Hello everyone! Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving break.
Ten tricky two-toed turkeys trotted on the table.
Greedy gobblers grabbed the gravy.
Ten tricky two-toed turkeys trotted on the table.
Greedy gobblers grabbed the gravy. If you have not already turned in your Journal 2 from Chapter 2, please make sure you do so today.
For our online class tonight please read Chapter 3 and complete the 2 following tasks and post underneath this post where it says "comments."
EQ: How do people understand and produce language? What is phonoglogy and what are the phonemes of English?
Key Vocabulary to understand:
1. Phonology
2. Phonemes
3. Phonetics
4. Language Production
5. Phonotactics
Assignement: 2 tasks
1. Pick 2 questions to answer from the Applications section on pg. 71 & pg. 72. OR Answer the Essential Questions from above.Try to keep your responses 200 - 400 words.
2. Respond to a colleague's post in 100-200 words. Can be agreements, disagreements, other thoughts, suggestions, or teaching applications.
How do people understand and produce language?
ReplyDeleteOral communication is very easy for most humans. Very few people have trouble producing and understanding language. Producing language is an easy task for anyone whereas understanding language is difficult. To understand the message, the listener should decode the sound signal into language. Human communication is very complex because sending and receiving messages involve many processes such as predicting, making inferences, determining the meaning etc., not just encoding and decoding.
When the humans try to understand the messages, sometimes they need to predict what they will hear and other times they need to make inferences to fill in information not included in the message. Sometimes, speakers use gestures to clarify their ideas and the listeners take those gestures as clues to understand the message. Also, different tone of voices can signal different meanings.
Humans have a very good capacity of producing messages. Different humans have different way of communicating. Deaf people communicate with gestures whereas hearing people use sounds to communicate. According to Akmajian, and Demers (1979), the rhythm of respiration during speech is radically different from the rhythm of respiration during normal breathing. Humans seem to naturally adjust their breathing during their speech. Akmajian, and Demers (1979) state that the messages the brain sends out to tighten and relax the muscles which control speech are so complicated that they must be acquired. The human’s capacity of producing and understanding messages develops in the process of natural communication.
What is phonology and what are the phonemes of English?
Phonology is the study of the sounds used by speakers of a particular language and phoneme is a sound that makes a difference in the meaning of a language. Every language has its own sets of phonemes to communicate. According to Chapter 3, there are about 40 phonemes in the English language.
In English, there are a few words that differ by just one sound. For example, the words ‘pet’ and ‘bet’ and ‘pan’ and ‘ban’ have different meanings but they differ by just one phoneme. These words are called minimal pairs. One sound may represent different sounds, and one sound may be represented by different letters. For example, the letter ‘c’ in ‘cat’ and the letter ‘k’ in ‘kite’ represents the same sound. Also, the letters ‘ea’ have different sounds in ‘tea’, ‘bread’ ‘steak’ and ‘idea’.
English vowel phonemes vary considerably across dialects. For example, some people pronounce ‘cot’ and ‘caught’ with two different vowel sounds whereas others pronounce these words with the same vowel sound. English consonant phonemes are produced by stopping the flow of air as it passes though the vocal tract. A few examples of consonant phonemes are ‘pop’ and ‘bop’ and ‘papa’, ‘bapa’ and ‘mama’. These words are called stop phonemes because these words are formed by stopping the air by closing the lips. There are many different types of English consonant phonemes: stops, fricatives, affricates, nasals, liquids, and glides.
Nice summary! Isn't the English language so full of complexity?
DeleteI completely agree with you, Mrs. Dap. English is a complex and beautiful language, but I wanted to share some of the phonology rules of my native language, Telugu. Telugu words generally end with vowels. For Indian languages, the letter to sound rule is relatively easier than it is in English. In the Telugu language, there is a good correspondence between written language and spoken language. In Telugu, there are 16 vowels and 40 consonants. Vowels play a very important role in the pronunciation of any word. Telugu is one of the few Indian languages in which a letter to phoneme is very straightforward. Also, Telugu has its own number system. Indian languages originated from Sanskrit.
DeleteHow do people understand and produce language? Clearly, languages require different things of their speakers. Humans are possessed with a grammar, or syntax, that allows us to produce and understand basic sentences that carry basic messages. We do this in a way that is exquisitely sensitive to the structure of the language. Language is a function of the peculiar structure of the human brain. Several areas of the brain have been identified with linguistic skills, such as producing and understanding speech. For example, we store a great deal of information about the properties of words in our mental lexicon, and we retrieve this information when we understand or produce language.
ReplyDeleteWhat is phonology and what are the phonemes of English? Phonology is the study of the sound system of languages. It describes the way sounds function within a given language (Freeman and Freeman, 2004, p. 53-54). Scientists figure this out by selecting two words in a language that are off by only one sound. For example, the /p/ and /b/ sounds. Because the words “pet” and “bet” are only off by one sound, the /p/ and /b/ respectively, we can deduce that both sounds are phonemes. Not all languages have the same speech sounds, instead letters can represent different sounds, and different letters can represent the same sound (p. 54). Regardless of how many letters it takes in a language to create sounds, when it is described using phonemic transcription, each sound is represented by only one letter. Phonemes are described by the place and manner of articulation and how the phonemes are used. Freeman and Freeman stated that, “phonemes are perceptions, not physical units” (p.55).
Myra
DeleteTrue, according to the Physiology of Speech, sounds are formed in the vocal tract which is the area between the vocal cords and lips. Air passes through the airways of the lungs, passes through the glottal regionthat contain the vocal chords. There areelawtic bands located around the larynx. Air that passes though brings these bands closer together. The air passing through causes the elastic bands to vibrate. the sound created is refferred to as voicing. The vibrations that produce your voice are made inside of lyour throat. When you speak, laugh or sing, your lungs force air up your windpipe. this causes your vocal cords to vibrate. this ability of sould allows us to mimic what we hear others say or mimic sounds that we hear. this is our first introduction to language as an imfant that is learning to speak whether it's in English or another language. We start off learning language the same. We mimick our parents in what is known or referred to as babbling. Those very sounds turn into words. Words turn into phrase and prases turn into sentences. I believe as educators we must start teaching the phonology and teach the systematic organization of sounds in languages.
However, we can not each language skills in isolation. We must use differentiated instruction to help our students acquire language skills orally and written. We must teach phonics and their physiological production and how it relates to the sound in words. We must use repition in sayaing the sounds and words to allow students to hear the sound and to allow them to communicate how they heard the sound or words.
Phonemes will allow the students to learn to compare and contrast sounds in English and in their language. This will help them learn and understand the English language. they will be able to see and hear the difference. For example: the English j has a different sound in the Spanish language. Once students are familiar with the sound and recognize that it is the same letter, they will know how to pronounce it better.
I agree with your perception about language and the human brain. When we are understanding a message it requires us to decode a signal into language and understand the original idea. Communication depends on people making inferences for literal and non literal meaning. Making sound is the best way to express communication. As we speak messages from our brain travel to muscles to control speech. This chapter really explains how our brain helps our muscles in our mouth decode sounds. The information in this chapter is helpful for reading teachers as well as a speech pathologist.
DeleteImagine how difficult this is for our ELLs to distinguish these slight differences in sound. Are there any sounds/letters that you notice more than others your students struggle with?
Delete3. Read one of more of Parish’s Amelia Bedelia books and list the expressions she fails to understand. Make a table like the following one that lists the expression, Amelia’s interpretation, and the conventional interpretation.
ReplyDeleteNOTE: The blog would not let me use a table in posting, so I have altered the format.
Good Work, Amelia Bedelia
EXPRESSION: Bring me toast and an egg
LITERAL MEANING: Bring toast and a raw egg
NONLITERAL MEANING: Bring toast and a cooked egg
EXPRESSION: Go fly a kite
LITERAL MEANING: Fly a kite in the wind outside
NONLITERAL MEANING: To go away; get lost; leave
EXPRESSION: Pot the plants
LITERAL MEANING: Put plants in cooking pots
NONLITERAL MEANING: Put plants in garden pots
EXPRESSION: Bread dough should rise & be punched down
LITERAL MEANING: Use string to physically raise the bread pan and then hit it with a fist
NONLITERAL MEANING: Dough should expand from chemical reaction and then be compressed again by hand
EXPRESSION: Make a sponge cake
LITERAL MEANING: Make a cake including cleaning sponges as an ingredient
NONLITERAL MEANING: Make a light porous cake made with eggs and flour and sugar without shortening
EXPRESSION: Patch the window screen
LITERAL MEANING: Put cloth scraps on the screen
NONLITERAL MEANING: Repair torn screen material
EXPRESSION: Make a chicken dinner
LITERAL MEANING: Serve what chickens would eat for dinner (corn)
NONLITERAL MEANING: Make a meal consisting primarily of chicken
7. Transcribe the following words:
NOTE: I thought this would be a fun challenge. It was not fun. If anything, it raised more questions than it answered. It was also difficult to locate and produce the American Phonetic symbols, so I ended up copying those symbols from various wikis and pasting them as needed.
PLAY ple
CRAZY krezi
JUST ǰəst
BRIDGE brɪǰ
MAST mæst
CHANCE čæns
SHOUT šawt
YES yɛs
FIVE fayv
THEN ðɛn
DREAD drɛd
BATH bæθ
RING rɪŋ
TOY toy
TASTE test
How do people understand and produce language?
DeleteHumans communicate through the physical manipulation of our lungs, mouth, tongue, and lips. This manipulation makes sounds that we translate into language. It's a very innate skill set that is very complex. Understanding these sounds involves us to continuously borrow from previous experiences in the form of inferences, predictions, encoding and decoding. Unfortunately for us, the listener, or receiver of the message doesn't always comprehend the message as it was sent. The ability for people to use inferences to fill in gaps of meaning is an important feature of effective communication. The predictions and inferences are more often affected by setting than the acoustic signal. An example could be to expect a "Thank You" or "You're Welcome" when a transaction is completed, but the clerk says something else. The message might not be understood because the prediction and the actual message were not the same. Differnces in tone can also account for lack of understanding. If all of that isn't enough, the listener must then figure out of the meaning is literal or non-literal, direct or indirect. There is a tremendous amount of information that is being processed to understand what someone is trying to say (Freeman and Freeman, 2004).
What is phonology and what are phonemes of English?
Phonology is the study of sounds used by speakers of different languages (Freeman and Freeman, 2004). Phonology is what is heard by speakers and listeners.
There are forty English phonemes, these phonemes are sounds that make differences in languages. "p" and "b" are phonemes of English because they change meanings of words. For example, "pat" and "bat" use the same ending sound, but the different letters at the beginning give a completely different meaning to the word. Linguists use phonemes to illustrate how to produce the sounds of a given word. No alphabet has a one-to-one symbol for each sound necessary to duplicate all the language requirements. Phonemes bridge the gap from alphabet to pronunciation.
This is a list of the 40 English phonemes
1.[b]-big
2.[C]-chip
3.[d]-door
4.[D]-then
5.[f]-fish
6.[g]-goat
7.[h]-house
8.[j]-jack
9.[k]-cat, kit
10.[l]-lamp
11.[m]-map
12.[n]-near
13.[N]-sing
14.[p]-pear
15.[r]-road
16.[s]-state
17.[S]-sheep
17.[t]-truck
18.[v]-vent
19.[w]-wet
20.[y]-yet
21.[z]-zoo
22.[Z]-genre, vision, measure
23.[a]-cat
24.[e]-set
25.[i]-sit
26.[o]-corn, fork, four
27.[u]-cut, stuck, struck, front
28.[A]-plate
29.[E]-meet
30.[I]-fight
31.[O]-boat
32.[jU]-mute
33.[oo]-wood
34.[U]-food
35.[ou]-loud
36.[oi]-void
37.[A:]-shot, caught, father, balm, talk, tall, law, slaw, follow, dollar, car, hard, part, sharp
38.[3r']-bird, word, burn, fern
39.[..]-arrest, again, away, afire
40.[..r']-center, theater, realtor, inventor
Mr. Lacy, I also found this chapter daunting! Correctly producing sounds is truly a complicated process. I think it is also difficult to learn about a subject like phonology without actually hearing the sounds and seeing the movements used to produce them. Speaking is an audio/visual process, and I think I personally would be able to absorb the information better with some audio/visual interaction and practice.
DeleteAs I read, I couldn't help but think of my mother, who learned to speak correct sounds through a speech therapist. Because she was born with severe hearing loss, mimicking the sounds in others' speech was not an available method of learning to speak. Her therapist (and her mother, with flash cards and many hours of independent research) helped her learn to speak by showing her the way the mouth and throat look when each sound is made. Hearing my mother's stories about learning to speak have always impressed me, but after reading this chapter I am even more amazed at the sheer complexity of the process of speech. Many of our students qualify for speech therapy, which encompasses everything from pronunciation to listening skills to expression to reading comprehension. Seeing how much some students struggle with comprehension, perhaps we should place greater emphasis in the regular classroom on phonetics. Perhaps beginning at the very beginning will pave an easier path for English Language Learners.
MeDaRo; Good job. I have not read Parish's book on Amelia Bedela. Based on the few expressions you have shared here I will love to read the book.
DeleteI loved Amelia Bedelia books in Elementary school and still do! I've read some with my students, but it wasn't nearly as funny to them as it was me.
DeleteI loved answering the literate and nonliterate meaning of English expressions! I never read amelia Bedelia book but if anyone have it I will love to read it. It was funny to hear my own interpretations of certain expression when I was searching in the web for examples. That is completly true! expression and jokes are the last things people can get from a second language. If someone told me years ago "go fly a kite" I will probably do exactly what Amelia did, jijijijijijiji
Delete4. Describe in detail how the following phonemes are produced: |d|, |m|, |l|, |w|, |ey|, and |u|.
ReplyDeleteD is considered a phoneme called a stop. D is produced by placing the tip of the tongue behind the front teeth along the alveolar ridge to block the air for a moment.
M is considered a phoneme called stop and nasal consonant. M is a bilabial (two lips) it is formed by blocking the air by closing the lips.
L is a phoneme called liquid. It is a smooth sound formed when the tip of the tongue is against the alveolar ridge and lowers one side of the tongue to let the air pass through on that side.
W is a phoneme called a glide. It is produced by moving the tongue up toward the alveopalatial or velvar region.
EY is a vowel sound called a dipthong. Dipthong is a vowel blend of two sounds. The tongue moves from one part of the mouth to another.
U is a reduced vowel. This sound is produced with a weaker air flow.
3. Read one or more of Parish’s Amelia Bedelia books and list the expressions she fails to understand.
Amelia Bedelia’s First Apple Pie- Amelia Bedelia First Sleep Over- Amelia Bedelia Cub Reporter
Expression Literal Meaning Non literal
Watch your step Look down at your feet as you are walking Be careful as you are walking
Paint your nails Paint a nail Polish your finger nails
A voice went “duck” A duck is in appearance Squat down
I learned I don't want to be a speech teacher. This was the toughest chapter to get through to date. The technical aspect of speech and speaking was very difficult to follow and remember. It interests me from the aspect that I find it difficult to understand from reading the chapter once. I found myself reading the same paragraph three or more times until I figured out what it was trying to tell me. In the end, the message was simple. Humans need to communicate and needs drives the acquisition of the skill. We're born with the motivation to communicate and that most of what we know is acquired and not learned due to the complexity of language. Humans picked sound to communicate because of its versatility. How we create these sounds is so complex. The brain is in constant communication with the muscle groups that manipulate the lungs, mouth, tongue, and lips. Phonology will be useful as teachers instruct English learners how to read a first language and how to improve methods of teaching a second language.
DeleteMrs Tate, I enjoyed reading your answer to question 4. I practiced producing the phonemes that you described.
DeleteLacy: I agree with you on the Speech Teacher idea. Whew! What a task they have. This chapter was a bit challenging, and we will discuss more in class.
DeleteI have always thought of Amelia Bedelia when teaching students with Asperger’s Syndrome. One of the characteristics of a student with Asperger’s is the use of literal meanings for everything. As a teacher of students with Asperger’s, I have been told not to be sarcastic with these particular students. I remember Amelia Bedelia books from my childhood, and so I have thought about her numerous times during class. It's funny that I had never thought of her while teaching EL students.
Delete3.
ReplyDeleteAmelia Bedelia
Expression: Put out the lights
Amelia’s Interpretation: Takes all the light bulbs out of their sockets and bring them outside
Conventional Interpretation: Turn the light switches to “off”
Expression: Dust the furniture
Amelia’s Interpretation: Puts dust on the furniture
Conventional Interpretation: Wipe furniture with cloth or feathers to remove dust
Expression: Change the towels
Amelia’s Interpretation: Cuts towels with scissors so that they have a new look
Conventional Interpretation: Replace used or dirty towels with fresh, clean ones
Expression: Draw the drapes
Amelia’s Interpretation: Draws an illustration of the curtains
Conventional Interpretation: Pull curtains together to fully cover a window
Expression: Measure two cups (of rice)
Amelia’s Interpretation: Fills two cups with rice and places them one on top of the other, then measures the height, then pours rice back into the box
Conventional Interpretation: Fill up a measuring cup with an amount (of rice) equal to the standard measurement of two cups
Expression: Trim the fat
Amelia’s Interpretation: Decorates a piece of meat with fat on it
Conventional Interpretation: Cut the fat off from around the edges of a piece of meat
Expression: Dress the chicken
Amelia’s Interpretation: Puts clothes on a chicken
Conventional Interpretation: Prepare the chicken to be cooked
It is difficult to describe the literal meaning of some of these expressions! This exercise helped me see how much English speakers rely on idioms in every day speech.
8. Possible combinations of consonant phenomes that can begin English words:
th - throw
ts - tsunami
tr - transmit
ty – tyrant
tw - twelve
bl - blue
br - bright
by - bygone
dr - drive
dy - dye
gh - ghost
gl - gland
gr - grow
my - myopic
fl - flow
fr - fry
st - stick
sk - skill
sm - smell
sn - snug
sh - show
sc – scrape
sk - skeleton
sl - sleep
sy - syrup
sw - swing
wr – wrap
I'm definitely going to have to check out the Amelia Bedilia books. Interpreting what others mean when they're communicating with you is a challenge, especially for English language learners. One of our advisement lessons in the 2nd Step program also has an entire lesson on communication skills, and I plan to take a look at these books so I can add something to the lesson.
DeleteIt seems like one of the things that makes English so challenging for others to learn is that there are many phrases and figures of speech that can be easily misunderstood and taken literally. I find myself using expressions when I teach that can be misunderstood and taken literally. "Take a seat", for example. I obviously don't want my students taking my chairs anywhere, but I can see that some of my ELL students look at me inquisitively as if they don't quite understand the request.
Teachers have to be aware of major misunderstandings in languages. For ELL students, being successful in a reading program will focus on three areas of literacy instruction: vocabulary and oral language development, phonetic alphabet (sound-symbol) instruction, and scaffolding to promote comprehension. But another important dimension to successful literacy instruction for ELLs is an environment in which the first language is respected and celebrated. Viewing the skills and abilities children bring from their first language as assets rather than setbacks is important to helping ESL students learn to read English.
DeleteFurther, actively supporting the child’s first-language reading acquisition and demonstrating to parents that their literacy beliefs and practices are respected and upheld will result in stronger support for the school’s teaching efforts by those parents. Showing respect and support for a student’s first language acquisition and literacy is a win-win for students, parents, and teachers.
Great work, Sarah! We could possibly use some of your examples and bring in these books when we teach idoms to our ELLs in the future.
DeleteSimone: Yes to both of your points! If anything, this is an excellent reminder on the importance of allowing our children to SPEAK as much as possible in the classroom and allowing for use of L1 as a type of support. Please use this research if there is ever any future adversities if ELLs need to use their L1 in the classroom.
I was not exposed to Amelia Bedelia books as a child or student or Language Arts teacher. I had to look extensively online to find one that I could read without having to get to the bookstore (Thanks, YouTube!).
DeleteI can see the humor and value of these books, but I feel like it might be a marvelous idea for a group of teachers to get together and write a series of new books/stories/graphic novels/comic series for people of all ages to learn and understand figurative language through humorous "uh-oh" moments, something more modern and extensive (or inclusive) than these classic pieces can offer today, especially as so many new areas for idiomatic speech emerge (think technology, healthcare, media).
If you decide to use this idea and create something, please make text available online for educational purposes. Many thanks - Melanie :-)
People love to communicate to discuss various events, share ideas, offer suggestions, and express wants and needs. People connect to others through several means. Hearing people can use words to express, but deaf people use hands to converse. People without a common language depend on the universal language—body language. To understand and produce language, people must be on the same channel or use the same language, exercise the same customs or traditions, or live in the same region in order for each other to connect. People living in the West use handshakes to greet people. On the other hand, people living in the East, bowing their heads to say “Hello”. The signals that the receivers take in must be translated into the language that the receivers can recognize. If the senders transmit messages that are too complex, the receivers might not comprehend or might not decode messages. Thus, the requests, exchanges, or connections are not linked and go unanswered.
ReplyDeletePhonology is the study of the sound of a particular language. For example, pet and bet are different on beginning sounds and have different meanings. Therefore, the sounds of “b” and “p” are two phonemes in English, for each has a distinctive sound. The phonemes are specified by using the slash marks between them like /p/ or /b/. There are forty phonemes in English, and to articulate each phoneme, speakers utilize various parts of the vocal cords.
Great points, Ms. Nguyen. We will be talking about decoding and code switching in future classes. This is a good reminder about how our body language sends signals to our students as we teach.What is your body langauge communicating to your students?
DeletePeople understand and produce language because our brains are hardwired with the ability to communicate in some way, and because we have to be able to communicate to survive as a species. While we are born with some instinctual ability to communicate, it can be difficult for people to interact with each other. For example, most people can make the sounds that make up words, but making sure other people understand you is where the challenge lies. People use a variety of strategies to understand one another, including body language, making predictions and inferences about what is being communicated, tone of voice, and facial expressions to name a few. These all require a lot of experience with interacting with others. I think the key to acquiring and learning language involves a dichotomy of both acquisition and learned strategies, but experience communicating with others is the biggest key. For example, people that take 6 years of Spanish classes are very seldom as successful with communicating in Spanish as someone that spends a few months in a country where only Spanish is spoken. While the person that takes years and years of classes may know more vocabulary, it usually doesn’t translate to communicating easily because there are so many other factors involved, including expression, etc.
ReplyDeletePhonology is the study of the sounds that people use when speaking a particular language. Within phonology, we use phonemes to try to help illustrate what the written language sounds like. Phonemes are the building blocks of phonology, helping us distinguish between meanings of words. While English has 40, Spanish only has 22, which may indicate why speaking English may be more difficult for kids used to only having to differentiate between and know how to pronounce half as many sounds. After reading this section, I instantly thought of looking in the dictionary and checking out the way that the dictionary used what appear to be phonemes to illustrate to the reader how to pronounce the word. I found it pretty daunting, which indicates to me that spoken language has to be more of an acquisition process that must include vast and varied experiences in order to fully understand others and to be fully understood by others.
Thanks for your comments Eric. You're so right that we must give our students vast and varied opportunites to express themselves. Also, this is a good reminder that we need to be mindful to not judge language comprehension and pronounciation from our students or anyone for that matter when they have an accent.
DeleteNo matter what language we speak, humans always find a way to communicate simply because we love to talk.....
DeleteI completely agree with you about the necessity of actually speaking language in social settings. Because the process of producing speech is quite complicated, instead of explicitly teaching all the phonemes and their specifics, we need to just provide our students with opportunities to practice language. Peer interaction provides English language learners with examples of correct pronunciation and syntax. With more exposure and practice, our students will begin to pick up the English phonology, as well as phonotactics, the study of the possible combinations of phonemes in that language. For example, in Spanish, words beginning with the /s/ phoneme are always accompanied by an "e". Therefore, when our ESOL students are speaking English, they add that /e/ phoneme to words that being with "s". I've heard students pronounce, "Start" by saying "Estart."
Delete
ReplyDeleteHow do people understand and produce language?
Human beings are very social. We like to communicate and interact with others and most of the time it is done orally because it comes very easy for us. The question becomes how do we understand each other and how do we produce the language with which we communicate? The reality is that sending and receiving messages do involve a lot of encoding and decoding between the individuals communicating – the speaker and the listener. The listener has to do several things to help him/her understand what the speaker is saying. This involves the following factors:
· Being able to make inferences – this allows the individual to feel in the gaps in the information being communicated by the speaker
· The social context – this helps to determine the meaning of some expressions being used by the speaker and to anticipate what could be said
· Gestures are also used to clarify some unspoken words and even some redundant expressions could be used to express emphases (example” No, I don’t want that”.)
· Other clues are whether the speaker is talking in literal or nonliteral terms and in direct or indirect terms
All of these factors and more help to ensure understandable communication between two individuals.
Human baring any form of handicap communicate using sound and there are several theories as to why we use sound instead of our eyes, gestures or any other means. Some subscribe to the valid theory that we use sound because it can penetrate rooms, be heard in the dark and can travel farther than gestures or just by eye contact. So to produce language individuals effortless adjust air flow from their lungs up into their mouths while moving their tongues and mouths.
2. What is Phonology and what are the phonemes of English?
Phonology is the study of sounds used by a speaker of a language and phonemes are the sound that makes a difference in meaning in a language. Typical examples of phonemes are:
· hat and mat – the phonemes are “h” and “m”
· bake and cake – the phonemes are “b” and “c”
The English Language has about forty phonemes unlike the Spanish which has about twenty-two. The forty English phonemes have already been provided by Mr. Lacy in his blog.
Posted by Naomi Onike
Nice work Naomi!
DeleteChapter 3: English Phonology
ReplyDelete1. Read one or more of Parish’s Amelia Bedelia books and list the expressions she fails to understand. Make a table that list the expression, and the conventional interpretation.
Expression Literal Meaning Nonliteral meaning
“go fly a kite” She does just that flew a kite Go away; leave; stop bothering me
“the bread will rise” She watches the pan to see if it will lift off
the counter. To puff up or become larger; swell up
2. What is phonology and what are the phonemes of English?
Phonetic is the study of sounds across languages while phonology is the study of sounds used by speakers of a particular language. A phoneme is a sound that makes a difference in meaning in a language. Different languages used different set of phonemes to communicate ideas. English has about 40 phonemes while Spanish has about twenty-two.
English phonemes: Examples b and p, c and k
Spanish phonemes: Examples b and p, c and s
To determine whether a sound funtions as a phoneme in a language, linguist identify two words that differ by just one sound. For example, in English pet and bed, in Spanish pata y bata.
We produce language by pushing air from our lungs into our mouths and using the lips and tongue to produce different sounds. Then, as listeners, we understand what we hear by decoding the sounds into a comprehensible message. Inferences and the social context in which we hear language also impact what we hear. Phonology is the study of the sounds used in different languages. Each language is characterized by phonemes, or sounds that make a difference in meanings. Each phoneme is can be described by (1) its manner of articulation (bilabial, labiodental, interdental, alveolar, alveopalatal, velar, uvular, and glottal) and (2) whether or not it is voiced. These units are not physical but perceptual. For example, the letter “p” can represent two, separate phonemes because in some situations, this letter is aspirated, as in “pet” and non-aspirated, as in “sip.” (p. 55). In the English language, we have about forty phonemes, while in Spanish, there are about twenty-two (p. 54). Phonemes are divided into vowels and consonants. Vowels are produced as “vibrating air molecules pass from the vocal cords toward the lips” (p. 57). Consonants are produced by restricting or blocking the air as it passes through the vocal tract (p. 60).
ReplyDeleteGreat!
ReplyDeleteGreat Job!
ReplyDeleteHello, Everyone!
ReplyDelete2. Try saying “It’s Friday” in different ways using different intonation and emphasis to convey different meanings. How many different meanings can you convey?
ReplyDeleteIn linguistics, intonation is the way the voice rises and falls as we speak. Speakers can vary the pitch of their voice to convey meaning. Just as words can have various meanings, sentences can too. We can put emphasis on various syllables or change the tone in which we say something that affects the way our voice is interpreted. A person may say they are unaffected by some event, but the tone of their voice may say something else. It could also change whether the speaker is with you or not. It may be interesting to try an activity when the speaker and listener are in the same room, or when they are not (i.e. on the phone). The tone in which we say something can be just as important if not more important than what we say something because of the unintended consequences of our voice. When writing the meaning and intention is conveyed with punctuation, but spoken meaning and intention is conveyed through the tone of our voice.
“It’s Friday” – Depending on how I make this statement, it can be interpreted in many different ways. My voice can reflect:
• Excitement
• Disappointment
• Restating a fact
• A question or clarification
6. Try analyzing your favorite tongue twister to see why they are difficult to say. Use the procedure explained in this chapter for your analysis.
She sells seashells by the seashore.
This tongue twister like the one in the book requires rapid movement between two points in the mouth that are close together. While the words “she” and “sells” both start with the letter s, the pronunciation of each is very different. Our book says that “tongue twisters suggest the upper limits on human capacity” (pg. 70). After a few Google searches, I found it interesting that there are tongue twisters for languages other than English. I also found it interesting that tongue twisters occur so rarely in natural communication settings.
Hello, Everyone!
ReplyDeleteTrying to navigate the blog.
How do people understand and produce language? What is phonology and what are the phonemes of English?
ReplyDeleteLanguage is naturally learned. At birth, babies are born with the ability to learn language and that learning begins at birth. All children no matter what their parent speaks, learn language much the same way. Learning language takes place in three simple stages – learning sound, learning words, and learning sentences. In learning sound, babies learn which phonemes belong to the language they are learning and which do not. In learning words, children essentially learn how the sounds in a language go together to make meaning. And, children learn how to create sentences in the learning sentence stage.
Language develops at different rates in different children. Even though most children follow the same pattern, this pattern is the same over the intervals at birth, six months, eight months, eighteen months, twenty-four months, and thirty to thirty-six months. They continue to expand their vocabulary and develop more complex language over time. The language of children usually does not completely resemble adult language until they reach age eleven.
Phonology is the study of how sounds are organized and used in natural language. The phonological system of a language includes (a) an inventory or sounds and their features, and (b) rules which specify how sounds interact with each other. Phonology is one of several aspects of language. It is related to other aspects in an interacting hierarchy of levels in linguistics as follows: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.
The phonemes of English consists of the following:
The 5 Short Vowel Sounds
• short -a- in and, as, after
• short -e- in pen, hen, lend
• short -i- in it, in
• short -o- in top, hop
• short -u- in under, cup
The 6 Long Vowel Sounds
• long -a- in make, take
• long -e- in beet, feet
• long -i- in tie, lie
• long -o- in coat, toe
• long -u- (yoo) in rule
• long -oo- in few, blue
The R-Controlled Vowel Sounds
• -ur- in her, bird, and hurt
• -ar- in bark, dark
• -or- in fork, pork, stork
The 18 Consonant Sounds
c, q and x are missing as they are found in other sounds. (The C sound is found in the k sounds and in the s sound in words like cereal, city and cent. The Q sound is found in 'kw' words like backwards and Kwanza. The X sound is also found in ks words like kicks.)
• -b- in bed, bad
• -k- in cat and kick
• -d- in dog
• -f- in fat
• -g- in got
• -h- in has
• -j- in job
• -l- in lid
• -m- in mop
• -n- in not
• -p- in pan
• -r- in ran
• -s- in sit
• -t- in to
• -v- in van
• -w- in went
• -y- in yellow
• -z- in zipper
The Blends
Blends are 2 or 3 letters combined to form a distinct spelling sound.
The blends sounds:
• -bl- in blue and black
• -c- in clap and close
• -fl- in fly and flip
• -gl- in glue and glove
• -pl- in play and please
• -br- in brown and break
• -cr- in cry and crust
• -dr- in dry and drag
• -fr- in fry and freeze
• -gr- in great and grand
• -pr- in prize and prank
• -tr- in tree and try
• -sk- in skate and sky
• -sl- in slip and slap
• -sp- in spot and speed
• -st- in street and stop
• -sw- in sweet and sweater
• -spr- in spray and spring
• -str- in stripe and strap
The 7 Digraph Sounds
• -ch- in chin and ouch
• -sh- in ship and push
• -th- in thing
• -th- in this
• -wh- in when
• -ng- in ring
• -nk- in rink
The Other Special Sounds Including Dipthongs
• -oi- in foil and toy
• -ow- in owl and ouch
• short -oo- in took and pull
• -aw- in raw and haul
• -zh- in vision