LING 450/550, Introduction to Phonology
Spring 2000, MWF 9:00-9:50

Course Staff:
Prof. Doris Payne, 253 Straub Hall, 346-3894, dlpayne@oregon.uoregon.edu
    Office hours: W 14:00-15:00 and by appointment

GTF:  Alejandra Vidal, 240 Straub,  avidal@oregon.uoregon.edu
    Office hours: Thursday 10:00-11:00 and by appointment

Course materials:  Items 1 & 2 will be in the bookstore.  Item 3 is on reserve in the Knight Library.
1. Gussenhoven, Carlos and Haike Jacobs.  1998.  Understanding Phonology. London:  Arnold.
2. Halle, Morris and G. N. Clements.  1983.  Problem Book in Phonology.  Cambridge, MA:  MIT Press.
3.  Burquest, Donald.  1998.  Phonological Analysis: A Functional Approach (2nd edition).  Dallas:  Summer Institute of Linguistics.
   [Assigned chapters on reserve in the Knight Library]

Course goals:  (1) Master basic concepts in phonology, including phonemes, allophones, elements of prosody, syllables, why allomorphs exist; phonological analysis. (2) Understand selected theoretical issues at an introductory level including constraint versus derivational approaches, lexical phonology, autosegmental phonology, metrical phonology.

Course requirements:  (1) Daily class attendance, including discussion sections. (2) Weekly homework, generally due Mondays. No late homework will be accepted. You may work together on the homework, but you must write it up yourself to turn in. (3) Midterm (Take-home).   (4) Final (Take-home).  You may NOT work together on the midterm and final exams.  (5) LING 550:  A short paper, due May 26.

Course Schedule

Grading:
LING 450:     Homework (8 assignments):  25% *  Midterm: 35% *  Final: 40%
LING 550:     Homework (8 assignments):  15% *  Midterm: 35% *  Final: 35% *  Paper: 15%

Paper:  Collect data (about 100 words) from a non-native speaker of English who has an "accent", using a narrow phonetic transcription.  Their first language needs to be one for which you can find a good written phonology, with good description of phonetics, phonology, syllable, and word structure patterns.  Write a short paper describing the rules and/or constraints needed to account for their pronunciation of the English words.
 Homework grading: Each homework assignment will receive a score as follows (incomplete assignments will be given partial credit only)
 5     Excellent on all problems: clear, concise, to the point, correct
 4     Very good: got the point, included what was necessary
 3     Satisfactory, came close to getting the point
 2     Got the basic idea but not developed correctly
 1     Wrote something that made sense, but didn’t have much to do with the problem.
 0     Not handed in
          The total homework grade will be determined according to the following scale:
    Less than 7 points: F
    7-8   D-    9-11  D    12-15 D+
    16-18 C-    19-22 C    23-25 C+
    26-28 B-    29-31 B    32-34 B+
    35-37 A-    38-40 A

Course schedule: (GJ = Gussenhoven & Jacobs.  B = Burquest).  Homework is due on Mondays except for Week 10.

WEEK  TOPIC                             READING                HOMEWORK
Wk 1
3/27  What is phonology?                GJ Ch 2; B 2:45-51
      Phonological Typology
3/29  Phonemics & phonemes              B 2:31-34, 37-45,
      phonetically similar sounds          51-70
3/31  Contrast                          B 2:34-37
:
Wk 2
4/3   CD based on contiguous sounds     B 4                     HC 39; B P3, P9,
4/5   CD based on syllable structure    B 5                      P12 Gbeya, Ejagham
4/7   CD based on stress/phrase         B 6

Wk 3
4/10  Syllable structures               GJ 3                    HC 45, 47, 63
4/12  Derivational approach (Generative Phonology)
4/14  Constraint approach (Optimality Theory)

Wk 4
4/17  Underlying forms: why?            GJ 4, B3                GJ 43; HC 49 (Ewe),
4/19                                                              73, 81-83
4/21

Wk 5
4/24  Distinctive features & formal     GJ 5                    HC 85 & 97; GJ 63
        rule writing
4/26                                                            MIDTERM distributed
4/28

Wk 6  Revised May 1, 2000:
5/1   Ordered rules                     GJ 6                    MIDTERM due
5/3
5/5   Levels of representation          GJ 8
        (Lexical phonology)

Wk 7
5/8                                                             HC 115, 125, 131-3
5/10  Tone (Autosegmental phonology)    GJ 9
5/12

Wk 8
5/15  Vowel harmony                     GJ 12.1-2               GJ 126; HC 177, 179
5/17  Nasal spreading
5/19  More syllable issues              GJ 10.1-3

Wk 9
5/22  The CV tier                       GJ 10.4                 HC 183-185, Maasai
5/24  Moras                             GJ 10.5-8
5/26                                                            Ling 550 paper due

Wk 10
5/29  MEMORIAL DAY                                              HC 175; Yagua
                                                                HOMEWORK DUE TUESDAY May 30
5/31  Stress (Metrical phonology)       GJ 13
6/2                                                             Final exam distributed

Wk 11 FINAL EXAM DUE Thursday June 8, 10:15