Persian, English, Dutch, Thai, German, Russian, Danish, Swedish,
Norwegian, Faroese, Dutch, European Portuguese,
Rhythm and Metre
In French, each syllable is more or less the same length (duration of
pronunciation)
In English, the length (duration of pronunciation) varies according to the metre
Iambic pentameter
× / × / × /
/ × × /
×
To be or not to be, | that is the question
Stress and Reduction
They are independent phenomena, but you only reduce unstressed syllables
Stress and reduction are needed for two reasons
1. If you don’t know where the stress is, you don’t know where the reduction
is, then you can’t pronounce the word
2. If you don’t reduce and stress syllables in words correctly, then it is
impossible to produce the metre, pronounce the sentence correctly
So,
just like in French, each word has a gender
In English, each word has a stress and reduction pattern
Stress and Reduction
Sometimes it is obvious, but sometimes it is not
Stress and Reduction – Effects on Pronunciation
A stressed syllable is emphasised, spoken louder than the other syllables
In English, only long syllables are stressed
A reduced syllable is one where the vowel is a schwa or, depending on the
speed of speech, is deleted entirely
Stress
Reduction
/ x
x / x x
/ x x
x x x / x
equal
equality
equalise
equalisation
O o
o O o O
O o O
O o O O o
Stress – Effects on Rhythm
o
o
/
o
/
o o
/
The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.
o
/
o
o
o
/
/
o o
/
The river ran through the valley down to the sea
Stress – Effects on Meaning (Topicalisation)
/
o
o
o o o
o
Can you come to help next Tuesday? Est-ce que c’est vraiment possible que... ?
o
/
o
o o o
o
Can you come to help next Tuesday? C’est toi qui peut venir ou.... ?
o
o
o o / o
o
Can you come to help next Tuesday? Tu peux nous nous aider... ?
o
o
o o o /
o
Can you come to help next Tuesday? C’est mardi prochain que... ?
o
o
o o o o
/
Can you come to help next Tuesday? C’est mardi ou un autre jour que... ?
Basic Stress Rules
1. Two syllable words:
The stress is on the first syllable,
2. Three syllable words
The stress is on the first syllable
3. Long words
The stress is on the 3rd last syllable
These three rules on their own don’t work too well.
There are loads of exception rules
1. Two syllable words:
Normally, Germanic languages have the stress on the first syllable.
kettle, roaming, happy, cardboard, closer, blackbird, causal
There are two exceptions to this, but they are far from water proof.
1: “French” words
guitar, cigar, police, descend, retire, grenade
2. Compounds with Germanic roots
again, about, betroth, beget, bemoan, begin
2. Three syllable words:
Again, normally, Germanic languages have the stress on the first syllable.
terrible, infinite, massively...
But in “Italian” words (which are, in fact, rarely Italian), it is in the middle
banana, spaghetti, focaccia...
but then, the French words also come back... important, absolute...
2. Long words
Long words take what the antepenultimate stress (third last)
ridiculous, uncontrollable, terrible, ubiquitous, photographer
Exception 1:
suffixes -ic, -ity, -tion, -gious forces the stress to fall before the suffix
serendipity, television, Islamic, contagious, outrageous
Exception 2:
Suffixes: -ain, -ee, -eer, -ese, -ette, -esque
entertain, refugee, mountaineer, Portuguese, cigarette, picturesque
Exercise
With your neighbour, write down
Three 2-syllable words
Three 3-syllable words
Three long words
1. Put a mark of the stressed syllable
2. Put a line through the unstressed syllable.
See ya later!
ya
is not slang!
is not familiar language
is not because you speak quickly
The queen would say ya speaking carefully and slowly
it is grammar!
Weak-Strong Words
35 words in English that have two pronunciations
A normal – neutral pronunciation, called “weak”
and
A marked – empathic pronunciation, called “strong”
a, am, an, and, are, as, at, be, been, but, can, could, do, does, for, from, had,
has, have, he, her, him, his, just, me, must, of, shall, she, should, some, than,
that (conjunction), the, them, there, to, us, was, we, were, who, would, you
Weak-Strong Words
But
strong form: /bʌt/ weak form: /bət/
Tell him to go
strong forms /hɪm/ /tu:/ weak form: /tel əm tə gəʊ/
I would like some fish and chips
/aɪ wʊd laɪk sʌm fɪʃ ænd tʃɪps/
/ɑɪd laɪk səm fɪʃ ən tʃɪps/
Adjective – Compound Disambiguation
Stress is not just pronunciation, it is meaning too!
All black birds are black but some blackbirds are white!
This is a blackbird
Another Example
The sour cream is fresh, but the fresh cream is sour.
La crême épaisse est bonne, mais la crême fraîche a tourné.
Exercise - Compounds vs. adjectives
In pairs, try to imitate the stress patterns
in the following alternations
GREENhouse – green HOUSE
BLACKboard – black BOARD
DARKroom – dark ROOM
EVEning dress – evening SKY
WALKing stick – walking PEOPLE
MOBile phone – mobile PERson
STONE Age – stone BUILDing
HOT dog – hot TEA
PAPer knife – paper BAG
ENGLish teacher – English TEACHer
FRENCH student – French STUDent
Intonation
Remember that there are three elements to prosody
Rhythm, Stress and Intonation
Intonation is the pitch or melody of speaking
It is important in French too, though less complex
What is the difference in meaning between?
Maintenant, vous avez l’information
and
Maintenant, vous avez l’information
What about.... ?
allez!
and
allez!
Next week
we will work on English Intonation
Reading
There is some reading for phonetics and phonology on line
HOMEWORK – Wave Surfer and Spectogram