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Linguistics spans a large number of subfields, each dealing with a different part of the language faculty.

PHONETICS: THE STUDY OF THE ACOUSTICS AND SOUNDS OF LANGUAGES

A phonetician might, for example, look at how stress manifests in a language.

In English, the stressed word in a normal sentence is louder and higher-pitched: “ANna likes bananas”. If we ask a question though, it’s pronounced with a lower pitch: “ANna likes bananas?”

PHONOLOGY: THE STUDY OF SOUND SYSTEMS AND HOW THEY PATTERN

For example, in English, there are many examples of t’s in the middle of words that sound quite different from t’s at the beginning or end of words. Listen to the t’s in “toted” and you’ll hear that they don’t sound the same. The first t is pronounced with a puff of air (put your hand in front of your mouth to check this) but the second is not and it sounds like the d in “coded.” This sound is called a tap because your tongue taps the roof of your mouth briefly and it is very similar to the tapped r sound in languages like Spanish or Japanese (this leads to misperceptions of the English middle t as an r for speakers of these languages).

SYNTAX: THE STUDY OF SENTENCE STRUCTURE

English and many western European languages have a phenomenon called “wh-movement.” wh-words are the question words who, which, what, where, when, why, and how. Think about the sentence “I eat an apple” as a possible response to the question “What do you eat?” The word what corresponds to apple, but it shows up at the beginning of the sentence.

In many languages, though, the wh-word corresponds to the same position as the word it refers to. For example, in Chinese you would say “I eat apple” in response to “You eat what?” We say then that in languages like English, wh-movement has occurred and the structure is: “What do you eat what?” A lot of other properties of a language are predicted by whether it has wh-movement or not, but we’ll have to leave those to another time!

SEMANTICS: THE STUDY OF MEANING AND FORMALIZING IT

INTO A LOGICAL FORM

English and many western European languages have a phenomenon called “wh-movement.” wh-words are the question words who, which, what, where, when, why, and how. Think about the sentence “I eat an apple” as a possible response to the question “What do you eat?” The word what corresponds to apple, but it shows up at the beginning of the sentence. In many languages, though, the wh-word corresponds to the same position (called in-situ) as the word it refers to. For example, in Chinese you would say “I eat apple” in response to “You eat what?” We say then that in languages like English, wh-movement has occurred.

In English, the wh-word moves to the front of the sentence (why “do” appears in questions is another issue that I don’t have room to tackle here). A lot of other properties of a language are predicted by whether it has wh-movement or not, but we’ll have to leave those to another time.

PSYCHOLINGUISTICS: THE STUDY OF HOW LANGUAGE MANIFESTS

IN THE BRAIN

Psycholinguists carry out experiments to observe the reaction of the brain’s different areas to different stimuli, and they’ll try to relate the findings to the more abstract linguistic theories.

An example is tracking people’s eye movements when they read the sentence “The old man the boat.” This is known as a garden path sentence, because readers are led down a “false path.” The reader does a double take once s/he reaches “the”, having expected a verb to appear. The second time around, the reader realizes that “man” is a verb and then parses the sentence correctly. These garden path sentences provide insight into how sentence parsing occurs in the brain.

SOCIOLINGUISTICS: THE STUDY OF THE INTERSECTION OF LANGUAGE

WITH SOCIETY

Sociolinguists might look at attitudes toward different linguistic features and its relation to class, race, sex, etc. For example, one of the fathers of sociolinguistics, William Labov, carried out an experiment in New York City in which he visited three department stores—a low end one (S. Klein), a mid-end one (Macy’s), and a high-end one (Saks Fifth Avenue)—and inquired where a department was in order to prompt the answer “fourth floor.”

The higher end the store, the more likely the “r” was pronounced, and when asked to repeat, it was only Saks Fifth Avenue and Macy’s where the “r” became much more likely to be pronounced the second time around. The study also had implications for the ability in different communities to code switch to a prestige dialect.

COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS: THE STUDY OF APPLYING COMPUTER SCIENCE TO LINGUISTICS

Computational linguists might use programming to model linguistic structure or change or for practical applications, such as Natural Language Processing, which has implications both for figuring out and modeling how language acquisition works as well as for translation software.

HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS: THE STUDY OF HOW LANGUAGES CHANGE

ACROSS TIME

Historical linguists may work in language-specific areas, carrying out what is called reconstruction. Just as evolutionary biologists compare features of related organisms to reconstruct their common ancestor, historical linguists do the same with related languages, under the important fact that languages change regularly.

As a simple example, f’s at the beginning of English words correspond to p’s at the beginning of Latin words if neither is borrowed from another language (father: pater, fish: pisces, pellis: felt, pes: foot). Using reconstructions, historical linguists will try to trace migration patterns and make inferences about the prehistoric culture, triangulating with results by geneticists, anthropologists, and archaeologists. Historical linguists might also look at what patterns exist in language change and seek to explain why these patterns exist.

APPLIED LINGUISTICS: THE STUDY OF APPLYING LINGUISTICS TO REAL-LIFE SITUATIONS

An applied linguistic will likely work in fields such as such as language education, translation, or language policy. For example, an applied linguist may also carry out research in first and second language acquisition in order to figure out effective and efficient ways to teach language in school settings.

Long and short vowels in English: what is the real difference between them?

Difference Between Long and Short Vowels

There are five vowels in the English language. They are a, e, i, o, u. These vowels can represent a variety of sounds. The length and the sound of a vowel can change according to its position in a word and the pronunciation of that word. Vowels can be classified into long and short vowels based on their length. The main difference between long and short vowels is that long vowels have a long sound whereas short vowels have a short sound.

What are Long Vowels?

A long vowel has a long sound. A long vowel sounds like the name of its vowel. For example, the letter ‘a’ in aim is pronounced as /ā/, or “ayy. The five long vowel sounds in the English language are

‘a’ as in name

‘e’ as in eat

‘i’ as in wine

‘o’ as in go

‘u’ as in human

Given below are some words that contain long vowel sounds.

A: ape,lake, name, date, rain

E: deep, heed, eat, feet, feel

I: wine, bite, hide, kite, ice,

O: oak, boat, long, soak, hope

U: mule, fuse, unite, cube

What are Short Vowels?

Short vowels are the opposite of long vowels; they produce a short vowel sound. A short vowel sound is produced when the vowel in a syllable is followed by a consonant. This type of syllable is called a closed syllable. Thus, short vowels are caused by closed syllables. Unlike in long vowels, the vowel sound of short vowels is not similar to the name of the vowel. The five short vowel sounds in the English language are,

‘a’ as in fat

‘e’ as in nest

‘i’ as in win

‘o’ as in cot

‘u’ as in cup

Given below are some words that contain short vowel sounds.

A: cat, at, hat, mat, axe, apple, sack

E: set, edge, deck, head, bed, echo

I: bird, panic, pig, tin, bit, hid, ginger

O: hop, sock, ostrich, mop, mock

U: mud, fuss, blunder, up, ugly, under

Difference Between Long and Short Vowels

Length of Sound

Long Vowels produce a long vowel sound.

Short Vowels produce a short vowel sound.

Open vs Closed Syllables

Long Vowels are found in open syllables.

Short Vowels are found in closed syllables.

Pronunciation

Long Vowels are pronounced like the actual name of the vowel.

Short Vowels are not pronounced like the name of the vowel.

Sounds

Long Vowels include ā (as in rain), ē (beat), ī (wine), ō (go), and ū (fuse).

Short Vowels include a (as in fat), e (as in rest), i (as in win), o (as in cot), u (as in cup).

Rhythm: what is the difference between stress-timing and syllable-timing?

Is English a stress-timed language or a syllable-timed language?

Is Russian a stress-timed language or a syllable-timed language?
Rhythm is alteration (изменение) stressed and unstressed syllables, occuring (происходящий) at definite intervails. There are two kinds of rhythm:

syllable-timed rhythm
stress-timed rhythm

Every language in the world is spoken with one kind of rhythm. Each language has its own characteristic rhythm. French, Japanese are considered to be syllable-timed languages. English and Russian has stress-timed rhythm. It is based on the alteration of strongly and weakly stressed syllables. Within one intonation group the stressed syllables occur at relatively aqual intervals of time. This means that if there are any unstressed syllables between stressed ones, they have to be fitted in (приспособлены) without delaying (задерживать) the regular beat (удар): The more unstressed syllables in the intonation group the quicker they are pronounced. In English there are some words of more than one syllable, and they have one or more stressed syllables. Every English word has a definite place for the stress and it cannot be changed. The correct stressing of the l words helps to the correct rhythm.

The difference between rhythm in English and in Russian is in the following: in Russian almost all the words of one intonation group are stressed (Всенашистудентыпоехаливстройотряд), but in English sentences words become stressed, if you marked it.

The pronunciation of intonation groups is based on rhythmic groups, which are formed by one or more words closely connected by sense and grammar. If there are any initial unstressed syllables, they are in the first rhythmic group. The unstressed syllables preceding the stressed ones are pronounced very quickly, the vowels in them are shortened: he works.

The unstressed syllables that follow the stressed ones are pronounced rather quickly. They form one group with stressed syllables. And it takes equal time to pronounce the stressed syllable plus any given number of the following unstressed syllables: six, sixty, sixtieth.

The influence of rhythm is very important. The time given to each rhythmic group tends to be unchanged, but the number of unstressed syllables may be many or few.

Voiced and voiceless consonants in English. Why are they called lenis and fortis? What is aspiration?

According to the work of the vocal cords and the force of exhalation consonants are subdivided into voiced and voiceless. The force of exhalation and the degree of muscular tension are greater in the production of voiceless consonants therefore they are called by the Latin word “fortis”, which means “strong, energetic”. Voiced consonants are called “lenis”, “soft, weak”, because the force of exhalation and the degree of muscular tension in their articulation are weaker. Sonorant sounds do not enter “fortis” – “lenis” opposition.

Voiced consonants are: [b, d, g, z, v, ð, ʒ, m, n, ŋ, 1, r, j, w, ʤ].

Voiceless consonants are: [p, t, k, s, f, θ, h, ∫, t∫].

Aspiration is a feature in languages where saying a consonant gives out a puff of air. For example, if you dangle a piece of paper in front of your mouth, you will see it move if you say an aspirated, or breathy, consonant. If the paper does not move, then it is unaspirated, or not breathy. In English, voiceless stops and fricatives that happen at the beginning of a word are aspirated, which are the sounds 'p', 't', 'k', and 'ch' (which are written as /p/, /t/, /k/, /t͡ʃ/ in The International Phonetic Alphabet in the same order). In IPA, aspirated sounds can be written with an ʰ symbol afterwards, as in /pʰ/, /tʰ/, /kʰ/, and /t͡ʃʰ/. For example, the first sound in the words "pick", "tick", "kick", and "chick" are all aspirated. In IPA, they are written as /pʰɪk/, /tʰɪk/, /kʰɪk/, and /t͡ʃʰɪk/ in the same order. However, voiceless stops and fricatives that appear after the first sound are unaspirated. For example, while the /p/ in "pit" is aspirated, the /p/ in "spit" and the /p/ in "tip" are not, so they would not be marked with an ʰ symbol afterwards. Below are more examples of aspiration.

English has no aspirated voiced sounds, but Hindi does. They are normally written with an 'h' after the consonant letter. An example of this is the name Bhattacharya, in which 'bh' is an aspirated 'b' sound, so it would be written as /bʱ/ in IPA.

What are the main features of English consonants?

Consonants are made with air stream that meets an obstruction in the mouth or nasal cavities. That is why in the production of consonant sounds there is a certain degree of noise.

On the articulatory level the consonants change:

1. In the degree of noise

2. In the manner of articulation

3. In the place of articulation

1. The degree of noise

According to the degree of noise English consonants are subdivided into two big classes: noise consonants and sonorants.

In the production of noise consonants there is a noise component characteristic. Noise consonant sounds vary:

In the work of the vocal cords
In the degree of force of articulation

According to the work of the vocal cords they may be:

Voiceless
Voiced

When the vocal cords are brought together and vibrate we hear voice (voiced consonants are produced)

If the vocal cords are apart and do not vibrate we hear only noise and the consonants are voiceless.

Voiced consonants are not fully voiced in all the positions (in word final position they are partly devoiced, but not replaced by their corresponding voiceless sounds).

The degree of noise may vary because of the force of articulation. Strong noise consonants are produced with more muscular energy and stronger breath effort. Weak noise consonants are produced with a relatively weak breath effort. In phonetics strong consonants are called fortis and weak – lenis.

All voiced consonants are lenis, all voiceless consonants are fortis.

Sonorants (sonorous consonants) are made with tone prevailing over noise because of the rather wide air passage [m, n, ŋ, l, w, r, j].

2. The manner of articulation

The manner of articulation of consonants is determined by the type of obstruction. The obstruction may be complete and incomplete. When the obstruction is complete the organs of speech are in contact and the air stream meets a closure in the mouth or nasal cavities. In case of an incomplete obstruction the active organ of speech moves towards the point of articulation and the air stream goes through the narrowing between them.

According to the manner of articulation consonants may be of 4 groups:

1. Occlusive

2. Constrictive

3. Occlusive-constrictive (affricates)

4. Rolled

1. Occlusive consonants are sounds in the production of which the air stream meets a complete obstruction in mouth. Occlusive noise consonants are called stops because the breath is completely stopped at some point articulation and then it is released with a slight explosion, that is why they are also called plosives. According to the work of the vocal cords sops may be voiced and voiceless.

Occlusive voiced consonants are: [b d ɡ].

Occlusive voiceless consonants are: [p t k].

According to the force of articulation voiced stops are weak (lenis), voiceless are strong (fortis).

The particular quality of a sonorant depends on the position of the soft palate. Occlusive sonorants are also made with a complete obstruction but the soft palate is lowered and the air stream escapes through the nose, so they are nasal. The occlusive nasal sonorants are: [m n ŋ].

2. Constrictive consonants are those in the production of which the air stream meets an incomplete obstruction in the resonator, so the air passage is constricted. Both noise consonants and sonorants may be constrictive.

Constrictive noise consonants are called fricatives, i.e. the consonant sounds in the articulation of which the air passage is constricted and the air escapes through the narrowing with friction.

Fricatives may also differ:

in the work of the vocal cords;
in the degree of force of articulation.

According to the work of the vocal cords they may be voiced and voiceless. The English voiced fricatives are: [v, ð, z, ʒ].

The English voiceless fricatives are:

[f, s, θ, ʃ, h]

According to the force of articulation voiced consonants are weak (lenis), voiceless consonants are strong (fortis).

Constrictive sonorants are also made with an incomplete obstruction but with a rather wide air passage; so tone prevails over noise.

The English constrictive sonorants are:

[w, r, 1, j].

They are all oral because in their production the soft palate is raised.

3. Occlusive-constrictive consonants or affricates are noise consonant sounds produced with a complete obstruction which is slowly released and the air escapes from the mouth with some friction. There are only two occlusive-constrictives in English

ʧ ʤ

The English [ʧ] is voiceless and strong (fortis), [ʤ] is voiced and weak (lenis).