In a search result word list, a group of minimal pairs is a set of rows for which the phonetic data is similar in the search environments.
To specify the options for the search environments, do the following:
On a search result tab, click Minimal
Pairs Options .
A drop-down box appears.
To specify which part of the search environment must be identical in each group, do one of the following:
Click Both Environments Identical.
Click Identical Preceding Environment.
Click Identical Following Environment.
To specify which characters in search environments can be ignored or must be identical in each group, do any of the following:
To ignore a type of
character, click to select the check box .
All the characters in the area of the box are highlighted.
To require that a type
of character be identical, click to clear the check box .
None of the characters in the area of the box are highlighted.
To include or exclude a character in an area of the box, click the character.
If a character is highlighted, it is ignored.
If a character is not highlighted, it must be identical. If some,
but not all, of the characters in an area are highlighted, the
check box is selected, but dimmed .
See Also: Search Options.
Click Apply.
If you select the check box, the following environments are in the same group:
Check box |
Environment |
Environment |
---|---|---|
Ignore Diacritics |
ë_ö |
e_o |
Ignore Stress/Syllable |
wa'_i.ke |
wa_ike |
Ignore Tone |
é_ó |
e_o |
Ignore Length |
n:_# |
n_# |
Currently, the way the Minimal Pairs feature functions in Phonology Assistant, the program may produce pairs that are not phonologically minimal. For example, when searching for t/d minimal pairs, Phonology assistant would produce the following list:
[te] 'take' and [de] 'find', which are phonological minimal pairs. But [tu] ‘make’ and [tu] ‘touch’, which are homophones, would also be produced. The only "contrastive" unit is semantic, which is not what the researcher is necessarily looking for.