Phonology Review

Question 1

phonemic analysis

Answer 1

analysis of the distribution of sounds in a given language, to see which sounds are phonemes and which are allophones

Question 2

contrastive distribution

Answer 2

when two sounds occur in the same environment and you cannot predict when they will occur. Means the two sounds are phonemes

Question 3

minimal pair

Answer 3

occurs in cases of contrastive distribution, when two words are differentiated by a single phoneme in the same environment

Question 4

complementary distribution

Answer 4

when two sounds do not occur in the same environment, and you can predict where at least one will occur. Means the two sounds are allophones.

Question 5

underlying representation

Answer 5

phonemes: abstract entities that live in an abstract level of representation

Question 6

surface representation

Answer 6

allophones: less abstract entities that live in a less abstract level than underlying representations

Question 7

natural class

Answer 7

a set of sounds in a language that share the same value for certain properties

Question 8

free variation

Answer 8

when more than one allophone is permissible in the same environment without changing the meaning of a word - rule for the allophone may be optional

Question 9

sonority hierarchy

Answer 9

order of manners of articulation based on their loudness - vowels, glides, liquids, nasals, obstruents

Question 10

obstruents

Answer 10

stops, fricatives, and affricates

Question 11

sonorants

Answer 11

approximants, nasals

Question 12

morpheme

Answer 12

an underlying form stored in our minds, has an underlying representation composed of phonemes, has a surface representation when spoken

Question 13

allomorph

Answer 13

when a morpheme undergoes a phonological process, the surface/spoken representation of a morpheme

Question 14

assimilation

Answer 14

when a sound changes to become more similar to an adjacent sound (with respect to voicing)

Question 15

epenthesis

Answer 15

when a sound is inserted

Question 16

deletion

Answer 16

when a sound is deleted

Question 17

neutralization

Answer 17

when a contrast that exists in some environments disappears in others (usually as a result of some rule)

Question 18

nucleus

Answer 18

the vowel or syllabic consonant within a syllable

Question 19

onset

Answer 19

consonant before the nucleus: often obligatory, articulated more clearly, locus of rich phonemic contrasts

Question 20

coda

Answer 20

consonant after the nucleus: often optional or forbidden, articulated poorly, locus of phonological processes

Question 21

syllabification rules

Answer 21

rules that allow us to syllabify words and strings of words (language specific)

Question 22

maximal onset principle

Answer 22

syllabification can be predicted by looking at the clusters that can begin a word in a language

Question 23

synchronic linguistics

Answer 23

study of language as it is now

Question 24

diachronic linguistics

Answer 24

study how language has changed over time (historical linguistics)

Question 25

restructuring

Answer 25

reinterpretation of the older generation’s output by younger, language-acquiring generation

Question 26

consonantization

Answer 26

when a vowel becomes a consonant through restructuring

Question 27

spirantization

Answer 27

when a consonant becomes a fricative through restructuring

Question 28

palatalization

Answer 28

when a consonant becomes palatal through restructuring

Question 29

assibilation

Answer 29

turn something into a sibilant (loud fricative)

Question 30

lenition

Answer 30

weakening of intervocalic alveolars

Question 31

nasalization

Answer 31

turning an oral vowel into a nasal vowel

Question 32

The Sound Pattern of English (SPE)

Answer 32

Book written by Chomsky and Halle in 1960s, basis of the Generative Phonology (rule based) phonemic analysis

Question 33

Optimality Theory (OT)

Answer 33

Developed by Prince and Smolensky in 1993 at CU! GEN: GENerate a list of possible forms from the underlying form. CON: Figure out and rank the CONstraints which guide the decision of which form is best. EVAL: EVALuate the possible forms, see how many times they violate constraints, and choose the optimal candidate.

Question 34

Usage-Based Phonology

Answer 34

Where the theory is that we store every word we ever hear, and the more often we hear a word spoken a certain way, the more often we are to speak a word that way. Over time we move to easier articulations, phonological change happens gradually.

Question 35

Government Phonology

Answer 35

All phonology breaks down into six fundamental elements: backness, frontness, roundness, stopness, low tone and high tone. No phonemes!