week 2

Question 1

three interdependent viewpoints of phonetics

Answer 1

o articulatory (speech production)
o acoustic (transmission of sound)
o auditory (perception of sound)

Question 2

phonetic statement

Answer 2

BOAT - /b/ is a voiced bilabial plosive

Question 3

phonological statement

Answer 3

there are 6 short vowels in English

Question 4

phonemics

Answer 4

1) synonym of phonology (sound system of one language)
2) theoretical study of phonemes

Question 5

phoneme

Answer 5

contrastive unit of sound which can be used to change meaning

Question 6

allophone

Answer 6

differences in phonemes

/r/ = phoneme, scottish r, soft r = allophone

Question 7

contrastive distribution of phonemes

Answer 7

two phonemes appearing in the same environment with a change in meaning - they are in contrastive distribution

minimal pairs
minimal sets

Question 8

minimal pairs

Answer 8

pit x bit

Question 9

minimal sets

Answer 9

pit, bit, kit, lit, sit

Question 10

allophonic variation - complementary distribution

Answer 10

/l/ – clear [l] light v. dark [ɫ] till – the two allophones are in complementary distribution
(i.e. one or the other)

[p] in spare, supper (after a voiceless alveolar fricative and intervocalically preceding
an unstressed vowel) v. [ph] in pear (syllable-initial preceding a vowel under stress)

Question 11

allophonic variation - free variation

Answer 11

varied quality of /r/
[ɹ] in RP red, [ɾ] in Scottish terrible, [ʁ] in French

Question 12

The phonemic principle

Answer 12

• Two or more sounds are realisations of the same phoneme if
  o (a) they are in complementary distribution and;
  o (b) they are phonetically similar (cf. /n/ and /ŋ/)
• Two or more sounds are realisations of different phonemes if
  o (a) they are in contrastive distribution;
  o (b) they serve to signal a semantic contrast

Question 13

phonemic neutralisation

Answer 13

overlap of two phonemes in phonetic realisation

e.g. Czech pod pot

=> archiphoneme /d/+/t/

Question 14

absolute phonemic neutralisation

Answer 14

phonemic merger
two separate phonemes become one

meet - meat mergerp

Question 15

phonemicisation - phonemic split

Answer 15

establishment of a new phoneme in a given language/accent

e.g. loss of /g/ in -ing engings -> new phoneme /ŋ/

Question 16

phonetic conditioning

Answer 16

how sounds are influenced by adjacent sounds

allophonic variation
assimilation
elision
liaison

Question 17

assimilation

Answer 17

A phoneme is replaced by another one due to the influence of the preceding or following
phoneme

bad girl [bag gɜ:ɫ]

Question 18

elision

Answer 18

Refers to deletion of a phoneme

history [hɪstri]

Question 19

liaison

Answer 19

Refers to the insertion of a phoneme to enable easier articulation of the sequence.

linking /r/: here is /hɪər ɪz/, our own /ɑ:r əʊn/

intrusive /r/: I saw it [aɪˈsɔ:r ɪt]; the idea of, vodka on ice, etc.

Question 20

phonotactics

Answer 20

Refers to restrictions on the possible combinations of phonemes within a particular
language (accent)

e.g.
- /ŋ/ in word-final positions only
- /h/ never in word-final positions

Question 21

theory of phoneme - Kazan School of Linguistics:

Answer 21

Courtenay, Kruszewski

Question 22

theory of phoneme - American anthropological linguistics

Answer 22

Sapir

Question 23

theory of phoneme individual

Answer 23

de Saussure

Question 24

theory of phoneme - Prague Linguistic Circle

Answer 24

Trubetzkoy, Jakobson, Mathesius, Vachek

Question 25

Jakobson

Answer 25

distinctive feature theory => bundles of features vocalic, consonantal, sonorant, coronal, anterior, high, low, back, rounded, distributed, nasal, lateral, continuant, tense, voiced, strident

Question 26

prosodeme

Answer 26

prosodeme: a phoneme stretching over more than one segment of sound; e.g. yes pronounced with different pitch patterns.

Question 27

tonememe

Answer 27

toneme (= tonal phoneme): in tonal languages like Chinese, the only distinctive element is the different tone