This course will include the phonetics component if that material will not be covered in Phonology C.
This is the first (A) or second (B) of a three-quarter graduate sequence in phonolgy, focusing (when I teach it) on segmental phonology. Topics covered include markedness and markedness theories, contrast, accounts for assimilations, dissimilations, neutralizations, phonology-morphology interactions, and derivational opacity. All of this occurs in the context of a general introduction to Optimality Theory, and some probing into the status of formal versus functional phonetic explanations (an important issue in phonology today). Some knowledge of phonology is presupposed.
Phonetics component (roughly 5 weeks): consists of an intensive introduction to advanced (especially acoustic) phonetics, to 'laboratory phonology' (the use of phonetic studies to address phonological questions) and to phonetic theories purporting to explain phonological facts. It presupposes the sort of knowledge of phonetics you might have after a course based on Ladefoged's 'A Course in Phonetics'. Students will do weekly laboratory assignments involving the instrumental analysis of speech.
Prerequisites: Graduate student status or consent of instructor
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Last modified December 23, 2008.