英语音位学.docVIP

Phonology What is phonology? The study of the sound systems of language. Phonetics vs. phonology? Phonetics General purpose: to study all possible speech sounds Specific purpose: to describe the physical properties Description techniques: manner, place, voicing Phonology General purpose: to study of the patterning of speech sounds Specific purpose a) to discover the principles that govern the way in which speech sounds are organized b) to explain the variations that occur Description techniques: minimal pairs, distinctive features Phonological Units of Language Phoneme 音位 Phoneme is a sound which is capable of distinguishing one word or one shape of a word from another in a given language. It is an abstract unit of a speech sound, a unit used in phonology The phoneme is the smallest meaning-distinguishing unit. Phonemes: / / Look at the examples. 普通话: “三”[san] →[θan] English: sin [sin] →thin[θin] Contrastive distribution 对立分布 If sounds appear in the same environment, they are said to be in contrastive distribution. Typical contrastive distribution of sounds is found in minimal pairs and minimal sets. Minimal pair A minimal pair consists of two words that differ by only one sound in the same position. bill [bil] /b/→ pill [pil] /p/ leak [li:k] /k/ →leap [li:p] /p/ beat [bi:t] /i:/ →boot [bu:t] /u:/ Minimal pairs are established on the basis of sound and not spelling. Minimal Sets Minimal sets are more than two words that are distinguished by one segment in the same position. Eg. said / set/ says / sell Three requirements for a minimal pair: same number of segments one phonetic difference in the same place different meaning Distinctive features 区别性特征 If When a feature distinguishes one phoneme from another, it is a distinctive feature. e.g. In the English sound system, one distinctive feature which distinguishes the /p/ in pin from the /b/ in bin is voice.The /b/ is a voiced stop whereas the /p/ is a voiceless stop. The principle dist