Contrastive linguistics

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Contrastive linguistics

• Phonology/phonetics

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phonetics and phonology
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Phonetic description

• This is a description achieved
• by looking at the physics of the speech stream
  and
• by studying the physiology of the vocal tract and
  auditory system

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Phonemic description

• In this type of description we consider
• what linguistic distinctions are made
• by use of physical properties of the vocal tract
  or muscalature, and
• what patterns the sounds of languages form.
• Linguistically distinctive features
• distinguishing one word (item) from another.

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Phonemic description

• Languages in the world
• sound systems
• differ in respect of
• what is distinctive and what is not
• The distinctions in English
• E.g. ?? ?æ?
• are not those of Polish
• We tend to interpret foreign sounds from the
  point of view of our system, our sounds.

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Recap

• phonemes
• A phoneme is the smallest contrastive unit of
  sound in a word
• Phonemes are the speech sounds that make two
  words distinguishable.
• phonetics
• the branch of acoustics concerned with speech
  processes including its (speech) production and
  perception and acoustic analysis
• phonology
• the study of the functions of speech sounds, i.e.
  how a language uses which phonemes in which
  contexts.

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phonology

• segmental
• distinctive features
• inventory of items (phonemes)
• distribution of phonemes (phonotactics)
• suprasegmental
• structure of the syllable
• word-stress
• connected speech
• intonation

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segmental phonology

• vowel
• consonants

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vowel

• one of a class of speech sounds in the
  articulation of which the oral part of the breath
  channel is not blocked and is not constricted
  enough to cause audible friction it the one most
  prominent sound in a syllable.
• the one most prominent sound in a syllable.
• the centre of the syllable

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consonant

• one of a class of speech sounds characterized by
  constriction or closure at one or more points in
  the breath channel. It contrasts with a vowel.
• at the boundary of the syllable

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Polish vowels
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Polish/English

• English
• no nasal vowels (e a)
• some vowels more tense (those at the periphery of
  the vowel chart)
• some vowels longer

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Polish/English

• Polish
• vowels are not reduced to weak phonemes in
  unstressed syllables
• no central vowels

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Polish /e/

• between the two respective vowels in English /e
  æ/
• when , said , many , then , very , get , any ,
  well , again , help , tell , set , every ,
  sentence , never , end , left , next , together ,
  head ,
• back , man , land , hand , family , add , black ,
  ran , map , perhaps , animal , matter , pattern ,
  language , stand , carry , fact , plan , travel ,
  happy

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Polish /o/

• between English /? ?/
• ong , because , off , along , want , often ,
  across , body , top , song , dog , hot , common ,
  box , strong , problem , watch , stop , gone
• all , your , more , water , before , small , saw
  , thought , form , always , important , four ,
  almost , story , north , door ,morning

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Polish /u/

• close to English /u/ on the periphery
• two , who , use , new , through , too , food ,
  few , school , soon , true , move , group , blue
  , moon, unit , numeral

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English /u/

• between Polish /e/ /u/
• good , look , put , music , book , full , wood ,
  foot , woman , sugar , pull , popular

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Polish nasals

• tendency to pronounce English vowels as nasals
  before nasal consonants
• temperature, empty
• against, sense
• sentence, distance
• example, sample
• answer, dance
• compound, complex
• consonant, conversation
• also with nasals

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diphthongs
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problems

• insertion of /j/ or /w/ after the first vowel in
  the diphtong
• here, sure, their

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Consonants
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English consonants
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Polish consonants
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Difficult English consonants

• /?/
• through, think , three, earth, thought , both ,
  north , thing , south , length , mouth , method ,
  thin , thousand , death , thick , path , cloth ,
  month , breath , strength , health , worth ,
  thank
• /?/
• other , than , another , mother , father ,
  together , without , though , either , weather ,
  although , brother , thus , rather , rhythm ,
  smooth

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(No Transcript)
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Difficult English consonants

• /r/
• a frictionless continuant, articulated very much
  like a fricative, but friction does not accompany
  the production of the sound.
• The tip of the tongue slightly touches the back
  of the alveolar ridge, while the body of the
  tongue is low in the mouth.

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Difficult English consonants

• /?/ between Polish /sz/ /s/
• she , should , show , sure , short , fish ,
  special , ocean , ship , dictionary , machine ,
  shape, wish , section , sugar , fresh , position
  , action , nation , sharp , ancient , pressure ,
  fraction, attention , sheep, shore
• /?/ between Polish /z/ /z/
• measure , television , usual , pleasure ,
  decision , treasure , occasion , invasion ,
  leisure ,visual , casual , collision , prestige ,
  illusion , regime

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Difficult Polish consonants

• /h/ very often pronounced as Polish ch /?/
• a very foreign sound to a British ear
• have , how , here , help , home , house , head ,
  high , hand , hear , hard , whole , half , behind
  , horse , hot , perhaps , hundred , hold , heart
  , heat , heavy , hair , ahead , hole , hit , hope
  ,hill , hat , happen , hurt , hall

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Difficult Polish consonants

• /?/
• found in Polish
• bank, punkt
• not contrastive
• usually with the following consonant
• English
• contrastive
• sing-sin
• pronounced word-finally without a following
  consonant

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• /?/
• long , along , young , during , thing , morning ,
  song , king , nothing , among , strong , sing ,
  bring , spring , wrong , evening , ring , string

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t, d, s, z, n

• Polish
• dental
• English
• alveolar

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dental/alveolar contrasted
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Polish/English consonants

• Polish
• double consonants distinctive linguistically
• lekki-leki
• English
• no double consonants
• hobby, Ann, Emma

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Polish/English consonants

• Polish
• word-final consonant typically devoiced
• lad-lont
• ladzie loncie
• English
• word-final consonant not devoiced
• have, bad, nob, exercise
• having, badly, nobs, exercises

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Polish/English consonants

• Polish
• voiceless consonants between vowels often voiced
• kapsel -- kabzel
• regressive assimilation
• voiceless consonants in front of a voiced
  consonant voiced
• prosba /zb/
• voiced consonant in front of a voiceless
  consonant devoiced
• naród polski /tp/

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Polish/English consonants

• English
• voiceless consonants between vowels remain
  voiceless
• basic, university, disappear , analysis ,
  philosophy , courtesy , disagree , crisis ,
  episode , fantasy , paralysis , disadvantage ,
  disappoint , misunderstand , thesis , disapprove
  , disallow , hypnosis
• regressive assimilation not occurring
• hit eight NO /hidejt /,
• watch us NO /lodzas /

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English /r/

• In British English (nonrhotic accents)
• /r/ is pronounced only before a following vowel
• in pronunciation not in spelling!
• more farm
• boring
• hair-oil cover-up , far-off , fire-alarm ,
  fire-engine
• other events danger of her apple poor old chap

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English /r/

• intrusive /r/
• no corresponding letter r in spelling
• thawing
• put a comma in
• China and
• thaw out
• function of /r/
• vowel separation

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consonant clusters

• certain consonant clusters (in spelling)
• in certain positions are simplified
• ps- psychology, BUT chaps
• pn- pneumatic pneumonia BUT hipnosis
• kn- knight BUT bacon (syllabic n)
• knee knife knight knit knock knot know
  knowledge known

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consonant clusters

• -mn damn BUT damning
• autumn
• -mb womb BUT number
• plumb bomb

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allophones

• Not marked in dictionaries!
• aspiration
• /then/
• pin ten come appeal retain maritime
• BUT
• play approve twin accuse
• devoicing of the following sound

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allophones

• affrication
• /tsaim/
• dark /l/ clear /l/
• all , will , also , old , well , help , tell ,
  small , still , world , while , always , school ,
  until , almost , whole , vowel , cold , call ,
  bill , feel , hold , girl , full , ball , shall ,
  spell , wild , field , gold , soil , real

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suprasegmental phonetics/phonology

• above the segment
• segment phone/phoneme
• stress
• word stress
• prominence given to one syllable in a
  multi-syllable word
• stressed syllable is one that carries a rhythmic
  beat
• by force, pitch/tone, length
• fixed (Czech, French) and free (Russian)
• English?
• Polish?

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Polish

• kochanek
• kochaneczek kochaneczeniek arcykochaneczek
• matematyka
• fizyka muzyka
• poszedlbym poszlabym
• poszedlbym poszlabym
• poszedl/poszla bym

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word stress in English

• love
• loving
• lovingly
• lovingliness

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word stress in English

• There are patterns
• monotone diplomat
• monotony diplomacy
• monotonic diplomatic
• and tendencies
• warrior doctor
• defer conclude
• part of speech?

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Stress-shifting suffixes

• 'diplomat di'ploma(cy)
• 'manager mana'ger(ial)
• 'photograph photo'graph(ic)
• 'mystery mys'teri(ous)
• 'illustrate illus'trat(ion)
• 'alternate al'ternat(ive)
• 'able a'bil(ity)
• 'history his'tor(ical)

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tendencies

• distinguishing forms
• almost so in English
• record N export import
• record V export import
• 'extract - ex'tract ,
• 'console - con'sole ,
• 'contrast - con'trast
• stress distinguishes part of speech
• BUT the words are not identical in pronunciation!

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Noun/Verb stress

• traditional
• ferment
• fragment
• segment
• torment
• new ones
• ally
• combine
• defect
• intern
• rampage
• dispute
• recess
• research
• romance

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tendencies

• native resources
• to walk out
• a walk out
• to sit in
• a sit in
• to make up
• make-up

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tendencies

• compounds usually stressed on the first-syllable
• aircraft, background, newspaper, bedroom,
  highway, football, household, network ,cocktail,
  workshop, airport, bathroom, birthday, sunlight,
  cowboy, daylight, doorway, sunset, moonlight,
  standpoint, grandfather, landlord, railway,
  framework, hardware, riverside, sunrise,
  typewriter ,

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sentence/utterance stress

• prominence given to some syllables in an
  utterance
• overrides word stress
• Sue's fif'teen BUT 'fifteen men
• in isolation
• indePENdent
• twenty-SEven
• LEgislator
• MissisSIppi

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stress

• in a phrase
• TWEnty-seven MISsissippi LEgislators

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• in English
• rhythmic units based on stressed syllables
• 'difficult in the ex'treme
• psycholinguistics
• The psycholinguistics course was fun.
• When we came in, we had dinner.
• When we came in, we had a family dinner.
• When we came in, we had a big family dinner.

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processes with stress

• unstressed syllable
• weak vowel
• ?
• ? ?

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sentence stress

• depends on the meaning (emphasis) not on
  grammatical structure
• JOHN bought a new car yesterday
• John bought a new CAR yesterday
• John bought a new car YESTERDAY

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intonation

• Informal
• Your intonation is the way that your voice rises
  and falls as you speak.
• more formal
• the sound pattern of phrases and sentences
  produced by pitch variation in the voice
• stress and pitch combined

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pitch

• The pitch of a sound is how high or low it is.
• He raised his voice to an even higher pitch
• the auditory property of a note that is
  conditioned by its frequency relative to other
  notes
• high pitch low pitch
• Collins English Dictionary

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English intonation contours

• falling
• statements, what-questions,
• Susan is very pretty .
• Tell him to come here at once!
• What did you have for breakfast today?
• rising
• yes-non questions, politeness, lists
• Did you see Robert yesterday?
• He said he visited Canada, Australia, Brazil and
  Poland.
• I'm quite certain they'll agree with you.

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intonation contours

• falling-rising
• politeness, uncertainty
• What seems to be the problem?
• rising-falling
• surprise,
• I will never do it!
• Oh, be quiet!

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Intonation

• We know the new mayor.
• We know the new mayor.
• grammar and intonation
• Do you know him?
• What do you know about him?

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natural speech

• processes
• palatalization
• modification of a nonpalatal sound by
  simultaneously bringing the front of the tongue
  to or near the hard palate
• proDuce , sTudent , indiviDual , siTuation , Due
  , Duty , opporTunity , staTue , attiTude , iSSue
  , substiTute , reDuce , introDuce , sTupid , sTew
  , graDuate , maTure , sTeward , Duration , Tutor
  , eDucate , Dual , instiTute , congraTulate ,
  inTuition
• abouT your , addreSS shown

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natural speech

• assimilation
• partial or total adaptation of the position or
  type of articulation of a particular sound (as a
  consonant) to that of an adjacent or neighboring
  sound
• that/p/ book , that/k/ girl , on/m/ me , one/?/
  can

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elision

• omission of a sound
• vowels
• t(o)gether , p(e)rhaps , c(o)rrect , p(o)sition ,
  p(a)rticular , t(o)morrow , p(o)lice , t(o)night
  , c(o)llect , p(e)rform , c(o)mmittee , c(o)mmand
  , c(o)lonial , p(o)tato , c(a)reer , t(o)wards ,
  c(o)nnect , p(o)lite , t(o)mato
• fam(i)ly
• consonants
• correc(t)ly , exac(t)ly , hones(t)ly ,
  blin(d)ness , pos(t)pone , fac(t)s ,
  absen(t)-minded , bes(t)-seller