Phonological Rules Ii

Front 1

Define:
Phonological rule

Back 1

Phonemes are abstract mental entities and phones are physical events. A phonological rule expresses the formal mapping between phonemic (abstract) and phonetic (physical) elements. . In other words, they derive phonetic representations from underlying representations, accounting for alternations among allophones.Knowledge of these rules allows a speaker to "translate phonemes into actual speech; it's part of linguistic competency. Phonemic Form--> rules --> phonetic form.

John Goldsmith (1995) defines phonological rules as mappings between two different levels of sound representation—in this case, the abstract or underlying level and the surface level—and Bruce Hayes (2009) describes them as "generalizations" about the different ways a sound can be pronounced in different environments. That is to say, phonological rules describe how a speaker goes from the abstract representation stored in their brain, to the actual sound they articulate when they speak.

In general, phonological rules start with the underlying representation of a sound (the phoneme that is stored in the speaker's mind) and yield the final surface form, or what the speaker actually pronounces. For example, the English plural -s may be pronounced as [s] (in "cats"), [z] (in "cabs"), or as [əz] (in "buses"); these forms are all stored mentally as the same -s, but the surface pronunciations are derived through a phonological rule--which show that there is often more than one change that occurs; in this case, it's the 1. Schwa Insertion (English) rule (Insert [ə] between two sibilants –rather than saying "bus-z" we say "bus-ez") and 2. Voicing Assimilation (English): /-z/ takes on the voicing specification of the preceding sound

Front 2

derivation

Back 2

a set of representations derived from a linear rule application. X --> Y / W ___ Z.
That is, the focus,X, is realized as (changes to) Y in the environment ("/") where w precedes it and z follows it (context ___ context)

Front 3

Define:
assimilation

Back 3

Rules of assimilation cause a sound (or gesture) to become more like a neighboring sound with respect to some phonetic property. In other words, the segment affected by the rule assimilates or takes on a property form a nearby (often adjacent) segment.
Rules of assimilation are very common.

Assimilation is a Speaker-oriented process because it makes articulation easier.

Front 4

Define:
Alveolar stop assimilation (English)

Back 4

Alveolar stops (/t/ /d/ /n/)assimilate to the PLACE of articulation of the FOLLOWING consonant.
EX: "I can ask" [aɪ kæm beɪk] or [[aɪ km beɪk]
When a sound having properties alveolar and stop immediately precede a labial consonant, this rule causes the alveolar stop to take on the property labial.
Ex: "night class" [nɑɪk klæs]

Front 5

Define:
Palatalization

Back 5

A special type of assimilation in which a consonant becomes like a neighboring palatal. EX: In English, "Did you" [dɪʤu]
Front vowels such as [i] and [e] also cause this change.
The most common types of palatalization occur when alveolar, dental, and velar stops or fircatives appear before a font vowel. Common Examples:
[ t ]-->[ ʧ ]; [d]-->[ ʤ ]; [s]-->[ ʃ ]; [k]-->[ ʧ ]; [g]-->[ ʤ ].

The main things to look for are a sound becoming a palatal and/or a sound change conditioned by a front vowel.

Front 6

Define:
Vowel Harmony

Back 6

a long distance type of assimilation (as opposed to adjacent sounds).

This typically causes all the vowels in a word to "harmonize" or agree in some property such as rounding or backness.

Ex: In Finnish: A back vowel becomes front when preceded by a font vowel in the same word.
(In Finnish, a word has either all front or all back vowels, but not both, so when a suffix is added, "in" [-ssa] when added to a word with a back vowel, [talo] "house", you get [talossa] "In the house". But when added to a front vowel word, [metsæ] "forest", you get [metsæssæ] "in the forest". In this case, you can say the vowel suffix assimilates to the preceding vowel (harmonizes).

This is relatively common.

Front 7

Define:
Dissimilation

Back 7

Unlike assimilation, which makes sounds more similar, rules of dissimilation cause two close or adjacent sounds to become less alike with respect to some property, by means of a change in one or both sounds.

EX: Manner dissimilation (Greek): A stop becomes a fricative when followed by another stop.
In fast speech, the form /epta/ "seven" can be pronounced as [efta[, and /ktizma/ "building" can be pronounced as [xtizma] ([z] is a voiceless velar fricative)

Front 8

Define:
Insertion

Back 8

Phonological rules of Insertion cause a segment not present at the phonemic level to be added to the phonetic form of a word.

EX: Voiceless Stop insertion (english): Between a nasal consonant and a voiceless fricative, a voiceless stop with the same place of articulation as the nasal is inserted.
"dance" /dæns/-->[dænts]
"strength" /stɹɛŋɵ/-->[stɹɛŋkɵ]
"hamster" /hæmstɹ/-->[hæmpstɹ]

Front 9

Define:
Deletion

Back 9

Deletion rules eliminate a sound that was present at the phonemic level. Such rules apply more frequently to unstressed syllables and in casual speech.

Ex: /h/-Deletion (English): /h/ may be deleted in unstressed syllables.

"He handed her his hat" /hi hændəd hɹ hɪz hæt/ --> [hi hændəd ɹ ɪz hæt].
This is very common is fast speech.

Front 10

Define:
Metathesis

Back 10

Rules of metathesis change the order of sounds. In many instances, sounds metathesizes in order to make words easier to pronounce or easier to understand.

In Leti, an Austronesian, language, consonants and vowels switch places when a word that ends in a consonant is combined with a word that starts with two consonants. The last tow sounds in the first word trade placed to avoid having three consonants in a row.

Ex: CV metathesis (Leti): When tree consecutive consonants occur, the first consonant trades places with the preceding vowel.

/danat + kviali/ "millipede"--> [dantakviali]
but /ukar + lavan/ "thumb" does not undergo metathesis and so is pronounces as [ukarlavan] because there are not three consonants in a row.

The metathesized pronunciation of "ask" as "ax" /ˈæks/ goes back to Old English days, when ascian and axian/acsian were both in use.

This is very common.

Front 11

Define:
Strengthening (fortition)

Back 11

Also called fortition, rules of strengthening make sounds stronger.

EX: Aspiration (English): Voiceless stops become aspirated when they occur at the beginning of a stressed syllable.

"tap" /tæp/-->[t(h)æp]
"cat" /kæt/--> [k(h)æt]
**The (h) means "aspirated"; i.e "aspirated t"

Front 12

Define:
Weakening (Lenition)

Back 12

Rules of weakening cause sounds to become weaker.

EX: Flapping (English): An alveolar oral stop is realized as [ɾ] when it occurs after a stressed vowel and before an before an unstressed vowel.

"writer" /ɹaɪtɹ/ --> [ɹaɪɾɹ]
Voicing assimilation is involved in the change of /t/ to [ɾ]--that is, the /t/ takes on the voicedness of the vowels surrounding it

Front 13

Show/explain an example of Multiple Rule Application

Back 13

In general, phonological rules start with the underlying representation of a sound (the phoneme that is stored in the speaker's mind) and yield the final surface form, or what the speaker actually pronounces. For example, the English plural -s may be pronounced as [s] (in "cats"), [z] (in "cabs"), or as [əz] (in "buses"); these forms are all stored mentally as the same -s, but the surface pronunciations are derived through a phonological rule.

This example also shows that there is often more than one change that occurs:

1. Schwa Insertion (English): Insert [ə] between two sibilants.
Rather than saying "bus-z" we say "bus-ez"; we add the schwa to distinguish between the /s/ of the word and the /z/ of the plural marker.

2. Voicing Assimilation (English): /-z/ takes on the voicing specification of the preceding sound.
Since it's difficult to pronounce a consonant cluster of differing voicings (in [dɔgs] [g] is voiced, and [s] is not), they will become more like one another in voicing quality--in this case, a voice [s] is a [z]. In the case of [kætz], the [z] takes on the voicing of the [t], which it doesn't have : [kæts].

So, assuming /z/ is the underlying form of plurals, the rules work like this: Schwa insertion happens first, then apply voicing assimilation: /kæt-z/ (no schwa insertion needed), then becomes [kæts]. For "fox", you start off with /faks-z/, do a schwa insertion to get [faksəz] (no voicing assimilation needed). For "dogs", you start off with /dɔgz/ and end with [dɔgz] because it the schwa insertion rule didn't apply, and neither did the voicing assimilation because [g] and [z] are both already voiced

Front 14

Discuss:
Obligatory and Optional Rules

Back 14

Phonological rules may be obligatory or optional.

Obligatory English rules include aspiration, vowel nasalization, vowel lengthening, and liquid and glide devoicing. Such a rule always applies in the speech of all speakers of a languages (regardless of style or rate of speaking). They are an important part of native accent. We often apply them unconsciously, especially when learning a new language (we apply the rules of native one).

Optional phonoligcal rules, on the other hand, may or may not apply in any given utterance. This is responsible for variations in speech. For example, we can pronounce /kæn bi/ "can be" as either [kæm bi] or [kæn bi], depending on whether the alveolar stop assimilation is applied or not. These types of rules usually depend on rate and style of speech.