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Speech Sounds and Semantics

Yamileth Estefany leal Rincón

Curso 518017 Introduction to Linguistics –Grupo 37

Tutor
Viviana Andrea Ospina Giraldo

Universidad Nacional abierta y a distancia-UNAD

Escuela de Ciencias de la Educación
Licenciatura en lenguas extranjeras con énfasis en ingles
Cúcuta/Norte de Santander
2020
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 [ð] for the first sound in the)

That [dat]
Dog [dɒg]
Head [hεd]
Leather [lεðə]
Leader [liIðə]
Sing [ʃIŋ]
Sat [sat]
Loss [lɒs]
Fish [fIʃ]
Miss [mIʃ]
push [pus]

 How might you explain these non-native pronunciations?

Answer: This is result related with the sounds that exist in our maternal languages, on
the other hand, is easy to confuse since in English there are sounds different explain
through IPA (international phonetic alphabet) which purpose is to grant, in a
regularized, precise and unique way, the representation of the sounds of any oral
language, that is to say, that there is a variation in the phonology among both.

 How do you think this learner would pronounce the bold-faced consonants in
Daddy, either, loathe; ship, pass, dish, usher?

Answer: Daddy: [Dædi]

-Either: [eɪðer]
- Loathe: [lɒæðe]
- Ship: [ʃip]
- Pass: [pas]
- Dish: [dɪʃ]
- Usher: [uʃer]

 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 avail-able, write a short statement
of where the sound in question can and cannot be found.[m n ŋp b t d k g l r]
Answer:
{B-p}
Initial Medial Final
Blues Rabbit Tomb
Play octopus sleep

{K-g}
Initial Medial Final
Curly hike back
Girl begin beg

{T-d}
Initial Medial Final
Teddy Lather cut
Done elder head
{L-r}
Initial Medial Final
Lady bullying bay
Rose arose car

{M-n}
Initial Medial Final
Magic lamb forum
Nature manager abdomen

 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.

Answer: Keith has four phonemes: k/e/i/t/h

Coughs has five phonemes: c/o/u/gh/s

 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.

Answer:
- Keith: Keɪθ – Faith: Feɪθ
- Coughs: kɒf – Cods: kɒds

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
1 The time has come the Walrus said
2 To talk of many things
3 Of shoes and ships and sealing-wax
4 Of cabbage and kings
5 And why the sea is boiling hot
6 And whether pigs have wings

 In chapter 8, we can see some classical phenomena related to ambiguous

sentences; please consult in other references and explain what amphibology is, give
one example.

Answer: amphibology is a phenomenon that occur when the grammar of statements is such
as that several distinct meaning can obtain.
Example: the governor says, Save soap and waste paper .so soap is more evaluable than
paper.
 In semantics to identify the meaning of a word, linguists created the notion of
‘semantic field’ please, explain what is it? (Hint: in your answer the concept of
‘structure’ is important).
Answer: semantic fields is a group of words related in meaning which cover a certain
conceptual domain and which bear certain specifiable relations to one another
(Lehrer,1985)
The words in a semantic fields share a common semantic property most often, fields are
defined by subject matter, such as landforms, colors, food, diseases.
 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).

Answer:
l according to the IPA there is just one
symbols that represents this sounds
,either a light or a dark ,that is to say if
L is light is comes before the vowel or
diphthong in the syllable while if it
comes after the vowel or diphthong in a
syllable it is a dark
Finally to make this sounds the tip of
the tongue reaches up and touches the
roof of the mouth just behind the front
teeth as the vocals cords are sounds
.sometimes this sounds by bringing the
tip of the tongue trough the
teeth{l}similar to the position for th

Here some examples

Hear every words

Style dime site file

Still dim sit fill

ɹ In this case these sound the lips will

round .is very important the back part of
the tongue does stretch up ,here
towards the middle part of the roof of
the mouth .the front part of the tongue
pulls back ,with the R the tongue is sort
of pulling up into itself .the front part of
the tongue shouldn`t be touching
anything
Here some examples
Please practice slowly this words

Bread –crash –price-street –tree- drop

.
References

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