② Synchronic vs. Diachronic
The description of a language at some point in time;
The description of a language as it changes through time.
③ Speech and writing
Spoken language is primary, not the written
④ Langue and parole
Proposed by Swiss linguists F. de Sausse (sociological)
Langue: refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community
Parole: refers to the realization of langue in actual use
⑤ Competence and performance
Proposed by the American linguist N. Chomsky (psychological)
Competence: the ideal user’s knowledge of the rules of his language

Chapter 3  Phonetics and phonology
[A] The definition of phonetics
Phonetics: the study of the phonic medium of language: it is concerned with all the sounds that occur in the world’s languages.
Articulatory phonetics: the study of how speech sounds are made, or articulated.
Acoustic phonetics: deals with the physical properties of speech as sound waves in the air.
Auditory (or perceptual) phonetics: deals with the perception, via the ear, of speech sounds.
Forensic phonetics: has an application in legal cases involving speaker identification and the analysis of recorded utterances.
[B] Organs of speech
Voiceless: when the vocal cords are spread apart, the air from the lungs passes between them unimpeded.
Voiced: when the vocal cords are drawn together, the air from the lungs repeated pushes them apart as it passes through, creating a vibration effect.
All the English vowels are typically voiced (voicing).
The important cavities:
The pharyngeal cavity
The oral cavity
The nasal cavity
Lips, teeth, teeth ridge (alveolus), hard palate, soft palate (velum), uvula, tip of tongue, blade of tongue, back of tongue, vocal cords
[C] Orthographic representation of speech sounds
Broad and narrow transcriptions
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet/Association)
Broad transcription: the transcription with letter-symbols only
Narrow transcription: the transcription with diacritics
E.g.:
[l]à[li:f]--à a clear [l] (no diacritic)
[l]à[bild]--àa dark [l] (~)
[l]à[helW]--àa dental [l] ( )
[p]à[pit]--àan aspirated [ph](h)
[p]à[spit]--àan unaspirated [p] (no diacritic)
[n]à[5bQtn]àa syllabic nasal [n] (7)
[D] Classification of English consonants
In terms of manner of articulation (the manner in which obstruction is created)
① Stops: the obstruction is total or complete, and then going abruptly
[p]/[b], [t]/[d], [k]/[g]
② Fricatives: the obstruction is partial, and the air is forced through a narrow passage in the month
[f]/[v], [s]/[z], [W]/[T], [F]/[V], [h] (approximant)
③ Affricates: the obstruction, complete at first, is released slowly as in fricatives
[tF]/[dV]
④ Liquids: the airflow is obstructed but is allowed to escape through the passage between part or parts of the tongue and the roof of the mouth
[l]àa lateral sound; [r]à retroflex
⑤ Glides: [w], [j] (semi-vowels)
Liquid + glides + [h]à approximants
⑥ Nasals: the nasal passage is opened by lowering the soft palate to let air pass through it
[m], [], []
By place of articulation (the place where obstruction is created)
① bilabials: upper and lower lips are brought together to create obstructions
[p]/[b], [w]à(velar)
② labiodentals: the lower lip and the upper teeth
[f]/[v]
③ dentals: the tip of the tongue and the upper front teeth
[W]/[T]
④ alveolars: the front part of the tongue on the alveolar ridge
[t]/[d], [s]/[z], [n], [l], [r]
⑤ alveo-palatals (palato-alveolars): tongue and the very front of the palate, near the alveolar ridge
[F]/[V], [t]/[d]
⑥ palatal: tongue in the middle of the palate
[j]
⑦ velars: the back of the tongue against the velum
[k], [g], [N] … [w]
⑧ glottals: the glottal is the space between the vocal cords in the larynx
[h]
[E] Classification of English vowels

Front
i:                 Central        Back  
Close  i        `        
        u:
u
Semi-close e                E:        
Semi-open                 E         C:
Open     A
B                Q         R
B:
① The highest position of the tongue: front, central, back;
② The openness of the mouth: close, semi-close, semi-open, open;
③ The roundness (shape) of the month (the lips):
All the front, central vowels are unrounded vowels except [B]
All the back vowels, except [A:] are rounded vowels
④ The length of the sound: long vowels & short vowels

Larynx à (tense) or (lax)
Monophthongs, diphthongs
Cardinal vowels
[F] The definition of phonology
Phonetics is interested in all the speech sounds used in all human languages; how they are produced, how they differ from each other, what phonetic features they possess, how they can be classified, etc.
Phonology, on the other hand, is interested in the system of sounds of a particular languages; it aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.
[G] Phone, phoneme, and allophone
Phone: the different versions of the abstract unit – phoneme
Phoneme: the mean-distinguishing sound in a language, placed in slash marks
Allophone: a set of phones, all of which are versions of one phoneme
[G] Phonemic contrast, complementary distribution, and minimal pair
Phonemic contrast: when two phonemes can occur in the same environments in two words and they distinguish meaning, they’re in phonemic contrast.
E.g. pin & bin à /p/ vs. /b/ rope & robe à /p/ vs. /b/
Complementary distribution: two or more than two allophones of the same phonemes are said to be in complementary distribution because they can not appear at the same time, or occur in different environment, besides they do not distinguish meaning.
Minimal pair: when two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two sounds are said to form a minimal pair.
When a group of words can be differentiated, each one from the others, by changing one phoneme (always in the same position), then all of these words constitute a minimal sets.
[H] Some rules in phonology
① sequential rules
Syllable

Onset                      rime

                     Nucleus        coda

[Consonant]          vowel      [consonant(s)]
Phonotactics of 3Cs occurring in onset:
No1:
___/s/
___voiceless stops: /p/, /t/, /k/
___approximants: /r/, /l/, /w/, /j/
No2:
The affricates [tF]/[dV] and the sibilants [s], [z], [F], [V] are not to be followed by another sibilants.
② assimilation rules