INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS

TASK 4 – SPEECH SOUND AND SEMANTICS

DIEGO ERICK LÓPEZ HERNÁNDEZ

GROUP: 518017_19

TUTOR NAME: MANGELY LONDOÑO

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA

ESCUELA CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN

LICENCIATURA EN LENGUAS EXTRANJERAS

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS

BOGOTÁ, NOVEMBER 20th , 2020

 ACTIVYTY

1. Based on the first document “The phoneme: the same but different” by

McMahon, A, answer the three questions from pages 21, 22.

 A learner of English as a second language has the following

pronunciations (note that [ʃ] is the symbol for the first sound in ship, and

[d] for the first sound in the):

that [dat] dog [dɒg] head [hεd]

leather [lεdə] leader [li_də]

sing [ʃIŋ] sat [sat] loss [lɒs]

fish [fIʃ] miss [mIʃ] push [pus]

 How might you explain these non-native pronunciations?

First of all it depends on the mother-language that the person speaks.

It is the first conditioner, regarding this fact this language will change

the output of the second language. According to this I would teach the

symbols that the learner doesn´t know. For instance in the case of

leather I would explain that it is not like a “d”, rather it is “ð” and very

common with “th” words sound, putting the tongue at the middle of

top teeth and bottom teeth. In the case of sing I could tell him that it

is with “s” use in sun, rather “ʃ” which is use in ship. With the word

sat I would introduce “æ” a hybrid vowel between latin “a” and “e”.

As I taught him before the “ʃ” sound, I could tell him that at “miss” is
 not use, rather this is “s” sound. And finally with “push” he could use

“ʃ” sound.

 How do you think this learner would pronounce the bold-faced

consonants in Daddy, either, loathe; ship, pass, dish, usher?

Daddy [dady] rather [dædy], either [aɪðər] rather [aɪðər], loathe

[loud] rather [loʊð], ship [sip] rather [ʃɪp], pass [paʃ] rather [pæs],

dish [dɪs] rather [dɪʃ], usher [ʌsɚ] rather [ʌʃɚ].

 Do the following sounds contrast in English? Find minimal pairs to support

your hypothesis, ideally for initial, medial and final position in the word.

Where minimal pairs for all positions do not seem to be available, write a

short statement of where the sound in question can and cannot be found.

[m, n, ŋ, p, b, t, d, k, g, l, r]

Minimal pairs like:

1. donkey [dɒŋki] monkey [mʌŋki]

2. joke [dʒoʊk] smoke [smoʊk],

3. ban [bæn] bang [bæŋ].

In the first example the sounds in question are [dɒ] vs [mʌ] these two words

differ just at the beginning of the words. In the second example the sounds in

question are [dʒo] vs [smo], these two words differ in this phones becoming

both minimal pairs. In the third example the sounds in question [æn] vs [æŋ]

differ at the end of the words becoming in minimal pairs.

 The ministry of education in a certain country whose language has up to know

been unwritten has hired to foreign linguists to produce an orthography.

Linguists A and B have suggested two rather different systems. Which one is
 most in line with the phonological structure of the language it is designed for?

Why do you think the other linguist may have made different decisions?

Linguist A Linguist B pronunciation meaning

bim bim [bim] ‘rug’
bin bin [bin] ‘head’
biŋ bing [biŋ] ‘wheel’
zag zak [zak] ‘parrot’
zib zip [zip] ‘ostrich’
azaŋ azang [azaŋ] ‘to speak’
obaz obas [obas] ‘to throw’
ham ham [ham] ‘egg’
mohiz mohis [mohis] ‘to eat’
zigah ziga [zigah] ‘to sing’
gig gik [gik] ‘ant’
gah ga [gah] ‘a song’
nagog nagok [nagok] ‘to sting’
habiz habis [habis] ‘to drink’

 The linguist B is most in line with the phonological structure of the

language.

 The linguist A, I guess is trying to construct a vocabulary that doesn´t

match directly with the same words rather most based on phonetics. I mean

the linguist B is trying to construct the vocabulary based on phonetics, but

the A, to build one different but giving a different pronunciation when they

are conveyed.

2. From the second document, “Natural Language Processing and Applications Phones

and Phonemes” please answer questions 1 and 2 from page 10.

 How many phonemes are there in (a) Keith (b) coughs? What are they in the

IPA? In each case try to demonstrate the correctness of your answer by finding

words differing by only one of the phonemes you have identified.

  Keith, [keɪθ] this word has three phonemes. Kith [kɪθ] this archaic

poetic word differs of keith changing the phoneme [eɪ] for [ɪ].

 Coughs [kɑfs] this word has four phonemes. Cops [kɑps] this word

differs of Coughs changing the phoneme [p] for [f].

 You are NOT expected to know the IPA symbols; the table given in the

Appendix will be provided if and when necessary. However it is useful to have

some practice in using them. Study the following phonetic transcription of a

verse of Lewis Carroll’s poem The Walrus and the Carpenter. The

transcription corresponds to my ‘careful’ pronunciation. Write down the

normal English spelling. If your pronunciation differs from mine, write down

an amended transcription in the IPA.

 The time has come the walrus said

To talk of many things

Of shoes and ships and sealing wax

of cabbages and kings

And why the sea is boiling hot

And whether pigs have wings

3. From the reading “Semantics. The Study of Linguistic Meaning Chapter” by Akmajian

answer the two following questions:

 What is exactly the concept ‘speaker meaning’? Explain and give an example

(in Spanish or English).

 What the speaker means or intends to communicate in uttering an

expression. This concept is contrastive with linguistic meaning. For

instance the following sentence: “the door is right behind you!” any

person would assume in this context that the speaker means that you

are to leave, the speaker’s actual words though, indicate nothing more

than the location of the door.

 Explain, what is an important problem of the ‘Denotational Theory of

Meaning’?

 The consequences referred in the text about if the expression has a

meaning it turns out to have a denotation and, if two expressions have

the same denotation, then they have the same meaning. The last

statements are false. In the case of the first statement requires that for

any expression having a meaning there is an actual object that it denotes

but is not taking into account the feelings or ideas that people may

connect with the world as: Pegasus, the, empty, hello, sadness,

creativeness, etc. Moreover the case of the second statement, we can

see it in the supposedly synonyms, the first person to walk on our moon
 and Neil Armstrong, these last are not synonyms at all, although they

denote the same person.

4. Mini Lesson

 In class the main idea is to teach to the students the difference between “r” and

“l” pronunciation.

For this purpose I have selected 5 words to compare as minimal pairs in order

to show the difference according the pronunciation, these words are:

Record vs Recall

Race vs Lace

Wear vs Well

Road vs Load

Far vs Fall

But the organization of the words presented to the students is different,

something like this:

Record Lace

Wear Recall

Far Load

Race Fall

Road Well

With this organization, the students will be ask, to put them in pairs with the

most similar word.

Lastly the students have to pronounce one pair of words and describe de

difference with their own words.

5. Screenshot of forum and web participation.
 REFERENCES

Muñoz, M. (2020). Language Identity. [Video

File]. https://repository.unad.edu.co/handle/10596/35907

McMahon, A. M. S. (2016). An Introduction to English Phonology. Edinburgh University

Press. http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/log

in.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1584999&lang=es&site=eds-live&scope=site

Coxhead, P. (2006). Natural Language Processing & Applications Phones and Phonemes.

[PDF FILE]. https://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~pxc/nlp/NLPA-Phon1.pdf

Akmajian, A. et al. (2010). Linguistics: An Introduction to Language and Communication,

6th edition. The MIT

Press. https://www.academia.edu/40559984/L_I_N_G_U_I_ST_I_C_S_An_Introdu

ction_to_Language_and_Communication