LIN101

Syllables

Homework #4

Please type your answers into afresh new document, with the problems clearly labelled and separated, so they are easy to grade.  Do not try to cram your answers into the original homework PDF. You do not need to copy the original question into your response;just label each problem. Make sure you input any IPA symbols correctly.  Check the resources on Quercus for tools to input IPA symbols.

Problem 1. For each of the following pairs of signs, list all of the manual parameters they differ for: handshape, orientation, location, and/or movement. You can ignore nonmanual articulation. For ex- ample, if you were given the ASL signs for MY and SORRY to compare, you would list that they have dif- ferent handshapes and movements. You don’t need to specify the details of the differences, just list the parameters that differ. If handshape, orientation, or location change during a sign due to movement, consider only the starting handshape, orientation, or location for purposes of comparison between signs. [8 marks]

a. German Sign Language (Deutsche Gebärdensprache, DGS)

BROWN https://media.spreadthesign.com/video/mp4/9/7657.mp4

BLUE https://media.spreadthesign.com/video/mp4/9/6091.mp4

b. Croatian Sign Language (Hrvatski znakovni jezik, HZJ)

BROWN https://media.spreadthesign.com/video/mp4/42/405821.mp4

BLUE https://media.spreadthesign.com/video/mp4/42/405025.mp4

c. French Sign Language (Langue des signes française, LSF)

BROWN https://media.spreadthesign.com/video/mp4/10/7656.mp4

BLUE https://media.spreadthesign.com/video/mp4/10/6092.mp4

d. Japanese Sign Language (日本手話, Nihon Shuwa, NS)

BROWN https://media.spreadthesign.com/video/mp4/7/349356.mp4

BLUE https://media.spreadthesign.com/video/mp4/7/342135.mp4

Problem 2. Consider a hypothetical language Xindi that follows the same sonority hierarchy that English does: all obstruents have the lowest sonority, then nasal stops, then other sonorants, and finally vowels have the highest sonority. Further suppose that, unlike English, Xindi does not have any syllabic consonants and it has (C)CV(C) syllable structure, where any complex onset is allowed as long as it strictly obeys the sonority sequencing principle (that is, there can be no sonority plateaus or reversals). In addition, unlike English, nasal stops are never allowed in Xindi complex onsets, even if the SSP would be satisfied. Use the syllabification algorithm in the lecture notes to determine where the syllable boundaries are in the following attempted Xindi words. Give your answer by rewriting the full transcriptions of these words, with the IPA symbol [.] marking syllable boundaries. Ifa word cannot be syllabified in Xindi, do not list it, and instead, simply write “cannot be syllabified”. [8 marks]

a. [krewsli] ‘walk’

b. [θapnøt] ‘know’

c.  [ifrəs]     ‘drink’

d. [rʌsput] ‘sit’

e.  [wiθyrkjəl] ‘leaf ’

f.  [twenjolpan] ‘blood’

g. [jespnʌŋuj]       ‘fish’

h. [θrafmylkwøp] ‘skin’

Problem 3: Short writing exercise. In the official IPA consonant chart, there are a number of cells that are greyed out because they are deemed to be physically impossible, usually because of how certain terms are defined (e.g. lateral approximants are defined as having airflow down the sides of the tongue, but since the tongue is not used for labial sounds, there can be no labial lateral approximants). Write an explanation of about 100–300 words for why the voiced glottal plosive is deemed impossible. Make use of the following definitions to guide your explanation. Note that these definitions come from fake sources, but you should still cite them appropriately, as “(Abay 2018)” and “(Bisola 2019)” (you do not need to list references, just include citations where needed). Do not quote the definitions, in full or in part! Instead, you should paraphrase the relevant portions, in your own words. Assume that your audience is someone like a student in this course who has not read this assignment, that is, someone who knows where the various parts of the vocal tract are and has a basic idea of what a voiceless glottal plosive is and what voicing is, but has not heard these particular definitions before and hasn’t yet thought about why a voiced glottal plosive is physically impossible. If you find it helpful, you may include a diagram, but it is not necessary. [10 marks]

Definition #1 from Abay 2018: “Voicing is a type of phonation produced by sustained airflow through the glottal opening that causes spontaneous vibration of the vocal folds due to Bernoulli’s principle. First, the high rate of airflow through the glottal opening reduces the air pressure between the vocal folds, causing them to close in together. Continued airflow from the lungs then immediately pushes the vocal folds apart and passes through, which again causes Bernoulli suction to bring them back together, only to be pushed apart again. This repeated opening and closing due to the continuous airflow from the lungs creates the characteristic vibration throughout the duration of voiced phones.”

Definition #2 from Bisola 2019: “Plosives are one of the most basic categories of consonant phones. They are created by fully closing the articulators at the place of articulation, long enough to build up air pressure behind the closure. At the end of the plosive, the articulators are quickly separated, allowing the trapped air to explode past the place of articulation in a sudden burst (the so-called ‘plosion’ that defines a plosive).”

Writing goals: This writing assignment has two major goals. First, it is intended for you to demon- strate your ability to piece together different concepts to construct a logical explanation for a given phenomenon (here, the impossibility of a voiced glottal plosive based on specific definitions of rele- vant concepts). It is also intended for you to express ideas from other sources in your own words, by paraphrasing rather than quoting, to avoid plagiarism and to demonstrate your own understanding of the relevant concepts. The word limit range is a suggested range; you will not be penalized for writing a bit under or a bit over. However, an excellent response will strike the right balance, because writing too little may not fully answer the question, and writing too much could be boring or difficult to read.

As a reminder, all of your writing exercises in this course are assessed based on the same four cate- gories described in Homework #1: content (40%), logical argumentation (30%), cohesion and struc- ture (20%), and mechanics and tone (10%).