Aubrey Rose Belita

BA Linguistics

UNDERSTANDING PHONOLOGY
Chapter 5: Underlying and Surface Representations
5.1 Introduction
-

Variation in word pronunciation vary that no two speakers of the same

language will have an identical speech pattern
a morpheme has a single pronunciation at some cognitive level of
representation, and that the variation between its various pronunciations
merging of different sounds to the same sound can occur when going from
the surface level to the underlying level is called allophony or allophonic
variation

5.2 Allophonic Variation

- two factors contributing to intraspeaker variation: style and phonological context
1. Style - degree of formality of the speech situation
2. Phonological Context
a. Allophones - context-dependent variants
b. Phonemes- refer to the segment category that the various
allophones are variants of
Allophones have two kinds: Contrastive and Free Variation
1. Contrastive
there are pairs of words that are distinguished only in that one has one
segment where
the other has the other segment. Allophonic variation is entirely
predictable
2. Complementary distribution
- Allophonic differences typically arise because particular contexts invite
particular adaptations in the production of the segment
- can also arise in a different way, such aswhen one segment happens to be
restricted to the onset position and another to thecoda position

5.3 Two Levels of Representation

- Why do phonologists assume that there are two levels of representation, an
underlying one and a surface one?
1. Economy
2. with a single level it would not be possible to express the phonological
relatedness of morpheme alternants
3. many generalizations are only valid at a level other than the surface level.
5.4 Neutralization
- A rule like English devoicing or Dutch final devoicing, therefore, is a
neutralization rule, while British English l-velarization is an allophonic rule
5.5 Choosing the Underlying Form
When a morpheme has a number of alternants, one of these will have to be
chosen as the underlying form by the phonologist, andif the phonological model
reflects our mental worldby the infant acquiring his language
Requirements in Choosing the Underlying Form
1. it should allow you to write rules that do not destroy a segmental contrast of the
language
2. the rule or rules that are needed to produce the allophony or allomorphy will be
easy to state
5.6 Conclusion
- The recognition of two levels of representation, a surface representation
(SR) and a more abstract underlying representation (UR), is the cornerstone of
phonological theory.
- URs and SRs usually differ from each other in that URs are more detailed
than SRs, but SRs may also obliterate distinctions that exist in URs, and thus
neutralize contrasts