Archive for Lee Ballard
Subfields of Linguistics: What is Phonology?
Welcome to the first article in the Subfields of Linguistics series, “What Is Phonology?” Phonology deals with the sound structures of languages. A linguist who focuses on this subfield is known as a phonologist. A crucial precursor to phonology is phonetics. By studying phonetics, linguistics get to know the sounds…
The High Price for Linguistic Ignorance, and the False Danger of Dropping Gs
–Article by Lee Ballard In a video that has since gone viral, a recent contestant on Wheel of Fortune was penalized for the G-dropping in her pronunciation of the correct answer “Seven Swans A-Swimming.” This should trouble linguists for 3 reasons. First, the incident reveals the stigma against users of…
The Russian Morphology Dilemma of the FLA
[F[LA]]? [FL[A]]? Ugh.. from Russia with Love and Frustration –Article by Lee Ballard One of the things I love about linguistics is the fact that languages are different. Sometimes these differences can seem small and trivial, other times maddeningly frustrating, but most of the time, sort of just “there.” Since I’m living…
The Five Minute Linguist
ed. by Rickerson and Hilton –Review by Lee Ballard The Five Minute Linguist is an excellent book to introduce beginners or laypeople to topics of current interest in linguistics. Composed completely of short chapters on subjects like what the original language was, who speaks Italian, and how children acquire grammar,…
Introducing Phonology
by David Odden –Review by Lee Ballard David Odden’s Introduction to Phonology text is an ok introduction to the field. Strong points include problem sets with data from a wide variety of languages, approaches to phonology from the different schools of the past hundred years (phonemicist, generative phonology with features,…
What is Grammar?
–Article by Lee Ballard If we asked people to brainstorm on what they think about when they hear the word “grammar,” I think we would get some interesting results. When the word “grammar” comes up in conversation, I’ve noticed that people I meet regularly confuse it with a few things,…