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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 (LASC11148)

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 introduces students to the most important theoretical concepts in phonology, offers practice in the tools and techniques of phonological analysis and familiarizes them with a broad range of phonological phenomena in diverse languages. The focus is on theory construction and hypothesis testing, with a significant data analysis component.
Course description This course familiarises students with the diversity of sound patterns found in human language and equips them with the representational and computational tools necessary to analyse these patterns. Building on concepts such as phonemes and distinctive features, students will become familiar with architecture of generative phonology (the notion of phonological computation, underlying and surface representations) and elements of phonological analysis (segmental phonology, various approaches to featural structure including models of feature geometry, syllabic, moraic and foot structure, stress, tone etc.). The course uses data from a broad range of typologically diverse languages to make students aware of the range of cross-linguistic variation in phonology, introduce relevant analytical concepts, and provide training in their use for phonological analysis. Students will also become familiar with some key questions bearing on the interaction of phonology with other components of the language faculty and with important theoretical controversies (markedness, abstractness, phonological and phonetic representations etc.).
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Students MUST NOT also be taking Phonological Theory and English Phonology (LASC11147)
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 18, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 9, Summative Assessment Hours 10, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 159 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) 100% coursework (final essay)
Feedback Students will be provided with weekly formative feedback activities to be completed on Learn.

There will be a practical / tutorial every week, where students will be able to receive feedback on the data analysis work they will be completing throughout the semester.

PG students will be offered one-on-one consultation to discuss their assignment.
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. explain key notions of phonological analysis in a variety of frameworks
  2. apply appropriate descriptive and analytical tools for the analysis of phonological data
  3. discuss how a particular phonological phenomenon is relevant to general theoretical issues, whether it presents specific challenges to theoretical frameworks and how these challenges might be resolved
  4. systematically describe and analyse a fragment of the phonological grammar of an individual language, noting the theoretical repercussions of their analysis
  5. progress to advanced study of current research issues in phonological theory
Reading List
None
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Objective description and analysis of empirical phenomena, critical evaluation of published analyses, essay writing
KeywordsPhonology,Linguistic Theory
Contacts
Course organiserDr Pavel Iosad
Tel: (0131 6)50 3948
Email: Pavel.Iosad@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Toni Noble
Tel: (0131 6)51 3188
Email: Toni.noble@ed.ac.uk
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