Chapter 2 Phonetics and__ Phonology

Chapter 2 Phonetics and PhonologyThe phonic medium of language:Sounds which are meaningful in human communication constitute the phonic medium of language.Speech and writing are the two media or substances used by natural languages as vehicles for communication.Speech is more basic than writing.Language is first perceived through its sounds. Naturally, linguists are concerned only with those sounds that are produced by humans through their speech organs and have a role to play in linguistic communication. These sounds are limited in number. This limited range of sounds which are meaningful in human communication constitute the phonic medium of language; and the individual sounds within this range are the speech sounds.1 PhoneticsPhonetics studies how speech sounds are produced, transmitted, and perceived.Phonetics looks at speech sounds from three distinct but related points of view: Articulatory phonetics（发音语音学）Auditory phonetics （听觉语音学）Acoustic phonetics （声学语音学）For the purpose of this course, we will concentrate only on Articulatory Phonetics, which deals with how sounds are produced and ignore the other areas of study.Articulatory phonetics----the study of the production of speech soundsFrom the speaker’s point of view: how a speaker uses his speech organs to articulate the sounds, which results in articulatory phonetics.Auditory phonetics----the study of the perception of speech soundsFrom the hearer’s point of view:how the sounds are perceived by the hearer, which results in auditory phonetics.Acoustic phonetics----the study of the physical properties of the sounds produced in speech From the way sounds travel: how sounds travel by looking at the sound saves, the physical means by which sounds are transmitted through the air from one person to another, which results in acoustic phonetics.1.2 Speech organs (vocal organs)The parts of the human body involved in the production of speech.The three cavities of the vocal tract:the pharyn / throat (pharyngeal cavity) 咽腔,the mouth (oral cavity) 口腔,the nose (nasal cavity) 鼻腔.The air- stream coming from the lungs is modified in various ways in these cavities, resulting in the production of various sounds.发音器官的构造及其作用世界上所有的声音都是物体振动产生的声波在介质中传递的结果，因此声音的产生离不开振动的动力、振动的源头和振动的共鸣腔。

语音说到底也是一种声音，因而也离不开振动的动力、源头和共鸣腔，只不过语音是由人类的发音器官各部分协同动作所产生的，研究语音的产生，就必须首先了解发音器官的构造和功能。

人类的发音器官可以分为三大部分：呼吸器官、喉头声带与声腔（口腔、鼻腔与咽腔），我们详细介绍各部分的构造和功能。

1 呼吸器官呼吸器官主要包括肺、气管和支气管。

肺部的收缩和扩张可以产生呼气和吸气的气流变化，这种气流变化不仅为人类的生存提供氧气和二氧化碳的交换，而且为语音的发出提供了振动的动力。

世界上多数语言的语音利用呼气作为动力，非洲有些语言还利用吸气发音。

2 喉头和声带喉头由软骨构成，呈圆筒状，上接咽腔，下接气管，喉头的外表就是喉结。

喉头软骨构成的“圆筒”中有一对声带，声带是两片富有弹性的唇性肌肉，其前后两端都粘附在软骨上。

两片声带之间的空隙叫声门，声门又可以分为音门和气门两部分。

由于肌肉的松弛紧缩和软骨的开合回转，声带可以放松或拉紧，声门可以打开和关闭，从而产生不同的气流状态。

声带的两小片肌肉可以在气流的冲击下振动，这种振动产生了语音中的浊音。

所以声带的主要作用是振动的源头之一--浊音的音源。

3 声腔声腔包括口腔、鼻腔和咽腔三部分。

口腔可分为上下两个部分，上面部分包括上唇、上齿、齿龈、硬腭、软腭和小舌。

齿龈是上腭前段凸出的部分，硬腭是齿龈之后口腔上壁坚硬的部分，软腭是硬腭后面的柔软部分。

软腭后面连接的是小舌，软腭与小舌可以上下移动。

口腔的下面部分包括下唇、下齿和舌头。

舌头是口腔里最重要、最灵活的器官，它可以分为舌尖、舌叶、舌面三部分。

舌尖位于舌头的最前端，舌头自然平伸时，舌尖后面与齿龈相对的部分叫舌叶。

舌叶之后的部分叫舌面，又可以分为前、中、后三部分。

其中相对于硬腭的部分是舌面前和舌面中，相对于软腭的部分是舌面后，舌面后又可以叫舌根。

鼻腔位于口腔的上方，好像一个是楼上，一个是楼下，上腭就是楼板，而软腭带动小舌就像一扇活动的楼门。

咽腔位于喉头的上面，是一个管状的三岔口，上通鼻腔，前通口腔，下通喉头和食道。

在上述各发音器官中，有些器官如唇、舌、软腭、小舌、声带等是能活动的，叫作主动发音器官；有些器官如上齿、齿龈、硬腭等是不能活动的，叫作被动发音器官。

我们发音的时候，常由主动发音器官向被动发音器官接触或靠近，让气流冲击产生振动而发音。

声腔是人类最重要的发音器官，声腔中又以口腔及其中的各种器官作用最大。

The pharyngeal cavityLarynx(喉): a t the top of the trachea, the front of which is the Adam’s apple. This is the first place where sound modification might occur.vocal folds (vocal cords)(声带): V ocal cords are two membranes, the positions of which gives different sounds.When the vocal cords are apart, the air can pass through easily and the sound produced is said to be voiceless. e.g. [p, s, t ]When they are close together, the airstreams causes them to vibrate and produces voiced sounds. e.g. [b, z, d]When they are totally closed, no air can pass between them, then produce the glottal stop [?]The oral cavityThe oral cavity provides the greatest source of modification.tongue: the most flexibleuvula(小舌),the teeth and the lipshard palate(硬腭),soft palate (velum)alveolar/teeth ridge (the alveolus)(齿龈):the rough, bony ridge immediately behind the upper teethV arious obstructions created within the oral cavity lead to the production of various sounder [p] [b]; [s] [z]; [k] [g]The nasal cavityThe nasal cavity is connected to the oral cavity at the back of the mouth .The soft part of the roof of the mouth, the velum (soft palate) can be draw back to close the passage so that the air can only go through the mouth and produce vowels and most consonants. The passage can also be left open to allow air to exit through the nose and produce nasal consonants [m] [n] [g]1.3 Orthographic representation of speech sounds(语音的正字表征)---broad and narrow transcriptionsOrthographic representation of speech sounds is a method of writing down speech sounds in a systematic and consistent way.1.3.1 IPA (International phonetic Alphabet) 国际音标IPA: the abbreviation of International Phonetic Alphabet, which is devised by the International Phonetic Association in 1888 on the basis of the phonetic alphabet proposed at the time. It is a standardized and internationally accepted system of phonetic transcription.The Danish grammarian Jespersen first proposed the idea in 1886.The first version of IPA was published in August 1888.The latest version was devised in 1993 and corrected in 1996.The basic principle: using a separate letter selected from major European languages for each distinctive sound and the same symbol should be used for that sound in any language in which it appears.1.3.2 Two ways to transcribe speech soundsBroad transcription: transcription with letter-symbols only. This is the transcription normally used in dictionaries and teaching textbooks.Narrow transcription: transcription with letter-symbols together with the diacritics. This is the transcription required and used by the phoneticians in their study of speech sounds.Diacritics: A set of symbols added to the letter-symbols to show that it has a sound value different from that of the same letter without the mark.Examples in textbooks P17-181.4 English speech sounds1.4.1 ClassificationConsonants: sounds produced by constricting and obstructing the vocal tract at some place.V owels: sounds produced with no obstruction.pure vowels (monophthong)—vowels where the quality remains constant throughout the articulation.vowel glides----vowels where there is an audible change of qualitySemi-vowels ( semi-consonants) : the sounds produced with little obstruction.(also called glides or transition sounds)e.g. yet wet hot1.4.2 Description of English consonantsConsonants (P18-20)Three parameters to identify a consonant:①place of articulation: place in the mouth where obstruction occurs②manners of articulation: ways in which articulation can be accomplished③state of vocal cords: voiced VS. voicelessManner of articulationstop (or Plosive) --- 塞音；爆破音fricative --- 擦音affricates --- 塞擦音liquids --- 流音nasals --- 鼻音glides --- 滑音Place of articulationbilabial --- 双唇音labiodental --- 唇齿音dental --- 齿音alveolar --- 齿龈音palatal --- 腭音velar --- 软腭音glottal --- 喉音1.4.3 Description of English vowelsVowels (P20-21)the quality of vowels depend on position of tongue and the shape of lips.Four criteria (parameters) of vowel description:①the height of tongue raising: high, middle, low②the position of highest part of the tongue :front, central, back③the shape of the lips (the degree of lip-rounding ) : rounded, unrounded④the length or tenseness of the vowel : tense vs. lax or long vs. short2. Phonology2.1 Phonology and phoneticsPhonetics and phonology are the two disciplines dealing with speech sounds. While both are related to the study of sounds, they differ in their approach and focus. Phonetic studies how speech sounds are made, transmitted and received. Phonology, on the other hand, is essentially the description of the systems and patterns of speech sounds. It aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.Phonology is concerned with the abstract and mental aspect of the sounds in language rather than with the actual physical articulation of speech sounds.Phonological knowledge permits a speaker to produce sounds which form meaningful utterance, to recognize a foreign accent, to make up new words.See examples in textbook P232.2 Phone, phoneme and allophonePhone 音素Phoneme 音位Allophone 音位变体Phone: the speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. It’s a phonetic unit or segment. (in the mouth)Conventionally, phones are placed within square brackets “[ ]” (phonetic transcription) Phones do not necessarily distinguish meaning. Usually phones of different phonemesdistinguish meaning.e.g. [s] and [t] do ---- seem ; team[th ] and [t] don’t ---- stopPhoneme: A sound which is capable of distinguishing one word or one shape of a word from another in a given language is a phoneme. It’s a basic unit in phonological analysis.It is not any particular sound, but an abstract segment. In actual speech, a phoneme is realized phonetically as a certain phone. (the sound type in the mind)The phoneme is the smallest meaning-distinguishing unit.Phonemes are placed in slashes “/ / ”(phonemic transcription)e.g. Neither the sound [p] in pit or the sound [b] in bit is a phoneme. They are phones;they are the phonetic realization of the phoneme /p/ and /b/.Allophone: when we have a set of phones, all of which are versions of one phoneme, we refer to them as the allophones of that phoneme.One phoneme may have several allophones, but the choice of an allophone is rule-governed.e.g. peak [phi:k], speak [spi:k] , [ph, p] are two different phones(音素) and are variants ofthe phoneme /p/. Such variants of a phoneme are called allophones（音位变体）of the same phoneme.2.3 Phonemic contrast, complementary distribution, and minimal pairs2.3.1 Phonemic contrast 音位对立It can be easily observed that phonetically similar sounds might be related in two ways. If they are two distinctive phonemes, they are said form a phonemic contrast, e.g. /p/ and /b/ in [pit] and [bit].2.3.2 Complementary distribution 互补分布Not all speech sounds occur in the same environment, when the two sounds never occur in the same environment they are said to be in complementary distribution.If they are allophones of the same phoneme, then they do not distinguish meaning, but complement each other in distribution, i.e. they occur in different phonetic environment .So the allophones are said to be in complementary distributionNot all phones in complementary distribution are considered to be allophones of the same phoneme. They must be phonetically similar and in complementary distribution.2.3.3 Minimal pairs 最小对立体When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment, which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two sound combinations are said to form a minimal pair.When two words such as pat and bat are identical in form except for a contrast in one phoneme, occurring in the same position, the two words are described as a minimal pair.Minimal pairs are established on the basis of sound and not spelling.Note: Three requirements for a minimal pair1 Same number of segment2 One phonetic difference in the same place3 Different meaninga minimal pair : lit-lip; phone-tone; pill-billa minimal set: beat, bit, bet, boot, but, biteThe minimal pair test helps establish which sounds contrast in a language.2.3.4 Distinctive FeaturesSpeech sounds are divided into classes according to a number of properties. One important property is voicing, which plays an important part in distinguishing obstruents （阻塞音）in English. Because voicing can distinguish one phoneme from another, it is a distinctive feature for English obstruents.There are other features too and many of them are binary features(二分特征)because we can group them into two categories: one with this feature and the other without. (±voiced, ±nasal) Obstruents: stops, fricatives, affricates Sonorants: all other consonants and vowelse.g. /p/: [＋voiced] /b/: [－voiced]Distinctive feature table for English consonant phonemesp b t d k g f v s z m n l r CONSONANTS +APPROX -NASAL -LATERAL -VOICED - +2.4 Some rules in phonology2.4.1 Sequential rulesThe pattering of sounds in a particular language is governed by rules. The phonological system determines which phonemes can begin a word, end a word, and follow each other.The rules that govern the combination of sounds in a particular language are called sequential rules.The rules governing the phonological pattering are language specific. What is not permissible in English might be permissible in another language.See some examples in textbook P26--272.4.2 Assimilation ruleThe assimilation rule assimilates one sound to another “copying” a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones similar.When we speak, we tend to increase the ease of articulation. This “sloppy”tendency may become regularized as rules of language.The sound assimilation is actually reflected in the spelling in most cases.See examples in textbook P272.4.3 Deletion ruleDeletion rule tells us when a sound is to be deleted although it is orthographically represented.See examples in textbook P28.2.5 Suprasegmental features 超切分特征/超音段特征The phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments are called suprasegmental features; these are the phonological properties of such units as the syllable, the word, and the sentence. The main suprasegmental features include: Stress（重音）: word stress & sentence stressTone （音调）Intonation （语调）2.5.1 StressStress: the degree of force used in producing a syllable.A raised vertical line is used to indicate stress. The location of stress in Englishdistinguish meaning.Stressed: more prominent due to an increase in loudness, length or pitch.Stress may change over history and exhibit regional or dialectal differences. integral, formidable, controversy/ laboratory, garageStress is sometimes placed on a different syllable for the different grammatical function a word plays.Alternations of stress often occur between compounds and phrases. b lackboard, black birdThere are primary and secondary stress for long words. EpiphenomenalIn general situations notional words are normally stressed while structural words are unstressed.Sentence stress is often used to express emphasis, surprise etc., so that in principle stress may fall on any word or any syllable.e.g. John bought a red bicycle.More examples in textbook P29--30SyllableThe syllable structure: Different languages has different kinds of syllables. In Chinese, syllables typically consist of a consonant followed by a vowel. In English, a word may be monosyllabic (单音节)(with one syllable) and polysyllabic(多音节)(with more thanone syllable).A syllable must have a nucleus(核心) or peak(峰), which is often the task of a vowel. Wecan divide a syllable into two parts, the rhyme(韵基)and the onset(节首).The vowel within the rhyme is the nucleus（核心）, the consonant(s) after it will be termed the coda(韵尾).All syllables must have a nucleus but not all syllables contain an onset and a coda. A syllable that has no coda is called an open syllable(开音节) while a syllable with coda is known as closed syllable(闭音节).Only tense vowels (long vowels and diphthongs) can occur in open syllables.Open syllable: bar, tieClosed syllable: bard, tiedEnglish Syllable: (((C)C)C)V((((C)C)C)C)Chinese syllable: (C)V(C)2.5.2 ToneTones are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords. Pitch variations can distinguish meaning just like phonemes; therefore the tone is suprasegmental feature. The meaning-distinctive function of the tone is especially important in what we call tone languages.See examples in textbook P31.2.5.3 IntonationWhen pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as intonation. Intonation plays an important role in the conveyance of meaning in almost every language, especially a language like English.English has four basic types of intonation:the falling tone: indicates a statementthe rising tone: indicates a questionthe fall-rise tone: indicates an implied messagethe rise-fall toneKeys to Exercises1 Speech and writing are the two major media of linguistic communication. Of the two media of language, speech is more primary than writing.2 V oicing is a quality of speech sounds and a feature of all vowels and some of consonants in English. It is caused by the vibration of the vocal cords.4 English consonants can be classified in two ways: one is in terms of manner of articulation and the other is in terms of place of articulation. In terms of manner of articulation the English consonants can be classified into the following types: stops, fricatives, affricates, liquids, nasals and glides. In terms of place of articulation, it can be classified into following types: bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, palatal, velar and glottal.5 ⑴V owels may be distinguished as front, central and back according to which part of the tongue id held highest.⑵To further distinguish members of each group, we need to apply another, i.e. the openness of the mouth. Accordingly, we classify the vowels into four groups: close vowels, semi-close vowels, semi-open vowels and open vowels.⑶A third criterion that is often used in the classification of vowels is the shape of the lips. In English all the front vowels and the central vowels are unrounded vowels, i.e. without rounding the lips, and all the back vowels, with the exception of [a:] are rounded. It should be noted that some front vowels can be pronounced with rounded lips.6 (1) [dʒ] (2) [ f ] (3) [ d ](4) [ i ] (5) [ɔ: ] (6) [ p ](1) voiced alveolar stop(2) voiced alveolar liquid(3) voiceless palatal affricate(4) voiced bilabial glide(5) back, close, short(6) front, open7 (1) Both phonology and phonetics are concerned with the same aspect of language-the speech sounds. But while both are related to the study of sounds, they differ in their approach and focus. 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 from each other, what phonetic features they possess, how they can be classified, etc. Phonology, on the other hand, aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.(2) A phonologist will be more interested in it. Because one of the tasks of the phonologists is to find out rules that governs the distribution of [ph] and [p], a clear [l] and a dark [l].（In fact, we can’t find an exact answer to this question because we can study the above differentphones both phonetically and phonologically.）8 A phone is a phonetic unit or segment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during communication are all phones.A phoneme is not any particular sound, but rather it is represented or realized by a certain phone in a certain phonetic context. The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called the allophones of that phoneme. For example, the phoneme /p/ in English can be realized as [p] and [ph], which are allophones of the phoneme /p/.9 (1) Rules that govern the combination of sounds in a particular language are called sequential rules.(2) The assimilation rule assimilates one sound to another by “copying” a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones similar. Assimilation of neighbouring sounds is, for the most part, caused by articulatory or physiological processes. When we speak, we tend to increase the ease of articulation. This “sloppy”tendency may become regularized as rules of language.(3) Deletion rule tells us when a sound is to be deleted although it is orthographically represented.10 The phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments are called suprasegmental features. The main suprasegmental features includes stress, intonation and tone.The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning. There are two kinds of stress: word stress and sentence stress. For example, a shift of stress may change the part of speech of a word from a noun to a verb although its spelling remains unchanged.Tones are pitch variations which can distinguish meaning just like phonemes.Intonation plays an important role in the conveyance of meaning in almost every language, especially in a language like English. When spoken in different tones, the same sequence of words may have different meanings.。