Linguistic analysis:

The basics
 59

Basics
❖ Linguists traditionally divide language structure into certain
“levels” that form a hierarchy and each deal with different units
❖ Phonetics and phonology (sounds
❖ Morphology (words
❖ Syntax (phrases and sentences
❖ Semantics and pragmatics (meaning)

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Basics

❖ Distinctions between levels are not clear-cut; languages are

systems because each level interacts with the other levels
(though to different degrees
❖ “Translation” of design feature of double articulation:
phonological units (/a/, /r/, /m/) combine into morphological
units (arm), which then join to form syntactic units (my left arm)

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Basics: Sounds
❖ Major distinction between phonetics and phonology:

Phonetics Phonology
Actual speech Mental representation of
Object of study
sounds speech sounds
Primary units Phones Phonemes

Symbols [] //

Related disciplines Physics, biology Psychology

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Basics: Sounds

❖ Phonetics divided into three sub- elds

❖ Articulatory (how are speech sounds produced?
❖ Acoustic (what are the physical properties of speech sounds?
❖ Auditory (how are speech sounds perceived?
❖ Articulatory = most relevant to phonology
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Basics: Sounds

❖ Articulatory phonetics: primary distinction between consonants

and vowel
❖ Consonants: produced with some kind of obstruction of the
air ow; vowels: no obstructio
❖ Both place and manner of the obstruction are crucial parameters
for the description of consonants
fl
s

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Basics: Sounds
❖ The obstruction takes place in the vocal tract, usually at one of
the places indicated below:

Velum
Ashby, Michael & John
Maidment. 2005.
Introducing phonetic
science. Cambridge:
Cambridge University
Press. P. 35.
 65

Basics: Sounds

❖ Location of the obstruction → “place of articulation” vs. type of

obstruction → “manner of articulation
❖ Many different places and manners possible, but some are much
more common than other
❖ Bilabial = easiest place of articulation to understand (because it
can be seen); both /p/ and /b/ are produced with the lips

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Basics: Sounds

❖ Initial gesture for production of /p/ and /b/: total closure of

the lips → lips are main location of the obstruction, and so the
two sounds are bilabia
❖ In order to be heard, the obstruction must be released; air stored
behind the closed lips is emitted, leading to an audible noise,
perceived as sound /p/ or /b/

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Basics: Sounds

❖ Sounds produced by the release of a total obstruction → “stop”

(or “plosive”) → /p/ and /b/ are bilabial stop
❖ Bilabial = place; stop = manner — how do /p/ and /b/ differ
❖ Third parameter needed for consonants: voicing (= vibration of
the vocal cords/folds in the larynx
❖ No voicing = voiceless (/p/); voicing = voiced (/b/)
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Basics: Sounds
❖ Glottis and vocal cords:

Akmajian, Adrian, Richard Demers, Ann

Farmer, Robert Harnish. 2001. Linguistics: An
introduction to language and communication.
5th edn. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. P. 70.
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Basics: Sounds

❖ It follows that /p/ is a ❖ It follows that /b/ is a

❖ voiceles ❖ voice

❖ bilabial ❖ bilabial

❖ stop ❖ stop
d

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Basics: Sounds
❖ → Three parameters
❖ manner of articulatio
❖ place of articulatio
❖ voicin
❖ These are suf cient to classify most — but not all! — of the
consonants found in the languages of the world
g

fi
n

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Basics: Sounds

❖ Note: bilabial sounds are a little unusual in that it is the lips

causing the primary obstructio
❖ For most consonants, it is the tongue, which causes an
obstruction further inside the mout
❖ The parts involved in causing the obstruction are called
“articulators”

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Basics: Sounds

❖ Other common manners of articulation

❖ Fricatives: narrow but not total obstruction (e.g., /s/, /f/
❖ Affricates: initial part like a stop, second part like a fricative at
more or less the same place (e.g., /pf/, /ts/
❖ Nasal: total oral obstruction but air released through nose
because of opened velum (e.g., /m/, /n/)
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Basics: Sounds
❖ Oral vs. nasal consonants:

Ashby, Patricia. 2011.

Understanding phonetics.
Abingdon: Routledge. P. 48.
 74

Basics: Sounds

❖ Other common places of articulation

❖ Alveolar: at the alveolar ridge right behind the upper teeth
(e.g., /s/, /t/
❖ Velar: at the velum (“soft palate”) toward the back of the roof
of the mouth (e.g., /k/, /g/
❖ Glottal: between/with the vocal cords (e.g., /h/)
)

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Basics: Sounds

❖ Special set of symbols for the representation of speech sounds:

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA
❖ Necessary because regular orthographies do not re ect
pronunciation in one-to-one fashion, let alone across languages
❖ through, though, thought, tough, etc.
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Basics: Sounds
❖ Most of the consonantal portion of the IPA (we will ignore the
remainder for now):
 77

Basics: Sounds

An alignment of the different

places of articulation with their
corresponding labels
(With these kind of charts,
always imagine the pro le of a
person looking to the left)
Ashby, p. 36.

fi
 78

Basics: Sounds

❖ Vowels: articulation not based on obstruction

❖ Vowels do not all sound the same, so they must differ from each
other in articulatory terms (different result ← different process
❖ Articulatory parameters for vowels: also based on position of
tongue/lips/velum, but when not forming part of obstruction
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Basics: Sounds

❖ Main vowel parameters

❖ Tongue heigh
❖ Tongue backnes
❖ Lip roundin
❖ Nasality (relevant less often than the other three)
g

 80

Basics: Sounds

❖ Parameter of backness easy to appreciate when moving slowly

from /i/ to /u/— tongue moves backwards, which shows
that /u/ is back relative to /i
❖ Parameter of height can be felt when moving from /i/ to /a/ —
tongue drops (along with jaw), which shows that /a/ is low
relative to /i/

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Basics: Sounds
❖ Left: tongue further to the front, producing front vowel
❖ Right: tongue further to the back, producing back vowels

Heinz, Matthias & Stephan Schmid.

2021. Phonetik und Phonologie des
Italienischen: Eine Einführung für
Studierende der Romanistik. Berlin:
De Gruyter. P. 46.
 82

Basics: Sounds
❖ Different tongue heights produce different vowels:

Odden, David. 2005.

Introducing phonology.
Cambridge:
Cambridge University
Press. P. 21.
 83

Basics: Sounds
❖ Movement from /i/ to /u/ also involves lip rounding, which
shows that /u/ is a rounded vowel, but /i/ is not

Ashby & Maidment, p. 73.

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Basics: Sounds

❖ Nasal vowels:
❖ Air released through mouth and nose simultaneousl
❖ Not phonologically meaningful in English or Germa
❖ Make a difference in French (e.g., mais vs. main) as well as in
Portuguese and many other languages

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Basics: Sounds

❖ Problem for vowel-consonant division: semi-vowels (or “glides”

or “approximants”
❖ Common: /j/ ( rst sound in yellow) ,/w/ ( rst sound in work
❖ Hardly any obstruction and thus vowel-like, but too little of an
opening to be vowels — usually classi ed as consonant
❖ Reminder: all linguistic categories are gradient
fi
)

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Basics: Sounds

❖ Certain types of vowels also present complications

❖ Diphthongs: similar to affricates in the consonantal domain;
involve a change of articulation within a single sound, e.g., the
vowels in ne or roll
❖ Often unclear if really a single vowel, or two vowels, or vowel
+ consonant (semi-vowel)
fi
 87

Basics: Sounds

❖ Another potential distinction: vowel quantity; i.e., temporal

duration (length) of a vowe
❖ In German, Lache with a short /a/ is ‘laugh (noun),’ but with a
long /a/, it is ‘puddle’ → quantity makes a differenc
❖ (In consonants, duration may also be distinctive; in Italian, palla
= ‘ball’ but pala = ‘shovel’ — long consonants = “geminates”)

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Basics: Sounds
❖ Vowels also have speci c IPA symbols; diphthongs are not
included because they cannot be assigned a single, xed place
Diphthongs combine their
close = hig “input” symbols, e.g., aʊ for
open = lo the vowel in town
close-mid/open-mid = mid
Long vowels are
followed by ː,
“schwa” e.g., aː
Nasal vowels
bear a tilde ~ on
top, e.g.,
ẽ
w

fi