What is contrastive analysis?

Definition
Contrastive analysis is an inductive investigative approach based on the distinctive
elements in a language.
Kinds
Here are some kinds of contrastive analysis:

Intralingual
o Analysis of contrastive phonemes
o Feature analysis of morphosyntactic categories
o Analysis of morphemes having grammatical meaning
o Analysis of word order
o Componential analysis of lexemes
o Analysis of lexical relations

Cross-linguistic
o Comparative analysis of morphosyntactic systems
o Comparative analysis of lexical semantics
o Analysis of translational equivalence
o Study of interference in foreign language learning

What is a phoneme?

Definition
A phoneme is the smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of a language.
Discussion
Phonologists have differing views of the phoneme. Following are the two major views
considered here:

In the American structuralist tradition, a phoneme is defined according to its

allophones and environments.

In the generative tradition, a phoneme is defined as a set of distinctive features.

Comparison
Here is a chart that compares phones and phonemes:

A phone is

A phoneme is

One of many possible

sounds in the languages of
the world.

A contrastive unit in the

sound system of a particular
language.

The smallest identifiable

unit found in a stream of
speech.

A minimal unit that serves to

distinguish between
meanings of words.

Pronounced in a defined
way.

Pronounced in one or more

ways, depending on the
number of allophones.

Represented between
brackets by convention.

Represented between slashes

by convention.

Example:

Example:
[b], [j], [o]

/b/, /j/, /o/

Examples (English): Minimal pair

Here are examples of the phonemes /r/ and /l/ occurring in a minimal pair:

rip

lip

The phones [r] and [l] contrast in identical environments and are considered to be
separate phonemes. The phonemes /r/ and /l/ serve to distinguish the word rip from the

word lip.
Examples (English): Distinctive features
Here are examples of the English phonemes /p/ and /i/ specified as sets of distinctive
features:

/p/ /i/

-syllabic +consonantal -sonorant +anterior -coronal -voice -continuant -nasal+syllabic

-consonantal +sonorant +high -low -back -round +ATR -nasal
See also

What is phonology?

Comparison of morpheme-morph-allomorph and phoneme-phone-allophone

Sources
Burquest and Payne 1993

Hyman 1975

What is a morpheme?

Definition
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in the grammar of a language.
Discussion
Current approaches to morphology conceive of morphemes as rules involving the
linguistic context, rather than as isolated pieces of linguistic matter. They acknowledge
that

meaning may be directly linked to suprasegmental phonological units, such as

tone or stress.

the meaning of a morpheme with a given form may vary, depending on its
immediate environment.
Source:
Payne, T. 1997a 2021

Examples (English)

Unladylike

The word unladylike consists of three morphemes and four syllables.

Morpheme breaks:

un- 'not'

lady '(well behaved) female adult human'

-like 'having the characteristics of'

None of these morphemes can be broken up any more without losing all
sense of meaning. Lady cannot be broken up into "la" and "dy," even
though "la" and "dy" are separate syllables. Note that each syllable has no
meaning on its own.

Dogs

The word dogs consists of two morphemes and one syllable:

dog, and

-s, a plural marker on nouns

Note that a morpheme like "-s" can just be a single phoneme and does not
have to be a whole syllable.

Technique

Classification

The word technique consists of only one morpheme having two syllables.

Even though the word has two syllables, it is a single morpheme because
it cannot be broken down into smaller meaningful parts.

Morphemes may be classified, on the basis of word formation, characteristics into the
following types:

Structure
yes/no

ingle morpheme; a basis for compounding and affixation

yes/no

e up of one or more morphemes; a basis for affixation

yes

yes (phonologically)

Note
:
A clitic is a kind of morpheme that does not fit well in the above classification system
because it is phonologically bound but syntactically free

What is an allomorph?

Definition
An allomorph is one of two or more complementary morphs which manifest a morpheme
in its different phonological or morphological environments.
Discussion
The allomorphs of a morpheme are derived from phonological rules and any
morphophonemic rules that may apply to that morpheme.
Examples (English)
The plural morpheme in English, usually written as '-s', has at least three allomorphs:

[-s] as in [hQts] 'hats'

[-z] as in [d&u0254;gz] 'dogs'

[z] as in [bksz] 'boxes'

Generic
An allomorph is a kind of

What is a morph?

What is a zero morph?

Definition
A zero morph is a morph, consisting of no phonetic form, that is proposed in some
analyses as an allomorph of a morpheme that is ordinarily realized by a morph having
some phonetic form.
Example (English)
The plural form that is realized in two sheep is , in contrast with the plural
-s in two goats.

What is a phone?

Definition
A phone is an unanalyzed sound of a language. It is the smallest identifiable unit found
in a stream of speech that is able to be transcribed with an IPA symbol.

What is an allophone?

Definition
An allophone is a phonetic variant of a phoneme in a particular language.
Examples (English)

[p] and [pH] are allophones of the phoneme /p/.

[t] and [tH] are allophones of the phoneme /t/.

Examples (Spanish)

[b] and [B] are allophones of the phoneme /b/.

[d] and [D] are allophones of the phoneme /d/.

What is a syntactic category?

Definition
A syntactic category is a set of words and/or phrases in a language which share a
significant number of common characteristics. The classification is based on
similar structure and sameness of distribution (the structural relationships
between these elements and other items in a larger grammatical structure), and
not on meaning. In generative grammar, a syntactic category is symbolized by a
node label in a constituent structure tree.
Also known as:
Syntactic class

Kinds
There are major and minor syntactic categories:
Major categories

All phrasal syntactic categories

Examples:
NP (noun phrase), VP (verb phrase), PP (prepositional phrase)

Word-level syntactic categories that serve as heads of phrasal syntactic

categories
Examples:
noun, verb
See:
lexical category

Minor categories

Categories that do not project to a phrasal level

Example:
Yes-No question markers

Contrast
Contrast syntactic category with the following:

Grammatical category (person, number, tense, aspect, mood, gender, case,

voice...)

Grammatical class (transitive and intransitive verbs; count and mass

nouns)

Grammatical relations (subject, direct object, indirect object)

Functional categories (agent, patient, instrument; topic, comment;

definite NP)

Note: The terms grammatical category and grammatical class have also been used
as synonyms for part of speech.

What is a lexeme?

Definition
A lexeme is the minimal unit of language which

has a semantic interpretation and

embodies a distinct cultural concept.

It is made up of one or more form-meaning composites called lexical units.

Discussion
A lexical database is organized around lexemes, which include all the morphemes
of a language, even if these morphemes never occur alone. A lexeme is
conventionally listed in a dictionary as a separate entry.

What is a lexical relation?

Definition
A lexical relation is a culturally recognized pattern of association that exists
between lexical units in a language.
Examples: English paradigmatic lexical relations
Here is a table showing some common paradigmatic lexical relations in English
with example sets and underlying structure:

Lexical
relation

synonym

Example set

A "happy" synonym
set: {happy, joyful,
glad}

Underlying
structure

simple set

measurement A "temperature" set:

scale
{cold, cool, lukewarm,
warm, hot}

opposite

A "social relation" set: set of pairs

{(student, teacher),
(patient, doctor)}

genericspecific
whole-part

A "whole-part" tree:

tree

house

roof

walls
floor

Underlying structure
Each lexical relation has an underlying structure that describes the relationship
that senses within a lexical relation set have with each other.

Here are some underlying structures of lexical relations:

simple set

scale

set of pairs

tree

Kinds
Here are some kinds of lexical relations:

paradigmatic

syntagmatic

http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsContrastiveAnalysis.ht

Glossary of linguistic terms

by

Eugene E. Loos (general editor)

Susan Anderson (editor)
Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor)
Paul C. Jordan (editor)
J. Douglas Wingate (editor)

This is a living glossary, and suggestions are welcome for additions or corrections. Please send
your comments to: SIL International Linguistics Coordinator
Complete Table of Contents

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