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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2019/2020

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences : Language Sciences

Postgraduate Course: Phonological Theory and English Phonology (LASC11147)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThis course combines a consideration of some classic and contemporary issues in phonological theory with an investigation of the phonology of a number of varieties of English.
Course description What is the phonology of English? Should we even talk of 'the phonology of English', or should we talk of 'the phonologies of Englishes'? This course considers and reconsiders many of the major phonological phenomena found in varieties of English (segmental inventories, syllabic structure, realisational processes, stress and foot-based generalisations) in order to better understand them. In doing this, we will always have an eye on (i) the issues that arise when we deal with the variation that exists between the 'varieties' of a 'language', and (ii) general issues in theoretical phonology. We will thus investigate both a number of characteristics of the accents considered (mainly from England, Scotland and North America) and also a number of crucial concepts from phonological theory (opacity and rule ordering, featural phonology, extreme phonotactics, foot-structure).
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2019/20, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  None
Course Start Semester 1
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Lecture Hours 27, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 169 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) 1. Assignment = phonological analysis of a passage of English
- 40% of marks c.1000 words

2. Essay
- 60% of marks c.3000 words
Feedback Feedback will be given most weeks to hand-in non-assessed tasks.
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. explain the issues involved in the description of the phonological systems of English accents
  2. analyse key phenomena in the phonology of English using the fundamental tools of phonological theory
  3. investigate how general issues in phonological theory hold-up when confronted with a detailed investigation of data from English
  4. progress onto the study of current live research questions in English phonology and in general language-universal phonology
Reading List
Reading from texts such as the following, as advised through Learn:

Giegerich, H. J. (1992) English Phonology: an Introduction. Cambridge: CUP.
Carr, P. (2013) English Phonetics and Phonology. Second edition. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
McMahon, A. (2001) An Introduction to English Phonology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
McCully, C. (2009) The Sound Structure of English: an Introduction. Cambridge: CUP.
Harris, J. (1994) English Sound Structure. Oxford: Blackwell.
Spencer, A. (1996) Phonology. Oxford: Blackwell.
Gussenhoven, C. & Jacobs, H. (2011) Understanding Phonology. Third edition. London: Hodder.
Gussmann, E. (2002) Phonology: Analysis and Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ewen, C. & Hulst, H. van der (2001) The Phonological Structure of Words. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hammond, M. (1999) The Phonology of English: a Prosodic OT Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Objective description and analysis of empirical phenomena, critical evaluation of published analyses, essay writing
KeywordsNot entered
Contacts
Course organiserDr Patrick Honeybone
Tel: (0131 6)51 1838
Email: patrick.honeybone@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Toni Noble
Tel: (0131 6)51 3188
Email: Toni.noble@ed.ac.uk
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