Chapter 2 The Sounds of English.doc

Chapter 2 Speech Sounds of EnglishTeaching Points 2.1 Speech organs2.2 Speech sounds2.3 Phones, phonemes and allophones2.4 Classifying English vowels2.5 Classifying English consonants2.6 English Syllables and possible words2.7 Stress, tone and intonation in English2.8 Rhythm in English1. Speech organsAs 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. phonetics and phonology.Phonetics studies how speech sounds are produced, transmitted, and perceived. Articulatory Phonetics studies speech organs and how speech sounds are made (or articulated) by vocal organs.Acoustic Phonetics is the study of the physical properties of speech sounds.Perceptual or Auditory Phonetics is concerned with the perception of speech sounds.Phonology is the study of the sound patterns and sound systems of languages.It aims to discover the principles that govern the way sounds are organized in languages, and to explain the variations that occur.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.3. Sequential rules: A possible word in English is one that contains phonemes in sequences that obey the phonotactic constrains of the language, that is, the rules govern the combination of sounds in a particular language .4. Consonants and vowels Consonants are produced by a closure in the vocal tract, or by a narrowing which is so marked that air cannot escape without producing audible friction. By contrast, a vowel is produced without such structure so that air escapes in a relatively unimpeded way through the mouth or nose. The distinction between vowels and consonants lies in the obstruction of airstream.Classifying English vowels Classifying English Consonants (1) Manner of articulation;(2) The point or place of articulation;(3) The presence or absence of voicing5. Phones, Phonemes and allophonesA phoneme is a phonological unit; it is a unit that is of distinctive value. It is an abstract unit. It is not any particular sound, but rather it is represented or realized by a certain phone in a certain phonetic context. Minimal pairsWhen 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.Three Requirements for identifying a minimal pair(1) the two words are different in meaning;(2) the two words are different because of just one phoneme; (3) the phonemes that make the two words different occur in the same phonetic environment.PhonemeThe word phoneme simply refers to a “unit of explicit sound contrast”: the existence of a minimal pair automatically grants phonemic status to the sounds responsible for the contrasts( Roca & Johnson, 1999: 53).A linguistic system is built on the idea of contrasts. By selecting one type of sound instead of another we can distinguish one word from another (Spencer, 1996: 3)Allophones The family of sounds, which are predictable phonetic variants of the same phoneme, aretechnically called the allophones.6. Suprasegmental FeaturesThe phonemes-sound segments distinguish meaning. But distinctive features can also be found running over a sequence of two or more phonemic segments. The phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments are called suprasegmental features; these are the phonological properties of such as units as the syllable, the word, and the sentence. Suprasegmental features are those aspects of speech that involve more than single sound segments. The principal suprasegmentals are: stress, tone and intonation.The syllable structure All syllables must have a nucleus but not all syllables contain an onset and a coda.A syllable that has no coda is called an OPEN SYLLBLE such the word “tea” ,“why” etc. while a syllable with coda is a CLOSED SYLLABLE, such as the word “speak”, etc.StressIt refers to the degree of force used in producing a syllable. In transcription, a raised vertical line is often used just before the syllable it relates to. Strong syllables & week syllablesPrimary vs. Secondary StressCompound stress vs. phrase stressDifferent functions of stress: It is also been observed that stress is sometimes placed on a different syllable for the different grammatical function a word plays. Sentence StressIn general situations, notional words are normally stressed while structural words are unstressed. Nevertheless, sentence stress is often used to express emphasis, surprise etc. TonePitches : different rates of vibration produce different frequencies, which are termed pitches.Pitch variations are distinctive of meaning.Pitch variations in Chinese are called tonesTones are pitch variations, which are caused by the different rates of vibration of the vocal cords. Pitch variations can distinguish meaning just like phonemes; therefore, the tone is a suprasegmental feature.English is not a tone language.Chinese is a typical tone language. IntonationIntonation involves the occurrence of recurring fall-rise patterns, each of which is used with a set of relatively consistent meanings, either on single words or on groups of words of varying length. English has four basic types of intonation, which is known as four tones: the falling tone, the fall-rise tone, and the rise-fall tone.Implication of tones in EnglishWhen spoken in different tones, the same sequence of words may have different meanings.The falling tone indicates that what is said is a straight-forward, matter-of-fact statement;The rising tone often makes a question of what is said;The fall-rise tone often indicates that there is an implied message in what is said.NucleusIntonation can make a certain part of a sentence especially prominent by placing