This 13th collection of students’ pearls of wisdom, laboriously digitised from hand-written papers, demonstrates once again how students new to the study of language speculate about grammar after having imperfectly absorbed what their teachers think they have taught them.

Test question

What can minimal pairs tell us about sound segments in a language?

Answers

• As long as there is one segment of the word is different, a new word would be formed.

• They tell us that different aspirations exist in the English language.

• The sound segments are unique for the particular meaning of the word.

• They help predict rules on behavioural patterns.

• They are made up of one basic sound segment in each pair.

• Only one sound in the word is different from the other sound segments.

• Such pairs tell us that they have the same sound for the rest of the word. The only difference is one sound but they are the opposite of each other.

• That segments are made up at only one sound. Different sounds require different articulations.

• If words like hill/heel are not recognised as minimal pairs, this means that they are not of the same sound.

• The sounds differ in only one place. They are in the same order.

• Minimal pairs differ from one another in sounds.

• The pair of words occur in the same environment, but differ in one segment.

• The different sound segments in English are placed in the same environment. This is because the phonemes of English are in comparative distribution.

• They are in complimentary distribution: it is unlikely that you will find one sound in the other. This justifies the principle of phonemes, which states that phonemes are interwoven with meaning.

• The type of sound produced depends on the placement of the sound within the phoneme.

• Minimal pair is when there is minimum sound between the two.

• They belong to different phonemes and they’re different allophones.

• They are phonemes of the same allophone. For example, dice and lice form a menial pair.

• They tell us that sound segments in English are very important.

• Minimal pairs show that they are in contractive distribution.

• Minimal pairs tell us about Unknown Entities which differ in one sound. These phonemes are contransitive and exist in exclusive contribution.

More to come...

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	Extract from an Interview with Eglantine Lady Fantod, Dowager Professor of Philology at Cambridge University—Freya Shipley
	SpecGram Vol CLXI, No 1 Contents