Each language is comprised of sounds
that are part of the lexicon of that
language. These sounds are referred to as phonetic sounds, and will be
covered in depth later.
Phonology, on the other hand is the
study of sound patterns within a language, that is, it is the study of the way
we pattern phonetic sounds when we speak.
As native speakers, we possess an
intuitive understanding of phonetics and phonology that we are relatively
unaware of most of the time. We know that if we add the letter -s to the
end of a word to pluralize that word that in some cases, such as in the word
nuts, we pronounce the phonetic sound [s] at the end
of the word, yet at the end of other words, such as dinners, we automatically
recognize the need to use the phonetic sound [z]
instead. We cannot identify why that is, yet we know that certain words
sound correct while others do not.
Phonology also allows us to recognize
syntactic variations in words, such as the noun trànsfer and the verb
transfèr, where the accent changes the
intonation of the spoken word and therefore the meaning of what is being
said.
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(Lobeck 13)
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Lobeck,
Anne. Discovering Grammar: An Introduction to English
Sentence Structure. New York: Oxford, 2000.