THE Difference Between Phonetics AND Phonology PDF

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The Difference Between Phonetics and Phonology....

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THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY Phonetics vs. Phonology  

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Recognising the phoneme allows us to distinguish between the abstract native speaker’s intuition and the phonetic reality of different segments Syllables are not phonetically ‘real’, e.g. they cannot be identified instrumentally, yet: o Phonologically…  syllables allow us to state phonotactic restrictions.  syllables allow us to capture stress assignment. Phonotactic restrictions are stateable in terms of syllable structure. In English [h] occurs only in onsets, [ŋ] occurs only in codas, so [hæŋ] is fine, but *[ŋæh] is not (in English). In English sequences of p+w, b+w etc. occur only across syllables, not in the same syllable so sleep well is fine but *pwell is not. o There is no phonetic reason for this. Many languages do.

Alternations and Conditioning Factors 

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Phonology often involves examining the alternation of allophones. o For example, the occurrence of /n/ as [n], [m] or [ŋ].  i[n]direct i [n]edible u[m]broken u[ŋ]governed.  The [m] sound in unbroken is for a phonological reason – the anticipation of the following consonant. Importantly, though, not all alternations involve phonetics alone. o Hit[s] vs. play[z] vs. hitch[IZ] o These involve phonetic conditioning of a specific grammatical marker, the present tense suffix. o Here, phonetics and morphology are playing a part in the phonological alternation. The following alternations involve a specific ‘lexical class’, i.e. a specific group of words. o Lea[f] vs. lea[vz]. o Hou[s] vs. hou[ZIZ]

Phonology  

Phonology if often used as shorthand for phonological analysis. Phonological analysis refers to examining some set of data with some particular aim in mind, such as o Identifying specific phonemes or allophones. o Identifying and characterising alternations. o Identifying syllable structure, stress assignment, or other phonological feature.

Data Analysis

Following are two data analysis problems… Both involve the examination of data to determine the status of specific segments as either separate phonemes or allophones (of a single phoneme). Tojolabal (Mexico):  In Tojolabal, [k] and [k’] must be separate phonemes. o They appear in identical phonetic environments. o They form near-minimal pairs. German:  [x] – voiceless velar fricative, as in buch [bux] ‘book’ and bach [bax] ‘beck, stream’.  [ç] – voiceless palatal fricative, as in ich [iç] ‘I’ and Dolch [d ɔlç] ‘dagger’.  We can say that German [x] occurs following back vowels, and German [ç] occurs elsewhere.  In German, [x] and [ç] are allophones of a single phoneme....