Linguistics 201 Midterm

Fundamental Question

What is the system of rules and mental representations that underlies our ability to speak and understand a human language?

Scientific Method

1. make a hypothesis (a possible rule system)

2. derive predictions (which expressions the rules generates)

3. check whether all generated expressions are actually used in the language *there are real expressions the rules fails to generate

4. if all predictions are false, the hypothesis is wrong. If true, hypothesis might be right

Language Acquisition

how children acquire the rules of their first language (s)

What is one way that acquiring a first language is like other instinctive behaviors?

• Uniformity across species: 

  • Instincts are shared by all typically developing members of a species (all cardinals sing, all typical humans walk)

• Emergence before necessity: 

  • Instinctive behaviors appear before they are “needed” (songbirds learn songs before mating; kids learn to walk before they must)

  • Children reach full fluency by about age 4, long before they “need” language for complex communication

• Automatic Emergence:

  • Instinctive behavior emerges automatically, not by conscious decision or special training

• Uniform Sequence of Milestones

  • Instinctive behaviors follow a predictable developmental sequence (ex, rolling -> rocking -> crawling -> walking)

  • Language: 1st language follows a standard sequence of milestones

• Impotency of Direct Teaching

  • Intrinsic behaviors do not change with explicit teaching; you can’t teach a child to walk significantly earlier

What is the name of the gene that seems to govern (first) language development?

FOXP2

voiced

vocal folds vibrate

voiceless

no vibration

bilabial

both lips

[p,b,m]

labiodental

lip and teeth

[f,v]

dental

tongue and teeth

[θ, ð] (thin, then)

alveolar

tongue and alveolar ridge

[t,d,s,z,n,l)

alveopalatal

between the alveolar ridge and palate

[ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ]

rush, rouge, chump, jump

palatal

tongue body and hard palate

[j]

Velar

tongue and velum

[k, g, ŋ (bang)]

glottal

at vocal folds

[h]

stops

total closure → release

[t]

fricatives

narrow constriction → friction

[s]

affricatives

stop + fricative combo

[tʃ] (chump)

[dʒ] (jump)

high vowel

tongue near roof

[i] “heat”

[u] “hoot”

mid vowel

[e] “hate”

[o] “hope

low vowel

[ae] “hat

[a] “hot”

front vowel

tongue forward

[i], [e], [ae]

central vowel

tongue in the middle

[ɨ], [ʌ], [ə] (roses, cut, Canada)

back vowels

tongue pulled back

[u], [o], [a]

rounded lips (puckered lips)

[u], [o], [ɔ] (caught)

unrounded

*english rounded vowels are usually back vowels

[i], [e], [ae], [a]

tense vowels

longer

tongue more raised

more muscular tension

lax vowels

shorter

more relaxed tongue

onset

beginning consonant

example: cat

k = onset

nucleus

the vowel (required)

example: ae in cat

coda

constants after the vowel

example: cat

t is coda

What are phonotactic constraints?

Phonotactic constraints are rules that determine which sound combinations are allowed in a language

How phonotactic constraints affect syllabification

• The syllibification rule must follow phonotactic constraints

• This means:

  • A constant can only become an onset if that onset is allowed in English 

Why our rule predicts ‘Onsets over Codas’

when a constant could be either:

• a coda of one syllable OR an onset of the rule syllable the rules chooses the onset,

phoneme

A phoneme is a speech sound (phone) as it is stored in memory.

example: /t/

The word top is stored as /tap/

allophone

the actual pronunciation of a sound in a word (written in square brackets)

[t^h] (aspirated t)

[t] (unaspirated t)

minimal pairs

two words that differ by exactly one sound

what minimal pairs show

two sounds are different phonemes