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Hi there,

I am currently studying for an M.Ed(TESOL) and am stuck on two questions. They are to do with contrasting and complementary phontactics. I can't work out how to include a scanned image of the questions and my best attempt at answering them in this post, but if you can message me with an email address I can attach them in a reply.

Thankyou so much in advance,

Ben

My goodness, I'm so behind the times I've never heard of "phontactics" sorry.

Hi,

Oops, I'm so frustrated I can't even copy the names from the pages correctly... The questions are to do with contrasting and complimentary distribution. The overall field is phonotactics.

Thanks,

Ben

Heh Sorry to display my ignorance, but I don't know what "phonotactics" is either.

Phonotactics (in Greek phone = voice and tactic = course) is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes. Phonotactics defines permissible syllable structure, consonant clusters, and vowel sequences by means of phonotactical constraints.

Phonotactic constraints are language specific. For example, in Japanese, consonant clusters like /st/ are not allowed, although they are in English. Similarly, the sounds /kn/ and /ɡn/ are not permitted at the beginning of a word in Modern English but are in German and Dutch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonotactics

Stephen Jones wrote:Phonotactics (in Greek phone = voice and tactic = course) is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes. Phonotactics defines permissible syllable structure, consonant clusters, and vowel sequences by means of phonotactical constraints.

Phonotactic constraints are language specific. For example, in Japanese, consonant clusters like /st/ are not allowed, although they are in English. Similarly, the sounds /kn/ and /ɡn/ are not permitted at the beginning of a word in Modern English but are in German and Dutch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonotactics

I could have looked.

Hey guys,

Thanks for getting back to me promptly.

I understand the principles of phonotactics. Contrasting distribution means that if you pronounce even one sound in a word incorrectly you change the meaning. Complimentary means that you can change your pronounciation of a particular sound within a word without changing the meaning.

What I don't understand is the mechanics. The questions that I have been given from my professor is to do with looking at a list of words, choosing which are contrasting, which are complimentary, and then writing a rule stating how and why they are their respective groups.

So if anybody out there has an indepth knowledge of phonotactics, and can give me an 'idiot's guide' for want of a better term, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,

Ben

It might help if you posted an example question.
Are you talking about Grimm's and Verner's laws and stuff like that?

/s/ and /∫/ are in constrasting distribution as in sip (/sip/) and ship (/∫ip/).


/p/ and its aspirated allophonic variant /ph/ are in complementary (not complimentary as you mentioned) distribution. In ‘pen’, it doesn’t change the meaning whether you say /pen/ or /phen/.

(The ‘h’ in /ph/ is a superscript.)