PD - Week 3 (09-09-26 *W) Phonological Theories and Distinctive Features

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering Distinctive Feature Theory, Generative Phonology, Natural Phonology, Sonority Theory, markedness, implicational universals, and phonological processes from clinical speech-language pathology lecture notes.

Distinctive Feature Theory

A theoretical framework that breaks down phonemes into smaller, individual sound components to distinguish one phoneme from another, utilizing binary scoring to indicate the presence or absence of specific properties.

Form and Function

The dual components of meaningful speech, where form represents the physical, motoric production of the sound and function represents the language rule or meaning; defined by the relationship $\text{Form} + \text{Function} = \text{Meaning}$.

Binary System (Distinctive Features)

A scoring convention in Distinctive Feature Theory that uses a plus sign ($+$) to denote the presence of a specific acoustic or articulatory property and a minus sign ($-$) to denote its absence.

Sonorant

A major class feature designating speech sounds produced with an open vocal tract configuration that facilitates continuous, non-turbulent airflow, including vowels, glides, liquids, and nasals.

Consonantal

A major class feature characterizing sounds produced with a true obstruction or constriction along the midline of the vocal tract, such as stops, fricatives, and affricates.

Approximant

A major class sound category characterized by an articulatory constriction that is wider than that of fricatives but narrower than that of vowels, encompassing liquids and glides.

Coronal

A cavity (place) feature designating sounds made by raising the flexible blade or tip of the tongue toward the alveolar ridge or hard palate, including alveolar consonants and [l].

Anterior

A cavity (place) feature designating sounds produced with an articulatory constriction located in the front of the oral cavity, specifically at or in front of the alveolar ridge (e.g., [m], [n], [b]).

Distributed

A cavity feature characterizing sounds formed with a constriction that extends over a relatively long sagittal area of the vocal tract (e.g., [ʃ], [s], [z]).

Continuant

A manner feature denoting sounds produced without complete, full blockage of airflow through the oral cavity, such as vowels, fricatives, liquids, and glides.

Delayed Release

A manner feature designating sounds that begin with complete closure and airflow stoppage, followed by a gradual release causing friction at the point of articulation, characteristic of affricates.

Generative Phonology

A theory of phonology stating that speech consists of an underlying deep structure governed by language-specific rules, which transforms into an observable phonetic surface structure.

Surface Representation

The phonetic form of a word representing the actual spoken production and observable performance emitted by a speaker.

Deep Structure (Phonological Representation)

The underlying, abstract mental representation stored in a speaker's language system that reflects linguistic competence and sound rules.

Competence vs. Performance

A generative grammar distinction between a speaker's underlying knowledge of phonological rules (competence/deep structure) and the actual spoken production in real communication situations (performance/surface structure).

Markedness

The concept comparing the relative difficulty, naturalness, and cross-linguistic frequency of speech sounds, categorizing them into unmarked (simple, natural) and marked (complex, rare) phonemes.

Unmarked Sounds

Sounds that are easier to articulate, develop earlier in typical acquisition, are perceived as more natural, and occur with higher frequency across world languages (e.g., [b]).

Marked Sounds

Phonemes that are motorically complex, acquire later in developmental progression, and appear less frequently across languages.

Implicational Universals

Predictive relationships observed across world languages where the presence of a more complex sound class inherently implies or predicts the co-occurrence of a less complex sound class (e.g., affricates imply fricatives, which imply plosives).

Complexity Approach

A clinical treatment paradigm based on markedness and implicational universals that prioritizes targeting later-developing, marked, and complex phonemes to stimulate broad, generalized system-wide change across simpler, untargeted sounds.

Natural Phonology

A theoretical model stating that children are born with innate, universal phonological processes to simplify adult speech targets, which are progressively altered and eliminated as speech develops.

Limitation (Natural Phonology)

A developmental mechanism in Natural Phonology whereby global substitutions and simplifications gradually narrow so they apply only to specific sounds or sound classes.

Ordering (Natural Phonology)

A developmental stage in Natural Phonology during which early, unordered, or seemingly random sound substitutions become systematically organized and regular.

Suppression (Natural Phonology)

The developmental inhibition, elimination, or abolishment of previously active phonological processes as the child masters standard adult-like speech targets.

Cluster Reduction

A syllable structure phonological process characterized by the omission or deletion of one or more consonants within a consonant sequence (e.g., producing [tæp] for [stæp]).

Reduplication

A syllable structure phonological process involving the repetition of a syllable or morpheme to simplify a word (e.g., producing [bɑbɑ] or [wɑwɑ]).

Final Consonant Deletion

A syllable structure process where the coda consonant of a syllable or word is omitted, reducing a closed syllable to an open CV structure.

Fronting

A substitution phonological process where velar or palatal sounds are replaced with consonants articulated further forward in the vocal tract, typically alveolar sounds (e.g., producing [tændi] for [kændi]).

Stopping

A substitution process in which continuous airflow consonants (fricatives or affricates) are replaced by stop plosives (e.g., producing [pɑn] for [fɑn]).

Gliding

A substitution process characterized by replacing liquid consonants ([l] or [r]) with glides ([w] or [j]) (e.g., producing [wæmp] for [læmp]).

Assimilatory Processes (Harmony)

Phonological processes where a target sound changes to become identical or more similar to an adjacent or nearby sound within the word, such as labial, velar (e.g., [gæg] for [dæg]), or liquid assimilation.

Sonority Theory

A phonological theory utilized in the complexity approach that quantifies the intrinsic acoustic loudness and vocal tract openness of speech sounds relative to other sounds, where open sounds have higher sonority and constricted sounds have lower sonority.