Unit 5. Contrastive phonology: some preliminary notions
BLOCK 2. PHONOLOGY
Unit 5. Contrastive phonology:
some preliminary notions
5.1. Introduction
• One of the areas in which contrastive analysis works
best is phonology.
• There are clear differences between the phonological
systems of different languages.
• One of the more evident ways in which we recognize
an L2 speaker (vs L1) is “foreign accent”
• How do we know that someone is not a native
speaker of our language?
Phonological factors:
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Pronunciation of some sounds (i.e., phonemes)
Incorrect stress of words
Intonation
Etc.
OTHER FACTORS
ƒ Lexical choice (incl. collocations)
ƒ Grammatical constructions less central or typical
ƒ Pragmatic functions expressed in an unnatural way
ƒ etc
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Unit 5. Contrastive phonology: some preliminary notions
ƒ Besides the production of sounds, differences among
phonological systems can also affect the
reception/identification of sounds
o Ej: Spanish people have problems distinguishing
sheep and ship
English: /I/ & /i:/
Spanish: /i/
• How can two phonological systems be different?
• A phonological system can be divided in three
components:
(1) A list of phonemes
(2) A number of allophonic rules
(3) A number of phonotactic rules
o Differences may arise from any of these
5.2. Producing phonemes
ƒ We recognize about 900 phonemes per minute (about
10-15 per second).
ƒ E.g., it takes less than a second to say it’s very fast,
which has 11 phonemes.
ƒ That means that in less that a second we are able to
convey a complex image (language is very quick, that
is why is so powerful).
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Unit 5. Contrastive phonology: some preliminary notions
ƒ Vocal sounds are formed by altering the air that is
expelled when breathing
‰
In the vocal cords, this air column can be vibrated
(creating the first distinction in sound, between
voiced and unvoiced sounds)
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Unit 5. Contrastive phonology: some preliminary notions
ƒ In the mouth, air can be stopped in different ways
(giving rise to mode of articulation variations) or using
different combinations of oral organs (tongue, teeth,
lips, etc.), and we have place of articulation. By
combining a given mode and a place of articulation, we
get a given sound.
• Not all possible variants that can be created by
modulating sound are perceived as different sounds
• When perceiving sounds, we group them into
categories, that we call phonemes
• For example, there’s a potentially infinite variety of
sounds similar to “d” that we can produce (cf. dedo).
However, we only perceive one sound: “phoneme”
/d/ (the rest are allophonic variants)
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Unit 5. Contrastive phonology: some preliminary notions
• A phoneme is an abstract, psychological unit, the
basic unit of phonology. Each language has a number
of phonemes (notation -> between slashes, /p/)
• Variants of a phoneme, as are pronounced in “real”
speech are allophones. Their notation is between
square brackets (e.g., [p]).
• There is a crucial difference between two sounds that
are allophonic variants of the same phoneme and two
sounds that are different phonemes.
o If we substitute one sound by an allophonic
variant, we still get the same word (vaca and
baca)
o If we substitute one sound by another belonging
to a different phoneme we get a different word
(boca and poca)
• Thus, a phoneme is a “distinctive” unit.
• E.g., phoneme /t/ and some allophonic variants
[th]
[to]
[tl]
[®]
[t]
[/]
[/t]
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Unit 5. Contrastive phonology: some preliminary notions
5.2.1. On categorical perception
• When perceiving speech sounds, we exhibit
“categorical perception”
• An example:
o V.O.T. (Voice Onset Time)
o The distinction between voiced and voiceless
sounds is a gradual question
• It’s just the amount of time between the articulation
of a sound and the vibration of the vocal cords (this is
what we call “VOT”):
ƒ In voiced sounds, VOT is below a given threshold
ƒ In voiceless sounds, VOT is above a given threshold
• E.g., distinction between /p/ and /b/:
-----------------^^^^^^^^^ /p/ (-voiced) 40ms
C
V
-----------^^^^^^^^^^^^^ /b/ (+voiced) 20ms
• What happens in intermediate cases? (e.g.20-40ms)
o Sound is perceived categorially: we assign the
variant to one or another category, depending on
the sound and the context. We never perceive an
intermediate category
• A problem: different languages group the space of
sonorous variations in different categories.
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Unit 5. Contrastive phonology: some preliminary notions
• In Japanese, [l] and [r] are two variants of the same
phoneme (they are allophones) while in Spanish they
are two independent phonemes
• In Spanish, [d] and [D] are two allophonic variations
of the same phoneme /d/ (e.g., dedo); in English, they
are two different phonemes (cf. Then vs den).
• How/when do we learn to categorize sound space into
the appropriate phonemic distinctions?
• Peter Eimas experiment with one-month-old babies
(sucking or preferential looking paradigms)
o babies are able to distinguish among phonemic
distinction beyond their own language, but this
ability disappears before the first year of life
(before uttering a word).
o As a final result, when they are one year old,
babies know which is the phonologicla
inventory of their language: which sounds are
phonemes and which are allophonic variants
5.2.2. On hearing phonemes
• There’s more than pure sound waves in what we
perceive. Some illusions:
o McGurk effect
o Ambiguous sentences (segmentation)
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Unit 5. Contrastive phonology: some preliminary notions
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the good can decay many ways
the good candy came anyways
the stuffy nose can lead to problems
the stuff he knows can lead to problems
I don’t think it’s a parent
I don’t think it’s apparent
that’s tough / that stuff
I scream / Ice cream
It’s a name / It’s an aim
en aguas transparentes / enaguas transparentes
un aparte /una parte
estaba riendo /está barriendo
El dulce lamentar de los pastores; el dulce lamen tarde
los pastores
ƒ Novatada / no va atada
ƒ Entre el clavel blanco y la rosa roja su majestad es coja
o Some other experiments
ƒ Paint the fence and the ?ate.
ƒ Check the calendar and the ?ate
ƒ Here’s the fishing gear and the?ate
In mud eels are, in clay none are
In muddies sar in clay nanar
In my deals are in clainanar
In model sar in claynanar
ƒ the state governors met with their respective legisla?ures
convening in the capital city
5.3. Allophonic rules
Analysis is further complicated when we try to study
sounds in context
o Ej: Kemadicholjefekesemacabaolrollo
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Unit 5. Contrastive phonology: some preliminary notions
• Phonemes in normal speech are fused together and
influence each other
• There are some “rules” that try to predict how will a
phoneme vary in a given context. There are called
allophonic rules. These rules facilitate articulation,
but there’s a point of equilibrium: the less the speaker
works, the more the hearer has to work.
• These are some allophonic rules:
5.3.1. Assimilation
The most frequent. A sound is “coloured” or adapted,
depending on the sound that will be pronounced
afterwards
Ej: Un beso > umbeso
(the orthographic rule “delante de p y b se escribe m”:
actually, it is pronounced m)
5.3.2. Aspiration
The articulation of a sound is accompanied by a small
emission of air, in a small explosion
Ej: in initial position English /p/ is aspirated
“Pepe” is pronounced [phephe]
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Unit 5. Contrastive phonology: some preliminary notions
5.3.3. Deletion
A sound is eliminated to facilitate articulation
Ej. Friendship ([frenSIp])
aspects
postman
he must be
west cliff
grandpa
handsome
5.3.4. Insertion (ephentesis)
A sound is added to facilitate some pronunciation
Ej: I am (e)Spanish
• Allophonic rules do not have to coincide in different
languages (though some are more universal, such as
assimilation)
• Pronouncing the phonemes of one language using the
allophonic variation rules of a different one is another
way of causing “foreign accent”
There are many differences between English and Spanish
allophonic rules.
Combinations of allophonic variation
-Kacesakí?
-na, kesemascapaolatubus.
-comotaido? esquetanechaopatrás?
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Unit 5. Contrastive phonology: some preliminary notions
5.4. Phonotactic rules
• Speakers have an implicit knowledge of which are
the combinations of sounds that are allowed (or are
frequent) in our language
• For example, we know which of these words could
belong to Spanish, to English, or to none.
thole
snool
flin
ptak
mgla
rtut
drincho
uque
jertal
ook
plast
splick
trob
hlad
vlas
toasp
glap
elaiomba
splanth
rosmineta
flitch
sklop
crid
sram
dnom
nyip.
vrzol
vrulk
guarsión
busnic
• In English, having several consonantic sounds
together is fairly normal:
o Ej: Worked: r + k + t
• In Spanish, the most frequent syllabic structure is CV
or CVC (i.e., no, sol)
• In English, we also find CVCC (e.g., think) or
CVCCC (e.g., thinks)
• This is going to have a very direct influence on our
L2. Non-native speakers tend to adapt their L2 to the
phonotactic patterns of their L1.
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Unit 5. Contrastive phonology: some preliminary notions
• Ex: CC combinations in initial position are very
limited in Spanish. They’re OK if the second
consonant is a liquid (just /r/, not /l/), and the first one
a plossive: probar, trotar, croar, bromear,
dromedario, gruta (or some fricatives, like /f/ frotar,
but not /s/ (*srotar), or /z/ (*zrotar)).
• In English, to these possibilities we have to add the
fact of having an /s/ as first consonant, and a plossive
the second (only voicedless -p, t, k-, not voiced -b, d,
g).
o Ej. Sp + vocal: sport, sprint,
o St + Vocal: stress, stand
o Sk + vocal: squint, skull
• This phonotactic combination does not exist in
Spanish.
• Solution: use an allophonic rule to adapt it to Spanish
phonotactic rules.
• In these cases, epenthesis (insertion) is used:
(e)spanish, (e)special, etc.
pl (please)
tl (-)
kl (clean)
pr (proud)
tr (trade)
kr (cream)
pw (-)
tw (twin)
kw (queen)
pj (pure)
tj (tune)
kj (cute)
spl (splash)
stl (-)
skl (sclerosis)
spr (sprout)
str (street)
skr (scrap)
spw (-)
stw (-)
skw (squeak)
spj (spew)
stj (stew)
skj (skewer)
Some initial clusters in English
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