英语语言学第二章

Chapter 2

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II. PHONOLOGY

2.1 The phonic medium of language

The linguist is not interested in all sounds, but in speech sounds that are produced by humans through their speech organs and have a role to play in linguistic communication. This limited range of sounds is the phonic medium of

language.

2.2 Phonetics

2.2.1 What is phonetics?

Phonetics is the study of the phonic medium of language, which refers to a limited range of speech sounds that are produced by humans through their speech organs and that have a role to play in linguistic communication.

Phonetics has three branches—articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, and

auditory phonetics.

Articulatory phonetics: from speaker’s point of view, how speakers articulate

sounds

Acoustic phonetics: how sound waves travel in the air

Auditory phonetics: from hearer’s point of view, how hearers perceive

sounds

2.2.2 Organs of speech

Pharyngeal cavity

lungs <<<< windpipe <<<< glottis < vocal cords (when they are drawn wide apart, letting air go through without causing vibration — voiceless sounds; if they are held together tautly so that the air stream vibrates them at different vocal cords results in a quality of speech sounds called “voicing” ---voiced sounds.

Oral cavity:

Lips, tongue, teeth, teeth ridge, hard palate, soft palate, uvular

[ p ] [ v ] [ s ] [ d ] [ l ] [ k ]

Nasal cavity:

Lungs<<<< windpipe<<<2.2.3 Orthographic representation of speech sounds –broad and narrow

transcriptions

International Phonetic Alphabet: the basic principle of the IPA is using one letter selected from major European languages to represent one speech sound.

Diacritics: a set of symbols which are added to the letter-symbols to bring out

the finer distinctions than the letters alone may possibly do.

Broad transcription: a set of symbols with each letter representing one sound (used in textbooks, dictionaries, ect)

Narrow transcription: letter symbol + diacritics (a set of symbol to show the

fine distinctions between sounds)

(used by phoneticians for the detailed study of sounds)

2.2.4 Classification of English speech sounds

The English speech sounds can first of all be classified into vowels and

consonants. The basic difference between these two classes is that in the

production of the former the air stream meets with no obstruction in the nose or

the mouth, while in that of the latter it is somehow obstructed.

2.2.4.1 Classification of the English consonants

The English consonants can be classified in terms of manner of articulation and also in terms of place of articulation. Table 1 Consonants in English

In terms of manner of articulation, the English consonants can be classified

into the following types:

1) Stops (plosives) the obstruction created by the speech organs is total and the speech sound is produced with the obstruction audibly released and the air

passing out again.

2) Fricatives The obstruction is partial and the air is forced through a narrow passage in the mouth so as to cause definite local friction at the point.

3) affricates The obstruction, complete at first, is released slowly with the

friction resulting from partial obstruction as in fricatives.

4) liquids 5) nasals 6) glides (semivowels)

According to the place in the mouth where the obstruction occurs, the English

vowels can be classified into the following types:

1) bilabials 2) labiodental 3) dental 4) alveolar

5) alveolar-palatal 6) palatal 7) velar 8) glottal

2.2.4.2 Classification of the English vowels

1. Which part of the tongue is raised the highest

Pure vowels can be distinguished as front, central, and back according to the part of the tongue that is raised the highest. front vowels central vowels back

vowels

2. The openness of the mouth

There are open and close vowels. All the rest are either semi-open or

semi-close.

3. The shape of the lips.

They can be rounded and unrounded.

4. The length of the vowels

Tense (long) and lax (short) vowels. When we pronounce a long vowel, the larynx is in a state of tension, and in the pronunciation of a short vowel, the larynx

is quite relaxed.

Individual vowels are also known as monophthongs. In English there are also a number of diphthongs, which are produced by moving from one vowel position

to another through intervening.

2. 3 Phonology

2. 3.1 Phonetics and phonology

Both phonetics and phonology study the speech sounds.

Phonetics is of a general nature: it is interested in all the speech sounds used in all human languages: how they are produced, how they differ form each other,

what phonetic features they possess, how they can be classified, etc.

Phonology is concerned with the sound system of a particular language, so the conclusions we reach about the phonology of one language is very often language specific and should not be applied to another language without

discretion.

Phonology aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.

2.3.2 Phone, phoneme and allophone

A phone is a phonetic segment or unit. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistics communication are all phones. One speech sound is

one phone. But phones do not necessarily distinguish meaning.

A phoneme is a phonological unit; it is a unit that is of distinctive value. Phonemes are abstract. They are not any particular sound, but rather they are

realized by a certain phones in certain phonetic contexts.

The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic

environment are called the allophones of that phoneme.