语言学Chapter 3 Phonology.doc

Chapter 3 Phonology Aims: 1) To have an understanding of the differences between phonology and phonetics; 2) To let the students know some terms in phonology, such as phoneme, allophone, phonemic contrast, complementary distribution and so on; 3) To be familiar with the distinctive features and some phonological rules; 4) To understand what suprasegmental features are. 1. Phonology and phonetics Phonology is the study of sound systems—the inventory of distinctive sounds that occur in a language and the patterns into which they fall, how the sound system of a language functions. Both phonology and phonetics are studies of speech sounds．The two words contain the same root phono-，meaning sounds．But while both are related to the study of sounds，they differ in their approach and focus. As we have seen in the last chapter，phonetics is of a general nature；it is interested in all the speech sounds used in all human languages：how they are produced，how they differ from each other，what phonetic features they possess，how they can be classified，etc. Phonology，on the other hand，is interested in the system of sounds of a particular language；it aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication．Thus these two are at once related and distinct branches of linguistic studies. Phonology, therefore, different from phonetics, is language specific. It deals with speech sounds within the context of a particular language. 2. Phoneme and allophone Phonology is concerned with the speech sounds which distinguish meaning. So the subtle difference between clear [l] and dark [l] and that between alveolar [n] and dental [n] are not really the concern of phonology, but the difference between [p] and [b] and that between [l] and [m] are because [pi:] (pea) and [bi:] (bee), and [leik] and [meik] are entirely different in meaning. The basic unit in phonology is called phoneme; it is a unit that is of distincti