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Phonology is the study of sound patterns. It is language specific because different languages allow for different patterns. For example, Chinese and English differ from each other in their phonemic systems, syllabic structures, prosodic patterns, etc.
A "phonetic segment" is called a phone. The different phones that come from a phoneme are the allophones of that particular phoneme. Phonemes are what the mental dictionary is written in. In English, the voiceless stops /p, t, k/ are phonemes; that is, they are the underlying forms stored in our heads. The aspirated and unaspirated variations of these phonemes are their allophones.
Allophones of a phoneme are in complementary distribution because they do not occur in the same context. If sounds are the allophones of one phoneme, they may vary from each other to some degree, but that difference won't result in the change of meaning.
If sounds are in contrastive distribution, they are from different phonemes. The phonemes of one language are contrastive to one another, because in a sequence of sounds, the change of that particular sound to another will result in the change of meaning. The distinctive features help to distinguish one phoneme from the others, or one class of sounds from all the others.
Syllable is the smallest unit of sequence of sounds to which the prosodic features of stress, tone and pitch may apply. Different languages allow for different syllabic structures. The prosodic features convey meanings too.
Further Reading
Clark, J. & Yallop, C. 2000. An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press & Blackwell Publishers.
Fromkin, V. & Rodman, R. 1993. An Introduction to Language. Orlando: Harcourt Brace College Publisher.
Gussenhoven, C. & Jacobs, H. 2001. Understanding Phonology. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press & Edward Arnold Publishers.
Poole, S. C. 2000. An Introduction to Linguistics. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press & Macmillan Publishers.
Prater, C. H. 1972. Manual of American English Pronunciation. (3 rd ed.) New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Tinkel, A. J. 1988. Explorations in Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Questions and Exercises
1. Read aloud the following pairs of English words and try to figure out what differs the two words in each pair from each other. Do they form minimal pairs? If they are, what sounds will be consequently identified as the distinctive phonemes in English?
fish [fiʃ]/dish [diʃf] fine [fain]/dine [dain]
bead [biːd]/deed [diːd] rube [ruːb]/rude [ruːd]
it [it]/is [iz] eat [iːt]/ease [iːz]
beat [biːt]/boot[buːt] see [siː]/Sue [suː]
bat [bæt]/but [bʌt] lack [læk]/luck [lʌk]
crick [crik]/creek [criːk] dim [dim]/deem [diːm]
2. The distinctive features tell us the similarities and differences between phonemes or classes of sounds. Now can you fill in the following table with "＋" or "－" so that the difference among /t, d, n, s, z/ can be clearly demonstrated.
3. Stress is an important prosodic feature in English. A large group of English words, which may be used as either nouns or verbs, have a difference in stress to indicate the difference in meaning and usage. Observe the pronunciation of each of the following words. Try to find out which syllable receives the stress when it is a verb, and which syllable is stressed when it is a noun.
conduct conflict contest record
desert incline increase progress
protest rebel survey suspect
4. The articulation of the stressed vowels involves comparatively more effort of speech organs than that of the unstressed vowels. Therefore the unstressed vowels in English are normally the "easy" sounds that require less effort in articulation. Now transcribe the following polysyllabic words in IPA, mark the stress of each word, and underline all the vowels that appear in the unstressed syllables. What vowel sounds may appear in the unstressed syllables in English?
possibly apparently appointment phonology
congregation nevertheless articulation exterminative
introductory underdeveloped absolutely imaginative
5. Sentence stress tells which part of the sentence the speaker wants to emphasize. Normally, speakers and listeners are ready to share the meaning realized by sentence stress. Sometimes, misunderstanding occurs when one party of the conversation is not sensitive to the role of sentence stress. Look at the following dialogue, what has the waiter done to irritate the customer?
Customer: Waiter! Waiter! What soup is this?
Waiter: It's bean ˈsoup.
Customer (angrily): I don't care what it was. I want to know what it is now.
注 释
[1] In Chinese, the typical syllable is of CV structure, such as [p h a]（怕）or [li]（历）．It may also display a CVC structure, such as: [lin]（林）or [liŋ]（令）。