Glossary: morphology and phonology

Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet, a computer-readable phonetic script using common ASCII characters, based on the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

The frequency at which samples are taken from a waveform for the purposes of digitising speech. For example, a sample rate of 44,100 Hz (which corresponds to CD quality) means that each second of a waveform is represented by 44,100 equally spaced samples.

Assimilation at word boundaries (see also tone sandhi).

The unrounded, mid, central vowel that corresponds to the unstressed vowel in words like English police. In many languages this vowel fulfills the role of a default and/or hesitation vowel.

In a person system, referring to the addressee(s).

Affixes that do not trigger the types of changes in the stem associated with primary affixes. They typically occur farther away from the stem than primary affixes.

A constriction of the vocal tract that takes place at the same time as a narrower constriction elsewhere. Dark l is an example: this sound has a primary articulation at the alveolar ridge, where the tongue tip makes a full contact. Raising of the tongue towards the soft palate is a narrowing, which makes it a phonetically secondary articulation.

See stress.

A segment is any consonant or vowel. The term is a (theory-neutral) alternative for the concept of phoneme.

The branch of linguistics that deals with meaning in human language.

Semivowels (or glides) are the consonantal realizations of vowels. Only the high vowels (i, u and sometimes y) can be realized as semivowels, i.e. as j, w and h. Many languages show productive alternations between i and j, u and w, i.e. when the vowel /i/ occurs outside the nucleus of the syllable (e.g. because of morphology), it is relaised as /j/.

A vowel of relatively short duration when compared to a vowel of similar or identical quality in the same vowel system.

A speech sound in which there is high-amplitude, turbulent noise, as in English [ s ] and [ ∫ ] in sip and ship.

A word that is not morphologically complex, i.e., one that has not been formed by any process such as affixation, ablaut, etc.

A waveform with a simple shapeand a single constant frequency and constant amplitude.

See number.

The soft, movable part of the palate at the back of the mouth.

The natural class of nasals, liquids and glides (including taps, flaps, trills, approximants). Sonorants are usually voiced, and are thus the opposite of obstruents.

The loudness of a sound relative to that of other sounds with the same length, stress, and pitch.

A continuous analytic display of acoustic properties of sound over time, showing which frequencies are emphasized at each moment.

A display of the amplitude of sound at all frequencies, taken at a single point in time.

The phenomenon that a stop changes into the corresponding fricative.

A hypothesis about the architecture of the linguistic system according to which morphology is divided between two grammatical components: word-formation rules apply before syntactic rules, whereas inflectional rules apply after syntactic rules.

A verb with the semantic property of referring to a state of existence, rather than a physical action (e.g. be is a stative verb in English).

The part of a word to which inflections attach.

In psycholinguistics, a test item presented to a participant during the course of an experiment. Plural: stimuli.

A sound where the flow of air is completely obstructed. Stops may be nasal stops (such as [n]) or oral stops (such as [t]).

A form of prosodic prominence typically associated with greater length, greater loudness and higher pitch within the syllable. In many languages, there is more than one degree of stress. For example, in the English word international there is primary stress on the third syllable and secondary stress on the first syllable.

A phonological rule or morphological operation which involves changing the syllable in a word which carries primary stress.

Languages in which the time intervals between stressed vowels are roughly equal, e.g. English (cf. syllable-timed languages).

The form in which a word is pronounced when it is stressed. This term is usually applied only to words that normally occur unstressed and then are pronounced in their weak form, such as English to, a.

The property of phonological rules that outputs are modified to preserve the nature of underlying forms, especially in terms of what phonemes exist in the language.

A type of base modification that consists of deleting a segment (or more than a segment) from the base.

An affix that is attached to the end of its base.

In degree systems, the degree with the meaning ‘having the highest degree, most’.

The replacement of a form that is missing from an inflectional paradigm by one with a different root, e.g., went (exists alongside go, goes, going, gone). Thought, caught exemplify partial suppletion because, synchronically, their roots are significantly but not completely different from think and catch.

Phonetic features such as stress, length, tone, and intonation, which are not a property of single consonants or vowels.

A word-form as it is actually pronounced by speakers; a form derived from an underlying representation by (morpho)phonological rules.

A writing system where the symbols that are used represent whole syllables, rather than individual consonants or vowels on the one hand, or whole words on the other. Japanese and Cherokee use this kind of writing system.

Of a speech sound, forming the nucleus of a syllable. In many languages vowels are the only syllabic sounds, but in some languages consonants, mainly sonorants, can also be used as syllabic sounds.

A unit of speech claimed to be relevant for the organization of words, a grouping of consonants and vowels into a C₀V₁C₀ constituent.

See weight.

Languages in which the duration of syllables shows relatively little variation, for instance because vowels are not likely to be reduced or because the onsets and codas of syllables are relatively uniform, e.g. Spanish or French (cf. stress-timed languages).

Having to do with language at a given point in time (cf. diachronic).

Deletion of a vowel in a medial syllable, especially in a fashion that affects alternating syllables. E.g. the medial vowel in English chocolate is subject to syncope.

Said to occur when a single inflected form corresponds to more than one set of morphosyntactic features.

The branch of linguistics that deals with phrase and sentence formation; the mental system that underlies phrase and sentence formation.

A language whose words usually contain more than one morpheme.

An electronic simulation of speech.