语音学和音系学考试资料讲课教案

语音学和音系学考试
资料
Phonetics
1.The differences between consonants and vowels
Consonants are produced by constricting or obstructing the vocal tract at some place to divert, impede, or completely shut off the airflow in the cavity. However, a vowel is produced without such obstruction so no turbulence or a total stopping of the air can be perceived. The distinction between vowels and consonants lies in the obstruction of airstream.
2.Manners of articulation
It refers to the actual relationship between the articulators and thus the way in which the air passes through certain part of vocal tracts. There are several basic ways in which articulation can be accomplished: the articulators may close off the oral tract for an instant or a relatively long period; they may narrow the space considerably; or they may simply modify the shape of the tract by approaching each other.
(1). Stop: complete closure of the articulators involved so that the airstream cannot escape through the mouth. It is essential to separate three phrases in the production of a stop: (a) the closing phase, in which the articulators come together; (b)the compression phrase, during which air is compressed behind the closure; (c)the release phrase, during which the articulators forming the obstruction come rapidly apart and the air is suddenly released. In English, [p, b, t, d, k, g] are stops and [m, n,ŋ] are nasals.
(2) Fricative: close approximation of two articulators so that the airstream is partially obstructed and turbulent airflow is produced. In English, [f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, h] are fricatives.
(3)Approximant: an articulation in which one articulator is close to another, but without the vocal tract being narrowed to such an extent that a turbulent airstream is produced. The gap between the articulators is therefore larger than for a fricative and no turbulence is generated. In English, this class of sounds includes [w, r, j].
(4)Lateral: obstruction of the airstream at a pint along the center of the oral tract, with incomplete closure between one or both sides of the tongue and the roof of the mouth. [l] is the only lateral in English.
(5)Trill: produced when an articulator is set vibrating by the airstream. A major trill sound is [r], as in red.
(6)Affricates: involving more than one of these manners of articulation in that they consist of a stop followed immediately afterwards by a fricative at the same place of articulation. In English, the “ch [ tʃ ]” of cheese and the “j [dʒ]”of jet are both affricates.
3. Places of articulation
It refers to the point where in the vocal tract there is approximation, narrowing or the abstraction of air. Practically, consonants may be produced at any place between the tips and the vocal folds.
(1)Bilabial: made with the two lips. In English, bilabial sounds include [p, b, m, w], as in pet, bet, met and wet.
(2)Labiodental: made with the lower lip and the upper front teeth. Labiodental sounds include [f, v], as in fire and five.
(3)Dental: made by the tongue tip and the upper front teeth. Only frictives [θ, ð] are dental sounds.
(4)Alveolar: made with the tongue tip and the alveolar ridge. Sounds include [t, d, n, s, z, r, l] for English.
(5)Postalveolar: made with the tongue tip and the back of the alveolar ridge. Such sounds include [ʃ, ʒ,], as in ship and pleasure.
(6)Patatal: made with the front to the tongue and the hard palate. The only English sound made here is [j], as in yes and yet.
(7)Velar: made with the black of the tongue and the soft palate. Examples in English are velar stops [k, g], as in cat and get, and velar nasal [ŋ], as in sing.
(8)Glottal: made with the two pieces of vocal folds pushed towards each other. The only glottal is [h] in hat and head.
4.Description of the consonants (必考)
[p] voiceless bilabial stop [b] voiced bilabial stop
[s] voiceless alveolar fricative [z] voiced alveolar fricative
[m] bilabial nasal; [j] palatal approximant
[h] glottal fricative [l] alveolar lateral
5. Cardinal Vowels
The cardinal vowels are a set of vowel qualities arbitrarily defined, fixed and unchanging, intended to provide a frame of reference for the description of the actual vowels of existing languages.
6. Three types of vowels
According to the quality of production, there are 3 types of vowels. The first one is monophthong, whose quality of production is unchangeable movement; the second one is diphthong, whose quality of production is a single change movement; and the last one is triphthong, whose quality of production is 2 change movements, such as tower /ˈtaʊə(r)/.
7. 短元音发音是会受到清辅音和浊辅音的影响，后面是浊辅音是元音长；后面是清辅音时，元音短。

如：bit/bid; beat/bead; dot/dog; bat/ bag.
8. The description of vowels（必考）
●the height of tongue raising(high, mid, low)
●the position of the highest part of the tongue(front, central, back)
●the length or tenseness of the vowel(tense & lax or long & short )
●lip-rounding(rounded & unrounded)
[i:] high front tense unrounded vowel
[u] high back lax rounded vowel
[ɒ] low back lax rounded vowel
9. Coarticulation（可能会考）
When such simultaneous or overlapping articulations are involved, we call the process coarticulation. If the sound becomes more like the following sound, as in the case of lamb, it is known as anticipatory coarticulation. If the sound displays the influence of the preceding sound, it is perseverative coarticulation, as is the case of map. Practically, anticipatory coarticulation effects are far more common than perseverative coarticulation effects.
10. Broad and Narrow Transcription
When we use a simple set of symbols [æ] in our transcription, it is called a broad transcription. The use of more specific symbols [æ] to show more phonetic detail is referred to as a narrow transcription.
11. Suprasegmental features—those aspects of speech that involve more than single consonant or vowel. The principal suprasegmentals are syllables, stress, tone and intonation.
12. The syllable structure（必考）
In English, a word may be monosyllabic (with one syllable, like cat and dog) or polysyllabic (with more than one syllable, like transportation and syllable). A syllable must have a nucleus. But sometimes it is also possible for a consonant to play the part of a nucleus. In the second syllable there is only the syllabic consonant[l] to function as the nucleus. Consonants [m, n] also have such functions in English, as in bottom /ˈbɒtm/ and
cottonˈ/kɒtn /.
We can divide a syllable into two parts, the rhyme and the onset. As the vowel within the rhyme is the nucleus, the consonant(s) after it will be termed the coda.
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 while a syllable with coda is known as closed syllable.
In English, the onset position may be empty or filled by a cluster of as many as three consonants, while the coda position may be filled by as many as four consonants (as in sixths /sɪksθs/). For this matter, the English syllable may be represented as CCCVCCCC. While in the Chinese syllable, it allows at most one consonant in the onset position and only nasals [n,ŋ] in the coda. So the Standard Chinese syllable is represented as CVC.
When there is a choice as to where to place a consonant, it is put into the onset rather than coda, such as telling. This phenomena is called Maximal Onset Principle (MOP).
Phonology
1. The differences between phonetics and phonology(必考)
Phonetics is the theory of the production, transmission, perception, description, classification and transcription of speech sounds.
Phonology is concerned with the linguistic patterning of sounds in sounds in human languages, with its primary aim being to discover the principles that govern the way sounds are organized in languages, and to explain the variations that occur.
Take tea and too as an example. Phoneticians are concerned with how the two/t/s differ in the way they are pronounced. It is general, descriptive and classificatory, which studies speech sounds as they are. While phonologists are interested in patterning of the two sounds and the rules that underlie such variations. It studies the sound systems of languages, which is particularly abstract and distinctive, revealing the functioning of the speech sounds.
2. What are phone, phonemes and allophones?（必考）
(1) Phone is a minimal sound unit that human organ can produce. It can not distinguish meanings but can show the subtle change of sounds. It is a phonetic unit, usually represented by [ ]. This is called phonetic transcription, which is also called narrow transcription, such as pit [p ] (aspirated) and spit [p ] (unaspirated).
(2) A phoneme is a phonological unit, the smallest distinctive and abstract collection of phonetic features which can distinguish meanings. Therefore, /p/, /b/, /e/, /i/ in pit/bit, and pet/pit are all English phonemes, represented by “/ /”. This is called phonetic transcription, which is also called broad transcription.
(3) Allophones are the phones that can represent a phoneme. Take pit [p ] (aspirated) and spit [p ] (unaspirated) as an example. [p ] and [p ] are two different phones and variation of phoneme /p/. They called the allophones of the same phoneme /p/.
3. Assimilation（必考）
Assimilation is a phonological term, which is often used synonymously with coarticulation, a phonetic term. It refers to process in which one sound takes on some or all the characteristics of a neighboring sound. There are 2 possibilities of assimilation: if a following sound is influencing a preceding sound, we call it regressive assimilation, eg: lamb; if a preceding sound is influencing a following sound, we call it progressive assimilation, eg: map.。