3 Phonology

The study of the functional structure of speech sounds

1. Phonemes as a `code':
   Smallest meaning distinguishing units
   (better: `word-distinguishing units')
2. Distinctive features:
   Phoneme distinguishing properties
3. Prosody: `superimposed', `parallel' melody, rhythm, ...
4. Integrated approaches:
   parallel `tiers' (prosodic, autosegmental theories)

Typical topics:

• Possible phoneme inventories; learnability
• Possible distinctive feature structures; feature geometries
• Phonological grammars, phonotactics
• Parallel processing of feature value sequences