Chapter 2 The Sounds of Language - Teaching Plan.doc

Chapter 2The Sounds of LanguageObjectivesThe students will learn some universally recognized findings both in phonetics and phonology so that they will have a scientific access to observing and thus adjusting their future students English pronunciation as well as their own.Students will be able to1) distinguish phonetics and phonology,2) recognize important speech organs and describe their functions during articulation,3) make a phonetic description of any English speech sound,4) understand some basic phonological termsKey Points1) Differences between phonetics and phonology2) Articulators and their functions3) Classification of English speech sounds4) Phonological processesTime required: 80 minutesProcedurePart 1 Phonetics(40 minutes)1. Warming-up tasks (10 minutes)Pair discussion:1) List some Chinese speech sounds that are not included in standard English speech system. And then do it the other way round.2) How do you classify English speech sounds? And what are your criteria?3) When you are producing the word coach, what speech organs do you think are involved? Please try to picture what is going on in your vocal tract when you are producing coach and describe the movement of the articulators involved.2. Scopes of phonetics (2 minutes)3. Important articulators and their functions (6 minutes)2） Show the graphic representation of human articulatory system and introduce the basic articulatory process.(PPT Cutaway View of Articulator System)3） Show the list of seven major articulators and ask the students to list their respective functions without referring to the textbook.a) Pharynxb) Velumc) Hard palated) Alveolar ridge / alveolume) Tongue (tip, blade, front, back, root)f) Teeth (upper and lower)g) Lips4. Phonetic transcription (2 minutes)4） Introducing IPA5） Narrow and broad transcription Respective definitions Diacritic Square brackets and obliques Examples5. Classification of English speech sounds (30 minutes)6） Basic difference between English consonants and vowels7） Classification of English vowels8） English consonants: place of articulation and manner of articulationPart 2 Phonology6. Warming-up activity (5 minutes)Pronounce the word “spring”, first with the aspirated /p/, then with the non-aspirated /p/, leading students to realize that the two varieties of /p/ do not change meaning, and that the analysis itself is phonological.7. Definition of phonology (3 minutes)8. Some basic notions in phonology (15 minutes)1） Phone, phoneme and allophone2） Minimal pairs and sets3） Free variation4） Distinctive features5） Suprasegmental features9. Questioning and summarizing (7 minutes)1) Listen to the students questions, giving answers to two or three or them. Identify some typical ones and leave them as topics for students after-class discussion.2) Assignments: Excises and discussion questions.10Lecture NoteI. Phonetics1. Scope of phonetics1.1 Defining phoneticsPhonetics is the branch of linguistics which studies the characteristics of speech sounds and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription.1.2The three branches of phoneticsArticulatory phonetics（发音语音学） studies the human speech organs, andthe way in which the speech sounds are produced.Acoustic phonetics (声学语音学)deals with the physical properties of the speech sounds; it studies the sound waves through the use of such machines as a spectrograph. (Frequency)Auditory phonetics （听觉语音学） is the study of the perception of sounds by the human ear. (Pitch)2. The vocal (speech) organs Parts of human body involved in the production of speech2.1The lungs and the trachea ( treikiEwindpipe) pulmonic sounds (肺闭塞音)2.2The resonating cavities (共鸣腔)The pharyngeal cavity/pharynx: between the top of the larynx (喉) and the soft palate) (咽腔)The throat (larynx) - vocal cords/folds, ventricular folds （膨胀带）andglottis (the opening between the vocal cords) (the quality of voicing andvoicelessness/voiced & voiceless sound(浊 / 清音), pitch(高音)The nasal cavity (鼻腔): the nose- nasal resonance(共鸣) due to the lowering the soft palate (velum): nasalsThe oral cavity(口腔): the mouth- lips, teeth, teeth (alveolar) ridge （齿龈/槽）tip of tongue, blade of tongue, hard palate, front of tongue, back of tongue, soft palate (velum), uvula, epiglottis (会厌软骨)3. Phonetic transcription3.1(The) IPAthe abbreviated form of the International Phonetic Association or the International Phonetic Alphabet (36-38)International Phonetic Association (IPA) is an organization founded in 1886by a group of European phoneticians to promote the study of phonetics. In 1888, it published the first version of International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), which, in modified and expanded form, is today the most widely used system for transcribing the sounds of a language.3.2Narrow and broad transcriptionTheprinciple of the International Phonetic Alphabet is to use a separate letter to represent a distinctive sound. As some sounds differ only slightly, symbols called diacritics (变音符) are used to show detailed articulatory features of sounds. The phonetic transcription with diacritics is called narrow transcription. Otherwise it is a broad transcription, which is used generally in dictionaries and language textbooks. The following examples illustrate the two transcriptions of the same words:words: pit spring feel laterbroad transcription: /pit/ /spriN/ /f i:l/ /5leit/narrow transcription:p h itsp=riN f1:1 5leiD*According to a widely recognized convention, square brackets are used to indicate narrow transcription, and obliques broad transcription.*Diacritic, in linguistics, refers to a mark added to a symbol to alter its value, e.g. the sign of aspiration h4. Classification of English speech sounds4.1Consonants and vowelsThe basic difference between these two classes is that in the production of the former the airstream meets with no obstruction of any kind in the throat, the nose, or the mouth, while in that of the latter it is somehow obstructed.4.2Consonants4.2.1 Manners of articulation:The ways of articulation which result in different degrees of obstruction against the airstream, such as complete, partial, or a mere narrowing of the oral tract.plosives (stops)-/p, b, t, d, k, g/ (oral); /m, n,N ) / (nasal)fricatives-f,v,s, z, W,T,F,V,haffricates-/tF, dV/approximants (glides)(无摩擦延续音或滑音)-/ w, j / (also semivowels)laterals (liquids)-/ l, r /(altogether 24或25)4.2.2 Places of articulation:The (different parts of the vocal organs, which are involved in causing the obstruction of the airstream in the production of consonantsbilabial-/p, b, m, w /labiodental-/f, v/postalveolar-/F, V, tF, dV /palatal-/j / (上外书中，此两类和为后者)velar-/k,g, N /glottal-/ h / (altogether 22 + 2)Place of articulationManner of articulationBilabialLabio-DentalDentalAlveolarPalato-alveolarPalatalVelarGlotalPlosive (清) (浊)pbtdkFricative (清) (浊)fvszhAffricate (清) (浊)NasalmnLaterallApproximantwrj4.3Vowels4.3.1 The criteria of vowel description4.3.2 Single vowelsClassified according to the position of the highest part of tongue:Variable 1. The shape of the lips:front vowels-/ i:, i, e/Z, A/a /central vowels-/:, , Q/back vowels/u:, u, C:,C, a:, Q /Classified according to the degree of lip rounding:unrounded vowels-/i:, i, e./Z, A/a, :, , a:, Q/rounded vowels-/u:, u, C:,C/Classified according to the tension of muscles, or the length of sounds:tense vowels -/ i:, :, u:, C:, a: /(long)lax vowels -/ i, e /Z, A/a, ,u, C, Q /(short)4.3.3 Diphthongs Produced by moving from one vowel position to another ei, ai, au, u /ou, Ci, i, e/Z, uII. Phonology1. Phonetics and phonology Phonetics studies the production and characteristics of speech sounds, and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription.Phonology is the study of sound systems of languages, which is concerned with the linguistic patterning of sounds in human languages, with its primary aim being to discover the principles that govern the way sounds are organized in languages, and to explain the variations that occur.Phonetics is the study . while phonology studies . (54)2. Phone, phoneme and allophone2.1PhonePhone is a term used in phonetics to refer to the smallest perceptible discrete segment of sound in a stream of speech. Phones do not necessarily distinguish meaning. For example, while the phones i: and i do as in bi:t and bit, ph and p= obviously dont as in sphit and sp=it.2.2PhonemeA phoneme is the minimal unit in the sound system of a language, according to traditional phonological theories; it is a unit that is of distinctive value. A phoneme 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. For example, the phoneme /p / is represented differently in p h it and sp it. The notion of phoneme allowed linguists to group together sets of phonetically similar phones as variants or members of the same underlying unit. (To follow the convention, square brackets are used to indicate phones, and obliques phonemes.)2.3AllophonesThe phones that can represent a phoneme are called its allophones. So p h and p= are the allophones of the same phoneme /p/.The phenomenon of variation in the pronunciation of phonemes in different positions is called allophony or allophonic variation.3. Minimal pair, phonemic contrast, and complementary distribution3.1Minimal pair(最小对立体)When two different words are identical in every way except for one sound segment which. occurs in the same place in the string, the two words are said to have formed a minimal pair, like pill/bill, pill/ill, and kill/bill.All the words that are identical in form except for one sound segment occurring in the same place in the string together constitute a minimal set.The minimal pairs test is one of the early discovery procedures used in phonology to identify phonemes, sound units that are of distinctive value.3.2Phonemic contrastIftwo sounds sharing phonetic similarities are two distinctive phonemes, i. e. if they distinguish meaning, they are said to form a phonemic contrast, like /p/ and /b/, which are in contrastive distribution.3.3Complementary distribution Iftwo sounds sharing phonetic similarities are allophones of the same phoneme, i.e. if they do not distinguish meaning, but complement each other in distribution, they are said to be in complementary distribution.4. Distinctive featuresAdistinctive feature is a phonetic property which can distinguish one phoneme from another. For example, voicing is a distinctive feature for English obstruents, including stops, fricatives and affricates.5. Phonological processesAphonological process is a process by which one sound (the target or affected segment) undergoes a structural change under the influence of a neighboring sound.5.1AssimilationAssimilation is a type of phonological process by which one sound takes on some or all the characteristics of a neighboring sound.Assimilation is often used synonymously with coarticulationTypes of assimilation: nasalization, dentalization, velarization; devoicing5.2Phonological rulesAphonological rule specifies the phonetic environment in which a phonological process takes place. Take the nasalization rule for example.Thenasalization rule reads: within a word, the nasal consonant assumes the same place of articulation as the following consonant.Thisrule accounts for the varying pronunciation of the nasal /n/ that occurs within a word. For example, indiscrete-alveolar in ;inconceivable-velar iN; input- bilabial im. The sound assimilation is actually reflected in spelling in most cases, e.g. impossible, illegal, irrelevant, etc.5.3Rule orderingRule ordering refers to the fact that in a phonological process, the rules governing the change in the pronunciation are applied in a particular order.5.4 Deletion ruleThe deletion rule tells us when a sound is to be deleted although it is orthographically represented. For example, the letter g is mute in sign and paradigm, while it is pronounced in the corresponding derivatives of these words signature and paradigmatic. The rule can be stated as: delete a g when it occurs before a final nasal consonant.6. Suprasegmental phonology (超语段音位学)Suprasegmental phonology refers to the study of phonological properties of units larger than the segment-phoneme, such as the syllable, word and sentence.6.1Syllables6.1.1 The syllable structure:(Onset节首辅音) + Rhyme( =Nucleus/Peak (Coda 结尾辅音)c c c v c c c c* Sequential rulesApart from identifying the phonemes of a language, phonologist also has to find out in what way the phonemes can be combined.The rules governing the combination of sounds in a particular language arecalled sequential rules. In English, for example, if three consonants should cluster together at the beginning of a word, the combination should obey the following three rules:1.the first phoneme must be /s/2.the second phoneme must be /p/ or /t/or /k/3.the third phoneme must be /l/ or /r/ or /w/.6.2StressIn English and many other languages, one or more of the syllables in each content word (words other than the “little words” like to, a, the, of, and so on) are stressed. This is called word stress. The stressed syllable is marked by “Q”, for example, China QtFainL. In some words, more than one vowel is stressed, but if so, one of these stressed vowels receives greater stress than the others. We say this vowel receives the primary stress or main stress; the other stressed vowels receive secondary stress, which is marked by “R”, for examples, revolution RrevLQluPFn. Stress may also have a function at the sentence level. In this case, the lexical meaning of words is not affected, but the phonetic form of a word stress may be modified to show which part of the sentence is in focus, or which word should recei