Discourse Analysis & Phonology

Discourse Analysis & Phonology

• Phonology is a branch of linguistics, closely related to phonetics.
• It studies the manners of organization and usage of the speech sounds in natural languages.
• Phonetics deals with the smallest chunks of language, yet it is in connection with other linguistic disciplines like morphology, because adding morphemes may change the meaning of words and their pronunciation, frequently following patterns-eg. work + er = worker.
• Phonetics is also related with syntax, as depending on a function of a word in a sentence it can be pronounced differently with a shifted phrasal stress and with changed intonation-eg. Who are you? Who are you!
• Similarly, this branch of linguistics is connected with semantics because of intonation constraints. While phonetics studies the production and perception of the speech sounds (for instance, in the expression 'London photography', phonetics would analyze all the sounds present in the words 'London' and 'photography', describing how they are produced).
• phonology is more interested in the abstract, that is mental aspects of these sounds. It inquiries into and describes the patterns of sounds and sound types which native speakers acquire intuitively.
• http://tlumaczenia-angielski.info/linguistics/phonology.htm

• Teaching has often focused on practicing of phonemes eg. /p/, /b/ ( in isolation) or in words eg. Pump & bump
• Vowels in words are generally affected by the surrounding consonants . (Good morning & Good Evening) –refer to page 89 MC.

• According to Pennington & Richards—Pronunciation is important to determine correct meaning of words.
• Rhythm—Segmental or phoneme-based
• -- Prosodic—stress & intonation
• Pronunciation can cause problem or difficulty in understanding each other.

• Strong
• } Beats/stress (Examples : 4.1- 4.3)
• Weak