语言学概论lecture3.pptVIP

Chapter 2 Phonology 2.1 The phonic medium(语音媒介) of language Considering Questions: 1. What are the two major media of linguistic communication? Of the two, which is primary? Why? 2. Are any speech sounds meaningful? Cough? gasp? 1. The phonic medium of language refers to the limited range of sounds which are meaningful in human communication. 2. Speech sounds refers to the individual sounds within the phonic medium of language. As human beings we are capable of making all kinds of sounds, but only some of these sounds have become units in the language system. We can analyze speech sounds from various perspectives and the two major areas of study are phonetics and phonology. 2.2 Phonetics: the sounds of language 2.2.1 What’s phonetics? Describes sounds produced in any or all languages; studies how speech sounds are produced, transmitted, and perceived. What’s phonology? Describes the sounds patterns and how sounds are used to convey meanings in linguistic communication. It aims to ‘discover the principles that govern the way sounds are organized in languages, and to explain the variations that occur’. In phonology we normally begin by analyzing an individual language, say English, in order to determine its phonological structure, i.e. which sound units are used and how they are put together. Then we compare the properties of sound systems in different languages in order to make hypotheses about the rules that underlie the use of sounds in them, and ultimately we aim to discover the rules that underlie the sound patterns of all languages. Phones: sound segments音段 When we know a language, we can segment an utterance into phones We can do this even though there is no break between phones Cat has 3 phones But we don’t say k—a—t If we don’t know the language, we can’t do this segmentation Actually all language is one continuous stream of sound The tongue (and other moving parts) move gradually They don’t jump between positi