Linguistics ex 2

Phonotactic constraints

Restrictions on the possible combinations of sounds in a language.

Sources of a foreign accent

Differences in phonetic inventories and phonotactic constraints between a speaker’s native language and a new language.

Distribution of sounds

The set of phonetic environments in which a sound occurs.

Two levels of the phonological system

The distinction between the phonemic level (abstract mental representations) and the phonetic level (actual spoken realizations).

Phonemes

Mental categories of sounds that can distinguish meaning in a language.

Allophones

Noncontrastive phonetic variants of the same phoneme that do not change meaning.

Contrastive distribution

The occurrence of sounds in the same environment where they distinguish meaning, indicating different phonemes.

Complementary distribution

The occurrence of sounds in different, non-overlapping environments where they are predictable, indicating allophones.

Free variation

The occurrence of sounds in the same environment without a change in meaning, allowing optional pronunciation.

Natural classes of sounds

Groups of sounds that share one or more phonetic features, such as voicing, place, or manner of articulation.

Assimilation (general)

A process in which a sound becomes more like a nearby sound in one or more features.

Nasal assimilation

A type of assimilation where a nasal sound changes its place of articulation to match a following consonant.

Dissimilation

A process in which two similar sounds become less alike in a given environment.

Insertion

A phonological process in which a sound is added that was not present in the underlying form.

Deletion

A phonological process in which a sound is removed from the underlying form in certain environments.

Metathesis

A process in which two sounds switch positions within a word.

Strengthening (fortition)

A process in which a sound becomes more constricted or 'stronger' in articulation.

Weakening (lenition)

A process in which a sound becomes less constricted or 'weaker' in articulation.

Morphology

The study of the internal structure of words and how they are formed from morphemes.

Words in linguistics

A word is a unit made up of one or more morphemes that functions as a single element in syntax.

Lexical categories

Classes of words grouped by their grammatical function and meaning.

Morphemes and their types

Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning, classified into different types based on function and structure.

Affixation

The process of adding prefixes or suffixes to a root or stem.

Compounding

The process of combining two or more independent words to form a new word.

Reduplication

The process of repeating all or part of a word to modify its meaning.

Allomorphs

Different phonetic forms of the same morpheme that occur in different environments but have the same meaning.