Definitions Flashcards
phone
speech sound
articulatory phonetics
physiological mechanisms of speech production, i.e. how speech is produced
acoustic phonetics
measuring and analyzing the physical properties of the sounds we produce when speaking
larynx
the sound source, where vocal fold muscles are
pharynx
the tube between the larynx and the oral cavity
voiceless glottal state
no vibration in larynx (f, s, h)
voiced glottal state
vocal folds together, but not closed, some vibration (v, z)
whisper (glottal state)
voiceless, but folds are together
murmur (glottal state)
breathy voice, the ‘dh’ in ‘dharma’
consonant
either voiced or voiceless, either complete closing of the vocal folds or narrowing of vocal tract, air flow is blocked or restricted so noise is formed as air passes through obstruction
vowel
little obstruction of vocal tract, tongue stays down by lower front teeth, voiced, much louder than consonants
glide
shows properties of both consonants and vowels, “rapidly articulated vowel”, moves quickly into the next articulation and ends quickly (yet, boy, wet, now)
labials
any sound made with full or near closure of the lips
dentals
tongue placed against or near the teeth
interdentals
tongue is placed between the teeth
alveolar
tongue touches or is brought near the alveolar ridge
alveopalatal
consonants formed in the roof of the mouth (sh, ch)
palatal
sounds formed in the highest part of the roof of the mouth
velar
sounds formed in the soft part near the back of the roof of the mouth
uvular
sounds formed near/toughing the uvula (french ‘r’)
glottal
sounds made at the glottis (between vocal folds)
diphthong
vowels that show a change in quality within a single syllable
tone language
differences in word matching are signalled by differences in pitch –> english is not one of them but Mandarin is
contour tones
moving pitches that signal meaning differences
register tones
level tones that signal meaning differences
terminal (intonation) contour
falling intonation at the end of a sentence that signals that the utterance is complete
non-terminal (intonation) contour
rising or level intonation which signals incompleteness, often heard in non-formal forms found in lists and telephone numbers, also used in questions to indicate that the conversation is not over
IPA indication of a vowel/consonant with a longer articulation
[ː]
coarticulation
more than one articulator is active;
in [pl] sequence, the tongue will move to the alveolar ridge before the lips separate (before the p is finished lol)
process
an articulator adjustment which occurs during the production of connected speech, sometimes it’s more efficient but sometimes the word is harder to understand;
adding a schwa to screaming in “stop sc[ə]reaming”
more efficient articulation vs more distinct output
assimilation
number of different processes that result from the influence of one segment on another, a sound becomes more like another nearby sound
regressive assimilation
vowel is nasalized because it comes BEFORE a nasalized consonant
progressive assimilation
vowel is nasalized because it comes AFTER a nasalized consonant
dissimilation
vowels become less alike so that it’s easier to pronounce them: fifths becomes fits, or fiths, or fifs
deletion
one segment is removed: Toronto becomes ‘Torono’
epenthesis
a syllabic or non-syllabic segment is added to a word
warmth, something –> warm(p)th, some(p)thing
metathesis
segments are reordered into a way that makes them easier to pronounce: prescription –> perscription
vowel reduction
articulation of vowels moves to a more central position when the vowels are unstressed (like a schwa sound bc it’s the easiest for english speakers to pronounce)
phonology
made up of a language’s particular selection from the range of possible speech sounds, organized into a system of contrasts and patterns
minimal pair
two words with distinct meanings that differ by only one segment in the same position –> win and wing
complementary distribution
two sounds occur in non-overlapping, mutually exclusive environments
[iː] goes in front of voiced obstruents like (bead), and [i] goes before voiceless obstruents like (beat)
phoneme
class of phonetically similar sounds that do not contrast with each other
allophone
sounds that make up a phoneme
near-minimal pair
contain differences other than the one key difference, like mission vs vision
nucleus
backbone of every syllable, required in all languages, sometimes sonorant consonants function as the nucleus instead of a vowel
onset
consists of at least one consonant to the left of the nucleus, some languages require every syllable to have only one, French can have 2 and English can have 3
coda
consists of one or more consonants to the RIGHT of the nucleus, some languages don’t allow them (Hawaiian)
The Sonority Requirement
in core syllables, sonority rises before the nucleus and declines after the nucleus (grant vs gratn)
The Binary Requirement
there can’t be more than 2 consonants in an onset or coda so ‘grant’ is the most complex core syllable permited in English
aspiration in English
voiceless stops are aspirated syllable initially
pʰan vs span
feature
building block of speech sound, most basic unit of phonology; each feature encodes one of the independently controllable aspects of speech production
natural class
group of sounds with similar properties, features give you a way to categorize them
contrasts
phonemes that are registered in the same part of the brain and sound the same to native speakers (same underlying representation), but are articulated differently based on the environment
distinctive
if a feature is distinctive, that means it allows phonemes to contrast with each other
lexicon
mental dictionary
word
smallest free form in language
free morpheme
morpheme that can be a word on its own
bound morpheme
morpheme that must be attached
allomorphs
variant forms of a morpheme
root morpheme
core of the word which carries the major component of its meaning; typically belong to a lexical category (noun N, verb V, adj A)
base
form to which an affix is added, sometimes the base is also the root
prefix
an affix added to the beginning of the word
suffix
an affix added to the end of the word
infix
an affix added in the middle of the word
word-based morphology
not all roots can be words on their own but some can
derivation
an affixational process that forms a word with a meaning and/or category distinct from that f it’s base
suffix -er is attached to a verb to make it a noun, indicating “one who V’s”
class 1 affixes
trigger changes in the consonant or vowel segments of the base and may affect stress placement
class 2 affixes
phonologically neutral, have no effect on the segmental make up of the base or the stress placement
compounding
combining two words that already exist, the rightmost morpheme determines the category
head morpheme
the morpheme that determines the category is the head
backformation
a word appears in the language, and the rules of the language allow “de-affixation” to occur to create a new word
“donation” came into the language first, and “donate” was derived from it
conversion (zero derivation)
a new word is created by assigning an existing (usually monomorphemic) word to a new category
the butter (noun) --> to butter (verb) to run (verb) --> a run (noun)
clipping
a new word is formed by shortening an existing multisyllabic word
acronyms
a new word is formed from the initial sounds or letters in a string of words
NATO, scuba, radar
blending
a new word is formed from the parts of existing words
ginormous <– giggantic + enormous
endocentric
a compound which denotes a sub-type of the concept denoted by its head
i.e. dog food is a type of food, sky blue is a type of blue
exocentric
compounds whose meaning cannot be derived by the head
redneck is not a type of neck
inflection
the modification of a word’s form to indicate grammatical information
-s plural marker, possessive ‘s, progressive -ing, past tense -ed, etc
four criteria used to distinguish between inflectional and derivational affixes
- category: inflection does not change the grammatical category or the type of meaning found in the word it is applied to
- order: a derivational affix must combine with the base before the inflectional affix does
- productivity: the relative freedom with which they can combine with bases of the appropriate category
- semantic transparency: contribution of an inflectional affix to the word’s meaning is usually transparent and consistent, but with derivation it is not always possible to to predict the meaning based on the parts
case inflection
indicates a word’s grammatical role (subject, direct object) I vs me, she vs her, we vs us
agreement (inflectional phenomena)
takes place when one word’s grammatical structure is inflected to match certain properties of another word
That WOMAN speakS French vs YOU speaK French
root internal changes
change inside the root makes grammatical change, substituting one segment for another in the root yields a change in meaning
ablaut
change in quality of vowel makrs grammatical change, most common form of root internal change
tooth–> teeth, sing –> sang, goose –> geese
suppletion
entire morpheme (or msot of it) is replaced to signal a change in meaning
is –> was, go –> went
French: je suis, tu es, nous sommes
stress shift
root has a different meaning depending on the location of stress
permít vs pérmit, protést vs prótest, convíct vs cónvict
reduplication
copy some part of the root and attach the copy to the root, signals a change in meaning
productive processes
reduplication, affixation, compounding
non-productive processes
root internal changes, suppletion, stress shift
new words that enter the language will not have these properties
