Course for international guest/part time students
- Faculty
- Faculty of Humanities
- Organization
- BTK Department of English Linguistics
- Code
- BBI-ANG17-342E.07
- Title
- Elective seminar in Linguistics: Voicing and Voicelessness
- Usual semester
- Both
- ECTS
- 5
- Language
- Learning outcomes
- Students can get acquainted with a particular sound pattern in different languages, involving the examination of the physical realizations of speech sounds from a laryngeal point of view and their behavior in different systems as well as the relationship between the two. Students can also learn about how laryngeal properties and phenomena can be represented phonologically.
- Course content
- In phonology, the terms "voiced" and "voiceless" are often used to refer to obstruents such as /b, d, g/ and /p, t, k/, respectively. Approximately half of the world's languages are assumed to apply precisely this two-way laryngeal contrast in their obstruent series. But how can this opposition be represented phonologically for different languages, and what do we base these underlying representations on: how can this contrast be realized phonetically, and what kind of laryngeal phenomena can we observe across languages? In order to answer these questions, we look into languages like Hungarian, Polish, Italian, standard accents of English, Durham English, Yorkshire English, Alabama and Mississippi English, German, Swedish, Ukrainian, Meccan Arabic and Oromo. Moreover, Thai, Hindi and Igbo, for instance, show us that, unlike in the languages most of us might be familiar with, more than two series of laryngeally different obstruents are possible. The examination of these languages involves learning about phonological representations, distinctive features, phonetic realizations, vocal fold activities, voicing and aspirating languages, laryngeal assimilations, etc. A book chapter, an article or excerpts from several works are assigned every week. The readings are uploaded to the platform of the course a week in advance. The syllabus, the course materials, the home assignments and the results are made available on the platform of the course (in the Microsoft Teams group), where announcements are also posted, so it is the student's responsibility to check it for updates on a regular basis.
- Assessment method
- Students are expected to actively participate in the class work, to regularly do their home assignments and to read the obligatory readings prior to the classes. Assessment will be based on a midterm test (40%) and an end-term test (60%), which can be substantially modified by the student's in-class participation and the submitted assignments. Regular attendance is necessary; a maximum of three absences can be tolerated.
- Bibliography
- A book chapter, an article or excerpts from several works are assigned every week.