英语语言学自编教材第三章

1Chapter3Phonology1.GeneralIntroductiontoPhonology●RelevantLanguageUseObservationsandQuestionstoPonderover1)Beforeourexplorationofphonology,let’sconsiderseveralconcretecasesfirst.Nowpleaseconsiderthefollowing“words”inthefollowingtable:IIIIIIAxoda[χ]asinGermanch.modamoda[z](cf.coda,codas)BRudihngatus=[ŋ]Huridmatushurid[z](hoard,hoards)matus[iz](cf.mattress,mattresses)Cbmick/bnickblickblick[s](cf.block,blocks)AfluentEnglishspeakerwillimmediatelysaythatallthe“words”in(1)arenotactualwordsofEnglish,yetmostEnglishspeakerswillagreethatthose“words”incolumnIarenotpossiblewords,whilethoseincolumnIIcanbe.Besides,mostEnglishspeakerswillalsoagreethatthepluralformsofthosewould–bewordsincolumnIIshouldbepronouncedasindicatedincolumnIII.HowdotheEnglishspeakers,especiallythosenativespeakers,knowthis?Doesthisresultfromtheirmemorizingalistofwordsorfromsomethingelse?Ifthisreallyresultsfrom“somethingelse”,whatisitthen?2)A:*[æbs],*[lkis],*[ksɔ],*[zti:]B:[ɔks][ti:z]2ThefluentspeakersofEnglishwillalsoimmediatelyidentifythosepronunciationsin2a)as“ungrammatical”or“illegal”,whicharemarkedwithastar“*”.However,theywillsaythatthepronunciationsin2b)aregrammatical.Furthermore,theywillrelatethosepronunciationsin2b)tosomethingelse:Morphologically,theywillrelate[ɔks]tothespellingofox,andsemantically,theywillrelateittoaspecifickindofanimal,astheywillrelate[ti:z]toteaseandanactionofmakingjokesaboutsomeoneinordertoembarrassthem.Whywilltheymakesuchkindsofjudgments?Dotheydothesethingsaccidentallyandrandomly?Aretheresomeunderlyingruleswhichmakethemdoso?3)WhenwespeakEnglish,wemayfindacertainphoneme,say,/p/,maychangeitswayofpronunciationindifferentlinguisticenvironments.Forexample,/p/inpenisrealizedasanaspiratedsound[ph],while/p/inspadeisrealizedasanunaspiratedsound[p].Canyouthinkofotherexamplestoshowthatacertainphonememaychangeitswayofpronunciationindifferentlinguisticenvironments?SummariestoMakeandLinguisticViewpointstoLearnInquestion1)weknowthatanyfluentEnglishspeakerwillimmediatelymakeajudgmentwhichsoundisillegalandunacceptable,whichsoundisacceptablethoughitcannotberelatedtoanyconcretemeaningfulwordinEnglish,andwhichsoundisnotonlylegalbutcanberelatedtoaconcretemeaningfulwordinthatlanguage.Ofcourse,ourknowledgeofthesoundpatternsofournativelanguage(s)doesnotcomethroughmemorizingalistofwords,but,rather,throughinternalizedinformationabouttheallowedanddisallowedsoundpatternsofthatlanguage.FluentEnglishspeakersknowwhichsounds,orsegments,occurinthislanguageandwhichdon’t.Forexample,in1a),[χ]soundofGerman(writtenchasintheGermanpronunciationofBach)justdoesn’toccurinEnglish.Besides,weknowthattherearesomerestrictionsonthepositionofasoundwhereitoccurswithinaword.Forexample,asshownin1b),thesoundrepresentedbythespellingsequenceng[ŋ]canoccurinthemiddle(signer)orend(sing)ofaword,butnotthebeginning,andhoccursatthebeginning(hop)ormiddle(ahead),butnottheendofaword.Wealsoknowthatwhichsoundscanbecombinedintoasequence.Thusin1c),blisanallowablesequenceatthebeginningofaword(black),whilebmorbnisnot.Weknowhowtoaltertheformofasoundaccordingtotheenvironmentinwhichitoccurs.Forexample,intheregularformationofthepluralinEnglish,thepluralmarkerofanoun–sor–esispronounced[s],[z],or[iz],dependingoncertainpropertiesofthelastsoundofthisnoun.Nativespeakerswillautomaticallyproducemoda[z],hurid[z],matus[iz],andblick[s]in1)asexpected,eventhoughtheymaynotagreethatthesesoundsaremeaningful.Insomuchasthesethingsareconcerned,whichoccurrenceofsoundislegal,whattheirdistributionis,howtheycanbecombinedandhowthey3mightberealizeddifferentlyindifferentpositionsinawordorphrase,allthesearetheconcernsofphonology.In1)and2)wealsolearnthatnativespeakersofEnglishcannotonlyidentifywhichsoundsorsoundcombinationsarelegalandacceptable,theycanrelatethesesoundsorsoundcombinationstomeaningfulwordsaswell.Thisisnotachievedthroughmemorizingalistofwordseither,ofcourse.Thisisachievedbyacquiringcertainknowledgeofpronunciationandoftherelationbetweensound,orthography,andmeaning.Humanspeechorgansarecapableofproducinginfinitesounds,butonlypartsofthesesoundsandsoundcombinationsaremeaningfulintheenvironmentofsocialinteractions.Sotherulesandconstraintsthatdeterminewhichsoundsorsoundcombinationsaremeaningfulinalanguagearealsowhatphonologyisconcernedabout.Soundsorsegmentsweproducearerepresentedortranscribedbysymbolssuchas[s],[æ],and[ŋ].Thesesoundsareconventionallyputinbrackets,however,wecansometimescomeacrossthecasesthatthesoundsandsoundcombinationsareputbetweenslashes“//”.Thesearetwoconventionalwaysofsoundtranscription,whichinvolvesthedifferencebetweenphoneticsandphonology.Phoneticsandphonologyarebothconcernedwiththesamesubject–matteroraspectoflanguage–––speechsoundsastheaudibleresultofarticulation,buttheyareconcernedwiththemfromdifferentpointsofview.Phoneticsstudieshowspeechsoundsaremade,transmitted,andreceived.Phonology,however,studiesthesoundsystemsoflanguages.Phonologyisconcernedwithwhichsoundsalanguageusesandhowitarrangesthem.Itisconcernedwiththesoundsintheenvironmentofpersonaland/orsocialinteractions.Phonologyisthedescri