BA English Language

The focus of this course is speech sounds. We will learn how sounds are made, how they can be described, analysed and transcribed, and how the sounds of English differ from those of other languages. We will also consider how sounds can be organized into higher-level structures, and we will study the relationship between sound and meaning.

 The principal aims of the course unit are as follows:

• to introduce students to fundamental notions in phonetics and phonology
• to provide experience in performing phonetic and phonological analysis
• to provide extensive training in auditory transcription

 By the end of this course students will be able to:

• Understand fundamental concepts in phonetics and phonology, and apply them critically to analyse new data

 By the end of this course students will be able to:

• Understand the basic mechanisms of speech production
• Provide an articulatory description of speech sounds
• Characterise the sounds of standard English (RP), and relate them to the inventories of other English dialects/other languages
• Identify some phonological patterns (contrastive and complementary distribution, feature specification)
• Characterise the differences between phonetics and phonology concerning the object and the method of study

By the end of this course students will be able to:

• Analyse new linguistic data (provide phonemic analysis, spot phonological patterns)
• Apply selected phonetic and phonological methods to the study of other linguistic subfields, such as field linguistics or sociolinguistics

 By the end of this course students will be able to:

• Read phonetic transcription
• Transcribe speech sounds

By the end of this course students will be able to:

• develop time-management skills, as well as skills in independent study.

Zsiga, E.C., 2012. The sounds of language: an introduction to phonetics and phonology. John Wiley & Sons