Task 4 - Speech sounds and semantics

Course: Introduction to Linguistics

Tutor: Cenaida Gómez

Students: Jhon Alexander Romero

Code. 88.246.244
Group: 518017_36

Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia –UNAD - Cead Cucuta

Bachelor of English as a Foreign Language Cead. Cucuta
November 30- 2020
 Task 4 - Speech sounds and semantics

Step 1: Checking
- Go to the Learning Environment and check the Course Contents and Bibliographic
References for Unit 2. Read Chapter 2 in McMahon, A. M. S. (2016). An Introduction to English
Phonology. Edinburgh University Press. Read also Coxhead, P. (2006). Natural Language
Processing & Applications Phones and Phonemes. Finally, read Chapter 6, pages 225-234 of
Akmajian, A. et al. (2010). Linguistics: An Introduction to Language and Communication, 6th
edition. The MIT Press.
- Attend the second web conference of the course or watch the recording to make a
summary to be posted in the forum.
Step 2: Answers
- Based on the first document “The phoneme: the same but different” by McMahon, A,
answer the three questions from pages 21, 22.

Exercises1. A learner of English as a second language has the following pronun-ciations

(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 [liðə] loss[lɒs]
sing[ʃIŋ] sat[sat] push[pus]
fish[fIʃ] miss[mIʃ]
  How might you explain these non-native pronunciations?
When studying the English language, the sounds of this language are not correctly
identified, so there is minimal confusion in the sounds with pairs.As in.

leather[lεðə] instead of [liðə], fish[fIʃ] instead of [fi :sh], sat[sat] instead of [saʃ], push[pus]
instead of[puf], loss[lɒs] instead of loss[lɒʃ] .
According to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), each vowel or consonant has its
pronunciation with the movement of the mouth and the tongue is different for each one.
When a person is learning any language it is so important to be attentive to these phonetic
sounds so that this person can speak correctly.

How do you think this learner would pronounce the bold-faced consonants in

 Daddy: dædi
 either : i ðər
 loathe: laʊ
 ship: ləʊð
 pass: pæs
 dish : dɪʃ
 usher : ´ʌʃər

In Spanish the sound (d) is dental, a defect that often happens in Hispanic speakers is to
mispronounce English words that begin with this interdental sound.

The interdental mode is a different sound, but for everyone it still represents sound (d). It
makes this difficult because in English this interdental sound shows a different sound (ð).
Changing the pronunciation can affect the meaning of words: for example: "day" (dental)
versus "them" (interdental). (ð) = (TH) This is one of the most complex sounds to achieve
for Spanish speakers. A very common mistake is to pronounce it as a simple re. There
are not many words that contain this sound, but they are very fundamental and everyday
words, so it is necessary to learn to pronounce them correctly, It could be said that it is an
action of two sounds in Spanish: z + d = ð [] ʃ This phoneme It does not exist in Spanish,
so it is generally mispronounced. As the phoneme (s) is the closest thing we have, and this
phoneme is usually represented by the letters, we usually pronounce it as if it were a (s).

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 avail-able, 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].

The sound contrast because they have minimal phonetic difference.

Minimal Pair Initial Medial Final

[m] ma grand mother Madam
[n] nag Corner Sun
[ŋ] ancla Angle Crushing

[b] Beg Cabin Cab

[p] Pig Happen Soup
[K] Karat Jackal Black
[g] Gel Unguis Wag
[T] Tub Altar Bracket
[d] Did Index Cold

3. The Ministry for Education in a certain country whose language has up to now been
unwritten has hired two foreign linguists to produce an orthography. Linguists A and
B have suggested two rather different systems.
Which one is most in line with the phonological structure of the language it is
designed for?
Linguistics B is the most accurate with the phonological structure of the language
because it is taking into account how the word is pronounced and, thus, it puts the
phonetic sound that best corresponds to the pronunciation.
Why do you think the other linguist may have made different decisions?
 Suddenly the linguistics A has in mind the pronunciation with another phonological
alphabet

Linguist A Linguist B Pronunciation Meaning

bim bim [bim] ‘rug’
bin bin [bin] ‘head’
biŋ bing [biŋ] ‘wheel‘

Zag zak [zak] ‘parrot’

Zib zip [zip] ‘ostrich’
azaŋ azang [azaŋ] ‘to speak’
Obas obas [obas] ‘to throw’
ham ham [ham] ‘egg’
mohiz mohiz [mohiz] ‘to eat’
zigah ziga [ziga] ‘to sing’
gig gik [gik] ‘ant’
gah ga [ga] ‘a song’
nagog nagog [nagog] ‘to sting’
habiz habis [habis] ‘to drink’
2.2 From the second document, “Natural Language Processing and Applications
Phones and Phonemes” please answer questions 1 and 2 from page 10.
From the reading “Semantics. The Study of Linguistic Meaning Chapter” by
Akmajian answer the two following questions: o What is exactly the concept
‘speaker meaning’? Explain and give an example (in Spanish or English).
Explain, what is an important problem of the ‘Denotational Theory of Meaning’?

1. 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.

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

/coughs/ has five phonemes: /c/o/u/gh/s.
Keith: keiO faith: feɪθ
Coughs: / kɒf/ cods: kɑds

2. 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.

English spelling of the poem verse:

‘’the time has come, ’the walrus said,
‘’to talk of many things:
Of shoes –and ships—and sealing –wax—
And why the sea is boiling hot---
And whether pigs have wings.’’
Said: sed
Talk: taːk

2.3 From the reading “Semantics. The Study of Linguistic Meaning Chapter” by
Akmajian answer the two following questions: What is exactly the concept
‘speaker meaning’? Explain and give an example (in Spanish or English).
Explain, what is an important problem of the ‘Denotational Theory of
Meaning’?
Speaker meaning is When a person says something that can be literal or nonliteral. Literal
When someone expresses what he wants to say for example if someone say 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.
Example: If after a hard day at my work, I might say the day was really spectacular but it
was not without, While I might file that sarcasm, but It is actually more of an instance of
verbal irony. This means When people say one thing but mean another. I know that I am
answering is a irony.
1.3 Explain and give an example (in Spanish or English).
Explain, what is an important problem of the ‘Denotational Theory of
Meaning’?
The Denotational theory of meaning suggest direct relationship of an expression or a word
and the object it denotes. The detail with is h is when two sentences might have the same
denotation but it has completely different meaning.
For example :The Mayor of Cucuta and Jairo Tomas Yañez, these sentences denotes the
same person but they do not mean the same thing.
Step 3: Mini Lesson
- 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).
- Check your partners’ posts and make comments about them in order to discuss and
improve ideas.
In the mini lesson, we would explain how two produce these pairs of sounds
individually, where we will teach the students
minimal pairs to teach how to distinguish between one and the other.
I choose the following minimal pairs: /b/ y /t/
The voice bilabials stop it is both the

/b/ sound
lips to block the mouth the vocal in this
way to produce the sound. Built up air
pressure by stopping air flow and the
release it. Examples: By, By, Buy.
In some parts of the Middle West the

/t/ sound
voiceless stop /t/ is very weakly
articulated and has become an
allophone of the phoneme /d/when it
occurs between two voiced sounds but
not at the begining of a stressed
syllable. THE MEDIAL VOICELESS
ALVEOLAR STOP /t/ examples :To,
Two, Too.

Minimal pairs to distinguish the difference between the souns:

Beer (tir) book (tok)
Thirst (bir) took (bok)

 Link, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXUXBBQNwmI&feature=youtu
 BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES

 McMahon, A. M. S. (2016). An Introduction to English Phonology. Edinburgh

University
Press. http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.co
m/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]. 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. The MIT
Press. https://www.academia.edu/40559984/L_I_N_G_U_I_ST_I_C_S_An_Intr
oduction_to_Language_and_Communication
 https://co.pinterest.com/pin/450430400235168706/

 ites.google.com/site/linguisticaeverywhere/fonetica-y-
fonologia?tmpl=%2Fsystem%2Fapp%2Ftemplates%2Fprint%2F&showPrintDi
alog=1