0003-Wstęp do językoznastwa.docx

P h o n o l o g y

Phonology is the study of the sound patterns of language. It is concerned with how sounds are organized in a language. Phonology examines what occurs to speech sounds when they are combined to form a word and how these speech sounds interact with each other. It endeavors to explain what these phonological processes are in terms of formal rules.

The amazing discovery is that people systematically ignore certain properties of sounds. They perceive two different sounds as the same sound. We call the stored versions of speech sounds phonemes. Thus phonemes are the phonetic alphabet of the mind. That is, phonemes are how we mentally represent speech; how we store the sounds of words in our memory.

Though the phonetic alphabet is universal (we can write down the speech sounds actually uttered in any language), the phonemic alphabet varies from language to language. For example, English has no memorized front rounded vowels like German or French, and French has no [θ]. This leads to seemming contradictions when we consider both actual productions of speech sounds as well as their memorized representations. English has no memorized nasal vowels, but English speakers do make nasalized vowels when vowels and nasal consonants come together in speech. The changes between memory and pronuciation are what we will be discovering in this section of the course

The fact that speakers have a mental representation of what they say, and that this can be different from what they actually do when they speak, shows us that speakers do not memorize every aspect of speech sound production. Only the essential (contrastive, phonemic) features are stored in memory. Other features (specifics of pronunciation) are added during speech planning and production. Predictable information about speech is not memorized. Predictable features are added by rules of pronunciation (phonological rules).

English speakers pronounce vowels either with the velum closed (oral) or with the velum open (nasal). By careful listening or experimental investigation, we can determine that the velum is open during the entire production of the word "man":

·         [mæ̃n]

In contrast, speakers do not have the velum open at all in the production of the word "bat":

·         [bæt]

Most important, however, is that English speakers perceive that both "man" and "bat" have the same vowel.

That is, English speakers are ignoring the difference in nasality between the two words. English speakers feel that this difference in nasality is unimportant for recognizing a word in their memory. We can understand this behavior through understanding that speakers memorize vowels without the feature [nasal]. English speakers believe that there are no nasal vowels in English, at least for the purpose of memorizing words.

The reason for this is that in English nasality in vowels is predictable. In English, nasal vowels only occur before nasal consonants. Everywhere else English speakers use oral vowels. Therefore [nasal] is predictable for English vowels, and is governed by a rule of pronunciation:

·         Vowels become nasal when a nasal consonant immediately follows.

·         [vowel] → [nasal] / _ [nasal, consonant]

We call the mental representation a phoneme, and we call the distinct pronunciations allophones.

The predictable aspects of pronunciation (here [nasal] in vowels) are added by the rules in the phonology of the language. The rules of pronunciation determine the variants in speech sounds. This particular rule makes one sound (the vowel) more similar to an adjacent sound (the following nasal consonant), by making the vowel [nasal]. Rules that make sounds more similar are called assimilation rules. Rules that make sounds less similar are called dissimilation rules. Assimilation rules are much more common than dissimilation rules.

Which features are predictable varies from language to language. In French speakers must memorize [+nasal] for vowels because in French this is important for the meaning of the word. That is, French has minimal pairs for nasality in vowels.

Within a single sound some of the aspects of speech sound production (features) may be predictable from the other features. Here are some examples from English:

·         All nasals are voiced: [nasal] → [voiced]

·         all high back vowels are round: [vowel, high, back] → [rounded]

·         all front vowels are not round: [vowel, front] → [unrounded]

These particular rules are rules of English. Other languages may or may not have these rules. So, for instance French has frount rounded vowels, but no high back unround vowels. Russian has the reverse: high back unround vowels but no front round vowels. Turkish has both front round vowels and high back unround vowels.

All languages impose certain restrictions on the sequences of sounds in the language. Some languages like to alternate consonants and vowels. These language do not allow sequences of consonants nor sequences of vowels.

There are two possible responses a language can make to an unwanted sequence. One is to change one of the sounds, through a rule. This is what we observed with English nasal vowels. Oral vowels are not allowed to be followed by nasal consonants, so the vowel is changed to be nasal.

The other possible response is to simply ban the sequence from words as they are stored in memory. In English there is a general ban on words beginning with *[tl] and *[dl], even though words starting with [pl], [bl], [kl] and [gl] are fine. But there is no general rule to repair these bad sequences.

It is also possible to have the situation where sound that are memorized differently are nevertheless pronounced identically under certain circumstances. Consider the pronuncation of the vowels in these two words:

·         [tɛləgræf] "telegraph"

·         [təlɛgrəfi] "telegraphy"

But since both of these words involve the same morpheme, meaning "telegraph", this morpheme must have the same memorized representation, namely,

·         /tɛlɛgræf/

Therefore the changes in pronunciation are insignificant for memory here, and must be due to a rule of pronunciation. The rules is very simple, unstressed vowels reduce to schwa in English.

·         [vowel, unstressed] → [ə]

·         [vowel, unstressed] → [mid, central, unrounded, plain]

Morphology

Morphology is the study of the structure and form of words in language or a language, including inflection, derivation, and the formation of compounds. At the basic level, words are made of "morphemes." These are the smallest units of meaning: roots and affixes (prefixes and suffixes). Native speakers recognize the morphemes as grammatically significant or meaningful. For example, "schoolyard" is made of "school" + "yard", "makes" is made of "make" + a grammatical suffix "-s", and "unhappiness" is made of "happy" with a prefix "un-" and a suffix "-ness".

Inflection occurs when a word has different forms but essentially the same meaning, and there is only a grammatical difference between them: for example, "make" and "makes". The "-s" is an inflectional morpheme.

In contrast, derivation makes a word with a clearly different meaning: such as "unhappy" or "happiness", both from "happy". The "un-" and "-ness" are derivational morphemes. Normally a dictionary would list derived words, but there is no need to list "makes" in a dictionary as well as "make."

Examples

• A free morpheme is a unit of meaning which can stand alone or alongside another free or bound morpheme.

• These are usually individual words, such as

• A bound morpheme is a unit of meaning which can only exist alongside a free morpheme.

• These are most commonly prefixes and suffixes:

Use

• A knowledge of morphology creates an awareness of meaning at a sub-lexical level. That is, we can deconstruct a word and consider its component parts.

• The stems, roots, prefixes, and suffixes of words can be recognised. This can throw light on etymology (the origins of the word) thus giving us more power to communicate efficiently.

• Free morphemes are units of meaning which cannot be split into anything smaller, as in the following examples:

• However, the terms 'gate', 'butter' and 'flower' can also exist alongside another free morpheme. The following examples comprise two free morphemes

• Bound morphemes are also units of meaning which cannot be split into anything smaller. However, they are different from free morphemes because they cannot exist alone. They must be bound to one or more free morphemes. Almost all prefixes and suffixes are bound morphemes.

• The following words are made up of two free morphemes or components which could stand alone and retain their meaning.

• Note that morphemes can only be classified according to their given semantic context.

• Take for example the word 'elephant' which is a free morpheme. Although it is a lengthy word, it cannot be split up into any smaller units of meaning within this particular context. That is, the word 'elephant' refers to a large grey mammal with a trunk and tusks which is indigenous to India and Africa.

• The final three letters of elephant may spell 'ant', but that unit of meaning does not exist in the context of the term 'elephant'.

• Now take the word 'ant' as a separate unit of meaning referring to a small insect. In that context 'ant' is a free morpheme. Add another free morpheme in the form of 'hill' and we have a word comprising two free morphemes - 'anthill'.

• The unit 'ant' can also be classified separately as a bound morpheme in yet another context. The term 'ant' can act as a prefix in the word 'antacid'. As such, it is a bound morpheme because its meaning only exists in conjunction with the free morpheme 'acid'.

S y n t a x

Syntax is the arrangement of words in sentences, clauses, and phrases, and the study of the formation of sentences and the relationship of their component parts. In a language such as English, the main device for showing the relationship among words is w...