Что такое minimal pairs

minimal pair

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Minimal pair — In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, which differ in only one phonological element, such as a phone, phoneme, toneme or chroneme and have distinct meanings. They are used to demonstrate that two… … Wikipedia

minimal pair — noun : two spoken language items that are identical in all constituents except one (as ]ˈded: ˈdad]) and that are often used in demonstrating or testing the phonemicness of the differing constituents * * * Ling. a pair of words, as pin and bin,… … Useful english dictionary

minimal pair — UK / US noun [countable] Word forms minimal pair : singular minimal pair plural minimal pairs linguistics a pair of words that are different from each other in one sound only, for example pan and can … English dictionary

minimal pair — noun A pair of words differing by only one phonetic segment or suprasegment, used to prove the validity of a proposed phoneme, toneme, or chroneme. beach and bitch and bun and ban are examples of minimal pairs. See Also: near minimal pair … Wiktionary

minimal pair — n. (ling.) to produce; represent a minimal pair * * * represent a minimal pair (ling.) to produce … Combinatory dictionary

minimal pair — Ling. a pair of words, as pin and bin, or bet and bed, differing only by one sound in the same position in each word, esp. when such a pair is taken as evidence for the existence of a phonemic contrast between the two sounds. [1940 45] * * * … Universalium

minimal pair — min′imal pair′ n. phn a pair of words, as pin and bin, differing only by one sound in the same position in each word, esp. when taken as evidence of a phonemic contrast • Etymology: 1940–45 … From formal English to slang

minimal pair — /mɪnəməl ˈpɛə/ (say minuhmuhl pair) noun Phonology two words which can be represented by phonemic sequences which differ from each other at one place only, as pat/pæt/ and part/pat/ … Australian-English dictionary

minimal pair — noun Date: 1942 two linguistic units that differ in a single distinctive feature or constituent (as voice in the initial consonants of bat and pat) … New Collegiate Dictionary

near-minimal pair — noun A pair of words differing by a few (but more than one) phonetic segments or suprasegments, used to suggest a proposed phoneme, toneme, or chroneme may be valid. See Also: minimal pair … Wiktionary

pair — n. (ling.) a minimal pair * * * [peə] (ling.) a minimal pair … Combinatory dictionary

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Minimal pair

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, spoken or signed, that differ in only one phonological element, such as a phoneme, toneme or chroneme, [1] and have distinct meanings. They are used to demonstrate that two phones are two separate phonemes in the language.

Many phonologists in the middle part of the 20th century had a strong interest in developing techniques for discovering the phonemes of unknown languages, and in some cases, they set up writing systems for the languages. The major work of Kenneth Pike on the subject is Phonemics: a technique for reducing languages to writing. [2] The minimal pair was an essential tool in the discovery process and was found by substitution or commutation tests. [3]

Phonemic differentiation may vary between different dialects of a language so a particular minimal pair in one accent may be a pair of homophones in another. That means not that one of the phonemes is absent in the homonym accent but only that it is not contrastive in the same range of contexts.

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Minimal pair

In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, which differ in only one phonological element, such as a phone, phoneme, toneme or chroneme and have distinct meanings. They are used to demonstrate that two phones constitute two separate phonemes in the language.

Phonemic differentiation may vary between different dialects of a language, so that a particular minimal pair in one accent is a pair of homophones in another. This does not necessarily mean that one of the phonemes is absent in the homonym accent; merely that it is not present in the same range of contexts.

Contents

Examples

Differentiations in English

Following pairs prove existence of various distinct phonemes in English.

Differentiating consonants with same location and manner of articulation

Differentiating vowels

The following table shows a minimal set in French distinguishing vowels, some or all of which may sound alike to an Anglophone, because the [œ] and [y] sounds do not exist in English:

Differentiating consonants

A minimal triplet of consonants in French is:

There are three verbs in Hebrew which demonstrate the distinction, in some dialects, between a velar stop and an uvular stop on one hand, and a glottal stop with and without tightening of the throat on the other:

In the following two Hebrew verbs, the only distinction is a glottal stop in the middle of the first word:

In Korean, phones [ɾ] in «Korea» and [l] in «Seoul» are allophones of one phoneme and are perceived by native speakers of Korean as a single phoneme. The difference is that [ɾ] is the allophone of this phoneme before vowels and [l] is the allophone in the other contexts.

Differentiating chronemes

Hungarian, German and Thai have distinctive vowel length, as did Latin. E.g. in Thai (and compare this example also to the one on tone):

Differentiating tonemes

Languages such as Mandarin Chinese, Thai, Yoruba and Igbo (See: pitch accent and tonal language.) For example in Thai:

Differentiating stress

Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian and Greek have many minimal pairs differing only in stress; Dutch has several (stress indicated by acute accent). E.g.:

Minimal pairs may differ superficially in more than one place if one feature is dependent on the other. For example, English record (noun) and record (verb) (and similar pairs) appear superficially not to be minimal pairs for stress because they differ in vowel quality as well. However, since the differences in vowel quality are predictable consequences of the differences in stress, such pairs are considered minimal pairs. The case is similar in Russian, e.g. мука (‘torture, pain’) and мука (‘flour’).

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Look at other dictionaries:

minimal pair — noun : two spoken language items that are identical in all constituents except one (as ]ˈded: ˈdad]) and that are often used in demonstrating or testing the phonemicness of the differing constituents * * * Ling. a pair of words, as pin and bin,… … Useful english dictionary

minimal pair — UK / US noun [countable] Word forms minimal pair : singular minimal pair plural minimal pairs linguistics a pair of words that are different from each other in one sound only, for example pan and can … English dictionary

minimal pair — noun A pair of words differing by only one phonetic segment or suprasegment, used to prove the validity of a proposed phoneme, toneme, or chroneme. beach and bitch and bun and ban are examples of minimal pairs. See Also: near minimal pair … Wiktionary

minimal pair — n. (ling.) to produce; represent a minimal pair * * * represent a minimal pair (ling.) to produce … Combinatory dictionary

minimal pair — Ling. a pair of words, as pin and bin, or bet and bed, differing only by one sound in the same position in each word, esp. when such a pair is taken as evidence for the existence of a phonemic contrast between the two sounds. [1940 45] * * * … Universalium

minimal pair — min′imal pair′ n. phn a pair of words, as pin and bin, differing only by one sound in the same position in each word, esp. when taken as evidence of a phonemic contrast • Etymology: 1940–45 … From formal English to slang

minimal pair — /mɪnəməl ˈpɛə/ (say minuhmuhl pair) noun Phonology two words which can be represented by phonemic sequences which differ from each other at one place only, as pat/pæt/ and part/pat/ … Australian-English dictionary

minimal pair — noun Date: 1942 two linguistic units that differ in a single distinctive feature or constituent (as voice in the initial consonants of bat and pat) … New Collegiate Dictionary

near-minimal pair — noun A pair of words differing by a few (but more than one) phonetic segments or suprasegments, used to suggest a proposed phoneme, toneme, or chroneme may be valid. See Also: minimal pair … Wiktionary

pair — n. (ling.) a minimal pair * * * [peə] (ling.) a minimal pair … Combinatory dictionary

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minimal pair

1 minimal pair

См. также в других словарях:

Minimal pair — In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, which differ in only one phonological element, such as a phone, phoneme, toneme or chroneme and have distinct meanings. They are used to demonstrate that two… … Wikipedia

minimal pair — noun : two spoken language items that are identical in all constituents except one (as ]ˈded: ˈdad]) and that are often used in demonstrating or testing the phonemicness of the differing constituents * * * Ling. a pair of words, as pin and bin,… … Useful english dictionary

minimal pair — UK / US noun [countable] Word forms minimal pair : singular minimal pair plural minimal pairs linguistics a pair of words that are different from each other in one sound only, for example pan and can … English dictionary

minimal pair — noun A pair of words differing by only one phonetic segment or suprasegment, used to prove the validity of a proposed phoneme, toneme, or chroneme. beach and bitch and bun and ban are examples of minimal pairs. See Also: near minimal pair … Wiktionary

minimal pair — n. (ling.) to produce; represent a minimal pair * * * represent a minimal pair (ling.) to produce … Combinatory dictionary

minimal pair — Ling. a pair of words, as pin and bin, or bet and bed, differing only by one sound in the same position in each word, esp. when such a pair is taken as evidence for the existence of a phonemic contrast between the two sounds. [1940 45] * * * … Universalium

minimal pair — min′imal pair′ n. phn a pair of words, as pin and bin, differing only by one sound in the same position in each word, esp. when taken as evidence of a phonemic contrast • Etymology: 1940–45 … From formal English to slang

minimal pair — /mɪnəməl ˈpɛə/ (say minuhmuhl pair) noun Phonology two words which can be represented by phonemic sequences which differ from each other at one place only, as pat/pæt/ and part/pat/ … Australian-English dictionary

minimal pair — noun Date: 1942 two linguistic units that differ in a single distinctive feature or constituent (as voice in the initial consonants of bat and pat) … New Collegiate Dictionary

near-minimal pair — noun A pair of words differing by a few (but more than one) phonetic segments or suprasegments, used to suggest a proposed phoneme, toneme, or chroneme may be valid. See Also: minimal pair … Wiktionary

pair — n. (ling.) a minimal pair * * * [peə] (ling.) a minimal pair … Combinatory dictionary

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Phoneme vs. Minimal Pair in English Phonetics

Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms

Mike Clarke / Getty Images

In phonology and phonetics, the term minimal pair refers to two words that differ in only one sound, such as hit and hid. The words in a minimal pair have completely different, often unrelated definitions. Minimal pairs are useful to linguists because they provide insight into how sound and meaning coexist in language.

Definition of a Minimal Pair

James McGilvray provides a clear definition of a minimal pair in The Cambridge Companion to Chomsky: «A minimal pair is a pair of words that differ in a single phoneme. Minimal pairs are often used to show that two sounds contrast in a language. For example, we can demonstrate that [s] and [z] contrast in English by adducing minimal pairs such as sip and zip, or bus and buzz. Since the only difference in these words is the [s] vs. [z], we conclude that they belong to distinct phonemes. However, a similar test would show that [a:j] and [Aj] are distinct phonemes in English, since writer and rider appear to be minimal pairs distinguished in their second elements, not their fourth,» (McGilvray 2005).

In short, minimal pairs serve as tools to establish that two or more sounds are contrastive. A difference in sound means a difference in meaning, notes Harriet Joseph Ottenheimer, and thus a minimal pair is «the clearest and easiest way to identify phonemes in a language,» (Ottenheimer 2012).

Examples of Minimal Pairs

Word Position and Context

With regard to both creating and understanding minimal pairs, context is everything, as Mehmet Yavas explains. «[T]he only way we can create a minimal pair with reference to the two sounds involved is to put them in exactly the same environment in terms of word position and the surrounding context, To clarify further, the pair: jail–Yale shows the contrast between /dʒ/ and /j/ in initial position, budge–buzz focuses on the contrast between /dʒ/ and /z/ in final position, while witch–wish contrasts /t∫/ and /ʃ/ in final position. It should be noted that minimal pairs include forms that have different spellings, as evidenced in jail–Yale,» (Yavas 2011).

Near Minimal Pairs

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