Phonetics and phonology

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUẢNG BÌNH KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ GIÁO TRÌNH (Lưu hành nội bộ) PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY NGỮ ÂM –ÂM VỊ (Dành cho sinh viên ĐH, CĐ Tiếng Anh) Tác giả: Nguyễn Thọ Phước Thảo Năm 2016 MỤC LỤC Lời nói đầu Unit 1: Introductions to phonetics and phonology………………… Unit 2: The organs of speech…………………………………………5 Unit 3: English vowels and diphthongs………………………………8 Unit 4: English consonants………………………………………… 18 Unit 5: The syllables…………………………………………………28 Unit 6: Stress …………………………………………………………33 Unit 7: Intonation…………………………………………………….37 Unit 8: Assimilation………………………………………………….50 TÀI LIỆU THAM KHẢO LỜI NÓI ĐẦU Giáo trình Ngữ âm – âm vị nhằm cung cấp kiến thức ngữ âm âm vị học ngôn ngữ tiếng Anh, giúp hỗ trợ khả phát âm sinh viên, phát triển khả giao tiếp tiếng Anh tạo tiền đề cho việc tự nghiên cứu số vấn đề cụ thể lĩnh vực ngôn ngữ Giáo trình biên soạn dựa số sách ngữ âm âm vị quốc tế giáo trình ngữ âm âm vị sử dụng trường đại học chuyên ngữ nước Trong trình biên soạn, tác giả có chỉnh sửa để phù hợp với đối tượng sinh viên đại học, cao đẳng chuyên ngành tiếng Anh trường Đại học Quảng Bình UNIT 1: INTRODUCTION TO PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY I Phonetics Definitions Phonetics is the study of human speech sounds It is a branch of linguistics studying the production, the physical nature, and the perception of speech sounds A speech sound is a physical event with three aspects: a- physiological (the production of speech sounds by the organs of articulation), b- acoustic (the transmission of speech sounds), and cauditory ( the perception of speech sounds) Phonetics is the study of how speech sounds are produced, transmitted and perceived Main branches of phonetics 2.1 Articulatory phonetics Articulatory phonetics deals with the way in which the speech sounds are produced It describes speech sounds genetically - that is, with respect to the ways by which the organs of speech modify the air stream in the throat, the mouth, and the nose in order to produce a sound The production of different speech sounds through the use of the organs of speech is known as articulation 2.2 Acoustic phonetics Acoustic phonetics deals with the transmission of speech sounds through the air It is the study of speech waves as the output of a resonator A spectrograph may be used to record significant characteristics of speech waves and to determine the effect of articulatory activities Parts of this record of speech waves can be cut out experimentally and the rest can be played back as sound in order to determine wich features suffice to identify the sounds of a language 2.3 Auditory phonetics Auditory phonetics deals with how speech sounds are perceived by the listeners The auditory aspect of speech is very important: the ear is capable of making fine discrimination between different sounds, and sometimes it is not possible to define in articulatory terms precisely what the difference is II Phonetics and Phonology As seen above, phonetics is the study of pronunciation, that is, the study of human speech sounds Besides having the physical properties, the speech sounds aso have the distinctive function when they are used as distinctive units of sounds in a language According to I J Ohala (in R.E Asher, 1994: 3053), othe designations for this field of inquiry include “speech science” or “the phonetic sciences” and “phonology” Some apply the term “phonetics” to the physical, including physiological, aspects of speech; others prefer to reserve the term “phonology” for the study of the more abstract, the more functional, or the more psychological aspects of the underpinnings of speech Phonetics, as used in this course of study, is the study of all speech sounds and the ways in which they are produced The main aims of phonetics are to describe human speech sounds Phonology is the study and identification of the distinctive unit of sound in a language The most basic activity in phonology is phonemic analysis, in which the objective is to establish what the phonemes are and arrive at the phonemic inventory of the language Very few phonologists have ever believed that this would be an adequate analysis of the sound system of a language: it is necessary to go beyond this One can look at suprasegmental phonology - the study of stress, rhythm and intonation, which has led in recent years to new approaches to phonology such as metrical and autosegmental theory; one can go beyond the phoneme and look into the detailed characteristics of each unit in terms of distinctive features; the way in which sounds can combine in a language is studied in phonotactics and in the analysis of syllable structure For some phonologists the most important area is the relationships between the different phonemes - how they form groups, the nature of the oppositions between them and how those oppositions may be neutralised UNIT 2: THE ORGANS OF SPEECH Vocal tracts and articulators Names of articulators Perhaps readers and learners may get confused with the terms used for the articulators The table below will help to make clear the common names and what each of them mean Normal name Fancy name Adjective Normal name Fancy name Adjective Lips Labial Upper throat Pharynx Pharyngeal Teeth dental Voice box Larynx Laryngeal Alveolar ridge alveolar Tongue tip Apex Apical (hard) palate palatal Tongue blade Lamina Laminal Velar Tongue body Dorsum (back) Dorsal Uvular Tongue root (soft) palate Uvula Labia Velum Radical In phonetics, the terms velum, pharynx, larynx, and dorsum are used as often or more often than the simpler names Alveolar ridge a short distance behind the upper teeth is a change in the angle of the roof of the mouth (In some people it's quite abrupt, in others very slight.) This is the alveolar ridge Sounds which involve the area between the upper teeth and this ridge are called alveolar (Hard) palate the hard portion of the roof of the mouth The term "palate" by itself usually refers to the hard palate Soft palate/velum the soft portion of the roof of the mouth, lying behind the hard palate The tongue hits the velum in the sounds /k/, /g/, and /ŋ/ The velum can also move: if it lowers, it creates an opening that allows air to flow out through the nose; if it stays raised, the opening is blocked, and no air can flow through the nose Uvula the small, dangly thing at the back of the soft palate The uvula vibrates during the r sound in many French dialects Pharynx the cavity between the root of the tongue and the walls of the upper throat Tongue blade the flat surface of the tongue just behind the tip Tongue body/dorsum the main part of the tongue, lying below the hard and soft palate The body, specifically the back part of the body (hence "dorsum", Latin for "back"), moves to make vowels and many consonants Tongue root the lowest part of the tongue in the throat Epiglottis the fold of tissue below the root of the tongue The epiglottis helps cover the larynx during swallowing, making sure (usually!) that food goes into the stomach and not the lungs A few languages use the epiglottis in making sounds English is fortunately not one of them Vocal folds/vocal cords folds of tissue stretched across the airway to the lungs They can vibrate against each other, providing much of the sound during speech Glottis the opening between the vocal cords During a glottal stop, the vocal cords are held together and there is no opening between them Larynx the structure that holds and manipulates the vocal cords The "Adam's apple" in males is the bump formed by the front part of the larynx Lungs The biological function of the lungs is to absorb oxygen from air breathed in and to excrete carbon dioxide into the air breathed out From the speech point of view, their major function is to provide the driving force that compresses the air we use for generating speech sounds They are similar to large sponges, and their size and shape are determined by the rib cage that surrounds them, so that when the ribs are pressed down the lungs are compressed and when the ribs are lifted the lungs expand and fill with air Although they hold a considerable amount of air (normally several litres, though this differs greatly between individuals) we use only a small proportion of their capacity when speaking - we would find it very tiring if we had to fill and empty the lungs as we spoke, and in fact it is impossible for us to empty our lungs completely Oral cavity the part of the mouth behind the teeth and gums that is bounded above by the hard and soft palates and below by the tongue and the mucous membrane connecting it with the inner part of the mandible Nasal cavity the cavity on either side of the nasal septum, extending from the nose to the pharynx, and lying between the floor of the cranium and the roof of the mouth UNIT 3: ENGLISH VOWELS AND DIPHTHONGS English vowels Vowels are the class of sound which makes the least obstruction to the flow of air They are almost always found at the centre of a syllable, and it is rare to find any sound other than a vowel which is able to stand alone as a whole syllable Classification of vowels The classification of vowels is based on five major aspects: tongue height, tongue backness, lip rounding, vowel length and the tenseness of the articulators Tongue Height Vowels are classified in terms of how much space there is between the tongue and the roof of the mouth, which is determined by the height of the tongue There are three primary height distinctions among vowels: high, low, and mid /w/ /e/ /æ/ In English, examples of high vowels are /w/, /i:/, /•/, /u:/ These are vowels with a relatively narrow space between the tongue and the roof of the mouth Examples of low vowels are /æ/, /Y:/, /Z/, /]:/ These are vowels with a relatively wide space between the tongue and the roof of the mouth Examples of mid vowels are /e/, /∂/, /f:/, /ž / These are vowels whose tongue positions are roughly between the high and low vowels These classifications are quite relative, as different languages have different canonical tongue heights for different classifications As you can see from the above diagrams, the tongue height of the high vowel /w/ is much higher than that for the low vowel /æ/, while the tongue height for the mid vowel /e/ lies somewhere in between the two Tongue Backness The second aspect of vowel classification that you will be introduced to is that of tongue backness Vowels are classified in terms of how far the raised body of the tongue is from the back of the mouth, which is called the backness of the tongue There are three primary height distinctions among vowels: front, back, and central In English, examples of front vowels are /w/, /i:/, /e/, /æ/ These vowels are articulated relatively forward in the mouth Examples of back vowels are /•/, /u:/, /Y:/, /Z/, /]:/ These vowels are articulated relatively far back in the mouth Examples of central vowels are /∂/, /f:/, /ž / These are vowels whose tongue positions are roughly between the front and back vowels These classifications, like the tongue heights, are quite relative, as different languages have different canonical tongue backnesses for different classifications As illustration of tongue backness, observe the following diagrams for the vowels /w/, /u:/ /i:/ /u:/ Two further types of utterances can use rising-falling intonation contours However, in these cases the pitch levels also vary from the 2- 3-1 pattern The first of these utterances uses a 2- 3- non-terminal fall with a slight rise at the end, indicating that the utterance is an unfinished statement in which the speaker has left something unsaid it implied: 40 In some unfinished statements, the speaker uses the 2- 3- pattern with a slight rise at the end to create suspense: The other utterance using a rising-falling intonation occurs after a 2-3-1 contour and employs a 3- contour This contour occurs in tag question eliciting agreement, in which the speaker is requesting confirmation from the interlocutor Functioning almost kike a statement, the typically signal certainty: 41 2.2 Rising intonation Another common intonation pattern in English is the rise Rise in intonation usually begins at the syllable with discourse prominence and continues slightly until the and of the phrase: There are two different rise contours: one that moves from middle to high level (2-3 or 24), depending on the amount of emotion being expressed, and another that rises from low to midlevel (1-2) The middle - to - high rise (2-3 or 2-4) signals uncertainty The following utterance types tend to follow this pattern: yes/no questions using question word order, open choice alternative questions, yes/no questions using statement word order, unfinished statements creating suspense, echo question, repetition questions, and tag questions signaling uncertainty In the first of these, yes/ no questions, the speaker asks a question, phrased in question word order, to which the expected answer is yes or no 42 In the next pattern, open-choice alternative questions, the listener has a free choice of a alternatives being offered It is unclear whether other options are available, but the listener is given the chance to reject all of the alternatives The next category involves utterances that look like statements in terms of their syntax but function as questions Such statements are unlike normal yes/no questions in that speaker already has some evidence to confirm the statement Both 2-3 and 2-4 rise patterns are possible - the latter if surprise or disbelief is being expressed: Occasionally, as a conversational strategy, a speaker will repeat a question before answering it In these types of questions, commonly known as echo questions, there is a 2-3 rise pattern For example, in answer to Speaker A question “What are you doing this weekend?” Speaker B might begin with the following echo question: 43 Repetition questions ask for repetition usually because the speaker could not hear what was said or the speakers could not believe what was said These types of questions can follow statements, yes/no questions, or wh-questions In the case of a -3 pitch contour, the question means "Could you repeat what you said? I didn’t hear you.” Suppose that Speaker A asks, “What are you doing this weekend?” to which Speaker B replies, "I'm going skiing” If Speaker A has not understood, a repetition question is asked: With a more exaggerated pitch rise, on the other hand, the question means “I can’t believe what I just hear Tell me a gain.” Assuming for example, that Speaker B’s answer to question “What are you doing this weekend?” is “I’m doing skydiving ,” Speaker A might signal disbelief through a rise to level 4: 44 Unlike the category of tag questions eliciting agreement, tag questions signaling uncertainty are more like true yes/no questions The speaker may have some prior assumption but allows for the possibility of either a ”yes” or “no” response: 2.3 Other paterns As noted previously, there are two basic options for sentence - final intonation in English - rising-falling and rising patterns However, internal to a given sentence, there may also be a series of rises or falls that occur as a result of the syntax In the first combination, elements occur in a series, with each item in the series receiving rising intonation (usually 2-3) until the final item, which receives rising - falling intonation (2-3- 1) The identical pattern is found in closed-choice alternative questions Again, each alternative receives rising intonation until the final one - signaling that no other options are available and the speaker is expected to select from the closed set of choices presented 45 This pattern of closed-choice alternative questions contrasts both in intonation contour and meaning with the open choice alternative questions described earlier Compare: (Closed choice: Which credit card are you going to pay with: Master Card or Visa) In appositive constructions, defined as a phrase or clause that follows and modifies a noun giving added information, the 1- -1 contour signals that the clarifying appositive information is uttered as an aside 46 A related construction is the parenthetical expression Similar to appositives, these expressions are often uttered as asides, signaled through the intonation contour used by the speaker Parentheticals include utterances such as direct address (John, Dr Martin), polite expressions (please, thank you), adverbials (unfortunately, one in a while), expressions of opinion (I’m afraid, you know), and epithets or expletives (that jerk, damn) These parenthetical elements, when they appear sentence initially, can be signaled either through a rising falling pattern: 47 A second pattern used with middle-sentence and sentence-final parenthetical moves from low to middle level (1-2), with the rise in intonation coinciding with the main stressed syllable of the parenthetical: In compound or complex sentences, each clause has its own intonation pattern, which more or less corresponds to the rules given previously In other words, each clause may terminate in rising intonation or rising-falling intonation, depending on its particular syntax However, in the case of falling intonation patterns with non-final clauses, the fall usually terminates at level As we mentioned previously, certain basic principles governing English prominence exist: however, the speaker’s intentions may override typical patterns in order to assign special prominence to a different element in the utterance This is also true for intonation In fact, as we have seen, intonation contours are directly connected to the prominent syllable Therefore it is logical that if the prominent element shifts according to discourse context, then the intonation pattern will also change 48 49 UNIT 8: ASSIMILATION Assimilation is a regular and frequent sound change process by which a phoneme changes to match an adjacent phoneme in a word A common example of assimilation is vowels being 'nasalized' before nasal consonants as it is difficult to change the shape of the mouth sufficiently quickly There are three types of assimilation in English: (1) progressive, (2) regressive (or anticipatory), and (3) coalescent Progressive assimilation In progressive assimilation the conditioning sound precedes and affects the following sound Examples of progressive assimilation in English are the regular plural /s/ vs /z/ alternation, in which the final sound of the stem conditions the voiced or voiceless form of the suffix This type of assimilation also occurs in the regular past tense /t/ vs /d/ alternation: Conditioning -s -d fished sound ending bags backs ending moved Assimilated sound /bæg /bæk → → z/ s/ /mu:v /fw∫ → t/ → d/ For the plusal -s ending, the voiced /g/ of bags conditions the voiced from of the -s ending, causing it to be pronounced /z/, whereas the voiceless /k/ of backs conditions the /s/ pronunciation of the ending Notice the same type of conditioning occurs in the -d endings Progressive assimilation also occurs in some contractions (e.g., it + is → it’s / it + iz → its) Most of the progressive assimilation in English occurs at the intersection of phonology and morphology Regressive assimilation 50 In English, regressive assimilation is more pervasive as a purely phonological process than is progressive assimilation In regressive assimilation, the assimilated sound precedes and is affected by the conditioning sound Examples of this type of phenomenon are the words grandpa (the /p/ causes the /nd/ to be articulated as /m/: /græmpa/) and pancake (the /k/ causes the /n/ to become /ŋ/: / pæŋkewk/) Regressive assimilation occurs commonly in the periphrastic modals has/have to (when expressing obligation) and used to (when expressing former habitual action): have /hæv/ has /hæz/ used /ju:zd/ + + + + + + /tu:/ to /tu:/ to /tu:/ to → “hafta” → /hæft / → “hasta” → /hæst/ → “usta” → /ju:st/ In these examples, the voiceless /t/ of to is the conditioning sound that causes the voiced /v/, /z/, and /d/ preceding it to assimilate and become voiceless /f/, /s/, and /t/ : Assimilated hæf hæs ju:s sound ← ← ← ← Conditioning sound t t t Another clear example of regressive assimilation is reflected in the English spelling system - namely, in the four allomorphic variants of the negative prefix Note that the unmarked allomorph in- occurs in all cases except when the subsequent sound is a bilabial or a liquid: indecent, inept, invalid In the case of im-, the initial bilabial sound of the root words causes the organs of speech to approach a position closer to that of the conditioning sound, as in impossible or immobile Similarly, with the liquids /l/ and /r/, the negative prefix is conditioned or changed to il- and ir- respectively, as in illogical and irrational: irirreplaceable irresponsible irrelevant ininoperative inflexible indifferent imimpossible imbalanced immeasurable ilillogical illegal illegitimate 51 irrational irregular inexcusable intangible immobile impartial illegible illiberal As exemplified by the negative allomorphs il- and ir-, assimilated sounds often become identical to the conditioning sound Coalescent assimilation The third type of assimilation, coalescent assimilation, is a type of reciprocal assimilation: The first sound and second sound in a sequence come together and mutually condition the creation a third sound with features from both original sounds This process occurs most frequently in English when final alveolar consonants such as /s, z/ and /t, d/ or final alveolar consonant sequences such as /ts, dz/ are followed by initial palatal /j/ They then become palatalized fricatives and affricates, respectively: Within words, the /j/ sound (which is generally in an unstressed syllable) may be the initial sound of a suffix or the subsequent bound part of the word (e.g., -ure, -ion, ious); 52 across words, the /j/ sound comes from a second word beginning in /j/, typically you or your This type of assimilation is often referred to as palatalization As with linking, the amount of assimilation that occurs in native - speaker speech will depend on a number of variables, such as the formality of the situation, the rate of speech, and the style of the speaker 53 TÀI LIỆU THAM KHẢO English Phonetics and Phonology Danang College of Foreign Languages (For in-service Classes) Joahn Laver (1994), Principles of Phonetics Cambridge University Press Nguyen Minh Tam (2000), A glossary on phonetic terms, NXBGD Roach, Peter (1991) English Phonetics and Phonology- A Practical Course Cambridge University Press + Websites tham khảo: http://wac.colostate.edu/books/sound/chapter4.pdf 2.https://www.uni-oldenburg.de/fileadmin/user_upload/anglistik/personen/ cornelia.hamann/ Phonology.pdf http://www.phon.ox.ac.uk/jcoleman/PHONOLOGY1.htm 54 ... INTRODUCTION TO PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY I Phonetics Definitions Phonetics is the study of human speech sounds It is a branch of linguistics studying the production, the physical nature, and the perception... sounds), and cauditory ( the perception of speech sounds) Phonetics is the study of how speech sounds are produced, transmitted and perceived Main branches of phonetics 2.1 Articulatory phonetics. .. between different sounds, and sometimes it is not possible to define in articulatory terms precisely what the difference is II Phonetics and Phonology As seen above, phonetics is the study of