Which term describes the study of sound systems in a language?

• A. Morphology
• B. Semantics
• C. Pragmatics
• D. Phonology

Answer: (D)

Phonology is the study of a language’s sound system. It looks at how sounds are organized into meaningful units (phonemes) and the rules that govern how sounds combine and interact—things like which sound sequences are allowed (phonotactics), how stress and intonation pattern speech, and how sounds change in different contexts (allophones). For example, phonology explains why the sounds in "pat" and "bat" can distinguish meaning, or why English allows certain consonant clusters at the start of a word but not others. This focus on the abstract system of sounds and their interrelations is what sets phonology apart from morphology (word structure), semantics (meaning), and pragmatics (language in context).