Riassunto esame linguistica inglese, prof. Sturiale, libro consigliato The Framework of English, Ballard

The framework of English language

The framework of English language is something with which we are very familiar and which we are competent at using. Human language is complex and it is divided into four parts:

• Lexis: the words of language
• Grammar: the way words are combined into sentences
• Discourse: the way sentences are combined into texts
• Phonology: the sounds of the language

Phonetics and phonemes

Phonetics is the study of the spoken sounds. There are several branches of phonetics but we will be dealing with articulatory phonetics, which deals with the production of speech sound. Closely related to phonetics is phonology that focuses on sounds in a particular language and it is more concerned with sound systems and patterns.

In Britain, there are many regional variations in the pronunciations, vocabulary and grammar of English. The linguists find it helpful to use just one variety: the Standard British English, that is a dialect. A dialect is the lexis and the grammar of a particular variety.

Similarly, all speakers have an accent. In fact, often we can identify where someone comes from by their accent. An accent is the social and regional variation in pronunciation. Linguists have traditionally selected an accent known as Received Pronunciation (RP) which includes 24-consonant sounds and 20-vowel sounds. The Queen also speaks RP but it is associated with the aristocracy so it is called conservative RP.

A particular sound can be pronounced in different ways depending on the position or context in which it occurs. For example, the way we pronounce /l/ at the start of the word "loop" is different from the /l/ at the end of the word "pool". In the first case, the sound /l/ is known as clear L, the other is known as dark L.

So there is a difference between the sounds which make up words and the realization of these sounds by various speakers. These sounds are phonemes; A phoneme is an abstract unit representing the smallest speech sounds that distinguishes one word from another. The phone is a physical realization of speech sound. In this case, clear l and dark l are allophones because the phoneme is the same but they have a different pronunciation.

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a special alphabet in which one symbol always represents the same sound and it is an indispensable tool for the study of phonetics and phonology. For example, the word ‘dumb’ has three phonemes /d, ʌ, m/. This type of transcription placed within slant brackets // is known as a broad transcription. There is also another type of transcription called narrow transcription, placed within square brackets [], that is used in order to identify allophones.

We can distinguish between consonants and vowels: a, e, i, o, u are the vowels and the rest are consonants. In phonetics, consonants are sounds made by completely or partially blocking the flow of air, involving some kind of narrow, partial or complete closure in the vocal tract, a vowel sound involves no closure.

The classification of consonants

The consonants are classified according to three aspects:

• Place of articulation
• Manner of articulation
• Presence or absence of voice

A place of articulation is the part of the vocal tract where the complete or partial closure necessary for a consonant sound is made. It describes where the airstream is stopped in the mouth.

• Bilabials are sounds formed using both lips.
• Labiodentals are sounds formed using the lower lip and upper teeth.
• Dentals are sounds formed by placing the tip of the tongue behind the upper teeth or between the teeth.
• Alveolars are sounds formed by placing the tip of the tongue on the alveolar ridge just behind the upper teeth.
• Palato-alveolars are sounds formed by placing the tongue at the front of the hard palate near the alveolar ridge.
• A palatal is a sound formed by putting the tongue against the middle of the palate.
• Velars are sounds formed using the soft palate and tongue.
• Glottals are sounds that can be produced without using the tongue or other articulators (the parts of the mouth involved in making speech sounds).

Manner of articulation

The manner of articulation is the way in which consonants are produced. To describe the manner of articulation, we need to focus on what happens to the airstream after it has passed through the vocal tract. Sounds that are completely blocked in the mouth are called stops; sounds in which the airstream is uninterrupted or partly interrupted in the mouth are called continuants.

We can distinguish five types of sound: plosive, nasal, fricative, affricate, and approximant.

• Plosives are sounds produced by stopping the airstream. [p] [b] [t] [d] [k] [g]
• Nasals are sounds produced when the soft palate is lowered and the airstream continues to flow in the production of these sounds. [m] [ŋ] [n]
• Fricatives are sounds produced by a partial blockage of the airstream resulting in friction as the air is forced through the small gap. [f] [v] [θ] [ð] [s] [z] [ʒ] [h] [ʃ]
• Affricates are sounds produced by combining a brief blockage of the airstream with an obstructed release which causes some friction. [ʧ] [ʤ]
• The sounds [r], [w], and [j] are described as approximants because although they are consonants, they do not adopt the articulator positions of the plosives, nasals, or fricatives.

Vowel sounds

Vowel sounds are produced by the free flow of air and the position of the tongue. The vowels have been divided into two types – monophthongs and diphthongs. A monophthong is a pure vowel; when the vowel is spoken in isolation, the position of the mouth remains unchanged. By contrast, a diphthong is a glide from one vowel position towards another.

Manner of articulation cannot be applied in the same way to vowels as to consonants, so we make a contrast of length. Length is indicated by a modified colon : after the vowel in question. We can make a contrast between short and long vowels. Short vowels are always monophthongs while long vowels may be monophthongs or diphthongs.

The two aspects of vowel articulation, tongue position and lip shape, can be used to complete the classification of vowels. The tongue position for monophthong vowels is usually plotted by a dot on a grid that relates to the shape of the mouth. The idea of a grid was introduced by the phonetician Daniel Jones.

• The tongue’s height may be described as CLOSE (high), HALF-CLOSE (middle), and HALF-OPEN (low).
• By raising or lowering different parts of the tongue, different sounds are made. The parts of the tongue involved in making vowel sounds are the FRONT, CENTRE, and BACK.

Segmental phonology

As we have already seen, phonetics is concerned with the production of individual speech sounds, phonology is concerned with the phoneme systems of a language and with the individual sounds or segments, when they are no longer in isolation but grouped together in syllables and words. Phonology is often divided into two areas: segmental phonology and suprasegmental phonology. Suprasegmental phonology deals with aspects of speech like stress, intonation, pitch; segmental phonology deals with the distribution of the phonemes, how phonemes group together to form syllables and words.

The distribution of consonants

First, we will examine monosyllabic and disyllabic words. There are three positions in which the consonants can occur: word-initial (at the beginning of a word), word-final (at the end of a word), and word-medial (between vowels in a word of two syllables or more).

The distribution of vowels

There are closed syllables, which means they are preceded and followed by a consonant (CVC) or simply followed by a consonant (VC) and open syllables where the vowel isn’t followed by a consonant (CV).

Phonotactics is the way phonemes group together in English to form syllables. Central to the structure of a syllable is a vowel. A long monophthong or a diphthong may be a monosyllabic word (are /a:/, ear /ie/). A single consonant cannot constitute a word; however, all the consonants except /ŋ/ can begin a word in English. They represent a central group known as initial consonants. Any consonants which can precede them are pre-initial consonants (swim) and those which can follow are post-initial consonants (play).

There are also the final consonants which are divided into pre-final consonants (tent) and post-final consonants (film, help).

The syllables are divided into onset - the opening consonant, and rhyme – the vowel followed by the final consonant. The vowel is called peak of the syllable because it is the centre of the syllable. Any consonants which conclude a syllable are known as the coda.

Assimilation describes the process in which two phonemes occurring together are influenced by each other.