Phonetics/Phonology的問題
- Zi-chen Edgar Meng
- Jan 28, 2021
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 28, 2021
有同學問我，為什麼要背這麼多東西應付考試？
我只能回答你/妳：那是因為你/妳眼中只有考試。
下面為一些語言學或是語言學-語言教學介面的期刊文章/手稿的節錄，看看自己現在能看懂多少？
[關於語音描述1]
Georgiou, G. P. (2018). Bit and beat are heard as the same: Mapping the vowel perceptual patterns of Greek-English bilingual children. Language Science,72, pp.1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2018.12.001
Taking into account the articulatory/phonetic characteristics of the two vowel systems we can make the following predictions in regard to the assimilation of the English vowels to the native phonological categories of the Greek speakers:
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The Greek vowel/i/is described as a high front unrounded vowel; the same description is given for the English vowel/iː/. The vowels occupy close positions in the vowel space, however, they differ in duration, so it is expected that the English vowel/iː/will be assimilated to Greek phonological category/i/as a moderate to poor exemplar of it. On the other hand, the English vowel/ɪ/is expected to be assimilated to its closest phonological category, the Greek/i/, as a good exemplar of it, due to their proximity in the vowel space and their similar durations.
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The Greek vowel/e/and the English vowel/e/are both described as (mid) -front unrounded vowels. Due to their similarity, it is expected that the English/e/will be assimilated to the Greek vowel/e/as a moderate to good exemplar. The low (-mid) central unrounded vowel/ɜː/is not found in the Greek vowel inventory so, the Greek speakers will probably assimilate it to their closest phonological category, most likely Greek/e/, receiving a poor to moderate goodness rating.
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The near-low front unrounded vowel/æ/is not found in the Greek vowel system. However, its closest vowel is the low (-mid) central unrounded/a/, so it is expected that the Greek speakers will assimilate English/æ/to Greek/a/, rating it a moderate to good exemplar of/a/. The low (-mid) back unrounded English vowel/ʌ/is also not present in the Greek vowel inventory. Greek speakers will likely rate the English vowel/ʌ/as a moderate-to-good exemplar of their native/a/category. Regarding the low back unrounded English vowel/ɑː/, which is found between the Greek vowels/a/and/o/in the vowel space, it might be assimilated to the Greek/a/as a poor exemplar because it is near the English vowel/ʌ/which is likely to be perceived as an instance of the Greek vowel/a/.
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Two English vowels, the low (-mid) back rounded vowel/ɔː/and the low back rounded vowel/ɒ/are not present in the Greek vowel inventory. Nevertheless, they are close to the low (-mid) back rounded Greek vowel/o/in the vowel space, so it is expected that learners will assimilate those vowels to Greek/o/, evaluating them as moderate to good exemplars of that vowel category.
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The Greek vowel/u/and the English vowel/uː/are characterized as high back rounded vowels, so due to their similarity it is likely that the Greek speakers will assimilate the English vowel to their phonological category/u/but as a poor to moderate exemplar since they differ considerably in duration. The English vowel/ʊ/is not present in the Greek vowel inventory but it is near to the Greek vowel/u/in the vowel space. Also, both of the vowels have similar durations, so, it is possible that/ʊ/will be assimilated to the Greek phonological category/u/as a moderate to good exemplar of it.
According to these predictions, hypotheses can be made about the discrimination of specific English vowel contrasts by the Greek young learners of English. The hypotheses will be based on PAM-L2 because it makes salient and testable predictions regarding the discrimination of unfamiliar contrasts by L2 learners; these predictions are specific and are based on the assimilation patterns. The English vowel contrasts/iː/-/ɪ/,/e/-/ɜː/,/ʌ/-/ɑː/,/ɑː/-/æ/, and/ʊ/-/u/, are expected to be CG assimilations because, within each pair, the vowels are predicted to be assimilated to the same native phonological category with one of the vowels constituting a good exemplar and the other a poor exemplar. This type of assimilation predicts moderate to good discrimination of these contrasts (Best and Tyler, 2007). The English contrasts/æ/-/ʌ/and/ɒ/-/ɔː/are expected to result in SC assimilation since both of the vowels are likely to constitute either good or bad exemplars of a native vowel phonological category; this type of assimilation will result in poor discrimination of the L2 vowel contrasts (Best &Tyler, 2007). Table 1 presents the predictions regarding the assimilation of the English vowels to the Greek phonological categories and the assimilation type for L2 English contrasts as derive from PAM. Predictions cover both proficiency groups of learners (low and high).
[關於語音描述2]
Donegan, P. (2002). Phonological process and phonetic rules. Manuscript. University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, Hawai‘i.
[關於音標]
Toivonen I. et al. (2015). Vowel height and duration. Proceedings of the 32nd West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, ed. Ulrike Steindl et al., 64-71. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
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