Phonological Architecture

Phonological Architecture PDF

Author: Bridget D. Samuels

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2011-10-13

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 0199694362

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Phonological Architecture bridges linguistic theory and the biological sciences, presenting a comprehensive view of phonology from a biological perspective. Its back-to-basics approach breaks phonology into primitive operations and representations and investigates their possible origins in cognitive abilities found throughout the animal kingdom. Bridget Samuels opens the discussion by considering the general properties of the externalisation system in a theory-neutral manner, using animal cognition studies to identify which components of phonology may not be unique to humans and/or to language. She demonstrates, on the basis of behavioural and physiological studies on primates, songbirds, and a wide variety of other species, that the cognitive abilities underlying human phonological representations and operations are present in creatures other than Homo sapiens (even if not to the same degree) and in domains other than phonology or, indeed, language proper. The second, more linguistically technical half of the book explores what is necessarily unique about phonology. The author discusses the properties of the phonological module which are dictated by the interface requirements of the syntactic module of Universal Grammar as well as different components of the human sensory-motor system (ie audition, vision, and motor control). She proposes a repertoire of phonological representations and operations which are consistent with Universal Grammar and human cognitive evolution. She illustrates the application of these operations with analyses of representative phonological data such as vowel harmony, reduplication, and tone spreading patterns. Finally, the author addresses the issue of cross-linguistic and inter-speaker variation.

Underlying Representations

Underlying Representations PDF

Author: Martin Krämer

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2012-08-16

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 1139560166

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At the heart of generative phonology lies the assumption that the sounds of every language have abstract underlying representations, which undergo various changes in order to generate the 'surface' representations; that is, the sounds we actually pronounce. The existence, status and form of underlying representations have been hotly debated in phonological research since the introduction of the phoneme in the nineteenth century. This book provides a comprehensive overview of theories of the mental representation of the sounds of language. How does the mind store and process phonological representations? Krämer surveys the development of the concept of underlying representation over the last 100 years or so within the field of generative phonology. He considers phonological patterns, psycholinguistic experiments, statistical generalisations over data corpora and phenomena such as hypercorrection. The book offers a new understanding of contrastive features and proposes a modification of the optimality-theoretic approach to the generation of underlying representations.

Phonological Typology

Phonological Typology PDF

Author: Matthew Kelly Gordon

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 378

ISBN-13: 0199669007

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This book provides an overview of phonological typology: the study of how sounds are distributed across the languages of the world and why they display these distributions and patterns. It examines major phonological phenomena such as phoneme inventories, syllable structure, phonological alternations, stress, tone, intonation, and prosodic morphology, and investigates issues including how common certain types of sounds are cross-linguistically and why; how many languages differentiate questions and statements using intonation; which areas of the world tend to be associated with more complex tone distinctions; and the relationship between cross-linguistic and language-internal frequency. Data are drawn from existing typologies, from the results of a survey of various phonological patterns in the 100-language sample from the World Atlas of Language Structures, and from corpora of individual languages. Matthew Gordon analyses these data and explores the correlations between different - often superficially unrelated - phonological properties to gain insight into the driving forces behind these phenomena. He provides an overview of synchronic and diachronic explanations for the patterns observed and discusses how formal phonological theory has attempted to model the typological data. One of relatively few typological works devoted to phonology, this book will be a valuable resource for phonologists and phoneticians from advanced undergraduate level upwards, as well all those with an interest in language typology.

Features in Phonology and Phonetics

Features in Phonology and Phonetics PDF

Author: Annie Rialland

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2015-05-19

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 3110400103

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This book intends to place Nick Clements’ contribution to Feature Theory in a historical and contemporary context and to introduce some of his unpublished manuscripts as well as new work with colleagues collected in this book.

Austronesian and Theoretical Linguistics

Austronesian and Theoretical Linguistics PDF

Author: Raphael Mercado

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2010-12-09

Total Pages: 389

ISBN-13: 9027287759

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The Austronesian language family is the largest language family in the world, yet its members are relatively little studied, particularly from a formal perspective. Interestingly, because these languages exhibit typologically unusual properties, they pose important challenges to linguistic theory. Any theory that postulates a grammar that is common to all languages must take into account the particular characteristics of this language family. The contributions to this volume comprise five chapters on phonology and twelve chapters on syntax, all addressing aspects of these Austronesian challenges. The volume presents new data, new analyses of old data, and comparisons of closely related languages, as well as comparisons to languages outside of the language family. Taken together they form a unique picture of Austronesian linguistics. This volume will be of interest to researchers and students in phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and language typology, as well as scholars of Austronesian languages.

Syllable, Stress, and Sign

Syllable, Stress, and Sign PDF

Author: Jeroen van de Weijer

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2023-03-20

Total Pages: 382

ISBN-13: 3110730081

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Representing Phonological Detail Part I: Segmental Structure and Representations Part II: Syllable, Stress and Sign Part II of Representing Phonological Detail focuses on the latest phonological research on suprasegmental structure and sign language. The first main theme in this volume is syllable structure, touching on phonotactics, syllabification, gemination, syllable weight, diphthongization, and other rules. The other main theme is tone and stress, including issues in data collection, the assignment of primary and secondary stress, resolution of stress clashes, lexical accent, and syntax-tone interaction. The final section is on sign language, with special attention paid to iconicity, phonological processes, and the relation between phonetic and phonological representation.

The Routledge Handbook of Phonological Theory

The Routledge Handbook of Phonological Theory PDF

Author: S.J. Hannahs

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-12-14

Total Pages: 646

ISBN-13: 1317382137

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The Routledge Handbook of Phonological Theory provides a comprehensive overview of the major contemporary approaches to phonology. Phonology is frequently defined as the systematic organisation of the sounds of human language. For some, this includes aspects of both the surface phonetics together with systematic structural properties of the sound system; for others, phonology is seen as distinct from, and autonomous from, phonetics. The Routledge Handbook of Phonological Theory surveys the differing ways in which phonology is viewed, with a focus on current approaches to phonology. Divided into two parts, this handbook: covers major conceptual frameworks within phonology, including: rule-based phonology; Optimality Theory; Government Phonology; Dependency Phonology; and connectionist approaches to generative phonology; explores the central issue of the relationship between phonetics and phonology; features 23 chapters written by leading academics from around the world. The Routledge Handbook of Phonological Theory is an authoritative survey of this key field in linguistics, and is essential reading for students studying phonology.

Perspectives on Element Theory

Perspectives on Element Theory PDF

Author: Sabrina Bendjaballah

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2021-08-23

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 3110691973

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Element Theory (ET) covers a range of approaches that consider privativity a central tenet defining the internal structure of segments. This volume provides an overview and extension of this program, exploring new lines of research within phonology and at its interface (phonetics and syntax). The present collection reflects on issues concerning the definition of privative primes, their interactions, organization, and the operations that constrain phonological and syntactic representations. The contributions reassess theoretical questions, which have been implicitly taken for granted, regarding privativity and its corollaries. On the empirical side, it explores the possibilities ET offers to analyze specific languages and phonological phenomena.

Substance-free Framework for Phonology

Substance-free Framework for Phonology PDF

Author: Pavel Iosad

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Published: 2017-02-22

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1474407390

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What is the relationship between phonetics and phonology? Are phonological features innate and universal, and do they have fixed phonetic correlates? These questions have received renewed prominence in theoretical debates, and this book explores them from a modular, substance-free perspective. This in-depth analysis of Breton serves not only to introduce important data from this endangered language into the theoretical landscape but also to demonstrate the viability of a modular phonological framework. The book introduces a minimalist system of phonological representations built up on a language-specific basis, and integrates it with a fully-fledged computational framework, showcasing the numerous empirical and conceptual advantages of a substance-free view of phonology. Presenting the first comprehensive analysis of the sound patterns of a Breton variety treated in a substance-free phonological framework, this book will enhance the understanding of Celtic phonology and offers a valuable reference for postgraduate students, academics and researchers working in phonological theory and Celtic studies.