语言学资料phoneticsandphonology.docVIP

Chapter 2 Phonetics and Phonology Teaching Objectives To know the difference between phonetics and phonology To have some ideas about the classification of English consonants and vowels To understand some important concepts in phonology Time Arrangement Altogether 3 periods. 2.1 The Phonic Medium of Language Speech and writing are the two media used by natural languages as vehicles for communication. Of the two media of language, speech is more basis than writing. Language is primarily spoken. The writing system of any language is always “invented” by its users to record speech when there are needs. Language is first perceived through its sounds. Thus the study of sounds is of great importance in linguistics. Naturally, linguists are not interested in all sounds that humans are capable of producing; they are concerned with those sounds that are produced by humans through their speech organs and have a role to play in linguistic communication. These sounds are not only limited in number, but also universal to some extent. The 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. 2.2 Phonetics 2.2.1 Definition and Scope Phonetics is the scientific study of the phonic medium of language and is concerned with defining and classifying speech sounds Generally, the study of phonetics is composed of the 3 separate branches: articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, and auditory phonetics. --- aritculatory phonetics: study the sounds from the speaker’s point of view, i.e., how a speaker uses his speech organs to produce the sounds. It also deals with the identification and classification of individual sounds. --- acoustic phonetics: focus on the analysis and measurement of sound waves, the physical means by which sounds are transmitted through the air from one person to another. --- auditory phonetics: study the sounds from the hearer’s