[初級英語音声学] 第一章〜第三章

1章は、現代英語の標準発音について。英語ネイティブな国々での発音の多様性と、リンガフランカとなった英語の多様性から入り、この本ではGA (General American)を扱うことを宣言する。なので、RP (Received Pronunciation) を目指す人は別の本を読むべき。

2章は、ちょっと面白い。つづり字と発音の関係について。13個のルールを提示しているのだ。たぶんこれはフォニックス(Phonics)とは違うはず。正直、私は初めてみた。この部分だけでも一読に値する。

3章は、音素（phoneme）。ある言語において、語の意味を区別する音声上の最小単位を音素という。例えば、bigという単語の場合、/b/、/i/、/g/が音素で、/p/、/i/、/g/とするとpig、/b/、/e/、/g/とするとbeg、/b/、/i/、/d/とするとbid、と音素を替えると意味が変わる。

「音素は話者の意識の中に存在する抽象的な単位で、実際の発話の中で現われる位置が決まって初めて発音することができる。」これは興味深い。まず、文字という表象と音声という表象の二つが自然言語にはあるわけだが、音声による表象単位である音素は、物理的音声でいうと結構多様であり、すなわち音素という概念は抽象的であるということ。そしてその抽象は文字の設計とも関係している（していた）ということであろう。この抽象が捨象として取扱う音のバリエーションを異音という。

異音の例としての日本の「ん」は、「脱・日本語なまり」で見たとおり。ここでは、英語の異音の例として[p]を取上げている。peace、speak、topmost、pool、spoon、keptにおいて"p"の物理的な音、すなわち調音は全て異なる。が、英語ネイティブはそれらをすべて"p"と認識する。

なお、音素の体系は、分析方法によって、同じ言語についても複数存在するらしい。

こつこつ。

改訂新版 初級英語音声学 を読む

英語音声学について、簡にして要を得た書籍を一冊読んでおきたいと考えた。選んだのは、これ。

改訂新版 初級英語音声学

この本が、入門書としては定本のようだ。

以前は、音声学の本というと、訳のわからない口腔の断面図と、訳のわからない用語（なんちゃら摩擦音）に溢れていて、到底実践に役立つように思えなかったが、今は違う。そこで、入門的なものでよいので、一冊おさえておこうというきっかけだ。

[脱・日] 第1章 日本語の音と音声学の基礎 (2)

子音の分類を経て、後半は母音を取り扱う。

母音は基本的には三次元なので、子音よりもシンプルである。しかし、シンプルさゆえの問題もあり、日本語で区別していない近接母音を発音・聴取ともに区別できるようになるには結構な訓練がいるだろう。

子音に引き続き、日本語と英語の母音の特徴に関して、母音の全体像の上での解説がすばらしい。その中で、日本語なまりに関するポインタも折り込まれている。

[脱・日] 第1章 日本語の音と音声学の基礎 (1)

これはなかなかすごい。

まず、自分自身に驚くのだが、日本語の調音についてほとんど無知であることを知った。知ってるつもり、というレベルではなく、存在として認識していなかったに等しい。

次に、日本語の調音を自分で発声しながら探っていくことが、調音を理解するのにこれほど有効とは思わなかった。そしてそのことは、この本に書かれている日本語の調音が、巷の英語発音本で軽く触れられているような日本語調音の説明とはレベルが違うことに支えられている。そして、そういう巷の説明がいかにいいかげんかということに気がつき、驚いた。

そして、日本語の調音がかなり複雑である事実に驚いた。例えば「ん」は、後続の文字（発音）によって7種類が使いわけられているのだ。このことから、いくつかの私自身の誤謬があきらかになった。まず第一に、英語よりも日本語の方が発音の種類が少なく、発音も簡単という誤謬だ。そんなことはない。例えば「ん」を含む単語を正しく発音することは、日本語ネイティブ以外には結構難題だ。第二に、英語ネイティブが日本語をしゃべるときにあのような特有のしゃべり方になるのは、アクセントと複式呼吸を多用する発声方法にあると思っていた。それは一因なのだが、実は彼らが発音しにくい日本語の発音があり、それを英語にある発音で代用していることも大きな原因なのだと思う。

これらの説明の中に、どの日本語の調音が、外国語を発音する際に日本語なまりの要因となるのかのポインタが置いてある。その詳細は先の章にて解説される構成になっている。

まだこの章自体、半分程度。

こつこつ。

[脱・日] 序章 気づかない日本語なまり

日本語なまりを自己評価する。私は、80点。多少発音は練習してきているから、いい方だと思う。

こつこつ。

脱・日本語なまり

英語の発音を改善する取組を少しやってみることにした。
まず「脱・日本語なまり」という本をやってみる。

http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4872591704

ホームページに音声や映像が置いてある。

http://www.let.osaka-u.ac.jp/~kamiyama/phon_get_rid_of_your_japanese_accent.html

半分くらい読めればいいかなと思ってる。
ここはあくまで簡単な読書メモにしようとおもっている。ちゃんと読めるといいなぁ。

[SI] Academic/Job Interview Context

A typical fully-equipped scenario for academic/job interview self-introductions looks like:

1. Start with a smile on your face & give details about Name, Place after greeting.
   
2. If necessary only add your family details.
   
3. Tell about your educational details.
   
4. Share about why you want to do JOB or enter SCHOOL so.
   
5. About your Project or Achievement in Brief.
   
6. The person who inspired you a lot.
   
7. Then about your interests/hobbies.
   
8. Also how you will spend your time when you are free.
   
9. Tell about skills.
   
10. Then conclude by saying THANKS to the Person who is listening to you.
    

In many cases, you don't need to mention all of these items. Interview is an interactive process.

[SI] Presentation Context

Here is a basic construction of self introduction in (business) presentations.

• Greeting
• Name, place
• Affiliation
• About your career briefly
• About your affiliation briefly

Everything except greeting can be skipped. Typical situation you drop some items from this list is the moderator of your session already introduced you and you shouldn't repeat that because it violates no-duplication principle. BTW, in that case, please don't forget to say thank you to the moderator before greeting.

The purpose of self introduction in this context is roughly these three:

• Provide essential background information which, without that, the audience must have difficulty to understand your presentation
• Show your warm and polite attitude to build good rapport with the audience.
• Give some ice-breaking to make audience relaxed and ready to enjoy and interact with your presentation.

So if you can improve any of these, it's okay to talk about items your moderator has already mentioned.

[SI] Contexts

I've just chosen three contexts you may be interested in.

• Presentations
• Interviews
  
  • Job
  • Academic
• Dating

Actually, I only have experience of business presentations. So I'm not sure what I will write about other contexts are useful or not. I will curate information on the Web for such contexts and, at least, it will help me improve my self-introduction skill for business presentations.

[SI] Background information

I think this is the last principle of self introduction: background information of both the counterparts and yourself is essential to build and deliver a good self introduction. This is also a premise for other principles. If you don't know the background of counterpart, how you can imagine what kind of relationship you would like to build with the person?

For non-native speakers, how well you can express your background is a key point of your self introduction and succeeding conversation. Your countries history, culture, tradition, issues, trends, etc.

Okay. Principles are enough. I would like to move on to more specific factors. In next entry, I will take a look at contexts of self introductions.

[SI] Be Unique

If you are thinking of self introduction, you must live in a city where millions of people live or your field of activity must be so large that your self introduction matters for your good achievements. See, the heart of the problem is the number of people in modern society. Too many people, you don't remember most of them. To be memorable, you have to be unique. At least, your self introduction should contain something unique. Otherwise, people don't remember you. Being unique to be remembered? Yes. That's a ridiculous and terrible idea. But it's the real world we live in.

Note that this factor conflicts with the principle of BoF. You should make a good balance between your uniqueness and homogeneity.

[SI] Define Your Goal or Blue Print

Before you introduce yourself to a new acquaintance, you should always ask yourself questions such as "What kind of relationship would I like to develop with this person?" or "How would I like to connect with this guy?", to define your goal or blue print that the self-introduction will initiate.

You don't need to have a clear goal. Our encounter is often to be more accidental or not planned. Relationships can develop in such a direction that we've never imagined. But if you can clarify or picture your goal and blue print, that will help build the content of your self introduction.

[SI] Birds of a Feather

Third principle of self introduction must be Birds of a Feather. If you are a programmer or an IT engineer you are likely to be familiar with this term. Birds of a Feather or BoF is a type of casual events, where people who are interested in a topic gather and chat about it. "Birds of a feather flock together."

So when you meet someone, you try to find similarities with the person, which you can use as a scaffold to develop the conversation. There are some subtle aspects in this topic. Firstly, you subconsciously prefer people who speak like you. For example, if you are visual type, you tend to use visual terms to express your understanding of abstract topics, such as "I see...", "From my viewpoint,...", "His new idea looks good.", and so on. Consequently, you prefer who use similar visual terms because you can understand the person easily. Secondly, BoF principle affects non-verbal communications: body language, eye movements, what you wear, etc. Research says these non-verbal factors affect counterpart's impression on you far more than what you speak.

BoF doesn't mean you have to pretend or mimic someone else to get attention from them. It means, by taking into account of this aspect of communication, you can avoid needless conflicts with or misunderstanding from new acquaintances, therefore increase your chance to create good relationships faster.

[SI] "Hello World" of Self Introduction

I would like to begin with American or casual setting as a "Hello World" example for self introduction. That is something like this:

• Hi, I'm Aka. Good to meet you.

Variations are:

• Hi, I'm Aka. Aka [family name]. Good to meet you.
• Hi, I'm Aka from [affiliation]. Good to meet you.

You can briefly add your attributes, which the counterpart can't avoid to ask you to follow the context you both are in.

• Hi, I'm Aka, the project manager of [project name]. Good to meet you.
• Hi, I'm Aka, an IT engineer. Good to meet you.
• Hi, I'm Aka. I work in the CE manufacturing industry for 10 years. Good to meet you.
• Hi, I'm Aka, 32 years old, single, and I like driving for my free time. Good to meet you.
• Hi, I'm Aka. I majored politics at [a name of university]. Good to meet you.

Economics of words always governs your expressions including self introductory statements like these.

"Good to meet you" is brief, hence the best. But you should avoid duplication in your conversation so if other guys already used "good to meet you" you should use different expressions:

• Nice to meet you.
  
• Pleased to meet you.
  
• It's good to meet you.
  
• It's nice to meet you.
  
• It's pleased to meet you.
  

No-duplication of words and expressions also governs your choice of expressions.

[SI] Self Introduction

There are tons of opportunities you have to introduce yourself in a variety of daily situations, and actually I introduce myself in English at least once a week both in business and private contexts. Recently, questions about self-introduction came up to my mind: what kind of self-introduction is considered good or attractive? Is there any technique to improve that? Is there any protocol I should follow?

I would like to dig into this topic for a while on this blog.

[Why's] 4.Floating Little Leaves of Code

• http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/book/chapter-4.html
• 1. The Leaf as a Status Symbol in Ambrose
• Animal Perfect L.L.C. is a firm, which build new animals and salvage old-style animals for parts.
• Starmonkeys are one of such animals.
• "A lot of Rubyists like to think of methods as a message."
• A Ruby program consists of two parts:
  
  1. Defining things.
  2. Putting those things into action.
• Assignment (=) is the simplest example of defining something in Ruby.
• Starmonkey creation process looks in Ruby as follows:
  

  starmonkey = ratchet.attach( captive_monkey, pipe.catch_a_star ) + deco_hand_frog
  

• 2. Small and Nearly Worthless
• Nil: "In Ruby, nil represents an emptiness."
• False: "Generally speaking, everything in Ruby has a positive charge to it. This spark flows through strings, numbers, regexps, all of it. Only two keywords wear a shady cloak: nil and false draggin’ us down."
• True: "To be honest, I can’t be around someone who always has to be right. This true is always saying, 'A-OK.'"
• 3. Chaining Delusions Together
• TBW
• 4. The Miracle of Blocks
• TBW

[Why's] 3.A Quick (and Hopefully Painless) Ride Through Ruby (with Cartoon Foxes)

• http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/book/chapter-3.html
• "My conscience won’t let me call Ruby a computer language." A fascinating expression.
  
• "We can no longer truthfully call it a computer language. It is coderspeak. It is the language of our thoughts." Okay. I agree with the author about this characteristic of Ruby but...
  
  • Schemers may say "We use not English but abstract trees of data and codes when we design and analyze programs.",
  • Haskeler may say "You can't prove your correctness. We should change our way of thinking. Category theory is an alternative mathematical...",
  • Common Lisper may say "Ah, that's a kind of the loop macro. Some love that kinda stuff. But others don't. Enjoy."
• "Try to focus on the look of each of these parts of speech. The rest of the book will detail the specifics. I give short descriptions for each part of speech, but you don’t have to understand the explanation. By the end of this chapter, you should be able to recognize every part of a Ruby program." This is practical and effective way to start introducing a language. This long section, "2. The Parts of Speech" provides exactly this type of quick tour of Ruby. Good.

[Why's] 2. Kon’nichi wa, Ruby

• http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/book/chapter-2.html
• This chapter looks a scene setting or an concensus process between the author and readers. The chapter contains little information about Ruby itself.
• In a nutshell, important information in the chapter as an introductory book for Ruby is:
1. At first sight, the author thought Ruby was meaningless. But later they clicked. (That can happen to you as well.)
2. By learning Ruby, you may be able to improve your brain performance.
3. Using Ruby costs nothing.
4. Enjoy cartoons with foxes.

[Why's] 1.About this Book

• http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/book/chapter-1.html
• Haha. Just nonsense.

Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby

Let me get something straight: I just would like to learn writing programs in Ruby. I don't need any grammatical explanations if I can write Ruby programs without them. Moreover, I don't need any author's grammatically-looking half-baked explanations, because they are just confusing. Basically, usage and pragmatics are important for me.

The next material I would like to try is http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/book/. Hope this meets my requirements.