Chapter 3 Phonology

Question 1

Phonotactic constraints

Answer 1

Restriction on possible combinations of sounds, often in particular environment.

Question 2

allophone

Answer 2

one of a set of noncontrastive realizations of the same phoneme; an actual phonetic segment.

Question 3

nonconstrastive

Answer 3

a term used to describe two sounds that are not used to differentiate words in a language.

Question 4

phoneme

Answer 4

a class of speech sounds identified by a native speaker as the same sound; a mental entity related to various allophones by phonological rules. Phonemes are written between slashes for ex /t/

Question 5

minimal pairs

Answer 5

defined as a pair of words whose pronunciations differ by exactly one sound and that have different meaning

Question 6

alternation

Answer 6

a difference between two or more phonetic forms that you might otherwise expect to be related

Question 7

complementary distribution

Answer 7

the occurrence of sounds in a language such that they are never found in the same phonetic environment. These sounds are allophones of the same phoneme.

Question 8

free variation

Answer 8

term used to refer to two sounds that occur in overlapping environments but cause no distinction in the meaning of their respective words.

Question 9

overlapping distribution

Answer 9

the occurrence of sounds in the same phonetic environment

Question 10

phonological rule

Answer 10

the description of a relationship between a phoneme and its allophones and the conditioning environment in which the allophone appears

Question 11

underlying form

Answer 11

the phonetic form of a word or morpheme before phonological rules are applied

Question 12

obstruents

Answer 12

a natural class of sounds produced with an obstruction of the airflow in the oral cavity while the nasal cavity is closed off. includes oral stops, fricatives, and affricates

Question 13

sonorant

Answer 13

sound ( usually voiced) produced with a relatively open passage of air flow. Nasals, liquids, glides, and vowels are all sonorant

Question 14

7 types of phonological rules

Answer 14

1. assimilation
2. dissimulation
3. insertion
4. deletion
5. meta thesis
6. strengthening
7. weakening

Question 15

assimilation (rules of)

Answer 15

a process by which a sound becomes more like a nearby sound in terms of some feature

Question 16

dissimulation (rules of)

Answer 16

process by which two nearby sound become less alike with respect to some feature

Question 17

insertion (rule of)

Answer 17

process by which s segment not present in the phonemic form is added in the phonetic form

Question 18

deletion (rule of)

Answer 18

a process by which a sound present in the phonemic form is removed from the phonetic form in a certain environments

Question 19

meta thesis (rule of)

Answer 19

switching of the order of two sounds, each taking the place of the other

Question 20

strengthening (rule of)

Answer 20

a process through which sounds are made “stronger” according to some criterion

Question 21

weakening (rule of)

Answer 21

a process through which sounds are made “weaker” according to some criterion

Question 22

implicational law

Answer 22

observation about language universals that takes the form of an implication

Question 23

basic allophone

Answer 23

the allophone of a phoneme that is used when none of the change inducing conditions are fulfilled.

Question 24

restricted allophone

Answer 24

an allophone of a phoneme that appears in a more limited set of phonetic environment

Question 25

sound substitution

Answer 25

a process whereby sounds that already exist in a language are used to replace sounds that do not exist in the language when borrowing or when a speaker is trying to pronounce a foreign word