test questions (rule based) midterm

Question 1

Explain how the lack of predictability between the spelling and pronunciation of a name affects the ease with which people ‘correctly’ pronounce a name, using at least one concrete example.

Answer 1

ex. my own name
- depends on the person who’s name it is WANTS it to be pronounced
-Since orthographic form does not have a one to one relationship with sounds (hence why we have developed the IPA) there can be great variability between what a symbol can represent in a given language. For example, “Lille” could be pronounced “Lill” or “Lilly”.

Question 2

Explain how unfamiliarity with the phonological inventory of another languages affects the ease with which people ‘correctly’ pronounce names from that language, using at least one concrete example.

Answer 2

• A phonological inventory is the group of sounds/ segments that are phonemic (contrastive) in a language.
  ex. may be a completely different sound in another language that we don’t have in english, therefore we probably wouldn’t know how to pronounce it.
  -also could be a sound that is contrastive in another language but allophonic in English, therefore we would pronounce it the same when it it supposed to be pronounced differently

Question 3

Explain how unfamiliarity with the phonotactics or phonological patterns of another language affects the ease with which people ‘correctly’ pronounce a name from that language, using at least one concrete example.

Answer 3

• phonotactics are the rules a language has that govern the sequences/ combinations of segments and their general structure.
  ex. how [ng] sound cannot occur word initially in english, but another language’s phonological pattern may allow for that

Question 4

Explain why it might be possible to have a ‘context-free’ phonological rule, that is, a rule that applies in every phonological environment, using a concrete example.

Answer 4

ex. from class, where all obstruents became voiceless, no matter the environment
- Ex. Halkomelem consistently devoiced all stops regardless of the position they were in the word, then my rule would have no context, it would simply be [-son] –> [-voice] meaning that for every [-son] segment, it would device regardless of the environment.

Question 5

Explain why being ‘too broad’ or ‘too narrow’ is not a criterion for evaluating phonological rules.

Answer 5

• too broad: making generalizations that turn out not to be true in the rest of the language, outside of our data

-too narrow: being very specific about the sound environment in the data given, not making predictions for future data

the important question is whether or not it is TRUE, and if it applies to everything necessary within the question. if in doubt, make it a little more broad bc the rule should also account for changes that are not shown in the data set.

• We can only make rules for sounds in our given data set, although we may be making predictions for sounds outside of our data

Question 6

[I give you a sample phonological rule, something like [-son] —> [-voice].] Explain whether the given phonological rule is or is not true for the “Hul’q’umi’num’-ization’’ of names shown in the given dataset.

Answer 6

in this example this is TRUE because all obstruents shown in the data set become voiceless.
- figure out if we’re making any false claims/predictions

ie. The rule ends up predicting something wrong bc it either included a segment it shouldn’t have, or it caused a change to happen where it shouldn’t have happened.

Question 7

[I give you a sample phonological rule.] Explain whether the given phonological rule is or is not complete with respect to the “Hul’q’umi’num’-ization’’ of names shown in the given dataset.

Answer 7

-a rule is not complete if
it does not include all the segments undergoing change
- if it does not capture all the environments undergoing change

Question 8

[I give you a sample phonological rule.] Explain whether the given phonological rule is or is not well-written for the “Hul’q’umi’num’-ization’’ of names shown in the given dataset.

Answer 8

In order for a rule to be well written, it must
have the features being used well
eg. being used to make larger generalizations when needed, and using segments to exclude other segments when needed
- it must follow the conventions of the feature chart
such as using binary and unary features correctly, using features that are actually relevant (eg. not stating features that are irrelevant if they do not fall under another nestled feature)
- the output should only show what changes in the rule
so no [-son, +voi] → [-voi], there should not be [+-voice] on either side. Pick a side!!
- it should have a descriptive name
- a prose explanation describing what is occuring

Question 9

[I give you a sample phonological rule.] Explain whether the given phonological rule is or is not true for the distribution of voiced and voiceless stops in the Isthmus Zapotec dataset.

Answer 9

• figure out if we’re making any false claims/predictions

ie. The rule ends up predicting something wrong bc it either included a segment it shouldn’t have, or it caused a change to happen where it shouldn’t have happened.

Question 10

[I give you a sample phonological rule.] Explain whether the given phonological rule is or is not complete with respect to the distribution of voiced and voiceless stops in the Isthmus Zapotec dataset.

Answer 10

a rule is no complete if
it does not include all the segments undergoing change
if it does not capture all the environments undergoing change

Question 11

[I give you a sample phonological rule.] Explain whether the given phonological rule is or is not well-written for the distribution of voiced and voiceless stops in the Isthmus Zapotec dataset.

Answer 11

In order for a rule to be well written, it must
have the features being used well
eg. being used to make larger generalizations when needed, and using segments to exclude other segments when needed
- it must follow the conventions of the feature chart
such as using binary and unary features correctly, using features that are actually relevant (eg. not stating features that are irrelevant if they do not fall under another nestled feature)
- the output should only show what changes in the rule
so no [-son, +voi] → [-voi], there should not be [+-voice] on either side. Pick a side!!
- it should have a descriptive name
- a prose explanation describing what is occuring

Question 12

[I give you a sample phonological rule.] Explain whether the given phonological rule is wrong in terms of being untrue, incomplete, or not well-written for the Samoan dataset.

Answer 12

use information based on these terms

Question 13

Explain how you might figure out what is relevant to look at in a dataset if you aren’t given any specific instructions.

Answer 13

Maybe begin by creating a general description of what you observe, then you might be able to spot patterns that are occurring and create an analysis based on this information.
If you see things surfaced in an environment where nothing else is surfacing, maybe this is something relevant to look at.
See if you’re noticing any allophonic/contrastive distribution occurring

Question 14

Explain why it’s important to give a description of a phonological dataset before doing an analysis.

Answer 14

Because without a thorough description of what is simply being observed in the data, it would be very easy to make assumptions and jump into an analysis that could be missing something!
It lays out all the facts of what is occurring in the data so that no details are missed

Question 15

Explain what makes a description different from an analysis of a phonological dataset.

Answer 15

Description: a statement about what is actually observed in the data set.
Analysis: an interpretation of the structure of the data, as well as any changes that are occurring.
Analysis is able to state that things are “becoming” something else or “changing into” something else. Descriptions just stating what you see, not what you think is happening.

Question 16

[I give you an example statement about a dataset, similar to the ones in Q2a on the Week 2 handout.] State whether this statement is descriptive or analytical and explain why.

Answer 16

Should be able to figure this out based on context/ knowing what a description/analysis is

Question 17

[I give you an example of a description of a dataset you’ve seen before, like the Hul’q’imi’num’ names, Isthmus Zapotec, or the Samoan data from Week 1.] Explain what elements of the given description have been done well and what elements could be improved.

Answer 17

Again, should be able to figure this out based on context/ knowing what a good description entails

Question 18

How many alternations are there in the Isthmus Zapotec dataset? Explain how you figured this out.

Answer 18

Alternation: when a single morpheme has more than 1 phonological form
[g~k], [b~p], [d~t] would result in 3 alternations

Question 19

How many alternations are there in the Samoan dataset? Explain how you figured this out.

Answer 19

-Alternation: when a single morpheme has more than 1 phonological form
The suffix here is alternating in some way, [ _ ia]
[ lia, fia, ŋia, sia, tia, mia, ʔia]
-it seems like this would just be one alternation,

Question 20

[I give you a morpheme from the Isthmus Zapotec dataset, such as ‘corncake.’] Explain how you would decide what the underlying representation of this morpheme is.

Answer 20

-We decided on the phonological rule of devoicing instead of voicing, meaning [geta] would be the UR instead of [keta].

-This is bc we store our unpredictable information in the UR
Will get [keta] after [s], but both [k] and [g] can occur word initially.

Question 21

[I give you a morpheme from the Samoan dataset, such as ‘stand.’] Explain how you would decide what the underlying representation of this morpheme is.

Answer 21

-based on which sound is predictable vs which one is not
the predictable one will be the one that goes under the rule, aka the one w the simplest environment to describe
the unpredictable one will be the sound that has the harder environment to describe, ie. it’s the “else” environment

Question 22

[I give you a phonological rule and sample derivation.] Explain whether the given derivation correctly shows how the given rule would work in the Isthmus Zapotec dataset.

Answer 22

if the derivation makes the end result the surface form then it works
if the derivation’s end result isn’t the surface form, then it would not work

Question 23

[I give you a phonological rule and sample derivation.] Explain whether the given derivation correctly shows how the given rule would work in the Samoan dataset.

Answer 23

if the derivation makes the end result the surface form then it works
if the derivation’s end result isn’t the surface form, then it would not work

Question 24

Explain why phonological features are used instead of phon. etic characteristics in analyzing datasets.

Answer 24

phonetic characteristics describe the physical properties of sounds, namely their articulatory characteristics. Phonological features are used to capture patterns in languages. While phonological features are founded on phonetic characteristics, the features can get used differently by different languages.

For example, while /l/ will have the same phonetic characteristics across languages, it can get classified differently in order to be grouped (or not grouped) depending on an observed phenomena. Phonological features allow greater flexibility than phonetic characteristics because some groupings (either in terms of membership or in terms of excluding certain segments) would not be possible if solely relying on phonetic characteristics.

Question 25

Explain how you figure out which feature is involved in the process of umlaut in the Dutch data from Quiz 2, Question 9. [Note: on the actual exam, I would reproduce the original dataset and question for you! You don’t have to have it memorized.]

Answer 25

[back] is involved in this process.

figure this out by looking at the data, its only vowels so see what is shifting in all the stem forms to SR

Question 26

Explain why linguists posit that some features are monovalent and some are binary, using at least one concrete example.

Answer 26

MONOVALENT: For example, LABIAL segments pattern together, but it was observed that non-labial segments were not patterning together.

Binary:ex. +-nasal. the parts that have the positive specification for the feature pattern together, and the segments that have the negetive specification for this feature patter togeether. It can be assumed that everything that’s not nasal, is oral.

Question 27

Explain why some features aren’t specified for / are irrelevant for some segments, using at least one concrete example.

Answer 27

because some features are describing certain characteristics in sounds and simply do not apply to ALL sounds. Ex. [strident] only applies to obstruents and is irrelevant for sonorants, because its referring to the amount of noise/friction in a segment.

Question 28

Explain why it’s important to know what the phonological inventory is before you use features to pick out a natural class of sounds.

Answer 28

phonological inventory is the set of segments that are contrastive in a language.
- It is important to know what this is before coming up with a rule since we may want to include or exclude certain segments from our natural class. If we come up with a set of features and then realize there is an additional segment that could fit in and also be classified the same, this runs the risk of having our rule be untrue and overgeneralize results (for example).

• EX. in HW1 we were given a smaller phonological inventory, in this case we would not have been able to generalize our natural classes to the entire inventory in English

Question 29

[I give you a phonological inventory and a set of sounds.] Explain which phonological features would best be used to pick out this set of sounds as a natural class from this inventory.

Answer 29

steps/tips on how to approach this Q
look at IPA chart to rule out certain shared characteristics

Question 30

Explain a circumstance under which you would use phonological features while writing a formal phonological rule and why they should be used.

Answer 30

I would use phonological features if I wanted to capture a larger generalization for a pattern happening in a language. For example, if I see that a ton of segments are all undergoing the same change, rather than listing out those individual segments I can make a broader generalization that really captures what is going on by using features. Features can also help us exclude sounds from undergoing a change (especially important since phonetic features aren’t enough to exclude other segments from being grouped)

Question 31

Explain a circumstance under which you would not use phonological features while writing a formal phonological rule and why they wouldn’t be used.

Answer 31

If the group of segments do not form a natural class, I would not use features and instead would list out the individual segments in order to not have an incorrect rule that would be wrongly predicting a change.

Question 32

Explain why it is useful to use phonological features in the environment of the rule for the Isthmus Zapotec question, even though in the dataset, the phonological process occurs after only one sound.

Answer 32

It is useful because by using the phonological feature, we not only are able to pick out this environment causing a change but we can get a more profound pattern: an assimilation pattern.
-we are able to better describe the phenomenon rather than leaving it at “a sound change”. We now end up with a bit of reason for the change (saying the morpheme proceeding the s matches the voicing of the s)

Question 33

Explain why there are multiple possible correct feature combinations for specifying the input of the rule for the Isthmus Zapotec question.

Answer 33

reminder: The input segments are [b,d,g]

Since we don’t know the full inventory of zapotec, we don’t even know what segments we are trying to rule out so we could just specify [b,d,g] or (preferably, to be more broad) we can specify further and add more features
We can even add more features than just [-cont] since we don’t know what we are pulling them out against. We only know certain sounds that aren’t being pulled out to be included in this rule
basically we get to decide what level of generality we want
big concept: being too narrow or too broad isn’t a problem as long as it is still true for the data set

Question 34

[I give you a particular rule for a dataset you’ve seen before, a rule, and a class of sounds.] Explain what this particular rule predicts for the given class of sounds. (E.g., if I gave you [-continuant] —> [-voice] / [s] ___ for the Zapotec dataset, and the class of sound “nasals,” the question would be: What does this rule predict will happen to nasals in Zapotec?)

Answer 34

Here, I would need to look a the class of sounds she gives me and decide whether this class of sounds fits under the natural class or not.
eg. is nasal [-cont]? if yes, then explain how it would follow this rule. if not, explain how this rule would not apply to it so it would remain the same

Question 35

Explain how a single phonetic handshape might have two different phonological interpretations.

Answer 35

Eg. the phonetics of the “ok” symbol is the realization of it

the context will tell us the phonology of it
so, the selected fingers could be different depending on which fingers make contact. So, this is how the same sign can have two diff phonological interpretations

Question 36

Explain how you go about looking at a phonological dataset for a sign language when there’s not a transcription system.

Answer 36

We focus on the characteristics of the signs , namely the location, movement type and handshape. First I would phonetically describe each sign. Next,I would compare each sign and see if there are similarities across them in terms of parameters. Since unlike spoken language phonology, sign language phonology has more to do with the other aspects within the sign itself rather than neighbouring signs (whereas spoken language phonology has more to do with neighbouring sounds), I would be comparing the aspects within the signs themselves. It is at this point where I may spot a minimal pair, notice complementary distribution, or notice something else going on.

Question 37

Explain how you know whether a phonetic difference is allophonic in a sign language.

Answer 37

We know it is allophonic if its presence is predictable. The environment that causes predictability will be within the sign rather than elements surrounding the sign. So, if I see a minimal pair I can know that the difference is in fact phonetic (contrastive). If I don’t see a minimal pair, then I can analyze the data and see if I can predict the presence of the difference or not. If I see no predictability, then I cannot say anything about the difference until I receive more data/ information.

Question 38

Explain what phonological element can undergo metathesis in ASL and how you know it’s that feature that undergoes it.

Answer 38

Metathesis is a phonological process where there is a linear re-ordering.

If a two signs has a location change within the same place (ie. it is only a setting location change) then it can undergo metathesis
1:head low –> head ipsi
2:head ipsi –> head low

Question 39

Explain what the phonological restriction is that allows some ASL signs to undergo metathesis and and others not to undergo it.

Answer 39

The restriction is if there is a place location change, the sign will not metastasize
if there is only a setting change, then the sign can undergo metathesis.

Question 40

[I give you an example sign from question 13 of the Week 3 handout.] Explain why this sign either is or is not particularly likely to undergo Weak Drop.

Answer 40

define weak drop
the dropping of one of the hands in a bi-manual sign
describe criteria that makes WD more or mess likely
From most to least likely:
1 bi-manunual symmetry,
2 same handshape, but one hand is moving while other is stationary
3 asymmetrical sign with one dominant hand and one passive hand with diff handshapes
describe sign w respect to criteria
ie. characterize it as either type 1, 2 or 3 sign
conclusion of likelihood of WD
based on whether the sign is 1,2, or 3

Question 41

[I give you one of the sets of sounds from question 1 of Homework #1.] Explain how you would go about figuring out what the minimal feature set is for this natural class (if it is a natural class).

Answer 41

look at IPA chart first
compare against the group of sounds we don’t wanna include
list out features that rule out all other sounds
look over features to see if any are redundant

Question 42

[I give you two signs in ASL.] Explain whether or not these two signs rhyme in ASL.

Answer 42

look at whether they share the same handshape, location or movement.

Question 43

Explain how it is possible to talk about the phonetics and phonology of sign languages when they don’t involve speech sounds.

Answer 43

There are different parameters.
it is still possible to define phonetic characteristics such as handshape, location, etc. without describing audible things
-phonology is still possible in terms of seeing/describing what patterns together such as minimal pairs, rhymes, etc

Question 44

[I give you an example of a sign.] Describe the phonetic characteristics of this sign.

Answer 44

DESCRIBE:
handshape
location (setting vs place)
movement (path vs internal vs complex)

-things like selected fingers are phonological characteristics, simply describe the PHONETIC characteristics.

Question 45

[I give you a pair of signs from a language, and the name of a parameter, like “handshape,” “movement,” or “location.”] What does this pair of signs tell you about the phonological status of this parameter, and why? (For example, if I gave you the pair of signs LUCKY and SMART in ASL and the parameter ‘location,’ the question would be “What does the pair of signs LUCKY and SMART in ASL tell you about the phonological status of location in ASL and why?”)

Answer 45

if it is a minimal pair, it tells me the parameter is contrastive in ASL
If it is not a minimal pair, it tells me nothing. I need more data to either
see if there are minimal pairs
see the parameter is allophonic, ie. see if its presence is predictable or not
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