Undergraduate Course: Phonological Theory (LASC10088)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course introduces students to the tools and techniques of phonological analysis and familiarizes them with a wide variety of phonological phenomena in diverse languages. The focus is on theory construction and hypothesis testing, with a significant data analysis component throughout the course. |
| 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 (segments, 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.).
Over the course of the semester, students will work with scholarly literature to extract information regarding the phonological patterns of a language of their choice. The assessment will require them to present this data, offer an analysis and provide theoretically informed discussion of any issues that it raises.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 3 Linguistics/Language Sciences courses at grade B or above. These courses must have included a basic introduction to phonetics and phonology. We will only
consider University/College level courses. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of key notions of phonological analysis
- Identify and apply descriptive and theoretical tools appropriate for the presentation and analysis of phonological data
- Extract phonological information from primary and secondary sources and communicate it accurately and effectively
- Identify theoretically relevant issues raised by phonological patterns and provide informed discussion of their significance.
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Reading List
Backley, P. (2011) An Introduction to Element Theory. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
Kenstowicz, M. (1994) Phonology in Generative Grammar. Oxford: Blackwell
Odden, D. (2013) Introducing Phonology. Cambridge: CUP (2nd ed.)
Roca, I. & Johnson, W. (1999) A Course in Phonology. Oxford: Blackwell |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Pavel Iosad
Tel: (0131 6)50 3948
Email: Pavel.Iosad@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Susan Hermiston
Tel: (0131 6)50 3440
Email: Susan.Hermiston@ed.ac.uk |
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