TUTORAIL ACTIVITIES/QUESTIONS for Chapter 3

2. In some dialect of English the vowel in words of group A and B is different from the vowel in group C, as is shown by the phonetic transcriptions. (答案）

A	B	C
buy [bai]	bride [braid]	bright [brit]
my [mai]	live [laiv]	life [lif ]
fly [flai]	mine [main]	might [mit]
sky [skai]	dime [daim]	dyke [dik]
try [trai]	rise [raiz]	rice [ris]

　　a) What class of sounds appear at the end of the three groups of words?
　　b) Are [ai] and [i] in complimentary distribution?
　　c) If [ai] and [i] are allophones of one phoneme, should [ai] be the phonemic representation?
　　d) In what phonetic environment is the phoneme realized by the allophone [i]?
　　e) Give the phonemic transcription and the phonetic transcription of the following words, based on your observation of the distribution of the two vowels in the dialect．

　　 Phonemic transcription 　　Phonetic transcription

　　lice　 　　 /　　 /　　　　　　　　　　 [ 　]
　　bribe 　　　/　　 /　　　　　　　　　　 [ 　]
　　price 　　　/　　 /　　　　　　　　　　 [ 　]
　　thrive　　　/　　 /　　　　　　　　　　 [ 　]
　　tile　　　　/　　 /　　　　　　　　　　 [ 　]
　　pie 　　 　 /　　 /　　　　　　　 　　　[ 　]

 

3. Pronounce the words key and core, ski and score, paying attention to the phoneme /k/.
What difference do you notice between the first pair and the second pair in terms of the phonetic features of the voiceless velar stop? (答案）

 

4. Below are listed some sequences of phonemes. Some of them are English words, some are accidental gaps, and others are systematic gaps. Write the words in spelling and mark the accidental gaps and the systematic gaps. (答案）

Examples:	Word	Accidental gaps	Systematic gaps
/ril/	thrill
/rif/		√
/fri/			√

　　a) /kn/
　　b) /brest/
　　c) /stedi/
　　d) /spls/
　　e) /flint/
　　f) /sfleit/
　　g) /prmt/
　　h) /ru:m/
　　i) /psnt/
　　j) /psaik/

 

5. Read the following phrases and sentences aloud and see whether each expresses different meanings if read with intonation contour on different word. (答案）

　　a) 東四十條街 (hint: you may look at a map of Beijing if you can't see the ambiguity)
　　b) 克林燉（頓）菜館。
　　c) 世界上女人沒有了男人就不能生活了。
　　d) That is an invisible man's hair tonic.
　　e) This is a beautiful girl's dress.
　　f) Those who went there quickly made a fortune.

 

MINI-PROJECTS

1. Listen to VOA and BBC broadcast, paying attention to words containing the two vowels // and // in British English. Write a short paper comparing the vowels of British English and American English.

2. Listen to your classmates talking in Chinese and find someone who speaks a dialect. Talk with him/her and find out what consonants or vowels of standard Chinese are absent or changed in that dialect. Write a short paper comparing the phonology of that dialect with that of Mandarin Chinese.