Today’s Plan

• Introductions

• Syllabus and Canvas

• What is phonology?

• What are the learning goals?

• How will we accomplish them?

Introductions

Dr. Will Styler

Instructor, Linguist, Gigantic Nerd

Kati Hout

TA, Linguist

Michael Obiri-Yeboah

TA, Linguist

Who are you?

• What’s your year?

• Ling majors?

• Monolingual/Bilingual/Multilingual?

• What languages do we speak?

Syllabus and Schedule

http://savethevowels.org/111

Syllabus Stuff which bears repeating

Office Hours Schedule

• FIXME

Syllabus Stuff which bears repeating

• Check your email/Canvas

• Come to office hours.

• The syllabus will change a lot!

• We are here to help!

Canvas

We’re moving to Canvas!

• This will replace TritonEd within a few years

• This is a pilot program

• Let’s take a look!

What is this course about?

Phonology

The study of how sounds pattern in Language and languages

Within-Language Phonological Questions

• What sounds differentiate words? (Phonemic Analysis)

  • … and what do speakers hear as being “the same sound”?

• How do speakers tend to group sounds together? (Natural Classes)

• How do sounds change when combined together? (Phonological Alternations)

• What combinations are “legal” in the language? (Phonotactics)

• How are syllables formed and what kinds of syllables does the language prefer? (Syllable Structure)

• How do we assign stress, pitch, and emphasis? (Metrical Phonology)

Phonological Theory Questions

• What patterns of sound patterns are more and less common around the world?

• How should we model the sound patterns we see in language?

  • Are we using rules that transform ‘underlying’ sounds into one another?

  • Are we choosing a form among many which does the fewest things we don’t like?

  • Are we just remembering the words we’ve heard said before, and doing the rest from analogy?

• How do these various approaches handle real data from real languages?

  • Do they predict all the things that really happen?

  • Do they predict crazy things that never happen?

  • How do they account for exceptions and other weird data?

Phonological Theory, Continued

• How are words represented in our minds? As Phonemes? Phones? Words?

• What information plays a role in our phonological decision making?

• How do we actually make these decisions?

• Can we model phonological decisions using computers or other algorithms?

• Do these theories describe what’s happening inside the human mind?

  • Or are they just a tool for describing language?

Phonology is not the same thing as phonetics

• Phoneticians are more concerned with the physical processes of speech

• Articulation, Perception, and the cognitive processes underlying both

• Phonologists are more concerned with the patterns of sound structure in different languages

• Markedness, phonotactics, rules, and cross-linguistic patterns

• We’ll talk about the intersection later in the quarter

Phonology is a fascinating theoretical field

• Several long theoretical traditions, which we’ll touch on

• Vigorous debate about best practices

  • Not a clear “right answer”

• Vigorous debate about the cognitive realities

• Vigorous debate about the exact nature of the field

• We’re going to touch on theoretical questions throughout the quarter

Phonology is absolutely crucial to getting linguistic work done

• Phonetics offers you a series of ordered phones

• Phones are well and good, but they’re hugely variable

You need to account for this variability

• … or else your life is going to be awful

That’s what we’re going to do here

This course is about solving phonological problems

In 10 weeks, you will look at a phonological problem and…

• Know that it’s a phonological problem

  • Identify what’s changing or unexpected

• Understand how to start looking at and characterizing it

• Use tools from this class to break it down

• Describe the pattern, and form a coherent analysis

• Describe the pattern, and form a graceful analysis

… and failing that…

• You’ll now that you’ve still got a problem

  • … and that you’ll need to go deeper still

We’ll give you theoretical tools that will help

… and we’ll talk about the strengths and weaknesses of these tools

• As well as some alternative approaches

• Because that’s a LOT of fun

There are two main goals

• 1) Give you enough phonological knowledge to move past many phonological problems

• 2) Show you why phonology is an interesting and worthwhile field to spend your life in

How are we going to accomplish these goals?

Two ways of applying data to your brain

• In-class problem-sets

• Homework assignments

In-class problem sets

• Designed to give you a chance to work with actual data

• We’ll be here to help

• You’ll also get to help your classmates

  • This a part of the learning process

• Pick a group you want to work with

  • Feel free to float around.

Homework problem sets

• These let you work on problems on your own

• These give us a chance to evaluate your work

• You can discuss these with your classmates

  • But you need to write up your own work, and mention who you’ve collaborated with

We’ll also have in-class discussions, and readings

• Those will help too

• Check the syllabus and watch the lectures for new reading announcements

The data are the learning

• So, don’t be surprised if we’re spending a lot of time there.

One thing I’d like to address…

“Group work!? Noooooo!!!!!”

Why do group work?

• Wider range of information

• Groups stimulate creativity and alternate solutions

• Discussing topics helps cement learning

• It helps you be involved in decision-making

• You’re gonna do group work for the rest of your life

What’re the downsides?

• Conformity pressure

• Differing skill and preparation levels

• It takes more time!

Differences among group members is a feature not a bug

• Students who are ahead of the game get to teach

• Students who in the middle get to mix things up

• Students who are struggling get to learn

• Always propose alternatives

How are we going to work this?

• Groups are done by seating

  • … but we’ll mix it up from time to time

• We’ll always be wandering

  • Sometimes providing feedback to small groups, sometimes cutting in to talk to all

• Groups will have a spokesperson

  • You’re welcome to change that around a bit

• You’ll turn in your group information at the end of class

We’re trying new things here

• LIGN 111 hasn’t been taught quite like this

• Mistakes will be made, optimizations will be made

• The schedule will change (except due dates)

• DO NOT PRINT THE SYLLABUS

This quarter…

• We’ll offer you tools to address phonological problems

• We’ll give you a chance to use them

• We’ll discuss why the tools look like they do

• … but most of all …

We’ll show you that Phonology’s a Phon place to spend your time!

For Next Time

• Come to class ready to phonologize!

• We’ll start thinking about why we tackle these problems in the ways that we do

Thank you!