Take-home Final Examination

Phonetics L306 (Sectn #11733), Spring 2008

Please write answers to the following questions. Each question has a page limit. No need to go on and on. Think carefully and then write succinctly. Submit your (typed) responses as a hardcopy in my mailbox by Tuesday, April 29 in my mailbox in 307A Memorial Hall (or under my door in 330 MH).

1. Port (in ``Graphical basis of phones and phonemes’’ 2006) claims that phones and phonemes are a ``conceptual blend’’ of aspects of graphical letters and of speech sounds (p. 355). What is meant by this claim? Explicate a concrete example (eg, a specific phone in several contexts) of how phones are a blend of these two distinct domains and explain why we educated people might find it difficult to see the paradox implicit in this blend. (2 pgs max)

2. Describe at least 2 arguments used by Port in ``All is prosody’’ (2008) to support his claim that word storage in the memory of speakers must be far richer in information content that is implied by the standard phonetic alphabet. (2 pgs max)

3. Diagram the simultaneous gestures of this short utterance following the conventions of Port’s `Speech Dynamics Model’ (of 1972). (You can print this out from the Syllabus in Week 3.) Begin each gesture at the arrow on the left and refer to the course handout that described the conventions. (Generally, low is open and high is closed.) Diagram carefully so that each articulatory position is reached at the right time as indicated by the sound spectrogram. Make sure each gesture ends up at the same rest position at which it began after completion of the utterance. For Tongue Body, of course, only height can be shown (and backness is ignored). Make plausible guesses about nasalization of vowels.

Print out the second page separately – and put your name on it before turning it in.