ENG 228 Final, Fall 2001

ERICAN UNIVERSIT LIBRARY Name: OF BrIREG 1 English 228 1st Semester 2001 - 2002 Phonology Professor Kassim Shaaban FINAL EXAMINATION ( Two Hours } February 4, 2002 J. Answer the following two questions. A. Mark the following statements as TRUE or FALSE. 1. Palatalization is one type of secondary articulation. 2. The term “marked” refers to the natural occurrence of sounds. Thus [i] is marked, but [y] (front rounded vowel) is unmarked. English has a tendency to avoid having strong stresses too close together. The loudness of a sound depends on the size of the variations that occur in air pressure. Vowel rounding is determined by the width of the pharynx. Approximants have formant structures similar to those in vowels. It is relatively easy to define syllables but hard to identify them. Women normally speak at a higher pitch than men do. English has no geminate sounds within words. . British and American varieties of English have basically the same stress and intonation patterns. ; 11. Spectrograms provide more detailed information about sounds than waveforms do. 12. English accents are usually marked by differences in the way consonants are pronounced. belied - Serr ay [RICAN UNIVERSIT LIBRARY OF BEIRUT B. Fill in the blanks in the following sentences with the appropriate terms. 1. Phonology is the description of the of sounds that occur in a language. 2. Obstruents is a term used to refer to , affricates, and stops. _3. The greatest challenge to specialists in speech synthesis relates to the areas of rhythm and 4. The part of a syllable consists of the vocalic nucleus and the coda. 5. Velarization is a secondary articulation that involves raising the of the tongue. 6. A dipthong may be defined as the movement from one vowel to another within a single . The in most vowels is indicative of a speaker’s voice quality. . Stops may vary in their voice onset time. In this respect, [ ph Oey are stops and [ b,d,g] are stops. 9. In creaky voice, the arytenoid cartilages are tightly together so that the vocal chords can vibrate only at the end. Creaky-voiced sounds are also called ~~ 10.A nasal may occur as allophone of [m] in words like “emphasis,” and “Memphis”. OF BEIRD? Ti. Answer three of the following five questions. A. Define the following terms and give examples of each. 1, Syllabic consonants: 2. Clicks: 3. Sound pitch: 4. Sentence stress: 5. Coarticulation: 6. Palatography: 7. Sibilants: 8 Allophones: B. Make a broad phonemic transcription of the following utterances (conversational style) 1. I wonder why a politically sophisticated person like you would speak in ™~ grunts. 2. The rhythm of an English sentence depends largely on the particular emphasis the speaker wishes to convey. 3. Did your snow-covered friend know of the Head and Shoulders shampoo? 4. Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary is going to have a new edition of Australian English pronunciation. 5. If you ever come to your senses, call me, and I‘l] see what to do. C. Explain how acoustic phonetics have helped phoneticians understand better the following: 1. Quality of vowels: 2. Natural classes of sounds (sonorants, siblilants, voiced, back, nasals,etc.) 3. Intonation patterns of utterances: 4. Differences among individual speakers: D. 1. Explain why people differ in their judgments of the number of syllables in the following words: a. real: b. laboratory: c. thickening: d. merrier: e. socialism: 2. Explain the sonority theory of syllabicity and show its shortcomings. E. 1. Indicate the intonation patterns that might occur in the following situations: . How much money do I owe you? (Polite question) . What have you done to my bike? (Angry statement) . Your aunt wants to marry again. (Surprise) . The children are in their room, reading their stories. . Should J tell the supervisor? E. 2. Using some of the examples in E.1, and adding to them, if necessary, explain how intonation can be phonemic.