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'''Phonology'''<ref>[[Greek language|Greek]] ''phonē'' = voice/sound and ''logos'' = word/speech.</ref> is a subfield of [[linguistics]] which studies the system speakers use to represent [[language]]; this includes units of [[sound]] in a spoken language and [[hand]] movements in a [[sign language]].<ref>Signs are distinguished from [[gestures]], such as waving at someone in greeting, in that the latter are non-linguistic or supply extra meaning alongside the linguistic message.</ref> Although there are potentially infinitely many ways of producing a [[sound]] or moving a [[hand]], phonologists are interested only in how these group into abstract categories: for example, how and why speakers of many languages perceive the difference between [l] and [r] as nonsignificant,<ref>Symbols in square brackets represent speech sounds using the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]]; slanting brackets, as in /kæt/ 'cat', are used to represent [[phoneme]]s - distinct, abstract units that may represent several sounds.</ref> whereas others consider them distinct enough to distinguish different [[word]]s.<ref>[[Japanese language|Japanese]] has a single phoneme /r/ to represent ''l'' and ''r'', while English contains two, i.e. /l/ and /r/.</ref> Phonology also goes beyond differences between individual sounds, involving topics such as [[syllable]] structure, [[stress (linguistics)|stress]], [[accent (linguistics)|accent]] and [[intonation (linguistics)|intonation]].
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One task in phonology is to identify distinctive units within a language. For example, in [[English language|English]], the words ''pin'' and ''bin'' seem to each consist of three ''segments'', with only the first differing. Phonologists may refer to these first units as different ''[[phoneme]]s'', and the contrast between /p/ and /b/ as ''phonemic'' - the two words are a ''minimal pair'' differing by only one phoneme. Though most phonologists no longer consider phonemes to be psychologically 'real', they remain in phonological study as a kind of shorthand for referring to more complex phonological representations that more adequately explain how such examples differ.<ref>See Chomsky & Halle (1968) for the first major work that abandoned the phoneme as a true unit of phonology, in favour of more abstract ''phonological features''.</ref>
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''[[Phonetics]]'' focuses on the physical sounds of speech, and thus it often informs phonological inquiry by showing how [[pronunciation]]s are related.<ref>Phonetics also studies [[speech perception]] (how the brain discerns sounds) and [[acoustics]] (the physical qualities of sounds as movement through air), as well as articulation (sound production through the movements of the lungs, tongue, etc.).</ref> However, since this sort of inquiry does not primarily concern itself with the study of abstract patterns in language, phoneticians' work usually complements linguistics, rather than constituting a central component.
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Most writing systems, such as the [[Roman alphabet]] used for English, represent phonology in some way, such as the letter ''b'' indicating the phoneme /b/, though this relationship is often inexact. This relationship between reading and phonological knowledge is of concern to linguists interested in [[orthography]] (written language), [[language acquisition]] specialists, and educators concerned with developing literacy.<ref>See for example Katz & Frost (1992); Young-Scholten (2002); Connor et al. (2007).</ref>
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==Phonemic analysis==
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Part of the phonological study of a language involves looking at data (phonetic [[transcription (linguistics)|transcriptions]] of the speech of [[native speaker]]s) and trying to deduce what the underlying [[phoneme]]s are and what the sound inventory of the language is. Even though a language may make distinctions between a small number of phonemes, speakers actually produce many more phonetic sounds. Thus, a phoneme in a particular language can be pronounced in many ways.
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Looking for minimal pairs forms part of the research in studying the phoneme inventory of a language. A [[minimal pair]] is a pair of words from the same language, that differ by only a single sound, and that are recognized by speakers as being two different words. When there is a minimal pair, the two sounds constitute separate phonemes. (It is often not possible to detect all phonemes with this method so other approaches are used as well.)
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===Phonemic distinctions or allophones===
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If two similar sounds do not constitute separate phonemes, they are called [[allophone]]s of the same underlying phoneme. For instance, voiceless stops (/p/, /t/, /k/) can be aspirated. In English, [[voiceless stop]]s at the beginning of a word are [[Aspiration (phonetics)|aspirated]], whereas after /s/ they are not aspirated. (This can be seen by putting the fingers right in front of the lips and noticing the difference in breathiness as 'pin' and 'spin' is said.) There is no English word 'pin' that starts with an unaspirated p, therefore in English, aspirated [pʰ] (the [ʰ] means aspirated) and unaspirated [p] are allophones of an underlying phoneme /p/. In some other languages, for example [[Thai language|Thai]] and [[Quechua]], this same difference of aspiration versus non-aspiration is phonemic, and therefore speakers will consider them to be significantly different.
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Another example of allophones in English is how the /t/ sounds in the words 'tub', 'stub', 'but', and 'butter' are all pronounced differently (in American English at least), yet are all perceived as "the same sound."
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Another example: in English and many other languages, the liquids /l/ and /r/ are two separate phonemes (minimal pair 'life', 'rife'); however, in [[Korean language|Korean]] these two liquids are allophones of the same phoneme, and the general rule is that [ɾ] comes before a vowel, and [l] does not (e.g. ''Seou'''l''''', ''Ko'''r'''ea'').  A native speaker will tell you that the [l] in Seoul and the [ɾ] in Korean are in fact the same sound.  What happens is that a native Korean speaker's brain recognises the underlying phoneme /l/, and, depending on the phonetic context (whether before a vowel or not), expresses it as either [ɾ] or [l].  Another Korean speaker will hear both sounds as the underlying phoneme and think of them as the same sound.
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===Change of a phoneme inventory over time===
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The particular sounds which are phonemic in a language can change over time. At one time, [f] and [v] were allophones in English, but these later changed into separate phonemes.  This is one of the main factors of historical change of languages as described in [[historical linguistics]].
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==Other topics in phonology==
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Phonology also includes topics such as the [[syllable]], [[Assimilation (linguistics)|assimilation]], [[elision]], [[epenthesis]], [[vowel harmony]], [[Tone (linguistics)|tone]], non-phonemic [[Prosody (linguistics)|prosody]] and [[phonotactics]]. Prosody includes topics such as [[Stress (linguistics)|stress]] and [[intonation]].
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===Syllables===
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:''Main article: [[Syllable]]''
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Native speakers of many languages may well have certain intuitions about how many 'beats' there are in a given word; for example, most English speakers would agree that there are two 'syllables' in the word ''butter'' but only one in ''but''. That such phonological intuitions exist is one reason for phonologists to want to find about what syllables are; another reason is that assuming their existence explains a good deal about the way sounds and signs pattern in language.
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Syllables cannot be defined through reference to breathing or articulatory movements; they are abstract, phonological units rather than a physical phenomenon. Syllables do not easily correspond to muscular contractions, for instance; nor do they correlate well with predictable changes in [[pitch]].<ref>See Laver (1994: 114); Davenport & Hannahs (2005: 73-74).</ref> Initially, defining syllables was such a difficult task that early [[generative phonology]] ignored it; only in the 1970s and 1980s was a serious reanalysis attempted.<ref>Chomsky & Halle (1968) do not use the syllable; it was reintroduced gradually as a segment-based boundary-creation rule (Hooper, 1972), then later as a full unit of phonological organisation (Selkirk, 1984).</ref>
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Since the syllable was reintroduced to phonological theory, it has come to be seen as essential in defining the behaviour of segments and stress in many languages. For instance, predicting whether a British English /l/ will be velarised or not is difficult without referring to positions within the syllable: if an [l] forms part of the ''rhyme'' of the syllable (the component containing the vowel or syllabic consonant) it will be velarised; if it is part of the ''onset'' (the initial part of the syllable), then it will not.<ref>Without the syllable, a set of untidy rules is required to explain the distribution of what are called 'clear' and 'dark' (velarised) ''l'': the dark ''l'' appears word-finally (''pal'', ''panel'') and before a consonant (''hold''), ''except'' before [j] (''Italian''); otherwise, clear ''l'' appears.</ref> The syllable is one of the mechanisms that organise the order and positioning of segments.
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===Word stress===
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In some languages, [[Stress (linguistics)|stress]] is non-phonemic.  Some examples include [[Finnish language|Finnish]] and all ancient Germanic languages ([[Old Norse]], [[Old English language|Old English]] and [[Old High German]]) as well as some modern Germanic languages such as [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]]. However, in other modern-day Germanic languages such as German or English, stress is phonemically distinctive, although there are only a few minimal pairs. In German, for example, /ˈaugust/, the personal name August, contrasts with /auˈgust/ , the month August.
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The distinction of stress is often seen in English words where the verb and noun forms have the same spelling.  For example, consider /ˈrɛbəl/ 'rebel' the noun (which places the emphasis on the first syllable) contrasted with /rɪˈbɛl/ 'rebel' the verb (which instead puts the emphasis on the second syllable).
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Another example is the pair ''insight'' /ˈɪnsaɪt/ and ''incite'' /ɪnˈsaɪt/, where in the former the stress lies on the first syllable and in the latter on the second syllable. In some regional pronunciations of American English, the words ''Missouri'' and ''misery'' are also distinguished only by stress: in ''Missouri'', the stress lies on the penultimate syllable, but in ''misery'' it lies on the first syllable.
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==Theories of phonology==
===Generative phonology===
[[Noam Chomsky]] and [[Morris Halle]]'s 1968 work ''[[The Sound Pattern of English]]'' (SPE) formed the basis for ''[[generative phonology]]''. In this view, phonological representations were a sequence of segments which are underlain by [[distinctive feature]]s. These features were an expansion of earlier work by [[Roman Jakobson]], [[Gunnar Fant]], and Halle. The features describe aspects of articulation and perception, are from a universally fixed set, and have the binary values + or -. For example, [+voice] would be a featured underlying distinctively voiced segments such as [v] or [g]. Ordered phonological rules govern how this ''underlying representation'' is transformed into the actual articulation in speech (the ''surface form''). An important consequence of the influence ''SPE'' had on phonological theory was the downplaying of the syllable and the emphasis on segments. Furthermore, the 'generativists' integrated morphology with phonology.
 
===Autosegmental phonology===
In [[1976]] [[John Goldsmith]] introduced [[autosegmental phonology]]. Phonological phenomena were no longer seen as ''one'' linear sequence of segments, known as feature combinations, but rather as "some parallel sequences"" of features which reside on multiple ''tiers''.
 
===Optimality theory===
In a course at the LSA summer institute in 1991, [[Alan Prince]] and [[Paul Smolensky]] developed [[Optimality Theory]] — an overall architecture for phonology, according to which languages choose the phonetic form of a word that best satisfies a list of [[constraint]]s which are ordered by importance: a lower-ranked constraint can be violated when this is necessary in order to satisfy a higher-ranked constraint. The approach was soon extended to morphology by [[John McCarthy]] and [[Alan Prince]], and has become one of the dominant trends in phonology.
 
===Government phonology===
[[Government Phonology]], which originated in the early 1980s as an attempt to unify theoretical notions of syntactic and phonological structures, is based on the notion that all languages necessarily follow a small set of [[principle]]s and vary according to their selection of certain binary [[parameter]]s.  That is, all languages' phonological structures are essentially the same, but there is restricted variation that accounts for differences in surface realizations.  Principles are held to be inviolable, though parameters may sometimes come into conflict.  Prominent figures include [[Jonathan Kaye]], [[Jean Lowenstamm]], [[Jean-Roger Vergnaud]], [[Monik Charette]] and [[John Harris]].
 
===Natural phonology===
In the late 1960s, [[David Stampe]] introduced [[Natural Phonology]]. In this view, phonology is based on a set of universal [[phonological process]]es which interact with one another; which ones are active and which are suppressed are language-specific. Rather than acting on segments, phonological processes act on [[distinctive feature]]s within prosodic groups. Prosodic groups can be as small as a part of a syllable or as large as an entire utterance. Phonological processes are unordered with respect to each other and apply simultaneously (though the output of one process may be the input to another). The principles of Natural Phonology were extended to [[morphology (linguistics)|morphology]] by [[Wolfgang U. Dressler]], who founded [[Natural Morphology]].
 
 
==Footnotes==
{{reflist|2}}
 
==References==
*[[Noam Chomsky|Chomsky N]] & Halle M (1968) ''The Sound Pattern of English.'' New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0262530972.
*Connor CM, Morrison FJ, Fishman BJ, Schatschneider C & Underwood P (2007) '[http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1134513 The early years: algorithm-guided individualized reading instruction].' ''Science'' 315: 464-465.
*Davenport M & Hannahs SJ (2005) ''Introducing Phonetics and Phonology.'' London: Arnold. ISBN  0-340-81045-9.
*Frost R & Katz L (eds) (1992) ''Orthography, Phonology, Morphology and Meaning.'' Amsterdam: Elsevier. ISBN 978-0-444-89140-2.
*Hooper JB (1972) 'The syllable in phonological theory.' ''Language'' 48: 525-540.
*Laver J (1994) ''Principles of Phonetics.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521456555.
*Selkirk EO (1984) On the major class features and syllable theory. In Aronoff M & Oerhle RT (eds) ''Language Sound Structure.'' Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. pp.107-136. ISBN 978-0262010740.
*[[Martha Young-Scholten|Young-Scholten M]] (2002) Orthographic input in L2 phonological development. In Burmeister P, Piske T & Rohde A (eds) ''An Integrated View of Language Development: Papers in Honor of Henning Wode.'' Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier. pp.263-279. ISBN 3-88476-488-8.
 
==See also==

Latest revision as of 16:39, 4 March 2021


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