Lecture 1

Question 1

Phonology -

Answer 1

Phonology - is the study of speech sounds and their patterns in
language.

Question 2

Phoneme:

Answer 2

the smallest unit within a language that can combine with other units to establish
words and be distinguished by its contrasting function within words

Question 3

Phonetics

Answer 3

Phonetics – is the study of physical, physiological, and acoustic
variables associated with speech sound production.
* the study of speech emphasizing the description and classification of
speech sounds according to their production, transmission, and
perceptual features.
* Phone: any sound that can be produced by the vocal tract (may or may not be a speech
sound)

Question 4

Phone

Answer 4

Phone: any sound that can be produced by the vocal tract (may or may not be a speech
sound)

Question 5

Phonetic sound representation

Answer 5

represented by phones and
allophones: physical forms that are the result of the physiological
processes and that have objectively verifiable acoustic properties.

Question 6

2. Phonemic sound representation

Answer 6

– represented by phonemes and
defined in terms of their linguistic function, in terms of their ability
to establish meaningful units in a language.

Question 7

Every utterance has two aspects

Answer 7

Every utterance has two aspects: an audible sequence of speech sounds and their
specific meaning conveyed through this sequence.
* Both need to be realized in order for the utterance to be meaningful.
* If only one aspect is realized, then it leads to breakdown in communication.
* Adequate form and function of all segments are basic requirements for meaningful
utterances in any language.
* If correct form (e.g. /t,d/) can be produced in isolation, but realization of function is
incorrect – the result is: final consonant deletion (e.g. beet bee), leading to
breakdown in communication. If incorrect form is used (e.g. t/k substitution in word
“key” which becomes “tea”), then elements inadequate sound production interfere with
sound function.

Question 8

Speech Sound disorders (SSD)

Answer 8

Speech Sound disorders (SSD) – Errors in producing speech sounds.
It’s an umbrella term for articulation and phonological disorders.
(There is no specific linguistic theory to justify the change).
* Importance of making a distinction between speech and language
disorders.
* Speech disorders: stuttering, cluttering, apraxia, and dysarthria);
* Language disorders: morphologic, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic
aspects. Treatment targets are very different.
* Some SSDs may coexist with language disorders, others don’t (e.g.
stuttering).

Question 9

Articulation

Answer 9

movement of speech structures to vary the vocal tract
configurations and make specific contacts between some of the structures
to produce speech sounds (Pena-Brooks & Hedge)

Question 10

Articulation Disorder –

Answer 10

Difficulty in “motoric’ or phonetic production of only a few speech sounds,\
* Mostly distortions that could not be organized into a phonological pattern
* Preservation of phonemic contrasts
* Not due to problems in underlying cognitive or linguistic representations (Pena-
Brooks & Hedge).
* Articulation errors do not affect speech intelligibility to a significant extent
(e.g. lisp; distortion of /r/).

Question 11

Articulation disorder:
* could be describe

Answer 11

could by described as a functional disorder ( possibly due to faulty
learning as a cause)
* could be associated with organic (cleft of the lip or palate) or
neurological impairment (childhood apraxia of speech;
developmental dysarthria).

Question 12

Traditional error analysis of articulation disorder:

Answer 12

Omissions, substitutions, distortions, additions.
* Sound production is evaluated in different word positions.
* Child productions are evaluated against the adult model

Question 13

Phonological Disorders

Answer 13

are multiple speech sound error patterns or adult-child production
mismatches
* Errors persist beyond certain age levels,
* Often losing phonemic contrasts (saying “gun” instead of “fun”).
* Significantly impairing speech intelligibility,
* Presumably due to an underlying problem in phonological representation or
knowledge (Pena-Brooks & Hedge).
* Children with phonological disorder may present with language
problems, including word learning, literacy problems (reading and
writing difficulties).

Question 14

Diagnosis and treatment of a phonological disorder

Answer 14

Diagnosis of a phonological disorder:
* Persistence of phonological processes beyond expected age
* Very poor speech intelligibility
Treatment:
* Correct production is taught as a motoric response.
* Modeling and positive reinforcement are used to elicit motoric
response.
* There are no cognitive linguistic treatment procedures for
phonological errors.

Question 15

Articulation Disorder vs. Phonological
Disorder

Answer 15

Speech sound form vs. speech sound function.
* Form is established by the way the segment is produced, by articulatory events.
Segment function presupposes the observance of the language-specific rules
regarding the arrangement of the speech sound segments.
* Phonetic errors result in articulation disorders, whereas phonemic errors
represent phonological disorders
* Often difficult to distinguish between them
* Phonological disorders have their basis in theories of phonology. A child with a
phonological disorder may be able to say a sound, but does not understand the
pattern of phoneme representation within his/her language system.
* Impairment of the understanding and organization of phonemes within the
language system reflects language deficiency.