position.
Minimal sets are more than two words that are distinguished by one segment in the same position.
The overwhelming majority of the consonants and vowels represented by the English phonetic alphabet are in contrastive distribution.
Some sounds can hardly be found in contrastive distribution in English. However, these sounds are distinctive in terms of phonetic features. Therefore, they are separate phonemes.
Complementary distribution – allophones
Sounds that are not found in the same position are said to be in complementary distribution.
If segments are in complementary distribution and share a number of features, they are allophones of the same phoneme. Free variation
If segments appear in the same position but the mutual substitution does not result in change of meaning, they are said to be in free variation.
Distinctive and non-distinctive features
Features that distinguish meaning are called distinctive features, and features do not, non-distinctive features.
Distinctive features in one language may be non-distinctive in another.
Phonological rules
Phonemes are abstract sound units stored in the mind, while allophones are the actual pronunciations in speech.
What phoneme is realized by what allophones in what specific context is another
major question in phonology.
The regularities that what sounds vary in what ways in what context are generalized and stated in phonology as rules.
There are many phonological rules in English. Take the following ones as examples. [+voiced +consonant] – [-voiced]/[-voiced +consonant]_
[-voiced +bilabial +stop] – unaspirated/[-voiced +alveolar +fricative]_
Syllable structure
A syllable is a phonological unit that is composed of one or more phonemes. Every syllable has a nucleus, which is usually a vowel.
The nucleus may be preceded by one or more consonants called the onset and followed by one or more consonants called the coda.
Sequence of phonemes
Native speakers of any language intuitively know what sounds can be put together. Some sequences are not possible in English. The impossible sequences are called systematic gaps.
Sequences that are possible but do not occur yet are called accidental gaps. When new words are coined, they may fill some accidental gaps but they will never fill systematic gaps.
Suprasegmental features
Features that are found over a segment or a sequence of two or more segments are called suprasegmental features.
These features are distinctive features. Stress
Stress is the perceived prominence of one or more syllabic elements over others in a word.
Stress is a relative notion. Only words that are composed of two or more syllables have stress.
If a word has three or more syllables, there is a primary stress and a secondary stress.
In some languages word stress is fixed, . on a certain syllable. In English, word stress is unpredictable. Intonation
When we speak, we change the pitch of our voice to express ideas. Intonation is the variation of pitch to distinguish utterance meaning. The same sentence uttered with different intonation may express different attitude of the speaker.
In English, there are three basic intonation patterns: fall, rise, fall-rise. Tone
Tone is the variation of pitch to distinguish words.
The same sequence of segments can be different words if uttered with different tones.
Chinese is a typical tone language. -
转自[英美者]-英语专业网站： 2 Phonetics What is phonetics?
Phonetics is termed as the study of speech sounds. Sub-branches of phonetics
Articulatory phonetics – the production of speech sounds
Acoustic phonetics – the physical properties of speech sounds Auditory phonetics – the perceptive mechanism of speech sounds
The speech organs
Where does the air stream come from? From the lung
What is the function of vocal cords? Controlling the air stream What are the cavities? Oral cavity Pharyngeal cavity Nasal cavity
Transcription of speech sounds
Units of representation
Segments (the individual sounds) Phonetic symbols
The widely used symbols for phonetic transcription of speech sounds is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
The IPA attempts to represent each sound of human speech with a single symbol and the symbols are enclosed in brackets [ ] to distinguish phonetic transcriptions from the spelling system of a language.
In more detailed transcription (narrow transcription) a sound may be transcribed with a symbol to which a smaller is added in order to mark the finer distinctions.
Description of speech sounds
Description of English consonants General feature: obstruction Criteria of consonant description Places of articulation Manners of articulation Voicing of articulation Places of articulation
This refers to each point at which the air stream can be modified to produce a sound.
Bilabial: [p] [b] [m] [w] Labiodental: [f] [v] Interdental: [] []
Alveolar: [t] [d] [s] [z] [l] [n] [r] Palatal: [] [] [t Velar: [k] [g] [ Glottal: [h]
Manners of articulation
This refers to how the air stream is modified, whether it is completely blocked or partially obstructed.
Stops: [p] [b] [t] [d] [k] [g] Fricatives: [s] [z] [
] [] [f] [v] [
] [
] [h]
]
] [d
] [j]
Affricates: [t] [d] Liquids: [l] [r] Glides: [w] [j] Nasals: [m] [n] [] Voicing of articulation
This refers to the vibrating of the vocal cords when sounds are produced.
相关推荐：
loading