TWO TOPICS

1. Information Conveyed by Speech

2. How Speech Fits in with the Overall

Structure of Language
 Information Conveyed by Speech

Phonetic quality: The sequence of phonetic

events (e.g., []) which will later be
parsed into morphemes, words, phrases,
sentences, etc. This is the initial entry
point into the linguistic system. All other
items on this list are nonlinguistic.

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Affective quality: The speech signal can convey
a great deal of information about the emotional
state and attitude of the speaker.
Q: Can we go out for ice cream?
A: No. [I’m sorry, but we can’t right now.]
A: No. [NO! For the last time NO!]

The two instances of ‘no’ have the same

phonetic representations (), but convey very
different affective information to listeners.

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Personal quality:

•Personal identity (i.e., who is talking): “Hi, it’s

me.”
•Gender
•Age
•Health status, fatigue, other miscellaneous
information

In this class we will be focusing mainly on the

transmission of phonetic information, but we
will talk some about how some kinds of
personal information is conveyed.
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 Layers of Linguistic Organization
The phonetic content of a speech signal is the
entry point into a complex and hierarchically
organized language system.
Hierarchical: The system is layered, and each
layer is:
1. Distinct or autonomous: Fundamentally
different in kind from the other layers. For
example, (a) syntax and semantics are
fundamentally different and they function
autonomously (more in a minute), (b) phonetics
and phonology are different. 5
What is syntax?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0BuKYiwhVQ

What is morphology?
-Rules for creating running from run, personable from
person, unbelievable from believe, etc.
How do we know these are rules at all? Suppose
speakers just memorize these word forms
separately?
I’m getting tight in my chestal area.
Untach everything except the looker and that snapper.
I’ve redorkulated.

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How do we know that syntax and semantics are
different (i.e., distinct or autonomous)?
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. [Chomsky]
-What’s right and what’s wrong?

Take a left at the yellow big sign that say ‘Shell

gasoline’.
-What’s right and what’s wrong?

Semantics: fine. It’s perfectly clear what this sentence

means.
Syntax is no so good: (1) yellow big → big yellow, (2)
sign that say → sign that says.
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So, each layer is distinct or autonomous, meaning that
semantics is not the same as syntax, syntax is not the
same as morphology, morphology is not the same as
…
Each layer (or module) is also:
2.Organized into increasingly abstract forms of
information:
Allophones are organized into phonemes, phonemes
into morphemes, morphemes into words, words into
phrases into sentences.
Language has a branching and recursive tree
structure everywhere you look:
Recursion means that a tree can contain a tree,
which can contain a tree, … Recursive tree
structure clearly applies to grammar; for example:
•A noun phrase can branch into a tree containing
another noun phrase
•A sentence can branch into a tree containing
another sentence (Maurice, who loved Enid, tried
everything to get her to notice him.)

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Tree structures apply at all levels:
• Sentences branch into phrases.
• Phrases branch into words.
• Words branch into morphemes.
• Morphemes branch into feet, syllables,
and phonemes.
• Phonemes branch into features (e.g.,
voicing, place, manner).
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 M. Goose Recursion
This is the house that Jack built.
This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house
that Jack built.
This is the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that
lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat
that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the
dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the
malt that lay in the house that Jack built. 11
Examples of grammatical tree structures. These trees
are: (1) hierarchically organized (S is at the top,
NP+VP come next, etc.) and (2) recursive (trees
branch into trees, etc.; e.g., note that the NP
branches into a pronoun and another sentence).
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Words also have an internal structure. Note that we
see another tree with subdividing branches. 13
 Tree Structure for a
Noun Phrase
The details here are
not really the point –
notice that stuff
branches into stuff,
which branches into
other stuff … (The details
should make you happy that
you’re not a linguist, but I’m
sure you already were.)

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Even at the phonetic level, we see a tree structure. Here we
see the tree structure of a consonant, with a voicing branch, a
place branch, and 3 branches specifying manner (+nasal,
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+sonorant, +continuant).
 Tree Structure for a Word
The word is organized into a foot.
The foot is organized into a syllables.
The syllable is organized into onset and rhyme components.
Onset and rhyme are organized into consonant & vowel phonemes.
Phonemes are organized into features that specify the articulatory
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properties of the segment.