Course Description

Phonology is the study of how speech sounds pattern and contrast. How do we know that ‘gdin’ is not a possible English word but ‘krin’ is? What does it take to recognize a foreign accent? How can sound systems of languages differ, what do all languages have in common, and what are the sorts of patterns not found in any human language? To answer these questions, we will focus on such concepts as natural classes and syllable structure, and we will look at the role these concepts play in the most common phonological processes in the world’s languages. The course will also include a basic introduction to the phonology of stress. Analytical skills will be honed by solving phonological problems based on data from English and many other languages. 

Area Tags: Phonology

(Sessions 1 & 2) Tuesday/Friday 1:30pm – 2:50pm

Location: ILC S405

Instructor: Juliet Stanton

Juliet Stanton is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at New York University. She received her PhD in Linguistics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her thesis investigated the distribution of nasal-stop sequences. Her interests are in phonological typology, the phonetics-phonology interface, rhythmic phenomena, and computational methods.