E.g. pin & bin à /p/ vs. /b/ rope & robe à /p/ vs. /b/
Complementary distribution: two or more than two allophones of the same phonemes are said to be in complementary distribution because they can not appear at the same time, or occur in different environment, besides they do not distinguish meaning.
Minimal pair: when two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two sounds are said to form a minimal pair.
When a group of words can be differentiated, each one from the others, by changing one phoneme (always in the same position), then all of these words constitute a minimal sets.
[H] Some rules in phonology
① sequential rules
Syllable

Onset                      rime

                     Nucleus        coda

[Consonant]          vowel      [consonant(s)]
Phonotactics of 3Cs occurring in onset:
No1:
___/s/
___voiceless stops: /p/, /t/, /k/
___approximants: /r/, /l/, /w/, /j/
No2:
The affricates [tF]/[dV] and the sibilants [s], [z], [F], [V] are not to be followed by another sibilants.
② assimilation rules
Co-articulation effects: the process of making one sound almost at the same time as the next is called co-articulation.
Assimilation & elision effects
Assimilation: two phonemes occur in sequence and some aspect of one phoneme is taken or copied by the other
E.g. nasalize a vowel when it is followed by a nasal sound.
③ deletion rule-Elision
Definition: the omission of a sound segment which would be present in deliberate pronunciation of a word in isolation
E.g. delete a [g] when it occurs before a final nasal consonant
[I] Suprasegmental features
① Stress
Word stress & sentence stress
The stress of the English compounds always on the first element
② Tone
Definition: Tones are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords.
Pitch variations can distinguish meaning just like morphemes.
Tone language, like Chinese, has four tones.
Level, rise, fall-rise, fall
③ Intonation
When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as intonation.
English: the four basic types of intonation, or the four tones
The falling tone, the rising tone, the fall-rising tone, and the rise-fall tone


Chapter 7  Semantics
[A] The definition of semantics
Definition: the study of meaning from the linguistic point of view
[B] Some views concerning the study of meaning
① the naming theory: The linguistic forms or symbols, in other words, the words used in a language are taken to be labels of the objects they stand for; words are just names or labels for things.
② the conceptualist view: There’s no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to (i.e. between language and the real world); rather, in the interpretation of meaning, they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.
Thought/reference à concept


Symbol/Form (words)                          Referent à(real object)
Proposed by Ogden & Richards
③ contextualism: John Firth
The situational context: in a particular spatiotemporal situation
Linguistic context (co-text): the probability of a word’s co-occurrence or collocation with another word
④ behaviorism à Bloomfield  based on contextualist view
Behaviorists define meaning of a language form as the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer
S: stimulus          r: response
Jill          Jack
S---------r………s---------R
(the small letters r, sàspeech)(the capitalized letter R, Sàpractical events)
[C] Sense and reference
Sense: is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form, abstract and de-contextualized.
Reference: means what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience