LING-Go: Minimal Pairs

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Minimal Pairs

A minimal pair proves that two phones (i.e., sounds) are completely separate phonemes in that language (and not two different variations of the same sound like our various pronunciations for /t/).

A minimal pair consists of two words in a given language with all the same sounds (in the same sequence) except for one, in the same place in the word.

For example, cap and gap are minimal pairs showing that /k/ and /g/ are separate phonemes in English. You can also have minimal triplets or minimal sets of sounds that are quite long. so add tap map, nap rap lap, sap, zap,map, chap, yap, (but not dap, wap, shap, zhap, bap, fap, vap, which are all lexical gaps just waiting to have a meaning assigned to them),

But not crap. Why not? It has more than 3 segments/phones in it, which is all the others in the set have.

On the other hand, crap and clap are a minimal pair, showing that /l/ and /r/ are separate phonemes in English (or allophones of separate phonemes, to be more accurate).

However, crap and crop are minimal pairs showing that /ae/ and /a/ are separate phonemes.

And crop and crock are minimal pairs showing that /p/ and /k/ are separate phonemes (in case you thought they were two variations of the same sound (: , which would just be sad ).

So the contrastive sound in a minimal pair can be initial, medial, or final in position, as long as both are in the same position in their respective words.

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More Extra Credit Opportunities

Newest EC OP:
1) take a phonetic form like “kasa” and track down its meaning in as many languages as you can. E.g., house in Spanish, umbrella in Japanese. . .

Even Newer EC OPS:

1) Make flashcards for terms in a chaplet-make them on a page that can be cut out and used by future students

2) Provide examples from English or other languages of the processes described in a chaplet.

3) Re-write tests questions you thought were confusing

4) Put together video clips from movies, TV, etc. illustrating something covered in the chaplets and/or class.

5) Create an IPA version of Scrabble

6) Put together 5-10 examples from literature of a linguistic point we've studied (e.g., dialectal features, double negatives, use of passive voice in literary dialogue, etc.)

7) Make a study guide for a given QuiXam or the Midterm

New EC OPS:
1) Double Challenge in Syllable Structure in the Behemoth
2) Triple Challenge, same place
3) Longest minimal set
4) Draw a Thelma Theta mnemonic (these may have to be voted on)
5) Make a visual mnemonic for the ethda/crossed d
6) Make a catalogue of lexical gaps in American English
7) Make a video clip of someone speaking with a particular accent and give an IPA transcription for both how you would pronounce the sentence and how they did. (Mel Gibson slips into Australian vowels every once in awhile in the Lethal Weapon movies. . .)
8) Find the longest single word you can whose IPA transcription has the highest number of different IPA symbols.

1) Make a snazzy power point over speech anatomy

2) Make a set of 10 or so matching questions that can be done by scantron. For example, i) Match IPA symbols to their places of articulation; ii) Match terms from the Big Kahuna to their definitions; iii) Match the design features to their descriptions

3) Make a fill in the blank version of a page or two of the chaplets

4) Make a nice list of (10-20) English words that come from French which you wouldn't necessarily immediately identify as French (e.g., words like naive and genre are more identifiable than subject and allegiance, perhaps) and type them up in the IPA with their standard spelling next to the IPA.