Glossary: morphology and phonology

See fundamental frequency.

See formant.

See formant.

Faithfulness constraints (in Optimality Theory) encode the tendency to change as little as possible to the input: it is best (e.g. for word recognition) not to insert any segment, not to delete any segment, not to switch segments around, not to assimilate, not to coalesce, etc. If this does happen, there must be a markedness constraint triggering this. Related to correpondence, e.g. base-reduplicant correspondence.

Also called 'ventricular folds'. The false vocal folds form a second constriction, just above the true vocal folds. When the true vocal folds do not function properly (as in some pathological voices), the false vocal folds may be caused to vibrate.

See phonological features.

Refers to a number of theories that argue that distinctive features are organized hierarchically, i.e. in a tree structure.

In gender systems, one of the genders (cf. masculine, neuter).

In a person system, referring to the speaker, or including the speaker.

A language where the position of the primary stress is the same for the vast majority of words. For example, Polish is a fixed stress language because nearly all words have primary stress on the penultimate syllable.

A consonant produced by rapidly striking one articulator with another. Flaps are usually produced with the tongue.

A tone which is not associated with a segment.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, see Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

Indicates prominent or new information in a sentence or discourse.

A process by which the form of a word is altered to make it resemble a word or words which are better known and with which speakers may believe the word has a semantic relationship. For example, English cockroach comes from Spanish cucaracha. The term also refers to speculative or false etymologies based on superficial resemblance between forms.

A unit of (usually) two syllables, one of which is stressed (the 'head' or 'strong' syllable) and one of which is unstressed (the 'dependent' or 'weak' syllable). See also iamb, trochee, which are the most typical foot types.

Resonant frequency of the vocal tract. The formants correspond to the peaks in the envelope of the spectrum. That is, low vowels have a relatively high F1 (compared to non-low vowels), and front vowels have a relatively high F2 (compared to non-front vowels). F0 corresponds to pitch.

'Fortis' is a term used for voiceless consonants. They are strongly articulated, and sometimes aspirated (cf. lenis consonants).

A phonological proess, the opposite of lenition, which involves a change from a weaker sound to a stronger one that has a more radical obstruction to airflow. An example is the change of fricative to a stop e.g. after a nasal consonant. Also called hardening.

A morpheme that can stand alone and/or whose position is not entirely fixed by neighboring elements, e.g., berry.

See variable stress.

A pair of pronunciations, either of which can be used: the choice is not governed by grammatical factors.

Rate of repetition of a (semi-)periodic function. Frequency is measured in Hertz (Hz; 1000 Hz=1 kHz). 1 Hz is one cycle per second, so, if, for instance, a periodic waveform repeats 100 cycles per second, its frequency is 100 Hz. Compare word frequency.

A sound produced by forcing air through a narrow constriction, which creates turbulence, resulting in audible friction noise. Examples of fricatives are [f s x].

An older term for median approximant.

A vowel formed with the tongue horizontally positioned in front of the space for vowel articulation, closest to the mouth opening.

A word, such as a determiner, conjunction, or modal, that has a grammatical function and is best characterized by this function. Contrasts with content word.

The rate of vibration of the vocal folds. Also called F0.

Characterized by the combination of two or more morphosyntactic features in a single morpheme; adjective applied to morphological systems where this type of morphology is pervasive.

In tense systems, a tense that expresses the meaning ‘occurring later than the moment of speech’.