1、Chapter 2 The Sounds of Language,Melody 2012 Guangzhou Universtiy,Overview of Chapter 2,Phonetics1. Scopes of phonetics2. Important articulators3. Phonetic transcription4. Classification of English speech sounds5. Variations of soundsPhonology1. Phonology vs. phonetics 2. Phone, phoneme and allophon
2、e 3. Minimal pairs and sets 4. Free variation 5. Distinctive features 6. syllables and consonant clusters 7. Suprasegmental features,1. Scope of phonetics,1.1 Defining phonetics Phonetics is the branch of linguistics which studies the characteristics of speech sounds and provides methods for their d
3、escription, classification and transcription.,What is phonetics?,Phoneticsthe study of speech sounds that occur in all human languages. It is a branch of linguistics which studies human speech sounds and provides methods for the description, classification and transcription of these sounds.,1.2 Scop
4、e of phonetics,The three branches of phonetics (p.26) Articulatory phonetics（发音语音学）studies the human speech organs, and the way in which the speech sounds are produced. Acoustic phonetics (声学语音学) -transmissionAuditory phonetics（听觉语音学）-perception. Among the three branches, only articulatory phonetics
5、 is dealt with in our course.,2. Important articulators,Articulators/ speech organs The lungs and the trachea (treiki windpipe) pulmonic sounds (肺闭塞音) The resonating cavities (共鸣腔)The resonating cavities is where the airstream coming from the lungs is modified in various ways, resulting in the produ
6、ction of various sounds. Oral cavity 口腔 Nasal cavity 鼻腔 pharyngeal cavity/pharynx 咽腔,The pharyngeal cavity/pharynx (咽腔): between the top of the larynx (喉) and the soft palate) The throat contains vocal cords/folds, ventricular folds （膨胀带）and glottis声门 (the opening between the vocal cords), the movem
7、ent of which determines the quality of voicing (voiced & voiceless) and pitch(音高). The nasal cavity (鼻腔): the nose Nasal resonance(共鸣) can be produced due to the lowering the soft palate (velum), resulting the production of nasals. The oral cavity(口腔): the mouthIt contains the lips, teeth, teeth (al
8、veolar) ridge (齿龈/槽) tip of tongue, blade of tongue, hard palate, front of tongue, back of tongue, soft palate (velum), uvula, epiglottis (会厌软骨).,Important articulators,Important articulators,Position of the vocal folds: voiceless,Position of the vocal folds: voicing (initial & the widest aperture孔径
9、),Position of the vocal folds: glottal stop 喉塞音,3.Phonetic transcription,3.1 IPA IPA- International Phonetic Association or the International Phonetic Alphabet 48个国际音标发音规则,Phonetic transcription,3.2 Narrow and broad transcription The principle of the International Phonetic Alphabet is to use a separ
10、ate letter to represent a distinctive sound. As some sounds differ only slightly, symbols called diacritics1(变音符) are used to show detailed articulatory features of sounds. The phonetic transcription with diacritics is called narrow transcription. Otherwise it is a broad transcription, which is used
11、 generally in dictionaries and language textbooks. pit spring broad transcription: /pit/ /spri / narrow transcription: phit sp=ri Notes: 1 Diacritic, in linguistics, refers to a mark added to a symbol to alter its value, e.g. the sign of aspiration h, and the sign =, indicating unaspiratedness. 2 Ac
12、cording to a widely recognized convention, square brackets are used to indicate narrow transcription, and obliques broad transcription.,4. Classification of English speech sounds,4.1 Phonetic features Speech sounds can be classified into four types: voiced and voiceless, nasal and oral. (p.31) 1) Vo
13、iced and voiceless sounds (pp.29-30) Voiced soundssounds produced in the way that the airstream forces its way through and causes vocal cords to vibrate.,Voiceless soundssounds produced in the way that the airstream is not obstructed at the place between vocal cords. 2) Nasal and oral sounds (p. 31)
14、 Nasal soundssounds produced in the way that air escapes through the nose as well as the mouth. Oral soundssounds produced in the way that air escapes only through the mouth.,4. Classification of English speech sounds,4.2 Consonants and vowels 1) Consonants Consonants in English can be classified in
15、 two ways: the manner of articulation and the place of articulation.a. Manners of articulation(p32)Manners of articulation refer to the ways of articulation which result in different degrees of obstruction against the airstream, such as complete, partial, or a mere narrowing of the oral tract.,b. pl
16、ace of articulation(p32),consonants,Practice:,The consonants of English can be described in the following manner: p voiceless bilabial stop b voiced bilabial stop s voiceless alveolar fricative z voiced alveolar fricative,2) Vowels Vowelsspeech sounds in the production of which the airstream from th
17、e lungs is not blocked in any way in the mouth or nose, and the vocal cords are usually vibrated. a. Which part of the tongue is raised? front vowelscentral vowelsback vowels b. What is the shape of the lips?,rounded vowelsunrounded vowels c. Whether is the mouth open? open vowelclosed vowel; semi-o
18、pen vowelssemi-closed vowels d. What is the length of the vowels? long vowelsshort vowels e.g. the vowel i: can be described as front, unrounded, closed and long.,4. Classification of English speech sounds,2) Vowels The criteria of vowel description Classification of English vowels according to thei
19、r componential elements: single vowels, diphthongs, and triphthongs.,Jones: An Outline of English Phonetics (1918),Black: IPA Red: English,Index,5 Variation of sounds,Liasion Elision Assimilation,3 Variations of sounds 1) liaison (linking)the linking of words in speech, in particular when the second
20、 word begin with a vowel. And these words belong to the same sense-group.e.g. stand up, above all, look at it, first of all, a number of, here is it, Where is it?,2) elisionthe leaving out of a sound or sounds in speech.e.g. kindness kaindniskainnis, sit down, most probably, dont know, with that, so
21、me more tea, 我们uomenuomn/uom, 豆腐 toufutouf,3) assimilationthe process of substituting one phoneme by another, or turning two neighbouring phonemes into a new one, under the influence of the surrounding sounds.e.g. news /nju:z/, newspaper /nju:speip/, five /faiv/, fivepence /faifpans/, used /juzd/, u
22、sed to /ju:st tu/, in bed inbedimbed,Liasion :相邻的词中，前一个词的末尾是辅音，后一个词的开头是元音,Take a look at it. Ill be back in half an hour. Will it take a lot of time to go to town on foot?,为使说话流畅，词末元音可以和词首元音连读，而不停顿。,Dont worry about it. Im sorry about the accident. I have waited for you for three hours. We all agree
23、 with the plan.,连读加音： （1）外加音/j/。两词相连，前一个词以/i/ 或/i:/结尾，后一个词以/i/ 或/i:/起首，前一个词后加一个轻微的/j/音，并和后一个词连读。,You can see it. Please copy it. Say it again.,连读加音： （2）外加音/r/。两词相连，前一个词以/ 结尾，后一个词以/ / 起首，前一个音后加一个/r/音，并和后一个/ /连读。,idea of it T he vase is made of china and glass. The room has an area of 12 square meters
24、.,连读加音： （3）外加音/w/。两个元音连读，前一个元音是/u/或/u:/ 时，产生一个轻微的加音/w/，和后一个词的元音词首连读。,Dont do it. Go easy. Its too easy. The bird flew in the sky.,当两个词首尾有两个或两个以上的辅音时，为了使发音流畅，可以将这些辅音连在一起读，而不停顿。,I hope to find a good job. Hearing the bad news I couldnt help crying. I live in a two-bedroom flat with my parents.,She has
25、 been away from her own country for a long time.Shall we meet at eight tonight / or ten oclock tomorrow?,连接音/r/：单词以r或re结尾，后接元音开头的词。,意群之间有停顿时不连读,Elision 元音的省略,factory history literature,university extraordinary laboratory century interesting,British English,Phonetics: Assimilation,1.,2.,3.,Phonetics:
26、 Assimilation,4.,5.,6.,Phonetics: Assimilation,7.,8.,Assimilation in Mandarin,好啊 hao wa 海啊 hai ya 看啊 kan na 唱啊 chang 跳啊 tiao wa,Assimilation,Regressive assimilation 逆同化 -a following sound influences a preceding sound. Progressive assimilation-a preceding sound influences a following sound.,Phonology
27、,Warming-up activity: Pronounce “spring”, first with the aspirated /p/, then with the non-aspirated /p/ pride vs. bride What is Phonology? Phonologythe study or description of the distinctive sound units of a language and their relationship,Phonology,1. Phonology vs. phonetics 2. Phone, phoneme and
28、allophone 3. Minimal pairs and sets 4. Free variation 5. Distinctive features 6. syllables and consonant clusters 7. Suprasegmental features,1. Phonology vs. phonetics,The differences: 1) phoneticsgeneral, descriptive and classificatory; phonologyparticular and functional 2) phoneticsactual physical
29、 articulations of speech sounds; phonologythe abstract aspect of the sounds in a language 3) phoneticsthe means for describing speech sounds; phonologythe way in which speech sounds are combined, organized, and convey meaning in particular languages,2. Phone, phoneme and allophone,1) phonea phonetic
30、 unit, which does not necessarily distinguish meaning. e.g. pit spit 2) phonemea phonological unit, it is the smallest unit of sound in a language that can distinguish two words/meaning. e.g. pan ban /p/ /b/bet bit /e/ /i/bet bed /t/ /d/ Some points to be noticed: a. the number of phonemes varies fr
31、om one language to another. The average is around thirty-five. English has forty-four according to one common analysis. the number of phonemes varies from one language to another.English 44, Chinese 56 learning Chinese is more difficult than English,b. a phone may be a phoneme in one language but ma
32、y not in another language.“sin-thin” /s/-/ /In Chinese s is, but is not. 三岁 san sueiin English aspirated and unaspirated phones are not two phonemes but one, each occurring in a different position e.g. peakspeak. But in Chinese they are two different phonemes: 铺部, 突都, in Chinese 卷舌不卷舌 are two phonem
33、es but they are not in English. 司长师长, 交代招待, studyshtudy,3) allophonesphones which are phonetically similar but not the same and which are treated as the same in linguistic communication; or the sounds which are phonetically different but do not make one word different from another in meaning. e.g. l
34、ipplayfeel lipis made by raising the front of the tongue to the hard palate, while the vocal cords are vibrating;,playis made with the same tongue position but the vocal cords are not vibrating; feelis made by raising not only the front but also the back of the tongue while the vocal cords are vibra
35、ting. sad (long)pat (short)can (nasalized) phoneme and allophone: A phoneme is an abstract unit, not any particular sound. It may be realized by a certain phone in a certain phonetic context.,And the different phones that represent the same phoneme are its allophones. e.g., the phoneme /p/ can be re
36、alized by the following phones in different phonetic context: particulated with aspiration when followed by a stressed vowel as in “put” particulated with little aspiration when followed by an unstressed vowel as in “paper” particulated with no aspiration when the s is before it as in “speak” topsto
37、ppitcity (voiced),phoneme and allophone,Allophones （音位变体) The phones that can represent a phoneme in certain phonetic context are called its allophones. So the phones ph and p= are the allophones of the same phoneme /p/. In this case the allophones are said to be in COMPLEMENTARY DISTRIBUTION becaus
38、e they never occur in the same context. That is to say that p = always occurs after s while ph always occurs in other places. We can represent this rule as: (1) /p/ p= / s _ph elsewhere,complementary distribution,The allophones of a phoneme do not distinguish meaning or words, but complement each ot
39、her in distribution, i.e. they occur in different phonetic environments. So they are said to be in complementary distribution.,Allophone,Lead deal IN deal the tongue is curled a little backwards towards the hard palate (PALATALIZATION). We often call this “dark l“ and use the symbol in phonetic (or
40、narrow) transcription. l, as pronounced in lead, is called “clear 1“. Consequently, lead is transcribed as li:d and deal as di: phonetically. The rule is very simple: the phoneme /l/ is pronounced as l before a vowel and as i after a vowel. They are again in complementary distribution. It can be rep
41、resented as: (2) / l / l / _ V / V_,3. Minimal pairs and sets P38-39 1) minimal pair最小对立体a pair of words that differ by only a single sound in the same position. (p.335) In other words, when two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment that occurs in the same place in
42、the string, the two words are called minimal pairs. e.g. bearpear bedbad leadleak fanvan betbat siteside pill-bill, pill-till, kill-bill.,2) minimal set最小对立体集 e.g. pillbilltilldillkillfeat, fit, fate, fat, fought ,footBig, pig, rig, fig, dig, wig These words can be differentiated by changing only on
43、e phoneme. All these words together constitute a minimal set.,three requirements for identifying a minimal pair:a) the two words are different in meaning; b) the two words are different because of just one phoneme;c) the phonemes that make the two words different occur in the same phonetic environme
44、nt.,4. Free variation,Free variationwhen the same word has two or more sounds which occur in the same position without change of meaning, these sounds are called free variation. (P 39),5. Distinctive features p40,A distinctive feature is a phonetic property which can distinguish one phoneme from ano
45、ther or one group of phonemes from another group. For example, voicing is a distinctive feature for English obstruents (阻塞音), including stops, fricatives and affricates.,5 Distinctive features,Distinctive featurethe phonetic feature that distinguishes one phoneme from another in a language. The mini
46、mal pair given bellow illustrate a distinctive feature in the phonological system of English: bat/mat The difference in meaning between the two is due only to the difference in nasality between b and m. b and m are identical in all features except for the fact that b is oral (nasal) and m is nasal (
47、+nasal). Thus, nasality is a distinctive feature of English consonants.,6. Syllables and consonant clusters,6. Syllables and consonant clusters,Syllablea unit in speech which is usually longer than one sound and smaller than a whole word, e.g. terminology Different languages may have different sylla
48、ble structures. In English, the onset position may be empty or filled by a cluster of as many as three consonants (spray, scream, strange, thread), while coda position may be filled by as many as four consonants (as in sixths).,The English syllable may be represented as (C)C)C)V(C)C)C)C). Four basic patterns of syllables structures in English: a. VI b. CVtea c. VCoil d. CVCtongue The Chinese syllable, however, allows at most one consonant in the onset position and only nasals in the coda. Thus the Chinese syllable is represented as (C)V(C).,
