A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics David Crystal

82 coalesce
in syllables in English, for example, clusters are not possible with [¨], [ Ä], [u]
or [z]. Up to three consonants can occur initially, as in [spr-], [spl-], [skw-]; up
to four can occur finally, as in glimpsed [-mpst] and twelfths [-lfθs]. See also
reduce.
coalesce (v.)
see coalescence
coalescence (n.) A term used in linguistics, especially in historical studies,
to refer to the coming together of linguistic units which were originally distinguishable.
allophones of a phoneme may coalesce, as may different phonemes
and different morphemes. Many cases of Modern English /è/, for example,
are the result of coalescence of /z/ and /j/, e.g. occasion, measure; in words
like formation, one could analyse the affix as a coalescence of the morphemes
-ate + -tion. Analogous terms include syncretism, merger, fusion and
neutralization.
coalescent (adj.) A term used in phonetics and phonology as part of the
classification of types of assimilation. In coalescent (or ‘reciprocal’) assimilation,
each of two adjacent articulations influences the other. An example is
the fusion of [d] and [j] to produce [u] in such phrases as could you.
coarticulation (n.) An articulation which involves in a simultaneous or overlapping
way more than one point in the vocal tract, as in the co-ordinate
stops [i], [ ≈bì], [j] and [ ≈bd] often heard in West African languages. In anticipatory
coarticulation, an articulator not involved in a particular sound
begins to move in the direction of an articulation needed for a later sound in
the utterance (its target). An example is the sh- of shoe, which is normally
pronounced with lip-rounding, anticipating the influence of the following [up].
In perseverative or perseveratory coarticulation, a sound retains a characteristic
deriving from an earlier articulation, as when the [n] in seen is articulated
slightly further forward than the [n] in soon. Alternative terms include right-toleft
(for anticipatory) and left-to-right (for perseverative) coarticulation. See also
anticipatory (2).
cocktail party phenomenon An everyday effect studied scientifically in psycholinguistics
as part of a theory of speech perception. It refers to the process
of selective listening, whereby people hearing several conversations at once
are able to attend consciously to one of them, and to ignore the others.
coda (n.) (Co) A term used in phonetics and phonology to refer to the
portion of a syllable which may follow the syllabic nucleus, e.g. the /p/ of
/kÎp/ ‘cup’. A distinction is sometimes drawn between ‘simple’ syllabic codas
(containing only one segment) and ‘complex’ codas (containing more than one
segment). Restrictions on the segments or features which may occur in coda
position are known as coda constraints. Derived forms include NOCODA, used in
optimality theory for a syllable ending in a vowel.
code (n.) The general sense of this term – a set of conventions for converting
one signalling system into another – enters into the subject-matter of semiotics