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Processes
Week 6

Phonological alternations
Compare the vowels in the words given in columns A and B:
A
B
The bold-faced vowels in column A
compete
competition
and those in column B occur in the
medicinal
medicine
same syllable of their respective words
maintain
maintenance
but differ in pronunciation in a
telegraph
telegraphy
systematic way.
analysis
analytic
solid
solidity
What does this difference consist in?
phone
phonetic
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Processes
The distribution of schwa and other vowels is governed by a
phonological rule which is part of the grammar of any native speaker
of English.
A way of representing such a rule is through a phonological process
in which one sound is changed by another under certain
circumstances.

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schwa vowel alternations

Two possibilites of expressing the process under examination:
1. // becomes i, or ,or ,or , or ei, or ou .
2. i, ,,, ei, ou become // .
Under what circumstances?
Which rule is the most optimal? Why?

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Underlying and surface representations

a. photograph /foutgrf/
b. photography /foutgrfi/
c. photographic /,futgrafk/

underlying R

Rule Vowel reduction... p. 83 (ex.61)

a. photograph /foutgrf/
surfaceR
b. photography /foutgrfi/
c. photographic /,futgrafk/
Is the spelling in these words closer to UR or SR?
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Phonemic alternation
The vowel reduction in English is a case of phonemic alternation
whereby a phoneme or a set of phonemes can be replaced by other
phonemes.
What about vowel reduction in other languages?

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in Bosnian...
In Bosnian high vowels (i,u) tend to be reduced in unstressed syllables
and even dropped: //zenica// zenca zenca
This is sound variation due to formality and other social and
geographical factors. This is not regular phonological alternation due to
grammatical (phonologica) rules only, which would be valid for all
speakers of the language.
To the extent that there is alternation between i/u and , this does not
resemble phonemic alternation since is not a phoneme in BCS.
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Allophonic variation
Aspiration in English
voiceless plosives can be aspirated and non-aspirated:
[p] [ph]
[t]
[th]
[k]
[kh]
The difference betwen a bilabial, alveolar and velar plosive can produce
different words (pry, try, cry minimal pairs)
The difference between a non-aspirated and aspirated plosive (ph vs. p)
does not produce such effects (no minimal pairs).
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The occurence of aspiration can be predicted by a rule:

informally:
-v plosive aspirated / when in the onset of a stressed syllable and is
not preceded by a C.
Aspirated and non-aspirated plosives are not different phonemes the
phonological process involves allophonic variation.

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Phonological processes can involve

phonemic alternation
allophonic variation

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More phonological processes

Assimilation
kod kue : //kodkue// /kotkue/
pod-pisati > potpisati
pod-vui > podvui
svat-ba > svadba
Feature spreading:
Regressive assimilation : the preceeding segment gets [+/-voiced]
according to the voice value of the following C.
Phonemic alternation or allophonic variation?
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Dissimilation: segments become less similar rather than more similar. Rare.
Eg. Latin, visible through English ex.
-alis was a suffix deriving adjectives from nouns in Latin. When added to
nouns containing the approximant (liquid) 'l', -alis changed into aris (l r).
puella (girl) - *puellalis / puellaris (girlish)
The remnants of this alternation are visible in English adjectives of Latin
origin:
AL: anecdotal, annual, mental, spiritual,
AR: angular, annular, columnar, perpendicular, similar, velar
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Segment deletion/insertion
Deletion: high vowels in Bosnian (optional s. variation). Unstressed vowels in E. (optional):
mistery, general, funeral (reduced vowels), etc.
In French: a final C is deleted if the following word begins in a C.
//petit tablo// /peti tablo/, //petit ami/ /petit ami/
mali sto
mali prijatelj (momak)
Insertion (epenthesis): Spanish there is a rule that inserts an 'e' at the beginning of a word
that otherwise would begin with an 's' followed by another consonant (i.e. sp, st, sk are not a
possible onsets at the beginning of a word in Spanish):
transcribir - prevoditi
subscribir potpisati
*sribir pisati escribir
Espagna, escuela, estampa (stamp), espina (spine)
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Deletion rule
X 0 / ...
Epenthesis rule
0 X / ...

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Metathesis movement rules

[lehit] : verbal prefix in Hebrew
kabel accept
tsadek
justify
lehit-kabel be accepted
lehits- tadek to applogize (not lehit)
pater fire(otpustiti)
qameq
use for
lehit-pater resign
lehiq-tameq use
baye to shame
sader to arrange
lehit-baye to be ashamed
lehis-tader to arrange oneself
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Neutralization
Vowel reduction in English is a type of nutralization
Devoicing of final voiced obsturents in German and Russian:
Tier (ti:r) animal
dir (di:r) to you
At the end of a word only [-voiced]:
Bund ( bunt) bundle
bunt (bunt) colourful
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Phonological features
Properties of sounds that distinguish different phonemes.
Can be or + (binary values), absent or present in a given phoneme.
p, t, k, f, s, , h [-voiced]
b, d, g, v, z, , j, l, r, m, n [+voiced]
Features distinguishing phonemes (contrastive sounds, capable of
distinguishing words) are called distinctive features.

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Distinctive features
pit bit
opposition
try dry
clue glue
chunk junk, choke joke,
fine vine, fan van,
A series of minimal pairs illustrating the same contrast (here +/-voice) is
called a correlation
When a feature is isolated through a correlation, it means that it
functions as a distinctive feature in the language.
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Redundant features
Sonorants: always [+voice] in English, BCS, French...; no minimal pairs
where a sonorant can be in oppsition (+ or -), no correlations.
Voicing in sonorants is not distinctive in E, BCS, but rather redundant
(predictable).
if [+sonorant] then [+voice]
Aspiration in E is added as a feature to a group of consonants; this is
predictable by a rule. Aspiration is a reduntant feature for [-voice]
plosives.
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[+nasal]: distinctive for consonants, redundant for vowels.

We cannot predict when an oral stop or a nasal stop appear in
English/BCMS Minimal pairs: no-dough, may-bay, me-be, sin-sing...
We can predict by a rule when a vowel is nasalized (acquires the
feature [+nasal])
Rule: Vowel [+nasal] / ___ [+nasal, +consonant]
[+/- nasal] is a reduntant feature for vowels.

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A single feature distinguishes voiceless stops from voiceless fricatives,

or voiced stops from voiced fricatives. The feature is distinctive:
pan fan
best vest
bud buzz
leak leaf
...
[+/- continuant]
Nasals and plosives are [-continuant]. Fricatives and are [+cont]
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Place of articulation the feature is not a binary one, but has 4

possiblities :
[LABIAL], [CORONAL], [DORSAL], [GUTTURAL]
These are distinctive features for consonants:
bay day
Five hive
See he fee
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[+/-Anterior]: s vs. , z vs.

seat sheet
Etc.

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Formulating processes
Aspiration p. 87 a simplified version
Aspiration a rendudnat feature, not specified in UR (underspecified),
gets specified through a phonological rule.
An underspecified feature is not contrastive, not distinctive, it is
redundant.
Rule in ex. 66:
What is simplified, what is omitted in the rule?

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Natural classes
Simplifying the rule in 66
The class of consonants affected can be expressed through features they share: cont, -voice.

Distinctive features present a means to distinguish natural classes of sounds

sounds that naturally belong together and affected by the same phonological
processes.
The existance of natural classes explains more readily the way the children acquire
phonological rules: they do not memorize lists of individual sounds implicated in a
rule, they relate the rule to distinctive features. It is sufficient that they observe
aspiration for /p/ and generalize that all sounds belonging to the natural class
where /p/ belongs, will be aspirated in the same way as /p/.
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Elswhere Condition
Rule in 71 tells when v and cont are not aspirated (after s-), in all
other positions they are aspirated (simplification: this ignores the
stress).
71b elsewhere case / default case

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For the Monday 23. Nov. class, read : Linguistics p.127-139.

Rianovi: p. 138-155. (preparation of week 7);
Do week 6 homework: Exercises 3, 4, 5, 8; p. 92, 94.

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