-phonetics-the production and classification of human sounds (influence that vocal organs (lips/ tongue) have in the formation and annunciation of sounds.
- phonology-morphology- how words are formed, families ( it can help explain why certain word forms that appear to be different are actually related, like the words "happy" and "happiness," or "intelligent" and "intelligence.")
-syntax- structure of sentences
-semantics-meaning in language (example, "destination" and "last stop" technically mean the same thing, but students of semantics analyse their subtle shades of meaning.
-pragmatics-meaning in context/ helps us look beyond the literal meaning of words and utterances and allows us to focus on how meaning is constructed in specific contexts.
Phonetics is the study of the characteristics of speech sounds
Articulatory Phonetics: the study of how speech sounds are made
Acoustic Phonetics: the phyiscal properties of speech as sound waves in the air
Auditory Phonetics: the perception of speech sounds in the ear
Why do we need all of these symbols?
IPA→ One sound is represented by one symbol (no other system)
The IPA chart contains representations of all sounds that are used by humans
IPA symbols are universal and apply to all languages of the world
Phonetics vs. Phonology
Phonetics:
the study of the characteristics of speech sounds
Phonology:
concerned with the description of the systems and speech patterns in a language
concerned with the abstract or mental aspect of the sounds in a language
Phoneme vs Phone
Phoneme:
A meaning-distinguishing sound in a language
They appear in slashes. /t/ phonemic, (mental or abstract) category, - in your mind
Phone:
Different versions of a sound type
They appear in square brackets. [t] [t ͪ]
allophonic (phonetic) realisations, - what you actually say
Different speakers produce the same sound slightly differently
(Compare /t/ in stop [stɒp] and top [t ͪɒp])
Allophones→
Phonemic distinctions:
in a language can be tested by contrasting pairs or sets of words with each other
These words must have in common that they only differ in one sound that is in the same position
[sɪp] [tɪp]. [rɪp] [dɪp] [lɪp]
illustrate that /z/ is a phoneme in English
/z/ can be exchanged for /s/
[zɪp] - [sɪp]
Complementary distribution (Allophones)
[pʰ] when it is the syllable onset + followed by a full vowel (e.g. pit)
[p] occurs in all other situations (e.g. spark, tip)
The Phoneme inventory
list of all meaning-distinguishing sounds in English
/i/ /p/ /o/ /n/ /k/ /l/ /d/ /t/ etc.
!A syllable must at least contain a vowel (including diphthongs)!
Syllables with an onset and a nucleus, such as go, to or no, are considered open syllables
Syllables that have a coda, such as it or rip, are called closed syllables
When an onset or a coda consists of more than one consonant, we call this a consonant cluster
street /striːt/ CCC V C
bread /bred/ CC V C
Typologically: when comparing different languages with each other
we observe that large consonant clusters are rare
Most languages adhere to the CVCVCV pattern
In conversation, consonant clusters are reduced into the CVCV patterns→ coarticulation effects
Assimilation:
When two sounds that occur in a sequence and one feature of one of the sounds is taken on by the other
example; I have to eat → [aɪ həf tʊˈit]
The place of articulation and the manner of articulation stay the same, however /v/ becomes unvoiced, just like the /t/ that follows it
example; That person → [ ðæt ˈpɜːsən ] → [ ðæp ˈpɜːsən ]
= The alveolar plosive /t/ is exchanged for the bilabial plosive /p/
Nasalisation:
In conversation, when a vowel is followed by a nasal, we often change the quality of the vowel in that it become nasalised
pan /pan/ [pãn]
/a/ is followed by /n/, a nasal consonant. The quality of the vowel is affected when is becomes nasalised. Nasalisation is indicated by the use of the tilde ~
Elision:
we don‘t always pronounce every sound of a word. Some sounds are not realised in everyday speech