Does a difference of tense count as a difference of meaning in a minimal pair?

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6















Does a difference in tense count as a difference in meaning in a minimal pair?



Here's a made up example to illustrate my question:



If we know that:



  • [wuga] means "read"

  • [wugi] means "reading"

Can we say that [wuga] and [wugi] are a minimal pair and that [a] and [i] contrast?










share|improve this question


























    6















    Does a difference in tense count as a difference in meaning in a minimal pair?



    Here's a made up example to illustrate my question:



    If we know that:



    • [wuga] means "read"

    • [wugi] means "reading"

    Can we say that [wuga] and [wugi] are a minimal pair and that [a] and [i] contrast?










    share|improve this question
























      6












      6








      6








      Does a difference in tense count as a difference in meaning in a minimal pair?



      Here's a made up example to illustrate my question:



      If we know that:



      • [wuga] means "read"

      • [wugi] means "reading"

      Can we say that [wuga] and [wugi] are a minimal pair and that [a] and [i] contrast?










      share|improve this question














      Does a difference in tense count as a difference in meaning in a minimal pair?



      Here's a made up example to illustrate my question:



      If we know that:



      • [wuga] means "read"

      • [wugi] means "reading"

      Can we say that [wuga] and [wugi] are a minimal pair and that [a] and [i] contrast?







      tense minimal-pairs






      share|improve this question













      share|improve this question











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      asked Mar 10 at 19:43









      dawnchandlerdawnchandler

      363




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          2 Answers
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          Yes. A minimal pair is meant to differ in one phoneme, to demonstrate that a speaker of the language can distinguish between the two words, and therefore that the contrast is phonemic. Since the difference between the words is on the level of phonology, it doesn't matter whether the difference in meaning is grammatical or lexical.






          share|improve this answer






























            6














            Well, the issue is not as clear as the preceding answer states.
            One issue here is morpheme-boundary.
            It's not good policy to look for minimal pairs that involve morpheme boundaries. For example, drink drank drunk is ok because there is no boundary involved here, but there is the well-known case of Scottish English where vowel length normally does not exist, but some long vowels actually exist in words like Preterite laid < lay+ed. In other words, your pair wugi / wuga is not a fully satisfactory minimal pair. It might involve interferences caused by morpheme boundaries. So I would recommend to look for another minimal pair that does not involve that kind of issues.






            share|improve this answer


















            • 2





              Why would differences in morphological structure be relevant to deciding if two words form a minimal pair? The minimal pair test only refers to the phonetic segments in the words.

              – user6726
              Mar 10 at 23:38






            • 2





              I'm not sure I agree with this argument, but, for example, in English consonant length is generally not considered phonemic, yet if you take a word boundary, or even a morpheme boundary, you can have the same consonant twice, which results, for instance, in unaimed [ʌn'eɪmd] vs unnamed [ʌn'neɪmd], with a (potential, at least) geminate. Does this mean the analysis positing that consonant length is not phonemic in English is wrong, or does it mean that minimal pairs shouldn't be constructed across morpheme boundaries?

              – LjL
              Mar 11 at 0:22






            • 1





              @user6726 Rosa's vs. roses. This famous pair is not truly a minimal pair (Flemming & Johnson 2007). If English orthography marked the boundary between the stem and the plural suffix nobody would have even considered that possibility. Morphological structure is absolutely relevant because it shapes the definition of a word.

              – Nardog
              Mar 11 at 5:17






            • 1





              To follow Nardog, the issue is that defining what a "word" is not as clear as one may hope. So the best minimal pairs are those involving unanalyzable morphemes.

              – Arnaud Fournet
              Mar 11 at 10:08











            • @Nardog I've read the paper but it doesn't seem to say that Rosa's vs roses is not a minimal pair; I even find hints they consider it one, like "[...] a sequence of 25 minimal pairs (roses–Rosa’s, [...])". Anyway, while I think I see why you say they're not, and I've argued for that too earlier... if hypothetically Rosa's and roses were the only examples of [ɨ] vs [ə], would it be fair to say that /ɨ/ and /ə/ aren't separate phonemes in English because there is no minimal pair? I'd still say the utterances [ɹoʊzɨz] vs [ɹoʊzəz] show a meaningful distinction, indicating phonemicity.

              – LjL
              Mar 12 at 21:01











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            2 Answers
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            2 Answers
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            active

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            14














            Yes. A minimal pair is meant to differ in one phoneme, to demonstrate that a speaker of the language can distinguish between the two words, and therefore that the contrast is phonemic. Since the difference between the words is on the level of phonology, it doesn't matter whether the difference in meaning is grammatical or lexical.






            share|improve this answer



























              14














              Yes. A minimal pair is meant to differ in one phoneme, to demonstrate that a speaker of the language can distinguish between the two words, and therefore that the contrast is phonemic. Since the difference between the words is on the level of phonology, it doesn't matter whether the difference in meaning is grammatical or lexical.






              share|improve this answer

























                14












                14








                14







                Yes. A minimal pair is meant to differ in one phoneme, to demonstrate that a speaker of the language can distinguish between the two words, and therefore that the contrast is phonemic. Since the difference between the words is on the level of phonology, it doesn't matter whether the difference in meaning is grammatical or lexical.






                share|improve this answer













                Yes. A minimal pair is meant to differ in one phoneme, to demonstrate that a speaker of the language can distinguish between the two words, and therefore that the contrast is phonemic. Since the difference between the words is on the level of phonology, it doesn't matter whether the difference in meaning is grammatical or lexical.







                share|improve this answer












                share|improve this answer



                share|improve this answer










                answered Mar 10 at 20:07









                b ab a

                1,7171326




                1,7171326





















                    6














                    Well, the issue is not as clear as the preceding answer states.
                    One issue here is morpheme-boundary.
                    It's not good policy to look for minimal pairs that involve morpheme boundaries. For example, drink drank drunk is ok because there is no boundary involved here, but there is the well-known case of Scottish English where vowel length normally does not exist, but some long vowels actually exist in words like Preterite laid < lay+ed. In other words, your pair wugi / wuga is not a fully satisfactory minimal pair. It might involve interferences caused by morpheme boundaries. So I would recommend to look for another minimal pair that does not involve that kind of issues.






                    share|improve this answer


















                    • 2





                      Why would differences in morphological structure be relevant to deciding if two words form a minimal pair? The minimal pair test only refers to the phonetic segments in the words.

                      – user6726
                      Mar 10 at 23:38






                    • 2





                      I'm not sure I agree with this argument, but, for example, in English consonant length is generally not considered phonemic, yet if you take a word boundary, or even a morpheme boundary, you can have the same consonant twice, which results, for instance, in unaimed [ʌn'eɪmd] vs unnamed [ʌn'neɪmd], with a (potential, at least) geminate. Does this mean the analysis positing that consonant length is not phonemic in English is wrong, or does it mean that minimal pairs shouldn't be constructed across morpheme boundaries?

                      – LjL
                      Mar 11 at 0:22






                    • 1





                      @user6726 Rosa's vs. roses. This famous pair is not truly a minimal pair (Flemming & Johnson 2007). If English orthography marked the boundary between the stem and the plural suffix nobody would have even considered that possibility. Morphological structure is absolutely relevant because it shapes the definition of a word.

                      – Nardog
                      Mar 11 at 5:17






                    • 1





                      To follow Nardog, the issue is that defining what a "word" is not as clear as one may hope. So the best minimal pairs are those involving unanalyzable morphemes.

                      – Arnaud Fournet
                      Mar 11 at 10:08











                    • @Nardog I've read the paper but it doesn't seem to say that Rosa's vs roses is not a minimal pair; I even find hints they consider it one, like "[...] a sequence of 25 minimal pairs (roses–Rosa’s, [...])". Anyway, while I think I see why you say they're not, and I've argued for that too earlier... if hypothetically Rosa's and roses were the only examples of [ɨ] vs [ə], would it be fair to say that /ɨ/ and /ə/ aren't separate phonemes in English because there is no minimal pair? I'd still say the utterances [ɹoʊzɨz] vs [ɹoʊzəz] show a meaningful distinction, indicating phonemicity.

                      – LjL
                      Mar 12 at 21:01















                    6














                    Well, the issue is not as clear as the preceding answer states.
                    One issue here is morpheme-boundary.
                    It's not good policy to look for minimal pairs that involve morpheme boundaries. For example, drink drank drunk is ok because there is no boundary involved here, but there is the well-known case of Scottish English where vowel length normally does not exist, but some long vowels actually exist in words like Preterite laid < lay+ed. In other words, your pair wugi / wuga is not a fully satisfactory minimal pair. It might involve interferences caused by morpheme boundaries. So I would recommend to look for another minimal pair that does not involve that kind of issues.






                    share|improve this answer


















                    • 2





                      Why would differences in morphological structure be relevant to deciding if two words form a minimal pair? The minimal pair test only refers to the phonetic segments in the words.

                      – user6726
                      Mar 10 at 23:38






                    • 2





                      I'm not sure I agree with this argument, but, for example, in English consonant length is generally not considered phonemic, yet if you take a word boundary, or even a morpheme boundary, you can have the same consonant twice, which results, for instance, in unaimed [ʌn'eɪmd] vs unnamed [ʌn'neɪmd], with a (potential, at least) geminate. Does this mean the analysis positing that consonant length is not phonemic in English is wrong, or does it mean that minimal pairs shouldn't be constructed across morpheme boundaries?

                      – LjL
                      Mar 11 at 0:22






                    • 1





                      @user6726 Rosa's vs. roses. This famous pair is not truly a minimal pair (Flemming & Johnson 2007). If English orthography marked the boundary between the stem and the plural suffix nobody would have even considered that possibility. Morphological structure is absolutely relevant because it shapes the definition of a word.

                      – Nardog
                      Mar 11 at 5:17






                    • 1





                      To follow Nardog, the issue is that defining what a "word" is not as clear as one may hope. So the best minimal pairs are those involving unanalyzable morphemes.

                      – Arnaud Fournet
                      Mar 11 at 10:08











                    • @Nardog I've read the paper but it doesn't seem to say that Rosa's vs roses is not a minimal pair; I even find hints they consider it one, like "[...] a sequence of 25 minimal pairs (roses–Rosa’s, [...])". Anyway, while I think I see why you say they're not, and I've argued for that too earlier... if hypothetically Rosa's and roses were the only examples of [ɨ] vs [ə], would it be fair to say that /ɨ/ and /ə/ aren't separate phonemes in English because there is no minimal pair? I'd still say the utterances [ɹoʊzɨz] vs [ɹoʊzəz] show a meaningful distinction, indicating phonemicity.

                      – LjL
                      Mar 12 at 21:01













                    6












                    6








                    6







                    Well, the issue is not as clear as the preceding answer states.
                    One issue here is morpheme-boundary.
                    It's not good policy to look for minimal pairs that involve morpheme boundaries. For example, drink drank drunk is ok because there is no boundary involved here, but there is the well-known case of Scottish English where vowel length normally does not exist, but some long vowels actually exist in words like Preterite laid < lay+ed. In other words, your pair wugi / wuga is not a fully satisfactory minimal pair. It might involve interferences caused by morpheme boundaries. So I would recommend to look for another minimal pair that does not involve that kind of issues.






                    share|improve this answer













                    Well, the issue is not as clear as the preceding answer states.
                    One issue here is morpheme-boundary.
                    It's not good policy to look for minimal pairs that involve morpheme boundaries. For example, drink drank drunk is ok because there is no boundary involved here, but there is the well-known case of Scottish English where vowel length normally does not exist, but some long vowels actually exist in words like Preterite laid < lay+ed. In other words, your pair wugi / wuga is not a fully satisfactory minimal pair. It might involve interferences caused by morpheme boundaries. So I would recommend to look for another minimal pair that does not involve that kind of issues.







                    share|improve this answer












                    share|improve this answer



                    share|improve this answer










                    answered Mar 10 at 21:30









                    Arnaud FournetArnaud Fournet

                    90827




                    90827







                    • 2





                      Why would differences in morphological structure be relevant to deciding if two words form a minimal pair? The minimal pair test only refers to the phonetic segments in the words.

                      – user6726
                      Mar 10 at 23:38






                    • 2





                      I'm not sure I agree with this argument, but, for example, in English consonant length is generally not considered phonemic, yet if you take a word boundary, or even a morpheme boundary, you can have the same consonant twice, which results, for instance, in unaimed [ʌn'eɪmd] vs unnamed [ʌn'neɪmd], with a (potential, at least) geminate. Does this mean the analysis positing that consonant length is not phonemic in English is wrong, or does it mean that minimal pairs shouldn't be constructed across morpheme boundaries?

                      – LjL
                      Mar 11 at 0:22






                    • 1





                      @user6726 Rosa's vs. roses. This famous pair is not truly a minimal pair (Flemming & Johnson 2007). If English orthography marked the boundary between the stem and the plural suffix nobody would have even considered that possibility. Morphological structure is absolutely relevant because it shapes the definition of a word.

                      – Nardog
                      Mar 11 at 5:17






                    • 1





                      To follow Nardog, the issue is that defining what a "word" is not as clear as one may hope. So the best minimal pairs are those involving unanalyzable morphemes.

                      – Arnaud Fournet
                      Mar 11 at 10:08











                    • @Nardog I've read the paper but it doesn't seem to say that Rosa's vs roses is not a minimal pair; I even find hints they consider it one, like "[...] a sequence of 25 minimal pairs (roses–Rosa’s, [...])". Anyway, while I think I see why you say they're not, and I've argued for that too earlier... if hypothetically Rosa's and roses were the only examples of [ɨ] vs [ə], would it be fair to say that /ɨ/ and /ə/ aren't separate phonemes in English because there is no minimal pair? I'd still say the utterances [ɹoʊzɨz] vs [ɹoʊzəz] show a meaningful distinction, indicating phonemicity.

                      – LjL
                      Mar 12 at 21:01












                    • 2





                      Why would differences in morphological structure be relevant to deciding if two words form a minimal pair? The minimal pair test only refers to the phonetic segments in the words.

                      – user6726
                      Mar 10 at 23:38






                    • 2





                      I'm not sure I agree with this argument, but, for example, in English consonant length is generally not considered phonemic, yet if you take a word boundary, or even a morpheme boundary, you can have the same consonant twice, which results, for instance, in unaimed [ʌn'eɪmd] vs unnamed [ʌn'neɪmd], with a (potential, at least) geminate. Does this mean the analysis positing that consonant length is not phonemic in English is wrong, or does it mean that minimal pairs shouldn't be constructed across morpheme boundaries?

                      – LjL
                      Mar 11 at 0:22






                    • 1





                      @user6726 Rosa's vs. roses. This famous pair is not truly a minimal pair (Flemming & Johnson 2007). If English orthography marked the boundary between the stem and the plural suffix nobody would have even considered that possibility. Morphological structure is absolutely relevant because it shapes the definition of a word.

                      – Nardog
                      Mar 11 at 5:17






                    • 1





                      To follow Nardog, the issue is that defining what a "word" is not as clear as one may hope. So the best minimal pairs are those involving unanalyzable morphemes.

                      – Arnaud Fournet
                      Mar 11 at 10:08











                    • @Nardog I've read the paper but it doesn't seem to say that Rosa's vs roses is not a minimal pair; I even find hints they consider it one, like "[...] a sequence of 25 minimal pairs (roses–Rosa’s, [...])". Anyway, while I think I see why you say they're not, and I've argued for that too earlier... if hypothetically Rosa's and roses were the only examples of [ɨ] vs [ə], would it be fair to say that /ɨ/ and /ə/ aren't separate phonemes in English because there is no minimal pair? I'd still say the utterances [ɹoʊzɨz] vs [ɹoʊzəz] show a meaningful distinction, indicating phonemicity.

                      – LjL
                      Mar 12 at 21:01







                    2




                    2





                    Why would differences in morphological structure be relevant to deciding if two words form a minimal pair? The minimal pair test only refers to the phonetic segments in the words.

                    – user6726
                    Mar 10 at 23:38





                    Why would differences in morphological structure be relevant to deciding if two words form a minimal pair? The minimal pair test only refers to the phonetic segments in the words.

                    – user6726
                    Mar 10 at 23:38




                    2




                    2





                    I'm not sure I agree with this argument, but, for example, in English consonant length is generally not considered phonemic, yet if you take a word boundary, or even a morpheme boundary, you can have the same consonant twice, which results, for instance, in unaimed [ʌn'eɪmd] vs unnamed [ʌn'neɪmd], with a (potential, at least) geminate. Does this mean the analysis positing that consonant length is not phonemic in English is wrong, or does it mean that minimal pairs shouldn't be constructed across morpheme boundaries?

                    – LjL
                    Mar 11 at 0:22





                    I'm not sure I agree with this argument, but, for example, in English consonant length is generally not considered phonemic, yet if you take a word boundary, or even a morpheme boundary, you can have the same consonant twice, which results, for instance, in unaimed [ʌn'eɪmd] vs unnamed [ʌn'neɪmd], with a (potential, at least) geminate. Does this mean the analysis positing that consonant length is not phonemic in English is wrong, or does it mean that minimal pairs shouldn't be constructed across morpheme boundaries?

                    – LjL
                    Mar 11 at 0:22




                    1




                    1





                    @user6726 Rosa's vs. roses. This famous pair is not truly a minimal pair (Flemming & Johnson 2007). If English orthography marked the boundary between the stem and the plural suffix nobody would have even considered that possibility. Morphological structure is absolutely relevant because it shapes the definition of a word.

                    – Nardog
                    Mar 11 at 5:17





                    @user6726 Rosa's vs. roses. This famous pair is not truly a minimal pair (Flemming & Johnson 2007). If English orthography marked the boundary between the stem and the plural suffix nobody would have even considered that possibility. Morphological structure is absolutely relevant because it shapes the definition of a word.

                    – Nardog
                    Mar 11 at 5:17




                    1




                    1





                    To follow Nardog, the issue is that defining what a "word" is not as clear as one may hope. So the best minimal pairs are those involving unanalyzable morphemes.

                    – Arnaud Fournet
                    Mar 11 at 10:08





                    To follow Nardog, the issue is that defining what a "word" is not as clear as one may hope. So the best minimal pairs are those involving unanalyzable morphemes.

                    – Arnaud Fournet
                    Mar 11 at 10:08













                    @Nardog I've read the paper but it doesn't seem to say that Rosa's vs roses is not a minimal pair; I even find hints they consider it one, like "[...] a sequence of 25 minimal pairs (roses–Rosa’s, [...])". Anyway, while I think I see why you say they're not, and I've argued for that too earlier... if hypothetically Rosa's and roses were the only examples of [ɨ] vs [ə], would it be fair to say that /ɨ/ and /ə/ aren't separate phonemes in English because there is no minimal pair? I'd still say the utterances [ɹoʊzɨz] vs [ɹoʊzəz] show a meaningful distinction, indicating phonemicity.

                    – LjL
                    Mar 12 at 21:01





                    @Nardog I've read the paper but it doesn't seem to say that Rosa's vs roses is not a minimal pair; I even find hints they consider it one, like "[...] a sequence of 25 minimal pairs (roses–Rosa’s, [...])". Anyway, while I think I see why you say they're not, and I've argued for that too earlier... if hypothetically Rosa's and roses were the only examples of [ɨ] vs [ə], would it be fair to say that /ɨ/ and /ə/ aren't separate phonemes in English because there is no minimal pair? I'd still say the utterances [ɹoʊzɨz] vs [ɹoʊzəz] show a meaningful distinction, indicating phonemicity.

                    – LjL
                    Mar 12 at 21:01

















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