Phonological hierarchy: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 15:09, 16 December 2006

Latest revision as of 18:03, 11 May 2024

(36 intermediate revisions by 24 users not shown)

Line 1:

{{Short description|Size hierarchy of phonological units}}

In [[phonology]], the '''phonological hierarchy''' describes a series of increasingly smaller regions of an utterance. From larger to smaller units, it is as follows:

The '''phonological hierarchy''' describes a series of increasingly smaller regions of a [[Phonology|phonological]] utterance, each nested within the next highest region. Different research traditions make use of slightly different hierarchies. For instance, there is one hierarchy which is primarily used in theoretical phonology, while a similar hierarchy is used in [[discourse analysis]]. Both are described in the sections below.

==Theoretical phonological hierarchy==

#[[Utterance]]

#Intonational phrase (I-phrase)

#Phonological phrase (P-phrase)

#[[Clitic]] group

#P-word ([[ω]]) (prosodic or [[phonological word]])

#[[Foot (linguistics)|Foot]] (F) e.g. "strong-weak" syllable groups, such as English ''ladder'', ''button'', ''eat it''

#[[Syllable]] ([[σ]]) e.g. ''cat'' (1), ''ladder'' (2)

#[[Mora (linguistics)|Mora]] ([[μ]]) (“half-syllable”)

#Segment ([[phoneme]]) e.g. [k], [æ] and [t] in ''cat''

#Feature

Listed in order from highest to lowest are the categories of the hierarchy that are most commonly used in theoretical phonology. There is some disagreement on the arrangement and inclusion of units, especially those that reside higher in the hierarchy. For example, the clitic group is not considered to be a separate level in [[Elisabeth Selkirk|Selkirk]]'s version of the hierarchy,<ref name="selkirk1996">{{cite journal|last=Selkirk|first=E. O.|date=1996|editor-last=Martin|editor-first=J.|editor2-last=Demuth|editor2-first=K.|editor2-link=Katherine Demuth|title=The prosodic structure of function words|journal=International Conference on Bootstrapping from Speech to Grammar in Early Acquisition|___location=Hillsdale, NJ|publisher=Lawrence Erlbaum}}</ref> while the minor phrase or accentual phrase are not considered to be separate from the phonological phrase in [[Bruce Hayes (linguist)|Hayes]]'<ref name="hayes1989">{{cite journal | last = Hayes | first = Bruce | title = The prosodic hierarchy in meter | journal = Phonetics and Phonology Vol. 1: Rhythm and Meter | editor-last = Kiparsky | editor-first = P. | editor-last2 = Youmans | editor-first2 = G. | publisher = Academic Press | ___location = San Diego | pages = 201–260 | date = 1989}}</ref> and [[Marina Nespor|Nespor]] & [[Irene B. Vogel|Vogel]]'s hierarchies.<ref name="nespor1986">{{cite book | last1 = Nespor | first1 = M. | last2 = Vogel | first2 = I. | title = Prosodic Phonology | publisher = Foris Publications | ___location = Dordrecht | date = 1986 }}</ref><ref name="shattuck1996">{{cite journal | last1 = Shattuck-Hufnagel | first1 = Stephanie | last2 = Turk | first2 = Alice | title = A Prosody Tutorial for Investigators of Auditory Sentence Processing | journal = Journal of Psycholinguistic Research | volume = 25 | issue = 2 | pages = 193–247 | date = 1996 | doi = 10.1007/BF01708572 | pmid = 8667297 | s2cid = 31515990 }}</ref>

The hierarchy from the mora upwards is also called the '''prosodic hierarchy'''.

#[[Utterance]] ([[U]])<ref name="hayes1989" /><ref name="nespor1986" />

Phonologists may disagree on the exact arrangement of and inclusion in the hierarchy. For example, the clitic group is not universally recognised.

# Intonational phrase (I-phrase, [[ι]])<ref name="selkirk1996" /> also known as:

#* Full intonational phrase<ref name="pierrehumbert1988">{{cite book | last1 = Pierrehumbert | first1 = J. | last2 = Beckman | first2 = M. B. | title = Japanese Tone Structure | url = https://archive.org/details/japanesetonestru00pier | url-access = registration | ___location = Cambridge, MA | publisher = MIT Press | date = 1988}}</ref>

#Phonological phrase (P-phrase, [[Φ]]),<ref name="hayes1989" /><ref name="nespor1986" /> also known as:

#* Major phrase<ref name="selkirk1996" />

#* Intermediate intonational phrase<ref name="pierrehumbert1988" />

#Accentual phrase,<ref name="pierrehumbert1988" /> also known as:

#* Minor phrase<ref name="selkirk1996" />

#[[Clitic]] group ([[C]])<ref name="hayes1989" /><ref name="nespor1986" />

#[[Phonological word]] (P-word, [[ω]]), sometimes also called the '''prosodic word'''<ref name="selkirk1996" /><ref name="hayes1989" /><ref name="nespor1986" />

#[[Foot (linguistics)|Foot]] (F, [[φ]] or [[Σ]])<ref name="selkirk1996" /><ref name="hayes1989" /><ref name="nespor1986" />

#[[Syllable]] ([[Sigma|σ]])<ref name="selkirk1996" /><ref name="hayes1989" /><ref name="nespor1986" />

#[[Mora (linguistics)|Mora]] ([[μ]])<ref (“half-syllable”)name="selkirk1996" />

#Segment ([[phoneme]])

#[[Distinctive feature|Feature]]

The hierarchy from the mora upwards is alsotechnically calledknown as the '''[[Prosody (linguistics)|prosodic]] hierarchy'''.

==Discourse analytical hierarchy==

The phonological hierarchy as it is defined in the discourse analytical tradition is listed below.{{Citation needed|date=July 2015}}

# [[Utterance]] ([[υ]])

# Prosodic [[declination unit]] (DU)

# Prosodic [[prosodic unit|intonation unit]] (IU)

# Prosodic list unit (LU)

# [[Clitic]] group

# [[Phonological phraseword]] (P-phraseword)

# [[Foot (linguistics)|Foot]]

# [[Syllable]]

# [[Mora (linguistics)|Mora]]

# Segment ([[phoneme]])

# [[Distinctive feature|Feature]]

==See also==

*[[Phonetic word]]

==References==

{{Reflist}}

==See also==

*[[Syntactic hierarchy]]

{{ling-stub}}

[[Category:Phonology]]

[[Category:Prosody (linguistics)]]

{{lingphonology-stub}}