EL1OO MODULE 3

Module 3: Phonetics

Lesson 1: Phonetics Distinctive Theory and Phonological Patterns

LET’S LEARN
Direction: Read and understand Physical Properties of Speech
Phonology is a branch of linguistics that studies the structure and systematic patterning of
sounds in
human language.
Phoneme is a particular set of sounds produced in a particular language and distinguishable
by native
speakers of that language from other (sets of) sounds in that language
Phonetics is the study of speech sounds and their physiological production and acoustic
qualities. It deals
with the configurations of the vocal tract used to produce speech sounds (articulatory
phonetics), the acoustic
properties of speech sounds (acoustic phonetics), and the manner of combining sounds so as
to make syllables,
words, and sentences (linguistic phonetics).
Phonetics Distinctive Theory The central idea behind distinctive feature theory is the notion
that
contrasts between phonemes can be most elegantly and insightfully described in terms of
properties of segments
rather than by treating segments as alphabetic atoms. For example, if one identifies voicing as
a distinctive feature,
then it is possible to say not only that a language contrasts the phonemes /p/, /b/, /t/, and /d/
but also that the
contrast between /p/ and /b/ is in some sense the same as, or at least parallel to, the contrast
between /t/ and /d/.
The early history of distinctive feature theory is thus bound up with related issues, such as the
definition of the
phoneme, and, because many features are defined in articulatory or auditory terms, the
relation between phonology
and phonetics. Although many of the properties encoded by features had already been
discussed in earlier work
in phonetics, it was Ferdinand de Saussure (Saussure 1959) who crucially saw them as the
basic elements of
systems of phonological oppositions.
Phonemic transcription is the most common type of phonetic transcription, used in many
English
dictionaries. ... In other words, we say that “t” and “d” are two separate phonemes. On the
other hand, the flap t
(in this pronunciation of the word letter) and the regular “t” (in this one) are two very
different sounds.
Phonetic transcription is the visual representation of speech sounds. The most common type
of phonetic
transcription uses a phonetic alphabet, such as the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Articulatory phonetics is the branch of phonetics concerned with the production of speech
sounds.
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation
based
primarily on the Latin alphabet. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in
the late 19th century
as a standardized representation of the sounds of spoken language.
CONSONANT CHART (IPA)
VOWEL CHART (IPA)

CONSONANT SOUNDS
1.Voiced: a voiced sound is a sound where the vocal cords vibrate, thus producing some sort of pitch.
2.Voiceless / unvoiced: a voiceless or unvoiced sound is one where the vocal cords do not vibrate,
thus making the
sound very whispery and without a pitch. It can tend to make a letter sound harsher when
pronounced.
3.Stop: a consonant sound where the airflow is stopped completely by the mouth and then sharply
released. Think
of sounds like “p,” “k,” and “t.” All languages contain stops.
4.Fricative: a consonant sound where the airflow becomes noisy and turbulent because it only has a
very small
space to travel through in the mouth. Think of sounds like “f,” “s,” and “sh.”

5.Nasal: a consonant sound where the airflow passes exclusively through the nose instead of the
mouth. Think of
sounds like “m,” “n,” or “ng.” Almost all languages have nasals.
6.Affricate: a consonant sound that begins like a stop but then releases like a fricative, thus making it
a sort of
combination sound. Think of sounds like “ch” and “j.” Affricates are common, especially in English.
7.Alveolar ridge: a ridge found on the roof of the mouth between the upper teeth and the hard
palate, which is used
in conjunction with the tip of the tongue to make many sounds
8.Soft palate: the soft tissue in the back of the roof of your mouth, which is used In conjunction with
the back of
the tongue to make many sounds
9.Glottis: the part of the larynx (air passage) that contains the vocal cords and the opening between
them.
VOWEL SOUNDS…Three major factors in the production of vowels are the openness, or height, of the
mouth,
the position of the tongue, and the roundness of the lips. If a vowel is produced while the mouth is
almost closed,
it would be considered a close If the vowel is slightly more open, it would be considered a mid vowel.
And if the
mouth is open very tall, it would be considered an open vowel.
If the tongue is positioned near the front of the mouth, any vowel produced would be a front If the
tongue
were set slightly more back in the mouth, the vowel would be a central vowel. If the tongue were set
in the far back
of the mouth, the vowel would be a back vowel.
If a vowel is produced while the lips are tense and rounded, it would be considered a rounded. If the
vowel is
produced while the lips are relaxed, it would be considered an unrounded vowel.
PHONOLOGY: THE SOUND PATTERNS OF LANGUAGE
The Pronunciation of Morphemes: Plurals
Sometimes certain morphemes are pronounced differently depending on their context. For example,
the English
plural morpheme has three different pronunciations depending on what noun you attach it to:
– It is pronounced as a [z] for words like cab, bag, and bar. [z] occurs after voiced nonsibiliant
segments. – It is pronounced as [s] for words like cap, back, and faith. [s] occurs after voiceless
nonsibilant segment
– It is pronounced a [əz] for words like bus, garage, and match. [əz] occurs after sibilant segments.

Allomorph
Environment
/z/
after /b/, /d/, /g/. /v/, / /, /m/, /n/, / ɳ /, /l/, /r/, / a /. / ɔɪ/
/s/
After /p/,/t/, /k/, /f/, / θ/
/əz/
After /s/, /ʃ/, /z/. / Ӡ/,/ ʈʃ/, / ʤ/
Vowel phonemes in English: When you transcribe you are creating minimal pairs.

LET’S SEE WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED

Direction: Write TRUE if the statement is correct. If the statement is wrong, circle the word
or phrase that
makes the statement wrong then write the correct word or phrase on the space before the
number. (10 points)
________1. Voiced Sounds make the vocal cords vibrate.
________2. Phonetic transcription is the audio representation of speech sounds.
________3. Stops are consonant sounds where the airflow becomes noisy and turbulent.
________4. Voiceless or unvoiced sounds make the sound very whispery and without a pitch.
________5. Articulatory phonetics is the branch of phonetics concerned with the production
of speech sounds.
________6. Phonetics is the study of speech sounds and their psychological production and
acoustic qualities.
________7. Fricatives are vowel sounds where the airflow is stopped completely by the mouth and
then sharply released.
________8. Nasals are consonant sounds where the airflow passes exclusively through the nose
instead of the mouth.
________9. Phoneme is a branch of linguistics that studies the structure and systematic
patterning of sounds in EL100: Introduction to Linguistics
Esperanza Aduna-Beresford | Page 14 of 33
human language.
________10. Phonology is a particular set of sounds produced in a particular language and
distinguishable by
native speakers of that language from other sets of sounds in that language.
LET’S REMEMBER
Direction A: Write the IPA symbol of each of the underlined sound. Write the letter of
your
answer on the space before the number. (20 points)
Example: / l / 1. love
___1. announce
___4. efficient
___7. effective
___2. therapeutic
___5. gold
___8. eloquence
___3. valentine
___6. these
___9. thought
Direction B: At the back of this page, discuss, using your own words, in the not more than 50
words, each of the
following: (10 points)
1. How do Phonemic Transcriptions differ from Phonetic Transcriptions?
2. Why there is a need to transcribe words?
Module 4: Syntax
Lesson 1: Constituents Structure
Lesson 2: Transformations and Language Variation
Lesson 1: Constituents Structure
LET’S TRY Direction: Define the words given below. Write your answer at the back of this page.
(10 points)
1.
Clause
3. Radical
5. Generative
7. Constraints
9. Linguist
2.
Phrase
4. Transformation
6. Theory
8. Hierarchy
10. Correspond
LET’S LEARN
Direction: Read and understand Syntax.
SYNTAX, 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
word order;
e.g., in “The girl loves the boy,” the subject is in initial position, and the object follows the
verb. Transposing them
changes the meaning.
Sentences are constructed from phrases or groups of words that have a closer relationship to
each other
than to the words outside the phrase. In the sentence “My dog is playing in the yard” there is a
closer relationship
between the words “is playing,” which together form the verb, than between the words
“playing in the,” which form
only part of the verb and part of the phrase indicating the location of the playing.
The study of syntax also includes the investigation of the relations among sentences that are
similar, such
as “John saw Mary” and “Mary was seen by John.” Syntax received much attention after
1957, when the American
linguist Noam Chomsky proposed a radically new theory of language, transformational
grammar.
Transformational Grammar, also called Transformational-generative Grammar, a system of
language
analysis that recognizes the relationship among the various elements of a sentence and among
the possible sentences
of a language and uses processes or rules (some of which are called transformations) to
express these relationships.
For example, transformational grammar relates the active sentence “John read the book” with
its corresponding
passive, “The book was read by John.” The statement “George saw Mary” is related to the
corresponding questions,
“Whom [or who] did George see?” and “Who saw Mary?”
SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES
Languages do not all have the same categories; however, they all seem to have nouns and
verbs. In English, we
have the following word categories:
1. determiners
(D) a, the, an, my, his, each, that...
2. nouns
(N) cat, book, wallet, happiness...
3. verbs
(V) run, walk, surpass, alienate...
4. adjectives
(Adj) pretty, old, small, likeable...
5. prepositions (P) in, on, up, to, with, from...
6. complementizers (C) that, whether, if...EL100: Introduction to Linguistics
Esperanza Aduna-Beresford | Page 15 of 33
7. auxiliaries
(Aux) be, do, can, will...
8. adverbs (Adv) quickly, very, surprisingly...
TWO FUNDAMENTAL ASPECTS OF SENTENCE STRUCTURE
1. The words of any language can be classified according to their grammatical properties.
These classes are
traditionally referred to as parts of speech (noun, verb, etc.); linguists refer to them as
syntactic categories. In
describing the word-order patterns of the language, we need to refer to syntactic categories.
2. The words in a sentence are not organized as a simple list. Words cluster together to form
groups of various
sizes; these groups are referred to as constituents. The word-order patterns of human
languages cannot be
described adequately without reference to constituents.
CONSTITUENT STRUCTURE
Constituent is a linguistic part of a larger sentence, phrase, or clause. For instance, all the
words and phrases that
make up a sentence are said to be constituents of that sentence. A constituent can be a
morpheme, word, phrase,
or clause. Sentence analysis identifies the subject or predicate or different parts of speech, a
process known as
parsing the sentence into its constituents. Every sentence (and every phrase and clause) has
constituents. That is
to say, every sentence is made up of parts of other things that work together to make the
sentence meaningful.
Example: "My dog Aristotle bit the postal carrier on the ankle," the constituent parts are the
subject, made up of a
1. Noun Phrase ("my dog Aristotle"), and the predicate, a Verb Phrase ("bit the postal carrier
on the ankle").
A Noun Phrase (NP) is made up of a noun and its modifiers. Modifiers that come before the
noun include articles,
possessive nouns, possessive pronouns, adjectives, or participles. Modifiers that come after
include prepositional
phrases, adjective clauses, and participle phrases.
2.A Verb Phrase (VP) is made up of a verb and its dependents (objects, complements, and
modifiers).
Each of the phrases in the sentence can be further broken down into its own constituents. The
Subject NP includes
the noun ("Aristotle") and a possessive pronoun and noun ("My dog") that modify Aristotle.
The Verb Phrase
includes the verb ("bit"), the NP "the postal carrier," and the prepositional phrase "on the
ankle."
Single words are constituents. (exceptions: certain contractions, certain possessives)
Complete sentences are constituents.
3. Any sequence of words which can be functionally replaced by a single word must be a
constituent.
The man in the black hat is my brother. You were sick when I saw you.
Tom is my brother. You were sick yesterday.
A specific subcase of (2): any sequence of words which can be replaced by a proform is a
constituent.
The woman with red hair won first prize. She won it.
Tommy studied hard for the test and Jane studied hard for the test too.
Tommy studied hard for the test and Jane did too.
4. Any sequence of words conjoined to an independently identifiable constituent is a
constituent.
Mary helped the man in the green hat and Michael.
Since Michael is a single word, and so a constituent, and it is can be conjoined to the man in
the green hat,
then the man in the green hat must be a constituent.
Immediate Constituent Analysis..One method of analyzing sentences, commonly known as
immediate
constituent analysis (or IC analysis), was introduced by the American linguist Leonard
Bloomfield. As Bloomfield
identified it, IC analysis involves breaking a sentence down into its parts and illustrating it
with brackets or a tree
diagram. Though originally associated with structural linguistics, IC analysis continues to be
used (in various
forms) by many contemporary grammarians.
The purpose of Immediate Constituent Analysis is to understand the way sentences are
structured, as well
as discover the deep meaning of the intended sentence and perhaps how it might be better
expressed.
In the diagram above, the sentence "My dog Aristotle bit the postal carrier on the ankle" has
been broken
down (or "parsed") into its separate constituents. The sentence contains a subject and
predicate, parsed as Noun
Phrase and Verb Phrase: those two things are known as the Immediate Constituents of the
sentence. Each IC is then
further analyzed into its own constituent parts—the IC of the Verb Phrase includes another
Verb Phrase ("bit the
postal carrier") and a Prepositional Phrase ("on the ankle"). The contents of the IC—for
example, the subject noun
phrase includes determiner, noun, and modifier—are known as the ultimate constituents (UC)
of that construction;
they cannot be further broken down.
LET’S SEE WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED
Direction: Give the syntactic Classification of each of the underlined words. Write your
answers on the
spaces provided for. (10 points)
The Charter of the 1. Baliwag Polytechnic College was established 2. by Sangguniang Bayan
Ordinance
No. 06, Series 2008 3. of the Municipality of Baliwag, Bulacan. 4.The said ordinance which
was authored by
Atty. Enrique “Buco” dela Cruz 5. and passed on May 9, 2008 was the 6. idea of Mayor
Romeo M. Estrella who
has always thought of providing opportunity to deserving children of poor citizens of Baliwag
to acquire 7. free 8.
post secondary and tertiary education.
For its start the Baliwag Polytechnic College 9. offered Two-Year Certificate Courses in
Hotel and
Restaurant Services and Computer Technology. The HRS course has specialization in Food
and Beverages, Baking
and Pastry, Housekeeping, and Commercial Cooking. Computer Technology focuses on 10.
Consumer Electronics
and NC IV Programming is the specialization in Information Technology.
1._____________
4. _______________
7.________________
10.______________
2._____________
5. _______________
8. ________________
3. ____________
6. _______________
9. ________________
LET’S REMEMBER
Direction: Underline the constituents in each sentence. (10 points)
1.
That is my brother.
2.
He is making a mess.
3.
The keys are on the table.
4.
I want two of those apples.
5.
He is preserving in wax the earwigs I gave him.
Lesson 2: Transformations and Language Variation
LET’S LEARN
Direction: Read and understand Language Variation and Change presented below.
Everyone speaks at least one language and no one talks exactly the same way at all times.
Human language is
dynamic. All languages are always changing, evolving, and adapting to the needs of its users.
gLanguages change
over time and it is not a goal of speakers which is called an ‘epiphenomenon’ – something
which happens but which
is not intentional.
Language Variation and Change is an integrated subfield of linguistics that includes
dialectology (the study of
regional variation in language), historical linguistics (the study of how languages change over
time) and EL100: Introduction to Linguistics
Esperanza Aduna-Beresford | Page 17 of 33
sociolinguistics (the study of social variation in language). Languages change in all their
aspects, in their
pronunciation, word forms, syntax, and word meanings (semantic change). These changes are
mostly very gradual
in their operation, becoming noticeable only cumulatively over the course of several
generations. However, in
some areas of vocabulary, particular words closely related to rapid cultural change are subject
to equally rapid and
therefore noticeable changes within a generation or even within a decade.
TYPES OF LANGUAGE CHANGE
1. Vocabulary Change (aka lexical change). Slang terms come and go every few years. We
get new words from
many different places. We borrow them from other languages (sushi, chutzpah), we create
them by shortening
longer words (gym from gymnasium) or by combining words (brunch from breakfast and
lunch), and we make
them out of proper names (Levis, fahrenheit). Sometimes we even create a new word by being
wrong about the
analysis of an existing word, like how the word pea was created. Four hundred years ago, the
word pease was
used to refer to either a single pea or a bunch of them, but over time, people assumed that
pease was a plural
form, for which pea must be the singular. Therefore, a new word, pea, was born. The same
thing would happen
if people began to think of the word cheese as referring to more than one chee.
2. Meanings of words change (aka Semantic change). English and German both inherited a
word that refers to
a person of high rank in English ('knight') but to a servant or even a slave in German
('Knecht').
3. Grammatical constructions change (Syntactic Change). A passage in the Old English
Lord's Prayer reads, in
literal translation, 'not lead thou us into temptation', in sharp contrast to Modern English 'don't
lead us into
temptation'. Nowadays, 'not' must follow an auxiliary verb 'do' (often contracted to 'don't'),
there is no pronoun
subject in the sentence, and if there were one it would be 'you'--'thou' has entirely disappeared
from the modern
language. Word order also changes, though this process is much slower. Old English word
order was much more
'free' than that of Modern English, and even comparing the Early Modern English of the King
James Bible with
today's English shows differences in word order. For example, the King James Bible
translates Matthew 6:28 as
"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not." In a more recent translation,
the last phrase is
translated as "they do not toil,” because English no longer places not after the verb in a
sentence.
4. Sounds change. Dialect variation causes communication breakdown. If you go into a
Chicago store and ask
for 'sacks' in an East Coast accent you may get socks instead. The sounds of a language
change over time, too.
About 500 years ago, English began to undergo a major change in the way its vowels were
pronounced. Before
that, geese would have rhymed with today's pronunciation of face, while mice would have
rhymed with today's
peace. However, a 'Great Vowel Shift' began to occur, during which the ay sound (as in pay)
changed to ee (as
in fee) in all the words containing it, while the ee sound changed to i (as in pie). Overall,
seven different vowel
sounds were affected. If you've ever wondered why most other European languages spell the
sound ay with an
‘e’ (as in fiancé), and the sound ee with an ‘i’ (as in aria), it's because those languages didn't
undergo the Great
Vowel Shift, only English did.
LET’S SEE WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED
Direction: At the back of this page, write ten new words added in the Oxford Dictionary for
2020. Write the
meaning opposite each word. (10 points)
LET’S REMEMBER
Direction: At the back of this page, discuss, using your own words, in the not more than 50
words, answr
the following questions: (10 points)
1.
Why do languages change?
2.
Can we avoid changes in languages?