This unit is taught over 13 weeks. Each week, students will attend both a lecture and a tutorial/workshop. Before attending each lecture, students will have read the set readings. After attending the lecture and before the tutorial, they revisit the set readings and prepare the solutions to the weekly assignments. They bring a copy to the workshop in order to discuss the solutions.

A proper understanding of phonology can only be gained by broad and attentive reading of the literature, and dedicated thinking about how these ideas apply to language data. You will not be able to pass this unit by simply scanning the lecture notes each week. If you read continuously, compile your own notes, take a thorough attempt at the weekly assignments, ask questions about the theory, and think about language structure, you should do well in this unit, and find it rewarding and relevant to your further studies and careers. If you do not prepare adequately for class and fail to take responsibility for your own learning, you will struggle.

We strongly encourage note-taking with pen-and blank paper rather than on laptops or other electronic devices. Pen-and-paper note taking facilitates the non-linear thinking strategies required for phonological analysis.

Online Lectures

Lectures are designed to summarize and reinforce the key ideas that you have already encountered in your own reading of the literature, not to introduce you to material for the first time.

Online OR Face-to-Face Tutorials

The weekly tutorial assignment invite you to apply the learned phonological concepts to real language data or formulate your own stance regarding a theoretical issue. Students will be invited to share their solutions during the tutorial. Preparation of the tutorial assignments constitutes exam preparation; the discussion of the assignments during the tutorials constitutes feedback on your current understanding and analysis skills.

The tutorial/workshop sessions are designed to further consolidate the phonological concepts, discuss and further illustrate the application to real language data. Attendance at and participation in tutorials will contribute to learning how to communicate, explain, and illustrate phonological concepts and processes (learning outcomes 1 and 2). Tutorials will provide extensive practice in analysing phonological data and explaining them under different phonological frameworks (learning outcomes 4 and 5).

Tutorial Attendance

Attendance at and participation in tutorials is expected and class rolls will be taken. No recordings will be available for the interactive and problem-based weekly tutorial classes. Students are, therefore, strongly encouraged to attend all tutorials during semester.

Workload

3 credit points, amounting to 10 hours per week or 135 hours in total.

26 hours lectures                                              13 lectures; 2 hours per week

19.5 hours workshops/labs/tutorials                 13 tutorials; 1.5 hours per week

50 hours assessment tasks                              4 assessment tasks;  10-15 hours each

39 hours class preparation                               3 hours, for example:  1.5 hrs reading lecture materials +  1.5 hrs preparing tutorial worksheet

Requesting an extension to assignment due date

On occasion, you may be in a situation when you aren't able to submit an assessment task on time. Extensions are only given in special circumstances, by completing a Special Consideration request. For more information on Special Consideration, see https://students.mq.edu.au/study/my-study-program/special-consideration  

Late submission of assignments

If you haven't been approved for an extension and you submit your assessment task late, penalties are applied. You should consult your unit convenor if you are in this position. Late submissions will receive a 5% per day penalty. If you submit the assessment task 10 days or more beyond the due date, without an approved extension, you will be awarded a maximum of 50% of the overall assessment marks. Weekends and public holidays are included.

Technologies used and required

Word processing and conversion to pdf file format is needed for completing both Problem Sets One and Two; internet access is needed for downloading lecture and tutorial materials and for uploading assignments. No other technologies.

Required textbook:

• Hayes (2011). Introductory Phonology. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. 

Secondary (recommended) textbooks:

• Gussenhoven & Jacobs (2013). Understanding Phonology (3rd ed). Taylor & Francis Group.
• Gussenhoven & Jacobs (207). Understanding Phonology (4th ed). Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY: Routledge.
• Kennedy (2017). Phonology: A Coursebook. Cambridge University Press.
• Kager (1999). Optimality Theory. Utrecht, The Netherlands: Cambridge University Press.
• Zsiga (2013). The Sounds of Language: an introduction to phonetics and phonology. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell

• W1 - Introduction & Refresher
• W2 - Distinctive Features & Natural Classes I.
• W3 - DistinctiveFeatures & Natural Classes II.
• W4 - Phonological Rules
• W5 - Introduction to Morphophonology
• W6 - Morphophonology & Rule Ordering I.
• W7 - Morphophonology & Rule Ordering II.
• W8 - Syllables & Feet
• W9 - Stress Rules
• W10 - Stress Systems
• W11 - Optimality Theory I.
• W12 - Optimality Theory II.
• W13 - Exam Revision