Kenyatta university institute of open learning
Download 1.01 Mb.
|
|
DRAFT KENYATTA UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF OPEN LEARNING AEN 300 PHONETIC AND PHONOLOGICAL ANALYSES RUTH NDUNG’U AND MARTIN NJOROGE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND LINGUISTICS JULY 2005 2
Lecture I Introduction: The Focus of Phonetics and Phonology 1.1 The basis of phonetics and phonology Both phonetics and phonology deal with human speech sounds whose production is effected by a combination of three major features. The three features are referred to as the dimensions or specifications in the analysis of human speech sounds. These dimensions are: 1. The air stream mechanisms From the three initiators, there are four natural air stream mechanisms namely: Pulmonic: utilizes the pulmonic eggressive mechanism. Glottalic: utilizes ingressive and eggressive mechanisms. Velaric: utilizes ingressive mechanism. 2. The vocal tract This is divided into three regions or cavities. a) The nasal cavity starts at the nose and goes back to the lowered velum. b) The oral cavity starts at the lips and goes back to the raised velum. c) The pharyngeo-laryngeal cavity starts at the pharynx (back wall of the end of the nasal cavity, cylindrical in nature) and moves down to the larynx. Using these mechanisms, we can say that a sound is nasal, oral or pharyngeo-laryngeal. 3
3. The vocal organs These stretch from the lips to the larynx. In this we have the active and passive articulators. The active articulators are the tongue, lower lip and lower teeth (lower organs). The passive articulators are the lips, upper teeth, alveolar ridge, palate and larynx (upper organs). The examples below illustrate how these dimensions are used to classify speech sounds. [p]: pulmonic eggressive (air steam) oral (tract) voiceless bilabial (organ) stop. [n]: pulmonic eggressive (air stream), nasal (tract) voiced alveolar plosive (organ). Activity Describe the following sounds according to these specifications: /p/, /s/ and /l/ Illustration /n/ - pulmonic egressive - oral - alveolar - voiced 4
1.2 The central pool of human speech sounds The three specifications presented in 1.1, here above, are also responsible for other human – but not speech – sounds such as laughter, clicking and booing. They are also responsible for other activity too, for example, breathing, eating, coughing, yawning and sneezing. Human speech sounds are articulated and described according to the three specifications. These speech sounds are collectively described as the ‘central pool of human speech sounds’. Each language draws a limited set of sounds from this pool for its phonetic inventory. The human speech sounds are presented in the Internal Phonetic Alphabet (I.P.A.) chart (See Appendix 1.) Activity 1. Identify the phonetic inventory of your first language from the Central Pool of human speech sounds. Identify both consonants and vowels. 2. For the consonants draw a table and insert each consonant in its appropriate slot. For the vowels draw a quadrangle and insert each vowel at the appropriate point. 5
Lecture 2 Different analytic approaches 2.1 Segmentation Speech is a continuum with few points in the stream which constitute a) Natural breaks – to breath in, swallow, and cough. b) Breaks that show an articulatory, auditory or acoustically steady state that could serve as a basis for analytical segmentation into real phonetic units. For instance, the series of words - ‘the red pen’ has breaks that allow analytical segmentation. The segmentation that enables the view of real phonetic segment of speech is mostly imposed. Human beings do not say distinct sounds but a continuum of speech sounds with anticipatory articulation of each sound in the series. However, for a detailed study of human speech sounds, segmentation is prerequisite. 2.2.1 Two chief approaches to segmentation 2.2.1.1 The parametric approach In the parametric approach there are parallel segmentations of speech. Each component of the vocal performance is treated as a parameter whose value is in the state of constant change. The components could be a) Auditory such as pitch of voice or loudness of the voice, for example, the series of words Do you really mean that? 6
could be said in many different ways. For instance it could be said in two ways with the same pitch-pattern but due to the variation in loudness of voice one ends up being a shout and the other a murmur. b) Initiatory such as syllable structure. In the initiatory component, the potential values of a feature are continuous but have a measuring system to limit them. For example, the syllable structure in each language determines the number of sounds that can occupy each of the parts of the syllable. 2.2.1.2 The linear approach The linear approach is a serial segmentation in which the speech continuum is divided into units of varying durations. For example, in the analyses of the degrees of stricture, the following durations are established Maintainable duration – fricative Momentary duration – flap/tap Each of the speech units can then be characterized in terms of representative values shown during the production of that unit by the individual phonetic components making up the performance. In the linear approach, any phonetic feature can have only a limited number of values, which are referred to as categories. For instance, pitch is a phonetic feature, which has three values only, namely; high, mid, low. 7
The linear categories are thus discrete. This makes the linear featural categories convenient for use in the spoken and written description of the speech continuum. This explains why the linear analysis is the one taken in most textbooks on phonetics. 2.2.2 The representation of the speech continuum When the speech continuum is analysed, either parametrically or linearly the speech continuum is presented in terms of the following: a) Symbols and diacritics b) In terms of phonological rules (algorithms) such as /r/ [r ] / t, p This rule would be rewritten as “/r/ becomes devoiced when it immediately follows the voiceless stops /t, p/.” c) Phonotactics – distribution statements. d) Metrical trees The analyses of the speech continuum include the analyses of phenomena attributed to ‘strings of sounds’ such as stress, the syllable, pitch and rhythm. Each one of these is attributed to measurements in metrical analysis. These measurements are presented in metrical trees. For example, the syllable structure tree presented here below (Syllable) Onset Rhyme Nucleus Coda Fig 1:The syllable structure tree 8
e) Metric numbers Some phonological phenomena can be calculated and assigned a numerical value. For instance, stress can be assigned a numerical value because words have relative degrees of stress. Example the presentation of numerical metrical numbers for stress as illustrated here Root Weaker Stronger The Weaker Stronger 2 Hunger Begger 3 1 f) Use of metrical symbols and signs Example s – syllable C – Consonant V – Vowel F – Foot (in rhythm) / /, [], /e/ – slashes or slants, square brackets and I.P.A symbols 9
Lecture 3 Phonetic Analyses 3.1 Phonetic Analysis This refers to the analyses of sound production and perception. Phonetics analyses human speech sounds in terms of the following: 1. The speech sounds’ production 2. The speech sounds’ description 3. The different possible sounds depending on the human vocal organs 4. The speech sounds’ articulation, acoustics and auditory correlates. 3.2 The Phonetic features of a speech sound The phonetic analyses focuses on both the redundant and non-redundant features of the human speech sound. 3.2.1 Redundant features of a speech sound The redundant phonetic features of a human speech sound are non-distinctive. They do not facilitate a distinction in meaning in the use of the speech sound. However, the redundant features are part of the description of the speech sound. For instance, aspiration in English is a phonetic feature of the three voiceless stops /p, t, k/ in word initial position but it is not a distinctive feature. No meaning distinction of words is caused by aspiration in English. Example 10
[pen] [p en] The second articulation of the word pen in English is non-distinctive. It simply leads to a mispronounced word. All features of the sound segment – both redundant and non- redundant – are therefore given at phonetic level. The speech sound is then described as a phone allophone. Phone is concrete realization of human speech sound i.e. in writing and speech mainly the latter. Allophone is the concrete realization of human speech sound that is determined by the environment e.g. dental, laminal, apical areas of articulation. For example: [t] is a phone whose allophones can be: [t ] when aspirated - tin [t ] when unreleased - spit [t ] when labialized - two [t ] when dentalised - ten [t ] when palatalized - tune Each of them is a phone in its own right. For a sound to have allophones, it must have more than one concrete realization. Phones are presented in square brackets []. When not bracketed, the sound is called a grapheme e.g. t. Activity Identify all the non-redundant features of /p, t, k/ and describe each of the features using the appropriate diacritic symbol. 11
3.2.2 Non-redundant features of a speech sound The non-redundant phonetic features of a speech sound are distinctive. For instance, aspiration is a phonetic feature in Kiswahili of the three voiceless stops /p, t, k/ in word initial position and it is distinctive. Example /p a:/ roof /pa:/ antelope 3.3 The notations used at the phonetic level of analyses 3.3.1. Diactric marks The redundant features of a speech sound are presented as superscripts using diacritic symbols (refer to the I.P.A chart in Appendix 1). Examples diacritic phonetic feature [ ] aspiration [ ] palatalization [ ] labialization 2. The square bracket [ ] The square bracket is used in the presentation of speech sounds at the phonetic level of analyses. Example 12
The word bin in English is phonetically presented as [ i ·]. The vowel /i/ is nasalized because it precedes a nasal consonant /n/. The nasal consonant /n/ is lengthened because it follows a short vowel and it is word final. Lecture 4 Phonological Analyses 4.1 Phonology Phonology is the study of human speech sounds in terms of the following: (i) The function of sounds. In every human language, sounds are used in words in order to convey meaning. In Lecture 1, we learned that each language constitutes its phonetic inventory from the central pool of human speech sounds. Each language utilizes this selection of sounds in its phonetic inventory to create words of different meanings. For instance, Gikuyu has the sounds /t/ and /h/ in its phonetic inventory. Gikuyu utilizes these sounds to create words of different meanings. Example /he/ give me /te/ throw away (ii) The structure of sounds 13
In terms of structure, sounds are classified as plosives, trills, flaps or taps, fricatives, approximants and vowels. In terms of function they are classified as consonants and vowels. (iii) The sounds that occur in a particular language Each language, as discussed in Lecture 1, utilizes only a small percentage of the human speech sounds. It is, therefore, possible to identify a language’s phonemes and form the language’s phonetic inventory. (iv) The restrictions of occurrence Each language has rules that determine what is well formed or ill-formed in a combination of sounds. Example Each language also determines the gaps that exist in the language. These could be accidental or systematic gaps. For such gaps, the language also determines the accidental gap – fillers. Example 4.2 Sounds representation at the phonological level Sounds representation is based on sound segments as units which function as a system. The segments are transcribed using transcription that is phonetic and represented between slants/ slashes, / /. This level only gives the distinctive or non-redundant features of the sound segment. Examples /pin/; /slæb/ 14
Lecture 5 Phonological and phonetic forms 5.1 The relationship between the phonetic and phonological forms Phonetic forms have much in common with the phonological forms. From a generative point of view the phonetic form is the output of the input of the phonological forms. Example 5.2. Segments and processes A distinction is made between segments and processes. 5.2.1 Segments Segments are the unique, single sounds produced during an articulation. The articulation can be a single, co-articulation, or homorganic 5.2.2 Processes Processes are articulatory and they determine the syllable structure 5.3 Analysis 5.3.1 Phonetic analysis of speech Phonetic analysis of speech is essential for the following reasons:- 5.3.1.1 The comprehensive description of speech production . Such description is in terms of - initiation 15
- phonation - articulation The three features were presented in AEN 200 and in this Unit they are discussed further in relation to the analyses of human speech sounds. 5.3.1.2 Classificatory labels Phonetic analyses provides the classifactory labels that enable the distinction of unique human speech sounds as:- - phones - allophones - phonemes 5.3.1.3 Transcriptional symbols The transcriptional symbols are associated with the speech production and they classify that production as follows:- - phonetic (narrow) - phonological (broad) 5.4.2 Phonological analysis Phonology relates the phonetic events of speech to grammatical units operating at the morphological, lexical, syntactic and semantic levels of language. In such analyses, phonology explains the way the phonemes are influenced by varied linguistic phenomena as illustrated here below: level what would influence the phoneme 16
morphological addition of morphemes lexical stress placement in words syntactic stress placement in sentences. semantic tone/ intonation Phonological analyses is thus essential for the following reasons: a) The comprehension of the contrastive function or opposition of speech sounds, for example, ten/ den, tin/ din, tip/ did that have a commutative relationship b) The classificatory labels, bilateral opposition, multilateral, privative, gradual. c) Transcriptional symbols that state the phonetic manifestation of phonological elements. Example Two /tu:/ [t u:] where the arrow stands for the relation “is pronounced as” or “is w manifested phonetically as” or “is realized phonetically as”…. 17
Lecture 6 Analyses of Initiation 6.1 Descriptive elements These are elements of initiation, phonation, articulation (temporal, prosodic, metrical organization) 6.2. Classification of sounds segments by Initiation This classification is based on the - Airstream mechanisms and airflow direction. - The nature of mechanisms that is responsible for setting the air stream in motion. 6.3 Air stream mechanisms (Speech sounds) Production of speech sounds involves the utilization of a flow of air that is commonly referred to as an air stream. The air stream is provided or initiated by the action of some organs of speech. The air stream is the basis of the whole of the sound of human speech. The initiator sets in motion air stream and thus the initiator is the most important part of an air stream mechanism. The air stream could be used as ingressive – to pull in air or as egressive – to push out air. 6.3.1 Types of airstreams Three main types of airstreams are used in the production of human speech sounds. Each has a different initiator. 18
a) Pulmonic(egressive) The initiators consist of the lungs and the respiratory muscles. The respiratory muscles move the walls of the lungs, which then form the initiator. In using the egressive pulmonic air stream mechanism expiration must become an active process and it must utilize muscular control. This airstreams is the basis of almost all human speech sounds. Only the egressive pulmonic airstream is used in the articulation of human speech sounds. Some languages in special circumstances use the ingressive pulmonic airstream but not phonetically. For instance, in English the initial sound in the word ‘yes’ utilizes the ingressive airstream when one is speaking in an off hand manner. b) Glottalic air stream mechanism A closed glottis initiates the glottalic airstream. The glottis is the opening between the vocal cords. The air utilized in this airstream is in the pharynx and above the larynx. The larynx has muscles that enable it to be pushed up and down in the throat. When it moves this way and the glottis is closed the movement pushes air out or in within the passage. The Glottalic airstream has both ingressive and egressive air flow. i) The egressive Glottalic airstream mechanism It is utilized in Caucasian, African, central and North American languages. The sounds produced have a low volume because the air controlled in the glottalic mechanism is not sufficiently large for more than a small fraction of speech to be uttered at one movement of the initiator. The vowels produced with this mechanism are inaudible. 19
The sounds articulated with the egressive Glottalic airstream mechanism are known as ejectives. Example Voiceless bilabial ejective /p’/ ii) The ingressive Glottalic airstream mechanism c) The velaric air stream mechanism The velaric airstream mechanism is initiated by the velum. The back part of the tongue is lifted to make firm contact with the velum. This movement forms what is referred to as a velic closure. The closure sets in motion only that air that is in the mouth. The airstream is ingressive for, with the lips closed, it utilizes only the inflowing air. The air stream is used in the production of sounds found in certain African languages, for example, Zulu, Hottentots and Bushman. The sound segments are known as clicks because they are articulated with a sucking movement. d) The oesophageal airstream The oesophageal airstream is physiologically considered part of the glottalic airstream mechanism. However, it is only used by those who have undergone laryngectomy. The air stream still sets in motion the air in the passage between the pharynx and larynx. Unlike other airstreams, users of this airstream have to practice using it after undergoing the operation. It is, therefore, not one of the natural airstream mechanisms. 20
Lecture 7 Analyses of Phonation Download 1.01 Mb. Share with your friends:
|