CLA

• Phoneme


  Basic unit of sound from which language is constructed
• Phonetics


  Actual sounds of speech, considering how sounds are physically articulated and language phenomena such as accents
• Place of articulation


  • Bilabial
  • Labiodental
  • Dental
  • Alveolar
  • Palatal
  • Velar
  • Glottal

  
• Manner of articulation


  • Plosives
  • Fricatives
  • Affricatives
  • Nasals
  • Lateral
  • Glides
• Accent


  Different repertoires of UK based English regional speakers
• Mainly northern speakers use no phoneme |n|
• English phonetic alphabet based on RP rather than regional accent (not all varieties treated equally)
• Prosodic features


  About sound- not individual sounds, make up the 'soundtrack' behind words we speak such as rhythm, pitch, volume and intonation
• Paralinguistic features


  Paralanguage can be very significant such as voice quality and other vocal effects (whispering, laughing, breathiness etc) alongside non verbal behaviour (eye contact, facial expressions etc)
• Phonological features


  • Alliteration
  • Assonance
  • Sibilance
  • Onomatopoeia (lexical and non lexical)
• Knowing about sounds and spoken language helps to understand some differences between speech and writing- important insights into any work on mode
• Understanding phonology will also give insights into public attitudes- especially stereotypes
• Language is an important aspect of identity and language differences can be used to include/exclude
• Not everyone who tries to represent speech/suggest sound will use a phonetic alphabet
• Sometimes writers (likely comic book writers, users of communication tools etc) will try to suggest sounds by manipulating conventional written alphabet
• Linguists claim no relationship between sounds we make or written symbols we produce and the things that is being described
• Language is said to be arbitrary (relationship between any word and its referent is only created by social convention)
• We have a whole army of terms we believe echo the noises they describe (onomatopoeic): crash, bang, clap etc
• Speech home project


  In order to understand how we learn to speak we need to be constantly monitored (his own son in the speech home project between the years 0-3)
• We unconsciously simplify our speech around children to mirror their development
• By the time a child is 5 they will know 5000 words- 3000 a year until they reach the 15000 of adults
• Humans have a larynx (voice box) low down in throats allowing us to form words


  Animals have a larynx higher up
• Vicki the chimp- 1960s failed attempt to talk
• Accidental stroke


  Resulting in inability to speak normally
• Brain a major factor for language: left side for language, front for speaking, back for understanding
• Could understand words spoken to him and could pick up objects but not actions
• Understood what he was seeing but couldn't vocalise it
• Babies listen in womb and learn mum's voice
• Babies respond more as they learn through pregnancy development
• Sign language


  In 1/6000 languages
• Autistic Christopher Taylor can speak 20+ languages
• Gary Morgan (expert) worked with him for 10 years and discovered he likes learning new languages and picks them up quickly (10 mins)
• Noam Chomsky and Oxhana - children born to learn language
• 1991 Oxhana- a girl raised by dogs and could speak human words (however for the first three years of life she was raised in a domestic setting and exposed to language)
• Children have to develop grammatical structures before 12 or it won't develop
• Forbidden experiment (can't test due to cruelty)

  1. Dr Tenernicovski found a way around and used zebra finches

  2. Isolated chicks from fathers

  3. Can't sing as they learn it from fathers

  4. Offspring copied the males (raised in isolation)

  5. Each new generation improved it until it sounded like the original proving the innate ability to know the song
• The way we know how to speak is genetic
• KE family - family who could hear but gave the impression of being deaf
• Thought processes and speech patterns normal
• Half of the family have it (chromosome 7 defect)