Learning outcomes
The course aims at a greater competence in the field of phonetics and phonology. On one hand topics taken into account will be thoroughly examined as far as concerns differences between autonomous phonemics (structuralist phonology) and generative phonology, on the other more specific themes such as the study of tonology (tonal languages), sentence intonation, syllabic stuctures, accent theory, historical phonetics or new explicative theories could be dealt with.
Course contents
Subject of the course: A critical approach to the fundamental principles of phonology (distinctive feature theory and phonological analysis) with elements of history of phonetics and phonology. As regards the history of the discipline biograplical sketches of the following scholars will be taken into account: Jan Baudouin de Courtenay, Ferdinand de Saussure, Paul Passy, Daniel Jones, Nikolaj Trubeckoj, Roman Jakobson, Gunnar Fant, Morris Halle. Noam Chomsky, Peter Ladefoged.
Reccomended or required readings
(for full time and part time students)
1) Hyman, Larry M., 1975, Phonology. Theory and Analysis, New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston (chapter1 in full; chapter 2: §§ 2.1.-2.3.3 and quick reading of the following sections, with particular attntion to the compact/diffuse features in connection with their acoustic properties (formants), see De Dominicis for details, and, as a peculiarity, coronal in Chomsky & Halle (1968); chapter 3: quick readin of the first sections with attention to such concepts as minimal pair, complementary distribution and free variation, § 3.3.1 is to be studied attentively; chaper 5: a thorough examination of the the concept of markedness: §§ 5.1.2.1.-5.1.2.2.
2) Hyman, Larry M., 1981, Fonologia. Teoria e analisi, Edizione italiana e traduzione a cura di Giorgio Raimondo Cardona, Bologna, Società editrice il Mulino (translation of the preceding item with a more consistent use of IPA, important for learning the corresponding Italian terminology of Hyman's text: same chapters and sections to be studied as above).
3) Hyman, Larry M., 2008, "Universals in phonology", The Linguistic Review 25: 83-137 (downoadable from http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/people/person_detail.php?person=19).
4) De Dominicis, Amedeo, 1999, Fonologia delle principali lingue europee moderne, Bologna, CLUEB (optional but very useful for a better understanding of acoustic features in Jakobson's distinctive feature theory).
5) de Lacy, Paul (ed.), 2007, The Cambridge Handbook of Phonology, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press (only 1. Themes in phonology, pp. 5-30).
6) (duplicated lecture notes:) Manzelli, Gianguido, 2004, Fonetica e fonologia con elementi di morfologia, appunti di supporto al modulo di Linguistica generale a/Fonetica e fonologia e Fonetica e fonologia (progredito), only sections concerning languages studied by students but small type size sections and footnotes included..
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