Phonology

When we first discussed the phonology paper in class, I had no idea

what I wanted to write about. As I was talking to my husband about one
potential idea, I decided to take a big leap and go the medical route for this
paper. Meaning I will discuss the heart and break it down into its smallest
parts, which alone, have no meaning. I will also explain minimal pairs,
movement epenthesis, and contrastive units, which are three parts of
phonology, and relate them back to the heart.
To begin, the definition of phonology is the study of the smallest parts
of language without meaning. On cardiosmart.org, I read that the heart has
four different chambers or rooms. These rooms can then be divided into
ventricles and atriums. Think about a duplex apartment that is made up of a
left and right unit. The duplex is then divided into an upper and lower
chamber. The upper chamber is called the atrium and the lower chamber is
called the ventricle. Without ventricles and atriums, the heart cannot
function properly. The atrium serves as a pump for the ventricle, so again
unless all these parts are working together, they have no use by themselves.
You can examine the aorta in the heart which, according to
cardiosmart.org, serves as a main highway" blood vessel that supplies blood
to the head, neck, arms, legs, and the kidneys. The blood is brought through
branches from the aorta into the limbs and organs throughout the body. If
you just have the branches, the heart is unable to function and the branches

are useless alone. You must have the limbs and organs connected and the
branches connected to the aorta. The heart pumps blood and everything
must work in order to have a healthy, working heart.
Minimal pairs in linguistics are pairs of words with different meanings
that are pronounced exactly the same way except one sound or in ASL, one
parameter, which is different. Taking that concept and applying it to the
heart, we can compare my healthy heart to a heart with a pacemaker. A
pacemaker allows the heart to beat at a healthy rhythm. Our hearts function
the same way except one uses a pace maker to beat. We both might have
overall healthy bodies, but the pace maker is the only difference that exists;
our minimal pair. You could also relate this to a heart that has been infected
with cancer or someone whose heart has been affected by smoking. All the
things in our body are overall the same except the one minimal pair, the
health of our hearts.
Movement Epenthesis is simply the addition of movement between two
signs in a signed language. With the heart, you are adding movement every
time you go on a run or do any physical activity that raises your heart rate.
You are adding movement to your heart valves because they have to work
harder and at a faster pace because your heart rate starts to climb. When
you cool off from your run, then your movement will slow down, therefore
bringing your heart rate down to normal. If you think about it, youre adding
movement to your heart every time you get up and do something, even with
simple tasks like getting out of bed.

The last point that I want to talk to you about concerning the heart is
contrastive units. Adding a contrastive unit to a word or sign would change
the meaning. If you switch a vein from the heart to function as an artery, it
will dramatically change the meaning and function of the heart. A vein was
not supposed to function as an artery and vice-versa. Kimberly Jessup
informed me that doctors actually prefer to take a vein from the arm or leg if
one is needed in the heart. They will not take anything from the heart to
perform another heart function that it was not made for.
I hope my picture of the heart served the purpose of explaining the
definition of phonology. I was not trying to go in depth with the heart, merely
attempting to hit the basics so that a person could understand that the
smallest parts of the heart have no meaning alone, but when you put them
all together, you create something powerful.

Works Cited:
1. "Welcome to CardioSmart." Global. American College of Cardiology, 1
Jan. 2013. Web. 21 Feb. 2015. <https://www.cardiosmart.org/>.