Week 5 - Phonology

Question 1

Phonology

Answer 1

study of abstract categories that organize the sound system of a language.

Question 2

spectrogram

Answer 2

a graphic representation of the frequency distribution of the complex jumble of sound waves that give the hearing impression of speech sounds

Question 3

phoneme

Answer 3

smallest unit of a language; sounds, movement, gesture

Question 4

complementary distribution

Answer 4

Two sounds which are distributed in such a way that one can only occur where the other cannot occur

Question 5

minimal pairs

Answer 5

A minimal pair is a pair of words which differ in only one sound, but differ in meaning.minimal pairs

Question 6

free variation

Answer 6

speakers can choose which allophone they us

Question 7

Neutralisation

Answer 7

refers to the fact that in a particular context, a contrast between phonemes becomes invisible

Question 8

final devoicing

Answer 8

The fact that a voiced phoneme has a voiceless allophone in word-final posi- tion

Question 9

dark l

Answer 9

The third realisation of /l/ found in (14), [ɫ], is what is called a velarised realisation of /l/

Question 10

clear l

Answer 10

The non-velarised realisation [l], i.e. the one which you know from the introduction of English consonants

Question 11

aspirated stop

Answer 11

The variant of /p/ that occurs in pin

Question 12

aspiration

Answer 12

the process of aspirating stops

Question 13

t/d- flapping

Answer 13

Here both /t/ and /d/ can be realised as [ɾ]

Question 14

non-rhotic

Answer 14

r-sounds do not seem to occur in word-final position

Question 15

rhotic

Answer 15

varieties of English are those in which r-sounds can occur in word-final position.

Question 16

syllabic consonants

Answer 16

Consonants which occupy the central part of the syllable

Question 17

onset

Answer 17

In English, the nucleus can be filled by a vowel, a diphthong, or a syllabic consonant; ‘slots for consonants’

Question 18

coda

Answer 18

In English, the nucleus can be filled by a vowel, a diphthong, or a syllabic consonant; the postvocalic slot

Question 19

vowel epenthesis

Answer 19

In English, the nucleus can be filled by a vowel, a diphthong, or a syllabic consonant.

Question 20

syllabification

Answer 20

Assigning syllable structure to words

Question 21

Maximal Onset Principle

Answer 21

Given a sequence of consonants and vowels, syllabification pro- ceeds in such a way that as many consonants as possible end up in an onset, even if the language allows codas

Question 22

sonority

Answer 22

The technical term for the category that captures our acoustic impression of ‘clear audibility’

Question 23

Sonority Sequencing Principle

Answer 23

sounds preceding the nucleus (i.e. onsets) must rise in sonority, and sounds following the nucleus (i.e. codas) must fall in sonority

Question 24

constituents

Answer 24

the elements that make up a syllable

Question 25

cognates

Answer 25

have [ps] and [kn]