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What is functional load? |
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| Definition | |
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Functional load is the amount of work a phoneme does to distinguish one language utterance (usually a word) from another. | |
| Discussion | |
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If many common words are distinguished on the basis of a given phonological element (phoneme, stress, or tone), that element has a high functional load. | |
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If only a few words or word pairs in a language contrast for the element in question, that element has a low functional load. | |
| Example | |
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In English, a small number of word pairs contrast for stress ('convert and con'vert), so stress has a low functional load. | |
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Page content last modified: 29 March 1996 |
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