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38536 results in Cambridge Textbooks

Page 1591 of 1927

  • Suggestions for instructors and self study

  • Robert G. Gallager, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Book:
    Stochastic Processes
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    12 December 2013, pp xix-xx

  • Summary

    The subject of stochastic processes contains many beautiful and surprising results at a relatively simple level. These results should be savored and contemplated rather than rushed. The urge to go too quickly, to sacrifice understanding for shallow bottom lines, and to cover all the most important topics should be resisted. This text covers all the material in two full term graduate subjects at MIT, plus many other topics added for enrichment, so it cannot be ‘covered’ in one term.

    My conviction is that if a student acquires a deep understanding of any, say, 20% of the material, then that student will be able to read and understand the rest with relative ease at a later time. Better still, a full appreciation of that 20% will make most students eager to learn more. In other words, instructors have a good deal of freedom, subject to a prerequisite structure, to choose topics of interest to them and their students to cover in a one term course.

    One of the two MIT courses leading to this text covers Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9, skipping many of the more detailed parts of the latter five chapters. The other course covers Chapters 1, 3, 8, and 10, again omitting many topics. The first course is largely discrete and the second largely continuous, and a different mix is probably more appropriate for a student taking only one subject.

  • Preface

  • Herodotus
  • Edited by Simon Hornblower, All Souls College, Oxford
  • Book:
    Herodotus: Histories Book V
    Published online:
    16 October 2018
    Print publication:
    12 December 2013, pp vii-viii

  • Summary

    This single-authored volume is planned as one of a pair with an edition of and commentary on bk. 6 in the same series, by the present author and Christopher Pelling in collaboration. Some sections of the Introduction to the present volume concern bk. 5 only; some concern both books; and some topics common to both books (Hdt. and Homer; Hdt.'s handling of Kleomenes and of Aigina) will be covered in the Introduction to bk. 6. Chronology will be covered in both volumes; for the distribution, see the Introduction, 3. For what is known or can be plausibly inferred about Herodotus’ life and travels, see S. West in Bowie 2007: 127–130.

    The groundwork for the commentary on book 5 was done as part of graduate (MA) teaching at University College London (UCL). In 2008–9, I taught books 5 and 7 jointly with Professor C. Carey, and in 2009–10, my last academic year at UCL, I taught books 5 and 6 on my own. I am grateful to Chris Carey for many insights and much shared enjoyment, and to all the students for their stimulating contributions.

Title match

  • 1 - What is phonology?

  • David Odden, Ohio State University
  • Book:
    Introducing Phonology
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    28 November 2013, pp 1-14

  • Summary

    PREVIEW

    KEY TERMS

  • sound

  • symbol

  • transcription

  • grammar

  • continuous nature of speech

    • This chapter introduces phonology, the study of the sound systems of language. Its key objective is to:

  • explain the difference between physical sound and “a sound” as a discrete element of language

  • highlight the tradeoff between accuracy and usefulness in representing sound

  • introduce the notion of “sound as cognitive symbol”

  • present the phonetic underpinnings of phonology

  • introduce the notion of phonological rule

    • Phonology is one of the core fields that compose the discipline of linguistics, which is the scientific study of language structure. One way to understand the subject matter of phonology is to contrast it with other fields within linguistics. A very brief explanation is that phonology is the study of sound structure in language, which is different from the study of sentence structure (syntax), word structure (morphology), or how languages change over time (historical linguistics). But this is insufficient. An important feature of the structure of a sentence is how it is pronounced – its sound structure. The pronunciation of a given word is also a fundamental part of the structure of the word. And certainly the principles of pronunciation in a language are subject to change over time. So phonology has a relationship to numerous domains of linguistics.

  • 4 - Underlying representations

  • David Odden, Ohio State University
  • Book:
    Introducing Phonology
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    28 November 2013, pp 79-114

  • Summary

    PREVIEW

    KEY TERMS

  • alternation

  • neutralization

  • predictability

  • structure preservation

    • This chapter looks deeper into the nature of underlying forms by

  • introducing contrast-neutralizing rules

  • seeing how unpredictable information must be part of the underlying form

  • learning what factors are most important in establishing an underlying representation

  • understanding how underlying forms are different from actually pronounced words

    • A fundamental characteristic of the rules discussed up to this point is that they have described totally predictable allophonic processes, such as aspiration in English or vowel nasalization in Sundanese. For such rules, the question of the exact underlying form of a word has not been so crucial, and in some cases a clear decision could not be made. We saw that in Sundanese every vowel becomes nasalized after a nasal sound, and every phonetic nasal vowel appears after a nasal. Nasality of vowels can always be predicted by a rule in this language: all nasal vowels appear in one predictable context, and all vowels are predictably nasal in that context. It was therefore not crucial to indicate whether a given vowel is underlyingly nasal or underlyingly oral. If you assume that vowels are underlyingly oral you can write a rule to derive all of the nasal vowels, and if you contrarily assume that vowels are all underlyingly nasal you could write a rule to derive all of the oral vowels. The choice of underlying sound may make a considerable difference in terms of simplicity and elegance of the solution, and this is an important consideration in evaluating a phonological analysis, but it is possible to come up with rules which will grind out the correct forms no matter what one assumes about underlying representations in these cases. This is not always the case.

  • 8 - Abstractness and psychological reality

  • David Odden, Ohio State University
  • Book:
    Introducing Phonology
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    28 November 2013, pp 237-284

  • Summary

    PREVIEW

    KEY TERMS

  • abstractness

  • absolute neutralization

  • psychological reality

  • external evidence

    • This chapter explores the extent to which underlying and surface forms can be different – what constraints if any are tenable within the formal theory, what the issues are in limiting abstractness, and how to address these questions empirically. The central question raised in this chapter is “what counts as evidence for a phonological analysis?”

    A fundamental question in the theory of phonology has been “how abstract is phonology?”, specifically, how different can the underlying and phonetic forms of a word be? The essential question is whether grammars use entities that are not directly observed. Related to this is the question whether a linguistic model requiring elements that cannot be directly observed reflects what the human mind does. The very concept of a mental representation of speech, such as a phonological surface form like [sɔks] socks which is not itself an observable physical event, requires abstracting away from many specifics of speech. Without generalizing beyond the directly observable, it would be impossible to make even the most mundane observations about any language. The question is therefore not whether phonology is abstract at all, but rather what degree of abstractness is required.

  • 5 - Interacting processes

  • David Odden, Ohio State University
  • Book:
    Introducing Phonology
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    28 November 2013, pp 115-146

  • Summary

    PREVIEW

    KEY TERMS

  • interaction ordering

    • In this chapter, you will broaden your understanding of how phonological systems work by

  • looking at more complex patterns of phonological alternation

  • seeing how complex surface patterns of alternations result from the interaction of different but related phonological rules

  • understanding the effect of different rule orderings on how an underlying form is changed into a surface form

    • Phonological systems are not made up of isolated and unrelated phonological rules: there are usually significant interactions between phonological processes. This chapter concentrates on two related topics. First, a seemingly complex set of alternations can be given a simple explanation if you separate the effect of different rules which may happen to apply in the same form. Second, applying rules in different orders can have a significant effect on the way that a given underlying form is mapped onto a surface form.

    Separating the effects of different rules

    Very often, when you analyze phonological alternations, insights into the nature of these alternations are revealed once you realize that a word may be subject to more than one rule, each of which can affect the same segment. You should not think of a phonology as being just a collection of direct statements of the relation between underlying segments and their surface realization. Such a description is likely to be confusing and complex, and will miss a number of important generalizations. Look for ways to decompose a problem into separate, smaller, and independent parts, stated in terms of simple and general rules. The different effects which these rules can have on a segment may accumulate, to give a seemingly complex pattern of phonetic change.

  • 3 - Feature theory

  • David Odden, Ohio State University
  • Book:
    Introducing Phonology
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    28 November 2013, pp 39-78

  • Summary

    PREVIEW

    KEY TERMS

  • observation

  • predictions

  • features

  • natural classes

    • This chapter explores the theory for representing language sounds as symbolic units. You will:

  • see that sounds are defined in terms of a fixed set of universal features

  • learn the phonetic definitions of features, and how to assign feature values to segments based on phonetic properties

  • understand how phonological rules are formalized in terms of these features

  • see how these features make predictions about possible sounds and rules in human language

    • We have been casual about what sounds as cognitive units are made of, and just treated them as letters labeled by traditional articulatory descriptions. It is time now to raise a fundamental question: are segments further analyzed into “parts” that define them, or are they truly atomic – units which are not further divisible or analyzable?

    Scientific questions about speech sounds

    One of the scientific questions that need to be asked about language is: what is a possible speech sound? Humans can physically produce many more kinds of sounds than are used in language. No language employs hand-clapping, finger-snapping, or vibrations of air between the hand and cheek caused by release of air from the mouth when obstructed by the palm of the hand (though such a sound can easily communicate an attitude). A goal of a scientific theory of language is to systematize such facts and explain them; thus we have discovered one limitation on language sound and its modality – language sounds are produced exclusively within the mouth and nasal passages, in the area between the lips and larynx.

  • 6 - Doing an analysis

  • David Odden, Ohio State University
  • Book:
    Introducing Phonology
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    28 November 2013, pp 147-204

  • Summary

    PREVIEW

    KEY TERMS

  • hypothesis formation and testing

  • competing hypotheses

    • This chapter explores a subset of the phonologies of a number of languages. The purpose of this chapter is to make explicit the reasoning typically applied to the task of solving a phonology problem. By studying models of problem solving, you not only better understand the logic of problem solving, you will also gain experience with rules and issues regarding underlying representations encountered in the languages of the world.

    Analyzing a system of phonological alternations is not trivial: it requires practice, where you gain experience by solving phonological problems of increasing complexity, experience which facilitates subsequent problem solving. The wider your experience is with actual phonological processes and problem solving, the better able you will be to appreciate what processes are common in the languages of the world, and to understand the dynamics of hypothesis formation, testing, and revision. The first analyses given here will be more explicit about the reasoning that goes into solving data sets of this nature, in some cases deliberately going down the wrong analytical path, so that you have the opportunity to recognize the wrong path, and see how to get back on the right path. In practice, many of the calculations that are involved here are done without explicitly thinking about it – once you have suitable experience with problem solving.

Page 1591 of 1927