Phonology

SL2AY031

This course aims to help you acquire a solid understanding of a subset of the problems addressed in theoretical phonology over the last fifty years, to give an overview of the proposed solutions, and to develop a solid mastery of some important formalisms. At the end of the course, it should be relatively easy for you to give an explicit and formal analysis of new data such as those seen in class, to express their potential relevance to our understanding of phonological cognition, and the challenges they pose to certain theoretical ideas, based on a thorough understanding of the theories discussed in class.

1. The foundations of modern phonological theory: Chomsky, N. & M. Halle. 1968. The sound pattern of English and its predecessors
2. Goldsmith, J. 1976. Autosegmental phonology
3. The phonetics-phonology interface
4. The treatment of linguistic/sociolinguistic variation (Labov)
5. Metrical phonology (Hayes)