LIGN 110: Phonetics

Linguistics Department, UC San Diego
Fall Quarter, 2005 (Section ID: 539301)
TuTh 2:00 - 3:20, Peterson 104

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This course is an introduction to phonetics, which is the study of speech sounds. Phoneticians are interested in all aspects of speech sounds: how they are produced, how they are perceived, how they are same as other sounds and how they differ, what they are made up of and how they can be put together, and so on. In A Course in Phonetics, Peter Ladefoged writes:

"Phonetics is concerned with describing speech. There are many different reasons for wanting to describe speech, which means that there are many different kinds of phoneticians. Some are concerned with the sounds that occur in the languages of the world. Others are more concerned with helping people speak a particular form of English. Yet others are looking for ways to make computers talk more intelligibly, or to recognize whatever is said to them. For all these purposes phoneticians need to find out what people are doing when they are talking and how the sounds of speech can be described."

In this course you will learn how speech sounds are made and what their acoustic characteristics are. You will also learn how to use the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to transcribe speech, and you will learn how to interpret visual representations of speech using software. What you learn in this course will help you to understand more about speech sounds, but the course is not specifically designed to help you improve your language skills in any particular way.

This course involves a fair amount of memorizing (terminology, symbols of the IPA, etc.). Class attendance, regular studying and reviewing, practice, and completing all assignments and exams on time are all absolutely essential activities to get by in this course. You will not be able to follow course lectures or remember the necessary terms, concepts and IPA symbols if you do not study regularly.

Note: This course is a requirement for all Linguistics majors, and is an elective for Linguistics minors and the Language Studies major. It is also a prerequisite for LIGN 111, Phonology. LIGN 101, Introduction to the Study of Language, is technically a prerequisite for this course. This will not be enforced, but if you have not already taken LIGN 101, I strongly encourage you to do so concurrently.

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WebCT. Most of the material discussed in class will be made available on the course WebCT site. Most if not all of the homeworks (and the midterm exam) will be done entirely online. There will also be general announcements and links to other useful and relevant information available there, so please check the site often.

Software. For some homework assignments you will be required to use speech analysis software. You can either install and use this software on your own computer or use it on one of the computers at the Language Lab (2126 McGill Hall). There are two software packages, both available as freeware in versions compatible with Windows, Macintosh, and Linux operating systems: Praat and WaveSurfer. The functionality (and reliability) of these freeware packages is different; in general, WaveSurfer seems a little easier to use and Praat is more robust. I suggest that you try them both and decide which you prefer to use, but keep in mind that both of us have more experience with Praat.

Textbook. There is no required textbook (the lecture notes and other course material should be sufficient), but if you want to get more in depth information about a particular topic, the following two books are highly recommended. Note: Copies of these books will be on reserve in the SSH Library (at Geisel) and at the Language Lab (2126 McGill Hall), and copies are available for purchase at the bookstore.

• A Course in Phonetics, by Peter Ladefoged (5th ed., Harcourt Brace, 2005).
• Vowels and Consonants, by Peter Ladefoged (2nd ed., Blackwell, 2004).

The latest editions of both books are not cheap, but each is packaged with a CD of related audio and video files. On the other hand, there is also a freely accessible (and occasionally updated) website with virtually the same content as the CDs, so getting a copy of the immediately preceding edition in each case (both published around 2000) would probably be fine.

A few other recommended books, if you're really interested:

• Introducing Phonetic Science, by Michael Ashby and John Maidment (Cambridge University Press, 2005, with an accompanying resource website).
• Sounds of the World's Languages, by Peter Ladefoged and Ian Maddieson (Blackwell, 1996).
• Phonetic Data Analysis, by Peter Ladefoged (Blackwell, 2003).
• Elements of Acoustic Phonetics, by Peter Ladefoged (2nd ed., University of Chicago Press, 1996).
• Phonetic Symbol Guide, by Geoffrey K. Pullum and William A. Ladusaw (2nd ed., University of Chicago Press, 1996).
• Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, by The International Phonetic Association (Cambridge University Press, 1999).
• Dissection Manual for Students of Speech, ed. by Melissa Epstein, Narineh Hacopian and Peter Ladefoged (UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics 102, 2002).

Section. George will conduct a section for this course at the time listed above. Attending section is not mandatory, but is highly recommended. The purpose of the section is to go over exercises, practice transcribing speech sounds, review for exams, and practice using acoustic analysis software. Section is also an ideal opportunity to delve more deeply into the course material and to address questions that for some reason or another were not able to be addressed in class. We strongly encourage you to attend section on a regular basis, if it suits your schedule.

Office hours. Whether or not you attend section, you are encouraged to come to our office hours (also listed above) if you have any questions about the course. You can also try to make an appointment to meet with me if office hours or section aren't convenient for some good reason.

About e-mail. Please don't expect to receive an immediate response to an e-mail query. We each check our e-mail on our own schedule and will try to respond when we can. That said, you can count on me checking my e-mail about twice a day during the week and once a day on weekends, so depending on when you send me a message I will probably get back to you within 12 to 24 hours. An alternative to e-mail is the Discussions tool on WebCT, though again we cannot be expected to check that very often -- but your fellow students might also be able to help there.

A word of caution. If you have to miss a class for any reason, don't come to a section or office hour expecting a run-down of the class you missed. Find out what happened from the WebCT site and/or from a classmate, and then come to us with any remaining questions you may have.

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Attendance. The course consists of two obligatory lectures of 80 minutes each per week. Regular attendance in lecture is extremely important. Don't miss class and don't be perpetually tardy unless you have a very good excuse (which you should tell us about, in advance if at all possible).

Participation. Regular participation is also very important. Speak up, ask questions, confirm your understanding -- and remember to give others a chance to do the same.

No disruptions! As a courtesy to others, no cell phones, pagers, or disruptions of any kind during the class, office hours, and section! Turn off your noisemakers before arriving. (And if one goes off by accident, please turn it off quickly.)

Memorization. There are lots of new terms, concepts, and symbols to assimilate and memorize, so give yourself ample time to absorb it all.

Homework. There will be six (6) homework assignments throughout the course of the quarter. Most if not all of these assignments will be done online, and the exact nature of each assignment will vary. To see when individual homeworks will be due, please refer to the WebCT site). Note: Late assignments will not be accepted under any circumstances, and there will be no extra credit assignments.

Exams. There will be two (2) exams: a midterm exam due on Thursday, November 3 and a take-home final exam due before the end of the regularly scheduled final exam period for this course (Tuesday, December 6, 3:00pm - 6:00pm). Exams will typically consist of true/false, multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and short answer questions. As with the homework assignments, late exams will not be accepted under any circumstances, and there will be no extra credit.

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First, a word on academic honesty. Any cheating or plagiarism on any homework assignment or exam will result in no credit for the homework assignment or exam in question, and you will be referred to your dean for disciplinary action. This is UCSD policy and there will be no exceptions. I feel very strongly about this issue and will handle all cases of academic dishonesty accordingly.

Grading will not be done on a curve. The final grade for the course will be determined exactly as follows. (Note: attendance and participation may be taken into account when final grades fall in a gray area; these considerations may nudge a borderline final grade up or down. So, both for the sake of the overall course and for your final grade, you are heavily encouraged to attend and to participate in both class and section.)

Homework assignments										30% (5% each)
Midterm exam										30%
Final exam										40%
Total (final grade)										100%

The following is the percentage-to-letter-grade system we will use in this course.

100% - 97%										A+																			79.9% - 77%										C+
96.9% - 93.5%										A																			76.9% - 73.5%										C
93.4% - 90%										A-																			73.4% - 70%										C-
89.9% - 87%										B+																			69.9% - 60%										D
86.9% - 83.5%										B																			59.9% - 0%										F
83.4% - 80%										B-

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This schedule is subject to change, depending on class progress. Make sure you check WebCT regularly for updated information.

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