Microsoft Word 2 Steps phonological analysis doc

2.

 

Steps in phonological analysis 

 

2.1.

 

Preliminaries

. Have clear objectives and sound representations: What do you what to 

achieve? What are your theoretical assumptions about language? What are your theoretical 

assumptions about phonology? What is your basic approach to phonology? 

2.1.1.

 

Major objective: (a) study the speech sounds and the sound structure (patterns) of a 

given language, (b) make generalisations about the function and the distribution of the 

sounds of this language, (c) make generalisations (uncovering underlying principles) 

about the sound patterns that occur in the speakers’ productions

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. 

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There are three basic kinds of patterns: contrasts, alternations, phonotactics. 

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One may want to distinguish between allophonic variation and alternation. This 

distinction is not explicitly made by (all) generative phonologists. 

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Phonotactics and horizontal contrasts are part of the syntagmatic dimension, 

whereas vertical contrasts and alternations are part of the paradigmatic 

dimension. 

2.1.2.

 

What are you going to describe? Part of the