Contrast in Phonology: Theory, Perception, Acquisition (Phonology & Phonetics)

Description

This book takes contrast, an issue that has been central to phonological theory since Saussure, as its central theme, making explicit its importance to phonological theory, perception, and acquisition. The volume brings together a number of different contemporary approaches to the theory of contrast, including chapters set within more abstract representation-based theories, as well as chapters that focus on functional phonetic theories and perceptual constraints. This book will be of interest to phonologists, phoneticians, psycholinguists, researchers in first and second language acquisition, and cognitive scientists interested in current thinking on this exciting topic. Frontmatter Table of contents Acknowledgements Contributors Introduction The contrastive hierarchy in phonology Prophylactic features and implicit contrast Contrasts in Japanese: A contribution to feature geometry Quasi-phonemic contrast and the fuzzy inventory: Examples from Scottish English Effects of contrast recoverability on the typology of harmony systems The impact of allophony versus contrast on speech perception Interplay between perceptual salience and contrast: /h/ perceptibility in Turkish, Arabic, English, and French Self-organization through misperception: Secondary articulation and vowel contrasts in language inventories The role of contrast in the acquisition of phonetic systems How does Place fall into place? Learning to perceive a smaller L2 vowel inventory: An Optimality Theory account The effect of perceptual factors in the acquisition of an L2 vowel contrast Some reflections on abstractness and the shape of inputs: The case of aspiration in English Backmatter