HKU Moodle

This is an advanced undergraduate course in phonology, with a focus on phonological theory. The field of phonology has several candidate theories that vie to capture the complete set of sound patterns that arise across languages. This course introduces you to a handful of such theories that have proved central in phonological analyses, as well as phonological representations commonly used therein.

Moreover, the course aims to instill an understanding of how to compare and evaluate theories for how well they capture the variety of phonological phenomena cross-linguistically. What kind of representations, rules, constraints, interactions thereof, etc. are needed to account for these phenomena? Based on their architectural properties, what do the various theories predict should arise in the phonologies of the world?

This course is an introduction to the representation and processing of language in the human brain, the systems and processes that enables us to speak, understand speech, learn languages, read and write.  Through attending the course, students will acquire in-depth knowledge of how language is developed, processed, and organized in the brain.  Traditional as well as most recent research from linguistics, cognitive neuroscience (e.g. brain imaging) and the study of language disorders will be reviewed.