Lecture 2Lecture 2

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The Communicative CycleThe Communicative Cycle

Production

Transmission

Perception

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LinguisticsLinguisticsThe scientific study of languages; i.e. the The scientific study of languages; i.e. the inquiry of the systems and patterns of inquiry of the systems and patterns of phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics

inherent in a human languageinherent in a human language . .

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Phonological system

the rules that govern the use of sounds of a language.

Morphological system

the rules used to construct words from their component parts.

Syntactical system

the rules used to form and interpret units of language larger than words.

etc…

Linguistic competence• Producing and interpreting an unlimited number of utterances• Recognizing unacceptable utterancesi.e. there is a mental system (grammar) that allows speakers to form and interpret utterances.Components of grammar

Linguistic performanceThe application of linguistic competence to actually producing an utterance.

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Phonetics and Phonology

Phonetics is the study of speech sounds: their physical properties, the way they are produced, and the way they are received and decoded by the brain. It aims to provide a set of features to describe and distinguish all the sounds of the human language.

Phonology is the study of the systems and patterns of sounds that occur in a language (i.e. it is concerned with the study of how languages structure sounds to convey linguistic information.)

Phonology is, then, a branch of linguistics which has very close links with phonetics.

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Competence vs. PerformanceCompetence vs. Performance

Phonology has two sidesPhonology has two sides

Example:

1- Bill is an English teacher.2- tlirhs bhigl Dogkh.The first sentence could be interpreted because it matches your

phonological knowledge. In contrast, when you produce the second sentence, you could not interpret it because it does not match your phonological knowledge.

So, the speech production can be meaningful if it matches the phonological knowledge; it can be meaningless if it does not.

Phonological competence:

our knowledge of the phonological system of our language.

Phonological performanceThe actual production of sounds and sound sequences.

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Ὥ Ὥ Why do we need to study phonetics and phonology?Why do we need to study phonetics and phonology? - -The process of communication is, in part, dependent on the The process of communication is, in part, dependent on the

nature of the sound. nature of the sound. - Non-native speakers of a given language can understand the - Non-native speakers of a given language can understand the features of the sounds of that language; hence produce them features of the sounds of that language; hence produce them correctly.correctly.- Linguists may study the phonology of a given languages to - Linguists may study the phonology of a given languages to communicate with its people. communicate with its people. - It helps in describing the languages' changes and the variation - It helps in describing the languages' changes and the variation in dialects.in dialects.- It helps to understand the processes involved in the - It helps to understand the processes involved in the phonological acquisition by children.phonological acquisition by children.- Understanding the physics of speech sounds enables to create - Understanding the physics of speech sounds enables to create

synthetic speech (e.g. computers)synthetic speech (e.g. computers) . .

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For more information on the topics covered in this lecture, go toFor more information on the topics covered in this lecture, go to

www.bedfordstmartins.com/linguistics/language

and click on and click on SourcesSources..

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End of lecture 1

NextRead chapter 6

from “The Study of Language”George Yule

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