UNIT : 1 THE ORIGINS OF LANGUAGE

We simply do not know how language originated. We do not know that spoken language developed well before written language. Yet we have no physical evidance relating to the speech of our ancestors and because of this absence of evidance speculations about the origins of human speech have been developed.

The Divine Source

The basic idea of the theory is that : “ If infants were allowed to grow up without hearing any language, then they would spontaneously begin using the original God-given language. “

The Natural Sound Source

“ Primitive words could have been imitations of the naturel sounds which early men & women heard around them “ Examples : cuckoo, splash, bang, boom. This view has been called “ bow-wow theory “ of language origin and these words echoing naturel sounds are called “ onomatopoeic words “

A similar suggestion : “ The original sounds of language came from naturel cries of emotion such as pain, anger & joy. Examples : Ouch! , Ah!, Hey!

Yo-heave-ho Theory

The sounds of a person involved in physical effort could be the source of our language, especially when that physical effort involved several people and had to be coordinated.

The importance of yo-heave-ho theory is that it places the development of human language in some SOCIAL CONTEXT.

The Oral-Gesture Source

The theory comes from the idea that there is a link between physical gesture & orally produced sounds. First of all a set of physical gestures was developed as a means of communication. Then a set of oral gestures specially involving the mouth developed in which the movements of the tongue, lips & so on where recognized according to patterns of movement similar to physical gestures.

Glossogenetics

The focus is on the biological basis of the formation. In the evolutionary development there are certain physical features, best thought of a partical adaptations that appear to be relevant for speech. By themselves, such features would not not lead to speech production, but they are good clues that a creature possessing such features probably has the capacity for speech.

Physiological Adaptations

Human teeth, lips, mouth, tongue, larynx, pharynx & brain have been created in such a way to coordinate in producing speech sounds. Their places, connections & coordinative functions make humankind different from all the living creatures.

Interactions & Transactions

There are two major functions of language:

• Interactional Function : It is related with how human use language to interact with each other socially or emotionally, how they Express therir feelings or their ideas.

• Transactional Function : It is related with how human use their linguistic ağabeylities to transfer knowledge from onegeneration to the next.




- ALINTIDIR -

UNIT : 2 THE DEVELOPMENT OF WRITING

Much of the evidance used in the reconstruction of ancient writing systems comes from inscriptions on stone or tablets found in the ruble of ruined cities.

Pictograms & Ideograms

A Picture representing a particular image in a consistent way it is called Picture-writing or Pictogram. There must be a link between the pictogram and its meaning. So, we can easily understand what isrefers to when we look at the pictogram.

More abstracts forms of pictograms are called Ideograms. The relationship between the entity & the symbol is not easily understood like pictograms.

• A shared property of both pictograms & ideograms is that they do not present words or sounds in a particular language.

Logograms

When symbols come to be used to represent words in a language they described as examples of word-writing or logograms.

Logographic writing was used by Sumerians & their particular inscriptions are called CUNEIFORM WRITING . Cuneiform means wedge-shaped and it was produced by pressing a wedge- shaped implement into soft clay tablets. When we consider the relationship between the written form & the object it represents, it is arbitrary.

We may accept the cuneiform inscriptions of Sumerians as ” the earliest known writing system “

Rebus Writing

The symbol for one entity is taken over as the symbol for the sound of the spoken word used to refer to that entity.

One symbol can be used in many different ways, with a range of meanings. This brings a sizeable reduction in the number of symbols needed in a writing system.

Syllabic Writing

When a writing system employs a set of symbols which represent the pronounciations of syllables it is described as syllabic writing.

There are no purely syllabic writing systems in use today, but modern Japanese can be written with a single symbols which represent spoken syllables & is consequently often described as having a syllabic writing or a syllabary.

Alphabetic Writing

An alphabet is essentially a set of written symbols which each represent a single type of sound.

Written English

• The spelling of written English took place in 15 th century, via printing, so Latin & French affected the written forms.
• Many of the early printers were Dutch, so they were not very successful in English pronounciation .
• Since the 15 th century spoken English has undergone a lot of changes.

- ALINTIDIR -

UNIT : 3 THE PROPERTIES OF LANGUAGE

Communicative vs. Informative

Communicative: To convey a message intentionally. e.g. All the things you say for communicating.

Informative: Unintentional messages.e.g. If you sneeze the person you are talking to can understand that you have a cold. / If you have a strange accent the person you are talking to can understand you are from some other part of the country.

Unique Properties of A Language

These features are uniquely a part of human language.

• Displacement: Talking about things that happened in the past, happens now or will happen in the future.
There is no displacement in animal communication.
Exception: Bee communication has displacement in an extremely limited form. A bee can show the others the source of the food.

• Arbitrariness: The word and object are not related to each other. e.g. dog. Cat

Exception: No arbitrary examples: Onomatopoeic sounds e.g. cuckoo, crash, squelch
Majority of animal signals have a clear connection with the conveyed message. Animal communication is non-arbitrary.

• Productivity: ( Creavity / open-endedness ) Language users create new words as they need them. It is an aspect of language which is linked to the fact that the potential number of utterances in any human language is infinite. Animal have fixed reference. Each signal refers to sth, but these signals can not be manipulated.

• Cultural Transmission: Language passes from one generation to another. In animals there is an instinctively produce process but human infants growing up in isolation produce no instinctive language. Cultural transmission is only crucial in the human acquisition process.

• Discreteness: Individual sounds can change the meaning. e.g. pack – back , bin – pin. This property is called discreteness.

• Duality: To use some sounds in different places. e.g. cat – act . Sounds are the same but the meanings are different.

There is no duality in animal communication.

Other Properties

a-) Vocal- auditory channel: Producing sounds by the vocal organs and perceiving them by ears.

b-) Reciprocity: Any speaker / reader can also be a listener / receiver.

c-) Specialization: Language is used linguistically.

d-) Non-directionality: Unseen but heard messages can be picked up by anyone.

e-) Rapid fade: Linguistic signals are produced & disappeared quickly.


- ALINTIDIR -

Notlar için teşekkürler, biz bu dersi 4. yarıyılda alacakmışız. Önceden bulduğum iyi oldu :)

UNIT : 5 THE SOUNDS OF LANGUAGE

The sounds of spoken English don’t match up, a lot of time, with letters of English. The solution to describe the sounds of a language like English is to produce a seperate alphabet with symbols which represent sounds.
Such a set of symbols is called the “ PHONETIC ALPHABET “ .

Phonetics: The general study of the characteristics of speech sounds is called “ phonetics “ . We have got four areas of study with in phonetics.

a-) Articulatory Phonetics: The study of how speech sounds are made, or articulated.
b-) Acoustic Phonetics: It deals with the physical properties of speech as sound waves in the air.
c-) Auditory Phonetics: It deals with the reception, via the ear, of speech sounds.
d-) Forensic Phonetics: It deals with the identification of the speaker and the analysis of recorded utterances.

ARTICULATION
• Voiceless: The air is not dostructed at the glottis. So there sould be no vibration.
• Voiced: When the vocal cards are drawn together, the air from the lungs repeatedly pushes them apart as it passes through, creating a vibration effect.

Place of Articulation: It is the location, inside the month, at which the constriction takes place. We use the symbols of the phonetic alphabet to donate specific sounds.These symbols are enclosed within square brackets [ ] .

1- Bilabials: The sounds formed using both upper and lower lips.
2- Labiodentals: The sounds formed with the upper teeth & the lower lip.
3- Dentals: The sounds formed with the tongue tip behind the upper front teeth.
4- Alveolars: The sounds formed with the front part of the tongue on the alveolar ridge.
5- Alveo-palatals: The sounds produced with the tongue at the very front of the palate, near the alveolar ridge.
6- Velars: The sounds produced with the back of the tongue, against the velum.
7- Glottal: The sounds produced without the active use of the tongue & other parts of the mouth.

Manner of Articulation: How the sounds articulated.

1- Stops: The sounds produced by some form of complete “ stopping “ of the airstream and
then letting it go abruptly.
2-Fricatives:The sounds produced by almost blocking the airstream, and having the air push through the narrow opening. As the air pushed through, a type of friction is produced.
3- Affricates: The sounds produced by combining brief stopping of the airstream with an obstructured release which causes some friction.
4-Nasal: The sounds produced by lowering the velum and the airstream is allowed to flow out through the nose.
5- Approximants: Articulation of these sounds are strongly influenced by the following vowel sound.
a-) Glides: The sounds produced with the tongue moving to or from the position of a nearby vowel.
b-) Liquids: The sounds formed by letting the airstream flow around the sides of the tongue as it makes contact with the alveolar ridge.

6-Glottal stops: It occurs when the space between the vocal cords is closed completely, very briefly, and then realized.
7-Flap: The sounds produced by the tongue tip being thrown against the alveolar ridge for an instant.

Vowels: They are produced with a relatively free flow of air. They are all typically voiced. Front versus a back and a high versus a low area.

Dipthongs: Combined vowel sounds which contain two different sounds are called diaphanous. They begin with a vowel sound and with a glide.

- ALINTIDIR -

UNIT : 6 THE SOUND PATTERNS OF LANGUAGE

• Physically different individuals would inevitably have physically differnt vocal tracts, in terms of size & shape.
• Since every individuals has a physically different vocal tract, every individual will pronounce sounds differntly.
• Each individual will not pronunce the word “ me” in a physically identical manner on every occasion.

Phonology: The description of the systems and patterns of speech sounds in a language. It is concerned with the ways in which speech sounds form systems & patterns inhuman language Phonology permits a speaker.:

• To produce sounds that form meaningful utterances.
• To recognize a foreign accent.
• To make up new words.
• To form plurals or past tenses, etc.

Phonemes: Each meaning – distinguishing sound in a language is described as a “ phoneme “. It is the single sound type which came to be represented by a single symbol. Slash marksa re conventionally used to indicate a phoneme, /t/ .

• Phoneme functions contrastively. This contrastive property is the basic operational test for determining the phonemes which exist in a language. If we substitucle one sound for another in a word and there is a change of meaning, then two sounds represent different phonemes.
• Place of articulation, manner of articulation, voiced, voiceless are the distinguishing faetures of the sounds. If the feature is present, we mark it with a plus ( + ) sign: if it isn’t present, we use (- ) minus sign. /p/ - Voice, + Bilabial, + Stop )

Phones: They are different versions of a sound type. Phones are represented in square brackets.

Allophones: When we have a set of phones, all of which are versions of one phoneme, we refer to them as the allophone of that phoneme. e.g. Bean, bead.

Aspiration: When we are producing the same sound in different words, sometimes extra puff of air is produced for the same sound. This feature is just for stops ( b, p, t, d, k, g ) e.g. Pit, spit.

• Substituting allophones only result in a different pronounciation of the same word.

Minimal Pairs: When two words such as “ pat “ & “ bat “ are identical in form expect for a contrast in one phoneme, occuring in the same position, the two words are described as a minimal pair. e.g. Feat, fit, fat, fate

Phonotactics:There are definite patterns to the types of sound combinations permitted in a language. We can form nonsense words which are permissible forms with no meanings. They represent identical gaps in the vocabulary of English. E.g. “lig” or “vig” ( not English words but possible ).
But “sing” or “mig” are not obeying same constraints on the sequence. Such constraints are called the “ Phonotactics “ of a language.

Syllabus & Clusters: A syllable is composed one or more phonemes & it must contain a vowel sound. Every syllable has a nucleus, usually a vowel-liquid or nasal. The basic elements of the syllable are the onset ( one or more consonants ) and the rhyme. Plus any following consonants treated as the coda.

• The syllabus which hasn’t got a coda are known “ OPEN SYLLABUS “ , when a coda is present, they are called “ CLOSED SYLLABUS” .
Cup => closed syllable no => open syllable

• Both onset and coda can consist of more than one consonant known as a CONSONANT CLUSTER. /s/ + (/p/, /t/,/k/) + ( /r/, /l/, /w/ )

Co-articulation effects: Our talk is fast & spontaneous & it requires our articulators to move from one sound to the next without stopping. The process of making one sound almost at the same time as the next is called co-articulation. Articulation effects are called “ assimilation” & “ Ellision” .

• Assimilation:When two phonemes occur in sequence & some aspect of one phoneme is taken or copied by the other the process is known as “ assimilation “ .This process is occasioned by “ ease of articulation in everyday talk. For example, only vowel becomes nasal whenever it immediately procedes a nasal. E.g. can => I can go.
• Elision: Omission of a sound segment which would be present in the deliberate pronounciation of a word in isolation is technically described as “ elision “ . e.g. He must be. Aspects…

- ALINTIDIR -

The theory of 'Divine Source' sounds interesting.

Is there anyone paying this theory any heed?

Bu dersi geçtiğimiz dönem aldık.Biraz zor ama çok zevkli çok sevdiğim bir dersti.Teşekkürler.

Sağ ol kardeş emeğine sağlık

süper alıştırma imkanı seslerle ilgili.seslerin doğru telaffuzu.;)
tıklayın...

http://skyblues67.chez-alice.fr/sounds/phonetics1.htm

arkadaşlar ellerinize sağlık.

:)