Step 4 - Speech sounds and Semantics

Student

Luisa Alejandra Torres Flautero

CC. 1053344672

Course 518017A_614

Group 518017_44

Teacher

Henry Lenis

Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia (UNAD)

Chiquinquirá Boyacá

2019
 Step 4 - Speech sounds and Semantics

1. Read the following three documents “The phoneme: the same but different” Chapter

2, ‘in McMahon, A. M. S. 2016. An Introduction to English Phonology’. Also read the

document: “Natural Language Processing & Applications Phones and Phonemes

and, finally read: “Chapter 6. Semantics: The Study of Linguistic Meaning” pages

225-234, in Akmajian, A. and others. 2010. Linguistics: An Introduction to Language

and Communication, 6th edition. Cambridge. All the material is found in UNIT 1, in

the Knowledge Environment.

2. Based on the first document “The phoneme: the same but different” by McMahon, A,

develop the three questions from pages 21, 22.

Exercises

a. A learner of English as a second language has the following pronunciations (note that [ʃ]

is the symbol for the first sound in ship, and [d] forthe first sound in the):

that [dat] dog [dɒg] head [hεd]

leather [lεdə] leader [li_də]

sing [ʃ ŋ] sat [sat] loss [lɒs]

fish [f ʃ] miss [m ʃ] push [pus]

How might you explain these non-native pronunciations? How do you think this learner would

pronounce the bold-faced consonants in Daddy, either, loathe; ship, pass, dish, usher ?

Practically for the synonims for the native pronunciations of those words are, Daddy = father,

either = ( either is like picking between two options ), loathe is the same as ' hate ', ship is the

same as wanting something or someone with the amount of two or more person/thing to be

together? pass is the same as skipping something, dish is meal, dont know about usher though.

b. Do the following sounds contrast in English? Find minimal pairs to support your

hypothesis, ideally for initial, medial and final position in the word. Where minimal pairs

for all positions do not seem to be available, write a short statement of where the sound in

question can and cannot be found.

[m n ŋ p b t d k g l r]

Yes, I could find minimal pairs in some examples, as follows

(m n ŋ)

(p b t d g)

– A minimal pair is two words with different meanings that are iden-cal except for one sound

that occurs in the same place in each word

– Minimal pairs whose members take different forms of the plural allomorph are par-cularly

helpful for our purposes.

 c. The Ministry for Education in a certain country whose language has up to now been

unwritten has hired two foreign linguists to produce an orthography. Linguists A and B

have suggested two rather different systems. Which one is most in line with the

phonological structure of the language it is designed for? Why do you think the other

linguist may have made different decisions?

I think that linguist B is more in line with the phonological structure of the language for which

it is designed, because it is more similar and precise to its pronunciation and to the phonological

form. I think the other linguist could make different decisions because phonology should be more

in line with the line raised.

3. Simak lebih lanjut di Brainly.co.id - https://brainly.co.id/tugas/11191738#readmore

From the second document, “Natural Language Processing & Applications Phones and

Phonemes” please answer questions 1 and 2 from page 10.

a. How many phonemes are there in (a) Keith (b) coughs? What are they in the IPA? In

each case try to demonstrate the correctness of your answer by finding words differing

by only one of the phonemes you have identified.

a. Keith /k/e/i/th/ example: fifth /f/i/f/th/

b. Coughs /c/o/u/g/hs/ example: eight /e/i/g/ht/

One aim of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was to provide a unique symbol for each

distinctive sound in a language—that is, every sound, or phoneme, that serves to distinguish one

word from another.

 c. You are NOT expected to know the IPA symbols; the table given in the Appendix will be

provided if and when necessary. However it is useful to have some practice in using

them. Study the following phonetic transcription of a verse of Lewis Carroll’s poem The

Walrus and the Carpenter. The transcription corresponds to my ‘careful’ pronunciation.

Write down the normal English spelling. If your pronunciation differs from mine, write

down an amended transcription in the IPA.

 [əv kæbəgəz ænd kɪŋz] Correction: [kæbəgəz] → [kæbədʒəz] Orthography: of cabbages

and kings

 [ænd wɛθər pɪgz hæv wɪŋz] Correction: [wɛθər] → [wɛðər] Orthography: and whether

pigs have wings

4. From the reading “Semantics. The Study of Linguistic Meaning Chapter” by

Akmajian answer the two following questions:

4.1 What is exactly the concept ‘speaker meaning’? Explain and give an example (in

Spanish or English).

the speaker meaning can difer from the linguistic meaning, depending on whether the speaker is

speaking literally or nonliterally. When we speak literally, we mean what our words mean, and in

this case there is no important di.erence between speaker meaning and linguistic meaning. But

when we speak nonliterally, we mean something diferent from what our words mean.

For example: the sarcasm and irony; ‘‘That movie was a real winner!’’

4.2 Explain, what is an important problem of the ‘Denotational Theory of Meaning’?

There are serious problems with the identification of meaning as denotation. For instance, if we

believe that the meaning of an expression is its denotation, we are committed to at least the

following additional claims:

a. If an expression has a meaning, then it follows that it must have a denotation (meaningfulness).

b. If two expressions have the same denotation, then they have the same meaning (synonymy).

5. Here is a scenario of a pronunciation lesson gone wrong. The teacher repeatedly

demonstrates a pair of similar sounds (e.g., “rrrr” and “llll”). However, the students

still fail to perceive the difference between the two. The thing is that students have

difficulty distinguishing between pairs of sounds when these are taught in isolation.

Pronunciation lessons are infinitely more effective when students are taught to

distinguish between words (e.g., light/right), instead of just individual sounds. Design

a mini lesson that presents the [l] and [ɹ] sounds within the context of minimal pairs.

(Option, you can select any other minimal pairs to design the mini lesson). (Adapted

from Gordon T. 2012).

Lesson:

This lesson may be helpful to students who are having difficulty clearly pronouncing /l/ and or

/r/

The teacher must tell the students that Please repeat after:

Initial Position

lock rock
lamp ramp

light right

lent rent

lies rise

load road

lack rack

loot root

Medial Position

flog frog

plowed proud

climb crime

gloom groom

bloom broom

elect erect

dial dire

gold gourd

bowling boring
 hold hoard

Final position

tool tour

pole pour

deal dear

real rear

heal here

Another activity is Same or different?

The teacher tells the students that they should Tell, if the sounds you hear (pointing out the /l/

and /r/ on the board once) are the same or different:

lock- rock

lock- lock

light -right

ramp -ramp

rent -lent

lies- rise

gold -gourd
 room- room

frog -frog

tool -tour

loom -room

gold- gourd

dear -deal

pole- pour

kneel -near

Name that sound

And the last activity is that the teacher tells the students that Tell, which sound you hear. Say

"L" when you hear /l/. Say "R" when you hear /r/.

lock

rock

lent

rent

tour

tool

lies

rise
lamp

leak

reek

near

kneel

6. Check your partners’ posts and make comments about them in order to discuss and

improve their ideas.

 Bibliography

McMahon, A. M. S. (2016). An Introduction to English Phonology. Edinburgh: EUP.

Retrieved from

http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true

&db=nlebk&AN=1584999&lang=es&site=eds-live&scope=site

Coxhead, P. (2006). Natural Language Processing & Applications Phones and Phonemes.

[PDF FILE]. Retrieved from https://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~pxc/nlp/NLPA-Phon1.pdf

Akmajian, A. et al. (2010). Linguistics: An Introduction to Language and Communication, 6th

edition. Cambridge: The MIT Press. Retrieved from

http://93.174.95.29/_ads/697AA18A69B732602396BABDBF8BEF88

Huang, Y. (2007). Pragmatics. Oxford: OUP Oxford. Retrieved from

http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true

&db=nlebk&AN=1640096&lang=es&site=eds-live&scope=site