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
sounds.
Oral cavity:
Lips, tongue, teeth, teeth ridge, hard palate, soft palate, uvular
[ p ] [ v ] [ s ] [ d ] [ l ] [ k ]
Nasal cavity:
Lungs
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.