LING 2040 - Phonology: language sounds and sound systems

North Terrace Campus - Semester 1 - 2021

Almost all of us use spoken language everyday. We express ourselves through speech in a multitude of ways. Pronunciation immediately identifies each of us as belonging to a certain ethnic group, social class, locality, age group and gender. This course investigates the nature of speech sounds, the mechanisms of speech production and perception and the ways by which these sounds are classified into a fixed inventory of meaningful sounds, the phoneme inventory, by speakers of a language. Students will learn how to transcribe speech sounds using phonetic symbols (International Phonetic Alphabet or IPA). Students will compare and contrast the sound systems of a variety of languages. A particular focus of this course will be developing understandings of the relationship between speech and writing in a range of languages, including English. This course is essential for all linguistics students, language teachers (English or otherwise) and newsreaders. The course will also be of interest to many students of psychology, anthropology and social inquiry.

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Course Details

Course Code	LING 2040
Course	Phonology: language sounds and sound systems
Coordinating Unit	Linguistics
Term	Semester 1
Level	Undergraduate
Location/s	North Terrace Campus
Units	3
Contact	Up to 3 hours per week
Available for Study Abroad and Exchange	Y
Prerequisites	At least 12 units of Level I undergraduate study, including LING 1101
Incompatible	LING 2012, LING 3012, LING 3038
Assessment	3 x 1000 word or equivalent practical assignments (75%), 1500 word or equivalent exam (25%)

Course Staff

Course Coordinator: Ian Green

E-mail: <ian.green@adelaide.edu.au>
Consultations by appointment, email ian.green@adelaide.edu.au or phone/text 0438 756 936 to arrange

Course Timetable

The full timetable of all activities for this course can be accessed from Course Planner.

Lectures: livestreamed Mondays 1pm-3pm, recordings available shortly after the lecture

Tutorials: face-to-face Tuesday 1pm - 2pm Barr Smith South 1063 OR online Tuesday 2pm-3pm

Course Learning Outcomes

Be able to describe the general physical mechanisms underlying the production & perception of speech.
Be able to classify speech sounds according to vocal tract configuration, laryngeal activity and airflow.
Be able to utilise the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) in both ‘broad’ and ‘narrow’ transcription of speech, and to work with other practical orthographies in speech transcription.
Be able to identify the role of stress, intonation, pitch and duration in the production & perception of speech.
Perform a phonemic analysis of any given language, drawing on notions of minimal pairs, contrastive vs complementary distribution, conditioning of allophones & free variation.
Identify the distinctive features of any given set of phonemes.
Explain the concept of ‘underlying phonological form’, drawing on examples from a variety of languages.
Formulate phonological and phonetic realisation rules, having regard to rule ordering principles.
Understand the basic principles of Phonological Typology.
Undertake comparisons of conventional vs non-linear approaches to phonological representation.

University Graduate Attributes

This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attribute(s) specified below:

University Graduate Attribute	Course Learning Outcome(s)
Deep discipline knowledge informed and infused by cutting edge research, scaffolded throughout their program of studies acquired from personal interaction with research active educators, from year 1 accredited or validated against national or international standards (for relevant programs)	7, 8. 9, 10
Critical thinking and problem solving steeped in research methods and rigor based on empirical evidence and the scientific approach to knowledge development demonstrated through appropriate and relevant assessment	4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Teamwork and communication skills developed from, with, and via the SGDE honed through assessment and practice throughout the program of studies encouraged and valued in all aspects of learning	1, 2, 3, 4
Career and leadership readiness technology savvy professional and, where relevant, fully accredited forward thinking and well informed tested and validated by work based experiences	1, 2, 3, 10
Intercultural and ethical competency adept at operating in other cultures comfortable with different nationalities and social contexts able to determine and contribute to desirable social outcomes demonstrated by study abroad or with an understanding of indigenous knowledges	2, 3, 4, 5, 9
Self-awareness and emotional intelligence a capacity for self-reflection and a willingness to engage in self-appraisal open to objective and constructive feedback from supervisors and peers able to negotiate difficult social situations, defuse conflict and engage positively in purposeful debate	2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10

Learning Resources

Required Resources

Carlos Gussenhoven & Haike Jacobs, Understanding Phonology. Routledge: either 3rd edn 2011, or 4th edn 2017, due out 28.3.17.
The 3rd edition of this text is available on-line at the library.

Recommended Resources

Zsiga, Elizabeth, 2013, The sounds of language: an introduction to phonetics and phonology. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Available on-line at BSL: 414 Z92s

Clark, John, Colin Yallop & Janet Fletcher, 2007, An introduction to phonetics and phonology. Malden, MA: Blackwell. BSL: 414 C593i.3

Crowley, Terry, 1992, An Introduction to Historical Linguistics. Auckland: Oxford University Press. BSL: 417.7 C953i

Ladefoged, Peter, & Keith Johnson, 2011, A course in phonetics, 6th edn. BSL: 414 L153c.6 CD-ROM

Miller, Robert, (ed), 2015, Trask's historical linguistics, 3rd edition. London: Routledge. BSL: 417.7 T775ZM

David Odden, 2014, Introducing Phonology, Second Edition. Cambridge University Press.

Odden, David, 2008, Introducing phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. BSL: 414 O22i

Helen Attar, Research Librarian for Linguistics
There is a good collection of linguistics books and journals in the Barr Smith Library.
The textbooks listed above will be put in the BSL reserve collection.

Online Learning

Relevant information, notes and readings for the course may be found on MyUni.
Lectures will be recorded and put on MyUni.
Assignments should be submitted electronically on Turnitin.
Learning & Teaching Activities

Learning & Teaching Modes

Lecture outline: please note that this is a guide only, and may not be in this order; fuller details will be given during the semester.

Week 1
Mechanics and acoustics of speech production -- Handouts; chs 1, 2

Week 2
Phonological typology & phonetic transcription -- chs 3, 6

Week 3
Allophonic variation -- ch 4

Week 4
Underlying representations -- ch 7

Week 5
Feature Theory -- ch 5

Week 6
Rules & derivations -- ch 8

Week 7
Syllables & Prosody -- ch 9, 12

Week 8
Stress -- ch 11

Week 9
Tone -- ch 10

Week 10
Optimality theory -- ch 13

Week 11
Feature geometry -- ch 14

Week 12
Historical phonology -- Crowley, Miller's Trask

Week 13
Revision, take-home exam

Workload

The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.

The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.
1 x 2-hour lecture/workshop per week (x12) 24 hours
1 x 1-hour tutorial per week (x10) 10 hours
4 hours Practicals/Reading per week (x12) 48 hours
4 hours Assignment Preparation per week (x12) 48 hours
2 hours Research per week (X 13) 26 hours
TOTAL 156 hours

Learning Activities Summary

Week 1
Speech production & perception – the body and the brain
The idea of sound systems

Week 2
Making, hearing, transcribing & categorising consonant sounds
Distinguishing consonants

Week 3
Making, hearing, transcribing & categorising vowel sounds
Distinguishing vowels

Week 4
Stress, Tone, Intonation, Duration – what are they & what difference do they make?

Week 5
The idea of the phoneme – minimal pairs, contrastive vs complementary distribution, conditioned variation, phonetic realisation.

Week 6
Phonemes as sets of distinctive features – universal parameters, archiphonemes, underspecification.

Week 7
Underlying Forms & phonological rules.

Week 8
Formulating sets of phonological rules – ordering and elsewhere conditions.

Week 9
Exploring phonological rules cross-linguistically.

Week 10
Phonological Typology – what comes ‘naturally’ (and why) ?

Week 11
Exploring phonological theory - linear & non-linear approaches

Week 12
The limits of abstractness – phonology as a human science vs mind game

Small Group Discovery Experience

Tutorials will focus on problems and practical application of phonological and phonetic analysis and categorisation. Some of these problems may be done in pairs or small groups.

The University's policy on Assessment for Coursework Programs is based on the following four principles:

Assessment must encourage and reinforce learning.
Assessment must enable robust and fair judgements about student performance.
Assessment practices must be fair and equitable to students and give them the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned.
Assessment must maintain academic standards.

Assessment Summary

Assessment Weighting Due date

Practical no. 1 25% tba
Practical no. 2 25% tba
Practical no. 3 25% tba
Take-home exam 25% tba

All assessment components must be completed to qualify for a final result.
Practical assignments will be posted during the course of the semester

Assessment Related Requirements

Submission of assignments:

All assignments should be submitted on Turnitin. All assignments are due in by 5.00 pm on the due date.

Do not e-mail assignments

All assignments must be in grammatical English

Always keep a copy of your work, as occasionally students’ work is lost

Extensions (normally up to one week) may be negotiated through the course coordinator, but this must be organised prior to the due date

Claims of extenuating circumstances require a doctor’s certificate, counsellor’s certificate or similar documentation of evidence. Supplementary assignments may be offered under certain circumstances, and on an individual basis

Late assignments without an extension will not be accepted or marked, and a fail result will be recorded. This is because assignments will be discussed in seminars as soon as possible after they are marked, and work may not therefore be submitted after that time

Assignments will be returned in seminars.

Assessment Detail

Assignment #1 – Distinguishing & transcribing speech sounds
Assignment #2 – Analysing phonemes
Assignment #3 – Formulating Phonological Rules
Test – Practical analyses & short answer questions ranging over the content of lectures, tutorials & prescribed readings across the semester.

Submission

Assignments are to be submitted through MyUni.

Course Grading

Grades for your performance in this course will be awarded in accordance with the following scheme:

M10 (Coursework Mark Scheme)
Grade	Mark	Description
FNS		Fail No Submission
F	1-49	Fail
P	50-64	Pass
C	65-74	Credit
D	75-84	Distinction
HD	85-100	High Distinction
CN		Continuing
NFE		No Formal Examination
RP		Result Pending

Further details of the grades/results can be obtained from Examinations.

Grade Descriptors are available which provide a general guide to the standard of work that is expected at each grade level. More information at Assessment for Coursework Programs.

Final results for this course will be made available through Access Adelaide.

Student Feedback

The University places a high priority on approaches to learning and teaching that enhance the student experience. Feedback is sought from students in a variety of ways including on-going engagement with staff, the use of online discussion boards and the use of Student Experience of Learning and Teaching (SELT) surveys as well as GOS surveys and Program reviews.

SELTs are an important source of information to inform individual teaching practice, decisions about teaching duties, and course and program curriculum design. They enable the University to assess how effectively its learning environments and teaching practices facilitate student engagement and learning outcomes. Under the current SELT Policy (http://www.adelaide.edu.au/policies/101/) course SELTs are mandated and must be conducted at the conclusion of each term/semester/trimester for every course offering. Feedback on issues raised through course SELT surveys is made available to enrolled students through various resources (e.g. MyUni). In addition aggregated course SELT data is available.
Student Support
Policies & Guidelines
This section contains links to relevant assessment-related policies and guidelines - all university policies.
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Students are reminded that in order to maintain the academic integrity of all programs and courses, the university has a zero-tolerance approach to students offering money or significant value goods or services to any staff member who is involved in their teaching or assessment. Students offering lecturers or tutors or professional staff anything more than a small token of appreciation is totally unacceptable, in any circumstances. Staff members are obliged to report all such incidents to their supervisor/manager, who will refer them for action under the university's student’s disciplinary procedures.

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Maintained by:	Course Outlines Administrator