Linguistics 110 Zhang/Öztürk/Quinn

Class 10 (10/23/02)

The Phonetic Similarity Principle

(0) Midterm postponed to Nov 6 (Wed).

(1) Sounds that are accidentally in complementary distribution

/h/ occurs: initially: hear [hi®], Horatio [h´»®eÉISioÉU]
after consonants: adhere [´d»hI®]
medially before stress: ahead [´»hEd], prohibit [p®oÉU»hIbˆt]

/N/ occurs: finally: sing [sIN], willing [»wIlIN]

before consonants: Bingley [»bINli], hunger [»h√Ng‘]
medially before unstressed: singer [»sIN‘], thingy [»TINi], Singapore
[»sIN´«pHç®]

(2) Ignore complementary distribution here—The Phonetic Similarity Principle

[h] and [N] are never felt by speakers to be the “same sound”.
Plausibly, this is because they are fantastically different phonetically.

Conclusion: in phonemic analysis, we should be reluctant to group phonetically-

dissimilar sounds into phonemes.

(3) What is the cut-off point?

Bruce Hayes (UCLA Linguistics Professor) and his 4-year old son Peter Hayes:

BH: “Please say [kHæ/t|] backwards.”

PH: “[tHæ/k|]”
BH: “Please say [fI…] backwards.”
PH: “[…If]. ([dæ|i kˆn wi stAp duIN DIs naÉU]?)”

A couple years later: “[lIf]”

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 Morphology and Alternation

(4)A little bit of morphology

• Derivational rules: form new words from old.

• Inflectional rules: add morphology that is relevant to the syntax (number,

gender, tense, person, etc.).

(5) Persian (Farsi) verbs (formal style)

[»mixQRQm] ‘I buy’ [xQ»RidQm] ‘I bought’
[»mixQRi] ‘you (sg.) buy’ [xQ»Ridi] ‘you (sg.) bought’
[»mixQRQd] ‘(s)he buys’ [xQ»Rid] ‘(s)he bought’
[»mixQRim] ‘we buy’ [xQ»Ridim] ‘we bought’
[»mixQRid] ‘you (pl.) buy’ [xQ»Ridid] ‘you (pl.) bought’
[»mixQRQnd] ‘they buy’ [xQ»RidQnd] ‘they bought’

(6) Categories that are often inflectional

• Verbs: tense, aspect, mood, number, gender, person
• Nouns: number, gender, case
• Adjectives: number, gender (in agreement with nouns they modify)

(7) Commonplace relative ordering of derivation and inflection

• English:
Darwinians, *Darwin-s-ian, *Darwin-ian-s-ism.
class-ifi-es, *class-es-ify.

• Tolkapaya (Yuman, Arizona):

Paa’’úuvchma ‘we see them’
Paa- ’- ’úu -v -ch -ma
pl. obj. 1st sub. look -able pl. sub. non-future

(8) The phonological material of morphology classified

• Suffixation
• Prefixation
• and…

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(9) Kharia (Munda, India)
[bhore] ‘be full’ [bhobre] ‘fill’
[Íoko] ‘sit’ [Íobko] ‘seatV’
[remag] ‘call’ [rebmag] ‘make someone call’
[tÉSuwe] ‘leak’ [tÉSubwe] ‘cause to leak’

(10) Chickasaw (Muskogean, Oklahoma)

[tSokma] ‘he is good’ [iktSokmo] ‘he isn’t good’
[lakna] ‘it is yellow’ [iklakno] ‘it isn’t yellow’
[palli] ‘it is hot’ [ikpallo] ‘it isn’t hot’
[tiwwi] ‘he opens (it)’ [iktiwwo] ‘he doesn’t open (it)’

(11) The ordering of morphological and phonological rules

The central question:
Do morphological rules concatenate phonemic or allophonic representations?

(12) Some morphological rules of English

/mIs-/ + V → V Meaning: ‘to Verb in a bad way’
V + /-„/ → N Meaning: ‘one who Verbs’
X → XIN when [verb, +present participle]

(13) Two phonological rules of English (approx.)

• /l/ Devoicing: /l/ → [-voice] / [-voice] ___

slice [sl8aIs] clinch [kÓl8IntÉS] acclimate [QkÓl8´meIt]

blind [blaInd] glitch [glItÉS] igloo [Iglu]

• /l/ Darkening: /l/ → […] / ___ ]word

fall [fO…] will [wI…] tell [tÓE…] Al [Q…]

loft [lçft] limb [lIm] allow [´»laU] alloy [»QlçI]

(14) Some words that illustrate the interaction of phonology and morphology
fall [fO…] falling [fOlIN]
call [kÓO…] caller [kÓOl„]
lead [lid] mislead [mIsl•id]

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(15) Definitions
• A morpheme alternates if it takes on different forms in different environments.
• Allomorph = one of the different forms of a morpheme
• A phoneme alternates if it is the “changing part” of an alternating morpheme.

(16) Interaction of morphology and phonology

• Morphological rules normally precede phonological rules.
• Therefore morphemes alternate (reason: morphological rules put them in
different environments, so different phonological rules apply)
• Therefore morphology is a useful area of “experimentation” for exploring the
phonological rule system.

The Organization of Grammar, Briefly

(17) Does syntax also set up environments for phonology?

a. in Buffalo e. in the subway
b. on Park St. f. ten things
c. one fish, two fish g. on Causeway St.
d. can violets grow here? h. on Garden St.

(18) Componential organization

Component: a rule system of language largely independent of other components.

Conjectured components: syntactic, semantic, derivational morphology, inflectional

morphology, phonological, phonetic.

I. Derivational morphology: extracts words from the lexicon:

/bIl/N ‘name’
/lid/V ‘go before’
/kçl/V ‘...’
/Iz/V,Aux ‘copula’
etc.

Forms new words with morphological rules.

II. Syntax: concatenates words to form sentences; also assigns morphological

features, e.g., [ddZ¡mp][Verb, +3rd person, -plural, +present] (semantic component assigns the
meaning)

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III. Inflectional morphology: creates inflected forms of the words (example:
[ddZ¡mp][Verb, +3rd person, -plural, +present] → [[ddZ¡mp]z])

IV. Phonology: phonological rules apply in order to derive phonetic form

V. Phonetics: converts phonological representations to articulatory and perceptual

representations