1. PHONETICS, ITS DEFINITION AND AIMS
The training of teachers of foreign languages comprises the study
and mastery by the students of 2 courses in phonetics: a practical
course and a theoretical one. Base of the normative course are
practical, mainly the students must master the norms or standards
of the language, study its system of sounds (vowels and
consonants), word-stress and intonation. Simultaneously the
students must acquire for this purpose a basic knowledge of the
theory of phonetics and learn the most commonly used phonetic
terms. This is necessary to prepare them for the study of the
theoretical course. It will help to enlarge this knowledge and bring it
up to date.
The term Phonetics comes from the Greek words fone (sound)
and tefonetica (meaning). It is the science of the voice. In modern
times phonetics is often defined as the size of speech sounds
considered as elements of language. Phonetics is not a separate
independent science, it is a branch of linguistics like the other
branches: lexicology and grammar.
4. The structure of E words. Word accent, its definition and
rules of usage.
one-syllabic words;
dissyllabic words;
polysyllabic words
Word accent is a singling out of one or more its syllables by giving
them a greater degree of prominence as compared with the other
syllables in the same word.
Every word of more than 1 syllable has an accentual structure = a
definite arrangement or distribution of stressed and unstressed
syllables in it.
The misplacing of nuclear accent may lead to misunderstanding,
when one word may be taken for another by the listener.
I’ve seen a blackbird in the garden. (Я видел в саду
дрозда).The listener: some black-colored bird
Misplacing pronuclear primary or secondary stress will not lead to a
phonological mistake. But it will distort an accentual pattern of the
word and make it difficult to recognize it. The most common mistake
made by the Russian learners of English consists in omitting the
secondary stress in polysyllabic words because such words in
Russian have one nuclear accent:
Демонст’рация – ‘demonst‘ration
The nuclear secondary stress leads to a foreign accent in the
students‘ pronunciation. Basic rules of E word accent:
in most dissyllabic words with a prefix which has lost its
meaning the stress falls on the 2 syllable (on the root
syllable): become, begin, pronounce;
in disyllabic words ending in –ate, -ise, -ize, -fy the stress
falls on the last syllable: defy;
in most words of 3-4 syllables the accent falls on the 3
syllable from the end: family, cinema;
the accent falls on the final syllable after suffixes –ee, -ier, ade, -esque (engineer, refugee) etc.
Most words of more than 4 syllables have 2 stresses:
The primary stress falls either on the 3 or 2 syllable from the end.
The secondary stress falls on the syllable separated from the
nuclear syllable by one unstressed syllable (occupation,
pronouncation).
In many derivative nouns the secondary stress falls on the same
syllable which has the primary stress in the original word: ‚organize
– ‚organization.
Numerals 13-19 are pronounced with 2 primary stresses. The 1
primary stress falls on the root syllable, the 2 nuclear stress falls on
the suffix.
The words with the following prefixes have 2 primary stresses:
unknown, unable, ultra-modern etc.
2. Received Pronunciation (RP)
In Russian “received” means общепризнанный, истинный,
правильный. The type of pronunciation taught at our University is
known as RP. It’s understood in all English-speaking countries. It’s
the language of cinema, TV, theatre etc.
Definition: Pronunciation of standard British English based on the
speech of educated speakers of southern British English. The type
of pronunciation often recommended as a model for foreign
learners.
Accents usually tell us where a person is from; RP tells us only
about a person's social or educational background.
Development of RP: RP came to sybolize a person's high position in
society. During the 19th century, it became the accent of public
schools, such as Eton and Harrow, and was soon the main sign that
a speaker had received a good education. It was a regionally
'neutral' accent and was thought to be more widely understood than
any regional accent. Today RP is no longer the symbol of a social
elite but the symbol of education. But the most important thing is
that RP is no longer as widely used today as it was 50 years ago.
It’s still the standard accent of the Royal Family, Parliament, the
Church of England and other national institutions; but less than 3%
of the British people speak it in a pure form now. Most educated
people have developed a mixture of RP and various regional
characteristics, that is called 'modified RP'. Nowadays pure RP is
mostly used in the academic world (e.g. lessons of English as
foreign language). The one group of speakers who tend to stay
close to RP are those who have learnt English as a second
language and achieved a high level of fluency. It can be noticed
quite usually because so few native-speakers speak so clearly.
Many British people also modify their accent abroad to make their
pronunciation closer to RP, in order to be better understood than if
they were using their usual accent. They may also modify their
vocabulary and grammar to be closer to Standard English, for the
same reason.
Features:
-RP is non-rhotic: written r is pronounced only if it is followed by a
vowel
-great attention is paid to articulating consonants clearly except for
the r consonant, which is not pronounced when it immediately
precedes a consonant (as in cart)
-there is a great number of distinct vowel sounds, e.g. “caught”,
“cot”, “cart” are different in RP
-on the other hand, in common with most non-rhotic dialects words
"formerly" and "formally" are homophones in RP, although rhotic
speakers pronounce the words differently from each other. Similarly
are pronounced in RP words "ion" and "iron".
5. Intonation
Intonation may be defined as a unity of speech melody, sentence
stress and the timbre of the speech, which serve to express the
speaker’s thought, will, emotions and attitude.
Functions: 1. It organizes a sentence.
2. It determines communicative types of sentences and
types of clauses.
3. It divides the sentence into intonation groups.
4. It gives prominence to words and phrases.
5. It expresses contrast and attitudes.
Armstrong and Ward: In. - the rise and fall of the pitch of the voice
when we speak.
The components of the In.:
Speech Melody - the variation in the pitch of the voice in connected
speech. Within the sp. melody of the sentence the following units
can be distinguished: the terminal tone (TT), the scale, the prehead,
the range, the level.
The TT - the variation in pitch on the last stressed syllable and the
falling unstressed ones in intonational group.
The majority of phoneticians distinguish the following TT: Low
Falling tone (LF) High Wide Falling (HWF) High Narrow Falling
(HNF) Rising Falling (RF) Midrising (MR) High Narrow Rising (HNR)
High Wide Rising (HWR) Falling Rising (FR) Rising Falling Rising
(RFR) High level (H) Mid level (M) Low level (L)
According to the range all the TT can be subdivided into simple T.
and compounded T. (FR, RF, RFR)
Level tone. There are at least three types of it in English: L, M, H.
This T. can occur both in final and non-final intonation groups.
The scale is a phonetic unit that precedes the TT. It begins with the
first stressed syllable (a head) and ends before the TT.
Scales may be of different types: Gradually descending stepping
scale (GDS), Sliding scale (S), Ascending stepping scale (AS),
Scandent low level scale (SLL), Low level scale (LL)
Prehead - any serious /unstressed or partially stressed syllable that
precede the first strongly stressed syllable. There are two types of
preheads: low and high.
Each utterance is characterized by a certain pitch range. If the
utterance is within the limits of the Midlevel, it is said to have a
normal range (unemotional speech). Emotional utterances can be
characterized by widening the range. Widening or narrowing of the
range often go together with increase of sentence stress. When the
whole range of pitch is shifted from the normal it’s an indication of
emotional speech.
3. THE CLASSIFICATION AND DEFINITION OF SPEECH
SOUNDS, REDUCTION
They ate divided into vowels and consonants. A vowel is a voiced
sound, produced in the mouth with no abstraction of the air stream.
The air stream is weak, the tongue and the vocal cords ate tense,
the muscular tension is distributed more or less evenly. 21 vowel
phonemes are distinguished in r.p.Diphtonges:
The classification of vowels according to the stability of articulation
provides the basis for dividing these English vowel phonemes
into 3 subclasses:
1. 10 monophtongs:
2. 9 diphtongs
3. 2 diphtongoids:.These are actually idiophones replaceable by
the long monophtonges
A consonant is a sound produced with an abstraction of the air
stream. The organs of speech are tense at the place of abstraction.
In the articulation of voice consonants the air stream is strong, while
the air stream is weak by voiced.
Vowels are sounds of pure musical tone, while consonants are
sounds in which noise prevails over a tone (noised consonants). All
sounds in which tone prevails over noise are called sonorants. An
abstraction is formed in the tones of voiceless sonorants as well but
the air passage is wider than the formation of noise consonants.
This results in very little frication produced by the rather week air
stream. That is why in the articulation of sonorants tone prevails
over noise, whereas in all the other consonants both voiced and
voiceless noise prevails over tone. The English sonorants are:
The majority of linguists distinguish 25 consonants in r.p. A vowel
in a stressed syllable is stranger and has a more definite distinct
tember than an unstressed vowel. This is due to the fact that owing
the production of the stressed vowel the muscles of the organs of
speech forming the resonator mechanism are tensen and the shape
of the resonator remains constant for a longer time than in the
cause of an unstressed vowel. In other words a vowel in an
unstressed syllable is shorter, weaker, less distinct, it is reduced or
obscured. Reduction is the weakening of a sound due to a
decrease in the tenseness of the speech organs, resulting in the
loss of some essential characteristics by the sound. Reduction is
one of the phonetic change taking place in the historical
development of a language. The final stage of this process of
reduction is the dropping out of the sound- zero reduction. Vowel
reduction is a characteristic feature of Russian, English and some
other languages, but there are languages in which there is no vowel
reduction, such as Japanese, Italian and Polish.
6. Terminal tones and scales. Pitch levels and ranges.
Speech Melody - the variation in the pitch of the voice in connected
speech. Within the sp. melody of the sentence the following units
can be distinguished: the terminal tone (TT), the scale, the prehead,
the range, the level.
The TT - the variation in pitch on the last stressed syllable and the
falling unstressed ones in intonational group.
The majority of phoneticians distinguish the following TT: Low
Falling tone (LF) High Wide Falling (HWF) High Narrow Falling
(HNF) Rising Falling (RF) Midrising (MR) High Narrow Rising (HNR)
High Wide Rising (HWR) Falling Rising (FR) Rising Falling Rising
(RFR) High level (H) Mid level (M) Low level (L)
According to the range all the TT can be subdivided into simple T.
and compounded T. (FR, RF, RFR)
Level tone. There are at least three types of it in English: L, M, H.
This T. can occur both in final and non-final intonation groups.
The scale is a phonetic unit that precedes the TT. It begins with the
first stressed syllable (a head) and ends before the TT.
Scales may be of different types: Gradually descending stepping
scale (GDS), Sliding scale (S), Ascending stepping scale (AS),
Scandent low level scale (SLL), Low level scale (LL)
Prehead - any serious /unstressed or partially stressed syllable that
precede the first strongly stressed syllable. There are two types of
preheads: low and high.
Each utterance is characterized by a certain pitch range. If the
utterance is within the limits of the Midlevel, it is said to have a
normal range (unemotional speech). Emotional utterances can be
characterized by widening the range. Widening or narrowing of the
range often go together with increase of sentence stress. When the
whole range of pitch is shifted from the normal it’s an indication of
emotional speech.
.
7 Rhythm
English is a language with a stress timed rhythm. The stressed
syllables reoccur at approximately equal intervals in time. A
stressed syllable together with any unstressed ones which follow or
precede it form a rhythmic group: Let him do it now. This utterance
contains three rhythmic groups. The main features of English
rhythm are these:
1. Each rhythm group is given approximately the same amount of
time.
2. Any unstressed syllables at the beginning of an intonation group
must go together with a following stressed syllable: He's gone.
3. Any unstressed syllables at the end of an intonation group join
the preceding stressed syllable: Take it.
4. If the unstressed syllable is part of the same word as the stressed
syllable, it belongs to the same rhythmic group: Cheaper fairs.
Cheap affairs.
5. If the unstressed syllable is closely connected with the stressed
word, although not a part of the word, it belongs to the same
rhythmic groups: divided into groups
6. The stressed syllable in a rhythmic group is longer than
unstressed ones.
There are two types of rhythm:
1. Primary - is a simple periodic reoccurrence of stressed syllables.
It can be represented graphically as a sequence of dots, separated
by equal spaces: Jack and Jill went up to the hill.
2. Secondary - is a periodic reoccurrence of grouped stressed
syllables.
Under the influence of rhythm some of the words that carry two
stresses lose one of them. When a double stressed word is
preceded by a stressed syllable the first stress is lost. If a double
stressed word is followed by a stressed syllable it tends to lose the
second stress: unhappy
most unhappy, an unhappy man. Under the influence of
rhythm any word can lose stress in a sentence.
8. Sentence stress
SS is a relative degree of prominence given to various words in a
sentence. Variations of length, force and quality are responsible for
the manifestation of stressed words. The position of the stress in a
sentence and its distribution are largely determined by the meaning
of the sentence.
The list of words that are usually stressed:
Nouns Adjectives Numerals Interjections Demonstrative pronouns
Emphatic pronouns Possessive pronouns (absolute form only)
Interrogative pronouns
Indefinite pronouns Indefinite negative pronouns Notional verbs
Exilary verbs (negative contracted form)
Two-word prepositions
conjunctives
Particles: only, also, too, even, just.
The list of words that are usually unstressed:
Personal pronouns reflexive pronouns Possessive pronouns
Indefinite pronouns (used as objects) Indefinite pronouns: some,
any (when expressing quality) Exilary verbs (affirmative forms)
One-word prepositions
conjunctives
articles
particles: there, too
Modal verbs are unstressed unless they are used in contracted
negative form and general questions: I can do the work.
I can’t do the work.
Can you play chess?
The verbs: may, should and must may express different meanings
depending on whether they are stressed or not: They may come
(possibility)
They may come (permission)
They must come every day (order)
They must come every day (obligation)
I should do it (obligation in the first person)
He should do it (obligation in the third person)