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: “Meaning” chapter 8,
pages 50 to 51, in ‘Linguistics Made Easy’ by J. Aitchison. 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
questions one and two from page 21.

. 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 [li:də]

sing [ʃIŋ] sat [sat] loss [lɒs]

fish [fIʃ] miss [mIʃ] push [pus]

How might you explain these non-native pronunciations?

The English learner is not distinguishing the correct Englihs sound and is getting confused with
minimal paris. As in that [dat] instead of [ðaet], push [pus] instead of [puIʃ] and so on. How do
you think this learner would pronounce the bold- faced consonantsit.

According to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA),each vowel or consonant has its
pronunciation, the mount and thongue movement its different for each one. For a person who is
learning any language it is important to be aware of this phonetic sound so he can speak correctly
for example:

In the word push [pus] : the lips come together, air comes out and it makes a “pop” out of the
mouth.

In the word fish [fIʃ]: whit the “sh” sound the lips flair and the corners of the lips come in.

Daddy = daedi

Either = i:der

Loather = Leod

Ship = Sip

Pass = paes

Dish = dis
Usher = Aser

2. 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]

k and g

Letter Initial medial final

          k carry cake cook

          g girly cage blog

b and p

Letter Initial medial final

          b Bend forbid bag

          p pend vaping cap

l and r

Letter Initial medial final

          l long pulp rental

          r rough pure linter

t and d

Letter Initial medial final

          t two alter want

          d to alder band

m and n

Letter Initial medial final

          m more tomb come

          n note tongue town

3. From the second document, “Natural Language Processing & Applications Phones and
Phonemes” please answer questions 1 and 2 from page 10.

  How many phonemes are there in (a) Keith (b) Coughs?

/Keith/ has four phonemes: k/e/i/th

/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.

           Keith: kei                    - Faith: fāTH

         Couhts: kôf                  - Cods: kodz

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.

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.

 The time has come, the Walrus said

To talk of many thing:

Of shoes and ships and sealing wax

Of cabbages and kings

And why the sea is boiling hot

And whether pigs have wings

I differ in the following pronunciation:

    Said: sed

    Tal: ta:k

4. Based on text: “Meaning” chapter 8, pages 50 to 51, in ‘Linguistics Made Easy’ by J. Aitchison
answer the two following questions

4.1 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.

Speaker meaning is when a person says something that can be literal or nonliteral. Literal when
someone expresses what he wants to says for example if someone says to close the door, it
means exactly that, that you have to close the door. Nonliteral is when someone says something
but the meaning is different because the person is talking with sarcasm, irony or metaphor

If you ask for a loan to a friend and he tells you “sorry I am broke”, it doesn’t mean that the person
is in two pieces or so, it means that the person doesn’t have money, of for example if ihave me
shoes so dirty and one of my friends of mine tells me “be careful or your shoes can get dirty”, I
know that he is telling me that with sarcasm.

4.2 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).

The denotation theory of meaning suggest direct relationship of an expression or a word and the
object it denotes. The problem with this theory is that, two sentences can have the same
denotation but have completely different meaning.

For example these two expressions: the president of Colombia and Ivan Duque, these sentences
denotes the same person but they don’t mean the same thing.

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).
I choose the  following minimal pairs: /p/ - /b/

 p Called: voiceless bilabials stop. We use both

lips to block the mouth. we do not use the
vocal cords to produce the sound, we stop
the air flow and release it.
Words like: pair, pull, plate.
 
 b Called: the voice bilabials stop, we use both
the lips to block the mouth and we use the
vocal chord to produce the sound. We built up
air flow and the release it.
Words like: bend, bill, built.
Minimal pairs to distinguish the difference between the sounds:

Beer /pir/

Peer / bir/