Pattern congruity

As we saw in Section 8.4.2 with [h] and [ŋ], simply using the commutation test does not always give us an appropriate analysis of our data, and we need to supplement our battery of tools by appealing to notions like phonetic similarity or dissimilarity. This, too, may not always allow us to make a decision concerning allophonic relationships, and we may need to employ further heuristics to deal with the data confronting us.

Consider again the distribution of aspirated and unaspirated stops in many varieties of English (see Section 3.1.3). Aspiration is found on voiceless stops which occur at the beginning of a stressed syllable except when the stop is preceded by [s], so ‘pin’ has an initial aspirated stop, [ph_],

but the oral stop in ‘spin’ is unaspirated, [p]. When we look at the phonetic characteristics of the oral stop in ‘spin’, which we have hitherto described as ‘voiceless unaspirated’, we see that in fact [p] shares as much with [b] as it does with [ph_{]: there is no delay in voicing onset, and the articulation is}

‘lax’. These are both characteristics which we associate with voiced stops in English. On the other hand, like voiceless segments, the stop does not have concomitant vocal cord vibration. In terms of phonetic transcription, then, either [p] or [b] (a ‘devoiced’ /b/) would be appropriate; phonologically, we might thus equally well associate the oral stop in ‘spin’ with either the phoneme /b/ or /p/, since it is in complementary distribution with all other positional variants of these phonemes, and phonetically indeterminate between the two.

How, then, do we make the choice? In this instance, it helps to look at the phonological consequences of choosing one phoneme over the other. That is, we must consider the wider effects of our choice on the analysis of the sound system as a whole, and appeal to the notion of pattern congruity, i.e. the systematic organisation of the set of phonemes and their distribution. In English, word-final obstruent sequences like those in (8.20a) and (8.20b) are well-formed, whereas those in (8.20c) are not:

(8.20) a. /-ft, -pt, -ps, -kst, -sp/, e.g. ‘daft’, ‘apt’, ‘apse’, ‘next’, ‘asp’ b. /-bd, -dz, -zd, -vz/, e.g. ‘robbed’, ‘adze’, ‘phased’, ‘leaves’ c. */-fd, -bt, -pz, -ds/

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There is a straightforward generalisation here: at the phonemic level obstruent clusters have uniform voicing in English. Either all members of the cluster are [– voice], as in (8.20a), or they are all [+ voice], as in (8.20b). ‘Mixed voice’ clusters of [– voice] + [+ voice], or [+ voice] + [– voice], as in (8.20c), are ill-formed phonemically, i.e. do not occur; phonetically, however, there may be devoicing of the second segment of the final cluster in words like ‘robbed’, as discussed in Section 3.1.4.

So what is the relevance of this to deciding which phoneme a stop preceded by /s/ should be grouped with? If we choose the voiced phoneme, i.e. say that the oral stop in ‘spin’ is some kind of /b/, then the underlying representation of ‘spin’ will be /sbin/. If this is so, then we must allow three (and only three) ‘mixed voice’ clusters (/sb, sd, sg/ as in ‘spin, stick, skate’), and we can no longer maintain the generalisation illustrated in (8.20). That is, the statement about cluster voice agreement becomes apparently no more than a tendency, and we have the problem of accounting for the fact that of the many possible mixed voiced clusters, some of which are illustrated in (8.18c), only three, /sb, sd, sg/, are ever attested in English.

On the other hand, if we choose the voiceless phoneme, and say that ‘spin’ is underlyingly /spin/, then the generalisation remains exceptionless, since the three clusters under consideration will be /sp, st, sk/ and thus no longer counterexamples to the cluster voice agreement statement. In this instance, then, our analysis is determined not by the commutation test, nor by considerations of phonetic similarity – since neither of these will prefer one option over the other – but in wider terms of the overall patterns found in the phonological system: in terms of pattern congruity. Choosing voiceless phonemes for these stops gives a more revealing, economical and elegant statement of the behaviour of obstruents in English.

8.5 Summary

In this chapter we have seen that some surface phonetic speech sounds – phones – can be grouped together in terms of their behaviour in the language as being distinct from other groups of phones. They can be thought of as both phonetically different, but at the same time phonologically the same. The underlying, abstract, cognitive entities we call phonemes; allophones are the surface, physical sounds which represent these underlying organisational units. Linking the two levels we have a set of statements specifying which of the allophones of any particular phoneme will occur in a specific context; that is, a set of rules describing the distribution of allophones.

One of the tasks facing a phonologist working with any particular language is thus to determine what the underlying phonemes of that language are and what the set of rules linking the phonemes to their allophones is. While there are no hard and fast ‘discovery procedures’ which will ensure the right answer every time, we have seen that certain techniques – such as subjecting the phonetic data to the commutation test, supplemented by notions like phonetic similarity, process naturalness and

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pattern congruity – allow phonologists to propose phonemic inventories on the basis of the distributional patterns exhibited by the phones of the language under investigation. Our focus now turns to the links between phonemes and allophones: to the rule statements.

Further reading

Most recent textbooks include discussion of phonemic analysis. See, for example, Gussmann (2002), Spencer (1996), Kenstowicz (1994), Carr (1993) and Durand (1990).

Exercises

1 Scottish English (Germanic)

Consider the distribution of [w] and [] in the following data. Are the phones allophones of the same or different phonemes? Why? If they are allophones of a single phoneme, give a rule to account for the distribution.

a. ae why h. we way

b. i which i. wεð3ɾ weather c. 3it white j. wɔnt want d. e)z whales k. wi witch e. ip whip l. w3ip wipe f. ə3i) awhile m. we)z Wales g. εð3ɾ whether n. əwɔʃ awash 2 Spanish (Romance; Spain, Latin America)

Examine the following Spanish data from Quilis and Fernández (1972), focusing on the sounds [b], [b], [], [γ], and answer the questions below. Note: [b] = voiced bilabial fricative; [γ] = voiced velar fricative.

a. bomba ‘bomb’ e. beŋga ‘(s/he) comes’ b. beγa ‘plain’ f. boba ‘foolish’

c. tubo ‘tube’ g. gato ‘cat’ d. paγa ‘pay’ h. tumbo ‘fall’

i. Can you identify any relationship between the sounds [b], [b], [] and [γ]? If so, what sort of relationship is it? If not, why can we say there is no relationship?

ii. Depending on your answer to (i), either write a rule to capture the relationship(s) you have observed, or list the environments that lead you to believe that the sounds are not related.

iii. What might we expect of the sounds [d] and [ð] in Spanish? Why? iv. Compare your answer in (iii) with the following data.

i. rondar ‘to patrol’ k. roðar ‘to roll’ j. dar ‘to give’ l. deðo ‘finger’

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v. Do the data bear out your expectation? Explain.

vi. Make a general statement about the relationships holding between the sounds [b], [b], [], [γ], [d] and [ð].

3 Korean (isolate; Korea)

Examine the following (non-standard) Korean data and answer the questions below. Note: tones are not indicated.

a. satan ‘division’ k. ʃesuʃil ‘washroom’ b. ʃeke ‘world’ l. inzwea ‘publisher’ c. aŋza ‘business’ m. paŋzək ‘cushion’ d. inza ‘greetings’ n. ʃihap ‘game’ e. ʃekum ‘taxes’ o. sosəl ‘novel’ f. sæk ‘colour’ p. su ‘number’ g. sæ ‘new’ q. ʃiktaŋ ‘dining room’ h. ph_{uŋzok ‘custom’ r. sul ‘wine’}

i. ʃilsu ‘mistake’ s. jəŋzuuŋ ‘receipt’ j. susul ‘operation’ t. ʃinpu ‘bride’

i. On the basis of the data above, are the sounds [s], [z] and [ʃ] in Korean all allophones of the same phoneme? Are any, or all, of them separate phonemes?

ii. Justify your answer to (i) by discussing the evidence you used to determine the status of [s], [z] and [ʃ].

iii. Depending on your answers to (i) and (ii), provide either a rule or a list of contrasting environments expressing the distribution of [s], [z] and [ʃ].

iv. If [s], [z] and [ʃ] are allophones of a single phoneme, which would you choose to represent that phoneme? Justify your answer.

4 American English (Germanic)

Consider the distribution of [u] and [υ] in the data below, which comes from a single speaker of American English.

a. rum room k. rυt root

b. lut loot l. wυd wood

c. huf hoof m. rυk rook

d. zum zoom n. sυt soot

e. pul pool o. kυd could

f. rut root p. rυf roof

g. kud cooed q. hυf hoof

h. wud wooed r. rυm room

i. sut soot s. pυl pull

j. ruf roof t. gυd good

i. Look for evidence of contrastive distribution, complementary distribution and/or free variation. Which do you find?

ii. In what way is the evidence concerning the number of phonemes involved apparently contradictory?

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iii. How should this contradiction be resolved (i.e. how many phonemes are represented by the phones [u] and [υ], and why)?

5 Plains Cree (Algonquian; North America)

In the following data from Wolfart (1973), examine the sounds [p], [b], [t] and [d], and answer the following questions.

a. pahki ‘partly’ l. tahki ‘all the time’ b. nisosap ‘twelve’ m. mihet ‘many’ c. tanispi ‘when’ n. nisto ‘three’ d. paskuau ‘prairie’ o. tagosin ‘he arrives’ e. asabap ‘thread’ p. mibit ‘tooth’ f. sisip ‘duck’ q. nisida ‘my feet’ g. wabameu ‘he sees him’ r. medaueu ‘he plays’ h. nabeu ‘man’ s. kodak ‘another’ i. abihtau ‘half’ t. nisit ‘my foot’ j. nibimohtan ‘I walk’ u. nisisibim ‘my duck’ k. sisibak ‘ducks’ v. iskodeu ‘fire’

i. Are [p], [b], [t] and [d] in complementary or contrastive distribution? How many phonemes do we need to posit to account for the distribution of these four sounds? What are they?

ii. If you answered ‘complementary distribution’ to (i), above, write the rule to express the distribution of [p], [b], [t] and [d]. If you answered ‘contrastive distribution’, list the environments in which we find a contrast.

iii. Recalling the behaviour of [p, t, k] as a set in English with respect to aspiration, what might we expect in Cree, based on our observations of the data above, with respect to the relationship between [k] and []? Is there any evidence in the data that [k] and [] conform to our expectations?

iv. Given the words of Cree below, can you fill in the blanks with one of the sounds indicated? If not, why not?

a. wa__amon (p/b) ‘mirror’ d. __ikwaj (k/p) ‘what’ b. nis__a (t/k) ‘goose’ e. os__i (k/g) ‘young’ c. __ani (t/d) ‘which’ f. o__a (d/b) ‘here’

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The previous chapter was concerned with establishing the phonemic system which underlies the phonetic inventory of a language; that is deciding what the underlying set of contrasts is. Mention was also made (in Section 8.3) of the need to link the two levels formally via a set of rules which account for the particular allophone of a phoneme occurring in any specific environment. This chapter takes a closer look at this part of the phonological component of the grammar, starting with some discussion of the range of phenomena we have to account for as phonologists, and moving on to a more formal explication of the conventions of rule writing.