Lecture 2

1. Lecture 2 Vowel Features & Phonological Processes

2. Vowels or Consonants The main articulatory distinction between consonants and vowels is: The air stream finds a radical constriction or total blockage at some point along the central passage in the oral cavity (in consonants). No such obstacle is present (in vowels).

3. Variety in Vowels Vowels differ from each other only in sound quality. Sound quality is a function of the size of the instrument, the mouth. Yet, how can we vary the size of the mouth to produce the different vowels present in natural languages?

4. Variety in Vowels With the roof of the mouth and the tongue, we can form a TUBE. By manipulating the amount of space between the tongue and the roof of the mouth, we can vary the size of the tube. Each such tube size will produce a different sound quality, hence a different vowel.

5. Cardinal Vowels Our awareness of this temporary tube and its properties is very limited. In the early 1900s, the English phonetician Daniel Jones developed a chart to represent a set of artificial and idealized vowels, in a way reminiscent of the cardinal points (N, E, W, S). Cardinal vowels are only similar, not identical, to vowels in natural languages.

6. Basic Cardinal Vowels [?] roughly as in bee or sea articulated with the body of the tongue as high and forward as is compatible with a vowel sound [?] roughly as in father or spa the tongue pulled back and lowered, with the simultaneous lowering of the jaw

7. Two Axial Parameters High Front Back Low

8. Corner Primary Cardinal Vowels ? ? ? ?

9. CornerPrimary Cardinal Vowels High Back [?] + - [?] - - [?] - + [?] + +

10. IntermediatePrimary Cardinal Vowels Once we have [?] and [?] at the front, we can pronounce a vowel which sounds one-third closer to [?] than to [?], and another vowel which sounds one-third closer to [?] than to [?]: ? ? ? ?

11. IntermediatePrimary Cardinal Vowels The perceptual space between the back vowels [?] and [?] can be filled in at equal intervals with the vowels [?], one-third close to [?], and [?], one-third close to [?]: ? ? ? ?

12. Primary Cardinal Vowels 1 ? ? 8 2 ? ? 7 3 ? ? 6 4 ? ? 5 A third parameter:(6, 7, and 8 are round; all others are unround.)

13. The Basic Vowel Triangle The three basic vowels [?], [?], and [?] are as far apart in the space as can be: ? ? ? High/Low: [?] and [?] high, [?] low Front/Back: [?] front, [?] back, [?] central Roundness: [?] spread, [?] rounded, [?] neutral

14. Quantum Vowels Why the vowels [?], [?], [?] ? Each can be articulated over a reasonably broad space with minimal effect on perception: The essential sound quality of cardinal vowel no. 1, for example, will still be obtained with a more relaxed movement. Hence, they are labeled Quantum Vowels, suggesting a perceptual quantum leap between them.

15. Secondary Cardinal Vowels Secondary Cardinal Vowels are those produced by deliberately inverting the normal action of the lips. There are eight such vowels (nos. 9-16), five of which are rounded.

16. So Vowels are fundamentally different from consonants. The fact that no constriction exists shifts quality variation onto the size and shape of the mouth cavity. The cardinal vowels divide the vowel space in the mouth into equal parts. The basic reference points for cardinal vowels are tongue height and backness. The relationship of the cardinals to real-world vowels is, in most cases, only approximate. A minimal three-vowel system, consisting of the quantum vowels [i], [a], and [u], which represent the maximal contrast, does tend to occur in some form or other in all languages.

17. Distinctive Features for Vowels Consonants or Vowels [±consonantal] [+consonantal] = sounds involving a drastic constriction in the central oral passage. drastic constriction: one that results in total blockage of the airflow (stops) or in restricted air exit (fricatives) central oral passage: all vowels, possibly with some constriction on the sides of the mouth, are [-consonantal].

18. Distinctive Features for Vowels Phonetic Phonological Classification Parameters Features Height [± x] Frontness/Backness [± y] Roundness [± z]

19. [±high]/[±low] Height: Some vowels are high: [?] [?] Some vowels are low: [?] [?] Some vowels are neither: [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [high] + - - - + [low] - - + - - [+high] and [+low], a mathematical possibility, is ruled out because the body of the tongue cannot be simultaneously raised and lowered.

20. [±back] Frontness/Backness Some vowels are front: [?] [?] Some vowels are back: [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [high] + - - - - + [low] - - + + - - [back] - - - + + + The central low vowel [?] is considered [+back].

21. [±round] Roundness Primary and secondary cardinal vowels are differentiated on the basis of roundness. PCV [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [high] + - - - - - - + [low] - - - + + - - - [back] - - - - + + + + [round] - - - - - + + + SCV [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [high] + - - - - - - + [low] - - - + + - - - [back] - - - - + + + + [round] + + + + + - - - The mid vowels are still not distinguished from one another.

22. More Distinctive Features Tongue Root: When the tongue root is either advanced or retracted, the size of the pharyngeal cavity, and certainly the tube, is modified. Consequently, the vowel quality is altered. This is captured by the distinctive feature [±ATR] (Advanced Tongue Root). [?] [?] [?] [?] [ATR] + + - - Therefore, the sixteen cardinal vowels are defined in terms of a set of only FIVE phonological distinctive features.

23. Feature Dependencies Rounding, captured by the feature [±round], is implemented by the lips. The phonological feature [labial] captures the involvement of the lips in articulation. Thus, [+round] sounds are necessarily [labial]. This suggests that [±round] is a dependant of [labial]. [labial] [±round] [p], [f], and [b] are [labial] and [-round] [t] and [d] are non-labial, so [±round] is irrelevant.

24. Feature Dependencies The features [±high], [±low], and [±back] capture the movement of the body of tongue. The phonological feature [dorsal] expresses the body of tongue’s involvement in articulation. Thus, [+back] sounds, for example, are necessarily [dorsal]. This suggests that [±high], [±low], and [±back] are dependants of [dorsal]. [dorsal] [±high] [±low] [±back] If a segment is not [dorsal], the dependents of this feature are irrelevant to it.

25. Vowel Harmony There are languages where the class of vowels occurring in a given domain is restricted. The phenomenon is known as ‘harmony’. Vowels harmonize for some feature(s) in the domain in question.

26. Vowel Harmony in Turkish Consider the following: Nom. sg. Gen. sg. Nom. pl. Gen. pl. ‘rope’ ip ipin ipler iplerin ‘hand’ el elin eller ellerin ‘girl’ k?z k?z?n k?zl?r k?zl?r?n ‘stalk’ s?p s?p?n s?pl?r s?pl?r?n ROOT (+Plural Suffix) (+Genitive Suffix)* Nom. sg. [ler] or [l?r] [in] or [?n] (*Parentheses indicate optionality, and the order of concatenation is as given.)

27. Vowel Harmony in Turkish Phonologically, there are cases of vowel alternation in the genitive and plural suffixes ([?] or [?] and [?] or [?]). Decomposing the alternating segments: [?] [?] [?] [?] [high] + + - - [back] - + - + The alternating vowels disagree on backness. Why?

28. Phonological Alternation Considering the relationship between the vowels in the root and the suffixes reveals the following: identical (ip - ipin) (s?p - s?pl?r) [+high] [-high] [-back] [+back] different (el - elin) (k?z - k?zl?r) (in height) [-high] [+high] [+high] [-high] [-back] [+back] Turkish has [±back] harmony for vowels.

29. Formalization The vowel in the Gen. suffix is consistently [+high], but its value for [±back] varies according to that of the root vowel: i p i n [dorsal] [dorsal] [+high] [+high] [-back] [-back]

30. Underspecification The feature [±back] is lexically unspecified in the genitive and plural suffixes. The lexical representations of these suffixes are left blank for this feature. i p i n [dorsal] [dorsal] [+high] [+high] [-back]

31. Surface Representation In the context of an autosegmental approach, the surface representation borrows the specification for [±back] from the neighbouring vowel (an assimilation process): i p i n [+high] [+high] [dorsal] [dorsal] [-back]

32. Disharmony Consider the following: ?????????? ‘hexagonal’ (pl.) ??????? ‘items’ ????????? ‘calendars’ The Turkish plural suffix has two alternants -ler and -l?r, as a result of vowel harmony. We expect vowel harmony to be triggered from the root. So, why not *?????????? ?

33. Harmony Domains Each lexically prespecified vowel (an Opaque Vowel) initiates a harmony domain: ?????????? ??????? ????????? Vowels that are unspecified for [±back] take the value for this feature from the immediately preceding vowel. Why not from the ROOT ?

34. Crossing Association Lines Formalizing the unattested form *??????????: ? ?? ? ? ? ?? ? ? [-high] [+high] [-high] [-high] [dorsal] [dorsal] [dorsal] [dorsal] [+back] [-back]

35. Crossing Association Lines The [+back] of the first vowel has spread to the unspecified second vowel. Its spread to the third vowel has been blocked, as this vowel is lexically prespecified for backness, [-back]. However, we cannot accept the spreading to the last vowel. It entails a crossing of association lines.

36. The No-Crossing Constraint The configuration above infringes a general, inviolable principle of autosegmental theory: No-crossing constraint Association lines may not cross. The multidimensional nature of autosegmental representations reveals the illegitimacy of this type of representation.

37. No Crossing ? ?? ? ? ? ?? ? ? [-high] [+high] [-high] [-high] [dorsal] [dorsal] [dorsal] [dorsal] [+back] [-back]

38. English Plurals One set of irregular English plurals involves a process of vowel fronting: goose [gus] geese [gis] tooth [tu?] teeth [ti?] This process is opaque in contemporary language. In Old English, however, there was a plural suffix –[i] [i] is associated to a [-back] feature.

39. Floating Feature The hypothesis is: In modern language, the phenomenon can by analysed by means of floating [-back] plural marker. [+back] [-back] [dorsal] [-cons] [labial] [+round] g u s y It is assumed that the front round vowel of the output is subject to an unrounding procedure, [gys] ? [gis].

40. Summing up The phonetic parameters (high, low, back, and round) are interpreted into phonological features. [ATR] is a fifth feature introduced to distinguish the second and third degrees of height encoded by the cardinals. Harmony is a phenomenon which leads all vowels in a given domain to bear the same value for some feature(s). Some suffixes are lexically unspecified for a certain feature, the eventual value of which is supplied by the adjacent stem vowel through spreading. The No-Crossing Constraint prohibits the crossing of association lines, and consequently blocks spreading. The residue of Old English lexically associated features justifies a hypothesis of floating features.

41. Next WeekChapters 7 and 8 Assignment: Key Questions (pages 202 and 229)