Chapter 4 - Learning Sound Patterns

Question 1

Head-turn preference paradigm

Answer 1

An experimental framework in which infants’ speech
preference or learning is measured by the length of time they turn their heads in the
direction of a sound.

Question 2

Familiarization phase

Answer 2

A preparation period during which subjects are exposed to stimuli
that will serve as the basis for the test phase to follow.

Question 3

Test phase

Answer 3

The period in which subjects’ responses to the critical experimental stimuli is tested following a familiarization phase. Often, responses to familiar stimuli are compared with responses to unfamiliar stimuli.

Question 4

Phonotactic constraints

Answer 4

Language-specific constraints that determine how the sounds of a
given language may be combined to form words or syllables.

Question 5

Trochaic stress pattern

Answer 5

Syllable emphasis pattern in which the first syllable is stressed, as in
BLACKmail

Question 6

Iambic stress pattern

Answer 6

Syllable emphasis pattern in which the first syllable is unstressed, as
in reTURN

Question 7

Artificial language

Answer 7

A “language” that is constructed to have certain specific properties for
the purpose of testing an experimental hypothesis: strings of sounds correspond to “words,” which may or may not have meaning, and whose combination may or may not be constrained by syntactic rules.

Question 8

Transitional probability (TP)

Answer 8

When applied to syllable sequences,
the probability that a particular syllable will occur, given the
previous occurrence of another particular syllable

Question 9

Phoneme

Answer 9

An abstract sound category that represents the smallest unit of sound that
changes the meaning of a word; often identified by forward slashes; e.g., /t/ is a phoneme in English because replacing it in the word tan (e.g., with the similar sound /d/) makes a different word

Question 10

Allophones

Answer 10

Two or more similar sounds that are variants of the same phoneme; often
identified by brackets (e.g., [t] and [th] represent the two allophones of /t/ in the words Stan and tan)

Question 11

Minimal pair

Answer 11

A pair of words that have different meanings but all of the same sounds, with
the exception of one phoneme (e.g., tan and man)

Question 12

Vocal folds

Answer 12

Also known as “vocal cords,” these are paired “flaps” in the larynx that vibrate as air passes over them. The vibrations are shaped into speech sounds by the other structures (tongue, alveolar ridge,
velum, etc.) of the vocal tract

Question 13

Phonation

Answer 13

Production of sound by the vibrating vocal folds

Question 14

Bilabial

Answer 14

Describes a sound that is produced by obstructing airflow at the lips

Question 15

Alveolar

Answer 15

Describes the sound whose place of articulation is the alveolar ridge, just behind the teeth

Question 16

Velar

Answer 16

Describes a sound whose place of articulation is the velum (the soft tissue at the back of the roof of your mouth)

Question 17

Stop consonant

Answer 17

A sound produced when airflow is stopped completely somewhere in the vocal tract

Question 18

Oral stop

Answer 18

A stop consonant made by fully blocking air in the mouth and not allowing it to leak out through the nose, e.g., ‘p’, ‘t’, and ‘k’

Question 19

Nasal stop

Answer 19

A stop consonant made by lowering the velum in a way that lets the air pass through your nose, e.g., ‘m’, ‘n’, and the ‘ŋ’ sound in words like sing or fang