The Sounds of Language
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Reviews / Votes
"This book covers the scientific study of speech sounds in impressive breadth and depth. There is enough material here for two sophisticated courses or a solid one-semester introduction to both phonetics and phonology. The writing style should please both instructors and students." - Maria Gouskova, New York University "Thoroughly accessible, and filled with illuminating examples and exercises for students, The Sounds of Language is a comprehensive and stimulating introduction to both phonetics and phonology." - Andrew Smith, University of StirlingMore details
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Content
Preface xv
1 The Vocal Tract 1
1.1 Seeing the vocal tract: tools for speech research 2
1.2 Parts of the vocal tract 5
Chapter summary 11
Further reading 11
Review exercises 12
Further analysis and discussion 13
Go online 13
References 13
2 Basics of Articulation: Manner and Place in English 14
2.1 The dance of the articulators 15
2.2 Phonetic transcription 16
2.3 The building blocks of speech 20
Chapter summary 29
Further reading 29
Review exercises 30
Further analysis and discussion 32
Go online 32
3 A Tour of the Consonants 33
3.1 Exotic sounds and the phonetic environment 34
3.2 Pulmonic consonants 37
3.3 Non-pulmonic consonants 45
3.4 Positional variation in English 48
Chapter summary 51
Further reading 52
Review exercises 52
Further analysis and discussion 53
Go online 54
References 54
4 A Map of the Vowels 55
4.1 The landscape 56
4.2 Cardinal vowels 57
4.3 Building inventories: dimensions of vowel quality 59
4.4 Nasality and voice quality 66
4.5 Length and diphthongs 67
4.6 Tone 68
4.7 Positional variants of the vowels of English 70
Chapter summary 71
Further reading 71
Review exercises 72
Further analysis and discussion 73
Further research 74
References 74
5 Anatomy, Physiology, and Gestural Coordination 76
5.1 Anatomy and physiology of respiration 77
5.2 Anatomy and physiology of the larynx 79
5.3 Anatomy of the supralaryngeal vocal tract 85
5.4 Coordination of gestures 89
5.5 Palatography 91
Chapter summary 94
Further reading 95
Review exercises 96
Further analysis and discussion 97
Go online 98
6 The Physics of Sound: Pendulums, Pebbles, and Waves 99
6.1 What is sound? 100
6.2 Simple harmonic motion: a pendulum and a tuning fork 102
6.3 Adding sinuosoids: complex waves 105
6.4 Sound propagation 108
6.5 Decibels 110
6.6 Resonance 111
6.7 The vocal tract as a sound-producing device: source-filter theory 114
Chapter summary 116
Further reading 116
Review exercises 117
Further analysis and discussion 118
Go online 118
7 Looking at Speech: Waveforms, Spectra, and Spectrograms 119
7.1 Pre-digital speech 120
7.2 Digitization 122
7.3 Looking at waveforms 129
7.4 Spectra 131
7.5 Spectrograms 137
Chapter summary 142
Further reading 143
Review exercises 144
Further analysis and discussion 144
Go online 148
References 148
8 Speech Analysis: Under the Hood 149
8.1 Building sounds up 150
8.2 Breaking sounds down 160
Chapter summary 169
Further reading 170
Review exercises 170
Further analysis and discussion 171
Go online 172
References 172
9 Hearing and Speech Perception 173
9.1 Anatomy and physiology of the ear 174
9.2 Neuro-anatomy 181
9.3 Speech perception 186
Chapter summary 194
Further reading 195
Review exercises 195
Further analysis and discussion 196
Go online 197
References 197
10 Phonology 1: Abstraction, Contrast, Predictability 198
10.1 The necessity of abstraction 199
10.2 Contrast and predictability: phonemes and allophones 203
10.3 Some complicating factors 211
10.4 Biuniqueness, Behaviorism, and the decline of phonemic analysis 214
Chapter summary 216
Further reading 216
Review exercises 216
Further analysis and discussion 217
Further research 219
Go online 219
References 219
11 Phonotactics and Alternations 221
11.1 Phonotactic constraints 222
11.2 Analyzing alternations 225
11.3 Alternations: what to expect 232
Chapter summary 246
Further reading 246
Review exercises 246
Further analysis and discussion 248
Go online 250
References 250
12 What Is Possible Language?: Distinctive Features 253
12.1 Introduction 254
12.2 Distinctive features 257
12.3 How have our hypotheses fared? 270
Chapter summary 271
Further reading 272
Review exercises 272
Further analysis and discussion 272
Further research 274
Go online 274
References 274
13 Rules and Derivations in Generative Grammar 275
13.1 Generative grammars 276
13.2 Underlying representations 277
13.3 Writing rules 279
13.4 Autosegmental representations and feature geometry 284
13.5 How have our hypotheses fared? 298
Chapter summary 299
Further reading 299
Review exercises 300
Further analysis and discussion 300
Further research 303
Go online 303
References 303
14 Constraint-based Phonology 304
14.1 Constraints and rules in linguistic theory 305
14.2 The basics of Optimality Theory 309
14.3 Example problem solving in OT 314
14.4 Challenges and directions for future research 322
Chapter summary 324
Further reading 325
Review exercises 325
Further analysis and discussion 325
Further research 329
Go online 329
References 329
15 Syllables and Prosodic Domains 330
15.1 Syllables 331
15.2 The prosodic hierarchy 341
Chapter summary 348
Further reading 348
Review exercises 349
Further analysis and discussion 350
Further research 000
References 351
16 Stress 353
16.1 What is linguistic stress? 354
16.2 Cross-linguistic typology 356
16.3 A feature for stress? 360
16.4 Metrical structure 360
16.5 Stress in English 365
Chapter summary 370
Further reading 371
Review exercises 371
Further analysis and discussion 372
Further research 374
Go online 374
References 374
17 Tone and Intonation 375
17.1 Tone 376
17.2 Intonation 392
Chapter summary 397
Further reading 397
Review exercises 398
Further analysis and discussion 399
Further research 399
Go online 400
References 400
18 Diachronic Change 401
18.1 Languages change 402
18.2 Historical reconstruction 408
18.3 History of the sounds of English 415
Chapter summary 422
Further reading 422
Review exercises 423
Further analysis and discussion 423
Further research 423
Go online 425
References 425
19 Variation 426
19.1 Variation by place 428
19.2 Other sources of variation 437
19.3 Formalizing variation 441
Chapter summary 444
Further reading 445
Review exercises 445
Further analysis and discussion 446
Further research 446
Go online 446
References 446
20 Acquisition and Learning 447
20.1 Language Acquisition and Language Learning 448
20.2 Child language acquisition: the data 448
20.3 Theories of L1 acquisition 454
20.4 L2 Learning 457
20.5 Acquisition, Learning, and Linguistic Theory 461
Chapter summary 462
Further reading 462
Review exercises 462
Further analysis and discussion 464
Further research 464
Go online 464
References 464
Index 465
