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EnglishPhonetictermsEn-Ru
Автор: schiller · Дата: 25 Апрель 2010· Прокомментировать
Список изучаемых слов: ReceivedPronunciation - Литературное произношение UK
GeneralAmerican - Литературное произношение USA
thelungs — лёгкие
thetrachea - трахея
theglottalcavity — гортань
thevocalcords — голосовые связки
theglottis - голосовая щель
toneorvoice - музыкальный тон или голос
thepharyngealcavity — фарингальная полость
themouthcavity — ротовая полость
thenasalcavity - носовая полость
thesoftpalate - мягкое нёбо
oral- ртовый звук
nasal — носовой звук
thetip - кончик языка
thefrontedge — передний край языка
thefrontpart — передняя часть языка
themiddlepart- средняя часть языка
thebackpart - задняя часть языка
thealveolarridge- альвеолярная дуга
thehardpalate — твёрдое нёбо
thesoftpalate - мягкое нёбо
theupperandlowerteeth - верхние и нижние зубы
theupperandlowerlips - верхние и нижние губы
thelowerjaw — нижняя челюсть
the (pre)dorsalsurface- предорсальная поверхность
thebulkofthetongue — основная часть языка
thephoneme — фонема
theallophone - аллофон
vowel - гласный звук
consonant — согласный звук
monophthong — монофтонг
diphthong - дифтонг
nucleus - ядро дифтонга
glide - скольжение
diphthongoid — дифтонгоид [i:], [u:]
frontvowels- гласные переднего ряда
frontretractedvowels - передние оттянутые назад гласные
backvowels - гласные заднего ряда
mixed = centralvowels — гласные смешанного ряда = центральные
highvowels - высокие гласные
midvowels - средние гласные
lowvowels- низкие гласные
tensevowels - напряженные гласные
laxvowels- ненапряженные гласные
longvowels - долгие гласные
shortvowels - краткие гласные
neutralvowels - нейтральные гласные
spreadvowels - растянутые гласные
roundedvowels - округленные гласные
labialconsonants - губные согласные
lingualconsonants - язычные согласные
glottalconsonants - гортанные согласный (h)
bilabialconsonants- губно-губные согласные
labiodentalconsonants - губно-зубные согласные
forelingualconsonants - переднеязычные согласные
predorsaldental — предорсально-зубные согласные
interdentalconsonants - межзубные согласные
apicalalveolar - апекально-альвеолярные согласные [t], [d], [n], [l], [s], [z]…
cacuminalpost-alveolar — какуминально-заальвеолярный согласный
mediolingualconsonants- среднеязычные согласные
dorsalpalatal- дорсально-палатальный согласный
backlingualconsonants - заднеязычные (велярные) согласные
occlusiveconsonants - смычные согласные
constrictiveconsonants - щелевые согласные
non-sonorous — шумные согласные
sonants — сонанты
plosiveconsonants - взрывные согласные
affricates — аффрикаты
fricativesconsonants- фрикативные согласные
nasalconsonants - носовые согласные
medialsonants - срединные сонанты
lateralsonants - боковые сонанты
unicentralconsonants - однофокусные согласные
bicentralconsonants - двухфокусные согласные
middlesecondaryfocus — второй средний фокус
backsecondaryfocus - второй задний фокус
voicedconsonants- звонкие согласные
voicelessconsonants- глухие согласные
fortisconsonants- сильные согласные (глухие)
lenisconsonants- слабые согласные (звонкие)
glottalstop — твердый приступ
aspiration — аспирация
palatalisation - смягчение, палатализация [s-in]
sense-group - синтагма
terminaltone- терминальный тон
scale = body - шкала синтагмы
prehead- предшкала синтагмы
tail - зашкала синтагмы
lowfall - низкий нисходящий терминальный тон
wordstress — словесное ударение
lowrise - низкий восходящий терминальный тон
graduallydescendingsteppingscale - нисходящая ступенчатая шкала
sentencestress - фразовое ударение
highfall — высокийнисходящий терминальный тон
theupbrokendescendingscale - постепенно нисходящая шкала
upliftedstress = specialrise- специальный подъем
reduction - редукция
qualitativereduction — качественная редукция
quantitativereduction — количественная редукция
completereduction - полная редукция
assimilation - ассимиляция
progressiveassimilation - прогрессивная ассимиляция
regressiveassimilation - регрессивная ассимиляция
reciprocalassimilation - взаимная ассимиляция
thecommunicativecenter - коммуникативный центр высказывания
sibilant — свистящий или шипящий звук, сибилянт
closure — приступ (экскурсия)
stop — выдержка
plosion - отступ (рекурсия)
lossofplosion - потеря взрыва
incompleteplosion — неполный взрыв
linking [r] - связующий звук
lateralplosion - боковой (латеральный) взрыв – middle
nasalplosion - носовой взрыв – button
fallrise - нисходяще-восходящий терминальный тон
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GLOSSARY OF PHONETIC TERMS
Allophones – variants or members of one and the same phoneme, which never occur in identical
positions, but are said to be in complementary distribution,they are actual speech sounds.
^Aspects of a phoneme:a phoneme is a dialectical unity of three aspects: 1) material, real and objective;
2) abstract and generalized; 3) functional.
Assimilation – the result of co-articulation, when one sound is made similar to its neighbour; in English it
mainly affects the place of articulation. It can be progressive, regressive or reciprocal. Most commonly
the sounds which undergo assimilation are immediately adjacent in the stream of speech.
^Attitudinal function:this function is performed by intonation, when the speaker expresses his attitude
to what he is saying, by intonation alone.
Communicative centre – a word or a group of words which conveys the most important point of
communication in the sense-group or sentence.
^Constitutive function of speech sounds –the function to constitute the material forms of morphemes,
words and sentences.
Descending scale – gradual lowering of the voice pitch.
Diphthongization – slight shifting of the position of the organs of speech within the articulation of one
and the same vowel. Diphthongization changes the quality of the sound during its articulation.
^Distinctive function of speech sounds:it is manifested most conspicuously in minimal pairs when the
opposition of speech sounds is the only phonetic means of distinguishing one member of that pair from
the other.
Elision – the loss of a vowel or a consonant in initial or terminal position.
Enclitic – an unstressed word or syllable, which refers to the preceding stressed word or syllable.
Together with the stressed word enclitics form one phonetic unit.
^Fall – lowering of the voice pitch within a stressed syllable.
Fortis– strong.
Functional – phonological, connected with the distinctive function.
Functional phonetics – the branch of phonetics which studies the purely linguistic aspect of speech
sounds.
^Functions of a phoneme:in speech a phoneme performs three functions: distinctive, constitutive and
identificatory (recognitive); they are inseparable.
General American (GA) – the most widespread type of educated American speech.
Glottal stop – a sound which reminds a slight cough and articulated by the vocal cords, before a vowel
sound is heard in cases of emphatic speech.
^Head – stressed syllables preceding the nucleus together with the intervening unstressed syllables.
Intonation – a component of the phonetic structure which is viewed in the narrow meaning as pitch
variations, or speech melody. It manifests itself in the delimitative function within a sentence and at its
end.
Intonation group – an actualized sense-group.
Juncture – the place where two sounds or words are joined together.
Lenis – pronounced with weak articulation.
Level tone – the tone neutral in its communicative function, which is used mostly in poetry.
^Linguistic functions:in phonetics they are connected with phonemic, significant properties of sound,
syllable, stress and intonation.
Low pitch – a low tone. It is usually used in the narrow range of tone-pitch.
Melody – changes in the voice pitch in the process of speech.
^Modifications in context – sound changes in context. Positional and combinatory modifications of
allophones of certain phonemes in connected speech.
Monotone – a tone lacking the necessary variations in the voice pitch; a way of speaking in which the
voice neither rises nor falls, but continues on the same note.
^Narrow range:if the range of the voice pitch is represented by two horizontal parallel lines
10 mm wide, then the head syllable of the wide range utterance will be arbitrarily represented by a dash
2 mm from the top range line. The head syllable of the narrow range will be represented by a dash 2
mm from the bottom range line. The head syllable of medium range will be represented by a dash 6 mm
from the bottom range line.
^Nuclear tone:the tone associated with the nucleus of a sense-group is a nuclear tone. In RP they are
the following: the high falling, the low falling, the high rising, the low rising, the rising-falling, the falling-
rising, the rising-falling-rising, the level tone.
Nucleus of a sense-group – the last stressed syllable of a sense-group.
Open syllable – the type of syllable which ends in a vowel – CV-type.
Oratorical style – the type of speech with which orators address large audiences. It is characterized by
slow rate, eloquent and moving traits.
Orthoepy – the correct pronunciation of the words of a language. The interpretation of the rules of
reading cannot be done without a good command of phonetics.
Pause – a short period of time when sound stops before starting again. Pauses are non-obligatory
between sense-groups and obligatory between sentences.
^Peaks of prominence –the points of maximal acoustic activity of tone.
Peculiarity – a feature which characterizes some phonetic phenomenon.
Periodicity – the quality or fact of recurring at constant intervals.
Phoneme – the shortest functional unit of a language. Each phoneme exists in speech in the form of
mutually non-distinctive speech sounds, its allophones. Each speech sound is an allophone of some
phoneme.
^Phonemic component: this component of the phonetic structure manifests itself in the system of
separate phonemes and their allophones.
Phonetic system – a systemic combination of five components of the language, i. e. the system of
segmental phonemes, the phonemic component, the syllabic component, the accentual component
(relating to accent – stress and pitch combined), intonation.
Phonetics – the science that studies the sound matter of the language, its semantic functions and the
lines of development.
^Phonological mistakes –mistakes connected with the alteration of the meaning of words, which
prevent communication.
Phonological opposition – a pair of words in which any one phoneme is usually opposed to any other
phoneme in at least one lexical or grammatical minimal or subminimal pair, e. g. [t – d],
[k – g] in ten – den, coat – goat.
Phonology – the science that deals with phonemes and their sequences. It is functional phonetics since
it investigates the functional side of phonemes, accent, syllable, and intonation.
Pitch – the degree of highness or lowness varying with the number of the vibrations of the vocal cords
and determining the tone of the voice, an acoustic basis of speech melody.
^Principal allophone –that variant of a phoneme which is considered to be free from the influence of
the neighbouring sounds.
Proclitic – a monosyllabic word or particle with no accent of his own, which is pronounced with the
following pre-tonic (having secondary stress) or accented syllable as one phonetic unit.
Prominence – singling out acoustically, which produces the effect of greater loudness.
^Prosodic features of the sentence:speech melody (pitch), accent, tempo, rhythm and pausation,
timbre (tamber); they constitute intonation in a broad sense.
Prosody – non-segmental phenomena regarded as the modifications of fundamental frequency (the
frequency of the vibrations of the vocal cords over their whole length), intensity and duration at the
level of their acoustic properties. The notion of prosody is broader than the notion of intonation,
whereas prosody of the utterance and intonation are equivalent notions. Prosody and intonation are
characterized by such distinct qualities as stress and pitch prominence at the level of perception.
^Received pronunciation (RP) –the type of pronunciation which is the most widely understood one in
England and in English-speaking countries. It is the teaching norm in England and in most countries
where English is taught as a foreign language, including Russia.
Rhythm: “rhythm is a flow, movement, procedure, etc., characterized by basically regular recurrence of
elements or features, as beat, or accent, in alternation with opposite or different elements or features”
(Webster’s New World Dictionary). Rhythm in speech is the periodic recurrence of stressed syllables.
Rhythm exists both in prose and in verse. It can be regarded as one of the forms in which a language
exists.
Rhythmic tendency – the tendency to alternate stressed and unstressed syllables.
Scale – the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables of a syntactic whole.
Segment: in phonetics it is the shortest part of speech continuum – a sound or a phoneme.
Segmental phoneme – the shortest part of speech continuum that is capable of differentiating words.
^Semantic function:in phonetics the term is used in connection with the distinctive function (semantic
role) of phonetic means.
Sense-group – a word or a group of words that conveys some idea.
Sentence accent – a constituent part of the phonetic structure of the spoken sentence utterance and
one of the components of intonation in the broad sense of the term.
Sentence stress – the greater degree of prominence given to certain words in a sentence. These words
are usually nouns, adjectives, notional verbs and adverbs, interjections, numerals, demonstrative,
possessive, emphasizing pronouns, interrogative words and two-syllable prepositions. Articles, particles,
auxiliary, modal, and connective verbs, personal, reflexive and reciprocal pronouns, one-syllable
prepositions, conjunctions and conjunctive words – are, as a rule, unstressed. The distribution of
sentence stress is determined by the semantic factor.
Speech melody – the variations in the pitch of the voice in connected speech.
Stress or accent – a greater degree of prominence which is caused mainly by pronouncing the stressed
syllable (a) on a different pitch level or with a change of pitch direction in it; (b) with greater force of
exhalation and greater muscular tension. The greater force of articulation is accompanied by an increase
in the length of the sound in the stressed syllable, especially vowels. Vowels in the stressed syllables are
not reduced.
^Styles of pronunciation –L. V. Shcherba suggested two types of style in pronunciation: full style and
colloquial style. According to D. Jones, there are the following varieties of style: rapid familiar style,
slower colloquial style, slow conversational style, natural style, acquired style, formal style. Styles of
pronunciation are determined by the stylistic-distinctive function of intonation.
^Subsidiary allophones – variants of phonemes that appear under the influence of neighbouring speech
sounds (variants of some other phonemes) with which they are in complementary distribution. They are
subdivided into combinatory and positional ones.
Syllable – shortest segment of speech continuum. Syllables are material carriers of words. They
constitute words and their forms, phrases and sentences. According to J. Kenyon the syllable is one or
more speech sounds, forming a single uninterrupted unit of utterance, which may be a word, or a
commonly recognized and separable subdivision of a word. It is a unity of segmental and
suprasegmental qualities.
Syllable division – division of the word into “arcs of articulatory effort” (N. I. Zhinkin’s theory). A strong-
end consonant begins the arc of loudness and a weak-end consonant terminates it.
Syllable pattern – the type of syllable most common for language. English is characterized by (C)VC
syllable pattern and Russian by CV pattern.
^Tail – unstressed or partially stressed syllables (or syllable) that follow the nucleus of the intonation
group.
Tуmber – the quality of a musical sound, depending on what overtones (the tones above the
fundamental tone in a harmonic series) are present, including their respective amplitudes. Also timbre,
tambre.
Tempo of speech – the rate of utterance.
Temporal component of intonation: it consists of pauses, duration, rhythm.
Terminal tone – a change of pitch at the junction (the joining of two sounds or words) of two sense-
groups.
Tone: sounds may be periodical and non-periodical. If the vibrations of a physical body are rhythmical,
the auditory impression of periodic waves is a musical tone, or in speech – a speech tone.
^Toneme: the toneme of a sentence or of a sense-group is a separate phonological unit because it
performs the distinctive function.
Tune One – a falling tone.
Tune Two – a rising tone.
Unaccented – unstressed.
Undertone – a low tone of the voice.
Utterance – vocal expression of some idea.
Variations (“in stylistic variations”) – variations in the pronunciation of speech sounds, words and
sentences peculiar to different styles of speech.
Volume – force or loudness of oral speech.
Widening the range – one of the emphatic means which consists in deliberate widening the pitch levels
of sense-groups.
Word stress or word accent: every disyllabic and polysyllabic word pronounced in isolation has word
stress. It is the singling out of one or more of its syllables by giving them a greater degree of prominence
as compared to the other syllable or syllables in the same word.
Текст лекций для студентов 3-го курса факультета иностранных
языков
^
Lecture 1. Phoneticsas a science
1.
Phonetics as a branch of linguistics.
2.
The relations with other sciences.
3.
The role in foreign language teaching.
-1-
Phonetics as a science is concerned with the human noises by which the thought is actualized or
given audible shape: the nature of these noises, their combinations, and their functions in relation
to the meaning. The term “phonetics” comes from the Greek word “phone” translated as
“sounds”.
Phonetics studies the sound system of the language, that is segmental phonemes, word-stress,
syllabic structure and intonation (p.6).
Phonetics is a basic branch of linguistics; neither linguistic theory nor linguistic practice can do
without phonetics and no language description is complete without phonetics, the science
concerned with the spoken medium of language. That is why phonetics claims to be of equal
importance with grammar or lexicology.
Phonetics has 2 main divisions: on the one hand “phonology”, the study of the sound patterns of
languages, of how a spoken language functions as a “code”, and on the other - the study of
substance, that carries the code (p.7). Phonology is the branch of phonetics that studies the
linguistic function of consonant and vowel sounds, syllabic structure, word accent and prosodic
features, such as pitch, stress and tempo (p.11-12). The phoneticians are interested in the way in
which sound phenomena function in a particular language, how they are utilized in that language
and what part they play in manifesting the meaningful distinctions of the language.
There are 3 branches of phonetics each corresponding to a different stage in the communication
process:
The branch of phonetics that studies the way in which the air is set in motion, the movements of
the speech organs and the coordination of these movements in the pronunciation of single sounds
and trains of sounds is called articulatory phonetics.
,
^Acoustic phonetics studies the way in which the air vibrates between the speaker’s mouth and
the listener’s ear. The means by which we discriminate sounds-quality, sensations of pitch,
loudness, length are relevant here. This branch of phonetics is of great interest to anyone who
teaches or studies pronunciation.
The branch of phonetics investigating the hearing process is known as auditory phonetics. Its
interests lie more in the sensation of hearing, which is brain activity, than in the physiological
working of the ear or the nervous activity between the ear and the brain (p.10-11).
Phonetics is in itself divided into two major components: segmental phonetics, which is
concerned with individual sounds (i.e. “segments” of speech) and suprasegmental phonetics
whose domain is the larger units of connected speech: syllables, words, phrases and texts.
Another subdivision of phonetics: 1) general phonetics – studies general laws, formulates general
theories (theory of intonation, syllable formation, phoneme); 2) special phonetics – based on
general phonetics, it deals with phonetical peculiarities of a certain language; 3) some linguists
distinguish historical phonetics – it traces the development of the phonetic system in the course
of time finding out the basic laws of the system.
-2-
Language is not an isolated phenomenon; it is a part of society and a part of ourselves. It is a
prerequisite for the development of any society. No branch of linguistics can be studied without
presupposing at least the study of other aspects of society. We see the development of quite
distinct interdisciplinary subjects such as sociolinguistics (sociophonetics), psycholinguistics,
mathematical linguistics and others.
Sociophonetics studies the way in which pronunciation interacts with society. It is the study of
the way in which phonetic structures change in response to different social functions and the
deviations of what these functions are.
Psycholinguistics as a distinct area of interest covers the psychological implications of an
extremely broad area, from acoustic phonetics to language pathology (discusses the problem of
acquisition of language by children, the extent to which language is influenced and influences
such things as memory, attention, recall and constraints on perception, the extent to which
language has a certain role to play in the understanding of human development, the problems of
speech production).
Acoustic phonetics comes close to studying physics and the tools used in this field enable the
investigator to measure and analyze the movement of the air in terms of acoustics.
-3-
A study of phonetics has educational value for almost everyone realizing the importance of
language in human communication. The study of the complex of various communication
techniques is definitely relevant to teaching a foreign language.
As regards the learning of specific foreign languages, there has never been a time in the world
when the ability of growing numbers of people to speak one another’s language really well has
been of such significance as now.
Knowledge of the structure of sound systems, and of the articulatory and acoustic properties of
the production of speech is necessary in teaching foreign languages. The teacher has to know the
starting point, which is the sound system of the pupil’s mother tongue as well as the aim of his
teaching, which is a mastery of the pronunciation of the language to be learnt. He must be able to
point out the difference between these two, and to arrange adequate training exercises. Ear
training and articulatory training are both equally important in modern language teaching. The
introductory of technical equipment – disks, taperecorders, language laboratories, etc – has
brought about a revolution in teaching pronunciation of a foreign language.
Questions:
1. Whatisphonetics?
2. Identify the object and the subject of phonetics.
3. What is phonology? How is it related to phonetics?
4. Analyze the three branches of phonetics.
5. Name the segmental and suprasegmental elements.
6. With which sciences is phonetics connected?
7. Explain the role of phonetics in foreign language teaching.
8. What methods are used in phonetic investigations?
Lecture 2.Phonostylistics
1. Problems of phonostylistics.
2. Classification of phonetic styles.
-1-
Phonetics studies the way phonetic means are used in this or that particular situation which
exercises the conditioning influence of a set of factors, which are referred to as extralinguistic.
The aim of phonetics is to analyze all possible kinds of spoken utterances with the main purpose
of identifying the phonetic features, both segmental and suprasegmental, which are restricted to
certain kinds of contexts, to explain why such features have been used and to classify them into
categories, based upon a view of their function.
Style-forming and style-modifying factors:
Style forming factor is the aim or purpose of the utterance. The aim is the strategy of the speaker.
1. the form of communication (monologue or dialogue);
2. the speaker’s attitude to the situation (emotions, thoughts, etc);
3. the degree of formality ( formal – informal);
4. the degree of spontaneity or of preparedness, the speaker’s educational
background played a great role.
-2-
Styles of speech according to the purpose of communication.
1. informational 2. academic(scientific)
3. publicistic(oratorical)
4. declamatory (artistic)
5. colloquial (familiar)
1. Using the informational style the speaker ought to be careful not to distract the listener by
what he is saying (TV-announcers). Written representation of oral and prepared speech.
2. Scientific style is used in lectures or science subjects or when reading out loud a piece of
scientific prose. The purpose is to attract the listener’s attention to what is the most
important in the lecture.
3. Publicistic style is used by politicians, the purpose is to except the influence of the
listener to convince him of something, and make him accept the speaker’s point of view.
4. It is used in reading poetry, prose aloud, in stage speech to appeal to the feelings of the
listener.
5. Conversational formulae familiar of everyday communication are used in speech of
friends within similar groups. It can have a wide range of intonation patterns.
Questions:
1. What are basic problems of phonostylistics?
2. How can you characterize oral speech?
3. Name the factors which result in phonostylistic varieties.
4. Give the list of the phonetic styles. Characterize them.
5. What are the style forming factors?
Lecture 3. Phoneme
1. Thephonemetheory.
2. The conception of the phoneme in this country and abroad.
3. The material aspect of the phoneme.
4. The abstract aspect of the phoneme.
5. The functional aspect of the phoneme.
6. Pronunciation errors in relation to meaning.
7. Semanticanddistributionalmethods.
-1-
The definitions of the phoneme vary greatly.
L.V. Shcherba: the phoneme may be viewed as a functional, material and abstract unit.
V.A.Vassilyev: The phoneme is a smallest unit capable of distinguishing one word from another
word, one grammatical form of word from another.
B. Bloch: phoneme is a class of phonemically similar sounds contrasting and mutually exclusive
with all similar classes in the language.
R. Jacobson: phoneme is a minimal sound by which meaning may be discriminated.
Views of the phoneme seem to fall into 4 main classes:
1. the “mentalistic” or “psychological” view regards the phoneme as an ideal “mental
image” or a target at which the speaker aims.
2. The so-called “functional” view regards the phoneme as the minimal sound unit by
which meanings may be differentiated without much regard to actually pronounced
speech sounds.
3. A stronger form of the “functional” approach is the so-called “abstract” view of the
phoneme, which regards phonemes as essentially independent of the acoustic and
physiological properties associated with them, that is of speech sounds.
4. The “physical” view regards the phoneme as a “family” of related sounds satisfying
certain conditions, notably:
1. the various members of the “family” must show phonetic similarity to one another, in
other words, be related in character;
2. no member of the “family” may occur in the same phonetic context as any other.
Nowadays the phoneme is characterized from the point of view of its three aspects (functional,
material, abstract): the phoneme is a minimal abstract linguistic unit realized in speech in the
form of speech sounds, opposable to other phonemes of the same language to distinguish the
meaning of morphemes and words.
-2-
The Russian linguist, ^ I.A. Baudauin de Courtenay, was the first to use the term “phoneme”.
Later “Shcherba – Courtenay” approach appeared. It considered phoneme as a psychic
equivalent of a sound.
L.V. Shcherba, the Russian scholar (St.-Petersburg school), was the first to introduce the
material aspect. He stated that phoneme is a sound that we can hear.
The abstract aspect was supported by the scholars of the Prague school. The best representative
of that school is ^ N. Trubetskoy. He is the linguist who wrote the book “The Basics of
Phonology”. He was the first to develop the system of oppositions. He was the first who
divorced phonetics from phonology.
F. de Saussure gave many definitions of the phoneme and the main of it is:
«Фонеманеестьнечтозвучащее, нонечтобестелесное,
образуемоенесвоейматериальнойсубстанцией, аисключительнотемиразличиями,
которыеотделяютееобразотдругих». He supported the points of view of N. Trubetskoy.
^ L. Bloomfield (American scientist) considers phoneme to be a bundle of distinctive features.
-3-
The material aspect of the phoneme is reflected in the definition that the phoneme is the minimal
abstract unit realized in speech in a form of speech sounds. It exists in speech of all people who
belong to a given language community in a form of speech sounds, but as it occurs in different
positions in the word (e.g. in different environments), the phonemes may slightly differ.
Compare the sound [t] in the phrase “let us” and “let them”, they are not the same. The [t] of “let
us” is alveolar while the [t] in “let them” is dental. They are the variants of the phoneme [t] and
are called “allophones”. Allophonesofthesamephonemeneedthefollowingrequirements:
1. though they possess some similar features they may show difference.
2. They never occur in the same phonetic context.
The allophone which is heard in isolation or stands in the position where it is not the subject (in
such words as door, dark, etc.) and doesn’t undergo any distinguishable changes in the chain of
speech is called “principal”. The allophones which are influenced by the neighbouring sounds
and change the articulation are called “subsidiary”.
-4-
The native speaker is aware of the phonemes of his language but much less aware of the
allophones: he will not hear the difference between two allophones like the alveolar and dental
consonants [d] in the words “wide” and “width”. The reason is that the phonemes have an
important function in the language: they differentiate words like “tie” and “die” from each other.
Allophones on the other hand have no such function, they usually occur in different positions in
the word and hence, cannot be opposed to each other to make meaningful distinctions. Hence,
the allophones of the phoneme do not obstruct the listener and the speaker to understand each
other.
-5-
In linguistics functionis generally understood as the role of the various elements of the language
in distinguishing the meaning. The function of the phonemes is to distinguish the meaning of
morphemes and words. The native speaker doesn’t notice the difference between the allophones
of the same phoneme because this difference does not distinguish meanings.
But at the same time they realize, that allophones of each phoneme possess a bundle of
distinctive features that makes the phoneme functionally different from all other phonemes of the
language concerned. This functionally relevant bundle of articulatory features is called the
invariant of the phoneme. None of the articulatory features that form the invariant of the
phoneme can be changed without affecting the meaning. All the allophones of the phoneme [d]
are occlusive, forelingual, lenis (if occlusive articulation is changed for constrictive one, [d] will
be replaced by [z] – e.g. breed – breeze; [d] will be replaced by [g] if the forelingual articulation
is replaced by the backlingual one: dear – gear; the lenis articulation of [d] cannot be substituted
by the fortis one without changing the meaning: dry – try). The articulatory features which form
the invariant of the phoneme are called distinctive or relevant. To extract relevant features of the
phoneme we should oppose it to some other phoneme in the same phonetic context. If the
opposed sounds differ in one articulatory feature and this difference brings about changes in the
meaning of the words the contrasting features are called relevant (e.g. port – court, both sounds
are occlusive and fortis, the only difference is that [p] is labial and [k] is backlingual. So it is
possible to say that labial and backlingual articulations are relevant in the system of English
consonants. The articulatory features which do not serve to distinguish meaning are called non-
distinctive, irrelevant or redundant; for instance, it is impossible in English to oppose an
aspirated [p’] to a non-aspirated one in the same phonetic context to distinguish meanings. That
is why aspiration is a non-distinctive feature of English consonants.
-6-
Any changes in the invariant of the phoneme affect the meaning. Of course all students make
mistakes in the articulation of particular sounds. According to L.V. Shcherba the pronunciation
errors may be:
1. phonological
2. phonetic
1. If an allophone of some phoneme is replaced by an allophone of a different phoneme the
mistake is called phonological, because the meaning of the word is affected. It happens
when one or more relevant features of the phoneme are not realized (e.g. [i:] in “beat”
becomes more open, more advanced and is no longer diphthongized, it changes into [i] in
“bit”).
2. If an allophone of the phoneme is replaced by another allophone of the same phoneme
the mistake is called phonetic. It happens when the invariant of the phoneme is not
modified and the meaning of the word is not affected (e.g. if the aspirated [p’] in “part” is
replaced by non-aspirated one, the meaning doesn’t change.
It is better not to make any of these mistakes because in that case the degree of foreign accent
will be an obstacle to the listener’s perception.
-7-
There are 2 ways of analyzing speech sounds:
1. articulatory
2. phonological
The aim of the phonological analysis of language is the identification of the phonemes and
finding out the patterns of relationship into which they fall as the sound system of that language.
For the articulatory description we need the information of what sort of narrowing is formed by
the tip of the tongue and the alveolar ridge, what is the shape of the tongue when the obstruction
is made, etc. So if the speech sounds are studied from the articulatory point of view it is the
differences and similarities of the production that are in the focus of attention, whereas
phonological approach suggests studying the sound system which is actually a set of
relationships and oppositions which have functional value.
So, theaimofphonologicalanalysisis:
1. to determine which differences of sounds are phonemic and which are non-phonemic;
2. to find the inventory of the phonemes of this or that language.
Phonemic opposability depends on the way the phonemes are distributed in their occurrence.
That means that in any language certain sounds don’t occur in a certain position: [h] never
occurs in a word finally, [ŋ] – initially.
The 2 sets of phonetic context are complementing each other and the 2 sounds are classed as
allophones of the same phoneme. They are said to be in complementary distribution.
We should remember that the allophones of the same phoneme possess similar articulatory
features, they may frequently show considerable phonetic differences.
There are 2 mainly used methods of phonological analysis: the distributional and the
semantic method. The distributional method is used by “structuralists”. They group all the
sounds pronounced by native speakers into phonemes according to the 2 laws of phonemic and
allophonic distribution:
1. Allophones of different phonemes occur in the same phonetic context.
2. Allophones of the same phoneme never occur in the same phonetic context.
Thustwoconclusionsfollow:
1. If more or less different sounds occur in the same phonetic context they should be
allophones of different phonemes. Their distribution is contrastive.
2. If more or less similar speech sounds occur in different positions and never occur in the
same phonetic context they are allophones of one and the same phoneme. Their
distribution is complementary.
There are also free variants of a single phoneme (e.g. шкаф – шкап in Russian). We could
explain the difference on the basis of “dialect” or on the basis of sociolinguistics. It could be that
one variant is a “prestige” form that the speaker uses when he is constantly “monitoring” what he
says while the other variant of pronunciation is found in casual or less formal speech. If all
explanations fail then we have truly free variants.
Another method of the phonological analysis, widely used in Soviet linguistics, is the semantic
method. It is based on a phonemic rule, that phonemes can distinguish words and morphemes
when opposed to one another. The semantic method attracts great significance to meaning. It
consists of the systematic substitution of the sound for another in order to ascertain in which
cases where the phonetic context remains the same such substitution leads to a change of
meaning. This process is called the communication test. It consists in finding minimal pairs of
words and their grammatical form. By a minimal pair we mean a pair of words or morphemes
which are differentiated by only one phoneme in the same position (e.g. [p] –in [pin], [b] – in
[bin], [s] – in [sin] – allophones of different phonemes; [p’] – [p’in] – wrong pronunciation but
an allophone of the same phoneme).
The phonemes of a language form a system of oppositions in which any phoneme is usually
opposed to other phonemes in at least one position, in at least one minimal pair. All the sounds
should be opposed in word-initial, word-medial, and word-final positions.
There are three kinds of oppositions:
1) single, if members of the opposition differ in one feature (e.g. pen – ben. Common features:
occlusive – occlusive, labial – labial. Differentiating features: fortis – lenis.
2) double, if 2 distinctive features are marked
(e.g pen – den. Common: occlusive – occlusive,
Dif.: labial – lingual, fortis voiceless – lenis voiced).
3) triple, if three distinctive features are marked
(e.g. pen – then. Dif.: occlusive – contrastive, labial – dental, fortis voiceless – lenis voiced).
The features of the phoneme that are capable of differentiating the meaning are termed relevant
or distinctive. The features that do not take part are irrelevant, or non-distinctive.
Thelattermaybeoftwokinds:
1. incidental or redundant (aspiration of voiceless plosives, presence of voice in voiced
consonants, length of vowels),
2. indispensable or concomitant (tenseness of English long monophthongs, the checked
character of stressed short vowels, lip rounding of back vowels).
A single opposition remains single if its members differ from each other not only in a distinctive
feature alone, but also in distinctively irrelevant features.
The phonological analysis of the sounds of a language is based on one more notion, that is of
native speaker’s knowledge. We should take into account the native speaker’s feelings about his
language as far as this is possible.
Questions:
1. Definethenotion “phoneme”.
2. Is there any difference between a sound and a phoneme?
3. Give characteristics of allophones of one phoneme, of different phonemes.
4. What are the main distinctive features of two phonological methods?
Lecture 4.The system of English phonemes.Сonsonants
1. The differentiation of consonants according to the sort of articulatory posture, production
of noise.
2. Theplaceofarticulation.
3. Voiced – voicelesscharacteristics.
4. The position of the soft palate.
-1-
Each sound is known to have three aspects: acoustic, articulatory and auditory and therefore
can be studied on these three levels. For the sake of analysis each aspect can be considered and
described independently though we should take it reasonably obvious that there is no sharp
dividing line between them.
On the articulatory level each consonant may be identified by stating two general facts about it:
1. what sort of articulatory posture it is formed by;
2. whereabout in the mouth (or pharynx) it is produced.
Phonological description of sounds will be made in terms of the articulatory level.
As to the classification of English consonants there are few ways of seeing the situation.
According to V.A. Vassilyev primary importance should be given to the type of obstruction and
the manner of production of noise. On this ground he distinguishes two large classes of
consonants:
1. occlusive, in the production of which a complete obstruction is formed;
2. constrictive, in the production of which an incomplete obstruction is formed. (e.g.
oppositions: [ti:] – [si:] occlusive – constrictive
[pul] – [ful] occ. – cons.)
Each of the two classes is subdivided into noise consonants and sonorants. The division is
based on the factor of prevailing either noise or tone component in the auditory characteristic of
a sound. In their turn noise consonants are divided into plosive consonants (or stops) and
affricates.
Another point of view is shared by a group of Soviet phoneticians. They suggest that the first and
basic principle of classification should be the degree of noise. Such consideration leads to
dividing English consonants into two general kinds:
1. noiseconsonants
2. sonorants
-2-
The place of articulation is another characteristic of English consonants which should be
considered from the phonological point of view. The place of articulation is determined by the
active organ of speech against the point of articulation. According to this principle the English
consonants are classed into:
1. labial
2. lingual
3. glottal
The class of labial consonants is subdivided into: a) bilabial; b) labio-dental; and among the
class of lingual consonants three subclasses are distinguished; they are: a) forelingual, b)
medio-lingual and c) backlingual.
-3-
The next point should be made in connection with another sound property, that is voiced –
voiceless characteristic which depends on the work of the vocal cords. The distinction between
such pairs of consonants as [p, b], [t, d], [k, g], [s, z], [f, v] is primarily based on energy
difference, besides on absence or presence of vibrations of the vocal cords, or on the absence or
presence of voice or tone component. All voiced consonants are weak (lenis) and all voiceless
consonants are strong (fortis).
-4-
There is one more articulatory characteristic which is usually included into the set of principles
on the basis of which the English consonants are classified. That is the position of the soft palate.
According to this principle consonants can be oral and nasal. There are relatively few
consonantal types in English which require the lowered position of the soft palate. They are the
nasal occlusive sonorants [m], [n] and [ŋ]. They differ from oral plosives in that the soft palate is
lowered allowing the escape of air into the nasal cavity.
Questions:
1. On which bases do we distinguish consonants?
2. Analyze the phonemes [p], [b], [s], [z].
3. What are the basic modifications of sounds in connected speech? Give your examples
(with the analysis).
Lecture 5.The system of English phonemes.Vowels
1. The function of quantity and quality in the system of English vowels.
2. The main components of vowel quality in English.
3. The relevants of vowel length in modern English.
4. Morphologyanditsproblems.
-1-
Vowel quality and quantity are two main constituents of the English vowels. The quality of a
vowel is known to be determined by the size, volume, and shape of the mouth resonator, which
are modified by the movement of active speech organs, that is the tongue and the lips. So vowel
quality could be thought of as a bundle of definite articulatory characteristics which are
sometimes intricately interconnected and interdependent.
A vowel like any sound has physical duration – time which is required for its production
(articulation). When sounds are used in connected speech they cannot help being influenced by
one another. Duration is one of the characteristics of a vowel which is modified by and depends
on the following factors: its own length, the type of syllable, the number of syllables in the word,
the position of the word in the sentence, the place of a terminal tone, the position of the sentence
in the text and some others.
But the problem is whether variations of quantity are meaningful (relevant).
Although we isolated vowel quality and vowel length, it was done only for the sake of analysis
with the purpose of describing the vocalic system of the English language. They are closely
connected (e.g. the lengthening of a vowel makes the organs of speech tenser at the moment of
production, etc).
-2-
Vowel quality is viewed according to the following criteria:
1) stability of articulation according to which we distinguish 3 groups of vowels:
1. monophthongs,
2. diphthongs,
3. diphthongoids.
Monophthongs don’t change their articulation during the pronunciation (with the exception of
[i:] – [u:]). They are divided into short and long.
2) theposition of the tongue may be of the horizontal and vertical movement.
According to the horizontal movement vowels can be:
1. front [i:], [e], [ei], [æ],[εə]
2. front-retracted [i], [iə]
3. central [Λ], [3:], [ə ], [3u], [εu]
4. back [o], [o:], [u:], [a:]
5. back-advanced [u], [uə].
The tongue position in its vertical movement gives us: close, mid, open vowels, they have also
narrow and broad variations:
1. close a) narrow [i:], [u:]
b) broad [i], [u], [iə], [uə]
2. mida) narrow [ e, 3:, ə , ei, 3u]
b) broad [ə , Λ ]
3. open a) narrow [εə, o:, oi]
b) broad [æ, ai, au, o, a:]
The British linguists consider the vowels to be: mid, low, high.
3. Lip rounding – according to this characteristic feature vowels can be divided into
rounded and unrounded. The higher the tongue raises the more rounded the lips are.
4. Checkness – this quality depends on the character of the articulatory transition from a
vowel to a consonant. All short vowels are checked when stressed, other vowels are free.
5. Tenseness characterizes the state of the organ of speech at the moment of production of a
vowel. Historically all long vowels are tense, and all short vowels are lax.
-3-
The problem the analysts are faced with is whether vowel length can be treated as a relevant
feature of English vowel system. The approach of D. Jones extends the principle underlying
phonological relevance of vowel quantity. That means that words in such pairs as [bid] – [bi:d],
[sit] – [si:t] are distinguished from one another by the opposition of different length, which are
called chronemes. The difference in quantity is considered to be decisive and the difference in
quality (the position of the active organs of speech) is considered to be subordinate to the
difference in quantity.
To approach this aspect from the phonological point of view we should base on the 2 laws
characterizing any system:
1. A relevant feature must characterize a number of units. English vowels can hardly form
quantitative correlation. Sounds [i:] and [u:] are normally realized in RP as diphthongized
vowels. So [i] – [u] are opposed to diphthongoids but not to long monophthongs.
The opposition [3:] – [ə] is a fairly specific one because the [ə ] phoneme never occurs in a
stressed syllable and forms the core of the unstressed vocalism in English.
The opposition [a:] – [Λ] is arbitrary. So there is only one pair of opposed phonemes, remaining
[o:] – [o]. That means that quantitative correlation exists only in one opposition, so it cannot be
treated as a phonologically relevant feature.
2. A feature can be systematic if it doesn’t depend on the context (e.g. [i:] in “beat” is only
half about as long as the [i:] of “bee” and may approximately have the same duration as
[i] of “bid”, because it is generally known that a voiced consonant following a vowel
increases its length. But still the words “bid” and “beat” are perceived as different words,
because the vowels are different in quality: [i] being front-retracted, a pure monophthong,
and [i:] being front, close and a diphthongized vowel. Hence, vowel quantity cannot be
considered a minimal distinctive feature since it varies under the influence of different
phonetic contexts.
-4-
The sound variations in words, their derivatives and grammatical forms of words are called
“sound alternations”, they are caused by assimilation, accommodation and reduction in speech.
Some of them are historical, and others are contextual. The study of the relationship between
phonemes and morphemes is called “morphophonemics” and the interrelation of phonology and
morphology is known as morphonology. It studies the way in which sounds can alternate as
different realizations of one and the same morpheme. Morpheme is a minimal unit of meaning.
The main problem is connected with neutralization, whether the sound [ə ] is an allophone of
some phoneme which lost some of its distinctive features or a neutral phoneme.
The so-called morphological school represented by Soviet philologists R.I. Avanesov, V.P.
Sidorov, A.A. Reformatsky supported the theory of neutralization of phonemes. A neutralization
is said to occur when 2 or more closely related sounds, which are in contrast with each other in
most positions like дом – том are found to be non-contrastive in certain other positions (e.g. суд
[сут] – судить [суд’ит’]). That means that there are environments where the 2 sounds do not
contrast with each other, even though they normally do. So, the opposition between the 2 sounds
is said to be neutralised. Alternations are observed in one and the same morphological unit
(prefix, suffix, root or ending). The phonemic content of the morpheme is constant. Only then we
can distinguish whether the phonemes are different or the same. Morphemes may have strong
and weak positions. A strong position for a vowel is in a stressed syllable, for a consonant –
before a vowel ( e.g. object – ob/ject). This point of view is supported by the linguists of the
Moscow School. As to the St.-P. School they consider the phoneme to be independent of the
morpheme. The phonemic content of the morpheme is not constant and they think the difference
between allophones of the same phoneme limited and similar sounds cannot be treated as
allophones of different phonemes. The words /object and ob/ject[o] – [ə ] are allophones of the
same phoneme.
The Moscow School is of a polymorphological structure: 1) phonemic changes cannot be
analysed without the morpheme taken into account because the form and the content make a
unity; 2) it is quite natural for the allophones of the same phoneme to sound differently (e.g.
[dæd] – [dres]).
Some scholars are against this point of view and there are the reasons:
1. Sometimes it is impossible to find a strong position for a sound (e.g. decorate – [o] or
[e]).
2. The difference between the allophones of the same phoneme may be strong.
The second concept of the scholars is for:
1. The only reason for this conception is its seeming simplicity.
Againstthisconception:
1. The objections seem to be far more serious because they isolate phonology from
morphology. As a result of it the unity between a form and a content is destroyed.
2. The limits within which the allophones of the same phoneme may vary are too vague.
Questions:
1. On which bases do we distinguish vowels?
2. Analyze the function of quality and quantity in the system of English vowels.
3. Characterize the phonemes [o], [u], [i].
4. What are the basic modifications of vowels in connected speech? Give your examples
(with the analysis).
Lecture 6.Syllable formation. Types of transcription
1. Syllable formation.
2. Syllable division.
3. Types of transcription.
-1-
Syllable formation in English is based on the phonological opposition vowel – consonant.
Vowels are usually syllabic while consonants are not, with the exception of [l], [m], [n], which
become syllabic if they occur in an unstressed final position preceded by a noise consonant
[/litl], [/ga:dn].
The structure of the syllable is known to vary because of the number and the agreement of
consonants. InEnglishthereare4 typesofsyllables:
1.
open (no),
2.
closed (odd),
3.
covered (note),
4.
uncovered (oh).
The structure of the English syllables reveals variations in the number of pre-vocalic consonants
from 1 to 3 and post-vocalic consonants from 1 to 5.
As to the number of syllables in the English word it can vary from 1 to eight.
-2-
The other aspect of the dialectal unity which characterizes the speech continuum is syllable
division. The linguistic importance of syllable divisions in different languages is in finding
typology of syllables and syllable structure of meaningful units of a language, that is morphemes
and words.
The syllabic structure of a language is patterned. The part of phonetics that deals with this aspect
of a language is called phonotactics.
In English the problem of syllable division exists only in case of intervocalic consonants and
their clusters like in the words [/siti], [ ə/gri:].
2 variants are possible:
1) the point of syllable division is after the intervocalic consonant;
2) the point of syllable division is inside the consonant.
In both cases the first syllable remains closed according to phonotactic rules of the English
language, because the short vowel should be checked. The results of the analysis show that the
point of syllable division in words like [/piti], [/topic] is inside the intervocalic consonant.
Functionsofthesyllable:
1.
theconstitutive function. It lies in its ability to be a part of a word or a word itself;
2.
thedistinctive function. The syllable is characterized by its ability to differentiate words
and word forms.
So at the functional level of description the syllable could be conceived of as a smallest
pronounceable unit with potential linguistic importance.
-3-
The system of phonetic notations is generally termed as “transcription”. Transcription is a set of
symbols representing speech sounds. The first type of notation is broad or phonemic
transcription which provides special symbols for all the phonemes of a language. The second
type – the narrow or allophonic transcription – suggests special symbols including some notes
about the articulation of a particular allophone. It is used in research work.
There are two types of broad transcription, used in this country:
1.
the first type was introduced by D. Jones. He realized the difference in quality as well as
in quantity between the vowel sounds in the words “sit” and “seat”, the neutral vowel and
the vowel in the word “earn”. He wanted to reduce the number of symbols and insisted
that some conventions should be stated one and for all. One of these conventions is that
the above mentioned long and short vowels differ in quality as well as in quantity. That’s
why one used the same symbols for them [i – i:].
2.
the second type used by V.A. Vassilyel, causes no phonological misunderstanding
providing special symbols for all vowel phonemes [I], [i:], [e], [æ], [a:], [Λ], [o], [o:], [u],
[u:], [3:], [ə].
Being a good visual aid this way of notation can be strongly recommended for teaching the
pronunciation of English to any audience.
Questions:
1.
How many types of syllables do you know? Namethem.
2.
What are the three points according to which a syllable can be analyzed?
3.
What is the main problem of the syllable division in English?
4.
What are the functions of the syllable?
5.
Give the definition of the term “syllable”.
6.
What are the basic differences between the broad and narrow types of transcription?
^
Lecture 7. Wordstress
1.
Word stress, its acoustic nature.
2.
The linguistic function of a word stress.
3.
Degree and position of a word stress.
-1-
The sequence of syllables in the word is not pronounced identically. The syllable or syllables
which are pronounced with more prominence than the other syllables of the word are said to be
stressed or accented. The correlation of varying prominences of syllables in a word is understood
as the accentual structure of the word.
According to A.C. Gimson, the effect of prominence is achieved by any or all of four factors:
force, tone, length and vowel colour. The dynamic stress implies greater force with which the
syllable is pronounced. In other words in the articulation of the stressed syllable greater muscular
energy is produced by the speaker. The European languages such as English, German, French,
Russian are believed to possess predominantly dynamic word stress. In Scandinavian languages
the word stress is considered to be both dynamic and musical (e.g. in Swedish, the word komma
(comma) is distinguished from the word komma (come) by a difference in tones). The musical
(tonic) word stress is observed in Chinese, Japanese. It is effected by the variations of the voice
pitch in relation to neighbouring syllables. In Chinese the sound sequence “chu” pronounced
with the level tone means “pig”, with the rising tone “bamboo”, and with the falling tone “to
live”.
It is fair to mention that there is a terminological confusion in discussing the nature of stress.
According to D. Crystal, the terms “heaviness, intensity, amplitude, prominence, emphasis,
accent, stress” tend to be used synonymously by most writers. The discrepancy in terminology is
largely due to the fact that there are 2 major views depending on whether the productive or
receptive aspects of stress are discussed.
The main drawback with any theory of stress based on production of speech is that it only gives
a partial explanation of the phenomenon but does not analyze it on the perceptive level.
Instrumental investigations study the physical nature of word stress. On the acoustic level the
counterpart of force is the intensity of the vibrations of the vocal cords of the speaker which is
perceived by the listener as loudness. Thus the greater energy with which the speaker articulates
the stressed syllable in the word is associated by the listener with greater loudness. The acoustic
counterparts of voice pitch and length are frequency and duration respectively. The nature of
word stress in Russian seems to differ from that in English. The quantitative component plays a
greater role in Russian accentual structure than in English word accent. In the Russian language
of full formation and full length in unstressed positions, they are always reduced. Therefore the
vowels of full length are unmistakably perceived as stressed. In English the quantitative
component of word stress is not of primary importance because of the non-reduced vowels in the
unstressed syllables which sometimes occur in English words (e.g. “transport”, “architect”).
-2-
In discussing accentual structure of English words we should turn now to the functional aspect of
word stress. Inlanguagethewordstressperforms3 functions:
1.
constitutive – word stress constitutes a word, it organizes the syllables of a word into a
language unit. A word does not exist without the word stress. Thus the function is
constitutive – sound continuum becomes a phrase when it is divided into units organized
by word stress into words.
2.
Word stress enables a person to identify a succession of syllables as a definite accentual
pattern of a word. Thisfunctionisknownasidentificatory(orrecognitive).
3.
Word stress alone is capable of differentiating the meaning of words or their forms, thus
performing its distinctive function. The accentual patterns of words or the degrees of
word stress and their positions form oppositions (“/import – im /port”, “/present – pre
/sent”).
-3-
There are actually as many degrees of word stress in a word as there are syllables. The British
linguists usually distinguish three degrees of stress in the word. The primary stress is the
strongest (e.g. exami/nation), the secondary stress is the second strongest one (e.g.
ex,ami/nation). All the other degrees are termed “weak stress”. Unstressed syllables are supposed
to have weak stress. The American scholars, B. Bloch and J. Trager, find 4 contrastive degrees
of word stress: locid, reduced locid, medial and weak.
In Germanic languages the word stress originally fell on the initial syllable or the second
syllable, the root syllable in the English words with prefixes. This tendency was called recessive.
Most English words of Anglo-Saxon origin as well as the French borrowings are subjected to
this recessive tendency.
Languages are also differentiated according to the placement of word stress. The traditional
classification of languages concerning the place of stress in a word is into those with a fixed
stress and a free stress. In languages with a fixed stress the occurrence of the word stress is
limited to a particular syllable in a multisyllabic word. For example, in French the stress falls on
the last syllable of the word (if pronounced in isolation), in Finnish and Czech it is fixed on the
first syllable.
Some borrowed words retain their stress.
In languages with a free stress its place is not confined to a specific position in the word. The
free placement of stress is exemplified in the English and Russian languages
(e.g. E. appetite – begin – examination
R. озеро – погода – молоко)
The word stress in English as well as in Russian is not only free but it may also be shifting
performing semantic function of differentiating lexical units, parts of speech, grammatical forms.
It is worth noting that in English word stress is used as a means of word-building (e.g. /contrast –
con/trast, /music – mu /sician).
Questions:
1.
What features characterize word accent?
2.
Identify the functions of word stress.
3.
What are the types of word stress?
4.
Do AmE and BE have any differences in the system of word stress? Giveyourexamples.
Lecture 8. Intonation
1.
Intonation.
2.
The linguistic function of intonation.
3.
The implications of a terminal tone.
4.
Rhythm.
-1-
Intonation is a language universal. There are no languages which are spoken as a monotone, i.e.
without any change of prosodic parametres. On perceptional level intonation is a complex, a
whole, formed by significant variations of pitch, loudness and tempo closely related. Some
linguists regard speech timber as the fourth component of intonation. Though it certainly
conveys some shades of attitudinal or emotional meaning there’s no reason to consider it
alongside with the 3 prosodic components of intonation (pitch, loudness and tempo).
Nowadays the term “prosody” substitutes the term “intonation”.
On the acoustic level pitch correlates with the fundamental frequency of the vibrations of the
vocal cords; loudness correlates with the amplitude of vibrations; tempo is a correlate of time
during which a speech unit lasts.
The auditory level is very important for teachers of foreign languages. Each syllable of the
speech chain has a special pitch colouring. Some of the syllables have significant moves of tone
up and down. Each syllable bears a definite amount of loudness. Pitch movements are
inseparably connected with loudness. Together with the tempo of speech they form an intonation
pattern which is the basic unit of intonation.
An intonation pattern contains one nucleus and may contain other stressed or unstressed syllables
normally preceding or following the nucleus. The boundaries of an intonation pattern may be
marked by stops of phonation, that is temporal pauses.
Intonation patterns serve to actualize syntagms in oral speech. The syntagm is a group of words
which are semantically and syntactically complete. In phonetics they are called intonation
groups. The intonation group is a stretch of speech which may have the length of the whole
phrase. But the phrase often contains more than one intonation group. The number of them
depends on the length of phrase and the degree of semantic impotence or emphasis given to
various parts of it. The position of intonation groups may affect the meaning.
-2-
The communicative function of intonation is realized in various ways which can be grouped
under five – six general headings:
1.
to structure the intonation content of a textual unit. So as to show which information is
new or can not be taken for granted, as against information which the listener is assumed
to possess or to be able to acquire from the context, that is given information;
2.
to determine the speech function of a phrase, to indicate whether it is intended as a
statement, question, etc;
3.
to convey connotational meanings of attitude, such as surprise, etc. In the written form
we are given only the lexics and the grammar;
4.
to structure a text. Intonation is an organizing mechanism. It divides texts into smaller
parts and on the other hand it integrates them forming a complete text;
5.
to differentiate the meaning of textual units of the same phonetic structure and the same
lexical composition (distinctive or phonological function);
6.
to characterize a particular style or variety of oral speech which may be called a stylistic
function.
-3-
Classification of intonation patterns:
Different combinations of pitch sections (pre-heads, heads and nuclei) may result in more than
one hundred pitch-and-stress patterns. But it is not necessary to deal with all of them, because
some patterns occur very rarely. So, attentionmustbeconcentratedonthecommonestones:
1.
The Low (Medium) Fall pitch-and-stress group
2.
TheHighFallgroup
3.
RiseFallgroup
4.
TheLowRisegroup
5.
TheHighRisegroup
6.
TheFallRisegroup
7.
TheRise-Fall-Risegroup
8.
TheMid-levelgroup
No intonation pattern is used exclusively with this or that sentence type. Some sentences are
more likely to be said with one intonation pattern than with any other. So we can speak about
“common intonation” for a particular type of sentence.
1.
Statements are most widely used with the Low Fall preceded by the Falling or the High
level Head. Theyarefinal, completeanddefinite.
2.
Commands, with the Low Fall are very powerful, intense, serious and strong.
3.
Exclamations are very common with the High Fall.
-4-
We cannot fully describe English intonation without reference to speech rhythm. Rhythm seems
to be a kind of framework of speech organization. Some linguists consider it to be one of the
components of intonation.
Rhythm is understood as periodicity in time and space. We find it everywhere in life. Rhythm as
a linguistic notion is realized in lexical, syntactical and prosodic means and mostly in their
combinations.
In speech, the type of rhythm depends on the language. Linguistsdividelanguagesintotwogroups:
1.
syllable-timed (French, Spanish);
2.
stress-timed (English, German, Russian).
In a syllable-timed language the speaker gives an approximately equal amount of time to each
syllable, whether the syllable is stressed or unstressed.
In a stress-timed language the rhythm is based on a larger unit, than syllable. Though the amount
of time given on each syllable varies considerably, the total time of uttering each rhythmic unit is
practically unchanged. The stressed syllables of a rhythmic unit form peaks of prominence. They
tend to be pronounced at regular intervals no matter how many unstressed syllables are located
between every 2 stressed ones. Thus the distribution of time within the rhythmic unit is unequal.
Speech rhythm is traditionally defined as recurrence of stressed syllables at more or less equal
intervals of time in a speech continuum.
Questions:
1.
Name the basic components of intonation.
2.
What is the connection between pitch and tempo?
3.
What for do we need different nuclear tones?
4.
Which nuclei are the commonest?
Lecture 9. Territorial varieties of English pronunciation
1.
Varietiesoflanguage.
2.
Englishvariants.
-1-
The varieties of the language are conditioned by language communities ranging from small
groups to nations. National language is the language of a nation, the standard of its form, the
language of a nation’s literature. The literary spoken form has its national pronunciation
standard. A “standard” may be defined as a socially accepted variety of a language established
by a codified norm of correctness. It is generally accepted that for the “English English” it is
“Received Pronunciation” or RP; for the “American English” – “General American
pronunciation”; for the Australian English – “Educated Australian”.
Though every national variant of English has considerable differences in pronunciation, lexics
and grammar, they all have much in common which gives us ground to speak of one and the
same language – the English language.
Every national variety of the language falls into territorial or regional dialects. Dialects are
distinguished from each other by differences in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. When
we refer to varieties in pronunciation only, we use the word “accent”.
The social differentiation of language is closely connected with the social differentiation of
society. Every language community, ranging from a small group to a nation has its own social
dialect, and consequently, its own social accent.
The “language situation” may be spoken about in terms of the horizontal and vertical
differentiations of the language, the first in accordance with the sphere of social activity, the
second – with its situational variability. Situational varieties of the language are called functional
dialects or functional styles and situational pronunciation varieties – situational accents or
phonostyles.
-2-
Nowadays two main types of English are spoken in the English-speaking world: English English
and American English.
According to British dialectologists (P. Trudgill, J. Hannah, A. Hughes and others) the following
variants of English are referred to the English-based group: English English, Welsh English,
Australian English, New Zealand English; to the American-based group: United States English,
Canadian English.
Scottish English and Irish English fall somewhere between the two being somewhat by
themselves.
^VarietiesofEnglish
BritishEnglishAccents
EnglishEnglish
Welsh
English
ScottishEnglish
Northern
Ireland
English
Southern
Northern
EducatedSc.English
Regional
Varieties
Southern
East
Anglia
South-
West
1.
Northern
2.
Yorkshir
e
3.
North-
West
4.
WestMid
land
Questions:
1.
What is the characteristics of national variants?
2.
Define the difference between a variant and a dialect.
3.
Name the types of dialects. Givetheexamples.
4.
Dialect – accent: are these terms identical?
5.
Where do pronunciation standards from come?
6.
Can people speak two or more dialects? How do we call such a phenomenon?
7.
Analyze all English varieties from the point of view of their pronunciation standards.
