Course Descriptions
Ling
213. Phonetics (undergraduate)
Study
of the physiology of speech production, and training in phonetic
transcription.
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Ling
214. Phonology (undergraduate)
“The
existence of phonology is justified by the fact that, in any particular
language, speech sounds do not pattern randomly” (Roca and
Johnson 99b, p. 13). Phonology is the study of the patterns
and systems of sounds in the languages of the world. We will consider
questions such as
- How
do we extract sound patterns from a set of data?
- What
kinds of patterns can we expect to find?
- How
can we characterize the sounds of speech so as to capture these
patterns in the languages of the world?
- How
can we best describe these patterns in a formal notation?
- How
abstract should phonology be? How far away from phonetics
can it get?
Students
will learn about the concepts and techniques of phonology as they
apply them in data analysis. Building on the foundation
of acoustic and articulatory phonetics laid down last semester,
this class will cover the basic concepts central to all phonological
theories, such as phonemes and allophones, alternation, natural
classes, syllables, distinctive features, and the relation between
abstract and surface representations. We will also cover
some central issues relating to stress, tone, and intonation.
As we examine the data, we will also delve into deeper questions
of phonological theory, such as representational issues, and rule-based
vs. constraint-based approaches.
Course Audience
All
undergraduate Linguistics majors; Language majors interested in
teaching, in translation, or in the sound systems of the languages
of the world; anyone interested in language, in data analysis,
and in problem solving.
Prerequisite
Ling
213, Phonetics. (“A reasonable grounding in articulatory
phonetics is a prerequisite for the study of phonology, for the
obvious reason that phonetics provides the substance that phonology
organizes” (Roca and Johnson 99b, p. xiii).)
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Ling
411. Articulatory Phonetics
This is a course in what
happens inside the mouth when people talk. It is also a
course in all the different sounds of the world's languages.
Students will learn about the vowels and consonants of English,
and compare them to similar sounds in other languages. The
more “exotic” sounds, such as clicks and implosives,
will be covered as well. Students will gain proficiency
in the transcription and production of all these sounds.
This course is recommended for any student who plans on collecting
and analyzing spoken data in a language other than her or his
native language. Second-language teachers will find it very
useful for
helping students with pronunciation problems. There are
no prerequisites.
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Ling
414. Acoustic Phonetics
Students will learn how to
use the tools of acoustic analysis for linguistic investigations.
Topics to be covered include the physical structure of sound waves,
the human vocal tract as a sound producing device, computer tools
for speech processing, acoustic properties of speech sounds in English
and other languages, speech recognition, and speech synthesis.
This course will emphasize practical work in the lab, and is recommended
for anyone who thinks her or his linguistic research might involving
recording and measuring speech, or anyone interested in computer
speech processing, recognition, or synthesis. No computer
or math background is required. Ling 411 (Articulatory Phonetics)
is recommended but not required.
- What are speech sounds
made of?
- How can we study them?
- How can I use acoustic
analysis to verify what I think I hear on my tapes?
- What can the study
of speech sounds tell us about the human language capacity?
- How can I make my computer
talk? How can I make it understand me?
These and other questions
about speech sounds will form the subject matter of this course.
The course will provide an introduction to the acoustic analysis
of speech, in which students will learn how to use the tools of
acoustic analysis for linguistic investigations. Topics to
be covered include:
- The physical structure
of sound waves: pendulums, pebbles, and strings
- The human vocal tract
as a sound producing device
- The human ear as a
sound registering device
- Digitization and computer
tools for speech processing
- Spectra and spectrograms
- Pitch tracking
- Acoustic properties
of speech sounds in English and other languages
- Computer speech synthesis
- Computer speech recognition
- Articulatory and acoustic
interactions: Is speech in the mouth or in the ear?
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Ling
510. Phonology and Phonetics I (graduate)
Graduate-level
introduction to the linguistic analysis of sound patterns. The
course covers the basics of articulation, transcription, contrastive
and predictable distributions (phonemes and allophones), common
segmental alternations, and suprasegmental aspects of speech (syllable
structure, stress, tone, and intonation), as well as some fundamental
principles and techniques of acoustic phonetics. Students will
learn crucial concepts and terminology and will develop problem-solving
skills. No prerequisites.
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Ling
511. Phonology and Phonetics II
Continuation of Ling 510.
Further investigation and description of linguistic sound patterns.
Building on the basics introduced in 510, the course will include
more in-depth study of patterns of contrast and alternation, emphasizing
greater empirical coverage, typological generalizations, and theories
of formal representation (distinctive features, autosegmental representations,
rules, and constraints) as well as further investigation of the
phonology-phonetics and phonology-morphology interfaces. Students
will develop greater competence in using the tools of acoustic phonetics,
will be challenged with more complex problem sets, and will have
the opportunity to develop an independent research project. Prerequisite:
Ling 510 or permission of the instructor. |
Ling
512. Phonology and Phonetics III (graduate)
Continuation
of Ling 511. Further development of phonological and phonetic
theory, with emphasis on constraint-based approaches (OT), interface
issues, and topics of current interest. Students completing the
three-course sequence will be prepared to read the primary literature
and become active participants in current phonological and phonetic
research. Prerequisite: Ling 511 or permission of the instructor.
Link
to Syllabus
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Ling
516/716. Tone and Intonation
How
do speakers use pitch changes to encode lexical and phrasal contrasts?
What kind of representation should linguists use to talk about it?
This course will provide an overview of phonological theories of
tone and intonation. Recommended not just for theoretical
linguists, but for anyone whose research may involve studying tonal
or intonational patterns. Prerequisite: Ling 511, Theoretical
Phonology I. |
Ling
515/715. Connected Speech
“jeet?”
In actual conversations between real people, pronunciations seldom
come out the same as the way they're written in the dictionary or
grammar book, yet work in phonology often deals exclusively with
citation forms and grammatical paradigms. This course will
explore phonology “beyond the paradigm”, and examine
the ways words are realized as they're strung together in “connected
speech”. Exact topics to be covered will depend on the
interests of those enrolled, but possible topics might include:
- “Casual
speech” reductions and assimilations: are we fast
talkers, lazy talkers, or what?
- When
a “word” isn't a [word]: clitics, compounds, phonological
words and other mismatches.
- Varieties
of external sandhi: Igbo vowels, Italian consonants, Sanskrit
voicing, and more.
- The
prosodic hierarchy: phonological cues to phrase and discourse
structure.
- Isochrony:
fact or fiction?
- Articulatory
Phonology: gestural approaches to cross-word assimilations
and deletions
- Settling
on “the surface”: where is post-lexical phonology
in a post-derivational world?
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Ling
612. Measuring Speech
Prepare
to push linguistic investigation beyond the tape recorder!
Interested in intonation? Consider supplementing your transcription
with acoustic analysis or electroglottography. Studying how
much language a six-month-old really understands? Learn how
flashing lights and videotape might help you figure it out.
Want to know what goes on in our brains while we read? Reaction
time studies, or even an MRI scan, might inform us. And how
do we know what the tongue is really doing during those clicks?
Try sonography, EPG, EMG, EMMA, or MRI.
This
course will survey some of the many experimental techniques available
for linguistic investigation, including those mentioned above
and more. We'll take a hands-on approach, giving students
the opportunity to try out the equipment available in the Georgetown
linguistics lab for acoustic and articulatory investigation.
The course will also feature guest lectures by prominent researchers
in the DC area, talking about their most recent experimental work.
A
previous course in Articulatory or Acoustic Phonetics is prerequisite.
Course requirements will include enthusiastic participation, bi-weekly
lab exercises for trying out experimental techniques, and the
creation of a detailed experimental design. (I hope that
at least some of these projects will eventually be carried out
as theses or research papers, but we probably won't have the time
in one semester.) Enrollment is strictly limited, so all
interested students are urged to preregister!
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Ling
711, 712, 713. Seminar in Theoretical Phonology
Readings
in the current literature. Different topics will be chosen
each time the course is offered. Recent topics have included
Probability in Phonology and Workshop
in Laboratory Phonology. Prerequisites: The three-course
phonology/phonetics sequence: Ling 510, 511, and 512. (Zsiga/Sara)
Course
Description: Probability in Phonology
Professor: Lisa Zsiga
A -› B / C __ D (?)
We tend to think of the processes
of phonology as categorical alternations that either apply or
don’t apply, depending only on whether the environment meets
the structural description or not. But what if, instead of a statement
like
+F -› -F in the context
of C
the truth were nearer to
+F -› -F in the context
of C (about 94% of the time)
or even
the strength of F decreases
somewhat the nearer it is to C, for some of the speakers some
of the time.
This seminar will examine some
recent theories of phonology that take such possibilities seriously.
Topics to be covered will depend (to some extent) on the interests
of the participants, but will (probably) include:
- A non-technical introduction
to probability theory, for those of us who weren’t math
majors.
- Probability in the lexicon.
Are forms really grammatical and ungrammatical, or just likely
and unlikely?
- Probability in application.
What if a process applies only some of the time? How seriously
should we take exceptions? What factors (register, dialect,
chance) influence the odds of application? How can phonological
theory handle such variation?
- Probability in inventories.
What can variations in “salience” and “stability”
tell us about how languages choose the segments and structures
that make up their words? What makes an inventory likely or
unlikely, marked or unmarked? Should phonology care about what’s
likely, or only about what’s possible?
- Percentages vs. categories.
Is there really any such thing as phonological categories, such
as plus and minus values of distinctive features? Or only more
or less of certain articulatory and perceptual properties? Could
you do phonology without features?
- Probability in perception
and recognition. Given the variability in the signal, how does
human speech perception work? Why aren’t computers better
at it?
Audience for the course: any
graduate students interested in the above questions.
Course
Description: Workshop in Laboratory Phonology
Professor: Lisa Zsiga
Forthcoming
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