LINGUIST 1A03 Final: Midterm to Final
3 Dec 2018
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How can we observe the mind: we can"t, we can observe language behavior , draw conclusions about the mental grammar. Are there minimal pairs?: yes: conclude two segments are two different phonemes, no: allophones. Phoneme - a category of sounds that the mental grammar treats as the same. Allophones segments that are phonetically different to each other, that the mental grammar treats as members of the same phoneme category: allophonic variation is usually predictable. Summing up: we can"t observe the mind, but we can observe language behaviour, we conclude the phonetic difference is phonemic. If we observe a phonetic difference that is contrastive, If we observe a phonetic difference that is not contrastive. Sound can vary - voicing, place and manner of articulation, pitch and length. Phonology - sounds can vary, some variation is meaningful, and some variation is not. Idea of contrast, [f] and [v] contrast = two different phonemes in english.
