PHONETIC, PHONOLOGY AND MORPHOLOGY

IFTI LUTHVIANA DEWI

PHONETIC, PHONOLOGY AND MORPHOLOGY

1.      Phonetic

Phonetics is the study of the sounds made in the production of human languages. It has two principal branches.

• Articulatory phonetics focuses on the human vocal apparatus and describes sounds in terms of their articulation in the vocal tract; it has been central to the discipline of linguistics.

• Acoustic phonetics uses the tools of physics to study the nature of sound waves produced in human language; it is increasingly important in linguistics with attempts to use machines for interpreting speech patterns in voice identification and voice-initiated mechanical operations.

1. 1. Consonants

Consonants are produced with some restriction or closure in the vocal tract that impedes the flow of air from the lungs.

1.1.1.      Place of Articulation

We classify consonants according to where in the vocal tract the airflow restriction occurs, called the place of articulation.

1.1.1.1.         Bilabials [p] [b] [m] When we produce a [p], [b], or [m] we articulate by bringing both lips together.

1.1.1.2.         Labiodentals [f] [v] We also use our lips to form [f] and [v]. We articulate these sounds by touching the bottom lip to the upper teeth.

1.1.1.3.         Interdentals [θ] [ð] These sounds, both spelled th, are pronounced by inserting the tip of the tongue between the teeth.

1.1.1.4.         Alveolars [t] [d] [n] [s] [z] [l] [r] All seven of these sounds are pronounced with the tongue raised in various ways to the alveolar ridge.

1.1.1.5.         Palatals [ʃ] [ʒ] [tʃ] [dʒ] [j] For these sounds, which occur in mission [mɪʃən], measure [mɛʒər], cheap [tʃip], judge [dʒʌdʒ], and yoyo [jojo], the constriction occurs by raising the front part of the tongue to the palate.

1.1.1.6.         Velars [k] [g] [ŋ] Another class of sounds is produced by raising the back of the tongue to the soft palate or velum.

1.1.1.7.         Uvulars [ʀ] [q] [ɢ] Uvular sounds are produced by raising the back of the tongue to the uvula, the fleshy protuberance that hangs down in the back of our throats.

1.1.1.8.         Glottals [h] [ʔ] The sound of [h] is from the flow of air through the open glottis, and past the tongue and lips as they prepare to pronounce a vowel sound, which always follows [h].

1.1.2.      Manner of Articulation

1.1.2.1.         Voiced and Voiceless Sounds

Sounds are voiceless when the vocal cords are apart so that air flows freely through the glottis into the oral cavity. [If the vocal cords are together, the airstream forces its way through and causes them to vibrate. Such sounds are voiced.

1.1.2.2.         Nasal and Oral Sounds

Sounds produced with the velum up, blocking the air from escaping through the nose, are oral sounds, because the air can escape only through the oral cavity. When the velum is not in its raised position, air escapes through both the nose and the mouth. Sounds produced this way are nasal sounds.

1.1.2.3.         Stops [p] [b] [m] [t] [d] [n] [k] [g] [ŋ] [tʃ] [dʒ] [ʔ] We are seeing finer and finer distinctions of speech sounds.

1.1.2.4.         Fricatives [f] [v] [θ] [ð] [s] [z] [ʃ] [ʒ] [x] [ɣ] [h] In the production of some continuants, the airflow is so severely obstructed that it causes friction, and the sounds are therefore called fricatives.

1.1.2.5.         Affricates [tʃ] [dʒ] These sounds are produced by a stop closure followed immediately by a gradual release of the closure that produces an effect characteristic of a fricative.

1.1.2.6.         Liquids [l] [r] In the production of the sounds [l] and [r], there is some obstruction of the airstream in the mouth, but not enough to cause any real constriction or friction.

1.1.2.7.         Glides [j] [w] The sounds [j] and [w], the initial sounds of you [ju] and we [wi], are produced with little obstruction of the airstream.

1.1.2.8.         Approximants In some books the sounds [w], [j], [r], and [l] are alternatively called approximants because the articulators approximate a frictional closeness, but no actual friction occurs.

1.      2. Vowels

Vowels are produced with little restriction of the airflow from the lungs out the mouth and/or the nose. Vowels are characterized by the height of the tongue (high/mid/low), the part of the tongue (front/central/back), the position of the lips (rounded/spread)

1.      3. Diphthongs

A diphthong is a sequence of two vowel sounds. Diphthongs are present in the phonetic inventory of many languages, including English. The vowels we have studied so far are simple vowels, called monophthongs

1.      4. Prosodic Features

Length, pitch, and stress (or “accent”) are prosodic, or suprasegmental, features.

Speech sounds that are identical in their place or manner features may differ in length (duration). Tense vowels are slightly longer than lax vowels, but only by a few milliseconds. However, in some languages when a vowel is prolonged to around twice its normal length, it can make a difference between words.

The pitch depends on how fast the vocal cords vibrate; the faster they vibrate, the higher the pitch. If the larynx is small, as in women and children, the shorter vocal cords vibrate faster and the pitch is higher, all other things being equal.

In many languages, certain syllables in a word are louder, slightly higher in pitch, and somewhat longer in duration than other syllables in the word. They are stressed syllables. For example, the first syllable of digest, the noun meaning “summation of articles,” is stressed, whereas in digest, the verb meaning “to absorb food,” the second syllable receives greater stress.

2.      Phonology

A phoneme is a structural element in the sound system of a language. Allophones are realizations of a single structural element in the sound system of a language. Allophones of a given phoneme cannot create different words, so we say they are noncontrastive. To native speakers allophones are perceived as the same sound despite the physical difference. Given that, in English, aspirated [ph] and unaspirated [p] are allophones of the phoneme /p/, there could not be a pair of English words such as [phit] and [pit]. Likewise the two [k] sounds of cop and keep are allophones of the phoneme /k/ in English and cannot make contrasting words.

The words in each pair have different meanings and differ by only a single sound. Two words that differ by only a single sound constitute a minimal pair.

2.1 The Rules of Phonology

2.1.1.      Assimilation Rules

The vowel nasalization rule is an assimilation rule, or a rule that makes neighboring segments more similar by duplicating a phonetic property.

Let’s look at the rule piece by piece.

V → [+nasal] / __ [+nasal] $

Vowels become nasalized in the before nasal within a environment segments syllable over to the next syllable.

This rule tells us that the vowels in such words as den /dɛn/ will become nasalized to [dɛ̃n], but deck /dɛk/ will not be affected and is pronounced [dɛk] because /k/ is not a nasal consonant. As well, a word such as den$tal /dɛn$təl/ will be pronounced [dɛ̃n$təl], where we have showed the syllable boundary explicitly.

Recall that the voiced /z/ of the English regular plural suffix is changed to [s] after a voiceless sound, and that similarly the voiced /d/ of the English regular past-tense suffix is changed to [t] after a voiceless sound.

2.1.2.      Dissimilation Rules

Dissimilation rules, in which a segment becomes less similar to another segment.

When the suffix was added to a noun that contained the liquid /l/, the suffix was changed to -aris; that is, the liquid /l/ was changed to the dissimilar liquid /r/. These words came into English as adjectives ending in -al or in its dissimilated form -ar, as shown in the following examples anecdot-al  and angul-ar

2.1.3.      Segment Insertion and Deletion Rules

Phonological rules may add or delete entire segments. The process of inserting a consonant or vowel is called epenthesis.

Insert a [ə] before the plural morpheme /z/ when a regular noun ends in a sibilant, giving [əz]. Insert a [ə] before the past-tense morpheme when a regular verb ends in a non-nasal alveolar stop, giving [əd].

deletion One such rule occurs in casual or rapid speech. We often delete the unstressed vowels that are shown in bold type in words like the following: mystery general memory funeral vigorous Barbara

These words in casual speech sound as if they were written: mystry genral memry funral vigrous Barbra

2.1.4.      Movement (Metathesis) Rules

Phonological rules may also reorder sequences of phonemes, in which case they are called metathesis rules. For some speakers of English, the word ask is pronounced [æks], but the word asking is pronounced [æskĩŋ]. Children’s speech shows many cases of metathesis (which are corrected as the child approaches the adult grammar): aminal [æ̃ mə̃nəl] for animal and pusketti [pʰəskɛti] for spaghetti

2.2 Syllables and Syllable Structure

Syllable is a phonological unit consisting of one or more sounds and that syllables can be divided into two parts—a rhyme and an onset. The rhyme consists of a nucleus and any consonants following it. The nucleus is usually a vowel, although certain consonants called sonorants can also function as a nucleus. Sonorants include nasals like [m] and [n] and liquids like [r] and [l]. Consider the words button, butter, and bottle, whose second syllables we represent as [əC], containing a vowel and a consonant.

These same words could be represented as [b_t%], [b_ɾ&], and [bɑɾ(], where the diacritic [_] under the sonorants [n r l] indicates that they are the nucleus of a syllable. Consonants that precede the rhyme in a syllable constitute the onset. Any consonants following the nucleus as part of the rhyme are called the coda.

2.2.1. Sequence Constraints

The possible sequences of sounds in a syllable differ from language to language and are limited within each language. If you examine the phrase below, you’ll notice that English syllables allow several patterns of consonants (C) and vowels (V).

past /p_st/ CVCC               queen /kwin/ CCVC

2.2.2.Sniglets

Words that do not appear in the dictionary but should. Here are a few of those sniglets and their proposed definitions.

charp ‘the green mutant potato chip found in every bag’

elbonics ‘the actions of two people maneuvering for one armrest in a movie theater’

2.3 Stress

English has variable stress, not fixed stress. So do some other languages, including German. Many others have fixed stress, where stress is assigned to a particular syllable in words.

“Not every white house is the White House, and not every black bird is a blackbird.” The point is that stress patterns can be significant. In pronouncing the phrase every white house, relatively strong stress is given to both white and house: white house.

2.4 The Interaction of Morphology and Phonology

2.4.1 English Plural, Possessive, and Third-Person Singular Morphemes

Regular nouns have several pronunciations of the plural morpheme, as in lips [lp _ s], seeds [sid _ z], and fuses [fjuz _ əz]. The surface forms for these different pronunciations of a morpheme are called its allomorphs.

2.4.1.1. Schwa Insertion Rule A

/z/ → [əz] / sibilant _ ___#

(Schwa is inserted before a word-final /z/ that follows a morpheme ending in a sibilant.)

2.4.1.2. Assimilation Rule A

/z/ → voiceless / voiceless _ ___#

(Word-final /z/ is devoiced following a morpheme that ends in a voiceless sound.)

2.4.2. English Past-Tense Morpheme

The inflectional morpheme that marks the past tense of regular verbs in English has three allomorphs:

[t] for: wish, kiss, talk, strip, preach . . .

[d] for: wave, bathe, play, lie, stir, tease, roam, ruin . . .

[əd] for: want, wade, wait, hoot, plant, seed . . .

2.4.2.1. Schwa Insertion Rule B

/d/ → [əd] / alveolar stop _ ___#

(Schwa is inserted preceding a word-final /d/ that follows a morpheme ending in an

alveolar stop.)

2.4.2.2. Assimilation Rule B

/d/ → voiceless / voiceless _ ___#

(Word-final /d/ is realized as [t] following a morpheme that ends in a voiceless sound.)

3.      Morphology

The study of the internal structure of words, and of the rules by which words
are formed, is morphology. This word itself consists of two morphemes, morph
+ ology. The suffix -ology means “science of” or “branch of knowledge concerning.” Thus, the meaning of morphology is “the science of (word) forms.” Morphology can be divided into inflectional and derivational morphology/meaning.

A morpheme—the minimal linguistic unit—is thus an arbitrary union
of a sound and a meaning (or grammatical function) that cannot be further
analyzed. It is often called a linguistic sign, not to be confused with the sign
of sign languages. Some morphemes can stand alone as words: TRUE, MOTHER, ORANGE. Others function only as a word part: UN-, TELE-, -NESS, and -ER. Morphemes that can stand alone are free morphemes. Those that cannot are bound morphemes.

3.1.      Derivational Morphology

Certain bound morphemes change the category of the word to which they are attached. In English (but not all languages) derivational morphemes tend to be added to the ends of words (and are called suffixes). We can represent these relationships in the following rules of derivation:

Noun  -FUL → Adjective (doubtful, beautiful)

Adjective  -LY → Adverb (beautifully, really)

Verb  -MENT → Noun (establishment, amazement)

Verb  -ER → Noun (teacher, rider, thriller)

Adjective  -EN → Verb (sweeten, brighten, harden)

Noun  -EN → Verb ( frighten, hasten, christen)

A similar process uses morphemes added at the beginning of a word (called prefixes). English prefixes typically change the meaning of a word but not its lexical category.
MIS-  Verb → Verb (misspell, misstep, misdeal, misfire, misclassify)
UN-  Adjective → Adjective (unkind, uncool, unfair, unfaithful, untrue)
UN-  Verb → Verb (undo, unchain, uncover, unfurl, undress)
UNDER-  Verb → Verb (underbid, undercount, undercut, underrate, underscore)
RE-  Verb → Verb (reestablish, rephrase, rewrite, reassess)
EX-  Noun → Noun (ex-cop, ex-nun, ex-husband, ex-convict)

Processes of derivation that transform a word into another word that has a related meaning but belongs to a different lexical category are common in the languages of the world.

Not all bound morphemes change the lexical category of words. Adding the bound morphemes DIS-, RE-, and UN- (disappear, repaint, unfavorable) to a verb changes it meaning but not its lexical category. Derivational morphemes can change the meaning of the word, or it can change the lecical category.

Derivational morphemes have clear semantic content. In this sense they are like content words, except that they are not words. As we have seen, when a derivational morpheme is added to a base, it adds meaning. The derived word may also be of a different grammatical class than the original word, as shown by suffixes such as -able and -ly.

When a new word enters the lexicon by the application of morphological
rules, other complex derivations may be blocked. For example, when Commun + ist entered the language, words such as Commun + ite (as in Trotsky + ite) or Commun + ian (as in grammar + ian) were not needed; their formation was blocked.

Finally, derivational affixes appear to come in two classes. In one class, the addition of a suffix triggers subtle changes in pronunciation. On the other hand, suffixes such as -er, -ful, -ish, -less, -ly, and -ness may be tacked onto a base word without affecting the pronunciation.

3.2.      Inflectional Morphology

Function words like to, it, and be are free morphemes. Many languages, including English, also have bound morphemes that have a strictly grammatical function. They mark properties such as tense, number, person and so forth. Such bound morphemes are called inflectional morphemes. Unlike derivational morphemes, they never change the grammatical category of the stems to which they are attached.

          English Inflectional Morphemes                    Examples
-s       third-person singular present     She wait-s at home.

-ed    past tense                                  She wait-ed at home.

-ing   progressive                                She is eat-ing the donut.

-en    past participle                           Mary has eat-en the donuts.

-s       plural                                         She ate the donut-s.

-’s      possessive                                 Disa’s hair is short.

-er     comparative                              Disa has short-er hair than Karin.

-est    superlative                                Disa has the short-est hair.

Inflectional morphemes in English follow the derivational morphemes in a word. Thus, to the derivationally complex word commit + ment one can add a plural ending to form commit + ment + s, but the order of affixes may not be reversed to derive the impossible commit + s + ment = *commitsment.

Yet another distinction between inflectional and derivational morphemes is that inflectional morphemes are productive: they apply freely to nearly every appropriate base (excepting “irregular” forms such as feet, not *foots). Most nouns takes an -s inflectional suffix to form a plural, but only some nouns take the derivational suffix -ize to form a verb: idolize, but not *picturize.

In distinguishing inflectional from derivation morphemes we may summarize as follows:

Inflectional                                                Derivational

Grammatical function                                 Lexical function

No word class change                                 May cause word class change

Small or no meaning change                                   Some meaning change

Often required by rules of grammar                       Never required by rules of grammar
Follow derivational morphemes in a word  Precede inflectional morphemes in a word
Productive                                                   Some productive, many nonproductive

3.3.   How Morphemes Organized Within Words

3.3.1. Morphemes Are Ordered in Sequence

Within a word, morphemes have a strict and systematic linear sequence; they aren’t randomly arranged.

Affixes Some morphemes, called suffixes, always follow the stems they attach to, such as ‘PLURAL’ in girls and -MENT in commitment: both *sgirl and *mentcommit are illformed. Prefixes attach to the front of a stem, as in untrue, disappear, and repaint. (Compare *trueun, *appeardis, and *paintre.) Derivational morphemes can be prefixes (unhappy, disappear) or suffixes (happiness, appearance). Generally, inflectional morphemes are added to the outermost parts of words. Taken together, prefixes and suffixes are called affixes. Infixes Besides affixes, some languages have infixes. An infix is a morpheme inserted within another morpheme. Tagalog (spoken in the Philippines) has infixing. For example, the word gulay meaning ‘greenish vegetables’ can take the infix -in-, creating the word ginulay, meaning ‘greenish blue.’

3.3.2. Morphemes Can Be Discontinuous

Not all morphological processes can be viewed as joining or concatenating morphemes to one another by adding a continuous sequence of sounds (or letters) to a stem. In other words, not all morphological processes involve prefixes, suffixes, or infixes. The technical term for discontinuous morphology is nonconcatenative. Circumfixes Some languages combine a prefix and a suffix into a circumfix—a morpheme that occurs in two parts, one on each side of a stem.

Interweaving Morphemes Semitic languages, such as Arabic and Hebrew, can have interweaving morphemes. For example, Arabic nouns and verbs generally have a root consisting of three consonants, such as KTB. The Arabic word for ‘book’ is kitaab. By interweaving K-T-B and various other morphemes, Arabic creates a great many nouns, verbs, and adjectives from this single root.

3.3.3. Morphemes Are Layered Within Words

Morphemes are organized in highly patterned ways. They have an obvious linear order, and they also have a layered structure. Untrue is true with un- prefixed to it (not un with true added). Truthful is composed of a stem truth with -ful suffixed to it (truth is true with -th added). Untruthful would be incorrectly analyzed if we claimed it was composed of untrue with -thful suffixed. Instead it is truthful with un- prefixed. It’s helpful to picture the sequence of layering from the root morpheme control as built up by a set of derivational rules that are widely used for other words as well:

control (Verb)

Verb -ABLE → Adjective

controllable (Adjective)

UN- Adjective → Adjective

uncontrollable (Adjective)

Adjective-LY → Adverb

uncontrollably (Adverb)

The root of uncontrollably is control, which functions as the stem for -able; controllable functions as the stem for uncontrollable; and uncontrollable functions as the stem for uncontrollably.

The structure can be represented using the tree diagram in Figure 2–1 or using labeled brackets as follows:

[[un[[controlVerb]ableAdj]Adj]lyAdv]

3.4.   How to Derive New Words

3.4.1.  Reduplication

is the process by which a morpheme or part of a morpheme is repeated to create a new word with a different meaning or different category. The Mandarin Chinese word sansanbu ‘to take a leisurely walk’ is formed by reduplicating the first syllable of sanbu ‘to walk’; honghong ‘bright red’ is formed by reduplicating hong ‘red.’ Partial reduplication repeats only part of the morpheme, while full reduplication reduplicates the entire morpheme. In the Papua New Guinea language called Motu, mahuta ‘to sleep’ reduplicates fully as mahutamahuta ‘to sleep constantly’ and reduplicates partially as mamahuta ‘to sleep’ (when agreeing with a plural subject). Reduplication is not repetition, which does not create a new word but simply reiterates the same word, as in English very, very (tired) and nightnight. English does not have a productive process like the reduplication of Chinese or Motu. Reduplication can have different functions in languages. It can moderate or intensify the meaning of a word, as illustrated by the Chinese, and Motu examples just given. It can mark grammatical categories, as in Indonesian, where certain kinds of noun plurals are formed by reduplication: babibabi ‘an assortment of pigs’ is a reduplicated form of babi ‘pig.’

3.4.2.  Compounds

English is very flexible in the kinds of combinations permitted, as the following table of compounds shows. Each entry in the table represents dozens of similar combinations.

Adjective Noun Verb

Adjective bittersweet poorhouse whitewash

Noun headstrong homework spoonfeed

Verb — pickpocket sleepwalk

Some compounds that have been introduced fairly recently into English are Facebook, YouTube, power nap, and carjack.

When the two words are in the same grammatical category, the compound will also be in this category: noun + noun = noun, as in girlfriend, fighterbomber, paper clip, elevator-operator, landlord, mailman. adjective + adjective = adjective, as in icy-cold, red-hot, worldly wise.

In English, the rightmost word in a compound is the head of the compound. The head is the part of a word or phrase that determines its broad meaning and grammatical category. Thus, when the two words fall into different categories, the class of the second or final word determines the grammatical category of the compound: noun + adjective = adjective, as in headstrong; verb + noun = noun, as in pickpocket. On the other hand, compounds formed with a preposition are in the category of the nonprepositional part of the compound, such as (to) overtake or (the) sundown.

3.4.3.  Shortenings

Shortenings of various kinds are a popular means of multiplying the words of a language. Ordinary shortenings are common: radials for radial tires, jet for jet airplane,narc for narcotics agent, feds for federal agents, obits for obituaries, poli-sci for political science, indie for independent film, rec room for recreation room, comp time for compensatory time, and app or apps referring to computer application programs. Note that the shortenings need not be morphemes in the full expression: narc is not a morpheme in narcotics.

Other kinds of shortenings include :

3.4.3.1         Acronyms Shortenings in which the initial letters of an expression are joined and pronounced as a word are acronyms:

UNESCO NATO radar (radio detecting and ranging)

WASP NASA yuppy (young urban professional _ -Y)

DOS (disk operating system) nimby (not in my backyard)

3.4.3.2         Initialisms Some shortenings resemble acronyms but are pronounced as a sequence of letters. At U-S-C (University of Southern California) and N-Y-U ( New York University). Many initialisms (AI, CD, DNA, DVD, fMRI, MTV, NHL, PDA) could not easily be pronounced as ordinary words, while others could, but aren’t: CEO for chief executive officer, ADD for attention deficit disorder, and SUV for sport utility vehicle. Perhaps the most popular initialism in the world is OK.