39486 - Acoustic Phonetics e Articulatory Phonetics

Learning outcomes

At the end of the module, the student possesses basic notions of acoustics and acoustic phonetics as well as the correlates relating to general sound production, and is also able to understand the biomechanical events that underlie verbal communication in terms of the production of linguistic features.

Course contents

The aim of the course is to introduce the basic notions and principles of articulatory and acoustic phonetics. We will talk about:

1. Phonetic analysis and segmentation of the speech flow. The principles of the I.P.A. (International Phonetic Association).

2. Phonetic diversity of the languages of the world: the parameters that govern diversity. Functional components of the linguistic sound production mechanism: the generation, phonation and articulation components.

3. Description and classification of consonants and vowels, with particular reference to the Italian repertoire (standard Italian, regional Italians and dialects).

4. Prosody: duration, accent, tone and intonation. Functions of intonation.

5. Acoustic phonetics. Basic elements. The source/filter theory of speech production.  Oscillograms and spectrograms of consonants and vowels.

6. Coarticulation: coordination and overlapping of articulatory gestures. The phonetic processes of articulatory simplification:

7. Coarticulation and  perception of speech sounds.

Readings/Bibliography

Federico Albano Leoni, Pietro Maturi, Manuale di fonetica, Roma Carocci, 2018 (3a edizione)

During the course, slides will be made available in pdf format relating both to topics covered in class and to topics excluded or not studied in depth for reasons of time (Student Guide: Mario Vayra, Acoustic and articulatory Phonetics, Teaching Material).

 

 

Teaching methods

Lectures and supplementary materials. During the course, slides will be made available on-line relating both to topics covered in class and to topics excluded or not studied in depth for reasons of time (Student Guide: Mario Vayra, Acoustic phonetics and Articulatory Phonetics, Teaching Material).

For further study, of course optional, I will indicate additional readings and some links to sites containing relevant materials in the field of articulatory and acoustic phonetics.

Assessment methods

The exam consists of an oral interview which has the purpose of verifying students’ comprehension of the different topics and their ability to reflect on them and link them together.

Please note that the program includes the content of the lessons, the text in the bibliography and the supplementary materials (slides) made available.

During the first lesson the teacher will give all the relevant informations about the course organization and the final exam. Such informations  will be available also on line (Teaching Material)

Teaching tools

Lectures will include PowerPoint presentations

Office hours

See the website of Mario Vayra