1.9.2 Synchronic vs. diachronic
A synchronic study takes a fixed instant (usually at present) as its point of observation. Saussure’s diachronic description is the study of a language through the course of its history. E.g. a study of the features of the English used in Shakespeare’s time would be synchronic, and a study of the changes English has undergone since then would be a diachronic study. In modern linguistics, synchronic study seems to enjoy priority over diachronic study. The reason is that unless the various state of a language are successfully studied it would be difficult to describe the changes that have taken place in its historical development.
1.9.3 Langue & parole
Saussure distinguished the linguistic competence of the speaker and the actual phenomena or data of linguistics as langue and parole. Langue is relative stable and systematic, parole is subject to personal and situational constraints; langue is not spoken by an individual, parole is always a naturally occurring event. What a linguist should do, according to Saussure, is to draw rules from a mass of confused facts, i.e. to discover the regularities governing all instances of parole and make them the subject of linguistics.
1.9.4 Competence and performance
According to Chomsky, a language user’s underlying knowledge about the system of rules is called the linguistic competence, and the actual use of language in concrete situations is called performance. Competence enables a speaker to produce and understand and indefinite number of sentences and to recognize grammatical mistakes and ambiguities. A speaker’s competence is stable while his performance is often influenced by psychological and social factors. So a speaker’s performance does not always match his supposed competence. Chomsky believes that linguists ought to study competence, rather than performance. Chomsky’s competence-performance distinction is not exactly the same as, though similar to, Saussure’s langue-parole distinction. Langue is a social product and a set of conventions of a community, while competence is deemed as a property of mind of each individual. Saussure looks at language more from a sociological or sociolinguistic point of view than Chomsky since the latter deals with his issues psychologically or psycholinguistically.
1.9.5 Etic vs. emic
[These two terms are still very vague to me. After I read Ji Daohong’s book, I can understand them better, but because they are vaguely mentioned in Hu’s book, it seems very difficult for me to understand them fully. – icywarmtea]
Being etic means researchers’ making far too many, as well as behaviorally and inconsequential, differentiations, just as often the case with phonetics vs. phonemics analysis in linguistics proper.
An emic set of speech acts and events must be one that is validated as meaningful via final resource to the native members of a speech community rather than via appeal to the investigator’s ingenuity or intuition alone.
Following the suffix formations of (phon)etics vs (phon)emics, these terms were introduced into the social sciences by Kenneth Pike (1967) to denote the distinction between the material and functional study of language: phonetics studies the acoustically measurable and articulatorily definable immediate sound utterances, whereas phonemics analyzes the specific selection each language makes from that universal catalogue from a functional aspect.
End of Chapter 1
Chapter 2 Speech Sounds
2.1 Speech production and perception
Phonetics is the study of speech sounds. It includes three main areas:
1. Articulatory phonetics – the study of the production of speech sounds
2. Acoustic phonetics – the study of the physical properties of the sounds produced in speech
3. Auditory phonetics – the study of perception of speech sounds
Most phoneticians are interested in articulatory phonetics.
2.2 Speech organs
Speech organs are those parts of the human body involved in the production of speech. The speech organs can be considered as consisting of three parts: the initiator of the air stream, the producer of voice and the resonating cavities.
2.3 Segments, divergences, and phonetic transcription
2.3.1 Segments and divergences
As there are more sounds in English than its letters, each letter must represent more than one sound.
2.3.2 Phonetic transcription
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA): the system of symbols for representing the pronunciation of words in any language according to the principles of the International Phonetic Association. The symbols consists of letters and diacritics. Some letters are taken from the Roman alphabet, some are special symbols.
2.4 Consonants
2.4.1 Consonants and vowels
A consonant is produced by constricting or obstructing the vocal tract at some places to divert, impede, or completely shut off the flow of air in the oral cavity.
A vowel is produced without obstruction so no turbulence or a total stopping of the air can be perceived.
2.4.2 Consonants
The categories of consonant are established on the basis of several factors. The most important of these factors are:
1. the actual relationship between the articulators and thus the way in which the air passes through certain parts of the vocal tract (manner of articulation);
2. where in the vocal tract there is approximation, narrowing, or the obstruction of the air (place of articulation).
2.4.3 Manners of articulation
1. Stop/plosive: A speech sound which is produced by stopping the air stream from the lungs and then suddenly releasing it. In English, [p, b, t, d, k, g] are stops and [m, n, N] are nasal stops.
2. Fricative: A speech sound which is produced by allowing the air stream from the lungs to escape with friction. This is caused by bringing the two articulators, e.g. the upper teeth and the lower lip, close together but not closes enough to stop the airstreams completely. In English, [f, v, W, T, s, z, F, V, h] are fricatives.
3. (Median) approximant: An articulation in which one articulator is close to another, but without the vocal tract being narrowed to such an extent that a turbulent airstream is produced. In English this class of sounds includes [w, r, j].
4. Lateral (approximant): A speech sound which is produced by partially blocking the airstream from the lungs, usually by the tongue, but letting it escape at one or both sides of the blockage. [l] is the only lateral in English.
Other consonantal articulations include trill, tap or flap, and affricate.
2.4.4 Places of articulation
1. Bilabial: A speech sound which is made with the two lips.
2. Labiodental: A speech sound which is made with the lower lip and the upper front teeth.
3. Dental: A speech sound which is made by the tongue tip or blade and the upper front teeth.
4. Alveolar: A speech sound which is made with the tongue tip or blade and the alveolar ridge.
5. Postalveolar: A speech sound which is made with the tongue tip and the back of the alveolar ridge.
6. Retroflex: A speech sound which is made with the tongue tip or blade curled back so that the underside of the tongue tip or blade forms a stricture with the back of the alveolar ridge or the hard palate.
7. Palatal: A speech sound which is made with the front of the tongue and the hard palate.
8. Velar: A speech sound which is made with the back of the tongue and the soft palate.
9. Uvular: A speech sound which is made with the back of the tongue and the uvula, the short projection of the soft tissue and muscle at the posterior end of the velum.
10. Pharyngeal: A speech sound which is made with the root of the tongue and the walls of the pharynx.
11. Glottal: A speech sound which is made with the two pieces of vocal folds pushed towards each other.
2.4.5 The consonants of English
Received Pronunciation (RP): The type of British Standard English pronunciation which has been regarded as the prestige variety and which shows no regional variation. It has often been popularly referred to as “BBC English” or “Oxford English” because it is widely used in the private sector of the education system and spoken by most newsreaders of the BBC network.
A chart of English consonants
|
Manner of articulation |
Place of articulation |
|||||||
|
Bilabial |
Labio- dental |
Dental |
Alveolar |
Post- alveolar |
Palatal |
Velar |
Glottal |
|
|
Stop |
p b |
|
|
t d |
|
|
k g |
(8) |
|
Nasal |
m |
|
|
n |
|
|
N |
|
|
Fricative |
|
f v |
W T |
s z |
F V |
|
|
h |
|
Approximant |
w |
|
|
r |
|
j |
|
|
|
Lateral |
|
|
|
l |
|
|
|
|
|
Affricate |
|
|
|
|
tF dV |
|
|
|
In many cases there are two sounds that share the same place and manner of articulation. These pairs of consonants are distinguished by voicing, the one appearing on the left is voiceless and the one on the right is voiced.
Therefore, the consonants of English can be described in the following way:
[p] voiceless bilabial stop
[b] voiced bilabial stop
[s] voiceless alveolar fricative
[z] voiced alveolar fricative
[m] bilabial nasal
[n] alveolar nasal
[l] alveolar lateral
[j] palatal approximant
