Ling 320: Phonetics Fall Ling 320: Phonetics. Course Syllabus Fall Eliot 100A Office hours: Tuesdays 3-5pm & Weds 2-3pm

Transcription

1 Ling 320: Phonetics Course Syllabus Fall 2011 Class Meetings Tues/Thurs 1:10pm - 2:30pm, Vollum 234 Instructor Prerequisites Required text Jennifer Nycz jnycz@reed.edu Eliot 100A Office hours: Tuesdays 3-5pm & Weds 2-3pm Linguistics 211 (or equivalent), or instructor consent Peter Ladefoged, A Course in Phonetics (5th or 6th edition). (Copies of the text have been placed on reserve at the college library.) Other readings will be distributed as required on Moodle. Course Overview. This course is an introduction to linguistic phonetics. Over the semester we will cover several major areas of study, including articulatory phonetics (how the lungs, larynx, and vocal tract are used to produce speech), acoustic phonetics (the acoustic properties of speech sounds and how these can be analyzed), and speech perception (how the acoustic signal is translated by the ears and brain into linguistic units), as well as topics that span all of these areas (e.g. second language phonetics, the phonetics of singing). Course Requirements and Assessment Participation (20%): You are expected to attend every class meeting and participate in classroom activities such as discussions, production practice, phonetic analysis, and occasional quizzes. You may also be asked to participate in Moodle forums or other online activities. Problem sets (60%): There will be six problem sets, each worth 10% of the grade. Problem sets will be handed out in class every 2-3 weeks, and due by class time one week later; they may be submitted as hard copies or as attachments. Assignments must be turned in on time to receive full credit and comments. Extensions will be granted only in cases of illness, family emergency, etc. Unexcused late assignments will be penalized 10% of total possible points for each day they are late. Late assignments will not be accepted for credit if turned in after the problem set has been returned to students, or discussed in class, whichever comes first. You are encouraged to work on problem sets together, but your answers must be written up separately and in your own words. Final project (20%): The final project will involve a comparative phonetic analysis of several language varieties; it will be an opportunity to synthesize and apply many of the skills you have learned over the semester. The details of this project will be handed out before Fall break, so that you may work on it throughout the second 1

2 half of the term. Course Schedule - Not set in stone! Week 1 (8/30 & 9/1) Introduction. What is phonetics, how does it fit into linguistics (and other fields), and what will we be doing in this course? Articulatory Phonetics, Part 1. The physiology of speech, starting with the lungs and the larynx. Ladefoged, Peter. Articulation and acoustics. In A Course in Phonetics, UCLA, Reetz, Henning & Jongman, Allard. Physiology of the Vocal Apparatus. In Phonetics: Transcription, Production, Acoustics and Perception, pp , Blackwell, Week 2 (9/6 & 9/8) Articulatory Phonetics, Part 2. The vocal tract. How speech sounds are formed using the mouth and nasal passages. Reetz, Henning & Jongman, Allard. Physiology of the Vocal Apparatus. In Phonetics: Transcription, Production, Acoustics and Perception. pp Blackwell, Beck, Janet. Organic Variation of the Vocal Apparatus. In The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences, Blackwell, Transcription. The International Phonetic Alphabet & transcription practice. Ladefoged, Peter. Phonology and phonetic transcription. In A Course in Phonetics, UCLA, Problem set 1 distributed on 9/8 Week 3 (9/13 & 9/15) The Consonants of English. Details of articulation. How they vary in context and across dialects. Ladefoged, Peter. The consonants of English. In A Course in Phonetics, UCLA, Cardinal vowels. The vowel space. Reference vowels and their uses. Catford, J.C. Vowels: An Introduction. In A Practical Introduction to Phonetics, Oxford, Catford, J.C. The cardinal vowels. In A Practical Introduction to Phonetics, pp Oxford, Problem set 1 due 9/15 Week 4 (9/20 & 9/22) Vowels of English. Details of articulation. How they vary in context and across dialects. 2

3 Ladefoged, Peter. English vowels. In A Course in Phonetics, UCLA, Basic Acoustics. Sound waves and speech. Johnson, Keith. Basic acoustics and acoustic filters. In Acoustic & Auditory Phonetics, Blackwell, Problem set 2 distributed on 9/22 Week 5 (9/27 & 9/29) The Source-Filter Theory & Acoustic Representations of Speech. Waveforms & spectrograms. Introduction to Praat. Johnson, Keith. The acoustic theory of speech production: Deriving schwa. In Acoustic & Auditory Phonetics, Blackwell, Acoustic Analysis of Vowels. Formants and how to measure them. Johnson, Keith. Vowels. In Acoustic & Auditory Phonetics, Blackwell, Ladefoged, Peter. Acoustic phonetics. In A Course in Phonetics, pp , UCLA, Problem set 2 due 9/29 Week 6 (10/4 & 10/6) Acoustic Analysis of Consonants. Voicing, noise, identifying place & manner. Ladefoged, Peter. Acoustic phonetics. In A Course in Phonetics, pp , UCLA, Suprasegmental Aspects of Speech. Prosody, stress, pitch, intonation. Ladefoged, Peter. English words and sentences. In A Course in Phonetics, UCLA, Problem set 3 distributed on 10/6 Week 7 (10/11 & 10/13) Coarticulation and Connected speech. Segments in context. Assimilation, reduction, elision, and other processes. Small, Larry. Connected speech. In Phonetics: A Practical Guide for Students, pp , Allyn & Bacon,

4 Problem set 3 due 10/13 Fall Break! Week 8 (10/25 & 10/27) Airstream Mechanisms and Phonation Types. Ladefoged, Peter. Airstream mechanisms and phonation types. In A Course in Phonetics, UCLA, Consonants of Other Languages. Ladefoged, Peter. Consonantal gestures. In A Course in Phonetics, UCLA, Problem set 4 distributed on 10/27 Week 9 (11/1 & 11/3) Vowels of Other Languages. Ladefoged, Peter. Vowels and vowel-like articulations. In A Course in Phonetics, pp , UCLA, Problem set 4 due 11/3 Week 10 (11/8 & 11/10) Speech Perception. Normalization. Cues to identifying segment (feature)s. Theories of speech perception. Reetz, Henning & Jongman, Allard. Speech perception. In Phonetics: Transcriptions, Production, Acoustics, and Perception, pp , Blackwell, MacDonald, John & McGurk, Harry Visual influences on speech perception process. Perception and Psychophysics 24. Problem set 5 distributed on 11/10 Week 11 (11/15 & 11/17) Second Language Phonetics. Acquiring the phonetic system of an L2. Perception & production issues. Transfer. Reetz, Henning & Jongman, Allard. Speech perception. In Phonetics: Transcriptions, Production, Acoustics, and Perception, pp ,, Blackwell, Flege, James The production of new and similar phones in a foreign language: evidence for the effect of equivalence classification. Journal of Phonetics 15. 4

5 Problem set 5 due 11/17 Week 12 (11/22 ) Phonetics of Singing. Source/filter adjustments in vocal music and implications for perception. Sundberg, J Formant technique in a professional female singer. Acustica 32. Joliveau Elodie, Smith, John, & Wolfe, Joe Tuning of vocal tract resonance by sopranos. Nature 427. Smith, John & Wolfe, Joe Vowel-pitch matching in Wagner s operas: Implications for intelligibility and ease of singing. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 125(5). Week 13 (11/29 & 12/1) Phonetic Accommodation. How production and perception of speech varies in conversation. Shockley, Kevin, Sabadini, Laura, & Fowler, Carol Imitation in shadowing words. Perception & Psychophysics 66(3) Pardo, Jennifer On phonetic convergence during conversational interaction. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 119(4) Problem set 6 distributed on 12/1 Week 14 (12/6) Course Wrap-up. Problem set 6 due 12/8 Final project due 12/13 5