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Contrastive Phonology

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Contrastive Phonology Contrastive Phonology Introduction The task of learning a second language is much more arduous than that involved with one’s first language. The reason for this is that the ability to acquire a language native declines rapidly after puberty. Furthermore, a second language learned after this watershed takes place against the backdrop of the first language. The field of contrastive linguistics has developed over the past few decades and aims at minimising the detrimental effect of one’s native language on a second one learned later. This is achieved by highlighting the difficulties which speakers with a given outset target language are likely to have with a certain target language. The present text offers some insights and advice about the sound systems of English and German. The goal is to make German speakers aware of the pitfalls they face when speaking English and hopefully to then avoid these. Transfer and interference At the centre of applied contrastive linguistics is the notion of transfer. This refers to the fact that speakers of a language A are likely to transfer structural features of their native language when learning a second language B. In principle this transfer can be positive or negative. For instance, both English and German have phonemic distinctions in vowel length (English bit : beat; German bitten : bieten) so that when Germans, but not a Greeks or Poles for instance, speak English they have no difficulty with maintaining the distinctions in vowel length. Here the linguist speaks of positive transfer. Normally this type goes unnoticed as the result is always acceptable in the foreign language. Negative transfer is the type which presents difficulties for the learner. It is often termed interference. By this is meant the transfer of some structure or structural element from one language to another where it is ungrammatical. The languages in question are usually the source and target languages in a second language learning situation but could also be two languages which were in contact in some historical period or indeed are still so at the present time. In second language acquisition, negative transfer is not responsible for all types of errors in a target language. Furthermore, the danger of interference is greatest where the two languages in question are most similar in structure. In such instances the transfer of structures is easiest, i.e. a one-to-one correspondence can be quickly established between the source and the target. There are four main types of interference discussed below. This division can be used by students to classify the many practical examples given in the remainder of this chapter. Note that these phenomena apply to both first and second language acquisition. In the case of the former one does not however refer to them as interference as children do not acquire their first language against the background of some other language. 1) Substitution At any stage in language acquisition learners may use an already acquired element for one which they do not yet possess. Clear examples of this are to be found in phonology. For example, in first language acquisition sounds which have been acquired are used for those not yet acquired: [w] for [r] in English as in [wein] rain. In second language acquisition similar cases can be observed, e.g. the use of [k] by English speakers of German initially instead of [x] as in Buch [bu:k] for [bu:x]. Raymond Hickey Contrastive phonology Page 2 of 5 2) Over- and under-differentiation These notions are mirror images of each. What is over-differentiation in one language is under-differentiation in the other. The phenomea are common with second language acquisition. For example, the use of several different verbs by English speakers of German where the latter would have machen, or the use of a formal future where the present tense is more common, e.g. Morgen werde ich nach Hamburg fahren. In the reverse case one has the overdistinction of drive and go in English by German speakers on the basis of the distinction between fahren and gehen in German. An instance of under-differentiation would be where Germans use calendar in English for both Kalender in the sense of a print-out of the months of the year and a planer for a year in the form of a small book which is diary in English (this is also the word for German Tagebuch). 3) Over-indulgence and under-representation These are scalar phenomena, that is the structure used in the second language is not wrong but is not statistically as common with native speakers of this language. Like the previous two notions they are mirror-images of each other. The over-indulgence on the part of the second language speaker represents under-representation from the point of view of the target language. The case of the simple present instead of the continuous with German speakers of English is an example, e.g. I have problems with school for I’m having problems with school. Over-indulgence is common with second language speakers who have a restricted range of synonyms. Just think of the structures which learners use repeatedly in the foreign language because they do not have a wide-enough range of alternatives, e.g. saying think where other verbs such as c onsider, reflect on, ponder, muse on would also be possible. Interference and productive processes Interference is not the source of all mistakes which learners make in a foreign language. A further source is the misapplication of a productive process in a target language. For example, the sentence Maurice is a good cooker is not well-formed in English. Here the mistake results from an overgeneralisation of the productive morpheme -er. However, transfer should be positive in this case, producing English cook from German Koch. The phonology of English and German Tradition of incorrect pronunciation There are a number of English words – or German words in their English form – which are pronounced consistently in an incorrect manner by Germans. In some cases this has almost become a tradition. For instance, the name of the city Berlin is continuously pronounced by Germans as [/berlin] where it should be [ber/lin], i.e. the accent is on the same syllable as in German but the vowel is short in English. Incorrect placement of stress is also found in words like display (initial with German speakers, but on the final syllable in English, i.e. [dis/plei]). Another example would be the word design which is usually pronounced with a voiceless [s] although in English the fricative in the centre of the word is voiced, i.e. [z]. A further type of generalised wrong pronunciation derives from transferring a principle of pronunciation from German to English. For instance, s after a sonorant – /n, l, r/ – is normally pronounced voiceless in English pulse, t ense, c urse all have [-s] at the end (there are a few exceptions with placenames like Kensington, Swansea and words like parse, version with some speakers). Now German has precisely the opposite rule: [z] is the normal realisation (unless in final position with Auslautverhärtung). This means Raymond Hickey Contrastive phonology Page 3 of 5 that Germans tend to pronounce a word like conversation as [\k>nvqr/zei$qn] rather than [\k>nvqr/sei$qn]. The pronunciation of the vowel in English trap [træp] presents difficulties for Germans because this is found in many loan-words in German where it is pronounced using the vowel of German fett [fet]. This has lead to sets of pronunciations like man [men] and men [min] which should of course be man [mæn] and men [men] in English. Mixed pronunciations These occur by Germans adopting the source pronunciation for a word, but only in part. Such pronunciations tend to effect common and proper nouns. Instances are Hifi [haifi] and Dublin [dvbli:n] which in English are [haifai] and [dvblin] respectively. Tradition of incorrect reference The teaching of a foreign language has its own customs and practices, many of which are different from those in linguistics. For instance, references are frequently to letters rather than sounds when describing phonological phenomena. A good instance of this is the reference ‘the th-sound of English’. The difficulty here is that the two letters th in English represent two separate phonemes, the voiceless ambidental fricative /2/ and the voiced ambidental fricative /3/ as seen at the beginning of the words think and that respectively. Note that there are a number of means of referring to the place of articulation of these fricatives: inter-dental is not very accurate because the tongue is not placed between the teeth in pronouncing either of the sounds; dental is confusing because it often refers to stops which are produced at or about the alveolar ridge behind the teeth. The term ambidental used above implies at the teeth, but not between or behind them. Phonemic inventories Below are listed those segments of English and German which are different. Some of these, as with vowels, can be substituted easily with elements which are fairly close to them in the opposite language. Others, particularly consonants, cause difficulties as they may lead to confusion, as with insufficient distinctions between /f/, /v/ and /w/ (an instance from the area of vowels is /æ/ and /e/). English German Consonants Consonants /2/,/3/ /t$/,/dg/ /w/ /x/,/c/ Vowels Monophthongs /y,y:/ /e:/ /ø,ø:/ /o:/ /=/ /o:/ /v/ /a/ /æ/ /<:/,/>/ /a,a:/ Diphthongs /ei/ /qu/ /oi/ /oy/ /iq, eq , uq/ Raymond Hickey Contrastive phonology Page 4 of 5 Allophonic differences Standard English distinguishes between a clear and a dark /l/, i.e.
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