语言学第二章

Chapter 2 Speech Sounds
? Teaching aims: let the students have the general idea about phonetics and phonology.
? Focal points: description of consonants and vowels; basic knowledge about phonology
? Teaching difficulties: phoneme; allophone; minimal pair; complementary distribution
Teaching procedure
? 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 systems. Therefore, the study of speech sounds is a major part of linguistics.
? As we know, there are two branches in linguistics, which deal with speech sounds. They are phonetics (the study of sounds) and phonology (the study of sound patterns). In this chapter, we will discuss these two branches.
1. Phonetics
? 1.1 Speech production and perception
The 3 sub-branches of phonetics:
? Articulatory phonetics----the study of the production of speech sounds
? Acoustic phonetics----the study of the physical properties of the sounds produced in speech
? Auditory phonetics----the study of the perception of speech sounds
1.2 Speech organs (vocal organs)
? Speech organs: refer to the parts of the human body involved in the production of speech.
? The three cavities of the vocal tract: the pharynx (pharyngeal cavity), the mouth (oral cavity), and the nose (nasal cavity). The air- stream coming from the lungs (sources of sound energy) is modified in various ways in these cavities, resulting in the production of various sounds.



1.2.1 The pharyngeal cavity
? 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.
? Vocal folds (vocal cords): Vocal cords are two membranes, the positions of which give different sounds. Generally there are 3 positions as follow:
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 [?]

1.2.2 The oral cavity
? The oral cavity provides the greatest source of modification.
– Tongue: the most flexible
– Uvula, the teeth and the lips
– Hard palate, soft palate (velum)
– Alveolar ridge: the rough, bony ridge right behind the upper teeth
? Various obstructions created within the oral cavity lead to the production of various sounds [p] [b]; [s] [z]; [k] [g]
1.2.3 The nasal cavity
? The 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 drawn 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] [ng]
1.3 phonetic transcription 标音法
It is a method of writing down speech sounds in a systematic and consistent way.
? 1.3.1 IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)
IPA 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 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 sounds
? Broad 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.
1.4 English speech sounds
? 1.4.1 Classification
– Consonants: sounds produced by constricting and obstructing the vocal tract at some place.
– Vowels: 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 quality
? Semi-vowels ( semi-consonants) : the sounds produced with little obstruction. (also called glides or transition sounds) e.g. yet wet hot
1.4.2 Description
? Consonants (P29-33): Three parameters to identify a consonant:
– place of articulation: place in the mouth where obstruction occurs
– manners of articulation: ways in which articulation can be accomplished
– state of vocal cords: voiced VS. voiceless
The Chart of English consonants (P35)
? Vowels (P33-34): the quality of vowels depend on position of tongue and the shape of lips.

? Four criteria (parameters) of vowel description:
– the height of tongue raising: high, middle, low
– the position of highest part of the tongue :front, central, back
– the shape of the lips (the degree of lip-rounding ) : rounded, unrounded
– the length or tenseness of the vowel : tense vs. lax or long vs. short
2. Phonology
? 2.1 phonology and phonetics
Phonetics 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.
? Phonetics 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.
-continued
? Phonology is concerned with the abstract and m

ental 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.
2.2 phonemes, phones and allophones
The instance of peak & speak
? 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 phonemes distinguish meaning.

? phoneme: 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.
2.3 Minimal pairs & complementary distribution
? Phonetically similar sounds might be related in two ways. If they are two distinctive phonemes, they might form a contrast; e.g. /p/and /b/ in [pit] and [bit]; if they are allophones of the same phoneme, they don’t distinguish meaning, but complement each other in distribution, i.e. they occur in different phonetic context.
? Strictly speaking, every sound is different from every other sound. But in phonology some of the difference may be ignored
? A basic way to determine the phonemes of a language is to see if substituting one sound for another result in a change of meaning
2.3.1 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.


? Three requirements for a minimal pair:
– same number of segment
– one phonetic difference in the same place
– different meaning
? e.g. a minimal pair: lit-lip; phone-tone; pill-bill
a minimal set: beat, bit, bet, boot, but, bite
? The minimal pair test helps establish which sounds contrast in a language.
2.3.2 C

omplementary distribution
? 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.
? Not all phones in complementary distribution are considered to be allophones of the same phoneme. They must be phonetically similar and in complementary distribution. peak & skirt
2.3.3 Free variation
? A phone may sometimes have free variants.
? If two sounds occurring in the same environment do not contrast, that is, the substitution of one for the other does not produce a different word form, but merely a different pronunciation of the same word, then the two sounds are in free variation.
2.4 Distinctive features
? The features that a phoneme possesses, making it different from other phonemes, are its distinctive features.
? Distinctive features are language-specific.
? e.g. “ba” (爸) “pa”(怕)
? In Chinese, these two sounds are distinguished by aspiration , while in English they are distinguished by “voicing”
2.5 suprasegmental features
超音段特征
? The phonemic features that occur above the level of single sound segments, including:
– Syllables. a unit in speech which is often longer than one sound and smaller than a whole word; typically consist of a consonant followed by a vowel; Monosyllabic v.s Polysyllabic; Nucleus or Peak; two parts in a syllable: Rhyme/Rime & Onset, the consonant (s) after the vowel in the rime will be termed as Coda; Open & Closed Syllable (only tense vowels as long vowels and diphthongs can occur in open syllables).
suprasegmental features
– Stress. The degree of force used in producing a syllable or a word; includes both word & sentence stress, distinguishing meaning in English; stressed and unstressed syllables differ in prominence due to an increase in loudness, length, pitch.

suprasegmental features
– Tone. the pitches of words can make a difference in their meaning in some languages (called as tone language, like Chinese).
– Intonation. Plays an important role in the conveyance of meaning in almost every language. (3 tones in English: the falling tone, the rising and the fall-rise)

Coarticulation & Assimilation
The instances of [lamp] & [map]
? Coarticulation. a process by which some simultaneous and overlapping articulations are involved; Anticipatory (逆化协同发音) (far more common)/ Perseverative Coarticulation （重复性协同发音）.
? Assimilation. A process by which one sound takes on some or all the characteristics of a neighboring sound; Regressive / Progressive Assimilation; Nasalization, Dentalization, Velarization & Deviocing
Assignments for Ch. 2
? Please briefly define the following terms and answer the questions (Defining and answering in your own words or with some examples will be preferred) .
– Phonetics vs. Phonology; the vocal tract; Narrow vs. Broad transcription of sounds; a phone, a phoneme and allophones; Minimal pairs &

complementary distribution
– How to briefly describe the articulation of consonants and vowels?
– What are the suprasegmental features in most languages?