英汉语比较研究.doc

英汉语比较研究
英汉语语音层与音系层比较
英汉语词层与语义层比较
英汉语句层比较
英汉语语篇层比较
英汉语修辞比较
Chapter One The Comparative Study in Phonetics and Phonology
Generalization
Each language, indeed, each sub-variety of a language, has its own unique “sound”, yet the number of possible sound distinctions that may be made in any language is quite limited, and all languages share at least some sets of sounds. However, two languages differ from each other in the ways the sounds are put together, the ways in which they influence each other, and especially the rhythm, stress, and pitch patterns. These patterns of combination are highly restricted in any given language variety, but are not completely fixed. As different speakers enter the community, or as social groupings change, the sound system may change too.
Linguists study speech sounds in two ways: phonetically and phonologically. By phonetics we mean the study of the inventory of sounds in language in general, and of how they produced (articulatory phonetics) and perceived (acoustic phonetics). By phonology we mean the study of how sounds organized in a particular language, that is, which sounds can be distinctive in a language, in what position they may occur, and what types of automatic variants of a sound are possible. And also the term is used to refer to the system of sound patterns in a language.
The production of any speech sound involves the projection of the air stream from the lungs through the mouth and / or the nose. In its passage, the air stream is shaped in various ways by tongue and jaw movements. It may be momentarily interrupted or not interrupted at all. It may be made to vibrate a lot or a little by the vocal cords. We will discuss the basic articulatory features of consonants and vowels of both languages to show their differences.
Differences between Chinese and English Consonants
It is customary to classify consonants according to place of articulation and manner of articulation. The places involve both lip