speech and phonology

1. Distinctive features and
Hierarchical Organization
Phonology and Speech

2. Introduction
One of the few areas of phonological consensus is that
segments are composed of features. Features play crucial
phonological roles, being used
(i) to express how segments contrast with each other and
(ii) what groups of segments (‘natural classes’) formally
have in common,
(iii) to model what changes or spreads in phonological
processes in *Generative Phonology, and
(iv) in the formulation of constraints in *Optimality Theory

3. Phonemes are the smallest unit of sound that separates meaning.
Manners
Places of articulations of phonemes
Distinctive Features

4. What are the distinctive features of English phonemes?
Phonetic features
Phonological
features
Classes Building Classes
Manner of
Classes
Further
distinctions

5. What are the distinctive features of English phonemes?
Anterior sounds are produced with an obstruction that is
located in front of the palato-alveolar region of the mouth;
nonanterior sounds are produced without such an obstruction.
The tongue is drawn back. Used for back vowels.
A continuant is a sound during whose production the air
stream is not blocked in the oral cavity.
*Approximates and fricatives are [+ continuant]
*stops are [- continuant]
Consonantal sounds are produced with a radical obstruction in
the vocal tract. Vowels and semivowels /j/ and /w/ are
[- consonantal] while everything else is [+ consonantal].
A
B
C

6. What are the distinctive features of English phonemes?
Coronal sounds are produced with the blade of the tongue raised
above its neutral position; non-coronal sounds are produced with
the blade of the tongue in the neutral position.
The tongue is in a high position. This is used for vowels.
Lateral sounds are produced by lowering the mid-section of the
tongue at one or both sides, thereby allowing the air to flow out of
the mouth in the vicinity of the molar teeth; in non-lateral sounds
no such side passage is open.
Labial sounds are articulated by an obstruction at the lips. p, b, f,
v, m
The tongue is in a low position. This is also used for vowels. Mid
vowels are [- high] [- low].
Nasal sounds are produced with a lowered velum which allows the
air stream to escape through the nose; non-nasal sounds are
produced with a raised velum, so that the air stream can only
escape from the mouth.
C
H
L
N

7. What are the distinctive features of English phonemes?
Lips are rounded. Roundness is used to describe vowels. open o,
close o, tense u, and [w].
A sonorant is a sound whose phonetic content is predominantly
made up by the sound waves associated with voicing.
Approximants and nasals are [+ sonorant] as are vowels.
Everything else is [- sonorant] and considered an obstruent.
Strident sounds are marked acoustically by greater noisiness than
their no strident counterparts are.
Sibilant. Air is forced through a small opening and produces a
hissing sound. /s/ and /z/
Syllabic. Each syllable in a word requires a syllabic sound; Vowels
are always syllabic; nasals and liquids may or may not be; and the
other consonants are never syllabic.
R
S

8. What are the distinctive features of English phonemes?
Tense. Vowels that are produced with a contraction of the
tongue. [i, e, u, o]
Voice. A voiced sound is produced with a glottal setting
consistent with vocal-fold vibration’ a voiceless sound is
produced with a glottal setting inconsistent with vocal fold
vibration.
T
V

9. Hierarchical Organization
In a hierarchy:
o Elements at one level are combined to construct elements at the next level up.
o Elements at one level ‘choose’ or constrain elements at the lower level --> a regulatory (or
‘grammatical’, in the philosophical sense) relationship.
o Low level elements are necessarily smaller (and/or faster) than higher level units
o Language is roughly, but not perfectly, hierarchical in its structure.

10. 6 levels in the language
hierarchy
i.) Phonology: Elementary sounds
ii.) Morphology: Elementary letter/sound
combinations
iii.) Lexical: Individual words
iv.) Syntax: Word combinations
v.) Semantics: Meaning
vi.) Pragmatics: Behavioral constraints on language use

11. 6 levels in
the
language
hierarchy

12. Why hierarchical?
For example, syntax specifies how words can be combined (it rules over
words), and it cannot operate without those words (words enable syntax).
As another example, what we use syntax for is constrained by what we wish to
say = semantics rules over syntax – though this is not strictly true, since syntax
can operate independently of semantics (but rarely does).

13. What is ‘a constraint’?
Each level of language is constrained in many ways of which four are of main
interest for our purposes:
1. Rules
2. Physiological limitations
3. Statistical regularities
4. Contextual cues

14. References
Distinctive Features - Linguistics - Oxford Bibliographies
http://web.psych.ualberta.ca/~chrisw/Psych357/L2Structure.pdf
https://www.bing.com/search?q=distinctive+features+of+phonology&qs=n&fo
rm=QBRE&sp=-1&pq=distinctive+features+of+phonol&sc=0-
30&sk=&cvid=7BF59F411C7E46219C7DB364AF59B027
https://www.sltinfo.com/ess101-back-vowels/

15. Thank you for listening!