Phonology

Phonology is concerned with the study of the sound patterns of languages, i.e. the way in which the languages of the world organise their sound systems. Have you ever wondered, for example, why German learners of English have such a hard time hearing and producing the difference between certain English sounds, while they seem to have absolutely no problems with others? Hearing, for example, the sentence Don't worry - he's a good dog, many learners of English do not know whether he is a four-legged, barking animal or the local physician - in contrast to native speakers of English, who have no difficulties in distinguishing between words like dog and doc upon hearing them. On the other hand, speakers are often not aware of differences between sounds in their native language that are actually there: So, for example, a spectrographic analysis may prove beyond doubt that the 'p'-sounds in the two words pin and spin are not the same sounds. Nevertheless, when asked, most native speakers of English won't care about the spectrographic analysis and will call both sounds 'p'. As we will see in the course of this term, the sound system of a language is not simply 'what we hear and say' - there is something abstract underlying the sounds we hear and produce in language. This abstract thing, the phonology of the language, is what you will learn to describe and to analyse in this course; you will be introduced to the key concepts of phonological analysis, and given the opportunity to apply these key concepts to real language data, especially from English. Englisch, LA Berufskolleg, PO 2004 Teilnahmevoraussetzung ist der bestandene GK Introduction to Linguistics. Achtung! In dieser Vorlesung können maximal 2KP erworben werden. Universität Siegen WiSe 2010/11 Anglistik - Sprachwissenschaft II 6 Dr. A Arndt Lappe Sabine 6 A