HUMA1010
Introduction to Language
Fall semester 2025
Tuesday & Thursday
Room 5403
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1.1 Introduction-course content
● Phonetics (語⾳學the sound of language)
● consonant vs vowel
● consonant: place of articulation, manner of articulation…
● vowel: tongue position, lip rounding, voicing…
● Phenology (⾳系學the sound pattern of a
certain language)
● How many vowels and how many consonants in a language?
● Does this language have tones?
● How do they combine together to form words of this language?
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1.1 Introduction- course content
● Morphology (形態學the structure and
properties of words)
● 凍檸茶
● ⿊咕隆咚
● unbelievable
● Semantics (語義學the meaning of language)
● 美國男籃⼤勝中國隊。
● 中國⼥排⼤敗美國隊。
● Syntax (句法學the sentence patterns of
language)
● 咬死了獵⼈的狗。
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1.1 Introduction- course content
● Nature of language
● Language evolution
● Language acquisition(語⾔習得)
● Language in society (topics of social
linguistics)
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1.1 Introduction-language
requirement
● Class will be carried out mainly in English
● Subject and exam mainly involve English and
some Chinese
● Do I have to have some Chinese language
background?
● Do I have to know IPA (international phonetic
alphabet 國際⾳標)?
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1.2 Assesment
1. In-class quizzes(5) 30%
2. Assignment 20%
3. Final exam 50%
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1.3 Contact
Instructor: LI Dechao (李德超)
E-mail: hmdcli@[Link]
TA: Li Ge
E-mail: glibm@[Link]
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2. Phonetics- phonetics vs phonology
Phonetics 語⾳學 is the study of the physical sounds of human
speech, e.g. degree of air fluency(blocked or unblocked), the organs
involved in producing a certain sound (place of articulation) and the
way how a certain sound is produced (manner of articulation), e.g./a/
vs. /p/, /t/ vs. /k/, /p/ vs. /pʰ/
aspiration 送
itself aninflow
Phonology ⾳系學、⾳韻學 is the study of the sound system of a
certain language, e.g. the number of consonants and vowels in a
language, whether a language has tones or not, the possible
combinations of consonants and vowels, e.g. James /dʒeɪmz/
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2.1 Speech organs
[Link]
ciliti/demos/vocalfolds/vocalfolds
.htm
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2.2. International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
Speech sounds in any language can be uniformly represented by
international Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
[Link]
Each IPA symbol represents one and only one sound
The use of IPA symbols to represent sounds is called
transcription轉寫 (phonetic語⾳的/ [narrow] vs. phonemic⾳素
的/ /broad/)
E.g. ‘bed’ /bed/ [bed]
E.g. ‘lead’ /lid/ [li:d] than usual
it longer
E.g. ‘ill’ /il/ [ɪɫ]
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2.3. Consonants vs. vowels
According to the obstruction阻礙 of air when
a sound is produced, speech sounds can be
divided into two major categories:
1. Consonant輔⾳: air is blocked in different ways
when a consonant is produced, e.g. /m/ vs. /s/
2. Vowel元⾳: air is not blocked when a vowel is
produced, e.g. /a/, /i/
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2.4. A small homework
● With the help of a dictionary, write out the IPA of 26 English
alphabetic letters. Find out how many distinctive (different)
IPA symbols are there used in the alphabet(and how many
of them are consonants, how many are vowels?). Try to
identify the exact pronunciation that each symbol stands
for. e.g. a /eɪ/, b /bi:/… I vow
vowels 1 con
● A4 size, one-sided, written form is unacceptable.
● Thursday class
● How to input IPA?
● [Link]
