Phonology For

The study of ways in which speech sounds form systems and patterns is phonology.
The term phonology, like grammar, is used in two ways : as the mental representation of
linguistic knowledge, and as the description of this knowledge. Thus, phonology refers either to the
representation of the sounds and sound patterns in a speaker’s mental grammar, or to the study of
the sound patterns in a language or in human language in general.
Phonological knowledge permits a speaker to produce sounds that form meaningful

uttrances, to recognize a foreign “accent,” to make up words, to add the appropriate phonetics
segments to form plurals and past tenses, to produce aspirated and unaspiratedvoiceless stops in
the appropriate context, to know what is or is not a sound in one’s language, and to know that
different phonetic strings may represent the same morpheme.
A speaker’s phonological knowledge includes information about what sounds can occur at
the beginning of a word, what sounds can occur at the end of a word, and what sounds can
appearnext to each other within a syllable.
THE PRONUNCIATION OF MORPHEMES
Knowledge of phonology determines how we pronounce morpheme in different context.

Often, certain morphemes are pronounced differently depending on their context, and we will
introduce a way of describing this variation with phonological rules.
 THE PRONUNCIATION OF PLURAL
You know that almost all English nouns have both singular and plural forms : cat (sg.), and
cats (pl.); dog (sg.) and dogs (pl.); and so on. But have you ever paid close attention to how plural
forms are pronounced? Some of the variation in the pronunciation of the plural morpheme is easy to
hear and is reflected in how the plural forms are spelled.
How do we know how to pronounce this plural morpheme?
1. Make a chart that records the phonological contexts in which each variant of the morpheme
is known to occur.
Allomorph Environment
[z] After [khæb], [khæd],[bæg], [lʌv], [leǒ], [khæm], [khæn], [bæŋ], [khɔl], [bar],
[spa], [bɔj]
[s] After [khæp], [khæt], [bæk], [khʌf], [feθ]
[ǝz] After [bʌs], [buš], [bʌz], [gǝraž], [mæč], [bæǰ]
2. Selecting or conditioning the allomorphs. The conditioning of of the English regular plural
allomorphs relies on just two phonetic properties of the preceding segment, whether or not
the segment is voiced, and whether or not the segment is a sibilant.
3. Look for minimal pairs in our list of words.
Allomorph Environment
[z] After [b], [d],[g], [v], [ǒ], [m], [n], [ŋ], [l], [r], [a], [ɔj]
[s] After [p], [t], [k], [f], [θ]
[ǝz] After [s], [š], [z], [ž], [č], [ǰ]
A more concise way of stating the same information that appears in the chart is in terms of
phonological rules, which are similar to rules of syntax and morphology.
The rules that determine the phonetic form of the plural morpheme and other morpheme of the
language are morphophonemic rules.
 EXCEPTIONS TO THE PLURAL RULE
As we note at the beginning of this section, some word are exceptions to the general pattern. The
regular plural rule does not work for words like child, ox, woman, foot, mouse, and sheep. Largely,
learners of English must simply memorize these and other irregular plural forms on a word - by –
word basis, because there is no way to predict what shape they will take.
ALLOMORPHY IN ENGLISH : FURTHER EXAMPLES
This section will focus on the end products of that type of analysis : the rules that determine
the context in which each allomorph occurs.
A B C D
Grab reap state is
Hug peak raid run
[add d] [add t] [add ǝd]
The following rules describe these variations in the pronunciation of the regular past-tense
morpheme.
1. Insert a [ǝ] before the past-tense morpheme when a regular verb ends in an alveolar stop
-- /t d/ - giving [ǝd].
2. Change the past-tense morpheme to a voiceless [t] when a voiceless sound precedes it.
The English negative prefix in-which, like un-, means “not,” has three allomorphs :
Allomorph Environment Examples

[in] Before vowels Inexcusable, inattentive
Before alveolars Intolerable, indefinable,
innovation, insurmountable
[im] Before labials Impossible, imbalance,
immaterial
[iŋ] Before velars Incomplete, inglorius
The rule that accounts for the pronunciation of the in- prefix is called the homorganic nasal
rule – homorganic meaning “same place” – because the nasal consonant is produced at the same
place of articulation as the following consonant :
Change the place of articulation of a nasal consonant so that it agrees with (i.e., is the same)
the place feature of articulation of a following consonant.
ALLOMORPHY IN OTHER LANGUAGES
The Native American language Ojibwa offers a different example of allomorphy. The
following data come from a discussion by Jonathan Kaye.
Anokki: “she works” nitanokki: “I work”
Aye:kkosi “she is tired” kitaye:kkos “you are tired”
Ma:ca: “she leaves” nima:ca: “I leave”
Pakiso “she swims” kipakis “you swim”
If we assume that the two prefixes are basically /nit/ and /kit/, then we can write a rule that
deletes the final consonant of the prefixes in this environment :
Delete a consonant before anotherconsonant.

Phonology For

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Phonology For

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Phonology For

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The study of ways in which speech sounds form systems and patterns is phonology.

Phonological knowledge permits a speaker to produce sounds that form meaningful

THE PRONUNCIATION OF MORPHEMES

Knowledge of phonology determines how we pronounce morpheme in different context.

 THE PRONUNCIATION OF PLURAL

How do we know how to pronounce this plural morpheme?

 EXCEPTIONS TO THE PLURAL RULE

ALLOMORPHY IN ENGLISH : FURTHER EXAMPLES

Grab reap state is

Hug peak raid run

[add d] [add t] [add ǝd]

Allomorph Environment Examples

Anokki: “she works” nitanokki: “I work”

Aye:kkosi “she is tired” kitaye:kkos “you are tired”

Ma:ca: “she leaves” nima:ca: “I leave”

Pakiso “she swims” kipakis “you swim”

Delete a consonant before anotherconsonant.

You might also like