LCD 105 - Class 6 - Spring 2018

1. Arranging
the Minimal Units
LCD 105 - Class 6
Professor Nathacia

2. Identifying units in a sea
?

3. Identifying units in a sea
“The notion of level seems to us to be essential
in determining the analytical procedure. It alone
is suited to do justice to the articulated nature
of language and to the discrete nature of its
elements; it alone can lead us to discover within
the complexity of the forms the peculiar
architecture of the parts and of the whole”
(Benveniste, p. 101)

4. Identifying units in a sea
The Language System is
a Structure Generator!

5. Identifying units in a sea
• Language Structure is not accessible to usthe same way its outer shape is.
(Gussenhoven & Jacobs, 2011)

6. Identifying units in a sea
“How then can we ever develop an awareness of that
structure? […] First, there are the demands that are
made on you—as well as the natural inclination you
have—to look into such issues. […] Second, thelanguage itself will reveal some elements of structure
more readily than others. That is, the structuralelements of any one language vary in ‘salience’, and it
is understandably easier to become aware of more
striking elements than of less striking elements. […]
But again, we must remember that languages vary, and
thus also vary in the salience of comparable notions.”(Gussenhoven & Jacobs, 2011: 2)

7. Identifying units in a sea
• Study language structure involves threedifferent factors: cognition, perception, andculture/ society.
• Phonology is the area of linguistics that aimsto describe how speech sounds areorganized into structure through languagesystems, in each language and universally .
(Gussenhoven & Jacobs, 2011)

8. Identifying units in a sea
Linguistic VALUE and
PARADIGMATIC
relations determine what are
the phonemes of a language

9. Valuable Units
• Minimal pairs -> What a phoneme is (minimal distinctive
unit): Ex. dot x dog
• Analog pairs -> What a phoneme in complementary
distribution is (they do not occur in the exact same
context): Ex. /t/ in tea vs. tree vs. British vs.
Manhattan vs. eat.
• Phonemes in free variation (due to social factors;
irrelevant to the system)

10. Valuable Units
At Macy’s:
- Where can I find Men’s shoes?
- 4th floor.
(Labov)

11. Valuable Units
[fɔɹθ flɔɹ]
[fɔɻθ flɔɻ]

12. • There is NO direct
correspondence between lettersand phonemes!
• Examples: Sad; Laugh; Fase;
(Gussenhoven & Jacobs, 2011)
Valuable Units

13. The melodic Structure
• The Phonology level is where the units are arranged into
melodic structure.
• It is an hierarchical structure (as all language structures
are).
• Some levels: syllable , foot, phonological word, intonational
phrase.

14. •All human languages have two kindsof structure: a phonological structureand a morphosyntactic structure
(Gussenhoven & Jacobs, 2011)
Meaningful