Phonetics, Phonology, and Morphology

Keith Johnson

Professor of the Graduate School

PhD, Ohio State University

Linguistic phonetics, psycholinguistics, neurophonetics

Phorum

The Berkeley Phonetics, Phonology and Psycholinguistics Forum ("Phorum") is a weekly talk and discussion series featuring presentations on all aspects of phonetics, phonology, and psycholinguistics. We meet on Fridays from 4(:10)-5pm (unless specified otherwise below), in Dwinelle 1229 (Zoom link shared upon request). Phorum is organized by Kai Schenck. My email is "kai_schenck" @berkeley.edu.

Schedules from previous semesters can be found here.

Fall 2025 August 29

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Hannah Sande

Assistant Professor of Linguistics

PhD, UC Berkeley

Phonology, morphology, and their interface; prosody; language documentation and description; African languages, especially languages of Côte d'Ivoire

Metrical stress and glottal stops in A’ingae: A study of cyclicity and dominance at the interface of phonology and morphology

Maksymilian Dąbkowski
2025

This dissertation presents a theoretically informed study of A’ingae (or Cofán, iso 639-3:con), an Amazonian language isolate spoken in Ecuador and Colombia. The first part of the dissertation is descriptive. In a chapter on phonology, I touch on the language’s phonotactics, laryngeal agreement, diphthongal processes, recent sound changes, nasal spreading, as well as prosody and glottalization. In a chapter on morphosyntax, I describe the structure of A’ingae sentences, including matrix and (co)subordinate clauses, auxiliary verbs, serial verb constructions, wh-movement, and second-...

QP fest 2018!

November 22, 2018

QP Fest will be held on Monday, November 26, in Dwinelle 370, from 3-5pm. (Note the rescheduled date!)

The schedule is as follows:

Introduction (3:10-3:15) Tessa Scott: "Conjoint/disjoint in Ndengeleko: A head movement alternation" (3:15-3:35) Karee Garvin: "Positional effects on timing and coordination of segments within the syllable" (3:35-3:55) Yevgeniy Melguy: "Talker ethnicity and listener expectation in the perception of foreign-accented speech" (3:55-4:15) Mini-break (4:15-4:20) Noah Hermalin: "Ambiguity and efficiency trade-offs in Sumerian cuneiform" (4:20-4:40) Myriam Lapierre: "A phonological analysis of Panãra" (4:40-5:00)

Phorum 2018

Spring 2018 March 5, 2018 - Brian Smith (UC Berkeley)

"Surface optimization in English function word allomorphy"

In OT accounts of Phonologically Conditioned Allomorphy (PCA), phonological conditioning is the result of markedness constraints, which favor allomorphs that optimize surface structure (e.g. Mester 1994, Tranel 1996, Mascaró 1996, Kager 1996). For example, the use of an before vowels in English can be analyzed in OT as the result of a high-ranking constraint against onsetless syllables, which...

Phorum 2013

Fall 2013

Previous Meetings SEPTEMBER 9 - LARRY HYMAN
UC BERKELEY

What is phonological typology?

In this talk I am concerned with the following questions:

What is phonological typology?

How are phonological typology and phonetic typology the same/different?

How are phonological typology and general phonology the same/different?

How are phonological typology and general typology the same/different?

Despite earlier work by Trubetzkoy, Jakobson,...

Phorum 2011

Fall 2011

PREVIOUS MEETINGS:

SEPTEMBER 12 - LARRY HYMAN
UC BERKELEY

Tonal Density and Tonal Typology

In previous work I have documented several ways in which tone is "different" from segmental and metrical phonology. I believe that a reasonable case can be made that tone offers both greater complexity and greater diversity than other aspects of phonology. Concerning such diversity, a relatively small number of languages distinguish up to five contrasting tone heights and multiple contours on each syllable. On the other hand, many two-height tone...

Phorum 2006

SEPTEMBER 11

Discussion of John J. McCarthy (2006), "Candidates and Derivations in Optimality Theory", led by Marc Ettlinger.

SEPTEMBER 18

Discussion of "Phase Transitions in a Repetitive Speech Task as Gestural Recomposition" by Kenneth de Jong, Byung-jin Lim & Kyoko Nagao (2006) and "Gestural overlap and...

Phorum 2007

FALL 2007

SEPTEMBER 10 - SAM TILSEN, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY: A PERSEVERATORY COARTICULATION STUDY USING A PHONOLOGICAL PHONEMIC-RESPONSE PRIMING TASK

Vowel-to-vowel perseveratory coarticulation has been observed in a number of languages, and can occur between unreduced vowels across a medial schwa (Magen 1997). The two-syllable potential range of this phenomenon suggests that V-to-V perseveratory coarticulation is caused in part by cognitive mechanisms, rather than by purely mechanical or inertial forces (c.f. Recasens 1984), but is there any other evidence...