1. LCD720 – 04/01/09
Phonology and grammar

2. Announcements Midterm Reminder Final paper Grades on Blackboard
10% of your grade is for participation
Final paper
Guidelines are on Blackboard
Due on May 13 before class
Submit on Blackboard (or )
In Word (not pdf)

3. Homework
Construct a fill-in-the-blanks exercise for teaching contractions/blendings
Form groups of three, and try out your exercise on your two fellow students
Which items (blanks) worked well?
Which items didn’t work that well? Why? What changes do you suggest?

4. Interfaces, or How pronunciation is involved in other parts of language knowledge and skills
Listening: perception
Grammar
Orthography (spelling)
Today

5. Phonology and grammar
A morpheme may be pronounced differently depending on its phonological environment (morphophonology)
E.g., past tense -ed
Pronunciation problems can affect grammar
Morphemes (regular and irregular forms)
Word classes (nouns vs. verbs)
Pronunciation needs to be addressed in the grammar lesson

6. Phonology and regular morphemes
English has 8 regular morphological inflections -s
Plural nouns
Possessive
Third-person singular present tense
-ed
Past tense
Past participle / passive
Present participle: -ing
Comparative degree: -er
Superlative degree: -est
-s and -ed change depending on the phonological environment;
-ing, -er, and -est don’t change

7. -s morphemes Remember the rules Examples:
Note: Pronunciation of all three morphemes is the same, even if the spelling isn’t
Remember the rules
Examples:
/z/ /s/ /əz/
boys boats buses (plurals)
sees makes uses (3rd sg verb)
Marvin’s Mike’s Rose’s (possessive)
/z/ is the basic form (after vowels and voiced consonants)
/z/ becomes /s/ after voiceless consonants
/z/ becomes /əz/ after sibilants
Sibilants: /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /ʧ/, /ʤ/

8. -s morphemes Possessive of regular plural nouns
The girl’s book vs. The girls’ book
The pronunciation is the same
Possessive of irregular plural nouns
Men’s clothing, children’s toys
’s is added to the irregular plural form
The same rules apply for contractions of is, has and does
/z/ His name’s John
/s/ It’s raining
(/əz/ Rich’s sick)

9. Teaching -s morphemes
Usually these three morphemes are not presented simultaneously
Students should be reminded of the rules of the previously introduced morpheme
Go through the five stages
Consciousness raising
(Listening discrimination):
Instead: e.g., fill-in-the-blanks with spoken text
Controlled practice
Guided practice
Communicative practice

10. Which allomorph? Plural allomorphs: Past tense allomorphs:
Do you hear /z/, /s/ or /əz/?
Past tense allomorphs:
Do you hear /d/, /t/ or /əd/?

11. Regular past tense -ed Give examples; describe the rules
What is the basic form?
When does the form change, and why?
What other verb forms have –ed?
What activities do you propose for each of the five stages, and why?
What difficulties may arise when you develop an activity, e.g., should you avoid certain verbs?

12. My answers…

13. -ed
Examples:
/d/ /t/ /əd/
cried walked chatted
robbed kissed added
/d/ is the basic form (after vowels and voiced consonants)
/d/ becomes /t/ after voiceless consonants
/d/ becomes /əd/ after /t/ and /d/

14. Teaching -ed
Relevant for simple past, present/past perfect, and passive
Similar to teaching –s
Go through the five steps
Consciousness raising
(Listening discrimination):
Instead: e.g., fill-in-the-blanks with spoken text
Controlled, guided, communicative practice
Caveat: Many highly frequent verbs are irregular (was, had, did, made, …)
Make sure the exercises elicit regular verbs

15. More morphophonology -ing (progressive, gerunds)
-er and –est (comparatives, superlatives)
Irregular forms (nouns, verbs)
Part-of-speech alternations

16. -ing -ing is used for progressive participles
walking, reading, studying
-ing can be pronounced as -in’
Ain’t misbehavin’
Depends on formality and on the speaker
Does not depend on the phonological environment

17. -er and -est
-er and -est have the same meaning as more and most (periphrastic forms)
-er/more -est/most
big bigger biggest
*more big *most big
beautiful more beautiful most beautiful
*beautifuller *beautifullest
When to use -er and -est, and when more and most?
There are rules, but they’re not as strict as for -s and -ed
What rules do you know? (see next slide)

18. -er and -est Hint: The morphology has to do with the phonology
What rules for -er/-est vs. more/most?
big – bigger – biggest
small – smaller – smallest
happy – happier – happiest
friendly – friendlier – friendliest
narrow – narrower – narrowest
curious – more curious – most curious
slowly – more slowly – most …
independent – more …– most …
tender – more … – most … (tenderer/tenderest?)
stupid – more stupid – most stupid
stupider?
stupidest?
handsome – more handsome – most handsome
handsomer?
handsomest?
Try to think of more examples

19. Or: more / most friendly
-er/-est vs. more/most
-er/-est
One-syllable words
big – bigger – biggest
small – smaller – smallest
large – larger – largest
Two-syllable words that end in –y
happy – happier – happiest
Many two-syllable adjectives that end in unstressed –ly, -ow, or –le
friendly – friendlier – friendliest
narrow – narrower – narrowest
gentle – gentler – gentlest
Or: more / most friendly

20. -er/-est vs. more/most more/most
Many two-syllable adverbs ending in -ly
slowly – more slowly – most slowly
Other two-syllables adjectives and adverbs
curious – more curious – most curious
Adjectives and adverbs of three or more syllables
independent – more independent – most independent

21. -er/-est vs. more/most Depends on formality Variable cases
Two-syllables adjectives that end in –er or –ure
tender – more tender – most tender
tender – tenderer – tenderest
Two-syllable adjectives that end in a weakly stressed vowel, with final /d/ or /t/
stupid – more stupid – most stupid
stupid – stupider – stupidest
Two-syllable adjectives that end in weakly stressed -some
handsome – more handsome – most handsome
handsome – handsomer – handsomest
Two-syllable adjectives that end in a weakly stressed vowel, with final /d/ or /t/: also quiet

22. Teaching comparative and superlative forms
Don’t introduce all rules at once
This will overwhelm the student
Start with the clearest, most basic rules
One-syllable words get -er/-est
Two-syllable words in -y get -er/-est
Longer words (three or more syllables) get more/most
Give a lot of examples
When there are many rules and exceptions, it’s often easier to learn by analogy to examples

23. Why is “curiouser” not “good English”?
What rule did Alice forget?

24. -er/-est or more/most? And why?
short
noisy
simple
personalized
stylish
costly
fabulous
quiet
careful
appealing
easily
pale
perfect
-er/-est
more/most
either
none!
one syllable
two syllables, -y
two syllables, -le
≥ 3 syllables
two syllables, other
two syllables, -ly
two syllabes, -t/-d
can’t get better than perfect

25. Irregular forms: Nouns
Some irregular forms come from Latin and Greek
criterion – criteria; datum – data
Other irregular forms have a Germanic origin
Vowel change
foot – feet; man – men
This is still used in modern German
Mann – Männer (“man” – “men”)
f/v alternation
leaf – leaves; wife – wives; shelf – shelves
Historically /f/ became /v/ between two vowels (when the ‘e’ in leaves, wives, shelves was still pronounced)
θ/ð alternation
bath/baths; truth/truths (θ in singular, ð in plural)

26. Irregular forms: Verbs
Two very frequent verbs
be: am/is/are – was/were – been
go: go – went – gone
Other frequent, irregular verbs have recognizable patterns
E.g., /ɪ-æ-ʌ/ pattern
sing – sang – sung; begin – began – begun
These patterns are remnants of older rules
Students can use these regularities to learn the verb forms

27. Irregular forms: Verbs
Some examples: verbs that get or have -t / -d (‘weak verbs’)
/d/ => /t/
build – built – built; send – sent – sent
no change
let – let – let; hit – hit – hit
/iy/ + /d/ => /ɛ/ + /t/
creep – crept – crept
leave – left – left
Vowel shortening (/iy/ => /ɛ/; /ay/ => /ɪ/)
feed – fed – fed; slide – slid – slid
And more…

28. Irregular forms: Verbs
Some examples: vowel change (‘strong verbs’)
Three different vowels
sing – sang – sung; begin – began – begun
Same vowel in past and past participle
dig – dug – dug; win – won – won
/ay/ - /ow/ - /ɪ/ + -en
drive – drove – driven; write – wrote – written
Vowel change in past tense only
run – ran – run; come – came – come
And more…

29. Teaching irregular forms
Don’t present all rules at once
This will overwhelm the students
Present exceptions, and a few rules
am/is/are – was/were – been; go – went – gone
/ɪ-æ-ʌ/ pattern: sing – sang – sung
/d/ => /t/: send – sent – sent
no change: hit – hit – hit
Give a lot of examples
When there are many rules and exceptions, it’s often easier to learn by analogy
When students memorize the forms, they will discover some of the patterns on their own

30. Part-of-speech alternations
Remember:
Sometimes, nouns and verbs have a different stress pattern
CONDUCT (n) vs. conDUCT (v)
REBel (n) vs. reBEL (v)
Note: this is not a rule, just a pattern for some words
There are other systematic differences between nouns and verbs as well...

31. Part-of-speech alternations
/s/-/z/, /θ/-/ð/, /f/-/v/ alternations between nouns and verbs
noun verb
use/use /yuws/ /yuwz/
loss/lose /lɑs/ /luwz/
advice/advise /ədvays/ /ədvayz/
teeth/teethe /tiyθ/ /tiyð/
life/live /layf/ /lɪv/
proof/prove /pruwf/ /pruwv/
Remember: Voicing of consonants affects the length of the preceding vowel

32. Part-of-speech alternations
No stress vs. light stress
DUplicate (n) vs. DUpliCATE (v)
/ət/ /eyt/
Location of stress
CONDUCT (n) vs. conDUCT (v)
PROJECT (n) vs. proJECT (v)
Remember: No stress vs. light/strong stress affects vowel reduction
Can you think of more examples?

33. Teaching part-of-speech alternations
Don’t present all rules at once
This will overwhelm the students
Present a few rules
advice/advise; life/live
DUplicate (n) vs. DUpliCATE (v)
CONDUCT (n) vs. conDUCT (v)
Give a lot of examples
When there are many rules and exceptions, it’s often easier to learn by analogy
Caveat: Don’t assume students know either the correct pronunciation or the part of speech of any of these words

34. Teaching phonology and grammar
Address pronunciation as soon as these grammar items are introduced
Pronunciation (and perception) of past tense, plural, possessive, etc. should be an integral part of the grammar lesson
Students need to be able to hear the affixes and stress patterns correctly, so they can learn from the input
Students need to be able to pronounce the suffixes and stress patterns correctly
Remember that students may have problems with both the grammar and the phonology (clusters, stress, etc.)

35. Why are third person -s and past tense -d so difficult to learn?
Despite being very frequent
They are difficult to hear (low perceptual salience):
very short
in clusters
in unstressed syllables
/s, z/ and /t, d/ are just one sound and not a separate syllable
Compare -ing, -er, -est

36. Perceptual salience Identify the word Identify the sound Word 1 Word 2
added
/əd/
played
/d/
crunched
/t/
kisses
/əz/
ribs
/z/
ships
/s/

37. Why are third person -s and past tense -d so difficult to learn?
They have three different allomorphs
/s, z, əz/ and /d, t, əd/
Compare -ing: usually /ɪŋ/, sometimes /ɪn/
Compare -er/-est: forms don’t change
Similar sounding morphemes
Third person -s sounds the same as plural -s, possessive -s, and contractions of is and has
Compare: -er and –est are usually comparatives

38. Why are third person -s and past tense -d so difficult to learn?
They have complex meanings
-s: Third person singular present tense (3 things!)
Compare plural –s: plural (1 thing)
L1 interference
If L1 doesn’t have subject–verb agreement or past tense, -s and -ed may be more difficult to learn
They don’t add much meaning (past tense is often clear from context or adverbial phrases)
Further reading: Meta-analysis by Goldschneider & DeKeyser (2001, in Language Learning)

39. Reflection
If a student pronounces cats as /kæt/ and dogs as /dɑg/, how can a teacher determine whether the student has a grammatical problem or a pronunciation problem?
Do you recall learning any phonological differences in the parts of speech of English?
Native speakers
L2 speakers

40. Reflection What would you do as a teacher?
A student pronounces all past tenses as /əd/
A student pronounces all words ending in -ate as /eyt/ regardless of the part of speech
A student asks why the plural of wife is wives, but the plural of chief is chiefs

41. Next class (April 22) Read Chapter 9, but skip:
The Alphabet
Stressed and Unstressed Vowels and their spelling patterns
Word-Internal Palatalization
Read Chapter 2 from Phonics they use (on BB)
Can you modify these activities for older children and adult?
Homework assignment (not graded, not to be handed in) on Blackboard.
Bring to class, and be ready to discuss