under construction

These topics are suggested by DELG staff. They only serve as an appetizer. You may come up with any other topic and convince a member of DELG to supervise you and that topic. You may also select a supervisor different from the one offering your topic.

• is there voicing assimilation in English?, compare the behaviour of obstruent clusters with respect to voicing in voicing languages (like Hungarian, Spanish, Russian, etc.) vs. aspirating languages (like English)
• neutralization in phonology, does complete neutralization exist?, neutralization phenomena (flapping, stops after fortis fricatives, vowel reduction, nasal place assimilation in English, voicing assimilation in Hungarian, etc.), the role of speech perception in potentially neutralizing positions
• the role of Voice Onset Time in the laryngeal contrast of obstruents; the role of phonetic features other than vocal fold vibration in the contrast of obstruents (vowel duration, consonant duration, glottalization, release, etc.)
• the laryngeal contrast of fortis vs lenis fricatives and affricates in English, what is their contrast based on?
• phonological and non-phonological (social, stylistic, dialectal, frequency, etc.) factors in phonological variation (e.g., glottalization, glottalling, flapping, Linking/Intrusive R, the distribution of /j/, etc.)
• different theoretical approaches to the analysis of Linking and Intrusive R (rule-based theories vs. phonetics-based vs. historical approaches vs. analogy-based analyses, etc.)
• variation in the realizations of CUBE vowels, when are the diphthongs pronounced long (without glides), when are the long monophthongs (R-vowels) realized as long vs. diphthongized; phonological and nonphonological factors in broadening, smoothing, breaking, unbreaking

• Multiword items classified in various English (and Hungarian) sources/frameworks.
• Regular polysemy types in English (and Hungarian): a heavy book vs a difficult book; a chicken vs some chicken. How language (type) has a role.
• Instances of word forms of a lexeme having different/restricted/special senses: in my eyes vs a black eye.
• Word families vs lexical/semantic fields.
• Dictionaries: print or electronic? Which, when, how? Advantages and disadvantages.
• Types of oppositeness: just two, three, or many more? Oppositeness with various word classes?
• Polysemy developing into homonymy: when/why/how it happens.
• Combining forms (neo-classical “compounds”) in English (and Hungarian).
• Non-right-headed compounds in English (and Hungarian).
• The opacity and the fixity gradience of English (and Hungarian) idioms. Can a word be an idiom?
• Creative variation with English (and Hungarian) idioms.
• “English gets millionth word on Wednesday, site says”. On how many levels is this an impossible claim?
• Inflection vs derivation: crisp contrast or gradience?

• Palatalization in English: how many times and when?
• Rules and lexicalization: when and how does a rule die?
• Lexical and postlexical rules in English
• Treatment of a historical rule in English: e.g., the influence of /l/ on the preceding vowel (all vs. ally)
• How did breaking and broadening happen in English?
• Analysing an older piece of text linguistically (e.g., Chaucer’s poetry)
• Has coda /l/ always been ‘dark’ in English?

• Phonotactic constraints of English
  • The distribution of glides
  • The distribution of liquids
  • Excrescent plosives in consonant clusters (prin[t]ce)
• R-vocalization and its effects on the vowel system of English
• L-vocalization and its effects on the vowel system of English
• How many degrees of stress are there in English?
• The sound system of Hunglish