Chapter 2 Phonology
2.1 The phonic medium of language (Lead in)
慧心妙舌Language is primarily vocal. The primary medium of human language is sound. Linguists are not interested in all sounds, but in speech sounds----sounds that convey meaning in human communication.
Sounds which are meaningful in human communication constitute the phonic medium of language.
Language is a “system of vocal symbols”. Speech sounds had existed long before writing was invented, and even today, in some parts of the world, there are still languages that have no writing system. Therefore, the study of speech sounds is a major part of linguistics.takami
2.2 Phonetics
2.2.1 What is phonetics?
----A branch of linguistics which studies the characteristics of speech sounds and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription, e.g. [p] bilabial, stop.
Phonetics looks at speech sounds from three distinct but related points of view:
(Speech production-----------------speech transmission---------------speech perception)
⏹Articulatory phonetics（发音语音学）----from the speakers‟point of view, “how speakers produce speech
sounds”
⏹Auditory phonetics（听觉语音学）----from the hearers‟ point of view, “how sounds are perceived”
⏹Acoustic phonetics（声学语音学）----from the physical way or means by which sounds are transmitted from one
to another.
2.2.2 Organs of speech
Speech organs, also known as V ocal organs, are tho parts of the human body involved in the production of speech. The diagram of speech organs:
1. Lips 7. Tip of tongue
2. Teeth 8. Blade of tongue
3. Teeth ridge (alveolar) 9. Back of tongue
4. Hard palate 10. V ocal cords
5. Soft palate (velum) 11.Pharyngeal cavity
6. Uvula 12. Nasal cavity
The important cavities:
☆The pharyngeal cavity 咽腔---- the throat
Larynx: at the top of the trachea, the front of which is the Adam‟s apple. This is the first place where sound modification might occur. The larynx contains the Vocal folds, also known as Vocal cords or Vocal bands. The vocal folds are a pair of structure that lies horizontally with their front ends joined together at the back of the Adam‟s apple. Their rear ends, however, remain parated and can move to various positions. The vocal folds are either (a) apart, (b) clo together, (c) totally clod.
Vibration of the vocal cords results in a quality of speech sounds called voicing, which is a feature of all vowels and some consonants in English.
Voiceless: when the vocal cords are spread apart, the air from the lungs pass between them unimpeded.
V oiced (V oicing): when the vocal cords are drawn together, the air from the lungs repeated pushes them apart as it pass through, creating a vibration effect.
☆The oral cavity 口腔---- the mouth
The oral cavity provides the greatest source of modification of the air stream. ([k]/[g], [t]/[d], [θ]/[δ], [f]/
[v], [p]/[b])
广西民族大学录取分数线☆The nasal cavity 鼻腔---- the no
The nasal cavity is connected with the oral cavity. The soft part of the roof of the mouth, the velum, can be drawn back to clo the passage so that all air exiting from the lungs can only go through the mouth. The sounds produced in this condition are not nasalized. If the passage is left open to allow air to exit through the no, the sounds produced are nasalized sounds.
2.2.3 Orthographic reprentation of speech sounds--- broad and narrow transcriptions
（语音的正字法表征：宽式/窄式标音）
---- A standardized and internationally accepted system of phonetic transcription is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The basic principle of the IPA is using one letter to reprent one speech sound.
Broad transcription: the transcription with letter-symbols only（代表字母的符号）e.g. clear [l]
Narrow transcription: the transcription with letter-symbols together with the diacritics. e.g. dark [ l ], a
spirated [ p ] (Diacritics are additional symbols or marks ud together with the consonant and vowel symbols to indicate nuances of change in their pronunciation.)
< : [l]→[li:f]--→ a clear [l] (no diacritic); [l]→[bild]--→a dark [l] (~)
[p]→[pit]--→an aspirated [p h](h表示送气)[p]→[spit]--→an unaspirated [p] (no diacritic)
2.2.4 Classification of English speech sounds
---- English speech sounds are generally classified into two large categories:
⏹V owels
⏹Consonants
Note: The esntial difference between the two class is that in the production of the former the air stream meets with no obstruction of any kind in the throat, the no or the mouth, while in that of the latter it is somehow obstructed.
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2.2.4.1 Classification of English consonants
English consonants can be classified either in terms of manner of articulation or in terms of place of articulation.
In terms of manner of articulation根据发音方法分(the manner in which obstruction is created)
① Stops闭塞音: the obstruction is total or complete, and then going abruptly
[p]/[b], [t]/[d], [k]/[g]
② Fricatives摩擦音: the obstruction is partial, and the air is forced through a narrow passage in the month
[f]/[v], [s]/[z], [∫]/[з], [θ]/[δ], [h] (approximant)
③ Affricates塞擦音: the obstruction, complete at first, is relead slowly as in fricatives [t∫]/[dз]
④ Liquids流音: the airflow is obstructed but is allowed to escape through the passage between part or parts of the tongue and the roof of the mouth
社会保险服务个人网页[l]→a lateral sound; [r]→ retroflex
⑤ Glides滑音: [w], [j] (mi-vowels)
Liquid + glides + [h]→ approximants
⑥ Nasals鼻音: the nasal passage is opened by lowering the soft palate to let air pass through it
[m], [n], [η]
By place of articulation根据发音部位分(the place where obstruction is created)
①bilabial双唇音: upper and lower lips are brought together to create obstructions [p]/[b], [w]→(velar)
②labiodentals唇齿音: the lower lip and the upper teeth [f]/[v]
③dental齿音:the tip of the tongue and the upper front teeth [θ]/[δ]
④alveolar齿龈音: the front part of the tongue on the alveolar ridge [t]/[d], [s]/[z], [n], [l], [r]
⑤palatal腭音: tongue in the middle of the p alate [θ]/[δ], [t∫]/[dз], [j]
⑥velars软腭音:the back of the tongue against the velum [k], [g], [η]
⑦glottal喉音: the glottal is the space between the vocal cords in the larynx [h]
Conclusion: Factors to describe a consonant
(1) State of vocal cords (VL/VD)
(2) Manner of articulation (MA)
(3) Place of articulation (PA)
2.2.4.2 Classification of English vowels
石榴熟了V owel sounds are classified according to: the position of the tongue in the mouth, the openness of the mouth, the shape of the lips, and the length of the vowels.
Highest Part of the tongue (front, central, back)
Front vowels are the ones in the production of which the front part of the tongue is raid the highest such as [i:] [i] [e] [æ] [a].
When the central part of the tongue maintains its highest position, the vowels thus produced are cent
ral vowels such as [3:] [Ə] and [ ] .
If the back of the tongue is held the highest, the vowels thus produced are back vowels such as [u:][u] Openness of mouth
Rounded or unrounded lips
rounded vowels: All the back vowels in English are rounded except [ɑ:].
unrounded vowels: All the front vowels and central vowels in English are unrounded.
Length of the vowel
long vowels: They are usually marked with a colon such as [i:] and [ɑ:]
short vowels: other vowels in English are short vowels such as [e], [ə] and [æ].
monophthongs: individual vowels
diphthongs: produced by moving from one vowel position to another through intervening positions. (集中/合口)初中英语评课
2.3 Phonology
2.3.1 Phonology and phonetics
What does English phonetics deal with?
English phonetics is concerned with all speech sounds that occur in the English language. It studies how the sounds are produced and how they are described and classified.
What does English phonology deal with?
English phonology investigates the sound system of English. Different from English phonetics, English phonology is not interested in the actual production of English sounds, but in the abstract aspects:
A. the function of sounds--- whether a sound can differentiate the meanings of words
B. their patterns of combination--- how sounds are combined to form a permissible sound quence
⏹Both are concerned with the same aspect of language----the speech sounds. But they differ in their approach
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and focus.
⏹Phonetics is of general nature; it is interested in all the speech sounds ud in all human languages; it aims to
answer questions like: how they are produced, how they differ from each other, what phonetic features they have, how they can be classified, etc.
⏹Phonology aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how the sounds are ud to
convey meaning in linguistic communication.
(Speaker‟s mind--- Mouth--- Ear--- Listener‟s mind)
2.3.2 Phone, phoneme, and allophone
Phoneme: minimal distinctive unit in sound system of a language; a phoneme is a phonological unit; it is a unit of distinctive value, it is an abstract unit; not a particular sound, but it is reprented by a certain phone in certain phonetic context, e.g. the phoneme /p/ can be reprented differently in [pIt], [tIp] and [spIt].
Phone: a phone is a phonetic unit or gment; the realization of phoneme in general. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. Phones do not necessarily distinguish meaning, some do, some don‟t. For example, in the words feel[fi:ł], leaf[li:f], tar[t h a:], star[sta:],there are altogether 7 phones: [f],[i:],[ł], [l], [t h]. [t], [a:], but [ł] and[l] do not distinguish meaning, [t h] and [t] do not distinguish meaning as well.
Allomophone: the different phones which can reprent a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called the allophones of that phoneme; realizations of a particular phoneme.
2.3.3 Phonemic contrast, complementary distribution, and minimal pair
Phonemic contrast: when two phonemes can occur in the same environments in two words and they distinguish meaning, they‟re in phonemic contrast.
< pin & bin → /p/ vs. /b/ rope & robe → /p/ vs. /b/
Complementary distribution:two or more than two allophones of the same phonemes are said to be in complementary distribution becau they can not appear at the same time, or occur in different environment, besides they do not distinguish meaning.
< dark [l] & clear [l], aspirated [p] & unaspirated [p]
Minimal pair: when two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound gment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two sounds are said to form a minimal pair.
E. g. mail vs. nail beat, bit, bet, bat, boot, but, bait, bite, boat
2.3.4 Some rules in phonology
2.3.4.1 Sequential rules
Sequential rules ---- the rules that govern the combination of sounds in a particular language, e.g. in English, “k b i I” might possibly form blik, klib, bilk, kilb.
⏹If a word begins with a [l] or a [r], then the next sound must be a vowel.
⏹If three consonants should cluster together at the beginning of a word, the combination should obey the
following three rules, e.g. spring, strict, square, splendid, scream
a) the first phoneme must be /s/,
b) the cond phoneme must be /p/ or /t/ or /k/,
c) the third phoneme must be /l/ or /r/ or /w/.
⏹The affricates [t∫],[dз] and the sibilants [s],[z],[θ],[δ]are not to be followed by another
sibilants.
2.3.4.2 Assimilation rule
Assimilation: articulatory adaptation of one sound to a nearby sound with regard to one or more features.
Nasalization: /m/, /n/, /ŋ/
[-nasal]→ [+nasal]/_______ [+nasal]
