Chapter 3 - The Phonological Component: Phonology Flashcards
Phonology
The study of the sound system of a language; that is, what sounds are in a language and what the rules are for combining those sounds into larger units.
Phone or phonetic unit or segment
An actual speech sound produced by the vocal tract that is perceived as an individual and unique sound, different from other such sounds
Phoneme
A perceived unit of language that signals a difference in meaning when contrasted to another phoneme
Allophone
A variation of a phoneme: different allophones of a phoneme occur in different and predictable phonetic environments
Distinctive
Refers to units that contrast; that is change meaning when substituted for each other.
Etic
Refers to a study done by a cultural outsider using categories and concepts that might not have meaning to the people being studied
Emic
Refers to categories and concepts that have meaning to the people being studied
Utterance
A stretch of speech between two periods of silence or a potential (perceived) silence
Corpus
A collection of linguistic information used to discover linguistics rules and principles
Minimal pair
Made up of two forms (words, phrases, sentences) that differ in meaning, contain the same number of sound segments, and display only one phonetic difference, which occurs at the same place in the form
Minimal set
Made up of more than two forms (words, phrases, sentences) that differ in meaning, contain the same number of sound segments, and display only one phonetic difference, which occurs at the same place in the form
Complementary distribution
Means that each of a series of sounds occurs in different phonetic contexts and these sounds never contrast with each other.
Overlapping distribution
Characteristic of different phones that appear in most of the same phonetic environments.
Substitution frame
A form that has a “slot”that can be filled in with different items, and is used to identify different phonemes
Free variation
A condition in which phonetically different sounds (phonemes or allophones) may occur in the same environment without changing meaning
Narrow transcription (phonetic transcription)
Represents the actual sounds that a person utters in as much detail as possible
Broad transcription (phonemic transcription)
Represents the idealized sounds, which are actually classes of sounds (the class being made up of allophones) rather than physically real speech sounds
Distinctive feature
Any trait that distinguishes one phoneme from another
Binary system
A classification system in which a feature is either present or absent.
Feature matrix
Lists sound segments (or other phenomena) along the horizontal axis, and features on the vertical axis.
Natural class
A subset of the total set of phonemes that shares a small number of phonetic (distinctive) features, which distinguishes itself from others.
Phonotactics
An area of phonology that studies the combinations of phonemes that are allowed (or conversely restricted) in the formation of syllables, consonant clusters, and sequences of vowels.
Obligatory phonological process
A rule that most native speakers of a specific language apply to make a string of phonetic units easier to pronounce and perceive.
Optional phonological process
A pattern that is applied by individuals or groups of individuals and is not necessarily characteristic of most native speakers of a language; it is stylistic.
Assimilation
The obligatory phonological process that makes it easier to pronounce combinations of sounds by making those sounds share a distinctive feature that in other environments one of the sounds would not have.
Manner assimilation
Involves making a string of sounds easier to pronounce by making one of them conform to the manner of articulation of the other.
Voice assimilation
Occurs when a sound coming to agree with a surrounding sound in its voicing.
Devoice
When a sound loses its voiced feature because of a voiceless sound or sounds in its phonetic environment.
Place assimilation
When adjacent sounds are made to agree in their place of articulation.
Change in syllabicity
Involves an alternative pronunciation of a syllable from an idealized pronunciation.
Redundancy
When more information is present than necessary under ideal conditions.
Markedness
A contrast in complexity and rarity of sounds (and other phenomena).
Unmarked sounds
More basic, more common in the language, and learned by children earlier than marked sounds.
Marked sounds
More complex, less common in the language, and learned by children later than unmarked sounds.
