Phonology

 

Phonology

 

◈ INTRODUCTION 

■ Phonology, the linguistic study of sound systems, gives us different types of information that are helpful for better understanding what spoken discourse sounds like.


■ The notational system we use for marking intonation is the Fries-ike system (sce Pike, 1945), which superimposes intonation as a line drawn over the sentence or utterance: When the line is directly under the words, this signals mid-level pitch, whereas when the line is just above the words, it signals high pitch; when somewhat below the words, the line signals low pitch, and when the line is one space above the words, it signals extra-high pitch.


■ The phonology of a language is often described by linguists in terms of segmental and suprasegmental systems, where "segmental” refers to the individual vowel and consonant sounds and their distribution, while "suprasegmental” refers to the patterns of rhythm (i.c., the timing of syllable length, syllable stress, and pauses) and the intonation contours (i.c., pitch patterns) that accompany sound sequences when language is used for oral communication. These suprasegmental features are collectively referred to as prosody. Prosody is extremely important in properly conveying the speaker's message and intention to the listener.


■ There is evidence that children acquire their first language master prosody before segmental. For example, children can understand that they are being scolded or being asked to make a choice based on prosody before they can recognize words or produce sound segments.


■ The acceptability of suprasegmental phonology in oral discourse may well influence the effectiveness of any interaction because it affects the speaker's conversational style and the listener's ability to make inferences.