1.6 What is linguistics?

Having discussed about the design features and functions of language , the
object of linguistics ,we now come to the business itselfa brief discussion of
what is linguistic and its status as a science .Linguistics is usually defined as the
science of language or, alternatively as the scientific study of language .Linguistics is a rich and
exciting field.

However, there have been arguments about whether linguistics is a science,
especially when it was just coming into being. But now the arguments die
away and linguistics has firmly established its place as a major branch of
social science .As a recognized academic subject, it is an area with immense
research potential , and a scholarly industry which produces a large amount
of boos , dissertations and papers every year! its preoccupations are
e"pressed in such specialize journals as #anguage , $ournal of linguistic
,lingua, Applied linguistics etc., and at regular conferences.%&ou may find
many useful web sites about linguistics, for e"ample, http'(( www.linguist.org!
http'(( www. logos. it(language)today.*

+he justification for all these booming ventures should be obvious from our
previous discussion .#anguage is so valuable to the individual , so critical to
the efficient functioning of human societies , and in itself so impressively
intricate and profound in structure , that it is bound to attract a great amount of
intellectual attention . And since this must produce studies which have
practical importance %e.g. in speech therapy, education, techni,ues of
translation and many more applied concerns*, linguistics is bound to be an
academically and economically favored pursuit. -t is also a subject of
theoretical importance, for one thing, structuralism originating from .aussure/s
views has influenced many other related social sciences such as literary
studies and social studies .-n 0hina, the study of language has a long history
but modern linguistics still has a long to go to enjoy a boom1.

As a science, linguistics now has a set of established theories, methods and
sub)branches. As for its data, now the argument over intuition or corpus also
fade as people realize the advantage of both and as corpus linguistics
develops rapidly with the advent of computer technology .#yons predicted in
the seventies by pointing out that linguistics is empirical, rather than
speculative or intuitive' it operates with publicly variable data obtained by
means of observation or e"periment %#yons, 2345'64*.
1.7 Main branches of linguistics
-t is generally agreed that linguistics should include at least five parameters,
namely, phonologic, morphologic, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic. +he
following are these main branches of linguistics
1.7.1 Phonetics
PHONETI! studies s"eech sounds , including the "roduction of s"eech ,that is how s"eech
sounds are actually #ade , trans#itted and received ,the sounds of s"eech ,the descri"tion and
classification of s"eech sounds ,words and connected s"eech ,etc.
7nce we decide to begin an analysis of speech, ewe can approach on various
levels .At one level, speech is s mater of anatomy and physiology. 8e can
study organs such as tongue and laryn" and their function in the production of
speech. At another level, we can focus on the speech sounds produced by
these organs by identifying and classifying the individual sounds .+his is the
domain of articulatory phonetics. 8e can also investigate the properties of the
sound waveacoustic phonetics .As speech is intended to be heard or
perceived ,it is therefore possible to focus on the way in which a listener
analyses or process a sound waveauditory phonetics
1.7.2 Phonology
PHONOLO$% studies the rules governing the structure, distri&ution, and se'uencing of s"eech
sounds and the sha"e of sylla&les.-t deals with the sounds systems of a language by
treating phoneme as the point of departure .A phoneme is the smallest
linguistic unit of sound that can signal difference in meaning . 9nglish has
appro"imately forty)five phonemes. -f you repeat the (p( sound ten times, each
production will vary slightly for some physiological reasons. -n addition, the (p(
sound differs from that in poor or soup because each is influence by the
surrounding sounds. 9ven so, each (p( is similar enough so as not to be
confused with another phoneme.
:honetics is the study of speech sounds that the human voice is capable of
creating whereas phonology is the study of a subset of those sounds that
constitute language b and meaning .+he first focuses on chaos while the
second focus on order .
1.7.3 Morphology
(O)PHOLO$% is concerned with the internal organi*ation of words.-t studies the minimal
units of meaning ))))morphemes and word)formation process. Although many
people thin of words as the basic meaningful elements of a language, many
words can be broen down into still smallest units, called morphemes.
;orphemes serve different purposes. .ome derive new words by changing
the meaning or the part of the speech, others only refine and give e"tra
grammatical information about the already e"isting meaning of a word with
meaning, there are many comple"ities involved.
#anguage differ in their degrees of dependence on the morphological
components .-n #atin ,for e"ample, meaning is changing through the use of
many morphological endings .-n contrast ,in 9nglish words order is used
more than morphological addition to convey much of the meaning of the
utterance .<or instance ,+he dog sees the rabbit. -f we change the order of the
words and get the rabbit sees the dog , the sentence meaning changes .But
in =#atin and in >ussian , dog and rabbit tae on some morphological endings
depending on whether they are subject of the sentences, and can therefore
change places without affecting the meaning of the sentence.
1.7.4 Syntax
!%NT+, is a&out "rinci"les of for#ing and understanding correct English sentences .+he form
or structure of a sentence is governed by the rules of synta" .+hese rules
specify word order ,sentence organization, and the relationships between
words ,word classes and other sentence elements .8e now that words are
organized into structures more than just word order .-or exa#"le.
1.7. Se!antics
!E(+NTI! exa#ines how #eaning is encoded in a language. -t is not only concerned
with meanings of words as le"ical items ,but also with levels of language
below the word and above it ,e.g. meaning of morphemes and sentences ,+he
following are what the ey concepts loo lie 'semantics components,
denotation of words ,sense relation between such as antonymy and
synonymy ,sense relation between sentences such as entailment and
presupposition.
1.7.6 Prag!atics
P)+$(+TI! is the study of #eaning in context .-t deals with particular utterances in
particular situations and is especially concerned with the various ways in
which the many social conte"ts of language performances can influence
interpretation .-n other words, pragmatics is concerned with the way language
is used to communicate rather than with the way language is structured.
-t regards speech performance as primary a social act ruled by various social
conventions. .ome ey concepts such as reference , force , effect, and
cooperative principles may appear commonsensical ,yet pragmatics is just
about one of the most promising fields of linguistic studies .+ae conversation
for e"ample ,since language is transmitted primarily via the speech mode
,pragmatics rules govern a number of conversational interactions , such as
se,uential organization, repair of errors role and speech acts . 7rganization of
conversations includes taing turns, opening, maintaining and closing a
conversation, establishing and maintaining a topic etc.
1." Macrolinguistics
#inguistics is not the only field concerned with language. 7ther disciplines
such as psychology , sociology ,ethnography ,the science of law and artificial
intelligence etc. are also pre occupied with language .7n the other hand
,although saussure/s goal was to establish the autonomy of linguistics , giving
it a well)defined object and freeing it from reliance on other disciplines ,with its
coming of age linguistics is developing interactive lins with other science
.+he central goal of describing the underlying system remains! this is the
province of general , descriptive linguistics .But since language has both
individual and social aspects ,it is naturally of interest to psychologists among
other %Hartley,2345'2?*.-t is not surprising there fore we have some
branches of ;A0>7#-@AB-.+-0. that show an interdisciplinary nature from
the very names '
1.".1 Psycholinguistics
P!%HOLIN$/I!TI! investigates the interrelation of language and #ind, in "rocessing and
"roducing utterances and in language ac'uisition . <or e"ample,there is the
psycholinguistics study of grammar .+he psycholinguistics constraints on the
form of grammar are studied. -t also studied language development in the
child, such as the theories of language ac,uisition! biological foundations of
language! and a big topic )))the relationship between language and cognition.
%.lobin, 23C3*
1.".2 Sociolinguistics
!OIOLI$/I!TI! is an u#&rella ter# which covers a variety of different interests in language
and society, including the social functions of language and the social characteristics of its
user ..ociolinguistics is the study of the characteristics of language varieties,
the characteristics of their functions, and the characteristics of their speaers
as these three constantly interact and change within a speech community. -t
sees to discover the societal rules and norms that e"plain and constrain
language behavior and the behavior towards language in speech
communities. -t also sees to determine e the symbolic value of language
varieties for their speaers .+hat language varieties come to have symbolic
symptomatic value, in and themselves, is inevitable conse,uence of their
functional differentiation.
1.".3 #nthropological
As a science, the study of language is so#ewhat older than anthro"ology .The two disci"lines
&eca#e closely associated in the early days of anthro"ological fieldwor0 when anthro"ologist
enlisted the hel" of linguist to study unwritten language .-n contrast with the linguists
,then ,anthropological linguists are interested primarily in the history and
structure of formerly unwritten languages. +hey are concerned with the
emergence of language and also with the divergence of language over
thousands of years .Because an unwritten language must be heard in order to
studied, it dose not leave any traces once its speaers die off. Anthropological
linguists must begin in the present ,with comparisons of contemporary
languages.
+hen they may draw inference about the inds of the changes in language
that may have occurred in the past ,and that may account for similarities and
differences observed in the present. +hey typically as such ,uestions as' Did
two or more contemporary language diverge from a common ancestral
language E-f they are related ,how far bac in time did they begin to differE
1.".4 $o!putational linguistics
O(P/T+TION+L LIN$/I!TI! is an interdisci"linary field which centers around the use of
co#"uter to "rocess or "roduces hu#an language 1also 0nown as 2natural language 2,to
distinguish it fro# co#"uter languages3. +o this field ,linguistics contributes an
understanding of the special properties of language data , and provides
theories and descriptions of language structure and use .0omputer science
contributes theories and techni,ues for designing and implementence
computer systems. .ome current application areas include translating from
one language to anther %;achine translation *,finding relevant document in
large collections of te"t %-nformation retrieved*, and answering ,uestion about
a subject area %e"pert system with natural language interfaces*.
1.% &!portant 'istinction in linguistics
2.3.2 Descriptive vs. prescriptive
0onsider the following '
9".2)?

Do/Dont say X.


People do/ dont say X.
+he first are :>9.0>-:+-F9 commands .+he second are D9.0>-:+-F9
statements. +he distinction lies in prescribing how things ought to be and
describing how things are .
+o say that linguistics is a descri"tive %i.e. non)normative *science is to say that the
linguist tries to discover and record the rules to which the #e#&ers of a language 4co##unity
actually confor# and does not see0 to i#"ose u"on the# other 1i.e. extraneous 3rules ,or nor#s ,
of correctness.5%#yons,2345'GC*
+he reason why present Hday linguist are so insistent about the distinction
between the two types of rules is simply that traditional grammar was very
strongly normative in character , e.g. You should never use a double
negative ;You should not split the infinitive ;etc.
-n the24th century ,all the 9uropean languages were studied prescriptively
.+he grammarians then tried to lay down rules for the correct use of language
and settle the disputes over usage once and for all. .ome usages were
prescribed to be learned by heart ,followed accurately or avoided altogether .-t
was a matter of blac or white, right or wrong.
+hese attitudes are still with us ,though people realize nowadays the facts of
usage count more than the authority)made standards1. 8e can neither to
logic nor to #atin grammar when it comes to deciding whether something is or
is not correct in 9nglish .-t dose not mean that there is no place at all for
establishment and prescription of norms of usage .1+here are obvious
administrative and education advantages ,in modern world , standardizing the
principle dialect that is employed within a particular country or region %#yons ,
2345'I6*.
But the nature of linguistics as a science determines its preoccupation
instead of prescription.
1.%.2 Synchronic (s. 'iachronic
+ !%NH)ONI descri"tion ta0es a fixed instant 1usually ,&ut not necessarily ,the "resent 3, as
its "oints of o&servation .
;ost grammars are of this ind .-f you tae something called =A Arammar of
;odern Aree from the library shelves, it will usually claim to be a
synchronic grammar !liewise +he .tructure of .haespeare =s 9nglish
claims to be a synchronic description of a single ,past ,state of the
language .But of course synchronic is a fiction , for language changes as the
minutes pass and grammar)writing is a lengthy enterprise .However ,the
fiction of synchronic description is essential to linguistics %<owler ,23CG'6G*.
.aussure/s 6I+H)ONI linguistics is the study of a language through the course of its
history .
Historical linguistics was a pervasive interest of the Darwinist in the nineteenth
century! in the course of their historical researches into the development of
the -ndo)9uropean tongues ,the philologist instituted a firm tradition which had
led to the production of much diachronic information about most of the
culturally prominent , lettered languages of 9urope.
1.%.3 )angue *parole
.aussure distinguished the linguistic competence of the speaer and the
actual phenomena or data of linguistics %utterances * as #A@AB9 and
:A>7#9. 8hile parole constitutes the immediately accessible data ,the
linguist/s proper object is the langue of each community , the le"icon
,grammar ,and phonology implanted in each individual by his upbringing in
society and on the basis of which he speaers and understands his
language .
-f we could embrace the sum of word Himages stored in the minds of all
individuals, we could identify the social &ond that constitutes language 1langue 3.It is a store
house filled &y the #e#&ers of a given co##unity through their active use of s"ea0ing 1"arole 3.
A grammatical system that has a potential e"istence in each brain , or , more
specifically , in the brains of a group pf individuals. <or language %langue * is
not complete in any speaer !it e"ists perfectly only within a collectivity . -n
separating language %langue * from speaing %parole * we are at the same
time separating %2* what is social from what is individual! and %5* what is
essential from what is accessory and more or less accidental .1J.aussure
!0ourse in Aeneral #inguistics p.26)2G in 8iddowson, p.3KL
1.%.4 $o!petence an' perfor!ance
+his fundamental distinction is discussed by 0homsy in his Aspect of the
Theory of ynta!. A language user/s underlying nowledge about the system
of rules to the actual use of language in concrete situations%0homsy ,23?I'6*
As a language user we all have intuitive grasp of the rules of the language
,and though we may not be able to state the rules e"plicitly ,our performance
demonstrates our adherence to them .-f you have ever listened to an e"ited
argument and tried to transcribe it , you will find that speaer do not always
observed the linguistic rule . -nstead there can be numerous false stars ,
deviation ,and ungrammatical e"pressions even in the mature speaer.
9ven pre)school children now virtually all the rules of language e"cept for
some subtleties .+hey learn the rules by actually using the language .A child
demonstrate by the way he uses word that he nows what a noun is long
before he can define the term .8e can also observe the discrepancy between
and performances in normal language users .According to 0homsy ,the tas
of a linguist is to determine from the data of performance the underlying
system of rules that has been mastered by the language user .
@ot all linguists agree with 0homsy in that linguistic theory is concerned
primarily with an ideal speaer Hlistener ,in a completely homogeneous
speech)community ,who nows its language perfectly %23?I,p.6*.Dell Hymes
approaches language from a socio)cultural viewpoint with the aim of studying
the varieties of ways of speaing on the part of the individual and the
community .-t is found speaers vary their performance not at random but in a
regular way .+hus it is possible to e"tend the notion of competence ,restricted
by 0homsy to a nowledge of grammar ,to incorporate the pragmatic ability
for language use .+his e"tend idea of competence can be called
communicative competence . And the concept ,though still not so clarified
,has become very popular in 9<#%9nglish as foreign language *teaching in
0hina in the 0hins iin the past two decades.
1.%. +tic (s. +!ic
+he two term originate from the American linguist :ie/s distinction of
phonetics and phonemics .-t is not sufficient for the investigators ,no matter
how much e"perience he has had with the verbal behavior of a particular
speech community , merely to devise as detailed a listing of speech acts and
events as he can ..uch a list runs the ris of being 9+-0 rather than 9;-0,
i.e. of maing far too many ,as well as behaviorally inconse,uential
differentiations, just as was often the case with phonetic vs. phonemic
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 .

Human
beings are capable of maing
all inds of sounds, but only
some of these sounds have become units in the language system. #anguage
is first and foremost a Msystem of vocal symbolsM, as we have seen in the
discussion of language.
.peech sounds had e"isted long before writing was invented, and even today,
in some parts of the world, there are still languages that have no writing
systems. +herefore, the study of speech sounds is a major part of linguistics.
-n this chapter, we will loo at ways of studying speech sounds and the
patterns in which they are used. 8e will begin with the study of sounds, which
is called M:H7@9+-0.NN, and then go on to the study of sound patterns,
M:H7@7#7A&M
2.1 Speech pro'uction an' perception
Human beings are capable of maing all inds of sounds, but only some of
these sounds have become units in the language system. #anguage is first
and foremost a Msystem of vocal symbolsM, as we have seen in the discussion
of language. .peech sounds had e"isted long before writing was invented,
and even today, in some parts of the world, there are still languages that have
no writing systems. +herefore, the study of speech sounds is a major part of
linguistics and, in this chapter, we will loo at ways of studying speech sounds
and the patterns in which they are used.
8e will begin with the study of sounds, which is called M:H7@9+-0.NN,
and then go on to the study of sound patterns, M:H7@7#7A&M. As we
can imagine easily, the speech sound is articulated by a .peaer A. -t is then
transmitted to and received by .peaer B. 0onse,uently, a speech sound
goes through a three)step process.
@aturally, the study of sounds is divided into three main. areas, each dealing
with one part of the process.
7 A>+-0B#A+7>& :H7@9+-0. is the study of the production of speech
sounds.
7 A07B.+-0 :H7@9+-0. is the study of the physical properties of
sounds produced in speech.
7 A BD-+7>& :H7@9+-0. is concerned with the perception speech
sounds.
<or the purpose of this boo, we will concentrate only on Articulatory
:honetics, which deals with how sounds are produced and ignore the other
areas of study.
.:990H 7>AA@., as shown in figure, are also now as F70A# 7>AA@..
+hey are those parts of the human body involve in the production of speech.
+he organs, however, are not used for speech alone, as their primary function
is to fulfill the basic biological needs of breathing and eating. -n spite of this,
there seems to have been considerable evolutionary justification for them to
fulfill the special tas of speech as they have been formed in such a way that
they can function efficiently for the act of speech.
-t is striing to see how much of the human body is involved in the
production of speech' the #B@A., the +>A0H9A %or wind)pipe*, the
+H>7A+, the @7.9, and the ;7B+H. -nside the mouth, we need to
distinguish the +7@AB9 and various parts of the :A#A+9 while, inside the
throat, we have to distinguish :HA>&@O, the upper part, from #A>&@O, the
lower part containing the F70A# <7#D. %or F70A# 07>D.*. +he pharyn",
mouth, and nose form the three cavities of the F70A# +>A0+. +he mouth
and the nose are often referred to, respectively, as the 7>A# 0AF-+& and
the @A.A# 0AF-+&.
.peech sounds are produced with an A->.+>9A; as their sources of energy.
-n most circumstances, the airstream comes from the lungs. -t is forced out of
the lungs and then passes through the B>7@0H-7#9. and B>7@0H-, a
series of branching tubes, into the trachea. .ounds that are produced in this
way are called =:B#;7@-0N sounds.
+he laryn" opens into a muscular tube, the :HA>&@O, part of which can be
seen in a mirror. +he upper part of the pharyn" connects to the oral and nasal
cavities.
+he contents of the mouth are very important for speech production. .tarting
from the front, the upper part of the mouth includes the B::9> #-:, the
B::9> +99+H, the A#F97#A> >-DA9, the HA>D :A#A+9, the .7<+
:A#A+9 %or the F9#B;*, and the BFB#A. +he soft palate can be lowered to
allow air to pass through the nasal cavity. 8hen the oral cavity is at the same
time bloced, a @asal sound is produced. -n 9nglish, Jm, n,8 L are all nasals,
with the oral cavity bloced at the lips, alveolar ridge and the velum
respectively.
+he bottom part of the mouth contains the #789> #-:, the #789> +99+H,
the +7@AB9, and the ;A@D-B#9 fi. e. the lower jaw*' -n phonetics, the
tongue is divided into five parts' the +-:, the B#AD9, the <>7@+, the BA0P
and the >77+. %-n some analyses the major part of the tongue is often
referred to as the +7@AB9 B7D& or the D7>.B;. *
.ome languages contain speech sounds that are produced without airstreams
from the lungs. +hese .sounds include 9$90+-F9., -;:#7.-F9. and
0#-0P.. .uch .sounds are labeled N@7@):B#);7@-0N sounds. As these
sounds do not appear it 9nglish or 0hinese, we will not go into details with the
description of such sounds.
2.3 Seg!ents, 'i(ergences, an' phonetic transcription
2.3.1 Seg!ents an' 'i(ergences
8e all now that the 9nglish spelling does not represent its
pronunciation. -n the production of the word above, for e"ample, although the
spelling suggests <ive sounds, there are in fact four. 8hen the word is said
slowly, we recognize the four sound .9A;9@+. that are comparable to the
MaM, MbM, MoM and MvM of the spelling. -n this case, the MeM is silent) Aeorge
Bernard .haw %24I?))23IK*highlighted the lac of precision in 9nglish
orthography by spelling the word fish as ghoti, as gh is pronounced as flL in
enough, o as J-L in women, and ti as J9Lin nation.
+he reason for this divergence between sound and symbol may seem
to be simple' as there are more sounds in 9nglish than its letters can
represent, each letter must represent more than one sound. -n fact, it is much
more complicated than this. -n old 9nglish, the relation between sound and
symbol was much more regular. .ome of the sounds, especially the vowels,
have undergone changes in the history of 9nglish. Additionally, many 9nglish
words have been borrowed from other languages throughout history and the
irregularity of its spelling is made worse because of such borrowings.
2.3.2 Phonetic transcription
+he divergence between spelling and pronunciation becomes greater
when we consider the many accents of 9nglish used by people from different
regions. -n addition, there are still many languages in the world that do not
have a writing system of their own and we need! to rely on a set of symbols to
record the sounds they mae too.
Because of these reasons, it is necessary to devise sets of symbols that
can be used for transcribing sounds in language. .everal such systems are in
use and, in this boo, we will introduce and use the notation system of the
-@+9>@A+-7@A# :H7@9+-0 A#:HAB9+%-:A*.
-n 244?, the -@+9>@A+-7@A# :H7@9+-0 A..70-A+-7@ was inaugurated
by a small group of language teachers in <rance who had found the practice
of phonetics useful in their teaching and wished to popularize their methods. -t
was first nown as the :honetic +eachersN Association and was changed to its
present title in 243C.
7ne of the first activities of the Association was to produce a journal in
which the contents were printed entirely in :H7@9+-0 +>A@.0>-:+-7@.
+he idea of establishing a phonetic alphabet was first proposed By the Danish
grammarian 7tto $espersen %24?K ) 23G6* in 244?, and the first version of the
-:A was published in August 2444.-ts main principles were that there should
be a separate letter for each distinctive sound, and that the same symbol
should be used for that sound in any language in which it appears. +he
alphabet was to consist of as many >oman alphabet letters as possible, using
new letters and diacritics only when absolutely necessary. +hese principles
continue to be followed today.
+he J:A has been revised and corrected several times and is now widely
used in dictionaries and te"tboos throughout the world. +he present system
of the -:A derives mainly from one developed in the235Ks by the British
phonetician, Daniel $ones %2442))23?C*, and his colleagues at Bniversity of
#ondon. .ome of its special letters have even been accepted as part of the
new orthographies devised for previously unwritten languages.
2.4 $onsonants
$onsonants an' (o-els
+he sound segments are, grouped into 07@.7@A@+. and F789#..
0onsonants are produced by constricting or obstructing the vocal2tract at
some place to divert, impede, or completely shut off the flow of air in the oral
cavity. By contrast, a vowel is produced without such obstruction so no
turbulence or a total stopping of the air can be perceived.
+heoretically, as far as phoneticians are concerned, any segment must be
either a vowel or a consonant. -f a segment is not a vowel, it is a consonant.
+he problematic area is that the initial round in hot gives little turbulence,
depending on how forcefully it is said, and in yet and wet the initial segments
are obviously vowels. +o get out of this problem, the usual solution is to say
that these segments arc neither vowels nor consonants but midway between
the two categories. <or this purpose, the terms M.9;-)F789#M or M.9;-)
07@.7@A@+NN are often used. 7ther suggestions have been made but as
these affect only a small number of segments, the distinction between vowels
and consonants will be retained for our purposes in this boo.
$onsonants
-n the production of consonants at least two articulators are involved. <or
e"ample, the initial sound in bad involves both lips and its final segment
involves the blade %or the tip* of the tongue and the alveolar ridge. +he
categories of consonant, therefore, are established on the basis of several
factors. +he most important of these factors are' %a* the actual relationshi" &etween
the articulators and thus the way in which the air "asses through certain "arts of the vocal tract
and %b* where in the vocal tract there is a""roxi#ation, narrowing, or the o&struction of air. +he
former is nown as the ;A@@9>. 7< A>+-0B#A+-7@ and the latter as the
:#A09. 7< A>+-0B#A+-7@.
2.4.1 Manners of articulation
+here are several basic ways in which articulation can be accomplished'
the articulators may close off the oral tract for an instant or a relatively long
period! they may narrow the space considerably! or they may simply modify
the shape of the tract by approaching each other.
%2* .+7: %or :#7.-F9*' complete closure of the articulators involved so
that the airstream cannot escape through the mouth. -t is essential to separate
three phases in the production of a stop' %a* the closing phase, in which the
articulators come together! %b* the hold or compression phase, during which
air is compressed behind the closure! %c* the release phase, during which the
articulators forming the obstruction come rapidly apart and the air is suddenly
released. +echnically this third phase is called MplosionM, hence the name
MplosiveM, but because of the closure involved in the production of plosives,
the alternative name MstopM is fre,uently used to refer to this category of
sounds.
-f the air is stopped in the oral cavity but the soft palate is clown so that
it can go out through the nasal cavity, the sound produced is a @A.A# .+7:.
7therwise it is an 7>A#. .+7:. Although both types of sounds are stops,
phoneticians have retained the term .+7: to indicate an oral stop and used
the term @A.A# to indicate a nasal stop. -n 9nglish, Jp, b, t, d, , gL are stops
and Jm, n, NL are nasals.
%5* <>-0A+-F9' close appro"imation of two articulators se that the
airstream is partially obstructed and turbulent airflow is produced. +he audible
friction defines this class of sounds and thus e"plains the label MfricativeM. Jf, v,
:, T, s, z, -, ;,hL are fricatives in 9nglish.
%6* %;9D-A@* A::>7O-;A@+' an articulation in which one articulator is
close to another, but without the vocal tract being narrowed to such an e"tent
that a turbulent airstream is produced. +he gap between the articulators is
therefore larger than for a fricative and no turbulence. -t is i#"ortant "oint to note
that this category overla"s with that of vowel.
1<3 L+TE)+L 1+PP)O,I(+NT3. o&struction of the airstrea# at a "oint along the center of
the oral tract with inco#"lete closebetween one or both sides of the tongue and the
roof of the mouth. As the lateral passage forms a stricture of open
appro"imation and no noise of friction is produced, it can come under the
umbrella ofM appro"imantsN. J l L is the only one lateral in 9nglish. 7ther
consonantal articulations include +>-##, +A: or <#A:, and A<<>-0A+9. A trill
%sometimes called >7##* is produced when an articulator is set vibrating by
the airstream. A major trill sound is JrL, as in red and rye in some forms of
.cottish 9nglish. +he .panish MrrM in perro %dog* is a trill JrL. -f only one
vibration is produced, i.e. the tongue maes a single tap against the alveolar
ridge, the sound is called a tap or a flap.
2.4.2 Places of articulation
0onsonants may be produced at practically any place between the lips
and the vocal folds. 9leven places of articulation are distinguished on the -:A
chart.
%2* B-#AB-A#' made with the two lips. -n 9nglish, bilabial sounds include
Jp, h, mL, as in pet, bet and met. JwL, as in we and wet, involves an
appro"imation of the two lips but is produced slightly differently' the tongue
body is raised towards the velum at the same time and in the -:A chart it is
treated as a labial)velar appro"imant, outside the consonant chart. However,
as far as 9nglish is concerned, most linguists today have placed it under the
label MbilabialM.
%5* #AB-7D9@+A#' made with the lower lip and the upper front teeth. Jf,
vL,N as in fire and via, are produced by raising the lower lip until it nearly
touches the upper front teeth.
%6* D9@+A#' made by the tongue tip or blade %depending on the accent or
language* and the upper front teeth. 7nly fricatives %JT, :L* are found to be
strictly dental. .ome speaers have the tip of the tongue protruding between
the upper and lower front teeth whereas others have it close behind the upper
front teeth. Both are normal in 9nglish, and both may be called dental. +he
term -@+9>D9@+A# is sometimes used to describe the first ind in order to
mae a distinction.
%G*A#F97#A>' made with the tongue tip or blade and the alveolar ridge.
.ounds produced at this place include Jt, d, n! s, z, a, -L for 9nglish, which is a
large group of sounds.
%I*Q:7.+A#F97#A>' made with the tongue tip and the bac of the
alveolar ridge. .uch sounds include J-, ;= as in ship and genre. -n some
systems, this place is alsoQ nown as palato)alveolar.
%?* >9+>7<#9O' made with the tongue tip or blade curled bac
%retrofle"ed * so that the underside of the tongue tip or blade forms a stricture
with the bac of the alveolar ridge or the hard palate. .<or 9nglish, the use of
retrofle" sounds, e.g. the MrM of red, depends on accent and many speaers do
not use such sounds at all.
%C*:A#A+A-' made with the front of the tongue and the hard palate. +he
only 9nglish sound made here is JjL, as in yes and yet, but many speaers do
use a palatal fricative JRL for the MhM in he or Hugh.
%4*F9#A>' made with the bac of the tongue and the soft palate. -n maing
such sounds, the bac of the tongue is raised to touch the velum. 9"amples in
9nglish are velar stops J, gl, as in cat and get, and velar nasal - NL, as in sing.
+he pronunciation of the .cots word loch contains a velar fricative J"L after the
vowel. +he initial consonant in the 0hinese word MM is also the velar fricative
-"L.
%3* BFB#A>' made with the bac of the tongue and the uvula, the short
projection of soft tissue and muscle at the posterior end of the velum. .uch
sounds are not found in standard 9nglish but uvular fricatives J"L are
occasionally heard in certain rural @orthern accents of 9nglish as realizations
of the MrM in try and dry. +he sounds are, however, standard in, some other
languages.
%2K* :HA>&@A9A#' made with the root of the tongue and the walls of the
pharyn". +here are few sounds at this place Because of physiological
difficulty. Arabic is a language which contains pharyngeal fricatives.
%22* A#7++A#' made with the two pieces of vocal folds pushed towards
each other. +he Jhi in hat and hold is often described as a glottal fricative,
although some people hold it may be more realistic to interpret it as a type of
vowel. +he glottal stop JEL is formed by bringing together the vocal folds,
building up pressure behind them as for a stop and then releasing the
airstream suddenly. Because of such a gesture, it is more of the lac of sound
than a sound. A glottal stop is often perceived in words lie fat Jf+EtL and pac
Jp+EL, and many speaers of 9nglish have it for the MtM in words lie button
Jb>EnL, beatenJb>EnL, and fatten Jf+EnL.
2.4. .he consonants of +nglish
As we have noticed, in many cases the pronunciation of 9nglish depends
on individual speaerNs accent and personal preference. +here are different
accents even within Areat Britain, let alone outside it. Although no standard
had been established on the way 9nglish should be pronounced, one form of
9nglish pronunciation is the most common model accent in the teaching of
9nglish as a foreign language. -t is referred to as >909-F9D
:>7@B@0-A+-7@ %>:*, and many people also call it BB0 9nglish or 7"ford
9nglish. >: originates historically in the southeast of 9ngland and is spoen
by the upper)middle and upper classes throughout 9ngland. -t is widely used
in the private sector of the education system and spoen by most
newsreaders of the BB0 networ. +able 5.2 is a chart of 9nglish consonants
as used by >: speaers.
.able 2.1 # chat of +nglish consonants
-n many cases there are two sounds that share the same place and manner
of articulation.
+hese pairs of consonants are distinguished by voicing %see .ection 5.5*,
the one appearing on the left is voiceless and the one on the right is voiced.
@ow the consonants of 9nglish can be described in the following way'
JpL voiceless bilabial stop
JbL voiced bilabial stop
Js L voiceless alveolar fricative
JzL voiced alveolar fricative
8hen no distinction is made in voicing, only two features will be necessary.
+herefore, JmL is a Mbilabial nasalM, JjL a Mpalatal appro"imantM, and lbL a Mglottal
;anner of
Articulation
:lace of Articulation
Bilabial #abio)
dental
Dental Alveol
ar
:ost)
alveolar
:alatal Felar Alottal
.top p b t d g
@asal m n
<ricative f v s z
- ;
h
Appro"imant w r j
#ateral
Affricate
t- d;

fricativeM. JlL may be called an Malveolar lateralM or simply a MlateralM.