How do people understand speech?

Phonetics and Phonology

In this course, Professor Jane Setter (University of Reading) provides an introduction to phonetics and phonology. In the first module, we look at the speech chain and think about how people actually understand speech. In the two modules after that, we explore the use of the phonetic alphabet to represent particular sounds in speech, as well as thinking about the different parameters by which we can categorise vowels and consonants. In the fourth module, we move from phonetics to phonology, and think about how the kinds of sounds that exist in English pattern to create meaning, before turning in the final four modules to consider several aspects of sociophonetics: in the fifth module, we think about why there is so much accent variation in modern England, focusing in particular on the word 'arm'; in the sixth module, we think about accents and accent prejudice; and in the seventh and eight modules, we think about some issues related to speech and gender.

How do people understand speech?

In this module, we think about how people actually understand speech, focusing in particular on: (i) the speech chain; (ii) the distinction between phonetics and phonology; (iii) the distinction between phonetics and phonology on the one hand, and semantics and pragmatics on the other.