PHONOLOGICAL RULES & PROCESSES

Scolastica Wedhowerti
 PHONOLOGICAL RULES
• Rules of phonology or phonological rules are part of a
speaker’s knowledge of the language. The phonemic
representations are minimally specified because some
features or feature values are predictable, e.g. all English
nasal consonants are voiced, so we don’t need to specify
voicing in the phonemic feature matrix for nasals.
• Anything which is predictable by rule is non-phonemic
(quote of the semester ), e.g. the nasalization in English
 Phonological Rules
 Phonological rules relate phonemic representations to phonetic
representations.
 The rules have functions as follows:
a. Add feature values  nasal consonant assimilation rules in
English ([bĩn])
b. Add new features  aspiration in English, pill [phɪl]
c. Delete segments  /b/ after Word-final /m/  bomb [bɒm] vs.
bombardier [bɒmbədɪə]
d. Add segments  schwa insertion (ə) in English plural
(buses[bʌsəz]) and past tense, e.g. raided[redəd]
 Derivation

Input Phonemic

Phonological Rules (P-Rules)

Output Phonetic Representation

 DISTINCTIVE FEATURES
• What is Distinctive Feature?
• When a feature distinguishes one phoneme from another
• Feel and veal [f] and [v], cap and cab [p] and [b]
• Indicated by feature values  plus (+), minus (-)
• Observe Fromkin pp. 236-237
/p/ /b/ /m/
Consonantal + + +
Stop + + +
Continuant – – –
Labial + + +
Voiced – + +
Nasal – – +
 Examples of English Phonological
Rules

• Assimilation
• Dissimilation
• Feature Changing
• Segment Insertion
• Segment Deletion
 Assimilation Rules
• The vowel nasalization rule in English is an assimilation rule because it
makes neighboring segments more similar by adding the feature [+ nasal]
to the vowel, e.g. bin [bĩn] where both [ĩ] and [n] are [+ nasal].
a. class of sound  vowel
b. the rule  change phonemic oral vowels to phonetic nasal vowel
c. phonological environment  before a nasal consonant within the same
syllable
Now, the rule is formulated as follows:
V  [+ nasal] / _ [+ nasal] $, which means vowels become nasalized in the
environment before nasal segments within the same syllable (observe
Fromkin p. 244 and a table on p. 245)
 Dissimilation Rules

certain segments become less similar to other segments, e.g.

tongue twister “the sixth sheik’s sixth sheep is sick”  repeated
similarity of sounds. Do you find it difficult? Now compare to
this “the second sheik’s tenth sheep is sick”.
Easier? Why? Now observe the cartoon 
 another example is /fθ/ and /sθ/ changed into [ft] and [st] as in
fifth and sixth into fift and sikst  aren’t they all fricatives?
 Feature Changing Rule
• Add new features  aspiration in English, pill [phɪl]
• Fromkin, et.al, p. 243
 Segment Insertion Rules (Epenthesis)
 Knowledge of phonology determines how we pronounce
words and the parts of words we call morphemes (the
smallest unit of word analysis, e.g. root and affix).
Morphemes are pronounced differently depending on their
contexts  variation  phonological rules
 The Case of English Plural’s Pronunciation  Observe the
pronunciation of plurals in English, Fromkin, pp. 225-228
 Segment Insertion Rules, contiued

• The final sound of the plural nouns from Column A is a [z]—a voiced alveolar
fricative. For column B the plural ending is an [s]—a voiceless alveolar
fricative. Column C it’s [əz]  There are allomorphs or variants or a variant
of a morpheme  in plurals we have [z], [s], [əz]
• Assume that the basic/underlying form of the plural morpheme is [z] with the
meaning “plural”. This is called the “default” pronunciation. Now test the
rules. The rules tell us when the default does not apply
 Segment Insertion Rule (conclusion)

The three different allomorphs occur in each different

environment as follows:
 Segment Insertion Rules, continued
Epenthesis  the process of inserting a consonant or
vowel
 The rules for forming regular plurals, possessive forms,
and third-person singular verb agreement require an
epenthesis rule.
 insert a [ə] before the plural morpheme /z/ when a regular
noun ends in a sibilant, giving [əz]
Ø  ə / [+sibilant] _ [+sibilant]
 null becomes schwa between two sibilant
Observe Fromkin’s example of squeeze
 Segment Deletion:
/b/ after Word-final /m/

A B
bomb [bɒm] bombardier [bɒmbədɪə]
iamb iambic
crumb crumble
bomb bombing / bomber
iamb iambs
crumb crumbs
climb climbing / climber
comb combs / combing
lamb lambs
 Segment Deletion Rules

 often happen in casual/rapid speech

 Optional Unstressed Syllable Deletion
mystery mystry
general genral
memory memry
funeral funral
vigorous vigrous
Barbara Barbra

 observe Fromkin p. 248

 Could you provide your own examples?