Transcription

转写[法]，记音[法]

A method of writing down speech sounds in a systematic and consistent way - also known as a ‘notation’ or ‘script’. Two main kinds of transcription are recognized: phonetic and phonemic. Square brackets enclose phonetic transcription; oblique lines enclose phonemic transcription. In the former, sounds are symbolized on the basis of their articulatory / auditory identity, regardless of their function in a language (sometimes called an impressionistic transcription). In the latter, the only units to be symbolized are those which have a linguistic function, i.e. the phonemes. An allophonic transcription adds functional phonetic details. A phonemic transcription looks simplest of all, as in this only the units which account for differences of meaning will be represented. In a phonetic transcription, on the other hand, the aim is not to judge the functional significance of sounds, in the context of some language, but to identify the sounds as such.

Phonetic transcriptions which are relatively detailed are called narrow transcriptions; those which are less detailed are called broad transcriptions. In the broadest possible transcription, only those phonetic segments would be notated which correspond to the functionally important units in the language - in other words, it would be equivalent to a phonemic transcription, and some phoneticians do use ‘broad’ in the sense of ‘phonemic’. But in principle it is important to appreciate that the two transcriptions of [pen] and /pen/ refer to very different entities: the first is a broad phonetic transcription, representing a sequence of concrete, physical articulations; the second is a phonemic transcription, representing a sequence of abstract, functional units, and reflecting a particular theoretical point of view.

In any transcription (whether phonetic or phonemic), each distinguishable sound is given its own ‘symbol’. The whole range of available phonetic symbols is known as a ‘phonetic alphabet’. The most widely used such alphabet is the international phonetic alphabet.

以系统的、前后一致的方式记录语音的方法，也称作“标记法”或“书写法”。主要有两种转写法：语音的和音位的。方括号内是语音转写；双斜杠内是音位转写。前者的转写是根据语音的发音/听觉特点，不管其在语言中的功能（有时称作印象转写法）。后者只转写那些有语言功能的单位，即音位。音位变体转写法再增加一些功能上的语音细节。音位转写看上去最简单，因为只表示出能说明意义差别的单位，而语音转写的目的不是要判断语音在某种语言中的功能意义，而是要识别语音本身。语音转写法较细致的一种称作窄式记音法，不太细致的一种称作宽式记音法。最宽式的记音只记录那些对应于语言中有功能意义的单位的语音音段，换言之，与音位转写对等，而有的语音学家确实用“宽式”指“音位”记音。但是原则上必须理解[pen]和/pen/两种记音记的是不同的实体：前者是宽式语音转写，表示一个具体的、物理的发音动作序列；后者是音位转写，表示一个抽象的功能单位的序列，并反映特定的理论观点。

任何一种转写法中（不管是语音的还是音位的），每个可区分的音都有自己的“音符”。全部可供利用的音符称作“音标表”。这种音标表中使用最广泛的是国际音标表。