TTh
Jeff Conn connjc@pdx.edu Sixth Ave. Bldg. 212
Office Hours: W 2-3, Th
This course is of value to all those interested in the sounds of human language and how sounds are used in speech communication. The course also provides an introduction to the application of phonetics to such areas as language acquisition, speech pathology, speech synthesis and speech recognition, as well as to how slight phonetic differences function on the social side of language, in such areas as dialectology, sociolinguistics, language variation, and language change. In addition, the course complements such core linguistics courses as phonology, discourse analysis, and even psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics. The course deals also with the application of phonetics to language pedagogy, especially to the teaching of English as a second language.
Students are introduced to the scientific study of speech sounds, primarily as these sounds occur in English but also as they are found in other languages. Students will learn what it is that makes English phonetically special, and how English differs from other languages. They will be able to conduct such an analysis on the firm scientific tradition of descriptive phonetics, beginning (in English) with the great 19th century phonetician Daniel Jones (immortalized in My Fair Lady as “Henry Higgins” [ÈEnrI ÈIgn`z]) (Collins & Mees 1999), and continuing with an unbroken laying on of hands to the participants in this phonetics course.
We will spend a fair amount of time learning how to analyze speech sounds acoustically, that is, by means of measuring such speech features as amplitude and frequency. At the end of the course students should be able to interpret spectrograms and other acoustic displays.
The course is grounded in practical skills, such as
listening carefully to speech sounds and faithfully transcribing them. Students will be expected to demonstrate
their proficiency in such skills. In
addition, students will also learn to produce sounds not found in English. Such sounds include the “exotic” clicks of
the Khoisan peoples of southern
Ladefoged, Peter. 2005. A Course in
Phonetics (5th ed.).
Accompanying website: http://phonetics.ucla.edu/
then click on A Course in Phonetics
Johnson, Keith. 2003. Acoustic and
Articulatory Phonetics (2nd ed).
Ladefoged, Peter. 2005. Vowels and
Consonants: An Introduction to the Sounds of Languages (2nd ed).
Ladefoged, Peter, and Ian Maddieson. 1996. The
Sounds of the World’s Languages.
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Undergrads |
Grads |
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35% |
30% |
Homework |
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35% |
30% |
Quizzes |
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30% |
25% |
Final exam |
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15% |
Grad Project |
Students will be regularly asked to contribute in class. For example, there will also be in-class, small-group practice with listening and producing sounds. Students are strongly encouraged to work together on all aspects of the course.
Homework. Homework exercises will come from the book and other sources. These exercises are turned in, discussed in class, but not graded for correctness. You get credit for just doing them, but neglecting to turn them in will hurt your grade. Each homework is worth 10 points. You should have completed the homework by the first class we talk about the chapter, but they will be due as on the calendar. Any homework turned in late will receive only 5 points. Only 10 homeworks are needed for full credit. There is an extra credit 11th homework possibility with 5 points only for those who turned in a homework late or missed a homework (no student can receive over 100% for the homework portion). The exercises in the book are available on the CD and on the website so you should not have to rip the pages from your book to turn them in. The computer labs should be equipped with some IPA font or another in Microsoft Word, but you can download them for free at:
http://www.sil.org/computing/fonts/Lang/silfonts.html
Or here: http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/fonts.htm
Quizzes. Quizzes are the graded version of the homework. Students not present for the quizzes will receive a “0” (no marks). Excused absences can be arranged around quizzes PRIOR to the quiz date. Quizzes include such tasks as the following:
Ÿ Transcription from a written text Ÿ Transcription of oral stimuli Ÿ Short answer
Grad project
(graduate students only). Grad students have 3 options. Two involved a “Language description.” The two options are to do this project in
written form or in oral form and present it to the class at the end of the
term. Both projects will be based on
elicitation with a single informant, a native speaker of a language other than
English. The written-only project will
require a longer written amount (about 6-8 pages double-spaced). The oral project will require a 10-15 minute
presentation of a language with phonetic detail. You should include a shorter written summary
(your notes for the presentation) of about 2-3 double-spaced pages. Be sure to include both a consonant and vowel
chart, and for the oral presentation, sound files to play to the class. The third option is an acoustics project that
involves matching spectrograms with words and providing written support for
your choices.
Final exam. The exam covers all of the course material and is fairly objective in its nature. It includes performance as well as listening (transcribing) components.
· Course content: Objective true-false, multiple choice, and short-answer questions
· Acoustic analysis: Interpret acoustic displays such as spectrograms and be prepared to make inferences as to the significance of the displays
· Perception: Transcription from oral stimuli provided by instructor
· Production: Students will be expected to produce a set of sounds chosen at random from sounds of the world’s languages
TTh
Jeff Conn connjc@pdx.edu Sixth Ave. Bldg. 212
Office Hours: W 2-3, Th
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Week |
Tuesday |
Thursday |
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1 |
1 (T Jan 5) Introduction Begin Chapter 1 |
2 (Th Jan 7) Read Ch
1 -Articulation and Acoustics {HW1 due = Ch 1 Ex
A-C, pp. 24-26} |
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2 |
3 (T Jan 12) Ch 2 – Transcription {HW2 due = Ch 1 Ex D, E, G, I, J, pp. 27-32} |
4 (Th Jan 14) Ch 2 - Transcription {HW 3 due = Ch 2 Ex
A-C, E (only identify diffs),
I pp. 48-50} Ch 3 - English
Consonants |
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3 |
5 (T Jan 19) Ch 3 -
English Consonants [Quiz 1 – chaps. 1 & 2] |
6 (Th Jan 21) Ch 3
- English Consonants {HW4 due = Ch 3 Ex A
& D (problems with this ex – will discuss), pp. 76-80} Ch 4 – English Vowels |
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4 |
7 (T Jan 26) Ch 4 –
English Vowels [Quiz 2 – chap. 3 Eng Cons] |
8 (Th Jan 28) Ch 4
– English Vowels Ch 5 - English Words and Sentences (No need to know ToBI) {HW5 due = Ch 4 Ex H, I (transcribe your own speech) pp. 101-103} |
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5 |
9 (T Feb 2) Ch 5 -
English Words and Sentences [Quiz 3 – chap. 4 Eng Vowels] |
10 (Th Feb 4) Ch 5
- English Words and Sentences {HW6 due = Ch 5 Ex
B, D, E, pp. 128-130} Ch 6 - Airstream Mechanisms and Phonation Types |
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6 |
11 (T Feb 9) Ch 6 - Airstream Mechanisms and Phonation Types {HW7 due = Ch 5 handout
online} |
12 (Th Feb 11) Ch 6 - Airstream Mechanisms and Phonation Types {HW8 due = Ch 6 Ex
C-E, pp. 153-155} |
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7 |
13 (T Feb 16) Ch 7
– Consonantal Gestures [Quiz 5 – chap. 6] |
14 (Th Feb 18) Ch 7
– Consonantal Gestures {HW9 due = Ch 7 Ex A + handout, pp. 177-178} |
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8 |
15 (T Feb 23) Ch 8
– Acoustic Phonetics [Quiz 5 – chap. 7] |
16 (Th Feb 25) Ch 8 – Acoustic Phonetics {HW10 due = Ch 8 Ex
A, B + handout, pp. 208-209} |
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9 |
17 (T Mar 2) Ch 9 – Vowels etc |
(Th Mar 4) Ch 9 – Vowels etc {HW11 = Ch 9 handout} |
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10 |
18 (T Mar 9) Ch 10 – Syllables and Suprasegmental
Features (if time) [Quiz 6 – chaps. 8 & 9] |
19 (Th Mar 11) Review, Grad Student presentations 1st half: grad – 2nd half: review |
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Final Exam: Monday,
March 15, |
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