Motor Planning, Articulation, Phonology Flashcards
What is phonology?
- Phonology is the study of how sounds are put together to form words and other linguistic units
- Determining the language specific phonemes and the rules that describe the changes that take place when these phoneme occur in words
It is the smallest linguistic unit that is able to distinguish meaning between words
Phonemes
What is phonetics?
Study of speech emphasizing the description and classification of speech sounds according to their production, transmission, and perceptual features
What are the three branches of phonetics?
- Articulatory phonetics (speech production)
- Acoustic phonetics (speech transmission)
- Auditory phonetics (speech perception)
These are produced with a relatively open vocal tract. There is no significant constriction of the oral (and pharyngeal) cavities is required, and airstream from vocal folds is relatively unimpeded. These are always voiced
Vowels
There is significant constriction. Airstream encounters some type of articulatory obstacle. For some consonants, the constriction occurs along the sagittal midline of the vocal tract. It can be voiced or voiceless.
Consonants
What is sonority?
Loudness relative to that of other sounds with the same length, stress, and pitch. Vowels have greater sonority (sonorants) than consonants.
What is the sonority scale?
Vowels → glides [w, j] → [r] → [l] → nasals [m, n, ŋ] → voiced fricatives → [z, v, ð] → voiceless fricatives [s, f, θ] → voiced stop-plosives [b, d, g] → voiceless stop-plosives [p, t, k]
What has greater sonority? Vowels or consonants?
Vowels–also referred to as sonorants.
What are obstruents?
Characterized by a complete or narrow constriction between articulators hindering the expiratory airstream.
The obstruents include the following:
Plosives [p, b, t, d, k, g]
Fricatives [f, v, s, z, θ, ð, ʃ, ʒ, h]
Affricates [ʤ, ʧ]
The sonorant consonants include the following:
Nasals [m, n, ŋ]
Approximants [l, ɹ, w, j]
The sonorant consonants are produced with a relatively ___________.
Open expiratory passageway
A consonant that functions as a syllable nucleus is referred to as
Syllabic
These serve as the center syllables or as syllable nuclei. Consonant or vowels
Vowels
Vowels are commonly described according to certain parameters (Abercrombie, 1967; Crystal, 2000; Heffner, 1975; Kantner & West, 1960; Shriberg, Kent, McAllister, & Preston, 2019). What are these parameters?
- The height of the tongue relative to the palate (e.g., high vs low vowels)
- The portion of the tongue involved in the articulation (e.g., front vs back vowels)
- The degree of roundness of the lips (e.g., rounded and unrounded)
There are two types of vowels. What are they?
Monophthongs
Diphthongs
Degree of muscular activity
Tense (e.g., /i/ you put more effort)
Lax (e.g., /ɪ/ less effort)
Relative closeness of the tongue to the roof of the mouth
Close (e.g., [i] is more close]
Open (e.g., [ɪ] is more open]
What are the front vowels?
[i, ɪ, e, ɛ, æ, a]
This is a high-front vowel, unrounded
[i] (e.g., eat)
[ɪ] (e.g., in)
[ɪ] (e.g., in)
A high-front vowel, unrounded
A mid-front vowel, unrounded. In General American English, this vowel is typically produced as a diphthong, especially in stressed syllables or when articulated slowly.
[e] (e.g., bait)
A mid-front vowel, unrounded
[ɛ] (e.g., elephant]
A low-front vowel, unrounded
[æ] (e.g., bat)
A low-front vowel, unrounded. In General American English, the use of this vowel depends on the particular regional dialect of the speaker. In the New England dialect of the Northeast, one might often hear it.
[a] (e.g., aso)
These are the back vowels
[u, ʊ, o, ɔ, ɑ]
A high-back vowel, rounded
[u, ʊ]
A mid-back vowel. This vowel is typically produced as a diphthong, especially in stressed syllables or when articulated slowly.
[o] (e.g., boat)
A low mid-back vowel, rounded. The use of this vowel depends on regional pronunciation.
[ɔ] (e.g., bought)
A low-back vowel, unrounded. There seems to be some confusion in transcribing [ɔ] and [a], although acoustic differences certainly exist. One distinguishing feature is that [ɔ] shows some degree of lip rounding, whereas [a] does not.
[ɑ] (e.g., bot]
What are the central vowels
[ɝ, ɚ, ɜ, ʌ, ə]
A central vowel, rounded, with r-coloring.
[ɝ, ɚ]
A central vowel, unrounded. It is a stressed vowel.
[ʌ] (e.g., but)
A central vowel, unrounded. It is an unstressed vowel.
[ə] (e.g., buh)
These are vowels in which there is a change in quality during their production–a vowel sound that demonstrates articulatory movement resulting in a qualitative change during its production.
Diphthong
The initial segment, the beginning portion of such a diphthong, is phonetically referred to as ___________. More prominent or longer one.
Onglide
End portion of diphthong is called
Offglide
What is a rising diphthong?
Characterized by a smooth transition from the initial vowel to the final vowel, creating a rising pitch or tone. This is very common in General American English. This means that when producing these diphthongs, essential portions of the tongue move from a lower onglide to a higher offglide position; thus, relative to the palate, the tongue moves in a rising motion. Example: [aɪ (e.g., bite), aʊ, (e.g., house), eɪ (e.g., bait), oʊ (e.g., boat), ɔɪ (e.g., boy)
What are centering diphthongs?
These diphthongs have the same characteristics as the ones previously noted: a louder and typically longer onglide and a less intense and shorter offglide. However, in these diphthongs, the offglide, or less prominent element of the diphthong, is a central vowel, typically [ə] or [ɚ].
Refers to diphthongs that are paired with [ɚ]
Rhotic diphthongs
Rhotic vowels are [ɝ] as in “bird” and [ɚ] as in “father” whereas rhotic consonants are [ɹ] as in “rabbit.” The word “farm,” [faɚm], contains a rhotic diphthong with the rhotic vowel [ɚ] as offglide.
Centering diphthongs may contain either [ə] or [ɚ] as offglides, where as rhotic diphthongs are limited to the r-vowel [ɚ] as an offglide. True or False.
t
What is a nonphonemic diphthong?
Nonphonemic diphthongs are those that the meaning of the word would not change if the vowel were to be pronounced as a monophthong [e] vs a diphthong [ei]. Therefore, no change in meaning would result if just the onglide were realized. Words pronounced [beɪ]k] or [bek], for example, would be recognized as the same word.
What are the nonphonemic diphthongs?
[eɪ] [oʊ]
What are phonemic diphthongs?
Phonemic diphthongs are those that the meaning of the word would change if only the vowel onglide were produced–that is, if the vowel was realized as a monophthong. A realization of [a] instead of [aɪ] will change the meaning in General American English, as the words sod [sad] versus sighed [saɪd] demonstrate.
Three phonetic categories are used to characterize consonants. What are these?
Voicing features
Place of articulation
Manner of articulation
What is the place of articulation?
Describes where the constriction or narrowing occurs for the various consonant productions.
What are the main stationary places of articulation?
The upper lip, upper teeth, palate, and velum are the main stationary places of articulation when describing the consonants of General American English
Movable portions involved in articulating consonants
Bottom lip and tongue
Refers to the type of narrowing that the articulators produce for the realization of a particular consonant. (Example: Plosives, Affricates, Nasals, etc.,)
Manner of articulation
What are stop-plosives?
- Complete occlusion
- Velum is raised to prevent air leakage to the nasal cavity
- Expiratory air pressure builds up naturally behind this closure (stop); compression results, which is then suddenly released (plosive)
- [p] and [b]
What are fricatives? What are sibilants?
- Result when active and passive articulators approximate each other so closely that the escaping expiratory airstream causes an audible friction
- Velum is raised
- [f] and [v]
- Sibilants: have a sharper sound than others because of the presence of high-frequency components: [s] [z]
These are pairs of similar sounds (e.g., [p] [b], that differ only in their voicing feature.
Cognates
Are produced with the velum lowered so that air can pass freely through the nasal cavity. However, there is a complete blockage within the oral cavity between the articulators. These sounds have been called nasal stops because of the occlusion of the active and passive articulators and ensuring free air passage through the nasal cavity.
Nasal
First, a complete closure is formed between the articulators, and the velum is raised. Because of these articulatory conditions, expiratory air pressure builds up behind the blockage formed by the articulators-the stop phase, which is considered the first portion of the affricate. Second, the stop is then slowly (in comparison to the plosives) released orally, resulting in the friction portion of the speech sound.
Affricates
Constriction is not as narrow. Gliding movement from a relatively constricted into a more open position. These are also considered as approximants.
Glides
What are laterals? Liquids are composed of?
- Midline closure but lateral openings within the oral cavity
- Expiratory airstream can pass around one or both sides of the tongue
- [l] (lateral approximant)
- Liquids: laterals + rhotics
At least two types of production: retroflexed and bunched. Positioning of the tongue for individual speakers is highly variable.
Rhotic
This is the presence or absence of simultaneous vibration of the vocal cords, resulting in voiced or voiceless consonants
Voicing
What are allophone?
includes varieties used in various contexts and by different speakers. Variations in phoneme realizations that do not change the meaning of a word.
Voiceless bilabial plosive
[p]
Voiced bilabial plosive
[b]
Voiceless alveolar plosive
[t]
Voiced alveolar plosive
[d]
Voiceless velar plosive
[k]
Voiced velar plosive
[g]
Voiceless labiodental fricative
[f]
Voiced labiodental fricative
[v]
Voiceless alveolar fricative
[s]
Voiced alveolar fricative
[z]
Voiceless postalveolar fricative usually with lip rounding
[ʃ]
Voiced postalveolar fricative typically with lip rounding
[ʒ]
Voiceless dental fricative
[θ]
Voiced dental fricative
[ð]
Voiced bilabial nasal
[m]
Voiced alveolar nasal
[n]
Voiced velar nasal
[ŋ]
Voiced labio-velar approximant
[w]
Voiced palatal approximant
[j]
Voiced alveolar lateral approximant
[l]
Voiced alveolar approximant
[r]
Voiceless glottal fricative
[h]
Voiceless alveolar plosive portion followed by a voiceless postalveolar fricative portion
[ʧ]
Voiced alveolar plosive portion followed by a voiced postalveolar fricative portion
[ʤ]
This is the presence or absence of simultaneous vibration of the vocal cords, resulting in voiced or voiceless consonants
Voicing
What are allophones?
Includes varieties used in various contexts and by different speakers. Variations in phoneme realizations that do not change the meaning of a word. In other words, they are different sounds that are recognized as the same phoneme by speakers of a language.
True or False. Open syllables are harder to produce in comparison to close syllable
False. Open syllables are easier to produce in comparison to closed syllables.
Stressed syllables are easier to produce in comparison to unstressed syllables. Example: Target [t]: taco → today → tomorrow
True
Singletons are easier to produce compared to consonant clusters
True
Fewer syllables are easier to produce compared to more syllables
True
Give an example of an allophone
For example, in English, the phoneme /t/ can be pronounced differently depending on its position in a word:
Aspirated [tʰ]: In the word “top,” the /t/ sound is pronounced with a puff of air, known as aspiration.
Unaspirated [t]: In the word “stop,” the /t/ sound is not aspirated.
Flapped [ɾ]: In the word “butter” in American English, the /t/ sound is pronounced as a quick tap or flap of the tongue, which sounds almost like a soft “d.
These different sounds ([tʰ], [t], and [ɾ]) are all allophones of the same phoneme /t/ in English. Despite the differences in pronunciation, they do not create different words or meanings, so they are considered allophones rather than distinct phonemes.
Speech sounds, which can also be labeled as _______
Phones
These represent physical sound realities, they are end products of articulatory motor processes. When talking about a child’s s-production in the context of an articulation test, for example, we refer to the speech sound or ______ production of [s].
Phones
What is a phoneme?
Phoneme is the smallest linguistic unit that is able, when combined with other such units, to distinguish meaning between words (Bauman-Waengler & Garcia, 2020)
Give an example of a phoneme and phones
For example, [s] indicates that it was a sound someone actually pronounced in a specific manner. On the other hand, /s/ signifies the phoneme “s.” which makes up the word “sick”
Phonemes are about sound and how changing a sound can change the meaning of a word.
What is coarticulation?
This describes the concept that the articulators are continually moving into position for other segments over a stretch of speech.
Coarticulation is when the pronunciation of a sound is influenced by the sounds that come before or after it
What is assimilation? Also known as?
- The result of coarticulation is referred to as assimilation.
- Refers to adaptive articulatory changes by which one speech sound becomes similar, sometimes identical, to a neighboring sound segment.
- Perfectly natural consequences of normal speech production, aka harmony process
What are the types of assimilatory processes?
- Contact/contiguous vs remote/noncontiguous
- Progressive/perseverative vs regressive
- Phonemic assimilation vs phonemic similitude
- Total vs partial
- Coalescence
What is contact/contiguous vs remote/noncontiguous?
- Contact assimilation happens when two sounds are right next to each other, and one sound changes to become more like the other.
- (Example: “Input”, the /n/ sound changes to [m] because it’s right next to the /p/ sound, making it easier to say.) - Remote assimilation happens when two sounds are not right next to each other (there’s at least one sound in between them), but one still changes to be more like the other.
- (Example: In “yellow,” some people might say “lellow” because the “l” sound at the end of the word influences the “y” sound at the beginning, even though they aren’t directly next to each other.)
What is progressive vs regressive assimilation?
- Progressive assimilation, here a sound influences the sound that comes after it. The first sound makes the next one change
(Example: In “cats,” the “t” sound makes the “s” sound like a “ts” because the “t” influences the following sound.)
- Regressive assimilation in this case is when a sound influences the sound that came before it. The upcoming sound makes the previous one change
(Example: In “have to,” the “t” sound can make the “v” turn into an “f,” so it sounds like “hafta.” The “t” sound affects the “v” that came before it.)
What is total vs partial assimilation?
- Total assimilation is when a sound changes completely to become exactly like the sound it’s influenced by.
(Example: If someone says “cupboard” as “cubboard,” the /p/ changes completely to /b/, making both sounds identical.)
- Partial assimilation happens when a sound changes a little bit to become more like another sound, but doesn’t become exactly the same.
(Example: In “input,” the /n/ might change to [m] because of the nearby /p/ sound, but it doesn’t become identical to /p/—it just becomes closer in sound.)
What is phonemic assimilation vs phonemic similitude?
- Phonemic Assimilation: A sound actually changes to become more like a neighboring sound, potentially altering its phonemic identity (e.g., /n/ changing to [m] in “input”).
- Phonemic Similitude: Sounds influence each other to become more alike, but without completely changing into another phoneme (e.g., the /d/ in “handbag” subtly becoming more like a /b/ but not fully).
What is coalescence?
Coalescence is a phonological process where two adjacent sounds (phonemes) merge to form a new, single sound that has characteristics of both original sounds. This new sound often combines elements from both of the original sounds, resulting in a blend. (Example: “don’t you” → “don’tcha”)
What are the parts of the syllable?
Peak, Onset, and coda
What is the peak?
- It is the most prominent, acoustically most intense part of the syllable.
- The nucleus is the central part of the syllable and is almost always a vowel sound. It is the core of the syllable around which the other parts are arranged. Sometimes, a syllabic consonant (like /l/ or /n/) can serve as the nucleus, especially in unstressed syllables.
Consonants that serve as the syllable peak are referred to as
Syllabic
What is the onset?
- Consists of all the segments prior to the peak
This is the initial consonant sound or group of consonants that come before the vowel in a syllable
(Example: In the word “cat”, the onset is /k/. In the word “star”, the onset is /st/. However, not all syllables have an onset; for example, the word “eat” starts directly with a vowel, so it has no onset.
What is the coda?
- The code is made up of all the sound segments of a syllable following its peak.
The coda is the consonant sound or group of consonants that follow the nucleus in a syllable. Example: In “cat,” the coda is /t/. In “go,” there is no coda, so it’s an open syllable.
The segments that comprise the onset are also termed
Syllable releasing sounds
The segments that comprise the code are termed
syllable arresting sounds
The peak and coda together are referred to as the ______
Rime. Example: In the word “sun,” the onset is “s” and the rime is “un”
Syllables that do not contain a coda are called
- Open or unchecked syllable.
Examples of open, unchecked syllables are do [du], glee [gli], or the first syllable of rebound [ri baund].
Syllables that do have codas are called
Closed or checked syllable
Nucleus + coda
Rime
What is the rime of the word “sheep”?
/iːp/. So, in “sheep,” the rime is the combination of the vowel sound /iː/ and the ending consonant /p/.
What are phonotactic restraints?
In other words, the phoneme use is restricted, and the phonemes are not used in all possible word positions.
- Constraints are any patterns noted that seem to limit or restrict the productional possibilities of our clients (Blache, 2000).
True or False. Phonotactic rules vary in every language. As such, the phonotactics of an individual’s native language may influence their pronunciation patterns in English.
t
True or False. Open syllables are harder to produce in comparison to close syllable
What is a distinctive feature theory? Can be marked as?
By Roman Jakobson.
Distinctive features are the basic attributes or characteristics of sounds that make them different from each other.
- These features are binary, meaning they can either be present (marked as +) or absent (marked as -).
Examples: Voicing: Whether the vocal cords vibrate (e.g., /b/ is +voiced, /p/ is -voiced).
What is generative phonology?
By Noam Chomsky.
- Generative: Speech sounds are generated by transforming the underlying representation into a surface form using a language-specific rule
- 2 major concepts:
- Phonological rules map underlying representations (phoneme) onto surface pronunciations–sound is dependent on the phoneme.
- Phonological descriptions depend on information from other linguistic levels–apart from phonology, it is also affected by semantics, syntax, and pragmatics. - Enabled description of the relationship of children’s productions to adult pronunciation in terms of phonological rules.
According to generative phonology, there are 2 levels of sound representations. What are they?
Surface form
Deep form
What is surface form?
- The phonetic level with sounds (phones, allophones) as central units.
- This is the “real” way the word sounds when you actually say it. It’s how you hear the word spoken
What is the deep form?
- The phonemic level represented by phonemes.
- The rough draft of a word. Think of it as the “idea” or “blueprint” of how a word should sound, before any changes are made.
What are the five features in generative distinctive features?
- Major class
- Cavity features
- Manner of articulation features
- Source features
- Naturalness and markedness
What are the major class features?
- Sonorant - open vocal tract configuration promoting voicing. General american english vowels, glides, nasal, and liquids
- Consonantal - Sounds produced with a high degree of oral obstruction. Stops, fricatives, affricates, liquids, and nasals.
- Vocalic - sounds produced with a low degree of oral obstruction (not higher than required for the high vowels [i] and [u]). Vowels and liquids
What are cavity features? What are the 9 types?
Cavity features help distinguish sounds based on where in the mouth they are produced
● Coronal: Sounds produced with the tip or blade of the tongue raised from its neutral position. Examples: [t], [d], [s], [z], [n], and [l].
● Anterior: Sounds produced in the front of the oral cavity, with the alveolar ridge as the posterior boundary. This includes labial, dental, and alveolar consonants. Examples: [m], [n], [b], [p], [f], [v], [d], and [t].
● Distributed: Sounds characterized by a relatively long constriction along the midline of the vocal tract. Examples: [ʃ], [s], and [z].
● Nasal: Sounds produced with an open nasal passageway, allowing air to flow through the nose. Examples: [m], [n], and [ŋ].
● Lateral: Sounds produced by lowering the sides of the tongue, allowing air to escape around the sides. Example: [l].
● High: Sounds produced with a high tongue position, including both vowels and consonants. Examples: [i], [u], [k], and [ŋ].
● Low: Sounds produced with a low tongue position. This includes vowels like [ɑ] and consonants like [h], [ʔ], and pharyngeal sounds, which are produced with the root of the tongue as the active articulator.
● Back: Sounds produced with a retracted tongue body. This encompasses back vowels and consonants like velar and pharyngeal sounds.
● Round: Sounds articulated with rounded lips. Examples: [u], [w]
What is the manner of articulation features?
The way that active and passive articulators work together
What are the features in the manner of articulation features?
- Continuant - “incessant” sounds produced without hindering the airstream by any blockages within the oral cavity
- Delayed release - sounds produced with a slow release of total obstruction within the oral cavity
- Tense - produced with a relatively greater articulatory effort
What are source features?
Refers to subglottal air pressure, voicing, and stridency
What consonants are sonorant sounds?
Nasals, Glides, Liquids
[m] [n] [ŋ] [r] [l] [w] [j] [h]
What’s naturalness?
Naturalness designates two features:
(1) the relative simplicity of a sound production
(2) its high frequency of occurrences. More natural sounds are those that are considered easier to produce and occur in many languages of the world.
What’s markedness?
Sounds that are relatively more difficulty to produce and are found less frequently in languages [p] vs [ʧ]
What is natural phonology?
Stampe.
- Presents language as a natural reflection of the needs, capacities, and world of its users, rather than as a merely conventional institution. Incorporates features of naturalness theories and was specifically designed to explain the normal development of children’s phonological system.
Disordered phonology is seen as an inability to realize this natural process of goal oriented adaptive change.
It suggests that children have an innate, universal set of phonological processes that simplify adult speech.
What are phonological processes?
Phonological processes are innate and universal; therefore, all children are born with the capacity to use the same system of processes.
Phonological processes:
● They make speech easier to produce when a child’s motor capacities are limited, allowing them to approximate adult speech sounds.
● They help children organize their phonological systems, paving the way for the development of the specific sound system of their native language.
● They act as a tool for children to continuously refine their speech by reducing the differences between their innate speech patterns and adult pronunciation.
________ occurs when substitutions that appeared unordered and random become more organized
- Ordering
A child’s first revisions may appear unordered. To stay with the plosive for fricative example, a child might at first also devoice the voiced plosives of the substitution; thus, ([s] ~ [t] and [z] ~ [t]). Thus, Sue is pronounced [tu], but zoo is also articulated as [tu] . Later, the child might begin to “order” the revisions by voicing initial voiced plosives but still retaining the plosive substitution.
_______ occurs when differences between a child’s and an adult’s systems become limited to only specific sounds, sound classes, or sound sequences.
Limitation
________ refers to the abolishment of one or more phonological processes as children move from the innate speech patterns to the adult patterns.
Suppression
The articulatory simplification of consonant clusters into a single consonant. Example: [pun] for spoon.
Cluster reduction
This process is considered a syllable structure process because the syllable structure is “simplified”; that is, the second syllable becomes merely a repetition of the first.
Reduplication
An unstressed syllable is omitted.
Weak syllable deletion
A syllable-arresting consonant, a coda, is omitted.
Final consonant deletion
Sound substitutions in which the place of articulation is more anteri- orly located than the intended sound.
Fronting
The replacement of a nonlabial sound by a labial one.
Labialization
The change of non alveolar sounds, mostly interdental and labiodental sounds, into alveolar ones. Example: [sʌm] for thumb.
Alveolarization
The substitution of stops for fricatives or the omission of the fricative portion of affricates. Example: [tʌn] for sun; [dus] for juice; [bʌn] for sun
Stopping
The replacement of fricatives by homorganic affricates. Example: [ʧu] for shoe
Affrication
The production of affricates as homorganic fricatives. Example: [ʃiz] for cheese
Deaffrication
The replacement of nasals by homorganic plosives. Example: [dud] for noon.
Denasalization
The replacement of liquids or fricatives by glides. Example: [wɛd] for red; [ju] for shoe
Gliding
The replacement of syllabic liquids and nasals, foremost [1] [ɚ], and [n], by vowels. Example: [teɪbo] for table; [lædə] for ladder
Vowelization
The loss of r-coloring in central vowels with r-coloring, [ɝ] and [ɚ]. Examples: [bɛd] for bird; [læda] for ladder
Derhotacization
The replacement of a voiceless sound by a voiced sound. Example: [du] for two
Voicing
The replacement of a voiced sound by a voiceless sound. Example: [pit] for beet
Devoicing
The change of a nonlabial sound into a labial sound under the influence of a neighboring labial sound. Example: [fwɪŋ] for swing
Labial assimilation
The change of a non velar sound into a velar sound under the influence of a neighboring velar sound. Example: [gag] for dog
Velar assimilation
The influence of a nasal on a non-nasal sound. Example: [mʌni] for bunny Nasal assimilation
Nasal assimilation
The influence of a liquid on a non liquid sound. Example: [lɛloʊ] for yellow
Liquid
What is linear phonology?
- Phonological theories were based on the understanding that all speech segments are arranged in a sequential order. For example: Wow, what a test. [waʊ wʌt ə tɛst]
- All segments between follow each other in a specific order to convey a particular message.
The phonological rules generated apply only to the segmental level (as opposed to the suprasegmental level) and to those changes that occur in the distinctive feature (Dinnsen, 1997). It focuses on?
Linear phonology
- focuses on the sequential arrangement of sound segments in an utterance.
This emphasizes the linear, sequential arrangement of sound segments. Each discrete segment of this string of sound elements consists of a bundle of distinctive features. All segments have equal value, and distinctive features are equal, thus no one sound segment has control over other units. A common set of distinctive features is attributable to all sound segments according to a binary + and - system.
Linear phonology
What is nonlinear phonology?
- Segments are governed by more complex linguistic dimensions.
Example: The suprasegmental features (stress, intonation, metrical and rhythmic factors). - These theories explore the relationships among units of various sizes, specifically the influence of larger linguistic entities on sound segments.
Hierarchy of factors is hypothesized to affect segmental units. Rather than a static sequence of segments of equal value (as in linear phonology), a dynamic system of features, ranked one above the other, is proposed. Children have a tendency to delete segments in unstressed syllables.
Non-linear phonology
What are the syllable stress patterns?
Trochee, Iambic, Spondee
Two syllable foot with a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. Pattern is STRESSED-unstressed
Trochee
Two syllable foot with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Patter is unstressed-STRESSED.
Iambic
Two syllable foot with equally stressed syllables
Spondee
What is autosegmental phonology?
Proponent: John Goldsmith.
- To account for tone phenomena in languages in which segmental features interact with varying tones. Application: affricates
- Extended a hierarchical based analysis to stress.
- It is a branch of nonlinear phonology that focuses on the hierarchical structure of stress and intonation patterns in spoken language.
Metrical phonology
What is feature geometry?
Represents a group of theories that have adopted the tiered representation of features used in autosegmental phonology + a number of other hierarchically ordered feature tiers.
Attempts to explain why some features (but not others) are affected by assimilation. Different nodes and features: laryngeal, manner, and place features
Underlying representations contain only “unpredictable features”. A predictable feature is one that would be commonly associated with that particular segment or class of sounds.
It suggests that the underlying representations of sounds in our minds do not include all their phonetic features but only those that are unpredictable or distinctive
Radical underspecification
Constraint based approach, not a rule-governed one. Constraints characterize patterns that are and are not possible within or across languages. Application in evaluation/therapy. Constraints are based on the principles of markedness. It presupposed a universal grammar and states that constraints characterize universal, however, constraints can be violated.
Optimality theory
Faithfulness constraint and markedness constraints are opposite constraints.
_________ or sounds are less common or harder to articulate. For instance, voiced stops (like /b/, /d/, /g/) or clusters of consonants (like /str-/ in “street”) are more marked.
Marked features
_________ sounds are more natural, common, and easier to pronounce. For example, voiceless stops (like /p/, /t/, /k/) are considered unmarked because they are easier to produce and more common across languages.
Unmarked features
Explain markedness constraint with faithfulness constraint
Basic Form: The word is “cat.”
Faithfulness Constraint: Tries to keep the word “cat” sounding like “cat” when you say it.
Markedness Constraint: Might prefer simpler sounds, so it could make the word change (like making it “bat” to make it easier to say).
Under prelinguistic stages, we have 5 stages. What are these?
- Reflexive crying and vegetative sounds
- Cooing and laughter
- Vocal play
- Canonical babbling
- Jargon
Birth to 2 months.
Reflexive crying and vegetative sounds
___________ includes cries, coughs, grunts, and burps that seem to be automatic responses reflecting the physical state of an infant
Reflexive vocalizations
___________ may be divided into grunts and sighs associated with activity and clicks and other noises associated with feeding
Vegetative sounds
2-4 months
Cooing and laughter
Cooing or gooing sounds are produced during _________
Comfortable states
Produced as Vowel-like, but also contain brief periods of consonantal elements that are produced at the back of the mouth
Cooing and laughter
Early comfort sounds have _____________, in other words, they are produced as a syllabic nasal consonant or as a nasalized vowel
Quasi-resonant nuclei
At this stage, most infants’ primitive vegetative sounds start to disappear and there is also decrease in the frequency of crying
12 weeks – Cooing and laughter
There is sustained laughter
16 weeks
4-6 months
Vocal play
There are extreme variations in loudness and pitch. When compared to those to older children, the transition between segments in this stage is much slower and incomplete. Vowels demonstrate more variation in tongue height and position
Vocal play
6 months and older
Canonical babbling
Collective term for reduplicated and non reduplicated babbling stages. Usually begins around 6 months of age.
Canonical babbling
These are similar strings of consonant-vowel productions. Slight quality variations in the vowel sounds of these strings of babbles, but the consonant will stay the same from syllable to syllable
Reduplicated babbling
10 months and older
Jargon
Strings of babbled utterances that are modulated primarily by: intonation, rhythm, pausing. Overlaps with the first meaningful words
Jargon
Not yet true vowels
Vocoids
13 to 14 months: predominance of
ɛ], [ɪ], [ʌ].
These were found to be favored over high and back vocoids
Front and central vocoids
Not yet true consonants. Predominate in the late babbling stage.
Contoids
During the later babbling periods, _______ are still the most frequent type
Open syllables
This is the most common intonation contour for the first year of life
Falling pitch
1st word
12 months
Children produce approximately __ meaningful words before the two-word stage
50 meaningful words
Put two-words together at what age?
18 - 24 months
Also known as proto-words, phonetically consistent forms. Used in a consistent manner, thereby demonstrating that they seem to have meaning for the children but without a recognizable adult model
Invented words
When a child can produce approximately 50 words, the child is typically capable of understanding how many words?
200 words
