新编简明英语语言学教程 何兆熊 第二章笔记和习题.doc

Chapter 2 Phonology Language is primarily vocal. The primary medium of human language is sound. Linguists are not interested in all sounds, but in speech soundssounds that convey meaning in human communication. Phonetics A branch of linguistics which studies the characteristics of speech sounds and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription, e.g. [p] bilabial, stop. Three branches of phonetics Articulatory phoneticsfrom the speakers’ point of view, “how speakers produce speech sounds” the production of speech sounds. It is of our major concern Auditory phoneticsfrom the hearers’ point of view, “how sounds are perceived” the perceptive mechanism of speech sounds Acoustic phoneticsfrom the physical way or means by which sounds are transmitted from one to another. the physical properties of speech sounds The speech organs Where does the air stream come from? From the lung What is the function of vocal cords? Controlling the air stream What are the three cavities? Pharyngeal cavity the throat; The oral cavity the mouth; Nasal cavity the nose. Transcription of speech sounds A standardized and internationally accepted system of phonetic transcription is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The basic principle of the IPA is using one letter to represent one speech sound. The IPA attempts to represent each sound of human speech with a single symbol and the symbols are enclosed in brackets [ ] to distinguish phonetic transcriptions from the spelling system of a language. In more detailed transcription (narrow transcription) a sound may be transcribed with a symbol to which a smaller is added in order to mark the finer distinctions. Broad transcription used in dictionary and textbook for general purpose, without diacritics, e.g. clear [ ? ], [ pit ] Narrow transcription used by phonetician for careful study, with diacritics, e.g. dark [ l ], aspirated [ p ] Some major articulatory va