Tutorial on Problem Set 1 (Sep 4th 2012)

Problem Set Helps (LING/PSY/SPH 341, Sep. 4th 2012, TA: Yuan-Lu Chen (cheny@email.arizona.edu); Office hour: Fri. 10am-12pm Douglass 110 cubicle F) In this tutorial, you will learn: 1. How to count syllables. (Q1) 2. How to identify some sound alternation patterns.(Q3,Q4,Q5) 3. The basic ideas about how sounds are produced (the manner and the place of articulation).(Q2 Q5) A syllable is made up of a vowel with optional initial and final consonants. Recognizing syllables is to recognize vowels. Traits of Vowels: louder and produced with large amount of airstream. Tract louder sounds and large amount of airstream, and then you are tracing syllables. In the video, there are three ways of counting syllables. The first two ways (syllable clap and robot speak) use the loudness to find syllables. The last method is to detect airstream-- we have to open the mouth to release the airstream. What is syllable? (Q1) Children omit unstressed syllables at the beginning of words and phrases. By replacing the whole syllable with an asterisk (*), mark the syllable most likely to be omitted in each of the following utterances. e.g. (3a) The bear * bear. The vowel in unstressed syllables often weakened as . Check the vowel in the word-initial or phrase-initial syllable. If the vowel is , then replace the whole syllable with asterisk (*). Q3. Being the first man on the moon, after all, would seem to place you on top of the world, providing a kind of lifetime pass to wherever you wanted to go -- and whatever you wanted to be. Practice: Being *the first man on the moon, after all, would seem to place you on top *of *the world, *providing *a kind *of lifetime pass *to wherever you wanted *to go -- and whatever you wanted *to be. Spanish does not have /z/, /v/ and . English words that have these sounds receive the replacements [s], [b],and [t ], respectively. For the following words, which English homophone would be created when produced by a Spanish-speaker who is learning English? Q4 Practice Questions Target word English homophone "doze" "dose" "vent" "bent" Place of articulation: Quiz: how many syllables are there in "Neil Armstrong"? Speech sounds can have different qualities because the airstream can be constricted by different places of the vocal tract. Classification of consonants (3 dimensions): 1. Place of articulation 2. Manner of articulation 3. Voicing Manner of articulation: Speech sounds can have different qualities because the airstream can be constricted in different manners: completely blocked (stop), well-restricted (fricative), blocked and then well-restricted (affricate), less-restricted (liquid & glide) and flowing out through nasal cavity (nasal). Voicing: Whether the vocal chord vibrates when a speech sound is produced also determines the quality of the sound: voiced when the vocal chord vibrates and voiceless when it doesn't vibrate. Prerequisite for Q2 & Q5 (IPA consonants) Put All Together: Classification of vowels (3 dimensions): 1. Tongue Height (High/Mid/Low) 2. Tongue position (Front/Central/Back) 3. Tense/Lax (All the vowels are produced with the airstream not constricted; thus "manner of articulation" is not an available dimension for vowels.) Prerequisite for Q2 & Q5 (IPA Vowels) Listen to the actual productions of each sounds Practice for Q2 Type the following in IPA (international phonetic alphabet) using this webside http://ipa.typeit.org/. The fat dog chased a small cat. /???????????????????????????/ Hints for Q5: How to find the patterns The phonological processes or sound alternations of young children can be classified into 3 types: a. Deletion: some sounds (a syllable, a consonant...) can be deleted/dropped by children. Q3 is an example of deleting the whole weak syllable. b. Assimilation: make sound produced in the identical place, with the identical manner or with the identical voicing. c. Replacement with easier sounds: generally, stops are easier than fricatives , and sounds produced with front parts of the vocal cavity are easier than back sounds. Young children tend to replacing difficult sounds with easy sounds. Closing remarks: Enjoy the homework! If you need extra assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me. Send me an email (cheny@email.arizona.edu), or visit my office (Fri. 10am-12pm Douglass 110 cubicle F). If you like this "prezi" way of presentation, you can easily get a free account with a free 500MB online storage space, if registering with your UA email. best, Yuan-Lu Chen Ans: 3 syllables. Practice Questions Target word English homophone "doze" "????" "vent" "????" The fat dog chased a small cat. /ðə fæt dɔg tʃest ə smɔl kæt/