Written Report Lingiustic

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

Pablo Borbon Main I, Batangas City
Written Report on Sound Patterns of Language
One of the core fields that compose the discipline of linguistics,
which is the scientific study of language structure. One way to understand
the subject matter of phonology is to contrast it with other fields within
linguistics. A very brief explanation is that phonology is the study of sound
structure in language, which is different from the study of sentence
structure (syntax), word structure (morphology), or how languages change
over time (historical linguistics). The pronunciation of a given word is also a
fundamental part of the structure of the word. And certainly, the principles
of pronunciation in a language are subject to change over time. So,
phonology has a relationship to numerous domains of linguistics
Researchers and parents alike have long been intrigued by how and
when children begin to learn their first words. Although this is often thought
to occur when a child first says something like “baba,” and a parent thinks
they have (obviously) intended “mama” or “papa,” the child probably first
recognizes their own name around the age of six months (Bortfeld,
Morgan, Golinkoff, & Rathbun, 2005 and may have many words in their
receptive lexicon before they actually produce their first words, typically
between 11 to 16 months.
Phonetics – the manifestation of language sound
Ashby and Maidment (2005) provide a detailed introduction to the
subject area of phonetics. From the phonetic perspective, “sound” refers to
mechanical pressure waves and the sensations arising when such a

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pressure wave strikes your ear. In a physical sound, the wave changes
continuously, and can be 2 introducing phonology graphed as a waveform
showing the amplitude on the vertical axis and time on the horizontal axis.
Phonology: the symbolic perspective on sound
Physical sound is too variable and contains too much information to
allow us to make meaningful and general statements about the grammar of
language sound. We require a way to represent just the essentials of
language sounds, as mental objects which grammars can manipulate. A
phonological representation of an utterance reduces this great mass of
phonetic information to a cognitive minimum, namely a sequence of
discrete segments. The basic tool for converting the continuous stream of
speech sound into discrete units is the phonetic transcription.The idea
behind a transcription is that the variability and continuity of speech can be
reduced to sequences of abstract symbols whose interpretation is
predefined, a symbol standing for all of the concrete variants of the sound.
Phonology
The study of higher-level patterns of language sound, conceived in
terms of discrete mental symbols, whereas phonetics is the study of how
those mental symbols are manifested as continuous muscular contractions
and acoustic waveforms, or how such waveforms are perceived as the
discrete symbols that the grammar acts on.
The IPA chart is arranged to suit the needs of phonetic analysis.
Standard phonological terminology and classification differ somewhat from
this usage. Phonetic terminology describes [p] as a “plosive,” where that

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sound is phonologically termed a “stop”; the vowel [i] is called a “close”
vowel in phonetics, but a “high” vowel in phonology.
The three most important properties for defining vowels are height,
backness, and roundness. The height of a vowel refers to the fact that
the tongue is higher when producing [i] than it is when producing [e] (which
is higher than when producing [æ]), and the same holds for the relation
between [u], [o], and [a]. Three primary heights are generally recognized,
namely high, mid, and low, augmented with the secondary distinction
tense/lax for non low vowels which distinguishes vowel pairs such as [i]
(seed) vs. [ɪ] (Sid), [e] (late) vs. [ε] (let), or [u] (food) vs. [ʊ] (foot), where [i,
e, u] are tense and [ɪ, ε, ʊ] are lax. Tense vowels are higher and articulated
further from the center of the vocal tract compared to their lax
counterparts. It is not clear whether the tense/lax distinction extends to low
vowels.
Independent of height, vowels can differ in relative frontness of the
tongue. The vowel [i] is produced with a front tongue position, whereas [u]
is produced with a back tongue position. In addition, [u] is produced with
rounding of the lips: it is common but by no means universal for back
vowels to also be produced with lip rounding. Three phonetic degrees of
horizontal tongue positioning are generally recognized: front, central, and
back. Finally, any vowel can be pronounced with protrusion (rounding) of
the lips, and thus [o], [u] are rounded vowels whereas [i], [æ] are
unrounded vowels. With these independently controllable phonetic

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parameters – five degrees of height, three degrees of fronting, and

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rounding versus non-rounding – we have the potential for up to thirty

vowels, which is many more vowels than are found in English. Many of
these vowels are lacking in English, but can be found in other languages.
This yields a fairly symmetrical system of symbols and articulatory
classifications, but there are gaps such as the lack of tense/lax distinctions
among central high vowels
Where the IPA term for consonants like [p b] is “plosive,” these are
referred phonologically as “stops.” Lateral and rhotic consonants are
termed “liquids,” and non-lateral “approximants” are referred to as “glides.”
Terminology referring to the symbols for implosives, ejectives, diacritics,
and suprasegmentals is generally the same in phonological and phonetic
usage. Other classificatory terminology is used in phonological analysis to
refer to the fact that certain sets of sounds act together for grammatical
purposes.Plain stops and affricates are grouped together, by considering
affricates to be a kind of stop (one with a special fricative-type release).
Fricatives and stops commonly act as a group, and are termed obstruent's,
while glides, liquids, nasals, and vowels likewise act together, being
termed sonorants.
Rules for combining sounds.
Another aspect of language sound which a phonological analysis
takes account of is that in any language, certain combinations of sounds
are allowed, but other combinations are systematically impossible. It is
also a fact that there is no word *[blɪk] in English, even though the similar
words blink, brick do exist.

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The question is, why is there no word *blick in English?

Answer: the nonexistence of this word is simply that it is an accidental
gap – not every logically possible combination of sounds which follows the
rules of English phonology is found as an actual word of the language.
While there are words that begin with sn like snake, snip, and snort, there
are no words beginning with bn, and thus *bnick, *bnark, *bniddle are not
words of English. There simply are no words in English which begin with
bn. Native speakers of English have a clear intuition that hypothetical
*bnick,*bnark, *bniddle could not be words of English.
Similarly, there are no words in English which are pronounced with pn at
the beginning, a fact which is not only demonstrated by the systematic lack
of words such as pnark, pnig, pnilge, but also by the fact that the word
spelled pneumonia which derives from Ancient Greek (a language which
does allow such consonant combinations) is pronounced [nʌ̍monjə] without
p. A description of the phonology of English would provide a basis for
characterizing such restrictions on sequences of sounds.
Variations in pronunciation
In addition to providing an account of possible versus impossible words in
a language, a phonological analysis will explain other general patterns in
the pronunciation of words. This pattern of pronunciation is not limited to
the plural, so despite the difference in spelling, the possessive suffix s 2 is
also subject to the same rules of pronunciation: thus, plural bushes is
pronounced the same as the possessive bush’s, and plural churches is
pronounced the same as possessive churches. This is the sense in which

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phonology is about the sounds of language.

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From the phonological perspective, a “sound” is a specific unit which
combines with other such specific units, and which represents physical
sounds. What phonology is concerned with is how sounds behave in a
grammar.
Allophonic relations
learn of predictable variants of basic sounds in English
learn about the concept’s “phoneme” and “allophone”
discover that similar relations between sounds exist in other languages
begin to learn the general technique for inducing phonological rules from
data that come from a language which you do not know be introduced to
writing phonological rules. Certain facts about pronunciation simply cannot
be predicted by rule, for example that in English the word sick is
pronounced [sɪk] and sip is pronounced [sɪp].
Hence one fundamental component of a language is a lexicon, a list of
words (or morphemes – parts of words), which must provide any
information which cannot be predicted by rules of the language. Any
information which cannot be predicted by rules of the language. However,
much about the pronunciation of words can be predicted. For example, in
the word tick the initial voiceless consonant t is phonetically aspirated, and
is phonetically [th ɪk].
This aspiration can be demonstrated visually by dangling a tissue in
front of the mouth when saying the word: notice that when you pronounce
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t, the tissue is blown forward. In comparison, t in the word stick is not

aspirated (thus, the tissue is not blown forward), so this word is transcribed
as [stɪk]. This fact can be predicted by rule, and we now consider how this
is done.
English consonantal allophones
While the physical difference between t and th in English is just as real as
the difference between t and d, there is a fundamental linguistic difference
between these two relationships. The selection of t versus d may constitute
the sole difference between many different words in English: such words,
where two words are differentiated exclusively by a choice between one of
two segments, are referred to as minimal pairs. The difference between [t]
and [d] is contrastive (also termed distinctive) in English, since this
difference – voicing – forms the sole basis for distinguishing different
words (and thus, [t] and [d] contrast).The choice of a voiceless aspirated
stop such as [th ] versus a voiceless unaspirated stop such as [t], on the
other hand, never defines the sole basis for differentiating words in
English. The occurrence of [t] versus [th ] (also [k] versus [kh ], and [p]
versus [ph ]) follows a rule that aspirated stops are used in one
phonological context, and unaspirated stops are used in all other contexts.
In English, [t] and [th ] are predictable variants of a single abstract
segment, a phoneme, which we represent as /t/.
Purely predictable variants are termed allophones – the sounds are in
complementary distribution because the context where one variant
appears is the complement of the context where the other sound appears.
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As we have emphasized, one concern of phonology is determining
valid relations between pronounced segments and the abstract mental
constructs that they derive from, the phonemes, which represent the unity
behind observed [t] and [th ] etc. The implicit claim is that despite there
being actual differences, [t] and [th ] (also [k] and [kh ], [p] and [ph ]) are in
a fundamental sense “the same thing.” We reduce the output sounds [t th k
kh p ph ] to just the set of sounds /t k p/, and a rule provides the
information “realized as [t] vs. [th ]” to account for these regularities.
Aspiration
We will turn our attention to rules of pronunciation in English, starting with
aspiration, to see what some of these regularities are. In the first set of
words below, the phonemes /p, t, k/ are aspirated whereas they are not
aspirated in the second set of words.
Unaspirated stops
spool [spuwl] stool [stuwl] school [skuwl] spit
[spɪt] stick [stɪk] skid [skɪd]
sap [sæp] sat [sæt] sack [sæk]
spray [spɹej] stray [stɹej] screw [skɹuw]
split [splɪt] sclerosis [skləɹowsɪs] spew [spjuw] skew
[skjuw]
The selection of an aspirated versus an unaspirated voiceless stop is
determined by the context in which the stop appears.

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Aspirated stops appear at the beginning of a word, whereas unaspirated
stops appear after [s]; aspirated stops appear before a vowel or a sonorant
consonant, whereas unaspirated stops appear at the end of a word. This
collection of contexts can be expressed succinctly by referring to the
position of the consonant in the syllable: aspirated stops appear at the
beginning of the syllable and unaspirated stops appear elsewhere. We
assume that the voiceless stops are basically unaspirated in English, and
explain where aspirated segments appear by having a rule that assigns
aspiration to voiceless stops, only when the stop is at the beginning of the
syllable: the rule can be stated as “voiceless stops become aspirated at
the beginning of a syllable.” We don’t need a second special rule to derive
unaspirated stops in other environments, because that follows directly from
our assumption that the basic or underlying form of the voiceless stops in
English is unaspirated, and they will therefore be pronounced as such
unless they are specifically changed by a rule.
[p], [t], and [k] in the middle of the word are not aspirated, even though the
consonant is between vowels or syllabic sonorants – between syllable
peaks – and therefore is presumably at the beginning of a syllable
1. ˈhæpij happy ˈkhæmpɪŋ camping ˈhɛlpɪŋ helping
ˈlʌkij lucky ˈsʌkɹ̩ sucker ˈ saltij salty
Compare these words with seemingly analogous words where there
is aspiration on the stop between vowels, such as [əˈthæk] attack, [ə
ˈkhjuwmjəˌlejt] accumulate, [ ˈlejˌthɛks] latex,[ əˈphɛndɪks] appendix. The

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important difference in these words is the location of stress. In all of the

words in example 1, where a voiceless consonant is not aspirated in
syllable-initial position, the consonant is followed by an unstressed vowel.
In other words, these data force us to refine our statement of the rule for
assignment of aspiration, to be “voiceless stops become aspirated at the
beginning of a stressed syllable.” voiceless stop! aspirated / [ˈσ
This statement introduces the method of writing rules, which will be
used in the book. Rules generally take the form “A!B/C_D,” where A, C, D
are variables that stand for single segment like[l]or[d]or phonetic classes
such as “voiceless stop,” and B describes the nature of the change, some
phonetic parameter such as “voiceless” or “nasal. The conditioning context
might involve only a preceding element in which case “D” would be
missing, it might involve only a following element in which case “C” would
be missing, or the applicability of the rule might depend on both what
precedes and what follows. The arrow means “becomes,” the slash means
“in the environment” where the context is what follows the slash. The
notation “[ˈσ” means “beginning of a stressed syllable,” thus “voiceless
stops become aspirated when they are preceded by the beginning of a
stressed syllable
Alternations involving aspiration
Certain word-formation processes in English change the location of
stress ,for example in atom the stress is on the first syllable of the root and
in the related adjective atomic the stress is on the second syllable

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[əˈphlaj] apply [ˌæpləˈkhejʃn̩ ] application

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[səˈphowz] suppose [ˌsʌpəˈzɪʃn̩ ] supposition
[əˈkhwajɹ] acquire [ˌækwəˈzɪʃn̩ ] acquisition
Pronunciation of novel utterances
When English speakers are faced with a new word which they have never
heard before, for example one coming from a foreign language, voiceless
consonants will be aspirated or unaspirated according to the general rule
for the distribution of aspiration. The pronunciation of unfamiliar foreign
place names provides one simple demonstration. The place names Stord
in Norway and Palma Mozambique will be pronounced by English
speakers as [stɔɹd] and [phalmə], as predicted by the aspiration rule.
The name Stavanger (Norway) may be pronounced many ways – [stə
ˈvæŋɹ̩ ], [ˈstævəndʒɹ̩ ], [stəˈvændʒɹ̩ ], [ˈstævəŋɹ̩ ], and so on, but consistently
throughout this variation, the /t/ will remain unaspirated because of its
position in the syllable.
When English speakers attempt to learn a language, which does not have
the same distribution of aspirated and unaspirated consonants as in
English, they encounter difficulties in pronunciation that reflect the effect of
the rule of aspiration. Even in native English words, unaspirated stops can
show the effect of the aspiration rule in hyper-slow, syllable-by-syllable
pronunciation. Notice that in the normal pronunciation of happy [ˈhæpij],
only the first syllable is tressed and therefore [p] remains unaspirated.
However, if this word is pronounced very slowly, drawing out each vowel,
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then both syllables become stressed, and as predicted the stop p is

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aspirated – [ˈhæ::]... [ˌphi::j]. All of these facts are explained by one simple
hypothesis, that in English the occurrence of aspiration on stops derives
from applying a rule.
Flapping
Another rule.
A phonetic characteristic of many North American dialects of English
is “flapping,” where /t/ and /d/ become the flap [ɾ] in certain contexts, for
example in [ˈwaɾɹ̩ ] water. It is clear that there is no contrast between the
flap [ɾ] and any other consonant of English.
water ˈwejɾɹ̩ waiter; wader waɾɹ̩ ˈæɾm̩
atom; Adam ˈ æɾəˌthuwd attitude
ˈhɪt hit ˈhɪɾɪŋ hitting ˈpʊt put ˈ
pʊɾɪŋ putting sɛt set ˈsɛɾɪŋ settin
We may state the rule of flapping as follows: “an alveolar stop becomes a
flap when it is followed by an unstressed syllabic and is preceded by a
vowel or glide.”
You will see how vowels and glides are unified in the next chapter: for the
moment, we use the term vocoid to refer to the phonetic class of vowels
and glides. It is again important to note that the notion of “vowel” used in
this rule must include syllabic sonorants such as [ɹ̩ ] for the preceding
segment, and [ɹ̩ ] or [m̩ ] for the following segment. Flapping is not limited to
the voiceless alveolar stop /t/: underlying /d/ also becomes [ɾ] in this same
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context.
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Base verbs ‘One who V-s’‘ V-ing’
ˈbɪd ˈ bɪɾɹ̩ ˈbɪɾɪŋ bid
hajd ˈ hajɾɹ̩ ˈ hajɾɪŋ hide
wejd ˈwejɾɹ̩ ˈwejɾɪŋ wade
Glottal stop
There is one context where flapping of/t/does not occur when preceded by
a vowel and followed by an unstressed syllabic segment (vowel or syllabic
sonorant), and that is when /t/ is followed by a syllabic [n̩ ]. Consider, first,
examples such as [ˈbʌʔn̩ ] button and [ˈkaʔn̩ ] cotton. Instead of the flap
that we expect, based on our understanding of the context where flapping
takes place, we find glottal stop before syllabic[n̩ ]
[rat] rot [ˈraʔn̩ ] rotten [hajt] height
[ˈhajʔn̩ ] heighten [lajt] light [ˈlajʔn̩ ] lighten
[fæt] fat [ˈfæʔn̩ ] fatten
The bare roots on the left show the underlying /t/ which has not changed to
glottal stop, and on the right, we observe that the addition of the suffix /n/
conditions the change of /t/ to [ʔ] in the context.Finally, notice that in casual
speech, the gerundive suffixɪŋ may be pronounced as [n̩ ]. When the verb
root ends in /t/, that /t/ becomes [ʔ] just in case the suffix becomes [n̩ ], and
thus provides the crucial context required for the glottal stop creation rule.
Take note:
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Some speakers have [ʔ] only before syllabic [n̩ ], so their rule is different.
Not all American dialects have this rule – it is lacking in certain Southern
dialects, and instead the flapping rule applies. Some British dialects have a
rule which applies in a rather different context, e.g. [lεʔə] letter.Contrastive
aspects of pronunciation cannot be predicted by rule, but allophonic details
can be. Allophonic changes are a type of rule-governed phonological
behavior, and phonology is concerned with the study of rules. The practical
concern of this is understanding the method for discovering those rules.
The linguist looks for regularities in the distribution of one sound versus
others, and attempts to reduce multiple surface segments to one basic
segment, a phoneme, where the related segments derive by applying a
rule to the underlying phoneme in some context.
Assuming that sounds are in complementary distribution, you need to
determine which variant is the “basic” underlying one, and which derives
by rule. The decision is made by comparing the consequences of
alternative hypotheses.
Feature theory
One of the scientific questions that need to be asked about language is:
What is a possible speech sound?
Humans can physically produce many more kinds of sounds than are
used in language.No language employs hand-clapping, finger-snapping, or
vibrations of air between the hand and cheek caused by release of air from
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the mouth when obstructed by the palm of the hand (though such a sound
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can easily communicate an attitude).

The pronunciation of a given word is also a fundamental part of the
structure of the word. And certainly the principles of pronunciation in a
language are subject to change over time. So phonology has a relationship
to numerous domains of linguistics
A goal of a scientific theory of language is to systematize such facts
and explain them; thus we have discovered one limitation on language
sound and its modality – language sounds are produced exclusively within
the mouth and nasal passages, in the area between the lips and larynx.
Even staying within the vocal tract, languages also do not, for example,
use whistles or inhalation to form speech sounds, nor is a labiolingual trill
(a.k.a. “the raspberry”) a speech sound in any language.The “raspberry” in
American culture communicates a contemptuous attitude; in parts of
coastal East Africa and Scandinavia, inhaling with the tongue in the
position for schwa expresses agreement. Such noises lie outside of
language, and we never find plurality indicated with these sounds, nor are
they surrounded by other sounds to form the word dog. raspberry” in
American culture communicates a contemptuous attitude; in parts of
coastal East Africa and Scandinavia, inhaling with the tongue in the
position for schwa expresses agreement. Such noises lie outside of
language, and we never find plurality indicated with these sounds, nor are
they surrounded by other sounds to form the word dog.
The central question is:

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What is the basis for defining possible speech sounds? Do we use
our “speech anatomy” in every imaginable way, or only in certain
well-defined ways?
Varieties of phonetic [i] vs. [ɪ].
Many languages have this pair of vowels; for example, Matuumbi
has [i] and [ɪ]. But the actual pronunciation of [i] vs. [ɪ] differs between
English and Matuumbi(spoken language in Tanzania) [i] is higher than in
English, and Matuumbi. Matuumbi [ɪ] is a bit lower than English [ɪ] – to
some people it almost sounds like [e] (but is clearly different from [e], even
the “pure” [e] found in Spanish) (language spoken in Tanzania). This might
force us to introduce new symbols, so that we can accurately represent
these distinctions. You do not have to go very far in to exotic languages to
find this phonetic difference, for the difference between English [i] and
German [i] is also very noticeable, and is something that a language
learner must master to develop a good German or English accent.
Other variants of sounds.
Similar variation exists with other phonetic categories. The retroflex
consonants of Telugu, Hindi, and Koti are all pronounced differently. Hindi
has what might be called “mild” retroflexion, where the tip of the tongue is
placed just behind the alveolar ridge, while in Telugu, the tip of the tongue
is further back and contact is made between the palate and the underside
of the tongue (sublaminal); in Koti, the tongue is placed further forward, but
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is also sublaminal.
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One thing that phonological theory wants to know is: what is a possible
phoneme?
How might we answer this?
We could look at all languages and publish a list. A monumental difficulty
with that is that there are nearly 7,000 languages, but useful information on
around only 10 percent of these languages
This could only say what phonemic contrasts happen to exist at the
present. A scientific account of language does not just ask what has been
actually observed, it asks about the fundamental nature of language,
including potential sounds which may have existed in a language spoken
1,000 years ago, or some future language which will be spoken 1,000
years hence
Analogously, phonological theory seeks to discover the laws for building
phonemes, which predict what phonemes can be found in languages
Distinctive feature theory
Just saying that rules are defined in terms of phonetic properties is
too broad a claim, since it says nothing about the phonetic properties that
are relevant. Consider a hypothetical rule, stated in terms of phonetic
properties:
all vowels change place of articulation so that the original difference in
formant frequency between F1 and F3 is reduced to half what it originally
was, when the vowel appears before a consonant whose duration ranges
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from 100 to 135 ms.

The Acquisition of prosodic words
Well-formed prosodic words in English must contain two moras of
structure, that is, either a long/tense vowel or diphthong, or a short vowel
and a coda consonant if a disyllable (2b), or be disyllabic (2c). Words with
just a short vowel (2a) in English are ill-formed. Nicknames are a
productive way to show this: one can shorten Philip to Phil /fɪl/ (containing
a short vowel plus coda consonant), and Susan to Sue /su/ (containing a
long vowel), but not /fɪ/ or /sʌ/, respectively—both with only a short vowel.
But how and when do children learn that English
Many other languages have such a constraint as well. For example,
Bantu languages like Sesotho (Doke & Mofokeng, 1957), spoken in
southern Africa, add another mora to monomoraic words, so that ill-formed
*ja! “eat!” becomes eja! or jaa! But this is not universal: languages like
French have no such constraint, permitting words that contain only one
mora of structure, like o “water.”. As we have already mentioned, many
languages have a word minimality constraint, but this is not universal.
Rather, it must be learned. The previous discussion suggests that learners
of English have an emerging awareness of this constraint before the age of
two, and that it appears fairly stable by two to three years. The phonetic
properties which are the basis of phonological systems are general and
somewhat abstract, such as voicing or rounding, and are largely the
categories which we have informally been using already: they are not the
same, as we will see.

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The hypothesis of distinctive feature theory is that there is a small set,
around two dozen, of phonetically based properties which phonological
analysis uses.
These properties, the distinctive features, not only define the possible
phonemes of human languages, but also define phonological rules.
Major class features
One of the most intuitive distinctions which feature theory needs to
capture is that between consonants and vowels. There are three features,
the so-called major class features, which provide a rough first grouping of
sounds into functional types that includes the consonant/vowel distinction.
syllabic (syl): forms a syllable peak (and thus can be stressed).
sonorant (son): sounds produced with a vocal tract configuration in which
spontaneous voicing is possible.
consonantal (cons): sounds produced with a major obstruction in the oral
cavity.
Place of articulation
Features to define place of articulation are our next functional set.
We begin with the features typically used by vowels, specifically the
[+syllabic, -consonantal, +sonorant] segments, and then proceed to
consonant features, ending with a discussion of the intersection of these
features.
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Vowel place features. The features which define place of articulation for
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vowels are the following

high: the body of the tongue is raised from the neutral position.
low: the body of the tongue is lowered from the neutral position.
back: the body of the tongue is retracted from the neutral position.
round: the lips are protruded.
tense: sounds requiring deliberate, accurate, maximally distinct gestures
that involve considerable muscular effort.
advanced tongue root: produced by drawing the root of the tongue forward.
Manner of articulation
Other features relate to the manner in which a segment is produced, apart
from the location of the segment’s constriction. The manner features are:
continuant (cont): the primary constriction is not narrowed so much that
airflow through the oral cavity is blocked.
delayed release (del.rel): release of a total constriction is slowed so that a
fricative is formed after the stop portion.
nasal (nas): the velum is lowered which allows air to escape through the
nose.
lateral (lat): the mid section of the tongue is lowered at the side
Laryngeal features
Three features characterize the state of the glottis:
spread glottis (s.g.): the vocal folds are spread far apart.
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constricted glottis (c.g.): the vocal folds are tightly

constricted. voice (voi): the vocal folds vibrate.
Prosodic features
Finally, in order to account for the existence of length distinctions,
and to represent stressed versus unstressed vowels, two other features
were proposed:
long: has greater duration.
stress: has greater emphasis, higher amplitude and pitch, longer duration.
These are obvious: long segments are [+long] and stressed vowels are
[+stress].A major lacuna in the Chomsky and Halle (1968) account of
features is a lack of features for tone.
Rule formulation and features
The most important function of features is to form the basis for writing
rules, which is crucial in understanding what defines a possible
phonological rule. A typical rule of vowel nasalization, which nasalizes all
vowels before a nasal, can be formulated very simply if stated in features:
(28) [+syllabic] ! [+nasal]/ __ [+nasal]
The idea that rules are stated in terms of the simplest, most general
classes of phonetically defined segments has an implication for rule
formulation. Suppose we encounter a rule where high vowels (but not mid
and low vowels) nasalize before nasal stops (n, m, ŋ), thus in!ĩn, uŋ!ũŋ,
and so on. We would formulate such a rule as follows

21
The Formulation of phonological rules

Page
Many aspects of rule theory were introduced in our informal approach to
rule writing.The general form of a phonological rule is:
Language sounds can be defined in terms of a small set of universal
phonetically based features, which not only define the basic atoms of
phonological representations, but also play a central role in the formal
expression of rules.
An important theme of this chapter is the nature of scientific theories, such
as the theory of features, which make predictions both about what can
happen and what cannot happen.
The fundamental role of feature theory is to make specific predictions
about the kinds of segments and rules that we should find in human
languages.
One of the main concerns of phonological theory is finding the correct set
of features that define the sounds and rule systems of all human
languages.
The Idea behind Phonological Rules
Generative phonologists, who have worked extensively with phonological
rules, work on the basic assumption that every speaker has a mental
lexicon full of abstract entries of phonological forms in his or her head.
These abstract stored entries are underlying representations and serve as
input for the phonological rules. These underlying forms then undergo a
derivational process which is defined by the phonological rule. The output

22
Page
of that process is the phonetic representation of the pronunciation
underlying representation.
Theory cannot be entirely avoided; indeed, it is impossible to state
generalizations about a particular language without a theory which gives
you a basis for postulating general rules. The very question of what the
raw data are must be interpreted in the context of a theory, thus analysis
needs theory. Equally, theories are formal models which impose structure
on data – theories are theories about data – so theories need data, hence
analysis. The theoretical issues discussed because they represent issues
which have come up many times in phonology, because they are
fundamental issues, and especially because they allow exploration of the
deeper philosophical issues involved in theory construction and testing.
Making a principled separation between phonetics and phonology is
difficult – just as it is difficult to make a principled separation between
physics and chemistry, or sociology and anthropology. While phonetics
and phonology both deal with language sound, they address different
aspects of sound. Phonetics deals with “actual” physical sounds as they
are manifested in human speech, and concentrates on acoustic
waveforms, formant values, measurements of duration measured in
milliseconds, of amplitude and frequency. Phonetics also deals with the
physical principles underlying the production of sounds, namely vocal tract
resonances, and the muscles and other articulatory structures used to
produce those resonances. Phonology, on the other hand, is an abstract

23
cognitive system dealing with rules in a mental grammar: principles of

Page
subconscious “thought” as they relate to language sound.

Brief explanation is that phonology is the study of sound structure in
language, which is different from the study of sentence structure (syntax),
word structure (morphology), or how languages change over time
(historical linguistics). But this is insufficient. An important feature of the
structure of a sentence is how it is pronounced – its sound structure.
The pronunciation of a given word is also a fundamental part of the
structure of the word. And certainly, the principles of pronunciation in a
language are subject to change over time. So, phonology has a
relationship to numerous domains of linguistics.
References:
https://linguistics.ucla.edu/people/keating/IPA/IPA_charts_2018.html?
fbclid=IwAR1sUvyYsBJDkusupLMtPT0OuUUGhgu3Uen1Rl7cGzvs8SlaZM
b2CtfVxBA
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/phonemes?
fbclid=IwAR0MhoJ_Pm8RyUxJTeOIfQW6MnIu_d3b6ipUJ8Krjy2Ppcjy8KN
eIQ9b8wc
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/phonemes?
fbclid=IwAR19bJdYoGGLOzCbcKMEHf3Nc3YxDX3BDJzEaUWus5I6e81is
0dtl-RHBwg
https://www.mq.edu.au/about/about-the-university/faculties-and-
departments/faculty-of-human-sciences/departments-and-
centres/department-of-linguistics/our-research/child-language-
24
acquisition/child-language-lab/publications/2018-Demuth-OH-
Page
Psycholinguistics_Ch29.pdf?
fbclid=IwAR0z1mUfReymTyQno3tNSr80lvI25EmaODC3GI_k3DdaZWEHjy
6mEOAcarc
http://www.sfu.ca/~mcrobbie/Ling221/%236.pdf?
fbclid=IwAR3Hmncheu6xSlS7MAcYj1erPHvz5e8oRAc3kAHXPfXQQRbPv
RBB88varbE
file:///C:/Users/Anne/Downloads/tipa-162%20(2).pdf
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8797/5115c23ce6f931b3ae8a2b7cda2f68
31e7fe.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3cx3rJMARdOhWY-
R614aF3S_Gv_xsnvwhBRr16fsBp8LzoOtSn0D0HVqY
file:///C:/Users/Anne/Downloads/Odden.%20Introducing%20Phonology
%202nd%20ed%20(1).pdf
25
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BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

Written Report on Sound Patterns of Language

One of the core fields that compose the discipline of linguistics,

which is the scientific study of language structure. One way to understand

the subject matter of phonology is to contrast it with other fields within

linguistics. A very brief explanation is that phonology is the study of sound

structure in language, which is different from the study of sentence

structure (syntax), word structure (morphology), or how languages change

over time (historical linguistics). The pronunciation of a given word is also a

of pronunciation in a language are subject to change over time. So,

phonology has a relationship to numerous domains of linguistics

Phonetics – the manifestation of language sound

Ashby and Maidment (2005) provide a detailed introduction to the

subject area of phonetics. From the phonetic perspective, “sound” refers to

mechanical pressure waves and the sensations arising when such a

continuously, and can be 2 introducing phonology graphed as a waveform

Phonology: the symbolic perspective on sound

Physical sound is too variable and contains too much information to

allow us to make meaningful and general statements about the grammar of

language sound. We require a way to represent just the essentials of

language sounds, as mental objects which grammars can manipulate. A

phonological representation of an utterance reduces this great mass of

phonetic information to a cognitive minimum, namely a sequence of

speech sound into discrete units is the phonetic transcription.The idea

behind a transcription is that the variability and continuity of speech can be

reduced to sequences of abstract symbols whose interpretation is

The study of higher-level patterns of language sound, conceived in

terms of discrete mental symbols, whereas phonetics is the study of how

those mental symbols are manifested as continuous muscular contractions

and acoustic waveforms, or how such waveforms are perceived as the

discrete symbols that the grammar acts on.

The IPA chart is arranged to suit the needs of phonetic analysis.

Standard phonological terminology and classification differ somewhat from

this usage. Phonetic terminology describes [p] as a “plosive,” where that

sound is phonologically termed a “stop”; the vowel [i] is called a “close”

vowel in phonetics, but a “high” vowel in phonology.

counterparts. It is not clear whether the tense/lax distinction extends to low

Independent of height, vowels can differ in relative frontness of the

is produced with a back tongue position. In addition, [u] is produced with

rounding of the lips: it is common but by no means universal for back

vowels to also be produced with lip rounding. Three phonetic degrees of

horizontal tongue positioning are generally recognized: front, central, and

back. Finally, any vowel can be pronounced with protrusion (rounding) of

unrounded vowels. With these independently controllable phonetic

parameters – five degrees of height, three degrees of fronting, and

rounding versus non-rounding – we have the potential for up to thirty

This yields a fairly symmetrical system of symbols and articulatory

among central high vowels

referred phonologically as “stops.” Lateral and rhotic consonants are

termed “liquids,” and non-lateral “approximants” are referred to as “glides.”

Terminology referring to the symbols for implosives, ejectives, diacritics,

and suprasegmentals is generally the same in phonological and phonetic

usage. Other classificatory terminology is used in phonological analysis to

purposes.Plain stops and affricates are grouped together, by considering

affricates to be a kind of stop (one with a special fricative-type release).

Rules for combining sounds.

Another aspect of language sound which a phonological analysis

takes account of is that in any language, certain combinations of sounds

bnick,bnark, *bniddle could not be words of English.