Phonology Flashcards

1
Q

Phonology

A
  • concerned with how the sounds are represented and stored in the brain
  • studies their abstract mental representations
  • grammar of sounds, our implicit knowledge of sound structure
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2
Q

Goals of phonology

A

1.determine what phonological knowledge is like
2.How sounds are stored + represented in brain
3.How mental representations result in systematic phonetic variation in speech,
o at the level of segments or suprasegmentals;
o within a given language and across languages.
-phonological knowledge deals with representations at various levels:
-Word level, syllable level, segment level, and feature level.

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3
Q

Phonological contrasts

A
  • Some segments in a language contrast with each other, while others don’t.
  • alveolar fricatives [s] and [z] in English are contrastive, because substituting [z] for [s] and vice versa changes the word meaning
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4
Q

minimal pairs

A
-forms have distinct meanings, yet differ only in
one segment ([s] or [z])
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5
Q

phonemes

A

Segments that contrast with each other in a given language

  • part of our phonological knowledge; they are represented in the brain
  • Not all sounds pronounced in a language need to be stored in the brain
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6
Q

allophones

A
  • Predictable variants
  • we have clear intuitions about phonemes of the language (because we store them in the brain), but not about allophones (because we do not store them, but produce automatically when we speak)
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7
Q

levels of representation

A

phonemic representation

phonetic representation

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8
Q

phonemic transcription

A

contrastive segments only

-/ /

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9
Q

phonetic transcription

A

non-contrastive, allophonic detail

-[ ]

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10
Q

complementary distribution

A

Segments that occur in different, non-overlapping environments

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11
Q

Phonological analysis

A

-determine the phonemic status of segments in a given language: Are they separate phonemes or allophones of a phoneme?

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12
Q

steps of Phonological analysis

A

-Determine the environments which they occur
-State your generalizations about the environments:
Are the environments in which the segments occur the same/overlapping/are they completely different?
-Conclude whether separate phonemes/allophones. need to be phonetically similar for allophones
-If allophones, determine which allophone is the basic one(elsewhere). basic allophone is assumed to be phoneme

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13
Q

Environments

A

-Linear order relation: after x (voiceless consonants), before x, betw. x and y, word initially/word finally
-Higher level than segments: position in the syllable
-If same or overlapping, segments are separate phonemes. (You are done.)
o If environments completely different, segments are likely to be allophones of a phoneme

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14
Q

logical possibilities

A

Two phonemes,
One phoneme, /A/,[A] env. x [B] env. y
One phoneme, /B/ [A] env. x [B] env. y

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15
Q

near-minimal pairs

A

two sounds occur in nearly identical environments (and the word meaning is different)

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16
Q

Allophonic variation

A

usually systematic, based on segments’ phonetic properties

17
Q

class

A
Phonemes that are similar phonetically tend to pattern together, as a class
generalization pattern together
18
Q

rules

A

formal statements about how phonemes of UR converted to allophones of PR

19
Q

derivation

A

rule application

  • applies when in right context
  • doesn’t apply if does not have the right context (we say that the rule is not applicable here)
  • should be sufficiently general, should capture generalizations about segments affected by processes or triggering these processes
20
Q

Rule format

A
  • which segment/class of segments is/are affected (the undergoer of the process),
  • how it is or they are affected (what changes into what) and
  • in which particular context (the environment)
21
Q

rule format

A
  • undergoer should include all the segments that undergo the change + exclude the segments that do not undergo it
  • environment should include all segments/other contexts that trigger change
  • change should specify what segment property has changed without mentioning properties that haven’t changed
22
Q

prose rule format

A

What (undergoer of the process) becomes what when/where

23
Q

natural classes

A

Groups of segments that commonly pattern together

based on articulatory properties the segments share

24
Q

Major classes

A

consonant/vowel, sonorant/obstruent, syllabic/non-syllabic

25
Q

Consonants classes

A

oLaryngeal (glottal) states: voiced/voiceless, aspirated, murmured;
oManner: nasal/oral, stop, fricative, affricate, lateral, liquid, glide;
oPlace of articulation:-labial: biliabial, labiodental
-coronal: dental, alveolar, alveopalatal, palatal
-dorsal: velar, uvular;
-glottal

26
Q

Vowel classes

A
oMajor types: simple vowel, diphthong 
oHeight: high, mid, low
oBackness: front, central, back
oRounding: rounded/unrounded
oTenseness: tense/lax
oLength: long/short
oOther: nasalized, retroflexed, reduced, devoiced
27
Q

syllable

A
  • Many allophonic processes refer to the syllable structure.
  • Rhyming in poetry
  • Language games often refer to the internal structure of the syllable
28
Q

syllable structure

A

 nucleus (N): the peak of the syllable
 onset (O): the syllabic unit before the nucleus
 coda (Co): the syllabic unit after the nucleus
 rhyme (R): the nucleus and coda together

29
Q

Universality of the syllable

A
  • All languages have syllables.

- have the syllable types of V and CV, with CVC

30
Q

Phonotactics

A

-refers to constraints on what segments can go into -Onset, Nucleus, and Coda, and in what order
-Combinations of consonants primarily depend on the manner of articulation, thus sonority
More sonorous consonants (glides, liquids, and nasals) tend to occur closer to the nucleus
some languages have onset or coda clusters that violate sonority

31
Q

Onset Clusters

A

/s/-vls. stop-liquid/glide (non-nasal sonorant C)

sprint: a gradual increase in sonority towards the nucleus and a decrease after it

32
Q

Accidental gaps

A

Not all combinations are possible in a language. There are two types of gaps in the system
forms that are possible but happens not to occur in the language
o snook, splick, sclop, trock

33
Q

Systematic gaps

A

-violate the language phonotctics, ungrammatical

o/tl-/ /bz-/ /pt-/ /fp-/ in English: *tlick, *bzough, *ptag, *fpew, etc

34
Q

Loanwords

A

involve phonological adaptation of the source words so as to fit the native phonotactics
Accidental gaps–no need to fix
ovodka (from Russian), taco (from Spanish), ninja (from Japanese)
Systematic gaps–need to fix
o psychology (from Greek): onset */ps-//s-/;

35
Q

Syllabification

A

the procedure for setting up syllables
Step 1 - Nucleus formation
Step 2 - Onset formation
o Identify segments before/to the left of N and project O maximizing onsets. Link the O to σ.
Step 3 - Coda formation
o Identify the leftover segments and project them into Co. Link Co to R.

36
Q

order: Nucleus formation > Onset formation > Coda formation

A
  • Nucleus is head of the syllable
  • CV is cross-linguistically universal syllable type
  • Onset formation
  • CVC is common but not universal syllable type, there is cross-linguistic tendency for onsets to syllabify before codas
37
Q

Differences in syllabification

A
  • In apply /p/ and /l/ are tautosyllabic (same syllable), onset
  • In Atlantic /t/ and /l/ are heterosyllabic (different syllables)
38
Q

Rule ordering

A
  • Order: A > B
  • Order: B > A
  • Rules A and B have to be ordered:
  • Rule A has to precede Rule B otherwise output is partly ungrammatical
  • Two given rules do not always have to be ordered