Linguistic Terms (A)

Question 0

accentual function of intonation

Answer 0

The affect of intonation on the prominence of a syllable, which plays a role in focusing stress on particular words in connected speech.

Question 1

accent

Answer 1

The pronunciation features of a language variety.

Question 2

acoustic phonetics

Answer 2

The study and description of the physical properties of speech sounds, and their transmission.

Question 3

affricate

Answer 3

A manner of articulation. Affricate sounds consist of two homorganic elements: the first is plosive, the second fricative. Affricates have a complete clousure of the vocal tract, but the air is released slowly enough to produce friction, which we hear in a hissing s-like sound. There are two affricates in English: one fortis /ts/ (elongated), one lenis /dz/ (elongated z).

Question 4

air-stream mechanism

Answer 4

The type of air movement used to produce speech sounds.

Question 5

allomorph

Answer 5

One of at least two variant realisations of a morpheme.

Question 6

allophone

Answer 6

One of at least two variant realisations of a phoneme. Allophones do not contrast meaning. They occur either in complementary distribution or free variation.

Question 7

alveolar

Answer 7

A place of articulation. Alveolar sounds are made with the tongue tip coming near or touching the bony ridge behind the upper teeth, called the alveolar ridge. The sound we transcribe as /t/ is alveolar.