KEY TERMS

1. sound

2. symbol

3. transcription

4. grammar

5. continuous nature of speech

6. accuracy

PREVIEW

This chapter introduces phonology, the study of the sound systems of language. Its key objective is to:

• introduce the notion of phonological rule

• explain the nature of sound as a physical phenomenon

• highlight the tradeoff between accuracy and usefulness in representing sound

• distinguish between phonetics and phonology

• contrast the continuous and discrete aspects of linguistic sounds

• introduce the notion of “sound as cognitive symbol”

Phonology is one of the core fields that composes the discipline of linguistics, which is defined as the scientific study of language structure. One way to understand what the subject matter of phonology is, is to contrast it with other fields within linguistics. A very brief explanation is that phonology is the study of sound structure in language, which is different from the study of sentence structure (syntax) or word structure (morphology), or how languages change over time (historical linguistics). This definition is very simple, and also inadequate. An important feature of the structure of a sentence is how it is pronounced – its sound structure. The pronunciation of a given word is also a fundamental part of the structure of the word. And certainly the principles of pronunciation in a language are subject to change over time. So the study of phonology eventually touches on other domains of linguistics.