What is functional load?

Functional load is the amount of work a phoneme does to distinguish one language utterance (usually a word) from another.

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.

If only a few words or word pairs in a language contrast for the element in question, that element has a low functional load.

In English, a small number of word pairs contrast for stress ('convert and con'vert), so stress has a low functional load.

• Concept module: functional load
• In overview module: Glossary (Literacy): F
• In modular book: Glossary of literacy terms
• In document collection: Reference materials
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 29 March 1996

© 1999 SIL International