Phonetics as a scientific study of speech Contents

1. 
   The objectives of phonetics
   
2. 
   Speech communication
   
3. 
   Areas of phonetic studies
   
4. 
   Information conveyed in speech
   
5. 
   Types of communication
   
6. 
   The semiotic framework (Laver, Principles of Phonetics, 1994): linguistic code and signs
   
7. 
   Pattern (form) and variability (substance)
   
8. 
   Phonetics vs. Phonology
   
9. 
   Linguistic, paralinguistic and non-linguistic communication
   
10. 
    Summary
    

1. 
   The objectives of phonetics
   

• 
  speech communication – a code
  
• 
  spoken utterances – signs of this coded system
  
• 
  speech communication is effective only between people skilled in the production and interpretation of the relevant signs
  
• 
  speech communication can be analyzed at various levels as it carries information of a different type
  

2. 
   Speech communication
   

3. 
   Areas of phonetic studies
   

Articulatory phonetics	Acoustic phonetics	Auditory phonetics
construction and function of the speech organs (larynx, vocal cords, tongue, lips, etc.)	the acoustic structure of speech - frequencies, intensities, spectra, etc.	construction and function of the hearing organs
the use of the speech apparatus to produce the speech sounds	high-precision measuring and recording instruments	mechanisms by which the signs are perceived by the speaker using the auditory channel

4. 
   Information conveyed in speech
   

• 
  direct meaning of a spoken utterance (the propositional content of the communicative acts of conversation)
  
• 
  the more complex the semantic information, the more likely it is going to be communicated by spoken words e.g. “come here” can be signaled solely by a hand movement (only visual channel)
  

• 
  physical markers (e.g. sex, age, state of health) conveyed by voice quality and prosody
  
• 
  social markers (e.g. regional affiliation, educational and social status, occupation) signaled by accent, vocabulary, dialect
  
• 
  psychological markers (personality, affective state, mood) conveyed by prosody and voice quality
  

• 
  it enables to control the time-sharing of the interaction and to regulate turn taking and giving in a conversation
  
• 
  it is controlled by special mechanisms which serve the function of maintaining or stopping the interaction
  
• 
  it is specific to a given language community (we learn how to signal turn taking and turn giving when we learn a foreign language)
  
• 
  it is signaled by prosody (intonation, timing) and by non-vocal and non-verbal behavior (e.g. eye contact, head movement)
  

5. 
   Types of communication
   

• 
  audible
  
• 
  imparts semantic, evidential and regulative information
  

• 
  visual
  
• 
  imparts evidential and regulative information
  
• 
  uses gesture, posture, head and body movements, facial expression, gaze, eye contact
  
• 
  except for facial expression (which is universal), the other aspects of the non-vocal behavior are particular to the culture of the speaker
  
• 
  the non-vocal aspects lie outside the scope of phonetics
  

• 
  by means of verbal elements: vowels, consonants and word stress that serve to identify individual words as units of spoken language
  
• 
  verbal elements are linguistic
  

• 
  by means of non-verbal elements: intonation and stress (used for emphasis) that serve function other than that of the verbal identification
  
• 
  non-verbal elements are linguistic, paralinguistic or non-linguistic
  

Facial expression, gesture, posture, head and body movements, gaze and eye contact are all non-vocal and non-verbal.

• 
  Communicative: information intended by the sender to make the receiver aware of something of which he was not previously aware.
  
• 
  Informative: make the receiver aware of something of which he was not previously aware regardless of the intention of the sender.
  

6. 
   The semiotic framework (Laver, Principles of Phonetics, 1994)
   

We communicate using a linguistic code that consists of arbitrary signs such as words, vowels and consonants. The link between the arbitrary sign and the referent (i.e. the object that it refers to) is culturally determined and the relationship between them is one-to-many:

However, spoken communication has also another layer which is non-linguistic and consists of non-arbitrary signs, e.g. there is a direct link between pitch level and physical attributes of the speaker, where higher overall pitch is associated with smaller vocal folds indicating a female speaker and a child, and lower overall pitch is associated with larger vocal folds and indicates a male speaker.

• 
  abstract grammatical elements such as words, phrases, clauses and sentences
  
  • 
    made up of combination of phonological units
    
  • 
    represent the entities in the external semantic world
    

• 
  abstract phonological elements
  
  • 
    they act as building blocks for the construction of the higher-level grammatical units
    
  • 
    segmental elements such as vowels and consonants (speech sounds) and suprasegmental units such as syllables, rhythmic units (syllables, feet, morae) and units of intonation and tone (i.e. the distinction between stress, tone and accent)
    

The objective of phonetics is to describe speech sounds and to explore and explain their relationship with the phonological level of the linguistic structure.

7. 
   Pattern (Form ) and variability (substance)
   

Words, vowels and consonants which constitute arbitrary signs in Laver’s semiotic framework of can also be regarded as patterns.

Full utterance: She should have given him the package.

The terms pattern and variability are tightly related to two other terms, namely form and substance.

Form means the same as pattern: it represents a linguistic unit (e.g. vowel /a/) and needs to be realized or manifested to exist in the real world (e.g. /a/ needs to be pronounced by a speaker).

Substance refers to the realization of the pattern/form and entails variability: every single pronunciation of a vowel is different from the others.

8. 
   Phonetics vs. Phonology
   

The distinction between phonetics and phonology is related to the distinction between form and substance (or pattern and variability).

Phonetics and phonology both concern themselves with the form and the substance, but vary in their primary focus:

• 
  phonetics –> substance (realization of formal symbolic patterns and features conveying evidential and regulative information)
  
• 
  phonology –> form
  

9. 
   Linguistic, paralinguistic and non-linguistic communication
   

As mentioned at the beginning speech communication can be analyzed at various levels and provides information of a different type.

Linguistic communication can be described as vocal, verbal, communicative and informative.

Paralinguistic communication can be described as vocal, non-vocal, verbal, non-verbal, communicative and informative.

This type of communication is non-coded, non-communicative and informative.

10. 
    Summary
    

• 
  description of speech sounds and speech communication (linguistic code)
  
• 
  investigation and description of the production, perception and physics of speech sounds (arbitrary signs)
  
• 
  investigation of physical markers of spoken communicate (non-arbitrary signs)
  
• 
  investigation and explanation of the relationship between speech sounds and the phonological level of the linguistic structure
  
• 
  vocal behavior including verbal and non-verbal communication
  
• 
  aspects of linguistic, paralinguistic and non-linguistic communication