Review Notes 3

Question 1

What two formalisms do we have to describe features?

Answer 1

Traditional Formalism (features encode phonological contrasts) and Quantal Theory (features encode quantal relations between acoustic and articulatory parameters)

Question 2

If the UG assumption of features being genetic is correct, what does that imply?

Answer 2

That features are unlearnable.

Question 3

What is some evidence that features can’t be genetic?

Answer 3

We see chinchillas and computers being able to identify features, just like human babies.

Question 4

So what claims can we make about features?

Answer 4

Features can be used to define contrasts, but they can also be used to identify classes of phones that may be found in alternations.

Question 5

What do features define?

Answer 5

Contrasts and Phonological activity.

Question 6

How does Quebec French exemplify phonological activity?

Answer 6

a) Allophonic affrication: French doesn’t have affricates and yet alveolar stops are affricated before high vowels. b) Vowel Laxing: High vowels undergo laxing before voiced fricatives, including the voiced uvular fricative, which is usually a liquid.

Question 7

What can Ewe tell us about the problems of Universal Features?

Answer 7

Ewe has four sounds that are contrastive; [+/- voiced] bilabial fricatives and [+/- voiced] labiodental fricatives. We could use [+/- distributive] to distinguish the two, but there is no evidence that these features are acquired in tandem.

Question 8

What strange phonological activity appears in Kolami?

Answer 8

The voiced lateral approximant and it’s alternation don’t appear in environments that can be defined easily using “natural phonetic classes”.

Question 9

What strange phonological activity appears in Evenki?

Answer 9

[v,s,g] all nasalize after vowels, but no other consonants do.

Question 10

What strange phonological activity appears in Tarangan?

Answer 10

The voiced bilabial nasal [m] may assimilate in place, but only after certain sounds, which do not make up a natural phonetic class.

Question 11

What are the basic requirements for a good theory (regarding UG)?

Answer 11

It must a) capture all of the facts observed, and b) explain the absence of potential facts.

Question 12

What are the two definitions of a Natural Class?

Answer 12

a) A series of sounds produced containing the same series of features, to the exclusion of all other sounds in the inventory. b) A group of sounds in an inventory that may participate in an alternation or static distributional restriction, to the exclusion of all other sounds in the inventory.

Question 13

Features are not always -___?

Answer 13

Based on speech phonetics

Question 14

What are the two classes of features?

Answer 14

a) Phonologically Active: distinctive from each-other, and either undergo or trigger a phonological process
b) Natural Classes: A group of sounds in an inventory that share 1 or more phonetic properties to the exclusion of all others.

Question 15

Why should we maintain a distinction between phonology and phonetics?

Answer 15

Because patterns aren’t all phonetic. The non-phonetic patterns need some way to talk about them; thus, phonology.

Question 16

What is the [l] paradox and why does it matter?

Answer 16

Lateral liquids pattern inconsistently across language; 55% of the time they pattern as continuants, and 45% of the time they pattern as non-continuant. This provides complications for UG.

Question 17

What do we know about features in child language?

Answer 17

They develop; they aren’t innate.

Question 18

What does children’s Prosodic Structure tell us about segmental development?

Answer 18

Children’s issues with fronting (onset consonants seem to shift to different pronunciations) tells us that segmental development depends on the words children learn.

Question 19

Why is Emergence Theory so attractive?

Answer 19

Because it is compatible with so much of current linguistic theory, with the caveat that features aren’t actually innate.

Question 20

What does the learning process look like?

Answer 20

The learner is exposed to auditory categories, analyzes the auditory input they receive, and attempts to reproduce what they hear using articulations. Kids may recieve word ‘chunks’ and break them down further later.