LIN229H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Vocal Tract
15 Jan 2017
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Document Summary
Sound patterns: the patterns present in languages are not completely predictable at first glance since they may be obscure. We can generally conclude that these patterns follow trends across language. The similarity of these trends is based on (1) the human mind and (2) the vocal tract: these patterns are learned as humans recognize them and can reproduce them in novel situations. Some patterns are lexically defined and some are phonologically determined. Lexical patterns: sing, sang, sung or ring, rang, rung. Phonological patterns: train trains, loud louds, praise praises (all ending with /z/: phonology is a cognitive science that aims to figure out how the human mind stores and processes sounds and sound patterns. However, the mind is largely unobservable since the evidence of how it works is inferential or indirect: we must continuously ask what different aspects of language reveal about the mind.
