Language 321 L4, C1

Practice activity (key)

(30 minutes)

I Read the following scripture and other passages with which you are familiar that deal with the
idea of opposing forces in life. Then ponder why contrasts matter to you in the following areas
of your life:
 experiencing the world through the five senses
 understanding the Plan of Happiness
 facing daily challenges and adversity (Answers will vary)
 enjoying the full range of human emotions

2 Nephi 2:11, 16
For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness,
righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither
good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one.

Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act
for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other.

II Following the example, write two minimal pairs of words in each position for the indicated
contrastive phones (phonemes) in English. These will be rhyme words to the ear, regardless of
spelling.
Beginning Middle End
e.g. /k/:/g/ cater / gator akin / again peck / peg
crane / grain bicker / bigger buck / bug

1. /m/:/n/ matt / gnat simmer / sinner same / sane

mice / nice gummy / gunny ma’am / man
module / nodule demote / denote sum / sun
mile / Nile mummy / money hem / hen
mirror / nearer coming /cunning Pam / pan

2. /p/:/f/ pink / fink supper / suffer pup / puff

pierce / fierce append / offend rip / riff
pollen / fallen copper / coffer lap / laugh
pill / fill propane / profane cap / calf
pair / fair copy / coffee cop / cough

3. /b/:/m/ bend / mend ruby / roomy rib / rim

bunch / munch shabby / shammy lab / lamb
bask / mask rebake / remake scab / scam
ball / mall rebind / remind rub / rum
bum / mum crabbing / cramming sub / sum
4. /s/:/z/ sue / zoo resent / resent price / prize
sink / zinc precedent / president grace / graze
seal / zeal lacy / lazy fleece / fleas
sip / zip racing / raising bus / buzz

III Read the Sesame Street story in today’s folder and answer the following questions.
1. What is the linguistic principle that children learn here and how does the story teach it?
Children learn the linguistic principle of contrastive phones, the important phones in a language, which
we call phonemes. Children learn this as they see minimal pairs that result from the story characters
mishearing one word for another.

2. What can we conclude about the misunderstandings that result from confusing word pairs like
“mop” ≠ “map”, “map” ≠ “mat”, “mat” ≠ “mitt”, and “mitten” ≠ “kitten”?

We see that English uses the following phonemes that signal important contrasts in the language as
indicated in the word pairs, and which affect the meaning of a message.

/ɑ/:/æ/ /p/:/t/ /æ/:/ɪ/ /m/:/k/