English
326: Laboratory Phonology
Instructor:
Dr. Ela Thurgood
Office:
Taylor 119 Office hours:MW:
11—12:30, MW: 1:45—2:45, &
by arrangement
The aim of the course is to provide the student with practical analytical skills and a matching conceptual framework in the field of phonetics and phonology, with special reference to speech perception and production. Phonetics and phonology will be integrated in our discussions of first language acquisition, second language acquisition, American English dialects, and experimental measurement of speech differences. In the course of this undertaking we will learn to utilize computers, speech synthesis software, spectrographic equipment like Macquirer, digital recorders and so on. We will design and run pilot experiments and research projects. We will examine methods of doing acoustic analysis including spectrograms, pitch tracks, and waveforms.
You will need a consultant (either a non-native speaker of English or a speaker of a different dialect of American English). In most cases, your consultant will have to come to the phonology lab 3-4 times for short recording sessions. In other words, be prepared to spend some time in the phonology lab.
(1) textbook
Ray D. Kent and Charles Read.
1992. The Acoustic Analysis of Speech. San Diego,
London: Singular
Publishing Group, INC.
(2) articles and book chapters
Ladefoged, Peter. 2000. Acoustic phonetics. A Course in Phonetics. Pages 161-197.
Fujimura Osamu and Donna Erickson. 1997. Acoustic phonetics. The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences, ed. by William J. Hardcastle and John Laver. Blackwell Publishers. Pages 65-115.
Aoyama, Katsura. 1998/99. The acquisition of quantity contrast in nasal consonants: children's production. Working Papers in Linguistics. University of Hawaii, 21-30.
Denton, Jeannette M. 1999. Phonetic motivation for consonant gemination: evidence from Greek, Romance, and Germanic. ICPhS, San Francisco.
Lobacz, Piotra. 2000. The Polish rhotic. A preliminary study in acoustic variability and invariance. Speech and Language Technology, 4: 85-101.
Kawasaki, Haruko. 1986. Phonetic explanation for phonological universals: The case of distinctive vowel nasalization. Experimental Phonology, ed. by J. J. Ohala and J. J. Jaeger. Pages 239-252. Orlando Fl.: Academic Press.
Maddieson, Ian. 1985. Phonetic cues to syllabification. Phonetic Linguistics, 203-221.
Pols, L. C. W. and M. E. H. Schouten. 1978. Identification of deleted consonants. Acoustical Society of America, 64: 1333-1337.
Lehiste, Ilse. 1972. The timing of utterances and linguistic boundaries. Acoustical Society of America, 51: 2018-2024.
Hirschberg, Julia and Jacques Terken. 1994. Deaccentuation of words representing giveninformation: effects of persistence of grammatical function and surface position. Language and Speech, 37: 125-145.
revised (October 3, 2001)
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING
Summaries: There will be six one-page summaries. Each summary is worth 10 points.
Laboratory exercises: There will be four laboratory exercises. You will have to record yourself and your consultant. You will work on your data in the class. Each lab exercise is worth 10 points. Please, bring your own IOMEGA ZIP for Macintosh. (40 points)
Presentations: There will be three in-class presentations. Each presentation (and the written part) is worth 20 points. (60 points)
Presentation 1: Your research questions,
predictions, methodology (typed 2 pages)
Presentation 2: Your bibliography ready, one paper presented (with
a written summary).
Presentation 3: Final project
Final paper: (50 points)
The final paper for this course represents your semester work. It is based on your three presentations.
I strongly encourage you to come and talk to me about your project as soon as you start to have ideas that you want to pursue.
Attendance:
You are expected to attend the class regularly and to participate in class discussion. Students begin the semester with 50 attendance points. For each absence 5 points are lost.
There are 260 points possible.
260—235 (A)
234—209 (B)
208—182 (C)
181—157 (D)
below 156 (F)
Fall 2001. ENGL. 325 Laboratory Phonology. Schedule. This is a once-a week-class, and so it requires good planning on your part. For example: it is too late to start working on your Monday class on Monday or even late on Sunday. For each class you have (a) to know the material covered during the previous week, (b) be ready to take a quiz, and (c) be prepared to participate in discussion; further, you have to write a one-page summary of an assigned article; and, you also have to be ready for a phonology lab exercise. As semester progresses, you will devote more time on working on your project , that is, asking research questions, working on methodology, recording yourself, recording your consultant, organizing your data in patterns.
August 27 Introduction. How to write a good summary of an article.Presentation: Sara Plummer The acoustic basis of perceived dialectal difference: The study of one American between dialects. Kent/Read (Chapter 2).
September 3 Labor Day
September 10 Summary 1 due: Aoyama, Katsura (1998/99). The acquisition of quantity contrast in nasal consonants. Kent/Read (Chapters 3 and 4). Phonology Lab 1- introduction
September 17 Summary 2 due: Denton, Jeannette M. 1999. Phonetic motivation for consonant gemination: evidence from Greek, Romance, and Germanic.Kent/Read (Chapter 6: The acoustic characteristics of consonants). Phonology Lab 2—practice exercise
September 24 Summary 3 due: Lobacz, Piotra. 2000. The Polish rhotic. A preliminary study in acoustic variability and invariance. The acoustic characteristics of consonants—cont. (Fujimura Osamu and Donna Erickson and Ladefoged). Phonology Lab 3—practice exercise
October 1 Summary 4 due: Pols and Schouten. 1978. Identification of deleted consonants. Kent/Read (Chapter 5: The acoustic characteristics of vowels and diphthongs). Phonology Lab 4 —your data analysis
October 8 Summary 5 due: Kawasaki, Haruko. 1986. Phonetic explanation for phonological universals: The case of distinctive vowel nasalization. The acoustic characteristics of vowels—cont. (Fujimura Osamu and Donna Erickson and Ladefoged). Phonology Lab 5 —your data analysis
October 15 Kent/Read (Chapter 7: The acoustic effects of context and speaker). Phonology Lab 1 Assignment due.
October 22 Maddieson, Ian. 1985. Phonetic cues to syllabification. Phonology Lab 2 Assignment due.
October 29 Presentation 1: Research questions, predictions, methodology (2 pages). Kent/Read (Chapter 8: Speech synthesis)
November 5 Lehiste, Ilse. 1972. The timing of utterances and linguistic boundaries. Phonology Lab 3 Assignment due.
November 12 Presentation 2: Bibliography ready, one paper presented (+a summary)
November 22-26 Thanksgiving
November 26 Hirschberg, Julia and Jacques Terken. 1994. Deaccentuation of words representing given information: effects of persistence of grammatical function and surface position. Phonology Lab 4 Assignment due.
December 3 PRESENTATION 3
December 10 PRESENTATION 3