Welcome, avid learner of linguistics.
I take it you don't really get the relationship between phonetics and
phonology...
Fear no more,
help is at hand
In this video I'm going to try and shed some light upon these two monsters
of linguistics
Let us start:
What you see here is what linguists commonly refer to as "ground"
On this ground there is a house.
And who might this house belong to?
Now, don't worry
this is not a children's educational video; it's all part of the plan.
This house belongs to Mister /r/-Phoneme.
And what does Mister /r/-Phoneme's house have to do with phonetics and phonology?
Well let me explain:
For the purpose of this video
this house is what linguists call: langue
What langue means is the abstract system of language, the blueprint if you want so
This house is the blueprint of the phoneme /r/
Now here's a tricky question for you:
How do we enter houses?
Exactly: through doors!
Mr /r/-Phoneme's house
has three doors.
What are the signs on the doors?
These are phones! specifically the phones
[R], [ɹ] and [ɾ]
We know that phones are sounds that we can produce
and in English
a native speaker of English would be able to recognize all these sounds as
the /r/-phoneme
So you're free to choose
whether you want to stay
[bRu:m], [bɹu:m]
or [bɾu:m]
A native speaker will always understand that you have an urgent wish to sweep
the house
The counterpart of langue is called parole.
Parole is concerned with how we use language
As you know,
phonology is the study of how sounds distinguish meaning
with its smallest meaning distinguishing unit
the phoneme
Phonetics is the study of sounds that humans can produce
and its units
are called phones
So let us say that phonology refers to the system of langue
the abstract system of language whereas phonetics refers to the system of
parole
the system of language use
And now you might have realized already that [R], [ɹ]
and [ɾ]
are allophones!
Allophones of which phoneme?
Of course!
the /r/-phoneme
And this is how it works:
We enter the abstract system of phonology, that is
producing the sound of important meaning
by choosing from a set of sounds that all transport this meaning
This is the relationship
between phonetics and phonology
Houses are phonemes
and doors are phones by which we can enter phonemes
What a nice metaphor!
What?
Now you wondering: what the heck is a metaphor?
No problem!
Help is underway.
Just click on the "what-the-heck-is-a -metaphor" button
and you will be enlightened
Credit for this video goes to Jana,
the inventor of this great comparison