1. art and entertainment
2. music
3. singing

Accent Reduction Instructor Training & Reference Manual
Glossary of Key Terms Term Definition Discussion and Examples affricate A complex speech sound consisting of a stop consonant followed by a fricative that is treated by the language’s phonology as a single unit. In English, the ch­sound in church is the affricate /tS/, which although composed of two separate sounds is processed by the brain as a single unit (phoneme). African American English (AAE) Also referred to as African American Vernacular English, Black English, Black English Vernacular or Black Vernacular English (BVE), a variety of American English. With pronunciation that in some respects is common to that of Southern American English, the variety is spoken by many Blacks in the United States and ethnic minorities worldwide. AAE shares many characteristics with various Creole English dialects spoken by blacks in much of the world. AAE also has grammatical origins in, and pronunciation characteristics in common with, various West African languages, particularly those of the Benue­Congo branch of the Niger­ Kordofanian language family. acoustic phonetics The branch of phonetics dealing with The field of acoustic phonetics the acoustic and physical properties of considers the physical properties of speech sounds. the sound waves produced during speech. Acoustic phonetics also considers the biological­perceptual basis of phonetics. allophone A predictable phonetic variant of a phoneme. The phoneme /t/ in English has many allophones, whose phonetic articulations are determined by their phonological environment. For example, the t sounds in top and stop differ substantially (the first is aspirated, the second is not) due to their phonological environment. alveolar Point of articulation involving the tongue touching the alveolar ridge (the area of the mouth directly behind to upper teeth). SAE has numerous alveolar phonemes, including /t/, /d/, and /n/. Conversely, these phonemes are dentals in Spanish. approximant A speech sound, such as a glide or The English phonemes /j/, /w/, and liquid, produced by narrowing but not /r/ are approximants. The English
© inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. 2 blocking the vocal tract, as by placing approximant /r/ is an uncommon an articulator, such as the tongue, sound cross­linguistically, near another part of the vocal tract. contributing to the difficulty that non­native speakers experience in attempting to articulate the sound. articulation The physical gestures involved in the production of speech sounds. Articulation of speech sounds requires the highly coordinated use of specific articulators­­organs of the mouth and throat, such as the lips, teeth, tongue, palate, and pharynx. articulator One of the organs used to produce speech sounds, such as the lips or tongue. The primary articulators of speech are the tongue, lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, palate, and velum. In some languages (not including English), the uvula, pharynx, and glottis also serve as articulators. articulatory phonetics The branch of phonetics dealing with the physiological production and realization of speech sounds. The field of articulatory phonetics considers how a language’s speech sounds are produced by speakers of that language. aspiration Secondary manner of articulation in which a strong burst of air accompanies the release of some obstruents. In English, the aspirated stops [p h ], [t h ], and [k h ] are allophones of the phonemes /p/, /t/, and /k/, respectively. Thus, in English, aspiration is non­phonemic or non­ contrastive (i.e., it is predictable or conditioned based on the phonological environment of the sound and is not used to impart meaning on its own). However, in many languages (such as Chinese and Hindi), aspirated stops contrast distinctively with unaspirated stops. Aspirated consonants are not always followed by vowels or other voiced sounds; for example, in Eastern Armenian, aspiration is contrastive even at the ends of words. assimilation A regular and frequent phonological and/or phonetic process in which a segment changes to become more like an adjacent or nearby segment. A common example of assimilation is vowels being nasalized before nasal consonants, as it is difficult to change the shape of the mouth sufficiently If the segment changes to match the preceding phoneme, it is progressive assimilation (also left­to­right assimilation). If the segment changes to match the following phoneme, it is regressive assimilation (also right­ to­left or anticipatory assimilation). If there is mutual influence between
© inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. 3 quickly. Assimilation is both a synchronic and diachronic process. the two phonemes, it is reciprocal assimilation. In the latter case the two phonemes can fuse completely and give a birth to a different one. This is known as coalescence. Assimilation may result in the neighboring segments becoming identical, yielding a geminate consonant; this is complete assimilation. In other cases, only some features of the segments assimilate, such as voicing or place of articulation; this is partial assimilation. backness Backness refers to the horizontal tongue position during the articulation of a vowel relative to the back of the mouth. In front vowels, such as [i], the tongue is positioned forward in the mouth, whereas in back vowels, such as [u], the tongue is positioned towards the back of the mouth. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) identifies five different degrees of vowel backness, although no known language distinguishes all five. All known languages distinguish front from back vowels. Also, in most languages, front vowels are unrounded, whereas back vowels are rounded. bilabial Point of articulation involving both the upper and lower lip. The most common bilabial segments include /p/, /b/, and /m/. Broca’s Area That section of the human brain (in the opercular and triangular sections of the inferior frontal gyrus of the frontal lobe of the cortex) that is involved in language processing, speech production, and language comprehension. There are two main parts of Broca's Area, which express different roles during language comprehension and production: pars triangularis (anterior), which is thought to support the interpretation of various modes of stimuli (plurimodal association) and the programming of verbal conducts, and pars opercularis (posterior), which is thought to support the management of only one kind of stimulus (unimodal association) and the coordination of the speech organs (articulators) for the actual production of language, given its favorable position close to motor­ related areas.
© inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. 4 coda The part of the syllable that follows the nucleus. Not all languages permit syllables with codas, and those languages that do generally restrict the segments that may appear in the coda position. In English, for example, the phoneme /h/ may occur in the onset but not in the coda. Other languages, such as Italian, impose much greater restrictions on which segments may appear in the coda. No known language permits a greater number of its phonemes to occur in the coda than in the onset position. consonant A speech sound produced by a partial or complete obstruction of the air stream by any of various constrictions of the articulators (speech organs). From the view of articulatory phonetics, consonants differ from vowels primarily in that the articulation of consonants involves constriction of the air stream, whereas the articulation of vowels does not. continuant A consonant that can be prolonged as long as the breath lasts without a change in quality. English continuants include /s/, /z/, /m/, /n/, /l/, and /r/, among others. coronal Coronal consonants are articulated with the flexible front part of the tongue. Only the coronal consonants can be divided into apical (using the tongue tip), laminal (using the tongue blade), domed (with the tongue bunched up), or sub­apical (with the tongue curled back), as well as a few rarer orientations, because only the front of the tongue has such dexterity. Coronals also have another dimension, grooved, that is used to make sibilants in combination with the orientations above. Critical Period The crucial time in which an individual can acquire a first language if presented with adequate stimuli. If language input does not occur until after this time, the individual will never achieve a full command of language. According to Steven Pinker, “acquisition of a normal language is guaranteed for children up to the age of six, is steadily compromised from then until shortly after puberty, and is rare thereafter.” While the window for learning a second language never completely closes, certain linguistic aspects appear to be more affected by the age of the learner than others. For
© inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. 5 example, adult second­language learners nearly always retain an immediately­identifiable foreign accent, including some who display perfect grammar. Some writers have suggested a younger critical age for learning phonology than for syntax, while others report that there is no critical period for learning vocabulary in a second language. CV Universal and canonical syllable structure with a single consonant in the onset and a single vowel in the coda. complementary The relationship between two elements (e.g., segments) where one distribution element can be found only in a particular environment and the other element can be found only in the opposite environment. It often indicates that two superficially different elements are in fact the same at a deeper level. dental Point of articulation involving the tongue touching the teeth. © inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. 6 All known languages permit syllables of the form CV, and some languages permit only syllables of the form CV. This is likely due to universal considerations of perceptual distinctiveness. Syllables that end in a vowel are referred to as open, and syllables that end in a consonant (i.e., have material in the coda) are referred to as closed. In English, the segments [t] and [t h ] are never found in the same phonological environment; thus, they are said to be in complementary distribution. This type of distributional evidence strongly indicates that the segments are allophones of the same underlying phoneme, particularly given the strong phonetic similarities between the two sounds. On the other hand, in many languages, such as Hindi and Punjabi, for example, the segments [t] and [t h ] are found in the same phonological environment and are used to contrast minimal pairs. Thus, the two segments are said to be in contrastive distribution. English possesses the interdental fricative phonemes /D/ (as in then) and /T/ (as in thin), which are distinguished only by the characteristic of voicing. English is rare in this regard, as very few languages have two contrasting
interdental fricatives. diphthong A complex, monosyllabic vowel that begins with one vowel (or glide) and gradually changes to another vowel (or glide) within the same syllable. Diphthongs may be rising or falling. In a rising diphthong, the second element is more sonorous than the first (as in the English word quit). In a falling diphthong, the first element is more sonorous than the second (as in the English word quite). fricative Also known as spirant, a primary manner of articulation produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. Articulators involved in the production of some fricatives include the lower lip against the upper teeth in the case of [f ], or the back of the tongue against the soft palate in the case of German [x]. This turbulent airflow is called frication. A particular subset of fricatives are the sibilants. free variation The interchangeable relationship between two phones, in which the phones may substitute for one another in the same environment without causing a change in meaning. A well­known example of free variation in American Spanish is the interchange of [f] and [¸], especially in word­initial position or before [we], as in fuente [¸wEn­te] or [fwEn­te]. glottal Point of articulation involving the glottis, or vocal folds. The only physically possible glottalic sounds are glottal stops and fricatives. English has only one glottal sound: a non­phonemic glottal stop that typically precedes phrase­initial vowels. height Height refers to the vertical position of the tongue relative to either the roof of the mouth or the aperture of the jaw. In high vowels, such as [i] and [u], the tongue is positioned high in the mouth, whereas in low vowels, such as [a], the tongue is positioned low in the mouth. Sometimes the terms open and close are used as synonyms for low and high for describing vowels. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) identifies seven different vowel heights, although no known language distinguishes all seven. Tongue height is an important factor in the articulation of vowel sounds. Some languages, such as some dialects of English and German, distinguish up to five distinct vowel heights, although this is rare. For example, the English vowel phonemes /Q/ (as in mat) and /E/ (as in met) differ primarily in tongue height, with the position of the tongue being slightly higher for /ε/. In English, possible tongue heights during the articulation of front vowels include high (as for /i/), high­mid (as for /I/), mid (as for /e/),
© inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. 7 mid­low (as for /Q/), and low (as for /a/). International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) A system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds used in spoken human language. It is intended as a notational standard for the phonemic and phonetic representation of all spoken languages. Because many of the symbols used in the IPA are not found on typewriters or keyboards, it is not uncommon for diacritical marks to be used in their place. For example, the IPA symbol for the sh­sound in ship is S. However, the symbol š, with a diacritical mark called a hatschek, is often used instead. labiodental Point of articulation involving the (usually lower) lip and (usually upper) teeth. Common labiodental segments include /f/ and /v/. lateral L­like consonant articulated with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue. Most commonly the tip of the tongue makes contact with the upper teeth or the alveolar ridge just behind the teeth. The most common laterals are approximants and belong to the class of liquids. length The duration of the articulation of a segment. Phoneticians typically measure segment length in milliseconds (ms). In many languages, both consonants and vowels may be phonemically distinguished based on the length of the segment. For example, in Old English, eoh [e«C] meant horse, whereas ēoh [e:«C] meant yew tree. In Modern English, however, length is a non­phonemic (non­contrastive), predictable feature of vowels that is determined by word stress or the vowel’s phonological environment (surrounding sounds). lenition A phonological process in which a segment weakens, either spontaneously or due to phonological conditioning. Lenition is both a synchronic and diachronic phonological process and is one the most power factors in language change. Many synchronic phonological processes also involve lenition. In English, vowel reduction is a form of lenition. liquid A consonant articulated without friction and capable of being prolonged like a vowel, such as English /l/ and /r/. Not all languages possess liquids. However, among those languages that do, liquids often form a special class in the phonotactics of a language (for example, they often
© inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. 8 have the greatest freedom to occur in consonant clusters). Many languages have a single liquid phoneme that varies between a lateral and rhotic (r­like) pronunciation. manner of articulation The way in which a speech sound is articulated. The most common pulmonic (i.e., involving the expulsion of air from the lungs) consontantal manners of articulation are plosive (also known as occlusive or stop), nasal, trill, tap or flap, fricative, lateral fricative, approximant, and lateral approximant. Affricates are also sometimes considered to be a distinct manner of articulation. Cross­ linguistically less common non­ pulmonic consonantal manners of articulation include clicks, voiced implosives, and ejectives (or glottalics). monophthong A single vowel articulated without change in quality throughout the course of a syllable. In English, the vowel sound of bed is a monophthong, whereas the vowel sound of bead is a diphthong. nasal Primary manner of articulation in which the velum is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The oral cavity still acts as a resonance chamber for the sound, but the air does not escape through the mouth as it is blocked by the tongue. English nasal consonants include /m/, /n/, and /N/. Note that in English, the segment [N] exists as an allophone of two distinct phonemes (/n/ and /N/), a phonological arrangement once rejected as theoretically impossible by American Structuralists. nasalization The production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth. The effect is as if an [n] sound were produced simultaneously with the oral sound. The most common nasalized sounds are nasal vowels, found in French, Polish, Portuguese, and the Texas “twang.” There are occasional cases where vowels show contrasting degrees of nasality. Consonants may also be nasalized and may contrast with purely oral (non­nasalized) consonants; however, such sounds are rare. nucleus The part of a syllable having the greatest sonority. All syllables have nuclei. Indeed, the nucleus is the most fundamental part of the syllable. Although many languages permit only vowels to
© inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. 9 occupy the syllabic nucleus, other languages (including English) permit sonorant consonants to occupy the nucleus position as well. For example, in the English word work, the highly­sonorant approximant /r/ (realized as the allophone [¨]) occupies the nucleus. At the phonetic level, the word has no vowels. onset The part of a syllable that precedes the nucleus. In the syllable run, the onset is occupied by the consonant /r/. All languages permit syllables with onsets, which are occupied by consonants. The most common type of syllable cross­linguistically is of the form CV, with a single consonant in the onset and a single vowel in the nucleus. Syllables of the form CV are attested in all known languages. palatal Point of articulation involving the tongue touching the hard palate. Although the only English palatal sound is the approximant (semi­ vowel) /j/, palatal consonants are fairly common among the languages of the world. palatalization Secondary manner of articulation of consonants in which the body of the tongue is raised toward the hard palate during the articulation of the consonant. In many languages, including those of the Celtic and Slavic branches of the Indo­European language family, palatalized consonants are common. pharyngeal Point of articulation involving the tongue touching the pharynx. Although pharyngeal plosives, trills, flaps, and approximants are theoretically possible articulations, only pharyngeal fricatives have been attested among the world’s languages. Such sounds are uncommon, and found mainly in Afro­Asiatic languages, including Arabic. phone A speech sound considered without The terms phone and segment are reference to its status as a phoneme or often used interchangeably. an allophone in a language. phoneme The smallest phonological unit in a language that is capable of conveying distinctive meaning. © inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. 10 Because the English words mat and bat differ only in the first sound, and since the two words have distinctive
meanings, we say that /m/ and /b/ are distinct phonemes. phonemic Having the characteristics of a phoneme; phonologically distinctive or contrastive. A segment is considered to have phonemic status if it can serve as the solitary basis for a difference in meaning between words. For example, in the English words major and mayor, the segments /dZ/ and /j/ are considered to have phonemic status because they are the only material used to create a difference in meaning between the words (such sets of words are known as minimal pairs). Conversely, in Spanish the sounds [dZ] and [j] are merely distributional variants or allophones of the same phoneme /j/, and do not have phonemic status, since no words are distinguished based on these sounds alone. This is the basis for the difficulty that native Spanish speakers commonly experience in attempting to consistently distinguish /dZ/ and /j/ in English. phonetics The physical or physiological realization of a language’s speech sounds. The surface­level realization of a language’s phonology. Phonetics is the concrete aspect of a language’s sound system that deals with the articulatory gestures involved in and acoustic properties of speech sounds. phonology The sound system of a language. The mental, abstract representation of language’s sound system. Phonology should be distinguished from phonetics, which involves the physical, concrete articulation or acoustic properties of speech sounds. phonotactics The set of allowed arrangements or A word beginning with the sequences of speech sounds in a given consonant cluster [zv], for example, language. violates the phonotactics of English, but not of Italian. Similarly, a word ending with the consonant cluster [st] violates the phonotactics of AAE but not of SAE. phonotactic awkwardness The principle whereby the articulation of a sequence of sounds is difficult or cumbersome, leading to phonological or phonetic change. © inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. 11 Phontactic awkwardness led to the insertion of an epenthetic [d] in the synthetic future tense forms in many Spanish verbs, including tener (tenerá à tenrá à tendrá) and
valer (valerá à valrá à valdrá). The same principle has resulted in the simplification of the syllable­ final consonant cluster [ðz] in English clothes, which for most speakers is homophonous with close [kLow:z]. plosive Also known as stop or occlusive, a primary manner of articulation in which the airflow of the vocal tract is completely obstructed. All languages of the world have plosive consonants. Most languages of the world (including English) have at least three plosive consonants, prototypically at the labial, dental or alveolar, and velar points of articulation. point (or place) of articulation The point or location in vocal tract where the articulators (speech organs) meet to produce (articulate) speech sounds. Common consonantal points of articulation include bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, postalveolar, retroflex, palatal, velar, uvular, pharyngeal, and glottal. postalveolar Point of articulation involving the tongue touching the area posterior to the alveolar ridge. While English contains no postalveolar sounds, such sounds are common in Indic and Dravidian languages. retroflex Retroflex consonants are coronal consonants articulated behind the alveolar ridge, which do not have the secondary articulation of palatalization. Retroflex consonants are common in many South Asian languages, including those of the Dravidian and Indo­European language families. roundedness Roundedness refers to whether the lips are rounded or not. In most languages, roundedness is a reinforcing feature of mid to high back vowels, and is not distinctive. Usually the higher a back vowel, the more intense the rounding. However, some languages treat roundedness and backness separately, such as French and German (with front rounded vowels), most Uralic languages (Estonian has a rounding contrast for /o/ and front vowels), Turkic languages (with an unrounded /u/), Vietnamese (with back unrounded vowels), and Korean (with a contrast in both front and back vowels). Nonetheless, even in languages such as German and Vietnamese, there is usually some correlation between rounding and backness.
© inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. 12 schwa A mid­central unrounded vowel, usually of brief duration (represented in the IPA by the symbol «). The process of vowel reduction in English typically involves a vowel phoneme being realized as schwa. segment A speech sound; a discrete unit that can be identified, either physically or auditorily, in the stream of speech. In most cases, the terms segment and (speech) sound or phone may be used interchangeably. semivowel A speech sound, also referred to as a glide, that has the quality of one of the high vowels, such as /i/ or /u/, and that functions as a consonant before or after vowels. Semivowels function as consonants and, depending on the language, may occupy the onset and sometimes coda position in the syllable. sibilant A type of fricative or affricate, made by directing a jet of air through a narrow channel towards the sharp edge of the teeth. English contains the sibilant phonemes /s/ and /z/, inter alia. sonorant A speech sound that is produced without turbulent airflow in the vocal tract. Essentially, this means that a sound is sonorant if it can be voiced continuously at the same pitch. Vowels are sonorants, as are some consonants like [m] and [l]. Other consonants, like [t] and [k], cannot be voiced continuously and so are non­sonorant. In addition to vowels, phonetic categorizations of sounds that are considered sonorant include approximants, nasal consonants, taps, and trills. In the sonority hierarchy, all sounds higher than fricatives are sonorants. sonority The degree to which a speech sound is like a vowel (i.e., lacks constriction of the vocal tract). Sonority is a perceptual property referring to the loudness (audibility) of a sound. In many languages, including English, highly sonorous consonants can occupy the syllabic nucleus position, thereby acting as vowels. For example, in the English words mountain and lover, the syllabic nuclei of the second syllables, respectively, are occupied by /n/ and /r/, which are acting as vowels. Standard American English (SAE) The prestige dialect of English as spoken in many parts of North America. SAE is characterized by a dialect­specific phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon. SAE is based largely on the speech patterns typical of English speakers from parts of the Midwest and Western American States. stress Also referred to as accent, the relative The ways stress manifests itself in emphasis given to certain syllables the speech stream is highly language within a word. dependent. In some languages,
© inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. 13 stressed syllables have a higher or lower pitch than non­stressed syllables; this type of stress is known as pitch accent (or musical accent). There are also dynamic accent (loudness), qualitative accent (full vowels), and quantitative accent (length). Stress may be characterized by more than one of these characteristics. For instance, stressed syllables in English have higher pitch, longer duration, and typically fuller vowels than unstressed syllables, as well as being dynamically louder. Stressed syllables in Russian are broadly similar, but have lower rather than higher pitch. Contrasting with these, stressed and unstressed vowels in Spanish share the same quality, and the language has no reduced vowels like English or Russian. suprasegmen­ tals or prosody Prosody refers to intonation, rhythm, and vocal stress in speech. The prosodic features of a unit of speech, whether a syllable, word, phrase, or clause, are called suprasegmental features because they affect all the segments of the unit. Suprasegmental features are manifested, among other things, as syllable length, tone, and stress. syllable The fundamental phonological unit of sound, consisting minimally of a peak in sonority represented by the syllabic nucleus (usually a vowel). The syllable has a universal internal structure, consisting of an onset, which although not required is universally preferred, a required nucleus occupied by a vowel or sonorant, and in many cases a coda. For example, in the English word strap, which consists of a single syllable, the onset contains the consonants /str/, the nucleus contains the vowel phoneme /Q/ and the coda contains the consonant /p/. tap or flap Primary manner of articulation produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (such as the tongue) is thrown against another. The English tap [R] is an allophone of the both the phonemes /t/ and /d/, and is the “d­like” sound in matter and madder (which sound identical in Standard American English).
© inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. 14 tenseness Tenseness is used to describe the opposition of tense vowels as in leap and suit vs. lax vowels as in lip and soot. This opposition has traditionally been thought to be a result of greater muscular tension, though phonetic experiments have repeatedly failed to show this. Unlike the other features of vowel quality, tenseness is only applicable to the few languages that have this opposition (mainly Germanic languages, such as. English), whereas the vowels of the other languages (e.g., Spanish) cannot be described with respect to tenseness in any meaningful way. In most Germanic languages, lax vowels can only occur in closed syllables. Therefore, they’re also known as checked vowels, whereas the tense vowels are called free vowels since they can occur in any kind of syllable. tone The intrinsic pitch of the wave produced by the articulation of a sound, usually considered only for vowels, that is measured in hertz (Hz), or cycles per second. In many languages of the world, such as East Asian and many African languages, tone is a phonemic (i.e., distinctive) property of vowels that can be used to change the meaning of a word. For example, in Mandarin Chinese, the words sĭ (to die) and sì (four) differ only in the tone of the vowel. trill Primary manner of articulation produced by vibrations between articulator and the place of articulation. English lacks trills, which are fairly common cross­linguistically. The Spanish /r/, as in perro, is an alveolar trill. triphthong A complex, monosyllabic vowel combination usually involving a quick, but smooth movement from one vowel to another that passes over a third one. In the Spanish pronunciation of Uruguay, the last syllable contains the triphthong /waj/. uvular Point of articulation involving the tongue touching the uvula. Uvular consonants, which include /q/ and /X/, are not common among languages of the world. They are, however, typical of many Afro­ Asiatic languages, including Arabic. velar Point of articulation involving the tongue touching the velum, also known as the soft palate. English velar stops include /k/ and /g/. The velar fricative /x/ (as in German acht), which English lacks, is a fairly common fricative cross­ linguistically. voicing Secondary manner of articulation for Voiceless consonants are produced
© inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. 15 consonants involving expiration of air through vibrating vocal cords. Voicing also describes whether the vocal chords are vibrating during the articulation of a vowel. with the vocal cords open (voicing involves bringing the vocal cords close together). vowel A speech sound created by the relatively free passage of breath through the larynx and oral cavity, usually forming the most prominent and central sound of a syllable. In addition to height, backness, and roundedness, vowels may be distinguished by additional articulatory features, such as nasalization or breathiness, and in rare cases voicing. vowel reduction A specific phonological process in which the length, tenseness, or quality of a vowel is reduced or undergoes lenition during its articulation due to phonological factors, such as stress or accent. In English, vowel reduction involves the process in which certain unstressed vowels become schwa [«].
© inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. 16 Most languages have only voiced vowels, but several native American Languages, such as Cheyenne and Totonac, as well as some languages of Africa, contrast voiced and voiceless vowels. In some languages, such as Japanese and Quebec French, vowels that are between voiceless consonants are often devoiced. English Accent Reduction Course Information for inlingua Instructors 1. Why accent reduction? Many non­native speakers have achieved substantial fluency in spoken English. Among potential inlingua clients, this is most often true for well­educated professionals, many from Latin America, who work for large American or foreign corporations. Although such persons typically have studied English formally for many years, either in their countries of origin or in the United States, and may have developed a high degree of literacy in English, many (if not the large majority) speak English with a strong “foreign accent.” That is, although they may have achieved significant mastery of English structure and developed a large working vocabulary, they have nevertheless failed to master English pronunciation. This is to be expected, as almost all persons who learn a foreign language tend to gain greater linguistic competence in morphology and syntax (i.e., grammar) than in phonetics and phonology (the reasons why this is so are briefly outlined below). As in most socially stratified societies, individuals are judged (whether consciously or otherwise) in large measure based on their ability to accurately speak that society’s prestige language, which in the United States is a dialect of English known as Standard American English. Standard American English is one of many dialects of English spoken in North America and is the native dialect of the majority of English speakers who are born in the United States, although a large number of Americans speak non­standard dialects and have varying degrees of competence in Standard American English. Both native and non­native speakers alike are judged on their ability to accurately produce the sounds and structures of Standard American English, and a number of published psychological investigations have revealed that many speakers of English are subtly discriminated against because of their inability to speak English in what is considered the standard accent. Whether in the workplace or in society at large, a high degree of competence in Standard American English confers on one a significant competitive advantage. It is for these reasons that students come to inlingua to enroll in accent reduction courses with the hopes of improving their English pronunciation. 2. Is accent reduction a realistic goal? Although few speakers of English (or of any other language) who learn the language after early adolescence ever achieve native pronunciation, almost all speakers have the ability to improve their pronunciation over time with the appropriate expert help and guidance. Thus, while we cannot promise our students native or even near­native pronunciation, we can help them markedly improve their English pronunciation and thereby reduce the impression of a “strong foreign accent.” Most accent reduction students are satisfied with the reachable goal of improving their pronunciation of English and achieving greater communicative ability and have realistic expectations regarding their potential for improvement. Of course not all students have equal potential for improvement, and it is an unfortunate biological reality that the older the student is, the more difficult it will be for the student to substantially improve his or her pronunciation. Nonetheless, all students
© inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. 17 should be encouraged to make better English pronunciation a goal and no student should feel or be led to believe that significant improvement in English pronunciation is outside his or her grasp. 3. Why is correct English pronunciation so difficult for most students? There are two primary reasons why most students find mastering English pronunciation a considerable challenge. The first reason is biological and the second is a simple matter of chance. The area of the brain responsible for learning, processing, and producing the sounds of language is a small triangular section of the inferior frontal gyrus of the frontal lobe known as Broca’s Area. During the early years of life, Broca’s Area is highly malleable and is most sensitive to stumuli; during this time, the individual has great innate flexibility for the organization of the brain functions necessary to carry out the very complex integration of the sub­processes necessary for the smooth elaboration of the sounds of speech. However, after puberty the ability for this area of the brain to make the adjustments required for the heavy demands of verbal behavior rapidly and dramatically declines. As a result, basic phonetic skills not acquired by that time normally remain deficient for life. This fact explains our frequent experience of seeing children easily master foreign languages but hearing strong foreign accents in the speech of adult learners. In addition to the frustrating biological realities implicit in learning a foreign language, English happens to have an unusually complex phonological system. First, English has more phonemes (i.e., distinctive sounds) than most other languages, and this is especially true for the vowel inventory of English. Moreover, English permits articulatorically complicated consonant clusters (i.e., combinations of consonants with no intervening vowels or vowel­like sounds) at both the beginning and end of syllables. In addition, English distinguishes many very similar sounds that most other languages do not possess. For example, less than ten percent of the world’s languages possess a /θ/ phoneme (the th sound in words like thin and with, similar to the pronunciation of the zeta of northern Spain). Similarly, less than ten percent of the world’s languages possess a /ð/ phoneme (the th sound of the and wither, similar to the pronunciation of the d in Spanish hada and sed). But a small number of the world’s approximately 5000 living languages (i.e., probably less than 5%) distinguish both sounds. In addition, English possess a whole range of cross­linguistically uncommon phonemes, including /v/ and /ž/ (the sound of g in beige and s in treasure). The same complexity applies to English vowels, which differ not only in quality (i.e., the actual sound of the vowel) but in quantity as well; in fact, most native speakers themselves are not consciously aware that English vowels differ substantially in length, which distinction when not properly observed significantly contributes to the perception of a “foreign accent.” And like their consonantal counterparts, several English vowels are cross­linguistically rare (examples include /U/ as in book and /I/ as in pin). Thus, it is in fact true that English is inherently more difficult to pronounce than many other languages, including Spanish. An additional complicating factor for many students is that they have made the same pronunciation errors for so long that change is extremely difficult. This process, known
© inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. 18 as error fossilization, is brought about by the neural reinforcement of articulatory errors resulting from the repeated execution of the brain sub­processes controlling the errant pronunciation. Essentially, the more the brain executes a given task, the easier the execution of that tasks becomes as the brain connections controlling the task strengthen and a neural sub­process, similar in function to a computer sub­routine, is formed. Once such knowledge is formed, it is extremely difficult to unlearn. Try to imagine, for example, how difficult (if not impossible) it would be to unlearn how to drive a car or brush your teeth. Such is the problem for many of our accent reduction students. 4. Length and structure of an accent reduction course One of the first questions that an accent reduction student is likely to ask concerns the appropriate length of the accent reduction course (i.e., the number of units of instruction to be purchased). In order to effect substantial and lasting changes in pronunciation, an accent reduction student must be dedicated to a sustained, long term effort in which he or she faithfully follows a well­planned course of study and, most importantly, makes use of the knowledge and skills acquired during the course outside the classroom. If an accent reduction student works hard to modify his or her erroneous pronunciation during class but reverts to old habits when speaking English elsewhere, that student is unlikely to make significant progress in permanently improving his or her pronunciation of English. Therefore, regardless of the number of units purchased or the total duration of the course, accent reduction students must, if they are to have any chance at lasting success in their endeavor, fully realize that their accent reduction program is a commitment that transcends the inlingua classroom. That being said, a successful accent reduction class should be as long and intensive as possible. Accent reduction students who enroll for courses of relatively short duration (e.g., 25 or 50 units) are unlikely to achieve their goals unless they reenroll several times. Prospective accent reduction students should be made aware of these facts and be encouraged to enroll in a course sufficiently long to fully meet their needs. Of course a prospective student who for whatever reason can only enroll in a short course should be fully encouraged and informed that any improvement in pronunciation is much better than no improvement at all (i.e., the result of not enrolling). However, for optimal improvement, an accent reduction student should enroll for at least 100 units, taking at least 8 units per week over at least four days. It should be noted, however, that students who lack substantial fluency in spoken English are not good candidates for accent reduction and should instead be encouraged to enroll in an appropriate GPP or APP inlingua English program. An inlingua accent reduction course should be tailored to the student’s particular needs without sacrificing either breadth or comprehensiveness. That is, all aspects of correct English pronunciation should be addressed, but particular emphasis should be placed on the student’s most salient pronunciation errors. Student practice must be an integral component of the course. And although teacher talking time and teacher correction of student errors will be substantially greater in an accent reduction course than in a regular GPP or APP English course, the student must still be the focus of the class. Teacher modeling and student mimicking and repetition should be the primary pedagogical tool used in accent reduction courses; for most students, extensive practice and repetition is
© inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. 19 required for each sound being corrected. For many students, a single two­unit class will be devoted to a single sound or set of related sounds. The student’s course should be designed so that sounds and sets of sounds are presented in linguistically natural groups, with an emphasis on how different sounds contrast. For example, when presenting consonants, /b/ should be presented with /p/ and /v/, whereas /t/ should be presented with /d/ and perhaps /D/ and /T/. Similarly, vowels should be presented separately from consonants, although a single class may focus on both consonants and vowels so long as each comprises a separate section of the class (for example, the first half of a class could focus on the consonants /S/ and /Z/, while the second class addresses the vowels /a/ and /Q/). In addition, suprasegmental (prosodic) phonological issues such as vowel length, stress, and intonation must be thoroughly addressed. 5. Course materials The standard text used in inlingua English Accent Reduction courses is The American Accent Guide, 2nd Edition, with compact discs, published by Lingual Arts. Other materials include Barron’s American Accent Training, which contains a set of audio compact disks in addition to the textbook. In order for instructors to successfully use either of these resources, they must have at least some familiarity with basic phonological principles and an understanding of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). In order to gain this knowledge, inlingua Accent Reduction instructors must complete the Accent Reduction Workshop, which is offered periodically by the Department of Studies and Training.
© inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. 20 Appendix 1: The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
© inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. 21 Appendix 2: The Vowel Phonemes of Standard American English (SAE) Front vowels Description Vowel i 1. +tense 2. Primary allophone is the diphthong [ij] 3. Can occur in open and closed syllables I 1. ­tense 2. Primary allophone is [I] 3. Can occur in closed and stressed non­final syllables only e 1. +tense 2. Primary allophone is the diphthong [ej] 3. Can occur in open and closed syllables E 1. ­tense 2. Primary allophone is [E] 3. Can occur in closed and stressed non­final syllables only Q 1. ­tense 2. Primary allphone is [Q] 3. Can occur in closed and stressed non­final syllables only Examples meet even beast mit Italy Micky Istanbul ray Avon mace let
Epson medal said apple mat action The SAE inventory of front vowels is highly unusual, in that /i/ and /I/ contrast with each other; most languages that possess both segments organize them as allophones of a single phoneme. The phoneme /Q/ is also rare. In many languages that possess this sound, it is an allophone of /a/ or, more likely, /E/, as in Turkish. Most languages that have more than 3 front vowels phonemes use rounding to distinguish them.
© inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. 22 Back vowels Description Vowel u U o • A 1. +tense 2. Primary allophones is the diphthongs [«w] 3. Can occur in open and closed syllables 1. ­tense 2. Primary allophone is [U] 3. Can occur in closed and stressed non­final syllables only 1. +tense 2. Primary allophone is the diphthong [ow] 3. Can occur in open and closed syllables 1. ­tense 2. Primary allophone is [•] 3. Can occur in closed and stressed non­final syllables only 1. ­tense 2. Primary allphone is [A] 3. Can occur in closed and stressed non­final syllables only Examples you feud Eunice oops put look tush book mow open borough brought Australia Oshkosh bratwurst hurrah saw ** Note: Not all American English dialects distinguish /•/ and /A/. Central vowels Description Vowel « Ã 1. ­tense 2. Primary allophone is [«] 3. Occurs frequently in unstressed syllables Examples the a boy about potato 1. ­tense 2. Primary allophone is [Ã] 3. Can occur in closed and stressed non­final syllables only luck putt up
English is unusual in having two distinct mid­central vowel phonemes. However, not all linguists agree with this analysis. Some insist that [«] and [Ã] are actually the same sound, or that [«] does not have phonemic status but is rather an allophone of other vowel phonemes. While it is true that [«] is an allophone of other vowel phonemes, this fact does not preclude the existence of an independent phoneme /«/. This raises an interesting question: Are [«] and [Ã] in complementary distribution? If so, then the argument that [«] does not have phonemic status is strengthened. However, the complementary distribution of segments does not necessary prove that the segments are allophones of the same phoneme. For instance, in English, [h] and [N] are in complementary distribution, yet are clearly not allophones of a single phoneme. © inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. 23 Appendix 3: The Consonant Phonemes of Standard American English (SAE) Bilabial Plosive Nasal Labdent. Dental p b m Fricative Alveolar Postalv. Palatal n T D
s z Lateral S Z h tS dZ Affricate Approx. Glottal k g N t d f v Velar ¨ l j Other Voiced labiovelar approximant Voiceless labial­velar fricative w ã
Note the abundance of fricative phonemes (9) in Standard American English, equal to the number of plosives and nasals combined. Most languages have far fewer fricative phonemes (some languages lack them entirely, and many have only one fricative phoneme, which is almost always /s/). Also note the presence of a voiceless labial­velar fricative /ã/ (the aspirated wh sound in words like which and whether) present in some varieties of American English. The consonantal phonemic inventory of English is unique among the world’s languages, although hundreds if not thousands of languages also have unique phonemic inventories.
© inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. 24 Appendix 4: The Vowel Phonemes of General American Spanish (GAS) Front High Mid Low Vowel i e a u o Central i e Back u o a Spanish vowel phonemes Description Examples One primary allophone [i] [i]: mi, y, muy, igual, hijo Two primary allophones: [e] in open syllables, [E] in closed syllables One primary allophone [a] [e]: me, e, hecho, delicado [E]: mente, tren, delgado [a]: antes, la, mata One primary allophone [u] [u]: truco, tú, cartucho, u Two primary allophones: [o] in open syllables [•] in closed syllables [o]: o, trató, trato, ocho [•]: tonto, montón, los Spanish has far fewer vowel phonemes than English does, and that Spanish organizes its allophones differently than does English. For example, in English, /e/ and /E/, along with /o/ and /•/, all have phonemic status and represent four separate phonemes. Although Spanish also has all four sounds, they represent allophones of only two separate phonemes. This is because in Spanish, the sounds [e] and [E] are in complementary distribution. The allophone [e] occurs in open syllables only, while the allophone [E] occurs in closed syllables only; there are no exceptions to this rule in Spanish. This same pattern of distribution is realized for the sounds [o] and [•]. Note that both /e/ and /o/ are mid vowels. Such symmetry­based rules are common in phonology.
© inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. 25 Appendix 5: The Consonant Phonemes of General American Spanish (GAS) Bilabial Labdent. p b m Plosive Nasal Dental Postalv. Palatal Velar Bilabiovel. k g t d f Fricative Alveolar n ÷ s
Æ x w tS Affricate R r l Tap Trill Lateral (´) Note that General American Spanish (GAS) and Standard American English (SAE) have substantially different consonant systems. Spanish lacks the voicing distinction among fricatives that characterizes the English consonantal system. Although some dialects of Spanish produce voiced or voiceless variants of fricatives, such as [z] for /s/ or [F] for /g/, they exist only as allophonic variants of other phonemes, as outlined below. The Most Common Consonant Allophones of General American Spanish (GAS) Labvel. p b m Plosive Nasal Fricative Bilabial (¸) B Labdent. Dental M t d n D
f Alveolar s R r l Trill Lateral ÷
k g N (S)(Z ) C
Æ x F Bilvel. Glottal w (h) (´) w Approx. Other © inlingua South Florida All rights reserved. Velar tS dZ Tap Voiceless uvular fricative Palatal n Affricate Voiced velar or uvular trill Postalv. ({) (X)
26 Accent Reduction Workshop
Topics for Discussion
In today’s workshop, we will explore the following questions and their implications.
First Half: Theory
Part 1: Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology
Key Terms: affricate, allophone, acoustic phonetics, alveolar, approximant, articulation, articulator,
articulatory phonetics, backness, bilabial, coda, consonant, continuant, coronal, CV, dental, diphthong,
fricative, glottal, vowel height, IPA, labiodental, lateral, liquid, manner of articulation, monophthong,
nasal, nasalization, nucleus, onset, palatal palatalization, phone, phoneme, phonetics, phonology, plosive,
point of articulation, suprasegmentals, vowel roundedness, uvular, velar, voicing, vowel.
1. What is phonology? Why is knowledge of phonology relevant to teaching language and Accent
Reduction classes?
2. What is meant by the term phonetics? In what important ways do articulatory and acoustic
phonetics differ? How do phonetics and phonology differ? Why is knowledge of phonetics critical to
teaching language and Accent Reduction classes?
3. What is the International Phonetic Alphabet? In what important ways do consonants, vowels, and
semi-vowels differ? What does it mean for a sound to be a vowel? Can the same sounds sometimes be
consonants and sometimes be vowels? What is meant by the term suprasegmentals (also known as
prosody)? Why is knowledge of this symbolic system useful for language instructors and necessary for
Accent Reduction instructors? How are the sounds of language (universally) organized? Why is this
relevant for language instructors?
4. How (i.e., what processes are involved in the attempt) do speakers attempt to pronounce the sounds
of their native language? How do speakers attempt to pronounce the sounds of a foreign language?
Part 2: Language Acquisition
Key Terms: Broca’s Area, Critical Period.
1. How do children acquire the phonology of their first language(s)?
2. How do adults acquire phonology and develop a system of phonetics for second languages?
3. How do the processes of second language phonological and phonetic acquisition differ from those
of first language acquisition? Why is this relevant for language instructors?
Part 3: The Phonetics and Phonology of Standard American English
Key Terms: African American English (AAE), aspiration, assimilation, complementary distribution, free
variation, schwa, Standard American English (SAE), tenseness, vowel length, vowel reduction.
1. How is the Standard American English vowel system organized? Does English make a phonological
distinction between long and short vowels? Does English make a phonetic distinction between long
and short vowels?
2. How is the Standard American English consonant system organized?
3. What is unusual or unique about the Standard American English phonological and phonetic
inventories? Is English inherently difficult to pronounce, or does it just seem that way to non-native
speakers? Is any language inherently more difficult to pronounce than any other language?
Part 4: The Phonetics and Phonology of General American Spanish
Key Terms: complementary distribution, General American Spanish (GAS), flap or tap, lenition, trill.
1. How is the General American Spanish vowel system organized?
2. How is the General American Spanish consonant system organized?
3. Is there anything usual or unique about the General American Spanish phonological and phonetic
inventories? Is Spanish inherently easier to pronounce than English, or does it just seem that way to
native Spanish speakers?
4. Why is knowledge of the Spanish phonological system relevant to English and Spanish instructors?
5. In what important ways do the phonological and phonetic systems of Standard American English
and General American Spanish differ?
Second Half: Practice
Part 1: Accent Reduction as a Concept
Key Terms: first language interference, fossilized error.
1. Why is it important for non-native English speakers to reduce the perceived “heaviness” of their
foreign accents? What is meant by the term foreign (i.e., non-native) accent?
2. Is it possible for non-native English speakers to pronounce English with native-like competence? Is it
possible for all non-native English speakers to reduce their foreign accents?
3. What are fossilized errors? How are they created and why do they exist? Why are they so difficult (if
not impossible) to correct?
Part 2: Specific Problems Related to Helping Students Improve Pronunciation
1. Why do non-native speakers of any language make pronunciation errors? What is a pronunciation
error? What different types of pronunciation errors do non-native speakers make? What are the causes
of those errors? What is first language interference?
2. What common pronunciation errors do non-native speakers of English make? Which of these are
related to the articulation of consonants? Which are related to the articulation of vowels? Which are
related to suprasegmentals?
3. In general, how can non-native speakers of any language improve their pronunciation?
Part 3: Helping Native Spanish Speakers Improve Their Pronunciation of English
1. Why does this topic merit an entire section in today’s workshop?
2. In what important ways do the phonetics and phonology of Spanish and English differ?
3. In what ways does the native Spanish speaker’s phonological system interfere with his/her
pronunciation of English? What are the most common pronunciation errors made by native Spanish
speakers when they speak English?
4. In what specific ways can language instructors help native Spanish speakers improve their
pronunciation of English?
Part 4: Teaching Methods and Materials
1. What teaching techniques are most effective in helping students improve their pronunciation? How
should language instructors handle students’ pronunciation errors? How should instructors deal with
fossilized pronunciation errors?
2. What can language instructors do to encourage students whose progress in improving their
pronunciation is slow?
3. What teaching and learning materials does inlingua use in Accent Reduction classes? How should
these materials be employed in and out of the classroom?
What is a syllable?
A syllable is a unit of sound composed of
▪ A central peak of sonority, which is usually, but not always, a vowel, and
▪ The consonants that cluster around this peak.
Syllable structure, which is the combination of allowable segments and typical
sound sequences, is language specific, although there is a general universal
syllable structure to which all known languages conform.
The syllable has the following parts:
▪ The onset, which contains all of the consonantal segments before the rhyme
▪ The rhyme, which is the core of the syllable consisting of the nucleus and the
coda
▪ The rhyme is composed of the nucleus, which contains the syllable’s peak in
sonority and is the central segment of the syllable, and the coda, which
contains all of the consonants in the syllable after the nucleus.
All syllables in all languages have the following general hierarchical structure:
Below is an example of the syllable structure of the English word limit:
Syllable Types
Syllable Type
Heavy
Light
Closed
Open
Description
Has a branching rhyme. All syllables with
a branching nucleus (long vowels) are
considered heavy. Some languages treat
syllables with a short vowel (nucleus
followed by a consonant (coda) as heavy.
Has a non-branching rhyme (short
vowel). Some languages treat syllables with
a short vowel (nucleus) followed by a
consonant (coda) as light.
Ends with a consonant coda.
Has no final consonant.
Example(s)
V:
VC
CV:C
CVCC
CVC
V
CV
CVC
CVC, CVCC, VC
V, CV
Notice that what determines whether a syllable is heavy or light, or closed or
open is the material located in the rhyme (or coda), but never the onset.
Cross-linguistically, all languages have syllables of the type CV, and most
languages have syllables of the type V and CVC.
Also, almost all languages tolerate a greater number of segments or segment
types in the onset than in the coda. Why do you think this is the case? (Hint: It
is related to perceptual salience and the universal preferences for certain
syllable types).
What types of syllables does English permit? What about Spanish? Do these two
languages have similar constraints on syllable structure?
Diagram of Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas in the left hemisphere. Broca’s Area is
located in the inferior frontal gyrus of the left hemisphere in 96% of humans. In
the remaining 4% (all of whom are left-handed), Broca’s Area is located in the right
hemisphere. Broca’s Area is involved in language processing, and especially in the
production and comprehension of speech sounds. Broca's Area is connected to
Wernicke's area by a neural pathway called the arcuate fasciculus
Schematic view of the brain. Broca’s Area makes rich neuronal connections with the
pre-motor and motor cortices, necessary for the production of speech sounds.
Optimality Theory (OT)
Optimality theory or OT is a linguistic model proposed by the linguists Alan Prince and
Paul Smolensky in 1993, and expanded by John J. McCarthy and Alan Prince in 1993.
Although much of the interest in OT has been associated with its use in phonology (the
area to which OT was first applied), the theory is also applicable to other subfields of
linguistics (e.g. syntax, semantics). Optimality theory is usually considered a
development of generative grammar, which shares its focus on the investigation of
universal principles, linguistic typology, and language acquisition.
OT is often called a connectionist theory of language, because it has its roots in neural
network research, though the relationship is now largely of historical interest. It arose in
part as a successor to the theory of harmonic grammar, developed in 1990 by Géraldine
Legendre, Yoshiro Miyata and Paul Smolensky.
The main idea of OT is that the observed, "surface" forms of the language arise from the
resolution of conflicts among grammatical constraints. These constraints are minimally
violated in that the form that surfaces is the one which incurs the least serious violations,
compared to a set of possible candidates. The seriousness of a violation is defined in
terms of hierarchies of constraints; the violations of higher-ranked constraints are most
serious. This domination is said to be strict in that higher constraints take absolute
priority over lower constraints. That is, given a constraint C1, ranked above C2 and C3,
the expression of the language that surfaces (the winning candidate) may perform worse
than its competitors in both C2 and C3, as long as it performs better in C1. Constraints
are also violable; the winning candidate need not satisfy all constraints, as long as for any
rival candidate that does better than the winner on some constraint, there is a higher
ranked constraint on which the winner does better than that rival. Constraints are
generally regarded as universal (though not by all OT researchers), but their ranking
differs from language to language, accommodating language variation. Language
acquisition can be roughly described as the process of adjusting the ranking of these
constraints to match the language one is learning (and, of course, learning a lexicon).
Constraints can be grouped into two main types: faithfulness constraints and
markedness constraints. Faithfulness constraints require that the observed surface form
(the output) match the underlying or lexical form (the input) in some particular way; that
is, these constraints require identity between input and output forms. Markedness
constraints impose requirements on the structural well-formedness of the output.
Example
As a simplified example, consider the manifestation of the English plural morpheme: cat
+ s → cats and class + s → classes. In the cat case, the form cats passes all the
markedness constraints: it is a well-formed word that is pronounceable. Thus, the
faithfulness constraint wins, and the output is cats. In the case of class+s, there is a
markedness constraint that prohibits the classs form (one cannot have a sequence of two
/s/ sounds, or an /sz/ sequence, within an English phonological word). The markedness
constraint is ranked higher, so the faithfulness constraint is over-ridden, and classes is
preferred to class+s.
As mentioned above, in the OT of Prince & Smolensky 1993, all constraints are assumed
to be present in all languages. Within a language, a constraint may be ranked high enough
that it is always obeyed; it may be ranked low enough that it has no observable effects;
or, it may have some intermediate ranking. The term 'the emergence of the unmarked' (or
TETU) describes situations in which a markedness constraint has an intermediate
ranking, so that it is violated in some forms, but nonetheless has observable effects when
higher-ranked constraints are irrelevant. An early example proposed by McCarthy &
Prince (1994) is the constraint NoCoda, which prohibits syllables from ending in
consonants. In Balangao, NoCoda is not ranked high enough to be always obeyed, as
witness roots like taynan (faithfulness to the input prevents deletion of the final /n/). But,
in the reduplicated form ma-tayna-taynan 'repeatedly be left behind', the final /n/ is not
copied. Under McCarthy & Prince's analysis, this is because faithfulness to the input does
not apply to reduplicated material, and NoCoda is thus free to prefer ma-tayna-taynan
over hypothetical ma-taynan-taynan (which has an additional violation of NoCoda).
Optimality Theory makes the claim that all phonological interactions can be analyzed as
the interaction of faithfulness and markedness. No phonological process should be found
in which an optimal candidate has worse faithfulness violations without having better
markedness violations than a competing candidate. Many linguists believe that this is a
falsifiable prediction, in the sense of Karl Popper and that Optimality Theory is thus a
scientific theory. For instance, Idsardi (2000) has argued that OT has been disproved by
violations of the above claim relating to phonological opacity. Others, like Sanders
(2003) and Green (2005), have countered that all cases of opacity brought forward to date
are influenced by the morphology of the language in question and that only purely
phonological opacity would disprove OT. A related, falsifiable prediction about possible
input-output mappings is made by Moreton (2004). A current limitation of OT is that
different workers in the field use different sets of constraints and assumptions; OT is thus
best thought of as a means of representing language, a paradigm in the sense of Thomas
Samuel Kuhn rather than a theory. The same is true of other theories of phonology and
syntax as well.
Excerpted from Michael Kenstowicz, Phonology in Generative Grammar. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell.
1994, pp. 65-68.
Excerpted from Michael Kenstowicz, Phonology in Generative Grammar. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell.
1994, pp. 65-68.
Excerpted from Michael Kenstowicz, Phonology in Generative Grammar. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell.
1994, pp. 65-68.