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English Language
English Language
Description, Variation and Context
Second Edition
Jonathan Culpeper
Paul Kerswill
Ruth Wodak
Tony McEnery
Francis Katamba
© Jonathan Culpeper, Paul Kerswill, Ruth Wodak, Tony McEnery and Francis Katamba 2009,
2018
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made
without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written
permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright
Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This edition first published 2018 by
PALGRAVE
Palgrave in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England,
company number 785998, of 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United
Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978–1–137–57182–3 paperback
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and
sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to
conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Contents
Preface to the Second Edition
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 Studying the English Language
Jonathan Culpeper, Ruth Wodak and Paul Kerswill
Part 1 English: Structure
Edited by Jonathan Culpeper
2 Phonetics
Kevin Watson
3 Phonology
Sam Kirkham and Claire Nance
4 Morphology: Word Structure
Francis Katamba
5 Grammar: Words (and Phrases)
Geoffrey Leech
6 Grammar: Phrases (and Clauses)
Geoffrey Leech
7 Grammar: Clauses (and Sentences)
Geoffrey Leech
8 Text Linguistics
Paul Chilton and Christopher Hart
9 Semantics
Daniël Van Olmen and Panos Athanasopoulos
10 Pragmatics
Jonathan Culpeper and Gila A. Schauer
Part 2 English: History
Edited by Jonathan Culpeper
11 Standard English and Standardization
Paul Kerswill and Jonathan Culpeper
12 The History of English Spelling
Jonathan Culpeper and Dawn Archer
13 Phonological Change
Francis Katamba and Paul Kerswill
14 Lexical Change
Sebastian Hoffmann
15 Semantic Change
Willem B. Hollmann
16 Grammatical Change
Willem B. Hollmann
Part 3 English Speech: Regional and Social Variation
Edited by Paul Kerswill
17 Regional Variation in English Accents and Dialects
Kevin Watson
18 Language and Social Class
Paul Kerswill
19 Language and Ethnicity
Arfaan Khan
20 Pidgins and Creole Englishes
Mark Sebba
21 World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca
Mark Sebba and Luke Harding
22 Discourse on Language: Attitudes to Diversity
Johann W. Unger
Part 4 English Writing: Style, Genre and Practice
Edited by Jonathan Culpeper
23 Speech, Writing and Discourse Type
Andrew Wilson
24 Language in Newspapers
Elena Semino
25 Language in Advertisements
Greg Myers
26 Language in Literature: Stylistics
Mick Short
27 Literacy Practices
David Barton and Karin Tusting
28 New Technologies: Literacies in Cyberspace
Uta Papen
Part 5 English: Style, Communication and Interaction
Edited by Ruth Wodak
29 Structures of Conversation
Greg Myers
30 Language, Reality and Power
Norman Fairclough
31 Politeness in Interaction
Jonathan Culpeper and Claire Hardaker
32 Gender and Language
Jane Sunderland
33 Language and Sexuality
Paul Baker
34 Bad Language
Tony McEnery and Robbie Love
35 Language and Politics
Ruth Wodak
36 Business Communication
Veronika Koller
Part 6 English: Learning and Teaching
Edited by Jonathan Culpeper
37 First Language Acquisition
Andrew Hardie and Silke Brandt
38 Languages and Literacies in Education
Roz Ivanič and Diane Potts
39 TESOL and Linguistics
Martin Bygate
Part 7 English: Investigating
Edited by Jonathan Culpeper
40 The Corpus Method
Vaclav Brezina and Dana Gablasova
41 Methods for Researching English language
Tineke Brunfaut and Alison Sealey
English: Structure
EDITED BY JONATHAN CULPEPER
CHAPTER 2
Phonetics
KEVIN WATSON
2.1 Introduction
One of the first things we human beings do when we are
born is make noise, and we rarely stop. As soon as we begin
to master our native language, we turn our gurgles and cries
into meaningful utterances and begin to talk. It is fitting,
then, that we begin this book about the English language by
exploring the primary medium through which humans
communicate: speech. The study of speech belongs in the
branch of linguistics called phonetics. Phoneticians study
how speech sounds are produced by speakers and perceived
by listeners, and how sound travels through the air. In this
chapter, we will focus on speech production, by situating
ourselves in the realm of articulatory phonetics. An
understanding of how speech works is crucial for many
aspects of English language study. For example, before we
can understand how sounds pattern together in English and
in other languages, or investigate how speech varies across
different regions of a country, or think about how speech is
different from writing, we must have a thorough
understanding of what speech is, how it works and how we
can describe it. Furthermore, an understanding of speech
production is also vital to many professional applications of
linguistics. Speech therapists, for example, cannot diagnose
and treat patients with speech difficulties without a detailed
knowledge of the workings of the vocal tract, speech
technologists working in spoken language recognition cannot
make computers interact with human talkers without
understanding how the speech signal travels through the air,
and forensic phoneticians cannot pass judgement on issues
of speaker identity in criminal cases without an
understanding of how speech varies. Knowledge of phonetics
is the cornerstone of these activities.
The main aim of this chapter is to provide the background
and technical terminology necessary to understand how
speech is made and how linguists describe it. By
investigating how the consonants and vowels of English are
articulated, we will see exactly why speech has been called
‘the most highly skilled muscular activity that human beings
ever achieve’ (Laver, 1994: 1). Readers should note that the
Appendix of this book contains a comprehensive display of
phonetic symbols, as produced by the International
Phonetics Association (IPA). This IPA chart is not for the
beginner; instead, this chapter will provide introductory lists,
and we will build on those in the following two chapters.
However, the chart puts together all that we use and more. It
may also prove useful for those wishing to explore other
languages.
2.2.1 Voicing
When the air from the lungs reaches the larynx, it is affected
in different ways according to the size of the glottis (which,
recalling Section 2.1.2, is the name given to the space in-
between the vocal folds). If the glottis is open, meaning the
vocal folds are wide apart, air can flow freely from the lungs
up towards the mouth. This is the case for normal breathing.
It is also the case for speech sounds such as the first ones in
see, she and fee, which are called voiceless sounds. If the
glottis is narrow, meaning the vocal folds are close together,
the airflow forces its way through the gap and causes the
vocal folds to knock together and vibrate. You can feel this
vibration if you put your fingers on your Adam’s apple and
say ‘aahh’ (and compare it, for example, with a long ‘sss’
sound, in which there will be no vibration). Sounds produced
when the vocal folds are vibrating are called voiced sounds.
The different positions of the vocal folds for voiceless and
voiced sounds are shown in Figure 2.3.
FIGURE 2.3 The position of the vocal folds for breathing and the
production of voiceless sounds (left) and for the production of voiced
sounds (right)
2.2.2 Pitch
Each voice quality described above was a result of the type
of constriction in the glottis. The larynx has another function
which is not related to the type of constriction, but instead to
how fast the vocal folds vibrate: the creation of pitch. When
the vocal folds vibrate quickly, they produce a high pitch.
Conversely, when the vocal folds vibrate slowly, a low pitch is
produced. Pitch is also connected to the size of the larynx.
For example, on the whole, the male larynx is larger than
that of the female, and one result of this is that male
speakers typically have a lower pitch than female speakers.
ADVANCES BOX 2.1
PARTE PRIMA.