Study Sheet for Test #1
Chapter 1:
phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics
competence vs. performance
speech communication chain (a somewhat useful fiction) [Conduit
Metaphor]
3 meanings of the word grammar:
mental grammar
descriptive grammar
prescriptive grammar
Give an example of a
"grammar
rule," that is, something you have learned to avoid. Why should
one
avoid this "error"?
3 kinds of signs:
arbitrary (symbol)
iconic (icon, somewhat arbitrary or
conventionalized, based on resemblance)
non-arbitrary (index, natural sign, based on
co-occurrence)
In a recent essay, Suzuki, Buck, and Tyack described the complex songs of the humpback whale produced during the breeding season:
| Humpback songs consist of a sequence of discrete sound elements, called units, that are separated by silence. Each song contains a complicated series of more than 12 different units.... A song is a sequence of themes, where a theme consists of a phrase, or very similar phrases, repeated several times. A phrase is a sequence of several units. The song is repeated many times with considerable accuracy to make a song session. The reported range of song duration is from 6 to 35 minutes. Winn and Winn (1978) also reported the maximum duration of observed song sessions to be 22 h.... | All whales in a population are singing the same or very similar songs at a given time, although whales within hearing range do not coordinate to sing the same part of the song at the same time. The songs within a population gradually change over time, so that after several singing seasons few elements of the song have been preserved (Payne et al., 1983). Several reviewers believe that the speed and pervasiveness of this change indicates that singing whales must learn each sound unit and the sequence order that make up a full song (Janik and Slater, 1997; Tyack and Sayigh, 1997). |
In a brief essay, use some of the design features of language to evaluate how similar the songs of the humpback whale are to human linguistic communication (you don’t have enough information to use all of the design features–just pick out two or three).
Chapter 2: Phonetics
articulatory, acoustic, auditory (p. 38)
source-filter theory (15.1.3, p. 588)
syllable structure: [sigma] = onset + rime; rime = nucleus + coda;
onsets and codas are optional
Identify IPA symbols by sound and by articulatory description
(like
quizzes, from memory)
Don't forget the Spanish consonants and the French vowels
Identify the parts of the vocal tract on a diagram (p. 49)
Identify the different places and manners of articulation
Understand how articulation manners differ from one another.
What is the difference between consonants and vowels?
What is the difference between a flap and a trill (not in
textbook--single contact vs. rapid vibration of tongue)?
What do we mean by a "reduced" vowel?
nasalization
coarticulation (p. 52)
dipthongs (p. 56)