LING2002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Nikolai Trubetzkoy, Generative Grammar, Distinctive Feature
Wednesday, 26 April 2017
LECTURE 16
PHONETIC PROPERTIES IN PHONOLOGY
-Phonetic properties
•Phonological analysis needs to capture shared phonetic properties
•The specific properties must follow from:
-The naturally occurring classes of sounds found in the pattern of words in languages
•Aka natural classes
-Not necessarily from the articulatory properties of traditional phonetic classification
•The kinds of questions we want to ask, for example:
-Spanish [β ð ɣ] occur between vowels/glides:
•What, if any, properties do [β ð ɣ] share with vowels/glides that [b d g] don’t?
•Process to check firstly for assimilation
-Distinctive features
•Distinctive feature theory proposes a constrained set of universal phonetic features to formally
express the phonetic properties that underlie the significant phonological phenomena across
languages
•The significant phonetic properties are those which are phonologically relevant, in that they:
-Are shared within the more significant natural classes that occur in languages
-Express the set of contrasts in any language
•And therefore express the set of possible contrasts in all languages
•They do this as individual phonetic properties or in combination
-Development of distinctive feature theory
•Originally proposed by Roman Jakobsen and Nikolai Trubetzkoy
-A set with strong acoustic basis
•Distinctive feature systems in modern generative phonology descend from the system proposed by
Chomsky and Halle in Sound Pattern of English (SPE) in 1968
-Binary ‘+’ or ‘-‘ values for each feature: [+nasal]
•This has undergone continual development based on phonological evidence
-Mainstream “post-SPE system”, but variant systems exist
#1
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Wednesday, 26 April 2017
-The universal set of distinctive features
•Labels, not definitions
•[± voice]
-Voicing is exposed in terms of a binary (+/-) feature
-The claim here is that the contrasts and natural classes in languages operate in
terms of [+voi] vs [-voi] segments
•Finer phonetic distinctions fall into one or the other
-Ex/ [+voi] may be partially voiced
•[± nasal]
-[+nasal]
•Nasal consonants: [m] [n] …
•Nasal(ised) vowels and glides: [õ] [æ
̃]
•Nasalised consonants: [ɾ̃
]
-[-nasal]
•Non-nasal consonants: [p], [z] …
•Plain vowels
•[± lateral]
-[+lateral]
•Lateral approximants: [l] [l ̪
] [ɭ] [ʎ] …
•Lateral fricatives: [ɬ] [ɮ]
•It’s not clear that lateral clicks [||] share this property because there’s not
enough evidence of them grouping with the other laterals in languages
-Not about articulatory properties, about whether it groups with other
members of a class in languages
-[-lateral]
•Probably only relevant for segments that are coronal (tip or blade)
-Vowels
•Basic place of articulation properties of vowels operate in three features:
-[± high]
-[± low]
#2
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Document Summary
Phonetic properties: phonological analysis needs to capture shared phonetic properties, the speci c properties must follow from: The naturally occurring classes of sounds found in the pattern of words in languages: aka natural classes. Not necessarily from the articulatory properties of traditional phonetic classi cation: the kinds of questions we want to ask, for example: Spanish [ ] occur between vowels/glides: what, if any, properties do [ ] share with vowels/glides that [b d g] don"t, process to check rstly for assimilation. Are shared within the more signi cant natural classes that occur in languages. Express the set of contrasts in any language: and therefore express the set of possible contrasts in all languages, they do this as individual phonetic properties or in combination. Development of distinctive feature theory: originally proposed by roman jakobsen and nikolai trubetzkoy. A set with strong acoustic basis: distinctive feature systems in modern generative phonology descend from the system proposed by.
