library.miit.rulibrary.miit.ru/methodics/04022018...УДК 42 П 26 Первезенцева О.А....

МИНИСТЕРСТВО ТРАНСПОРТА

РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ

ФЕДЕРАЛЬНОЕ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ БЮДЖЕТНОЕ

ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНОЕ УЧРЕЖДЕНИЕ ВЫСШЕГО

ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ

«РОССИЙСКИЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ ТРАНСПОРТА

(МИИТ)»

Институт экономики и финансов

Кафедра «Лингвистика»

О.А. Первезенцева

Фонетика современного английского языка.

Теоретический курс

Учебное пособие

МОСКВА - 2017

МИНИСТЕРСТВО ТРАНСПОРТА

РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ

ФЕДЕРАЛЬНОЕ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ БЮДЖЕТНОЕ

ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНОЕ УЧРЕЖДЕНИЕ ВЫСШЕГО

ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ

«РОССИЙСКИЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ ТРАНСПОРТА

(МИИТ)»

Институт экономики и финансов

Кафедра «Лингвистика»

О.А. Первезенцева




для студентов-бакалавров

направления «Лингвистика»

МОСКВА - 2017

УДК 42

П 26

Первезенцева О.А. Фонетика современного

английского языка. Теоретический курс: Учебное пособие.

Для студентов-бакалавров направления «Лингвистика». –

М.: РУТ (МИИТ), 2017. - 286 с.

Данное учебное пособие адресовано студентам-

бакалаврам, изучающим курс «Теоретическая фонетика

английского языка». Материалы, представленные в

пособии, предназначены для освоения знаний в области

фонетической науки, а также для формирования умения

работать с научным текстом, обсуждать дискуссионные

теоретические вопросы и анализировать фонетические

явления. Каждый раздел завершается вопросами,

заданиями и упражнениями для самостоятельной работы

студентов.

Рецензенты: доктор филологических наук, профессор

кафедры фонетики и лексики английского языка

Московского педагогического государственного

университета Фрейдина Е.Л.,

кандидат филологических наук, зав. кафедрой

«Языкознание» РУТ (МИИТ) Лалова Т.И.

©РУТ (МИИТ), 2017

3

CONTENTS

PREFACE …………………………………………...6

I. PHONETICS AS A BRANCH OF LINGUISTICS.

BRANCHES OF PHONETICS. METHODS OF

INVESTIGATION ………………………………….8

1.1 Introduction ………………………………...8

1.2 Branches and Divisions of Phonetics ……..11

1.3. Phonetics and Social Sciences ……………17

1.4. Methods of Phonetic Investigation ……….20

Questions and Tasks …………………………..22

Recommended Literature ……………………..33

II. THE ARTICULATORY CHARACTERISTICS

OF THE ENGLISH SPEECH SOUNDS ………….34

2.1. The Anatomo-mechanical Aspect of Sound

Production ……………………………………….35

2.2. The System of English Vowels ………….37

2.3. The System of English Consonants ……...43

Questions and Tasks ………………………….48


III. THE ACOUSTIC AND AUDITORY ASPECTS

OF THE ENGLISH SPEECH SOUNDS …………51

Questions and Tasks ………………………….55

Recommended Literature …………………….55

IV. THE FUNCTIONAL ASPECT OF SPEECH

SOUNDS ………………………………………….56

4.1 Phoneme and Allophones …………………56

4.2. Phonetic Notations ……………………….63

4.3. Methods of Phonological Analysis ………65

4

Questions and Tasks …………………………..70


V. MODIFICATIONS OF SOUNDS IN

CONNECTED SPEECH …………………………92

5.1. Types of Sound Modifications ………….92

5.2. English consonants in connected speech ..95

5.3. English vowels in connected speech ……..99

5.4. Stylistic modifications of sounds ………..100

Questions and Tasks …………………………103

Recommended Literature ……………………105

VI. SYLLABIC AND ACCENTUAL STRUCTURES

OF ENGLISH WORDS …………………………..106

Tasks and questions …………………………111

Recommended Literature…………………….122

VII. The Accentual Structure of English Words …123

Tasks and questions ………………………….129


VIII. ENGLISH ITONATNION, ITS STRUCTURE

AND FUNCTIONS ………………………………145

8.1. The Structure of English Intonation …….147

8.2. The Functional Aspect of English

Intonation ……………………………………….156



IX. THE RHYTHMIC STRUCTURE OF THE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE …………………………184



5

X. PHONOSTYLISTICS AND THE STYLISTIC

USE OF INTONATION ………………………….205

10.1. Problems of Phonostylistics ……………205

10.2. Intonational Styles ……………………212



XI. TERRITORIAL VARIETIES OF ENGLISH

PRONUNCIATION …………………………….228

11.1. British English ………………………...230

11.2. American English ……………………...234



PRESENTING AN ARTICLE……………………254

CHECK YOURSELF …………………………….257

GLOSSARY ……………………………………...262

REFERENCES …………………………………...282

6

PREFACE This book is intended for students of linguistics. It

is based on the material of the textbook

«Теоретическая фонетика английского языка»

written by M.A. Sokolova, K.P. Gintovt, I.S.

Tikhonova, R.M. Tikhonova. Theoretical material is

presented here in a simplified way to help students to

revise the course of normative phonetics and acquire

basic knowledge of the theory of English

pronunciation. The aims of the book are as follows:

- to view phonetics as a branch of linguistics and

show some trends in its development;

- to summarize and to extend students’

knowledge of phonetics received during the

course of normative phonetics;

- to outline the functional approach to the English

pronunciation and to provide an understanding

of general principles of phonetics and

phonology;

- to develop students’ ability to make some

practical conclusions based on the given

theoretical facts and instruct them to apply the

theoretical knowledge of phonetics to

communication, language teaching and self-

education.

7

The body of the book includes 10 units which cover

the material on segmental and suprasegmental aspects

of phonetics, as well as phonostylistics and territorial

varieties of English pronunciation. Each unit contains

an overview of the core material on English phonetics

and is accompanied by tasks and questions aimed at

application of the unit content to solving some

practical problems and encouraging students to do

further reading on the problem and to discuss major

issues in class. The units end with the list of

Recommended Literature for students’ further

research related to the units content. The list may be

extended if necessary to provide a wider range of

material for analysis and discussion.

8

I. PHONETICS AS A BRANCH OF

LINGUISTICS. BRANCHES OF

PHONETICS. METHODS OF

INVESTIGATION

Key words: acoustic/auditory/articulatory

phonetics, descriptive/historical phonetics, direct

observation, general/special phonetics, instrumental

methods, intonograph, laryngoscope, mathematical

linguistics, phonology (functional phonetics),

practical (normative) phonetics,

pragmalinguistics/pragmaphonetics,

psycholinguistics, segmental/suprasegmental

phonetics, sociophonetics, spectrograph, theoretical

phonetics, x–ray photograph /cinematography.

1.1 Introduction

Knowledge of the structure of sound system and its

articulatory and acoustic characteristics is very

important in teaching and learning foreign languages.

The teacher has to know the starting point from which

to begin teaching; he must be able to point out the

differences between the pupil’s mother tongue and the

language to be learnt. He should be able to choose

adequate training exercises. That’s why it is vital to

know, at least, the basic principles of this science.

9

The term "phonetics" comes from the Greek words

meaning "sound or matters pertaining to voice". What

does phonetics study? It is concerned with the human

noises by which the thought is actualized (that is the

oral aspect of speech communication). However

phonetics takes the content level into consideration

too. Only meaningful sound sequences are regarded as

speech and phonetics is concerned only with such

sounds which are carriers of organized information of

a language. Phonetics analyses the nature of these

sounds, their combinations and their functions in

relation to the meaning. No kind of linguistic study

can be carried out without constant consideration of

the material on the expression level. Consequently,

phonetics is important in the study of a language. An

understanding of it is a basis for any adequate

understanding of the structure or functioning of a

language.

It follows from this that phonetics is a basic branch

- many would say the most fundamental branch of

linguistics, because it gives a language a definite form.

The vocabulary and grammar of a language can

function only when the language has a phonetic form.

So grammar and vocabulary depend on phonetics,

they cannot exist outside of phonetics, because all

10

lexical and grammar phenomena are expressed

phonetically. Neither linguistic theory nor linguistic

description can do without phonetics and is complete

without it.

Phonetics, being a branch of linguistics, occupies a

peculiar position. On the one hand it serves as a means

of expressing grammatical and lexical phenomena. On

the other hand it has laws of its own which are

independent of grammar and vocabulary. Besides it is

closely connected with a number of other sciences,

such as physics, biology, physiology, psychology etc.

The more phonetics develops the more various

branches of science become involved in the field of

phonetic investigation.

Phonetics is not a new science. It was known to the

ancient Greeks and to the ancient Hindus. The

scientists of that time were concerned with speech

sounds only. It may be said that the orthography of all

written languages which use alphabets developed in

the course of a very detailed phonetic analysis.

Nevertheless, phonetics as an independent science

began to develop only in the 19th century, before that

it used to be a part of grammar. There has been

considerable progress and growth in the 20th century.

New concepts, methods of investigation, new theories

11

and schools have been developed. Not only has the

sphere of investigation in phonetics become wider, but

several new branches of phonetics have also arisen.

So our further point will be made on the branches

and divisions of phonetics.

1.2. Branches and Divisions of Phonetics

Everyone who starts learning a foreign language

first of all is introduced into practical or normative

phonetics. It studies the material form of phonetic

phenomena in relation to meaning. It teaches how to

pronounce sounds correctly and what intonation to use

to convey this or that meaning or emotion. It is called

normative because we are to teach the "norm" of

English pronunciation.

Theoretical phonetics is mainly concerned with the

functioning of phonetic units in the language. It

discusses the problems of phonetics in academic terms

and gives a scientific approach to the phonetic theory.

Other two important branches of phonetics are

special and general phonetics. Special phonetics may

be subdivided into descriptive and historical. Special

descriptive phonetics is concerned with the study of

the phonetic structure of one language only in its static

form, synchronically and the domain of special

historical phonetics is the phonetic structure of a

12

language in its historical development, diachronically.

Historical phonetics is part of the history of a

language. Its aim is to trace and establish the

successive changes in the phonetic system of a given

language at different stages of its historical

development. It is very important for the study of the

modern phonetic system because without a historical

approach it is impossible to understand how this

modern phonetic system has developed and what

further changes it is likely to undergo.

General phonetics studies all the sound-producing

possibilities of the human speech apparatus and the

ways they are used for purposes of human

communication by means of language, it finds out

what types of speech sounds exist in various

languages of the world, how they are produced and

what role they play in forming and expressing

thoughts; it also determines the nature, types and role

of other phonetic means, such as word stress and

intonation. General phonetics is based on the material

which the special phonetics of a great number of

languages provides; it also uses data of other sciences:

physics, biology, psychology, speech pathology, etc.

So it makes a number of general conclusions

concerning the complex nature of speech sounds,

13

analyses phonetic phenomena from different points of

view and formulates phonetic theories. On the one

hand general phonetics is based on the data of special

phonetics; on the other hand it provides valuable

theoretical material which enables us to understand

and to interpret correctly different phonetic

phenomena of concrete languages.

Another important division is into phonology and

phonetics. According to the conception of the Prague

Linguistic School phonetics and phonology are two

independent branches of science, phonetics is a

biological science which is concerned with the

physical and physiological characteristics of speech

sounds, and phonology is a linguistic science which is

concerned with the social functions of different

phonetic phenomena. Another term for this branch is

functional phonetics.

The father of Phonology is Prince Nicholas

Trubetskoi. His work "Fundementals of Phonology"

separates phonetics and phonology, saying that they

are not related and that phonetics is not part of

linguistics, but a biological science that deals only

with the physiological aspect of speech sounds.

Nevertheless it doesn't seem logical to separate

function from phonetic forms, thus excluding

14

phonetics from the linguistic sciences. So nowadays

most phoneticians consider both phonetics and

phonology part of linguistics.

Phonetics itself is subdivided into 3 sub branches,

each dealing with special aspects of sounds, their

production by a speaker and perception by a listener.

Phonetic processing starts on a neurophonetic level,

in the brain of a speaker, where the formation of the

concept takes place. The human brain controls the

behaviour of the articulatory (or speech) organs and

makes them move in a particular way. The branch of

phonetics which is concerned with the study of speech

sounds as regards their production by the human

speech organs is called articulatory (physiological)

phonetics. In other words it deals with the way human

organs join to produce sounds. Articulatory basis of a

language is a set of articulation tendencies

characteristic for a particular language community, so

articulatory gesturing is culturally specific and not

universal.

Different articulations produce different acoustic

effects, or different speech sounds. Consequently,

speech sounds have a second aspect, a physical or,

more exactly, an acoustic one, which constitutes the

domain of acoustic phonetics. Acoustic phonetics

15

involves knowledge of physics as it deals with the

physical property of sounds. Any sound is a pressure

disturbance transmitted through an elastic medium.

When articulatory gesturing starts it causes

disturbance (a sound wave) in the medium, which is

transmitted from one particle of the medium to

another and is reproduced as a sound wave travels

from the source to the listener.

Perceptual or auditory phonetics is concerned with

the way our auditory mechanism works to process

speech information. There is a boundary line between

reception (which doesn't involve understanding) and

perception (which involves decoding and

understanding). Phonetic perception is a product of

sensation and interpretation of speech elements which

take place in a human brain.

Phonetics is also divided into two major

components: segmental phonetics, which is concerned

with individual sounds ("segments" of speech) and

suprasegmental phonetics whose domain is larger

units of connected speech: syllables, words, phrases

and texts.

There are a number of other divisions of phonetics.

We may speak about comparative phonetics whose

aims are to study the correlation between the phonetic

16

systems of two or more languages and find out the

correspondences between speech sounds and

intonation structures. Its data are extremely useful in

teaching and learning a foreign language as they show

differences and similarities of the phonetic systems of

two or more languages and predict possible difficulties

for the learners. It should be mentioned that the most

difficult phonetic phenomena are those absent in the

mother tongue. For example, the sounds [ð-θ] cause a

lot of difficulties for the Russian students of English,

as there are no sounds with similar articulations in the

Russian language. On the other hand the most stable

and persistent pronunciation mistakes are made in

those phenomena which are similar in the two

languages but not exactly the same. For example,

falling intonation. In English it goes to the very

bottom of the voice, while in Russian it is not so steep

and it does not reach the same low note as in English.

The data of applied phonetics are essential for

practical purposes in speech therapy and logopedia. It

helps to correct speech defects and to teach deaf-

mutes (or people who do not speak as a result of an

accident or some disease) to speak.

Experimental phonetics deals with research work

which is carried out with the help of different

17

technical devices, machines for measurements and for

instrumental analysis.

Phonetics as a whole and all of its branches have

not come into being all at once: they developed

gradually, and their development was closely

connected with and determined by the development of

other branches of linguistics and other sciences.

1.3. Phonetics and Social Sciences

So our further point should be made in connection

with the relationship between phonetics and social

sciences. Language is not an isolated phenomenon; it

is a part of society. No branch of linguistics can be

studied without taking into consideration at least the

study of other aspects of society. In the past two

decades we have seen the development of quite

distinct interdisciplinary subjects, such as

sociolinguistics (and sociophonetics correspondingly),

psycholinguistics, mathematical linguistics and others.

As their titles suggest, they are studied from two

points of view and thus require knowledge of both.

Sociophonetics studies the ways in which

pronunciation functions in society. It is interested in

the ways in which phonetic structures vary in response

to different social functions. Society here is used in its

broadest sense, it includes such phenomena as

18

nationality, regional and social groups, age, gender,

different situations of speaking - talking to equals,

superiors, on the “job”, when we are trying to

persuade, inform, agree and so on. The aim of

sociophonetics is to correlate phonetic variations with

situational factors. It’s obvious that these data are vital

for language learners who are to observe social norms

and to accommodate to different situations they find

themselves in.

One more example of interdisciplinary overlap is

the relation of linguistics to psychology.

Psycholinguistics covers an extremely broad area,

from acoustic phonetics to language pathology, and

includes such problems as acquisition of language by

children, memory, attention, speech perception,

second-language acquisition and so on.

Phonosemantics studies the relations between the

sound structure of a word and its meaning. There is

some data proving that the sounds that constitute a

word have their own “inner” meaning, which causes

certain associations in the listener’s mind. For

example, close vowels produce the effect of

“smallness”, and voiceless consonants sound more

“unpleasant” and “rude” than their voiced

counterparts, etc. Some sounds are associated with

19

certain colours. These data may be helpful in teaching,

for example, “tying” together the sound structure of a

word and its meaning, thus facilitating the process of

memorising new words.

Scientists have always been interested how children

acquire their own language without being taught. They

hope that these data might be useful in teaching

grown-up people a foreign language, too.

Pragmalinguistics is a comparatively new science,

which studies what linguistic means and ways of

influence on a hearer to choose in order to bring about

certain effects in the process of communication.

Correspondently the domain of pragmaphonetics is to

analyse the functioning and speech effects of the

sound system of a language.

Phonetics is closely connected with a number of

other sciences such as physics (or rather acoustics),

mathematics, biology, physiology and others. The

more phonetics develops the more various branches of

science become involved in the field of phonetic

investigation. Phonetics has become important in a

number of technological fields connected with

communication.

Phoneticians work alongside the communication

engineers in devising and perfecting machines that can

20

understand, that is respond to human speech, or

machines for reading aloud the printed page and vice

versa, converting speech directly into printed words

on paper. Although scientists are still dissatisfied with

the quality of synthesized speech, these data are

applied in security systems, answering machines and

for other technical purposes.

1.4. Methods of Phonetic Investigation

Methods applied in investigating the sound matter

of the language have changed greatly with the

development of technology and computer science.

From the beginning of phonetics the phonetician has

relied mainly on what he could feel of his own speech

and on what he could hear both of his own and the

informant’s speech. Such methods are called direct

and consist in observing the movements and positions

of one's own or other people's organs of speech in

pronouncing various speech sounds, as well as in

analysing one's own kinaesthetic sensations (muscle

tense) during the articulation of speech sounds and in

comparing them with the resultant auditory

impressions. Investigation by means of this method

can be effective only if the persons employing it have

been specially trained and have acquired considerable

21

skills in associating the qualities of the perceived

sound with the nature of the articulations producing it.

Instrumental methods were introduced into

phonetics in the last century to supplement the

impressions deriving from the human senses. These

methods are based upon registering or computing

machines and technical devices, such as spectrograph,

intonograph, x-ray photography and cinematography,

laryngoscope and some others. The introduction of

machines for measurements and for instrumental

analysis into phonetics has resulted in their use for

detailed study of many of the phenomena which are

present in the sound wave or in the articulatory

process at any given moment. These techniques can be

very useful both for discovering in detail how English

speakers produce their speech sounds, and for

demonstrating to learners of English their

pronunciation. Computers can provide additional

pronunciation training, displaying useful information

on the screen and being a powerful visual aid for

effective phonetic practice. One more advantage of the

modern experimental study of speech is the enormous

amount of varied spoken speech data stored on

computers. It facilitates the process of looking for

cross-language differences and similarities. The data

22

obtained from instrumental analysis supplement and

verify those obtained by means of direct observation,

thus making the research results more detailed and

precise.

QUESTIONS AND TASKS:

I. Read the following abstracts from original

works, answer the questions and comment on one of

the problems:

By phonetics is meant the science of speech

sounds, their production by means of lips, tongue,

palate, and vocal chords, their acoustic qualities, their

combination into syllables and other sound groups,

and finally quantity, stress and intonation. Phonetics

thus may be called that part of linguistic science which

deals with the outward aspect of language as opposed

to the inner or psychological side of language, or it

may be looked upon as that part of physics and of

physiology which deals specially with sounds as used

by human beings to communicate thoughts and

feelings to one another. Among those who have

contributed to the development of phonetic science we

find physicists like Helmholtz, physiologists like

23

Brücke, and philologists like Sievers, Storm and

Sweet.

This lecture was given in September, 1909, at

Columbia University as the first of a series on

practical and theoretical phonetics.

Jespersen, Otto. What is the use of phonetics? //

Educational Review, February, 1910. –

http://interlanguages.net/phonetics.html.

1. What is phonetics?

I therefore pass on to another field where

advantages are likely to accrue from a more extended

knowledge of phonetics. The question of spelling

reform is a burning one in all civilized countries. Not

only in English, but also in French, in German, in

Danish, in Swedish, in Russian, and to a much lesser

degree in Italian and Spanish, do we find numerous

instances of words spelt otherwise than pronounced,

of mute and superfluous or ambiguous letters <...>

The present situation is one of a clumsy and difficult

system of spelling that causes a miserable loss of time

in all schools (and out of schools, too); much valuable

time which might be used profitably in many other

ways, is spent upon learning that this word has to be

spelt in this absurd manner, and that word in another

http://interlanguages.net/phonetics.html

24

equally absurd way, and why? For no other apparent

reason than that such has been the custom of a couple

of centuries or more <...> Now I know very well that

it is not every phonetician who is a spelling reformer

though a great many are; but what I do maintain is, in

the first place, that only a good phonetician can show

what is to be reformed and what is to be the direction

of change, because he alone knows what sounds to

represent and how best to represent them.

<...> But in the second place I maintain that a

thorough reform of the spelling of any civilized nation

does not only presuppose a small set of energetic

phoneticians who have investigated all the odds and

ends of the subject, but will not be possible till the day

when the general public have given up what I should

call their all–pervading superstition in these matters,

their irrational belief that the spelling of words had

been settled once for all, as if by some divine

command, and that any deviation from the traditional

spelling is either ridiculous or else an infallible

symptom of low breeding. Much of that superstition

will break down when people get accustomed to

seeing old authors spelt in the orthography of their

own times; I think it is a great pity that Shakespeare is

now nearly always reprinted in and read in the spelling

25

of the nineteenth century instead of in that of the old

editions. Much would also be achieved if scholars of

renown, philologists, students of literature, and writers

of books in general, would indulge in some individual

spellings, one in this class of words, and another in

some other class. These individual spellings need not

be very numerous, nor should they be necessarily

consistent, and the author need not give any other

reason for his special heterodoxies than that they just

suit his fancy. This would educate readers by showing

them that different spellings need not always be marks

of illiteracy, and that there may exist difference of

opinions in this as well as in other respects without

any fear of human society falling at once to pieces on

that account.

This lecture was given in September, 1909, at

Columbia University as the first of a series on

practical and theoretical phonetics.

Jespersen, Otto. What is the use of phonetics? //

Educational Review, February, 1910. –


1. What arguments does the author give to prove the

necessity of a spelling reform in English?

2. Why do most educated people object to the spelling

reform?


26

Languages can basically be thought of as

systems – highly complicated ones – which enable us

to express our thoughts by means of “vocal noises”,

and to extract meaning from the “noises” (speech

sounds from now on) that are made by other people.

Linguistics is the study of the nature and properties of

these systems, and its various branches focus on

different aspects of the communication process.

Phonetics is the branch concerned with human

speech sounds, and itself has three different aspects:

• Articulatory Phonetics (the most anatomical and

physiological division) describes how vowels and

consonants are produced or “articulated” in various

parts of the mouth and throat.

• Acoustic Phonetics (the branch that has the closest

affinities with physics) studies the sound waves that

transmit the vowels and consonants through the air

from the speaker to the hearer.

• Auditory Phonetics (the branch of most interest to

psychologists) looks at the way in which the hearer’s

brain decodes the sound waves back into the vowels

and consonants originally intended by the speaker.

Closely associated with Phonetics is another

branch of linguistics known as Phonology. This

27

focuses on the way languages use differences between

sounds in order to convey differences of meaning

between words, each language having its own unique

sound pattern. Phonology is really the link between

Phonetics and the rest of Linguistics.

Dr. Rodney Ball. Introduction to Phonetics for

Students of English, French, German and Spanish. –

University of Southampton, 2002. – P. 5.

1. What is Phonetics and what do its various branches

study?

Experimental phonetics has been an important

part of phonetics for most of the twentieth century,

and experimental work in phonetics laboratories has

produced many important discoveries about how

speech is produced and perceived. Too often,

however, this area of the subject is regarded as a

mysterious world where incomprehensible things are

done with expensive equipment. This situation is

changing rapidly, and one consequence of the earlier

availability of instrumental speech analysis techniques

is that the field of descriptive phonetics, pronunciation

teaching and experimental phonetics have become

much more closely linked <...>

28

In explaining the subject matter of experimental

phonetics it is helpful to start by looking at the speech

chain, which may be diagrammed in simplified form

like this:

speaker’

s brain

speaker’s

vocal

tract

transmissio

n of sound

through air

listener’

s ear

listener’

s brain

1 2 3 4 5

articulator

y

phonetic

level

acoustic

phonetic

level

auditor

y

phoneti

c level

With currently available technology we are not

able to discover what goes on in detail in the brain

when someone is speaking (Stage 1), although we can

make informed guesses based on evidence such as

speech error (“slips of the tongue”), the effects on

speech production of different sorts of brain damage

and the evidence of brain scanning.

Much more is known about Stage 2, the

articulatory aspect of speech production. Many special

instruments have been developed to help us to find out

about such things as the pressure of air in the lungs

and the vocal tract, the flow of air out of the mouth

and nose, the opening and closing of the vocal folds

29

and of the soft palate, and the movement of

articulators like the lips and the lower jaw. X–ray

techniques were used extensively for examining the

movements of articulators until the 1970s, and

produced very important discoveries, but it later

became clear that there were serious health risks in

using normal radiographic and cineradiographic

technology <...> Contact between the tongue and the

palate can be measured electrically by means of

electropalatography (EPG), where a piece of moulded

plastic is fitted to the hard palate <...> Additionally, it

is possible to detect the electrical activity that is

produced when muscles contract, through

electromyography (EMG), and we can thus observe

the complex co–ordination of activity in the muscles

controlling speech production <...>

Roach P. English Phonetics and Phonology. –

Cambridge: Cambr. Univ. Press, 1987. – PP. 204-

205.

1. What are the constituents of the speech chain?

2. What helps us to guess what is happening on Stage

1?

3. What instruments are used to study the articulatory

aspect of speech production?

30

<...> the transmission of sound waves through

the air, is studied by acoustic analysis <...> We can

discover the physical events that produce the

perceptual characteristics of speech sounds, including

the duration of sounds or syllables (we often refer to

duration as “length”), the intensity of different sounds

(which is closely related to loudness that we perceive),

and the fundamental frequency of voiced sounds

(which is closely related to pitch). <...> Software for

acoustic analysis and spectrographic displays of

speech is available at little or no cost via internet, and

it is now possible to get a computer to produce a

simple phonetic transcription of what is said to it.

Finally, it is of great importance to discover

more about how the listener’s brain identifies what it

receives from the ear <...>. Many experiments have

shown how sensitive human beings are to very slight

differences and how flexible they are in being able to

adjust to very different speakers. We are also very

strongly influenced by our expectations: if we have

heard and understood half a sentence, it seems that our

brain is already guessing at what the rest of it will be

before it is heard, and is certainly not acting in a

passive way like a simple machine <...> Experimental

phonetics has made much use of speech produced

31

through the technique of speech synthesis. The best

speech synthesis is capable of producing speech of

such high quality that only an expert can distinguish it

from a recording of a human being’s speech <...>

One of the major problems in the experimental

study of speech is the enormous amount of variability

found both within the speech of an individual and

among different speakers. This means that if we study

only one or two speakers, it is likely that our results

will not be typical of other speakers. Much modern

speech research makes use of collections of very large

amounts of spoken data stored in digital form on

computers in a form which allows the computer to

search and process examples of particular types of

phonetic data. Such collections are known as speech

databases <...>



207.

1. What can we discover with the help of acoustic

analysis?

2. What are the results of the speech perception

analysis?

3. What is a speech database and why is it valuable in

experimental phonetics?

32

II. Questions for revision:

1. Why is phonetics important in teaching and

studying a foreign language?

2. What does phonetics study?

3. What are general and special phonetics concerned

with?

4. What are the sub–branches of special phonetics?

5. What are the domains of segmental and

suprasegmental phonetics?

6. Describe the stages of speech production.

7. What branches of phonetics are connected with

each stage of speech production?

8. What does phonology study?

9. What linguists were the first to introduce and

develop the functional aspect of phonetic phenomena?

10. Into what two large groups can methods of

phonetic investigation be divided?

11. In what branches of phonetics do these methods

come useful?

12. What does sociophonetics study?

13. How are linguistics and psychology interrelated?

14. What is kinesics concerned with?

15. What are the spheres of practical application of

phonetics?

33

III. Make a report on one of the topics:

1. Phonetics as a branch of linguistics.

2. Main branches of Phonetics.

3. Phonetics and other sciences.

4. Main methods of phonetic investigation.

5. Practical applications of Phonetics.

Recommended Literature:

1. Соколова М.А., Тихонова И.С., Тихонова

Р.М., Фрейдина Е.Л. Теоретическая

фонетика английского языка. - Дубна:

Феникс+, 2010.

2. Соколова М.А. и др. Практическая

фонетика английского языка. – М.:

Владос, 2008.

3. Бурая Е.А., Галочкина И.Е., Шевченко

Т.И. Фонетика современного

английского языка. М.:ACADEMIA,

2006.

4. Шевченко Т.И. Теоретическая фонетика

английского языка.- М.: Высшая школа,

2006.

5. Roach P. English Phonetics and Phonology:

A Practical Course. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 2001.

34

II. THE ARTICULATORY

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ENGLISH

SPEECH SOUNDS

Key words: affricate, back-advanced, bilingual,

bronchi, consonant, constrictive, diphthong,

diphthongoid, glottal, glottis, front-retracted, labial,

larynx, lingual, lungs, monophthong,

mouth/nasal/supraglottal cavities, occlusive, palate,

pharynx, resonator/ vibrator/power mechanisms,

sonorant, teeth ridge, tongue, vocal cords, vowel,

uvula, windpipe.

2.1. The Anatomo-mechanical Aspect of Sound

Production

Speech is impossible without the speech

mechanism. So now our attention will be focused on

the articulatory aspect of speech sounds.

Speech sounds are acoustic effects of the

articulatory movements and positions of the human

speech organs. The immediate source of speech

sounds is the human speech mechanism developed and

perfected in the process of the historical development

of man. The organs of speech are the object of

linguistic investigation mainly from the point of view

of the functions they perform in speech production. So

before analysing the linguistic function of phonetic

35

units we need to know how the speech mechanism

acts in producing oral speech.

According to their main sound-producing functions

the speech organs can be roughly divided into the

following four groups: the power mechanism (lungs,

diaphragm, windpipe, bronchi), the vibrator

mechanism (larynx, vocal cords, glottis), the resonator

mechanism (nasal and mouth cavities) and the

obstructer mechanism (tongue, lips, hard and soft

palate, teeth).

From the lungs through the wind-pipe the air-

stream passes to the larynx, containing the vocal

cords. The opening between the vocal cords, through

which the air passes, is called the glottis. The

linguistic function of the vocal cords consists in

providing the source of energy necessary for speech

production. When the vocal cords are kept wide apart

(i.e. the glottis is open) the air passes between the

cords and the result is non-phonic breath. Then the

vocal cords may be drawn together tightly, so that air

cannot pass between them. The sudden opening of the

glottis produces an explosion resembling a short

cough; this sound is called the glottal stop. It often

occurs in English when it reinforces or even replaces

36

the sounds [p], [t], [k] or even when it precedes the

energetic articulation of vowel sounds.

The most important role of the vocal cords is their

participation in the production of voice. The effect of

voice is achieved when the vocal cords are brought

loosely together, creating an obstacle to the air stream;

when the air pressure becomes very strong the air

forces its way between the vocal cords thus making

the, vibrate. When, as is usual, these vibrations are

regular, they produce vocal tone, or voice, whose pitch

depends on the frequency of vibrations. We are able to

vary the speed of vibration of our vocal cords and thus

to change the pitch. Conscious variations of pitch are

responsible for intonation. We are also able to modify

the size of the puff of the air which escapes at each

vibration, thus changing the amplitude of the

vibration, which corresponds to the loudness of the

sound heard by a listener.

The air-stream, having passed through the vocal

cords, is now subject to further modification,

according to the shape of the pharynx, mouth and

nasal cavities.

The direction in which the air-stream will follow

from the pharynx depends on the position of the soft

palate. When it is lowered, the pharynx opens into the

37

nasal cavity. When it is risen, the air-stream comes to

the mouth cavity. As in the mouth cavity a lot of

movable speech organs are situated it can easily

change its shape, thus forming the majority of speech

sounds.

The movable (or active) speech organs, situated in

the mouth cavity are: the tongue, the soft palate with

the uvula, the lips and the lower jaw. Of all the

movable organs within the mouth cavity the tongue is

the most flexible and active. For convenience, the

surface of the tongue or divided into several parts: the

most flexible part of the tongue, which normally lies

opposite the teeth ridge, is called the blade, the tip of

the tongue being its extreme point. The part of the

tongue next to the blade is called the front of the

tongue. Then come the back and the root of the

tongue.

The tongue being the most active speech organ in

the mouth cavity, the main principles of the majority

of articulatory classifications of vowels are based on

the movements and positions of the tongue.

2.2. The System of English Vowels

The movements of the body of the tongue provide a

convenient articulatory basis for classifying vowels

38

according to two principles: 1) horizontal and 2)

vertical movements of the tongue.

According to the horizontal movement five classes

of English vowels are distinguished. They are:

1) front [i:], [e], [eɪ], [ɛə], [æ]

2) front-retracted [ɪ], [ɪə]

3) central [ʌ], [ɜ:], [ə], [ɜʊ], [aʊ], [aɪ]

4) back [ɒ], [ɔ:], [u:], [a:], [ɔɪ]

5) back-advanced [ʊ], [ʊə]

Not all phoneticians single out the classes of front-

retracted and back-advanced vowels. So both [i:] and

[ɪ] vowels are classed as front, and both [u:] and [ʊ] -

as back. The point is that the vowels in these two pairs

differ in quality which is partially due to the raised

part of the tongue. So in this case a more detailed

classification seems to be a more precise one, since it

adequately reflects the articulatory distinctions

actually present in the language.

Now let's view another articulatory characteristic of

vowels, which is based on the vertical movement of

the tongue. The way phoneticians of different schools

approach this aspect is also slightly different. Some

scholars distinguish three classes of vowels: high (or

close), mid and low (or open) vowels. But to mark all

significant changes in vowel quality it is not enough to

39

single out these three groups of vowels. For instance,

both English vowels [i:] and [ɪ] belong to the group of

close vowels, but when the vowel [ɪ] is articulated the

front of the tongue is not so high in the mouth as it is

in the case of the vowel [i:]. Russian phoneticians

made the classification more detailed distinguishing

two subclasses in each class: broad and narrow

variations of the 3 vertical positions of the tongue.

Thus the following 6 groups of vowels are

distinguished:

1) close a) narrow [i:], [u:]

b) broad [ɪ], [ʊ], [ɪə], [ʊə]

2) mid a) narrow [e], [ɜ:], [ə], [eɪ], [ɜʊ]

b) broad [ə], [ʌ]

3) open a) narrow [ɛə], [ɔ:], [ɔɪ]

b) broad [æ], [aɪ], [aʊ], [ɒ], [a:].

In addition to the above-mentioned principle of the

classification of vowels phoneticians suggest five

other criteria:

1) stability of articulation

2) lip position

3) character of the vowel end

4) length

5) tenseness

40

The stability of articulation specifies the actual

position of the articulating organ in the process of the

articulation. There are two possible variants: a) the

tongue position is stable, in this case the articulated

vowel is pure, it consists of one element and is called

a monophthong; and b) the tongue position changes,

in this case a vowel consists of two elements, the first

one is strong, it is a nucleus, the second element is

very weak – it is a glide. Such vowels are called

diphthongs. There exists a third variety, when the

change in the tongue position is fairly weak, in this

case the articulated vowel is not pure, but it still

consists of one element, such vowels are called

diphthongoids. So according to this principle the

English vowels are subdivided into:

a) monophthongs [ɪ], [ʊ], [e], [ɜ:], [ə], [ʌ], [ɔ:], [æ],

[ɒ], [a:]

b) diphthongs [ɪə], [ʊə], [eɪ], [ɜʊ], [ɔɪ], [aɪ], [aʊ],

[ɛə]

c) diphthongoids [i:], [u:]

Some phoneticians, however, do not share this way

of thinking and do not distinguish diphthongoids. But

for the learners of English it is important to know this

differentiation as it is useful for teaching purposes.

41

Besides in modern English the tendency for

diphthongization is becoming gradually stronger.

Another feature of English vowels is lip rounding.

Traditionally three lip positions are distinguished:

spread, neutral and rounded. In English lip rounding is

not relevant phonologically (it means that no two

words can be distinguished on its basis).

Our next point should be made about another

characteristic of English vowels. It's checkness. The

quality of all English monophthongs in the stressed

position is strongly affected by the following

consonant. If a stressed vowel is followed by a strong

(fortis) voiceless consonant it is cut off by it. In this

case the end of the vowel is strong and the vowel is

called checked. If a vowel is followed by a weak

(lenis) voiced consonant or by no consonant at all the

end of it is weak. In this case the vowel is called free.

Now it should be useful to consider another

articulatory characteristic of English vowels, that is

their length or quantity. The English monophthongs

are traditionally divided into short [ɪ], [e], [æ], [ɒ], [ʊ],

[ʌ], [ə] and long ones [i:], [a:], [ɔ:], [ɜ:], [u:].

It should be noted that vowel length or quantity has

for a long time been the point of disagreement among

phoneticians. The problem is whether variations in

42

quantity are meaningful (relevant) or not. Let's look at

the pairs of words: [bɪd - bi:d], [sɪt - si:t]. Are they

distinguished from one another by the opposition of

different length (that's the approach of D. Jones, an

outstanding British phonetician) or is the difference in

quality (or in other words the position of the active

organ of speech) decisive here? Most Russian

phoneticians are in favour of the second conception.

They state that a feature can be systemic if it does not

depend on the context. As to the length of English

vowels, it varies and depends on a lot of factors, the

first being phonetic context. The shortest are vowels

followed by voiceless consonants and the longest are

in free position.

For example in "meat" [i:] is half as long as the [i:]

in "me", but may approximately have the same

duration as the [ɪ] in "mid". But still these words

"mid" and "meat" are perceived as different words

because the vowels are different in quality. So no

matter what time is required for the articulation of

these vowels, the main distinctive feature is quality,

not quantity.

As for tenseness we shall only mention that special

instrumental analysis shows that historically long

vowels are tense, and historically short ones are lax.

43

To sum it up we may conclude that among all the

articulatory features of English vowels only two are

relevant: the stability of articulation and tongue

position.

2.3. The System of English Consonants

Before passing on to the classification of English

consonants the difference between consonants and

vowels should be considered. Acoustically consonants

are noises, not musical tones like vowels. From the

articulatory point of view the difference is due to the

work of speech organs. In case of consonants various

obstructions are made.

As to the classification of English consonants there

are few ways of seeing the situation. One of them is

the classification according to the type of obstacle. On

this ground two large classes of consonants are

distinguished:

1) occlusive, which are produced when a complete

obstruction is formed: [t, d, p, b, k, g], [m, n, ŋ];

2) constrictive, which are produced when an

incomplete obstruction is formed: [s, z, f, v, Ɵ, ð, ʃ, ʒ,

h], [w, r, l, j].

Each of the 2 classes is subdivided into noise

consonants (these are those in the production of which

noise prevails over tone) and sonorants (in the

44

production of which tone component prevails). Noise

occlusive consonants are called stops because the air

stream is completely stopped at some point of

articulation and then released with an explosion, that

is why they are also called plosives: [t, d, p, b, k, g].

Constrictive noise consonants are called fricatives,

because the air escapes through the narrowing with

friction: [s, z, f, v, Ɵ, ð, ʃ, ʒ, h].

Occlusive-constrictive consonants or affricates are

noise consonants produced with a complete

obstruction which is slowly released and the air stream

escapes from the mouth with some friction. There are

only two affricates in English: [ʧ,ʤ].

Other phoneticians suggest that the first and basic

principle of classification should be the degree of

noise. So consonants are divided first into noise

consonants and sonorants and then each group is

divided into smaller groups.

Another very important principle is the place of

articulation. According to this principle English

consonants are classed into labial, lingual and glottal.

I. Labial consonants in their turn are subdivided

into a) bilabial (produced when both lips are active)

[w, m, p, b]; b) labio-dental (articulated with the lower

lip against the edge of the upper teeth) [f, v].

45

II. Among the class of lingual consonants three

subclasses are distinguished: a) forelingual; b) medio-

lingual; c) back-lingual. Forelingual consonants are

also of three kinds:

1) apical (articulated with the tip of the tongue) [t,

d, s, z, Ɵ, ð, ʃ, ʒ, ʤ, ʧ, n, l].

2) dorsal (produced when the blade of the tongue is

active). There are no dorsal consonants in English. In

Russian these are the sounds [т, д, с, з, ш, ж, н, л].

3) cacuminal (articulated with the tip of the tongue

curled back). There is only one cacuminal consonant

in English - [r].

According to the place of obstruction forelingual

consonants may be:

- interdental, articulated with the tip of the tongue

projected between the teeth: [Ɵ, ð];

- dental, produced with the blade of the tongue

against the upper teeth: the Russian [т, д, с, з, ц, л];

- alveolar, produced with the tip of the tongue

against the upper teeth ridge: [t, d, s, z, n, l];

- post-alveolar, articulated with the tip or the blade

of the tongue against the back part of the teeth ridge:

[r];

- palato-alveolar, made with the tip or the blade of

the tongue against the teeth ridge and the front part of

46

the tongue raised towards the hard palate, thus having

two places of articulation (two foci): [ʧ, ʤ, ʃ, ʒ].

b) mediolingual consonants are produced with the

front part of the tongue raised high to the hard palate,

so they are always palatal: [j].

c) backlingual consonants are also called velar,

because they are produced with the back part of the

tongue raised towards the soft palate: [k, g, ŋ].

III. The glottal consonant [h] is articulated in the

glottis. There are no glottal consonants in Russian.

One more articulatory characteristic which should

be mentioned is the position of the soft palate.

According to this principle consonants may be oral

and nasal. There are only three nasal consonants in

English, which require the lowered position of the soft

palate: [m, n, ]. The rest of the consonants are oral

because in their production the soft palate is raised and

the air escapes through the mouth.

Our next point will be made in connection with

another sound property, that is voice-voiceless

characteristic. When the vocal cords are brought

together and vibrate we hear voice and the consonants

are voiced: [b, d, g, v, z, ð, ʒ, ʤ]. When the vocal

cords are apart and do not vibrate we hear only noise

and the consonants are voiceless: [p, t, k, f, s, Ɵ, ʃ, ʧ].

47

It should be noted that the difference between such

pairs as [p, b], [t, d] and so on is based not only on the

absence or presence of the voice component, as voiced

consonants are not fully voiced in all word positions,

in word final position, for example, they are partially

devoiced. There's also energy difference. All voiced

consonants are weak or lenis and all voiceless

consonants are strong or fortis.

Summing it up, it should be mentioned that the

most important articulatory features, which could

serve as a criterion for grouping consonants into

functionally similar classes, are: type of obstruction;

place of articulation and the active organ of speech;

force of articulation.

The rest of the characteristics are considered to be

irrelevant, as they are of no importance from the

phonological point of view, but they provide

necessary and useful information for teaching

purposes. It is for this reason that they are normally

included into the classification.

48

Questions for revision:

1. Describe the

direction of the air

stream released

from the lings.

2. Into what

groups are the

speech organs

divided and what

is their role in

sound formation?

3. How do the

power, vibrator, resonator and obstructer mechanisms

work?

4. What is the role of the vocal cords in the production

of vowels and consonants?

5. Look at the diagram and label all active and passive

speech organs you can remember and identify.

6. What principles of the classification of English

vowels are relevant? Irrelevant? Find examples to

prove it.


consonants are relevant? Irrelevant? Find examples to

prove it.

49

8. What are articulatory differences between vowels,

consonants and sonorants?

9. For which sound(s) are the lips rounded?

10. For which sound(s) do we need to use teeth?

11. For which sound(s) is the mouth most open? Most

closed?

12. For which sound(s) can you feel your Adam’s

Apple vibrate?

13. Compare the places of articulation of the following

pairs of consonants: [p – b], [t – d], k – g], [t - ʧ], [d -

ʤ], [n - ŋ], [v - w], [j –h].

14. Compare the places of articulation of the English

[h] and the Russian [х].

15. Compare the classifications of vowels given by

different phoneticians. Whose point of view do you

support?

16. Compare the articulations of the following pairs of

vowels from the viewpoint of their quality and

quantity: [i: - ɪ], [ɒ - ɔ:], [ʌ - a:], [ʊ - u:].


vowels from the viewpoint of the vertical movements

of the tongue: [ɪ - e], [ɪ- ʊ], [e - ə], [ʌ - ɒ], [u: - ɔ:].


vowels from the viewpoint of the horizontal

50

movements of the tongue: [ɪ - ʊ], [ɜ: - ɔ:], [ɒ - ʌ], [æ -

ɒ], [ɛə - ɪə].

19. In what word will the vowel be the shortest? The

longest? Why?

me – mean – meat

duty – do – doom

log – lock – lolly








Владос, 2008.




2006.



2006.




51

III. THE ACOUSTIC AND AUDITORY

ASPECTS OF THE ENGLISH SPEECH SOUNDS

Key words: decibels, duration/length, frequency,

intensity, loudness, millisecond, periodical/non-

periodical, pitch, sound wave, timbre/voice quality.

The auditory aspect of any sound is inseparable

from its acoustic aspect and acoustic phonetics is

closely connected with auditory phonetics and both

may, therefore, be considered together.

Objectively sound is a physical phenomenon, a

kind of moving energy generated by some vibrating

body. Subjectively sound is our perception of the

vibrations of the air next to our ear-drum. People can

perceive not all vibrations of the air but only when

they occur at the rate of sixteen to twenty thousand

times per second.

Sounds may be periodical and non-periodical. If

the vibrations of a physical body (vocal cords in our

case) are rhythmical, the sound waves are periodical.

The auditory impression of such periodical waves is a

musical tone or a speech tone. If the wave is non-

periodical, it is perceived as noise.

Sound has a number of physical properties

which all exist and manifest themselves

52

simultaneously. They can be singled out from the

others only for purposes of analysis.

The first of these properties is frequency which

is a number of vibrations per second. Our perception

of the frequency is the pitch of the sound. The greater

the frequency, the higher the pitch and vice versa. The

frequency depends on certain physical properties of

the vibrator, such as its mass, length and tension. The

greater the mass of the vibrator, the slower its

vibrations and the lower the pitch. The longer the

vibrator, the slower the vibrations and the lower the

frequency and the pitch. Here the difference between

men and women and adults and children voices lies.

Men's and adults' voices are lower than women's and

children's are, because their vocal cords are thicker

and longer. Tension depends on the elasticity of the

vocal cords. The vocal cords of elderly people are not

as elastic as the vocal cords of younger people,

children especially, so their voices sound rather low.

As the tension increases - the frequency increases and

the pitch rises.

The second physical property of sound is

intensity, changes in which are perceived as variations

in the loudness of sound. The intensity of sound is

produced by the amplitude of vibrations (that is by the

53

distance to which the air particles are displaced from

their position of rest by the application of some

external force). Intensity is measured in decibels. The

intensity and frequency of sound are closely

interdependent. The same amount of energy will

produce either greater amplitude with a lower

frequency or a higher frequency with smaller

amplitude. Therefore if you increase the frequency

without increasing the amount of energy you will

shorten the amplitude and therefore reduce the

intensity, that is produce a less loud sound.

People are able to produce vowel sounds of

various qualities or timbres. This is achieved through

the action of the resonator mechanism. So the

production and differentiation of vowels is based on

the acoustic phenomenon that is called resonance.

Sounds coming from different resonators travel

different lengths (distances) or have different carrying

power. The distance is proportional to the volume of

the resonator and the size of its orifice.

Any sound has a certain duration or length. In

other words it can exist and move only in time. The

duration or length of a sound is the quantity of time

during which the same vibratory motion, the same

patterns of vibration are maintained. For this reason,

54

the duration of a sound is often referred to as is

quantity. The duration is measured in millisecond. We

perceive the variations in duration as tempo or speed

of utterance. In speech there are not definite

boundaries between different speech sounds. So it’s

very difficult to measure the length of separate sounds.

In addition it should be mentioned that along

with various articulatory classifications of speech

sounds, there exist acoustic descriptions and

classifications.

The chief drawback of articulatory

classifications is that they don’t describe and define all

shades of typologically identical speech sounds,

especially vowels. Besides, one and the same speech

sound can be pronounced by different people with

slightly different positions and movements of their

speech organs. Acoustic classifications seem to

overcome these difficulties as they are more detailed

and accurate. The first acoustic classification was

based on spectrographic analysis. It was worked out

by Roman Jakobson, C. G. M. Fant and M. Halle.

However, acoustic classification, though more

precise, are not practically applied in teaching. The

acoustic features of speech sounds can not be seen

directly or felt. But there are some other fields of the

55

application of acoustic phonetics: speech synthesis,

health service, security systems, etc.

Questions for revision:

1. What is the acoustic correlate of pitch?

Loudness? Speed of utterance?

2. What is the auditory impression of a

periodical sound wave? Non-periodical?

3. How can you explain the difference between

men’s, women’s and children’s voice

qualities (timbres)?









2006.



2006.




56

IV. THE FUNCTIONAL ASPECT OF SPEECH

SOUNDS

Key words: allophone, allophonic (narrow) /

phonemic (broad) transcription, commutation test,

complementary / contrastive/parallel distribution,

distinctive (relative) / non–distinctive (irrelevant,

redundant) features, free variations, formally

distributional method, invariant, minimal pairs,

morphonology, neutralization, phone, phoneme,

phonetic / phonological mistakes, a principal /

subsidiary (secondary) allophone, semantically

distributional method, set of oppositions, sound.

4.1 Phoneme and Allophones

Phoneticians not only describe and classify the

material form of phonetic units. They are also

interested in the way in which sound phenomena

function in a particular language and what part they

play in communication. The branch of phonetics that

studies the linguistic function of consonant and vowel

sounds, syllabic structures, word accent and prosodic

features is called phonology. Unlike phonetics itself,

whose domain is articulatory and acoustic features,

phonology investigates the social aspect of sounds,

syllables, phrases and so on.

57

Let’s first look at the linguistic function of

individual sounds. When we speak we produce a

continuous stream of sounds. In studying speech we

divide this stream into small segments, but how do we

decide how to divide it and how many different

sounds there are in English? As we see the term

“sound” can be interpreted in two rather different

ways. In the first place, we can say that [t] and [d] are

two different sounds in English. They contrast with

each other and differentiate the meaning of words.

Take, for example, [tu: - du:], [tɪk - dɪk], etc. But on

the other hand, if we listen carefully to the [t] in

“take” and compare it with the [t] in “at the”, we can

hear that the two sounds are also not the same, the [t]

of “take” is alveolar, while the [t] of “at the” is dental.

In both examples the sounds differ in one articulatory

feature only (t/d - voiceless/voiced; t/tð -

alveolar/dental). But in the second case the difference

between the sounds doesn’t change the meaning of the

words. It is perfectly clear, that the sense of the word

“sound” in these two cases is different. To avoid this

ambiguity, linguists use two separate terms:

“phoneme” is used to mean “sound” in its contrastive

sense, and “allophone” is used for sounds which are

variants of a phoneme: they usually occur in different

58

positions in the word, cannot contrast with each other,

so they are not used to differentiate the meaning.

The Phoneme Theory came into being in Russia. Its

originator was Prof. Baudouin de Courteney, the

founder of the Kazan Linguistic School. There are a

great number of views on the Phoneme Theory, but

we shall not go deep into detail and so we’ll speak

about the view, which is accepted in our University

and which seems to embrace all the aspects of the

phoneme and thus is the most suitable for the purpose

of teaching.

The linguists have not yet created the definition of

the phoneme acceptable to all. There are several

conceptions of the phoneme. One of them was

suggested by L. V. Scherba, who seemed to reflect all

the aspects and functions of the phoneme. He

described it as a functional, material and abstract unit.

Another phonetician, V. A. Vassilyev, developed this

concept and defined the phoneme like this: "The

segmental phoneme is the smallest (i.e. further

indivisible into smaller consecutive segments)

language unit (sound type) that exists in the speech of

all the members of a given language community as

such speech sounds which are capable of

distinguishing one word of the same language or one

59

grammatical form of a word from another grammatical

form of the same word" [V. A. Vassilyev, p. 136].

Let us consider the phoneme from the point of view

of its three aspects. Firstly, the phoneme is a

functional unit. It means that the opposition of

phonemes in the same phonetic environment

differentiates the meaning of words, grammatical

forms and even the whole phrases: [slɜʊ - blɜʊ], [tu:θ -

ti:θ] (slow - blow; tooth - teeth); [hi: wəz ˈhɜ:d ˎbædlɪ

- hi: wəz ˈhɜ:t ˎbædlɪ] (He was heard badly - He was

hurt badly). Phonemes are in parallel distribution; they

appear in the same phonetic context and form a

semantic contrast.

Secondly, the phoneme is material, real and

objective. That means that it is realised in speech in

the form of speech sounds, its allophones (or actually

pronounced speech sounds).

Allophones of the same phoneme must meet the

following requirements:

- though they possess similar features, they

frequently show considerable phonetic difference;

- they never occur in the same phonetic context, so

they can’t be opposed to each other and can’t

differentiate the meaning. In this case allophones are

said to be in complementary distribution.

60

Those allophones which do not undergo any

significant changes in the chain of speech (for

example, when they occur in an isolated position) are

called principal. At the same time there are

predictable changes, which sounds undergo in

different phonetic context (especially under the

influence of the neighbouring sounds, intonation, etc.).

Such allophones are called subsidiary or secondary.

The examples below illustrate the articulatory

modifications of the phoneme [t] in various phonetic

contexts:

[t] in "tea" is a bit palatalized; in "not there" it is

dental; in "not quite" it loses its plosion; in "little" it is

pronounced with the lateral plosion; in "not many" -

with the nasal plosion; in "try" it becomes post-

alveolar; in "stare" - non-aspirated. In spite of the

differences in the pronunciation of [t] in different

positions it can be easily noticed that all its allophones

possess some common features, all of them are

forelingual, fortis stops.

It goes without saying that in teaching English

pronunciation the difference between the allophones

of the same phoneme should be considered. The

starting point is, of course, the articulation of the

61

principal allophone, but special training of the

subsidiary allophones should be provided too.

But in fact, no speech sounds are absolutely alike.

Apart from predictable changes there are stylistic,

dialectal, individual, occasional modifications. In fact,

we pronounce phones. Most of social information (the

locality he/she lives in, age, sex, occupation,

emotional state, etc.) about the speaker comes not

from phonemic distinctions, but from phonetic ones.

Not let's consider the third aspect of the phoneme.

As we have already said it is an abstract linguistic

unit. Native speakers may not realise the difference

between allophones, though they are quite aware of

the phonemes of their language. It happens because

this difference doesn’t affect the meaning. Sounds

which have similar functions in the language (in other

words they cannot differentiate the meaning) tend to

be considered the "same" by the community using that

language, while those which have different functions

tend to be classed as "different". So native speakers

abstract themselves from the difference between the

allophones of the same phoneme because it has no

functional value. At the same time they understand

that they can’t change any of the articulatory features

which are common to all the allophones of the same

62

phoneme without destroying the meaning. This

functionally relevant bundle of articulatory features is

called the invariant of the phoneme. Neither of the

articulatory features that form the invariant of the

phoneme can be changed without affecting the

meaning.

For example, the invariant of [t] consists of the

following articulatory features: occlusive, forelingual

and fortis. How can we prove it? If we change the

occlusive articulation for constrictive, [t] will be

replaced by [s] (tea-sea; tick-sick); if we change the

forelingual articulation for backlingual [t] will be

replaced by [k] (bat-back; tick-kick); if the fortis

articulation is changed for lenis [t] will be replaced by

[d] (bet-bed; tear-bear). That is why it is possible to

state that occlusive, forelingual and fortis

characteristics of the phoneme [t] are generalized in

the mind of the speaker into the invariant of this

phoneme.

The articulatory features which form the invariant

of the phoneme are called distinctive or relevant. The

articulatory features which do not serve to distinguish

the meaning are called non-distinctive or irrelevant.

The distribution of distinctive and non-distinctive

features is language specific; it is different in different

63

languages. For example, aspiration is a non-distinctive

feature in the English language, but in Hindi or

Korean it is relevant as aspirated and non-aspirated

sounds may appear in the same phonetic context and

contrast the meaning of words.

As it has been mentioned above any change in the

invariant of the phoneme affects the meaning.

Naturally, anyone who studies a foreign language

makes mistakes in the articulation of some sounds.

L.V. Scherba classifies the pronunciation mistakes as

phonological and phonetic.

If any 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. For example: [det – ded], [bi:t - bɪt], [bed -

bæd] (debt-dead; beat-bit, bed-bad).

If an allophone of the phoneme is replaced by

another allophone of the same phoneme the mistake is

called phonetic. The meaning of the word does not

change. Nevertheless, language learners are advised

not to let phonetic mistakes into their pronunciation,

as they cause their foreign accent.

4.2. Phonetic notations

Anyone who wants to represent speech sounds in

writing has to use the system of phonetic notations,

64

which is generally termed as “transcription”. There are

two general types of transcription - broad and narrow.

The first one, broad or phonemic transcription,

provides special symbols for all the phonemes of a

language. There are various systems of phonetic

transcription in use for English, among which the best-

known one is that of the International Phonetic

Alphabet (IPA). The difference among present-day

sets of broad transcription of British English is mainly

due to the varying significance which is attached to

vowel quality and quantity. The transcription

introduced by D. Jones aims at reducing the number of

symbols to a minimum, so this type does not reflect

the difference in vowel quality, but states only the

difference in vowel quantity and gives the same

symbols for the following pairs of vowels: [i: - i], [u: -

u], [ɔ: - ɔ], [ə: - ə]. This type of notation ignores the

qualitative difference between these vowels, though

most phoneticians nowadays agree that the vowel

length is not a distinctive feature of the vowel. The

other type of broad transcription is most frequently

used in English publishing. It provides special

symbols for all the English vowel phonemes: [i: - ɪ],

[u: - ʊ], [ɔ: - ɒ], [ɜ: - ə]. Besides this type of notation

65

is a good visual aid and is especially useful in teaching

the pronunciation of English.

Narrow (or phonetic) transcription is mainly applied

in research work. It provides special symbols for all

the allophones of the same phoneme, so it is much

more accurate in phonetic detail and contains much

more information than a phonemic transcription. For

example: [ł] indicates the hard variant of [l]; [kh]

shows that [k] is aspirated; [dr] means post-alveolar

[d], etc.

4.3. Methods of Phonological Analysis

To study the sounds of a language we should know

what sounds a language uses and how they are

grouped into phonemes that are capable of

differentiating the meaning. The aim of the

phonological analysis is to determine which

differences of sounds are phonemic/non-phonemic

(that is distinctive or irrelevant for differentiating the

meaning) and secondly, to find the inventory of the

phonemes of this or that language.

One of the methods which is applied is the

semantically distributional method. It is accepted by

most foreign and Russian linguists. The method is

based on phonological oppositions. The phonological

rule says that phonemes can distinguish meanings

66

when they are opposed to one another in the same

phonetic context. So if we substitute a sound for

another sound in the same phonetic environment we

shall be able to find out whether such substitution

affects the meaning or not. This procedure is called

commutation test. In fact it consists in establishing the

so-called minimal pairs of words and their

grammatical forms.

A minimal pair is a pair of words or morphemes

which are differentiated by one sound only in the same

position. For example, if we substitute [t] for [s] in

[ti:] it will result in the change of meaning: [ti: - si:]

(tea – sea), so we conclude that [t] and [s] are

allophones of two different phonemes. If we continue

to substitute [t] for [b], [p], [k], [n], etc. we get

minimal pairs of words with different meanings. So,

all these sounds are allophones of different phonemes.

But when we substitute [t] for [th] the pronunciation of

the word will be wrong from the point of view of

English pronunciation norm, but the word will still

retain its meaning, so we may conclude that [t] and [th]

are allophones of one phoneme. When we come to a

meaningless word as in the example when we

substitute [g] for [k] in the sound sequences [gʌn] and

[kʌn], we can’t state the phonemic status of the

67

contrasted sounds, so we should look for some other

minimal pairs in which these two sounds are

contrasted.

The phonemes of a language form a certain system

of oppositions. To establish the phonemic system of a

language is to establish all possible oppositions. All

the sounds should be opposed in initial, medial and

final word positions. There are three kinds of

oppositions: single, double and multiple. The

opposition is single if the members of the opposition

differ in one feature. Let’s look at the pair [dɪg] -

[dɪk]. Both [g] and [k] are occlusive and backlingual,

but [g] is lenis and [k] is fortis. The opposition is

double if its members differ in two features, as in [dɪk]

- [dɪd]. Both [k] and [d] are occlusive, but [k] is

backlingual, fortis and [d] is forelingual, lenis. If three

or more distinctive features are marked in the

opposition it is called multiple. For example [dɪk] -

[dɪm]: [k] and [m] are both occlusive, but [k] is

backlingual, noise, oral, and [m] is bilabial, sonorant,

nasal.

The use of the commutation test has its problems.

Firstly certain sounds do not occur in certain

positions. For example, [h] in English never occurs

word finally, while [] never occurs word initially. So

68

we cannot oppose these sounds as they never occur in

the same phonetic context. In such cases the method

of distribution is modified by addition of the criterion

of phonetic similarity. We refer these sounds to

different phonemes as their articulatory features are

different. Besides we take into account native

speaker's knowledge as far as the meaning of the word

is concerned as the aim of linguistic analysis is to

explain and to consider native speaker's feelings about

his language as far as this is possible.

The second difficulty is that there are cases when

both sounds occur in a language but the speakers are

inconsistent in the way they use them, as for example

in the case of the Russian words "галоши/ калоши".

In such cases we take them as free variants of a single

phoneme.

Besides this method does not take into account the

modifications of sounds which they undergo in real

speech. For example, in such sequences as [ækt] and

[æpt] the realizations of the allophones of [k] and [p]

are alike: acoustically it is silence of the same

duration. It is the character of transition from [æ] to

[k] and [p] that differentiates the meaning, in other

words the differentiation of meaning is provided not

69

by the phonemes themselves, but indirectly by the

adjacent sound.

There are some other problems connected with the

phonemic analysis of the English sounds, for example,

the problem of defining the phonemic status of the

English affricates [ʧ - ʤ]. It is possible to treat each of

the pair as a single consonant phoneme, or we may say

that they are composed of two phonemes each – [t+ʃ]

and [d+ʒ]. There is also no agreement between

phoneticians concerning the phonemic status of the

neutral vowel [ə]. Some scientists have suggested that

it is an allophone of several other vowels in unstressed

positions. On the other hand, in numerous cases [ə] is

phonologically opposed to other phonemes and is

capable of differentiating the meaning, for example,

accept [əkˈsept] – except [ɪkˈsept], so it may be

viewed as an independent phoneme.

Nevertheless, despite these difficulties the semantic

method of phonological analysis is now widely used

and is considered to be the best in fulfilling the task of

systematizing the sounds of a language.

The application of this method has proved that the

English language has 24 consonant and 20 vowel

phonemes. As we have mentioned sounds are grouped

into classes according to the features which are

70

distinctive (or phonemic) for the particular language.

In English the following features are distinctive for

consonants:

- place of articulation (labial, lingual, glottal)

- type of obstruction and manner of the production

of noise (constrictive, occlusive, affricate)

- force of articulation (fortis, lenis)

The phonemic features of English vowels are:

- quality (which depends on the height and front-

back position of the tongue)

- stability of articulation.

QUESTIONS AND TASKS:



the problems:

<...> phonetics study <...> may be applied

impartially to the sounds of any and every language,

and may be used to describe and classify, in one all–

embracing scheme, the sound features of all known

languages, from Arabic to Zulu. But the phonetician is

by no means content to act only as taxonomist, a

describer and classifier of sounds. He is interested,

finally, in the way in which sounds function in a

particular language, how many or how few of all the

sounds of language are utilized in that language, and

what part they play in manifesting the meaningful

71

distinctions of the language. Because one knows what

a sound is – how it is produced, what its physical

characteristics are and what effect it has on the ear –

one does not therefore know what it does, and the

same sound may have quite different tasks to perform

in different languages. That is to say, the difference in

sound between d and th is used in English to

differentiate between one word and another: then /

den, lather / ladder, breathe / breed. In Spanish this is

not so; the difference between d and th can never be

used to differentiate one word from another because d

only occurs between vowels, as in todo (‘all’), and at

the end of the word, as in verdad (‘truth’), whereas the

sound th never occurs in these positions. So in Spanish

the two sounds can never be ‘opposed’ to each other

in the same place in a word, and therefore they can

never be ‘distinctive’.

O’Connor J.D. Phonetics. – Penguin, 1991. – PP. 17–

18.

1. What does Phonetics study?

2. What does the example from Spanish in this text

illustrate?

3. The examples in the text are given in spelling, not

in phonetic symbols. What symbols do you think

would be appropriate for these examples?

Two types of meaning are associated with the

terms ‘vowel’ and ‘consonant’. Traditionally,

72

consonants are those segments which in a particular

language, occur at the edges of syllables, while vowels

are those which occur at the centre of syllables. So, in

red, wed, dead, lead, said, the sounds represented by

<r, w, d, l, s> are consonants, while in beat, bit, bet,

but, bought, the sounds represented by < ea, i, e, u,

ough> are vowels. This reference to the functioning of

sounds in syllables in a particular language is a

phonological definition. But once any attempt is made

to define what sorts of sounds generally occur in these

different syllable–positions, then we are moving to a

phonetic definition. This type of definition might

define vowels as medial (air must escape over the

middle of the tongue, thus excluding sounds like [l]),

oral (air must escape through the mouth, thus

excluding nasals like [n]), frictionless (thus excluding

fricatives like [s]), and continuant (thus excluding

plosives like [p]); all sounds excluded from this

definition would be consonants. But difficulties arise

in English with this definition (and with others of this

sort) because English /j,w,r/, which are consonants

phonologically (functioning at the edges of syllables),

are vowels phonetically.

<...> The reverse type of difficulty is

encountered in words like sudden and little, where the

final consonants /n/ and /l/ form syllables on their own

and hence must be the centre of such syllables even

though they are phonetically consonants, and even

73

though /n/ and /l/ more frequently occur at the edges

of syllables, as in net and let <...>

<...> consonants can be voiced or voiceless,

and are most easily described wholly in articulatory

terms, since we can generally feel the consonants and

movements involved. Vowels, on the other hand, are

voiced, and, depending as they do on subtle

adjustments of the body of the tongue, are more easily

described in terms of auditory relationships.

Gimson A.C., revised by A. Cruttenden: Gimson’s

Pronunciation of English (5th ed.). – Edward Arnold,

1994. – PP. 27–28.

1. What is the difference between the phonological

definition of vowels and consonants and the phonetic

one?

<...> Furthermore, if we take, say, the stops [t]

and [tʰ] in the English data, it is clear that they are

phonetically similar: both are stops, both are voiceless,

both are alveolar. And yet, for most speakers of

English, the alveolar stops in, say, still and till sound

the same, despite the fact that the former is

unaspirated and the latter aspirated. For the English

speaker, these two phonetically distinct sounds ‘count

as the same thing’. We cannot say, without

contradiction, that they are simultaneously ‘the same

sound’ and ‘not the same sound’. What we will say is

that, while they are phonetically distinct, they are

74

phonologically equivalent. That is, the two types of

stop correspond to, are interpreted as belonging to, a

single mental category. We will refer to such a

category as a phoneme. The English speaker interprets

the six phonetic segments [p], [ph], [t], [th], [k] and

[kh] in terms of only three phonemes: /p/, /t/ and /k/.

<...> The relationship between phonemes and

their associated phonetic segments is one of

realization, so that the phoneme /p/, for instance, is

realized as [p] after a voiceless alveolar fricative, and

as [ph] elsewhere. The most important point is that, on

the data we have seen thus far, aspiration or the lack

of it is entirely predictable in English: there is a

generalization, expressible as a general rule, as to the

contexts in which voiceless stops will and will not be

aspirated <...> The generalization forms part of what

native speakers know in knowing their native

language, even if that knowledge is largely

unconscious knowledge. Realizations of a phoneme

which are entirely predictable from context are called

its allophones. We therefore say that [p] and [ph] are

allophones of the /p/ phoneme in most accents of

English. We are claiming that native speakers of

English possess phonemes (which are mental

categories) and phonological generalizations or rules

as part of their (largely unconscious) knowledge of

their native language, and that native speakers

perceive the allophones they hear in terms of those

categories and generalizations.

75

Carr, Philip. English Phonetics and Phonology: An

Introduction. – Blackwell Publishers, 1999. – PP. 37–

42.

1. What is the author’s definition of the phoneme? The

allophone?

It is possible to establish the phonemes of a

language by means of a process of commutation or the

discovery of minimal pairs, i.e. pairs of words which

are different in respect of only one sound segment.

The series of words pin, bin, tin, din, kin, chin, gin,

fin, thin, sin, shin, win supplies us with 12 words

which are distinguished simply by a change in the first

(consonantal) element of the sound sequence. These

elements, or phonemes, are said to be in contrast or

opposition; we may symbolize them as /p, b, t, d, k, ʧ,

ʤ, f, Ɵ, s, ʃ, w/. But other sound sequences will

show other consonantal oppositions, e.g.

(1) tame, dame, game, lame, maim, name, adding /g, l,

m, n/ to our inventory;

(2) pot, tot, cot, lot, yacht, hot, rot, adding /j, h, r/;

(3) pie, tie, buy, thigh, thy, vie, adding /ð, v/;

(4) two, do, who, woo, zoo, adding /z/.

Such comparative procedures reveal 22

consonantal phonemes capable of contrastive function

initially in a word.

76

It is not sufficient, however, to consider merely

one position in the word. Possibilities of phonemic

opposition have to be investigated in medial and final

positions as well as in the initial. If this is done in

English, we discover in medial positions another

consonantal phoneme, /ʒ/, cf. the word oppositions

letter, leather, leisure or seater, seeker, Caesar,

seizure. This phoneme /ʒ/ is rare in initial and final

positions (e.g. in rouge). Moreover, in final positions,

we do not find /h/ or /r/, and it is questionable whether

we should consider /w, j/ as separate, final contrastive

units. We do, however, find one more phoneme that is

common in medial and final positions but unknown

initially, viz. /ŋ/ cf. simmer, sinner, singer or some,

son, sung.

Such an analysis of the consonantal phonemes

of English will give us a total of 24 phonemes, of

which four (/h, r, ʒ, ŋ/) are of restricted occurrence–or

six, if /w, j/ are not admitted finally. Similar

procedures may be used to establish the vowel

phonemes of English.

The final inventories of vowel and consonant

phonemes will constitute a statement of the total

oppositions in all positions in the word or syllable

<...>

Cruttenden, Allan. Gimson’s Pronunciation of

English. – Arnold International Students’ Edition,

2001. – PP. 42–43.

77

1. What are the principles of establishing the

inventories of vowel and consonant phonemes?

No two realizations of the phoneme are the

same. This is true even if the same word is repeated;

thus, when the word cat is said twice, there are likely

to be slight phonetic variations in the two realizations

of the phoneme sequence /k+æ+t/. Nevertheless, the

phonetic similarities between the utterances will

probably be more striking than the differences. But

variants of the same phoneme will frequently show

consistent phonetic differences; such consistent

variants are referred to as allophones. <...> the [k]

sounds which occur initially in the words key and car

are phonetically clearly different: the first can be felt

to be a forward articulation, near the hard palate,

whereas the second is made further back on the soft

palate. This difference of articulation is brought about

by the nature of the following vowel, [i:], having a

more advanced articulation than [a:]; the allophonic

variation is in this case conditioned by the context. In

some varieties of English the two [l] sounds of lull

[1ʌɫ] show a variation of a different kind. The first

[1], the so–called 'clear' [1] with a front vowel

resonance, has a quality very different from that of the

final 'dark' [ɫ] with a back vowel resonance. Here the

difference of quality is related to the position of the

78

phoneme in the word or syllable and depends on

whether a vowel or a consonant or a pause follows. It

is possible, therefore, to predict in a given language

which allophones of a phoneme will occur in any

particular context or situation: they are said to be in

conditioned variation or complementary distribution.

Statements of complementary distribution can refer to

preceding or following sounds (e.g. fronted [k ] before

front vowels like /i:/ in key but retracted [k ] before

back vowels like /a:/ in car); to positions in syllables

(plosives are strongly aspirated when initial in

accented syllables); or to positions in any grammatical

unit, e.g. words (vowels may optionally be preceded

by a glottal stop when word–initial) or morphemes

(Cockney has a different allophone of /ɔː/ in

morpheme–medial and morpheme–final positions (cf.

board [bɔʊd] vs. bored [bɔwəd])). Cruttenden, Allan. Gimson’s Pronunciation of


2001. – PP. 44–46.

1. Explain what sounds can be considered as

allophones of the same phoneme. Give your examples.

<...> There are problems of different types. In

some cases, we have difficulty in deciding on the

overall phonemic system of the accent we are

79

studying, while in others we are concerned about how

a particular sound fits into this system.

<...> The affricates ʧ and ʤ are, phonetically,

composed of a plosive followed by a fricative <...> It

is possible to treat each of the pair ʧ, ʤ as a single

consonant phoneme; we will call this the one–

phoneme analysis of ʧ, ʤ. It is also possible to say

that they are composed of two phonemes each – t plus

ʃ and d plus ʒ respectively – all of which are already

established as independent phonemes of English; this

will be called the two–phoneme analysis of ʧ and ʤ.

<...>But how can we decide which analysis is

preferable? The two–phoneme analysis has one main

advantage: if there are no separate ʧ and ʤ

phonemes, then out total set of English consonants is

smaller. Many phonologists have claimed that one

should prefer the analysis which is the most

“economical” in the number of phonemes it results in

<...> However it is the one–phoneme analysis that is

generally chosen by phonologists. <...> There are

several arguments; no single one of them is

conclusive, but added together they are felt to make

the one–phoneme analysis seem preferable. We will

look briefly at some of these arguments.

i) One argument could be called “phonemic” or

“allophonic”: if it could be shown that the phonetic

quality of the t and ʃ (or d and ʒ) in ʧ, ʤ is clearly

80

different from realizations of t, ʃ, d, ʒ found

elsewhere in similar contexts, this would support the

analysis of ʧ, ʤ as separate phonemes. <...> This

argument is weak one: there is no clear evidence that

such phonetic differences exist <...>

ii) It could be argued that the proposed

phonemes ʧ and ʤ <...> have distributions similar to

other consonants, while other combinations of

plosives plus fricative do not <...>

<...> this argument, although supporting the

one–phoneme analysis, does not actually prove that ʧ,

ʤ must be classed with other single consonant

phonemes.

iii) If ʧ, ʤ were able to combine freely with other

consonants to form consonant clusters, this would

support the one–phoneme analysis. <...> It could not

<...> be said that ʧ and ʤ combine freely with other

consonants in forming consonant clusters; this is

particularly noticeable in initial position.

This rather long discussion of the phoneme

status of ʧ and ʤ shows how difficult it can be to

reach a conclusion in phonemic analysis.



124.

81

1. What point of view concerning the phonemic status

of the English affricates do you support?

2. Find examples to support the arguments in favour

of the one–phoneme analysis.

Statements concerning phonemic categories and

allophonic variants can be made in respect of only one

variety of one language. It does not follow that,

because [1] and [ɫ] are not contrastive in English and

belong to the same phoneme, this is so in other

languages–in some kinds of Polish [1] and [ɫ]

constitute separate phonemes. Or again, although /ŋ/ is

a phoneme in English, in Italian the velar nasal [ŋ] is

an allophone of /n/ which occurs between /k/ and /g/.

Indeed, in English, too, /ŋ/ has not always had

phonemic status. Nowadays, [ŋ] might be considered

an allophone of /n/ before /k/ and /g/, as in sink and

finger, were it not for the fact that /g/ in words such as

sing was lost about 400 years ago; once this situation

had arisen, a phonemic opposition existed between sin

and sing. In some parts of north–west England, the

situation is still the same as it was 400 years ago, e.g.

not only is sink pronounced [sɪŋk] but sing is

pronounced [sɪŋg], and in such dialects [ŋ] can be considered an allophone of /n/.

82

Thus the number of phonemes may differ as

between various types of the same language. In

present–day southern British English, the words cat,

half, cart contain the phonemes /æ/, /a:/, and /a:/

respectively. But one type of Scottish English has only

one vowel phoneme for all three words, the words

being phonemically /kat, haf, kart/ (the pre–

consonantal /r/ being pronounced). Such a dialect of

English has one phoneme less than southern British

English, since the opposition Sam/psalm is lost. On

the other hand, this smaller number of phonemes is

sometimes counterballanced by the regular opposition

of the first elements of a pair such as witch/which,

which establishes a phonemic contrast between /w/

and /ʍ/.



2001. – PP. 44–46.

1. How does the author explain the coexistence of

different phonemic systems?

2. Prove that distribution of phonemes and allophones

and their distinctive features are different in different

languages.

A connected text represented in terms of

phonemes is known as a ‘phonemic transcription’, or,

almost equivalently, ‘a broad transcription’. The term

‘broad’ sometimes carries the extra implication that,

83

as far as possible, unmodified letters of the Roman

alphabet have been used. This restriction may

facilitate printing, and might be considered

particularly if a phonemic transcription is to form the

basis of a writing system. Under this definition a

transcription of English hideout as /haidaut/ would be

broad, while /haɪdaʊt/ would not be because it

introduces letters shapes to the symbol for the

phoneme /aɪ/ and the phoneme /aʊ/ which are not

absolutely necessary for the unambiguous

representation of the phonemes of English, but which

may be desirable to remind the reader of the phonetic

realization of these phonemes. Frequently, though,

‘broad’ is used merely as a way of referring to

transcriptions which are phonemic, regardless of the

letter shapes used to represent the phonemes.

Phonemic transcriptions are one type of ‘systematic’

transcription, meaning they require the phonological

patterns or ‘system’ of a language to be known before

they can be made.

The term narrow transcription most commonly

implies a transcription which contains details of the

realization of phonemes. There are two ways in which

such a transcription may come about. If a transcription

is made in circumstances where nothing can be

assumed about the phonological system, it is

necessary to include all phonetic details because it is

not clear which phonetic properties will turn out to be

important. The transcription would be made taking

84

into account only the phonetic properties of speech.

This type of narrow transcription, as might be made in

the first stages of field work, or when transcribing

disordered speech, is sometimes called an

impressionistic transcription or a general phonetic

transcription. <...>

The other kind of narrow transcription

containing realizational information is termed

allophonic. If the relevant phonological system is

known, a transcription can be devised which includes

any number of additional symbols to indicate the

phonetic realizations of the phonemes, i.e. their

allophones. An allophonic transcription is also known

as a systematic narrow transcription.

The Handbook of the International Phonetic

Association. – Cambridge University Press 1999. –

PP. 28-29.

1. Many dictionaries give information about

pronunciation by giving the words in transcription.

Which sort of transcription is used?

2. Speech therapists sometimes find that they are

dealing with someone who produces particular

phonemes in an unusual way. What sort of

transcription should they use to represent what they

hear?

3. Field–workers discover a language that has not been

met before, and want to write down what they hear.

What type of transcription is suitable?

85

The transcription of an utterance (analysed in

terms of a linear sequence of sounds) will naturally

differ according to whether the aim is to indicate

detailed sound values – an allophonic (or narrow)

transcription – or the sequence of significant

functional elements – a phonemic (or broad)

transcription.

In the former, allophonic type of transcription, an

attempt is made to include a considerable amount of

information concerning our knowledge of articulatory

activity or our auditory perception of allophonic

features. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

provides numerous diacritics for a purpose such as

this; e.g. the word titles might be transcribed as

['tshä·ëtɫ ɫẓ]. Such a notation would show the

affrication and aspiration of the initial [t], the fact that

the first element of the diphthong is centralized from

Cardinal 4 and is long compared with the second

element, which is a centralized Cardinal 2, that the [ɫ]

has a back vowel resonance and is partly devoiced in

its first stage, and that the final [ẓ] is completely

devoiced. Such a notation is relatively explicit and

detailed, but gives no more than an impression of the

complexity of the utterance as revealed by the various

methods of physiological and acoustic investigation.

This type of transcription is useful when the focus is

on particular details of pronunciation.

86



2001. – PP. 48–49.

1. What does the allophonic transcription reflect?


1. Give the definition of the phoneme.

2. What sounds are called allophones?

3. Prove that the phoneme is a unity of three

aspects: material, abstract and functional.

4. What is the correlation between the phoneme

and the allophone?

5. What sounds can be regarded as allophones of

the same phoneme?

6. What types of allophones are distinguished? Is

it important to distinguish between these types

in terms of teaching pronunciation?

7. Why is it impossible to pronounce the

phoneme? What do we actually pronounce?

8. What kind of information about the speaker is

conveyed by the phonetic distinctions of speech

sounds?

9. What is the relationship between the phoneme

and the phone?

10. Why are native speakers unaware of the

differences between the allophones of the same

phoneme?

87

11. What features are called distinctive or relevant?

What relevant features can you name for

consonants and for vowels?

12. What features are called non–distinctive or

irrelevant? Give examples of irrelevant features

in English.

13. How is the invariant of the phoneme formed?

What happens if there is a change in the

invariant?

14. State the difference between phonological and

phonetic mistakes. Who introduced this

classification of mistakes?

15. What is transcription?

16. What types of transcription are distinguished?

What spheres are they applied in?

17. What types of broad transcription do you know?

Which type do you prefer for teaching and

learning purposes?

18. What is the aim of the phonological analysis?

19. How is the semantically distributional method

applied?

20. How does the commutation test work? Give

your own examples of the procedure of the

commutation test.

21. What types of oppositions can be distinguished?

Illustrate them with your own examples.

88

III. Do the following tasks:

1. Prove that palatalisation is a non-distinctive

feature in English and distinctive in Russian.

2. Prove that lip rounding is a non-distinctive

feature in both English and Russian.

3. State the differences between the allophones in

the following pairs of work

4. Give your own examples of different

allophones of the phonemes [p, d, k].

5. Are the following mistakes phonetic or

phonological? What should be done to correct

the mistakes?

beat – [bi:t]

meat – [mɪt]

star – [stʰa:]

work – [wɔ:k]

days – [deɪs]

bad – [bed]

bar – [baʳ]

car – [ka:]

little – [ˈłɪtl]

tease – [tˈi:z]

6. Sort out the oppositions according to the

following features: bilabial/labio-dental, fore-

lingual/backlingual, alveolar/inter-dental

pat – pit in the desk – in a desk

scare – care stop Mary – stop Peter

trick – tick glow – go

cradle – trade garden - guide

89

ni:z – ði:z

sɔ:t - kɔ:t

bu:ð- bu:t

Ɵɪk - dɪk

fɔ:m -

wɔ:m

traɪ - kraɪ

mɔ: - fɔ:

gru: - tru:

wi:k – vi:l


following features: constrictive/occlusive,

noise/sonorant, occlusive/affricate

fi:t – bi:t tɔ:ʧ - tɔ:k sɪk - sɪŋ

rɪd - sɪd slɜʊ - blɜʊ tɔ:t – Ɵɔ:t

ʤʌʤ - bʌʤ ʧɛə - pɛə bɜʊt - nɜʊt


following features: front/central, mid/open,

diphthong/monophthong

mæn – men

pɔ:k - pɜʊk

li:k - lʌk

bed - bɜ:d

stɛə - stɜ:

sɔ:t – set

mæd - mʌd

bɜʊt - baʊ

nɒt - naɪt

9. Are the following oppositions singular,

double, multiple?

lʌk - lʌb

pen - peɪn

pu:l - pʊl

fɜʊn - kɜʊn

sta: - stɔ:

dɔ:n - tɔ:n

fi:l – mi:l

stɪk - stɪl

wet – met

ðeɪ- seɪ

bɪl - tɪl

ðæt - kæt

waɪf - laɪf

ri:d – ni:d

wɪŋ - wɪn

90

IV. Make a report on one of the topics:

1. The Phoneme Theory in our country and abroad.

2. Methods of phonological analysis: advantages

and drawback.

3. Problems of Morphonology.

4. The Problem of neutralisation.

5. International Phonetic Alphabet: history and

development.








Владос, 2008.




2006.



2006.

91

5. Cruttenden, A. Gimson’s Pronunciation of

English. – Arnold International Students’

Edition, 2001.

6. Crystal D. How Language Works. London:

Penguin Books, 2007




92

V. MODIFICATIONS OF SOUNDS IN

CONNECTED SPEECH

Key words: accommodation, assimilation, elision,

qualitative/quantitative reduction, stylistic

modifications.

5.1. Types of Sound Modifications

When a phoneme is articulated separately it

displays all its characteristic features. But phonemes

are seldom articulated in isolation. In speaking they

are generally used in sentences consisting of a number

of words, and, consequently, are pronounced in

sequences of sounds, interrupted by pauses. When

phonemes are pronounced in sequences, we observe

the phenomenon of adaptation - speech organs adjust

themselves to make a more convenient transition from

one articulation to another. They display a certain

“economy” of effort. Of course, this “economy” may

vary in different languages, depending on the

articulation basis and phonetic laws in every language.

Sound modifications are observed not only across

word boundaries, but also across morpheme and

syllable boundaries, as well as within morphemes.

Such changes in the articulation of sounds in speech

are mostly quite regular and predictable and can be

93

grouped in the following way: assimilation,

accommodation, vowel reduction and elision.

The modification of a consonant by a neighbouring

consonant in the speech chain is known as

assimilation. The term accommodation is used to

denote the modification of consonants under the

influence of the neighbouring vowels and vice versa.

One of the most wide-spread sound changes is vowel

reduction, that is weakening (either qualitative or

quantitative) of vowels in unstressed positions. Elision

or complete loss of sounds, both vowels and

consonants, is also often observed in English.

In the adaptation of articulations to each other one

of the two principles is generally involved:

1) speech organs are prepared beforehand for the

articulation of a sound that follows and the phoneme

that comes first is affected by the one that comes after

it, then this assimilation is called regressive (for

example in right now [t] is affected by the following

nasal [n] and is pronounced with the nasal plosion);

2) the activity of speech organs continues after the

sound for which they are prepared has been articulated

and the phoneme that comes first affects the one that

follows it, in this case the assimilation is progressive

(for example, the verb and noun suffix -s and is

94

voiceless when it is preceded by a voiceless phoneme,

and it is voiced when it is preceded by a voiced

phoneme – [si:ts – si:dz]; [sets – selz]).

Assimilation can also be historical and “living” or

functioning. Classical examples of historical

assimilation can be found in the words borrowed from

Norman-French: permission, measure, etc. Here we

see the adaptation of the articulation of [s] and [z] to

the articulation of the [j]-phoneme: [pəˈmɪʃ(ə)n],

[ˈmeʒə].

It is important to distinguish between “obligatory”

(or fixed) and “non-obligatory” assimilation.

Obligatory assimilation occurs in the speech of all

people who speak a certain language, no matter what

style of speech is used. It has become fixed as part of

the phonological structure and is included in the

articulation basis, so it has to be mastered in learning

the pronunciation of a certain language. Non-

obligatory assimilation appears in rapid, casual speech

and its degree may vary, depending on speaking rate,

style and individual peculiarities of speech.

Depending on the degree to which articulations are

adapted complete and partial assimilation is

distinguished. When one or more features of the

phoneme are affected, we have partial assimilation as

95

in tree, for example, [t] becomes post-alveolar under

the influence of the following [r], but it retains its

distinctive features and is still occlusive, forelingual

and fortis. When all the features of the phoneme are

adapted, we have a case of complete assimilation, for

example, in rapid casual speech [t] will become [p]

before a bilabial consonant, as in that person:

[ðæpˈpɜ:sn].

Such cases of assimilation create something of a

problem for the phoneme theory, as it’s not clear

whether one phoneme has been substituted for another

phoneme or one of its allophones. Traditionally, if a

phoneme loses one of its distinctive features it is said

to be a different phoneme, phonemes are supposed not

to overlap in their allophones. Nowadays some

phoneticians don’t consider this restriction important

any more and regard these sounds as allophones of

one phoneme.

5.2. English consonants in connected speech

Cases of consonant modifications in a speech chain

are described more often than those of vowel

modifications. Phoneticians usually identify

assimilation of place, manner and voicing in

consonants.

96

Now let us see what qualitative features of

consonant sounds may be changed in the process of

their interrelation.

The most common sounds which undergo

assimilation of place are plosives and nasals:

the alveolar [t – d - n] followed by the

interdental [θ - ð] become dental as in at the, in

the, seventh, said that;

the alveolar [t - d] become post-alveolar under

the influence of the post-alveolar [r] as in tree,

dry, get rid of;

the alveolar [t - d] become affricates if followed

by the palatal [j] (as in fortune [ˈfɔ:ʧu(:)n], did

you [ˈdɪʤu(:)];

the alveolar [t - d] are bilabial before a bilabial

consonant (in rapid casual speech) as in meat

pie [ˈmi:p-paɪ];

the bilabial [m] is actually labio-dental followed

by the labio-dental [f-v] as in some fruit;

the alveolar [n] assimilates to the velar

consonants, becoming velar [η] as in donkey

[ˈdɒηkɪ];

the alveolar [n] is palato-alveolar followed by

[ʧ-ʤ] (bunch, change);

97

the alveolar [s-z] are post-alveolar before [] as

in does she [ˈdʌʃʃi], horse-shoe [ˈhɔ:ʃʃu:].

The manner of articulation also changes as a result

of assimilation. We observe:

loss of plosion as in glad to see you, great

trouble

lateral plosion as in settle, at last

nasal plosion as in not now, at night

Assimilation of voice is also found in English but in

a very limited way compared to the Russian language.

Only regressive assimilation of voice is found across

word boundaries and then only of one type: if the

following consonant is voiceless fortis it influences

the preceding voiced lenis consonant and makes it

devoiced (as in of course [əfˈkɔ:s], but the voiceless

fortis consonant will never become voiced and lenis

(as in I like this [aɪ ˈlaɪk ðɪs]). It should be noted that it

is typical of many foreign students of English to allow

regressive assimilation of voicing, thus creating a very

strong impression of a foreign accent, and this is

something that should obviously be avoided.

The pronunciation of the suffixes “-ed” of regular

verbs, “-s” of plural nouns and possessives is based on

progressive assimilation. It is pronounced as [t] after

voiceless consonants (except t) and [d] after vowels

98

and voiced consonants (except d), for example,

described [dɪsˈkraɪbd] – passed [pa:st], cats [kæts] -

dogs [dɒgz], Pit’s [pɪts] - David’s [ˈdeɪvɪdz].

Lip position may be affected by the

accommodation: consonants become labialized under

the influence of the neighbouring back vowels, as in

boot, moon, etc.

The position of the soft palate is also involved in the

process of accommodation. Slight nasalization is

sometimes heard in vowels under the influence of the

neighbouring nasal sonorants [m][n] as in meaning,

end, some interesting men.

Elision or complete loss of sounds is characteristic

of rapid, casual speech. Here are some typical

examples of consonant elision:

in clusters of three plosives or two plosives plus

a fricative, the middle plosive may disappear as

in next day [neksˈdeɪ], acts [æks];

[l] tends to be lost when preceded by [ɔ:] as in

all right [ɔ:ˈraɪt], always [ˈɔ:wɪz];

final –f is often lost in of before consonants as

in waste of time [ˈweɪst əˈtaɪm];

the initial h- may be lost in the pronouns and

auxiliary verbs in casual speech as in What has

he said? [ˈwɒt əz i ˈsed];

99

examples of historical elision are quite

numerous in English: know [nɜʊ], castle [ka:sl],

listen [ˈlɪsn].

It is important for foreign students of English to be

aware of the fact that when native speakers of English

talk to each other, quite a number of phonemes that

the foreigner might expect to hear are not actually

pronounced or their pronunciation is changed.

Selective, analytic listening will help to recognize

what is being said and will bring more confidence to

students.

5.3. English vowels in connected speech

The articulation of English vowels is adapted to that

of consonants only to a very slight extent. To a

Russian, they do not seem to change at all in

connected speech compared with Russian vowels,

which are strongly modified by consonants.

In English we can speak about the quantitative and

qualitative modification of vowels. The quantitative

modification is the shortening of the vowel length

when it occurs in an unstressed position (as in

ˈwindow, ˈphoneme, etc) or before a voiceless

consonant (as in heat, past, etc.).

Qualitative modification of most vowels occurs in

unstressed positions. In these cases the quality of the

100

vowel is reduced to the neutral sound as in statesman

[ˈsteɪtsmən], economic [ˌi:kəˈnɒmɪk].

In rapid colloquial speech elision or complete

omission of the unstressed vowel can take place as in

perhaps [pʰˈhæps], today [tʰˈdeɪ], correct [kˈrekt].

5.4. Stylistic modifications of sounds

We have viewed the sound modifications mostly

within the norm of English sound system, but without

any special attention to their stylistic distinctions.

However the number and degree of sound

modifications depend not only on linguistic factors

(such as the neighbouring sounds and distribution of

sounds in connected speech) but on extra linguistic

ones as well.

Stylistic oppositions are usually observed in the two

large marginal types of pronunciation - formal and

informal. Formal speech suggests unemotional

information on the part of the speaker. It is

characterised by careful articulation and relatively

slow speed. Informal speech implies everyday

conversation; it is relaxed and rather rapid and is

characterized by the use of simplified sound forms.

The character of sound modifications in relation to

situational factors of speech communication is only

101

beginning to be the object of thorough instrumental

analysis.

One of the most important factors that results in the

increased number of sound modifications is the

character of relationship between the speaker and the

listener and the degree of formality in their discourse.

The other extra linguistic factors that determine the

degree of sound modifications are the degree of

preparedness, the form of communication (a

monologue or a dialogue), the number of participants,

etc. Native speakers usually don’t have any difficulties

in understanding rapid casual speech though sounds

simplifications are not registered in the listener’s mind

and he/she is not usually aware of the changes since

they do not affect the meaning.

Here are some examples of sound simplifications

typical of relaxed casual speech:

most vowels in unstressed positions are

neutralized, especially in grammatical words:

because [bɪkəz], according to [əˈkədɪη], have

[əv];

the diphthongoids [i:] and [u:] become

diphthongs and then monophthongs: believe

[bəˈlɪv], few [fiʊ];

102

diphthongs are monophthongized and then

might undergo qualitative reduction as well:

where [wɛ], really [ˈrɛlɪ], now they [ˈna ðe] –

[ˈnʌ ðə];

vowel elision is very frequent: it’s [ts],

different [ˈdɪfr(ə)nt], phonetics [ˈfnetɪks];

the degree of voicing or devoicing of

consonants increases and ends with the

elision of the sound: must be [mʌst bi - mʌst

bpi -

mʌst pi - mʌs pi];

the glottal stop is often observed before the

modified plosive consonant: Great Britain

[ˈgreɪʔ ˈpbrɪtn], couldn’t come [ˈkʊdηʔ

ˈkʌm];

the palatal [j] affects the manner of

articulation of the preceding [t-d] and [s-z]:

as you like [əʒ u ˈlaɪk], last year [ˈla:sʧˈjɪə],

student [ˈsʧu:dnt];

there is a strong tendency for elision of

consonants: and the [ən ðə], a box of matches

[əˈbɒks əˈmæʧəz].

It is clear that there is a great variety in the way

sounds are pronounced in a speech chain. Most

phoneticians agree that it would not be practical or

useful to teach all learners of English to produce these

103

extreme cases of sound modifications, but it is

important that learners of English are made aware of

the problems that they will meet in listening to

colloquial casual speech.

QUESTIONS AND TASKS

I. Do the following tasks:

1. Classify these words and word combinations

according to the type of assimilation

(complete/partial, progressive/regressive):

symphony, just think, will you come, next time,

often, tell the teacher, glad to see, right shoe,

Ryan’s coat, treat, clean the board, cycle, stubborn,

eagle, hot pie, plum pudding, opened, that’s the

thing, open the book.

2. State the type of sound modifications in the

following words and word combinations:

drive, pool, blackboard, could you, thanks, mean,

set three, give me, tune, ˈrecord, obˈject, locks,

pools, is she, lounge, inch, dark garden, little,

Ann’s, named, hotel, written, Kate’s, don’t go,

sportsman, ˈobject, London, literature, schedule,

museum.

104

3. Give your own examples of assimilation,

accommodation, vowel reduction, vowel and

consonant elision.

4. Find all the cases of sound modifications in the

sentences which can be observed a) in formal

careful speech; b) in rapid casual speech:

- Would you like to join me?

- Why don’t you put your bag down?

- I saw him writing something at the table in his

father’s study.

- Don’t go there at night, it might be dangerous.

- Of course, she does her morning exercises every

day!


1. What kind of modification do sounds undergo in

connected speech?

2. What are the reasons for these modifications of

sounds in connected speech?

3. Dwell upon qualitative consonantal changes in

English. Give your own examples.

4. What phonetic process affects vowels in

connected speech?

5. Dwell upon quantitative and qualitative changes

of vowels both in English and in Russian. Give

your own examples.

6. How does the situation of speaking affect the

sound articulations?

105

7. Is it necessary to teach all the sound

modifications to foreign learners?








Владос, 2008.




2006.



2006.



Edition, 2001.




106

VI. THE SYLLABIC STRUCTURE OF

ENGLISH WORDS

Key words: ambisyllabic/monosyllabic/polysyllabic,

closed/covered/open/ uncovered syllable, coda,

constitutive/distinctive function, intervocalic

consonant, loudness theory, onset, phonotactics,

sonority theory, syllabic vowel, syllable, theory of

muscular tension.

Phonemes usually occur in sequences. Sound

sequences are pronounced in such a way, that not all

the sounds are uttered with the same degree of force,

the energy with which we articulate alternately

increases and diminishes. Certain sounds are

pronounced louder than the other ones. When we

listen to the word even we’ll hear a distinct rise of

prominence and loudness in pronouncing the [i:]

sound. Several theories have been created to explain

the mechanism of syllabic formation. Some explained

the phenomenon of syllable formation by muscular

tension impulses (L.V. Shcherba), some proclaimed a

“loudness theory” (N.I. Zhinkin), others describe it as

“sonority theory” (O.Jesperson).

This phenomenon can be analyzed on phonetic (the

way we produce them) and phonological (the way

phonemes are combined) levels. Phonetically a

syllable is a sound sequence, consisting of a centre

107

which has little or no obstruction to airflow and which

sounds comparatively loud; before and after this

centre there will be greater obstruction to airflow and

less loud sound. In pronouncing a syllable the energy

of articulation increases until it reaches its climax - the

most energetically articulated sound - the syllabic

phoneme (or the nucleus), one or more phonemes that

follow it (the coda) are pronounced with less energy,

the weakest articulation marks the boundary between

two syllables. Some syllables have an onset – sounds

that precede the nucleus, as in bar, key, law. There is

no syllable without the nucleus, the presence of the

onset and coda is optional. Usually the nucleus is a

vowel, though in some languages this function can be

performed by a consonant. In English, for example,

the sonorants [l-m-n] can become syllabic if they

occur in an unstressed final position preceded by a

noise consonant, as in ˈgarden, ˈsettle, ˈtable.

A syllable may consist of one phoneme or a number

of phonemes. Four types of syllables are distinguished

in English according to the number and the

arrangement of sounds:

1) open – no, he, be (CV)

2) closed – odd, it, is (VC)

3) covered – coat, mark, sat CV(C)

108

4) uncovered – are, or, err V(C)1

is called phonotactics. There are some universal and

language-specific rules of phonotactics. In English the

syllable can begin with a vowel, one, two or three

consonants. No syllable begins with more than three

consonants. The syllable may end with a vowel, or

with one, two, three or four consonants. No word ends

with more than four consonants. The consonant [ŋ]

never begins and [w] never terminates the syllable. If

there is a long vowel or a diphthong, or more than one

consonant in the rhyme (nucleus + coda), the syllable

is called heavy or long, for example, ˈbeauty, aˈttempt,

aˈnnoy. Heavy syllables attract stress in English. The

syllables with a short vowel without a consonant are

called light or short, and they are normally unstressed.

The basic difference between Russian and English

syllables is that the closed syllable is the fundamental

one for the English language, while in Russian the

most common type of syllable is the open one. This

fact is proved by experimental data. In the Russian

language there is a close contact between the onset

consonant and the nucleus, in English the contact is

closer between the nucleus and the following coda

consonants. This difference is the source of mistakes

1 C – consonant; V - vowel

109

of Russian learners in pronouncing English words, as

in English short vowels should be checked (compare

funny, city [ˈfʌn-ɪ, ˈsɪt-ɪ] \ Си-ти, Фа-ня). Besides

such clusters of consonants at the end of a word as in

“text, seventh” are unfamiliar to Russians as well.

Here care should be taken not to insert a vowel

between these consonants in learning English

pronunciation.

There are still problems with the phonetic

description of the syllable, and one of the most urgent

is syllable division or rather its place. Let’s look at the

word extra. There are 5 possible ways of dividing it

into syllables:

[e-kstrə]

[ek-strə]

[eks-trə]

[ekst-rə]

[ekstr-ə]

In such cases the maximum onsets principle is

applied. This principle states that where two syllables

are to be divided, any consonants between them

should be attached to the right-hand syllable as far as

possible. In our case according to the rules of

phonotactics in English (the syllables can’t begin with

four consonants) it is [ek-strə].

110

In dividing an English word into syllables one

should also remember that syllables with a short

vowel and no coda do not occur in English (unless the

vowel is [ə]). So the syllable division in such words

as sorry, pressure, letter will be [ˈsɒr-ɪ], [ˈpreʃ-ə],

[ˈlet-ə].

Now let’s consider the functions of the syllable.

The most important are two functions – constitutive

and distinctive.

1. Constitutive function. The syllable is either a part

of a word or a word itself. It forms language larger

units - morphemes, words and utterances. It is also a

minimal prosodic unit in which prosodic features of

pitch, length and loudness are realised. It is a specific

minimal structure of both segmental and

suprasegmental phonetics: on the one hand within a

syllable the distinctive features of the phonemes and

their acoustic correlates are revealed. On the other

hand within a syllable prosodic characteristics of

speech are realised, which form the stress-pattern of a

word and the rhythmic and intonation structures of an

utterance.

2. The other function of the syllable is its distinctive

function. The syllable has the ability of differentiating

words and word-forms. Depending on the syllabic

111

boundary we can distinguish between the minimal

pairs: an aim - a name; I scream – ice-cream, might

rain – my train. As it has been mentioned already, the

realization of the phoneme in different positions in a

syllable results in different allophones, which makes it

possible to differentiate the meaning of words, word

combinations and utterances.

Russian learners of English should be well aware of

these regularities and peculiarities of English

syllables, as the wrong syllable division can lead to

inadequate perception of phrases and

misunderstanding.

QUESTIONS AND TASKS



the problems:

In any utterance some sounds stand as more

prominent or sonorous than others, i.e. they are felt by

listeners to stand out from their neighbours. Another

way of judging the sonority of a sound is to imagine

its 'carrying power'. A vowel like [a] clearly has more

carrying power than a consonant like [z] which in turn

has more carrying power than a [b]. Indeed the last

sound, a plosive, has virtually no sonority at all unless

followed by a vowel. A sonority scale or hierarchy can

be set up which represents the relative sonority of

112

various classes of sound; although there is some

argument over some of the details of such a hierarchy,

the main elements are not disputed. One version of the

hierarchy is as follows (the most sonorous classes are

at the top of the scale):

open vowels

close vowels

laterals

nasals

approximants

trills

fricatives

affricates

plosives and flaps

<...> The number of syllables in an utterance

equates with the number of peaks of sonority <...>

This accords with native speakers' intuition. However,

there are some cases where contours plotted with the

sonority hierarchy do not produce results which

accord with our intuition. Many such cases in English

involve /s/ in clusters <...>



2001. – PP. 49-50.

1. According to the article, which of the following

sounds will be the most sonorous? The least?

[b], [a:], [g], [n], [h], [r], [ɪ], [ŋ], [æ], [ð], [ɒ], [ɜ:], [ʊ],

[w]

113

Phonetically (that is in relation to the way we

produce them and the way they sound), syllables are

usually described as consisting of a centre which has

little or no obstruction to airflow and which sounds

comparatively loud; before and after this centre (that

is, at the beginning and end of the syllable), there will

be greater obstruction to airflow and/or less loud

sound. We will now look at some examples:

i) What we might call a minimum syllable

would be a single vowel in isolation, e.g. the words

“are” a:, “or” ɔ:, “err” ɜ:. These are preceded and

followed by silence. Isolated sounds sush as m, which

we sometimes produce to indicate agreement, or ʃ, to

ask for silence, must also be regarded as syllables.

ii) Some syllables have an onset (that is have

more than just silence preceding the centre of the

syllable):

“bar” ba:, “key” ki:, “more” mɔ:

iii) Syllables may have no onset but have a

coda:

“am” æm, “ought” ɔ:t, “ease” i:z

iv) Some syllables have onset and coda:

“run” rʌn, “sat” sæt, “fill” fɪl

This is one way of looking at syllables. Looking

at them from the phonological point of view is quite

different. What this involves is looking at the possible

combinations of English phonemes; the study of the

114

possible phoneme combinations of a language is

called phonotactics. It is simplest to start by looking at

what is called initial position – in other words, what

can occur at the beginning of the first word when we

begin to speak after a pause. We find that the word

can begin with a vowel, or with one, two or three

consonants. No word begins with more than three

consonant. In the same way, we can look at how a

word ends when it is the last word spoken before a

pause; it can end with a vowel, or with one, two, three

or (in a small number if cases) four consonants. No

word ends with more than four consonants.

<...> There are still problems with this phonetic

description of the syllable: an unanswered question is

how we decide on the division between syllables when

we find a connected sequence of them as we usually

do in normal speech <...>

One of the most widely accepted guidelines is

what known as the maximum onsets principle. This

principle states that where two syllables are to be

divided, any consonants between them should be

attached to the right–hand syllable, not the left, as far

as possible <...> within the restrictions governing

syllable onsets and codas. <...> However there are

many problems still remaining. For example, in

looking at isolated syllables, we never find one ending

with one of the vowels ɪ, e, æ, ʌ, ɒ, or ʊ, so we must

conclude that syllables with a short vowel and no coda

do not occur in English (unless the vowel is ə <...>).

115

<...> One further possibility should be

mentioned: when one consonant stands between

vowels and it is difficult to assign the consonant to

one syllable or the other – as in “better” and “carry” –

we could say that the consonant belongs to both

syllables. The term used by phonologists for a

consonant in this situation is ambisyllabic.


Cambridge: Cambr. Univ. Press, 1987. – PP. 70-78.

1. What are the two ways of describing a syllable?

2. State the differences and similarities in the views of

P. Roach and A. Gimson (A. Cruttenden) concerning

syllable boundaries.

Although the onsets and codas of syllables are

obviously clearly identifiable at the beginnings and

ends of words, dividing word–medial sequences of

consonants between coda and onset can be

problematical. In many languages such dividing of

words into syllables is a relatively straightforward

process (e.g. in Bantu languages, in Japanese, and in

French). In other languages, like English, it is not. The

sonority hierarchy tells us how many syllables there

are in an utterance by showing us a number of peaks

of sonority. Such peaks represent the centres of

syllables (usually vowels). Conversely it would seem

reasonable for the troughs of sonority to represent the

boundaries between syllables. Sounds following the

116

trough would then be in ascending sonority up to the

peak and sounds following the peak would be in

descending sonority up to the trough. But problems

arise because the hierarchy does not tell us whether to

place the trough consonant itself with the preceding or

the following syllable; an additional problem is caused

by the downgraded [s] mentioned in the previous

sections. So, for example, syllable division is

problematical in words like funny, bluer, mattress,

extra /'ekstrə/.

Various principles can be applied to decide

between alternatives: align syllable boundaries with

morpheme boundaries where present (the morphemic

principle); align syllable boundaries to parallel

syllable codas and onsets at the ends and beginnings

of words (the phonotactic principle); align syllabic

boundaries to best predict allophonic variation, e.g.

the devoicing of /r/ following [t]. Unfortunately, such

principles often conflict with one another. A further

principle is often invoked in such cases, the maximal

onset principle, which assigns consonants to onsets

wherever possible and is said to be a universal in

languages; but this itself often conflicts with one or

more of the principles above.



2001. – PP. 51-52.

1. State the possible ways of finding syllable

boundaries.

117

It is also true that in all languages there are

constraints on the way in which <...> phonemes can

be arranged to form syllables. These constraints are

sometimes known as phonotactic or phoneme

sequence constraints and they severely limit the

number of syllables that would be theoretically

possible if phonemes could be combined in an

unconstrained way. Some simple examples of

phonotactic constraints in English include: all three–

consonant clusters at the beginning of a word start

with /s/ ('sprint', 'squire', 'stew' etc); nasal consonants

cannot occur as the second consonant in word–initial

consonant clusters unless the first consonant is /s/ (e.g.

there are no words in English than begin with /bm dn/

etc), although this is certainly possible in other

languages (e.g. German which allows /kn/ in words

like 'Knoten', meaning 'knot' – we can see from the

spelling that English used to allow this sequence as

well). Another important point about phonotactic

constraints is that they vary from language to

language, as this example of English and German has

just shown.

<...> One of the main reasons, then, why

languages have phonotactic constraints is because

their sequential arrangement is itself a cue to the

number of syllables in a word. When we produce an

English word like 'print' for example, we want to

118

convey to the listener not only that this word is

composed of a certain number and type of phonemes,

but also that the word happens to be monosyllabic:

and the listeners' perception of how many syllables

there are in a word depends to a certain extent on the

arrangement of phonemes in sequence <...>

Harrington, Jonathan and Cox, Felicity. Phonotactic

Constraints. –

http://clas.mq.edu.au/phonetics/phonology/syllable/syl

l_phonotactic.html.

1. What are the reasons for phonotactic constrains in

languages? Are they universal for all languages?

Phonotactic constraints: Combinatory and

Distributional

Some Combinatory Constraints in English:

/ŋ/ cannot be preceded by long vowels or diphthongs;

/tʃ, dʒ, ð, z/ do not cluster;

/r, w, l/ only occur alone or as non initial elements in

clusters;

/r, h, w, j/ do not occur in final position in British

English, but /r/ can occur in final position in rhotic

dialects such as American English;

in final position only /l/ can occur before non–syllabic

/m/ and /n/.

Some Distributional Constraints in English:

/ŋ/ cannot occur word initially;

/e, æ, ɒ, ʊ, ɔ/ cannot occur word finally;

http://clas.mq.edu.au/phonetics/phonology/syllable/syll_phonotactic.html


119

/ʊ/ cannot occur initially;

/ʒ/ only occurs initially before /ɪ, iː, æ, ɔ/ in foreign

words such as genre.

Harrington, Jonathan and Cox, Felicity. Phonotactic

Constraints. –

http://clas.mq.edu.au/phonetics/phonology/syllable/syl

l_phonotactic.html.

1. What types of phonotactic constraints exist in

English? Find some examples of phonotactic

constraints in Russian.


1. What is the syllable?

2. What are the two aspects of the syllable?

3. What theories of syllable formation do you

know? Comments on each of them.

4. What features of the syllable can be singled out

on the functional level?

5. What is syllable formation in English based on?

6. What types of syllables are distinguished in

English? Give your own examples.

7. What types of syllables are the most widely

spread in English? in Russian?

8. What is the linguistic importance of syllable

division in different languages?

9. What does phonotactics study?

10. Comment on the problem of syllable division in

English. Give your own examples.



120

11. Comment on the two important functions of the

syllable.

12. What are the peculiarities of the English

syllabic structure which are relevant for learners

of English?


1. Characterize the following syllables according

to the distribution of vowels and consonants

(open, closed, covered, uncovered):

do, took, tree, rhythm, lit, eight, this, or, blue, stay,

dog, add, pie, stamp, out, put, eye, act.

2. Group the following words according to the

number of syllables (1/2/3/4/5):

military, politics, problematic, machine, come, poll,

millet, communal, probing, problem, coming,

mechanical, miller, mechanistic, communist,

militia, politician, militaristic, mechanize, probe,

commune.

3. Divide the following words into syllables:

cottage, family, pity, table, tablet, fishing, exam,

mister, pantry, bedroom, sixty, January, dinner,

parents, education, downstairs, occur, mimics,

memory, introduce, bathroom, alone, over.

121

4. Apply your knowledge of phonotactics and define

which words are impossible in English?

prill mgla

lsig rmut

skrikt dnom

tosp thole

blaft flitch

122








Владос, 2008.




2006.



2006.


Penguin Books, 2007.




123

VII. THE ACCENTUAL STRUCTURE OF

ENGLISH WORDS

Key words: accent,

constitutive/distinctive/identificatory (recognitive)

function, dynamic/musical (tonic) stress, duration,

fixed/free/shifting stress, fundamental frequency,

intensity, vowel length, loudness, muscular effort,

pitch, primary (strong, main, principal)/secondary

(half–strong, half–stressed)/tertiary/weak (unstressed)

syllable, prominence, recessive/retentive/rhythmical

tendency, sonority, stress, stress attracting, stress

pattern, stress–fixing, stress–neutral, syllable weight.

Not all the syllables in a word are pronounced with

the same degree of force. Usually one syllable is made

more prominent than the others, and it is said to be

stressed or accented. Stress is usually studied from

two points of view: its production and its perception.

The production of stress is generally believed to

depend on the speaker using more muscular energy

than is used for unstressed syllables. From the

perceptual point of view, all stressed syllables have

one characteristic in common, and that is prominence.

At least four factors contribute to a greater

prominence of a syllable:

124

loudness (a louder syllable is perceived as

more prominent)

pitch (especially the change of pitch level)

the length of a syllable (a longer syllable is

perceived as stressed)

the vowel quality (long vowels and

diphthongs are generally more prominent

than short vowels, while among short vowels

themselves open ones are more prominent,

and [ɪ-ʊ-ə] are the least prominent)

Generally, these four factors work together in

combination, although syllables may sometimes be

made prominent by means of only one or two of them.

Languages differ according to the type of stress.

European languages such as English, German, French,

Russian, etc. are said to have the dynamic stress which

implies greater force (greater muscular energy) with

which the syllable is pronounced. The musical (tonic)

word stress is observed in Chinese, Japanese,

Vietnamese, etc. The meaning of words in these

languages depends on the variations of voice pitch in

relation to neighbouring syllables. For example, in

Chinese the sound sequence ma pronounced with the

level tone means mother, with the rising tone –

“material”, with the falling-rising tone – “a horse”

125

and pronounced with the abrupt fall it means “an

insult”. In Scandinavian languages the word stress is

considered to be both dynamic and musical.

The nature of word stress in Russian seems to differ

from that in English. The quantitative component of

stress plays a greater role in Russian word stress. In

the Russian language we never pronounce vowels of

full formation and length in unstressed positions, they

are always reduced. In English nonreduced vowels

occur sometimes in the unstressed syllables as in

transport [ˈtræspɔ:t], museum [mju:ˈzi:əm], hotel

[hɜʊˈtel].

Now a brief word on the degree of stress. Phonetic

prominence of a syllable in a word is relative, i.e.

compared with the preceding one. In fact there are as

many degrees of prominence as there are syllables in

the word. Phonologically, there are only three degrees:

primary - the strongest, secondary and weak (or

unstressed): eˌxamiˈnation, ˌorganiˈsation. Some

linguists also distinguish tertiary stress, which is as

weak as secondary but has a different distribution: it

follows the primary stress, while the secondary stress

precedes it. Tertiary stress is usually found in

American English: ˈsecreˌtary, ˈdictioˌnary.

126

Languages are also differentiated according to the

placement of word stress. It can be fixed (or limited to

a particular syllable - the last in French, the last but

one in Polish, the first in Czech) or free (or variable).

English word-stress has many peculiarities, which

make it very complicated. These peculiarities are due

to the fact, that in English there are many borrowed

words from different languages with various rules of

syllable formation. Though stress placement in

English words is free it follows certain rules. As we

have already mentioned, phoneticians divide syllables

into strong (heavy) and weak (light). A strong syllable

contains a long vowel or a diphthong or a short vowel

plus two consonants; syllables with a short vowel and

no coda are weak ones. Only strong syllables can be

stressed (although not all of them), but weak syllables

are never stressed. Other factors that may determine

the placement of stress are: the morphological

structure of the word (whether it is simple, complex or

compound), its grammatical category (noun, verb,

adjective, etc.) and the number of syllables in the

word.

The word stress in English as well as in Russian is

not only free, but it may also be shifting, thus

differentiating lexical units, parts of speech and

127

grammatical forms: ˈcontrast - conˈtrast, ˈtransport -

transˈport, ˈзамок - заˈмок, ˈмука - муˈка.

Besides the stress pattern of English words can vary

under the influence of some factors. First of all in the

present day English stress can shift under the

influence of rhythm to avoid a succession of weak

syllables (stress shifts to the second syllable, or the

third one from the end) as in ˈhospitable - hosˈpitable,

disˈtribute - ˈdistribute, ˈaristocrat - aˈristocrat, etc.

In compounds the stress on a final-stressed compound

tends to move to a preceding syllable if the following

word begins with a strongly stressed syllable:

afterˈnoon - ˈafternoon ˈtea.

The stress pattern can change under the influence of

tempo as well; in this case secondary stresses are

dropped. It sometimes happens that a word’s stress

pattern is influenced not only by rhythm, but also by

the stress structure of a derivative: preˈfer -

preˈferable (instead of the regular ˈpreferable;

ˌdistriˈbution - ˈdistribute (instead of the regular

diˈstribute.

Word stress is closely interrelated with sentence

stress, which usually falls on the syllable marked by

word stress. So the arrangement of stresses in an

utterance depends on the stress patterns of words.

128

Besides, the alternation of stressed and unstressed

syllables is common to both sentence and word stress.

At the same time they are different in application

(word\utterance) and secondly, the word stress may be

omitted in a phrase: ˈLet’s buy an ˈice-cream. Word

and sentence stress perform different functions as

well. The three functions of word stress are the

following:

constitutive

identificatory

distinctive

First of all word stress builds up a word by making

one (or more) syllables more prominent than the

others, it organizes the syllables of a word into a

language unit. Thus the word stress performs the

constitutive function. Sound sequences become a

phrase when they are divided into units organized by

word stress into words. The recurrent stress pattern of

the word helps the listener to recognize (identify) it in

the flow of speech. Correct accentuation facilitates the

process of communication and prevents

misunderstanding. This function is called

identificatory (or recognitive). Word stress is capable

of differentiating the meaning of words or their forms,

129

thus performing its distinctive function: ˈcontent –

conˈtent; ˈinsult – inˈsult; ˈconcrete – conˈcrete.

The complicated system of the stress structure of

English words is a major cause of intelligibility

problems for foreign learners, and should be treated

very attentively. The possible mistakes are: the

placement of stress in a word; words with secondary

stresses; and words with the full vowel in the

unstressed syllable.

The stress structure of English words in speech is

inseparably connected with the rhythmic organisation

of speech chain, which will be discussed in the

following units.

QUESTIONS AND TASKS



the problems:

What are the characteristics of stressed syllables

that enable us to identify them? It is important to

understand that there are two different ways of

approaching this question, one being to consider what

speaker does in producing stressed syllables and the

other being to consider what characteristics of sound

make a syllable seem to a listener to be stressed. In

other words we can study stress from the point of view

130

of production and perception; the two are obviously

closely related, but are not identical. The production

of stress is generally believed to depend on the

speaker using more muscular energy than used for

unstressed syllables. Measuring muscular effort is

difficult, but it seems possible, according to

experimental studies, that when we produce stressed

syllables, the muscles that we use to expel air from the

lungs are more active, producing higher subglottal

pressure. It seems possible that similar things happen

with muscles in other pats of our speech apparatus.

Many experiments have been carried out on the

perception of stress, and it is clear that many different

sound characteristics are important in making a

syllable recognizably stressed. From the perceptual

point of view, all stressed syllables have one

characteristic in common, and that is prominence;

stressed syllables are recognized as stressed because

they are more prominent than unstressed syllables.


Cambridge: Cambr. Univ. Press, 1987. – PP. 85–86.

1. What are the possible approaches to identifying

syllables as stressed?

In contrast to the nature of syllables, the nature

of stress is fairly well understood. Stressed sounds are

those on which the speaker expends more muscular

energy. This involves pushing out more air from the

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lungs by extra contraction of the muscles of the rib

cage, and by extra activity of the laryngeal muscles, so

that there is an additional increase in pitch. There may

also be increases in the muscular activity involved in

the articulatory movements.

When there is an increase in the amount of air

being pushed out of the lungs, there is an increase in

the loudness of the sound produced. Some books

define stress simply in terms of loudness, but this is

not a very useful definition if loudness is considered to

be simply a matter of the amount of the acoustic

energy involved. We have already noted that some

sounds have more acoustic energy than others because

of factors such as the degree of mouth opening.

A much more important indication of stress is

the rise in pitch that usually occurs. You can check for

yourself that an increase in the flow of air out of the

lungs causes a rise in pitch even without an increase in

the activity of the laryngeal muscles. Ask a friend to

press against the lower part of your chest while you

stand against a wall with your eyes shut. Now say a

long vowel on a steady pitch and have your friend

push against your chest at an unexpected moment.

You will find that at the same time as there is an

increase in the flow of air out of your lungs (as a result

of your friends push), there will also be an increase in

the pitch of the vowel.

Ladefoged P. A Course in Phonetics. 5th

ed. – Boston:

Thomson/Wadsworth, 2005. – P. 225.

132

1. How does the author view the phenomenon of stress

in terms of speech production?

Stressed syllables tend to be more prominent.

What contributes to prominence? Prominence of

sounds is relative. There is no absolute measure of

prominence. Sounds are only prominent in relation to

another sound. Length, loudness, pitch and quality all

contribute to a speaker’s perception of a syllable as

prominent.

Length The length of a vowel contributes to

prominence. Syllables containing long vowels tend to

be more prominent than those which contain short

vowels, even when they are unstressed.

Loudness Hearers often perceive stressed

syllables as louder than unstressed ones. This is a

direct result of speech production factors such as

greater muscular effort in forcing air between the

vocal cords, which in turn vibrate more vigorously.

This increased activity is ultimately perceived as an

increase in loudness. Some linguists refer to loudness

as intensity.

Pitch This term is applied to the rate of

vibration of the vocal cords. If the pitch changes on a

syllable then that syllable will be perceived as

prominent. This is often called ‘pitch prominence’. It

does not matter whether the pitch moves up or down,

what counts is that it moves.

133

Quality The quality of a sound also contributes

to its prominence. In general vowels are more

prominent than consonants, but within each group

there is a hierarchy. The more open a vowel is, the

more prominent it is. /a:/ is more prominent than

either /i:/ or /u:/. Approximants and nasals are more

prominent than fricatives, which are more prominent

than stops.

While all of these factors contribute to the

prominence of syllables, some are more important

than others in determining stress. It would seem

logical that loudness is a major contributor to

prominence, but this is not the case. As we discussed

above, some sounds are more prominent, that is they

sound louder, than others by virtue of their quality.

While it is true that stressed syllables tend to be louder

(or more intense) than unstressed ones, pitch

movement is the most obvious cue to prominence for

the hearer.

Of the remaining three factors, length

contributes quite strongly to prominence. Quality also

plays a role but to a lesser extent than either pitch

movement or length. Although stressed syllables tend

to be louder than unstressed ones, loudness by itself as

a marker of prominence is the least effective of four

contributory factors. In general, a stressed syllable will

tend to be marked by a change of pitch and, in

comparison with unstressed ones, to be longer and

134

louder. Stress is the result of the cumulation of two or

more of these properties on a single syllable.

Kuiper, Koenraad, Allan W.Scott. An Introduction to

English Language. Sound, Word and Sentence. –

Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. – PP. 109–110.

1. What is the authors’ idea of the phenomenon of

prominence?

2. Comment on the contribution of different

components to the perception of syllables as stressed?

English speakers can tell which syllable in a

word receives most stress in the absence of any

conscious knowledge of exactly what “stress” might

be. While the native speaker may not know

consciously what stress is, it seems clear that, the

more stressed a syllable is, the more salient it is,

perceptually. For instance, most native speakers of

English will agree that, in the word photography, it is

the second of four syllables which is most stressed,

that, in kangaroo, it is the last of the three syllables,

which receives most stress, and so on. It is equally

striking that the native speaker can judge that, while

the final syllable in kangaroo receives more stress

than either of the others, the first syllable in turn

receives more stress than the second. The first, third

and fourth syllables of photography are unstressed and

are less salient than the second syllable. The second

syllable of kangaroo is unstressed and is the least

135

salient syllable in that word. Let us say that the

syllables in a word which receives most stress has

primary stress, and that syllables such as the first

syllable in kangaroo have secondary stress; while

syllables which have neither primary nor secondary

stress are unstressed syllables. We could therefore say

that a given word will have a kind of stress pattern: in

the case of kangaroo, a syllable with secondary stress,

followed by an unstressed syllable, followed by a

syllable with primary stress.


Introduction. – Blackwell Publishers, 1999. – PP. 87–

88.

1. How does the author describe the degrees of stress?

2. What is the stress pattern of a word?

We now come to a question that causes a great

deal of difficulty, particularly to foreign learners (who

cannot simply dismiss it as an academic question):

how can one select the correct syllable or syllables to

stress in an English word? As is well known, English

is not one of those languages where word stress can be

decided simply in relation to the syllables of the word,

as can be done in French (where the last syllable is

usually stressed), Polish (where the syllable before the

last – the penultimate syllable – is stressed) or Czech

(where the first syllable is stressed). Many writers

have said that English word stress is so difficult to

136

predict that it is best to treat stress placement as a

property of the individual word, to be learned when

the word itself is learned. Certainly, anyone who tries

to analyse English stress placement has to recognize

that it is a highly complex matter. However, it must

also be recognized that in most cases when English

speakers come across an unfamiliar word, they can

pronounce it with the correct stress (there are

exceptions to this, of course); in principle, it should be

possible to discover what it is that the English speaker

knows and to write in the form of rules. Nevertheless,

practically all the rules have exceptions and readers

may feel that the rules are so complex that it would be

easier to go back to the idea of learning the stress for

each word individually.


Cambridge: Cambr. Univ. Press, 1987. – P. 88.

1. What causes difficulties in the placement of word

stress in English?

Compound words are, simply, words which can

be analysed as consisting of two words, rather than a

base and an affix. For instance, while second–class is

a compound, boldness is not (– ness is a suffix, not a

word).

The question arises of where the stress goes in a

compound: on the first or second element? Both types

of case occur in English, but there is a general rule

137

which determines where the stress goes. If the first

part of compound is adjectival in its meaning, the

stress goes on the second element, as in second class

and three–wheeler, whereas, if the first element is a

noun, the stress goes on that element, as in fruitcake,

sunrise, etc. Note that the first kind of case mirrors the

stress pattern in syntactic phrases consisting of an

adjective and a noun, as in second man, whereas the

second kind of case does not.


Introduction. – Blackwell Publishers, 1999. – P. 95.

1. How does the author explain the placement of stress

in compound words?

Most compounds in English are single–stressed,

that is the main lexical stress goes on the first element.

(Alternative terms for ‘single–stressed’ are ‘front–

stressed’ and ‘early–stressed’.)

bedtime, grassland, wheelbarrow, newsgroup,

keyboard, highlight

If a compound is to bear the nucleus, then – just

as with simple words – the accent is located on the

lexically stressed syllable:

It’s well past your bedtime.

Put the grass in the wheelbarrow.

Don’t look at the keyboard.

Where’s your grandmother?

Here’s another highlight.

138

Many English compounds are written as two

separate words, even though the main stress is still on

the first element of the compound. These are called

open compounds (or two–word compounds).

library book, credit card, bus, running shoe, high

school

It does not matter whether a single–stressed

compound is written as one word, or hyphenated, or as

two words. As far as intonation is concerned, it makes

no difference: all single– stressed compounds behave

as if they were single words. If we place the nucleus

on one, it goes on the stressed syllable of the first

element:

Is that my library book?

I’ve lost my credit cards.

They were playing video games.

I need some new running shoes.

Are you still at high school.

At ten we have physics class

<...> Open compounds can be misleading for the

student of EFL because superficially a compound may

look like a phrase consisting of adjective plus noun.

Compare running shoes and running water. The first

is an open compound, single–stressed; running is a

gerund (a verbal noun). The second is a phrase in

which each word has its own lexical stress; running is

a participle (a verbal adjective):

(i) I need some new running shoes.

139

(ii) They made the outhouse into a bathroom| and

installed running water.

The last lexical item in (i) is running shoes, a single–

stressed compound. The last lexical item in (ii) is

water.

Unlike compounds, phrases consist of two or

more lexical items. They have one lexical stress for

each. The nucleus normally goes on the last of them:

It was a bitter disappointment. (bitter disappointment

is a phrase)

Phrases such as bitter disappointment are

‘double–stressed’, as opposed to the single lexical

stress of compounds.

Wells J.C. English Intonation. An Introduction. –

Cambridge University press, 2006. – PP. 100–102.

1. What kind of compounds does the author call

“open”?

2. What is the difference in the placement of nuclear

tone in open compounds and phrases?

Advice to Foreign Learners

Many learners come from language

backgrounds where word accent is regular, on the first

syllable in Finnish and German, on the penultimate

syllable in Polish and Spanish, and on the final

syllable in French and Turkish. But in English there is

no such regular pattern and the differing accentual

140

patterns of words are as important to their recognition

as is the sequence of phonemes.

Although the accentual patterns are not as

regular as in many other languages, there are

nevertheless tendencies and the foreign learner can

definitely be helped by learning some of these

tendencies. In particular, he should pay attention to the

influence of suffixes on the placement of primary

stress, noting whether the suffix leaves the accent on

the stem unchanged (as with the inflexional suffixes,

with adjectival –y, with adverbial –ly and with –er,

and –ish), whether it takes the accent itself (as with –

ation) or whether it moves the accent on he stem ( as

with –ate and –ity).

Learners should also pay particular attention to

the role of accentual contrast in those cases where

word classes are distinguished by a shift of accent, at

the same time making appropriate reduction of

unaccented vowels. They should not, however, extend

such variation of accentual patterns indiscriminately to

all disyllables, e.g. report, delay, select, reserve,

account etc., have the same pattern in both verb and

noun/adjective functions.

Gimson A.C., revised by A. Cruttenden: Gimson’s

Pronunciation of English (5th ed.). – Edward Arnold,

1994. – P. 235.

1. What recommendations does the author give to

foreign learners of English?

141


1. Which syllables are called stressed?

2. What is the stress pattern of the word?

3. Comment on the terms “stress” and “accent”. 4. Describe the phenomenon of word stress from

the point of view of production and perception.

5. What is dynamic word stress? What languages

are characterized by dynamic stress?

6. What parameters of English word stress are

singled out by British scholars?

7. Speak on the role of loudness, pitch, length and

vowel quality in creating the effect of

prominence?

8. How many degrees of stress are distinguished in

English?

9. Speak about the classification of languages into

those with free word stress and those with fixed

stress.

10. Characterize the placement of word stress in

English.

11. What factors should be taken into account to

define the position of word stress in a particular

word?

12. How does the type of suffix influence the

location of word stress?

13. What are the typical tendencies in the

placement of word stress in compound words?

14. Speak on the correlation of word stress location

and the position of the word in the sentence.

142

15. What tendencies affect the position of word

stress in English?

16. Describe the recessive tendency, give examples

to illustrate it.

17. Describe the rhythmical tendency, give

examples to illustrate it.

18. Describe the retentive tendency, give examples

to illustrate it.

19. What are the functions of word stress?

20. Comment on the accentual structure of

compound words with regard for the semantic

value of their components.

21. Which aspects of English word stress present

difficulties to Russian learners of English?


1. Put the stress mark in the following words:

apple-tree, good-looking, examination, secretary,

museum, police, introduction, fourteen, housewife,

dining-room, ninety, somebody.

2. Translate the following words and word

combinations into Russian, mind the semantic

importance of word stress:

ˈtall ˈboy – ˈtall boy

ˈblack ˈbird – ˈblack

bird

ˈyellow ˈcup – ˈyellow

ˈafter ˈnoon –

ˈafternoon

ˈsome ˈthing –

ˈsomething

143

cup

ˈblack ˈboard -

ˈblackboard

ˈgreen ˈhouse – ˈgreen

house

ˈdark ˈroom – ˈdark

room

3. Translate the following words and word

combinations into Russian, mind the semantic

importance of word stress:

ˈcontent – conˈtent

ˈcontest – conˈtest

ˈrecord – reˈcord

ˈdesert – deˈsert

ˈimport – imˈport

ˈinsult – inˈsult

ˈtransport – transˈport

ˈcontract – conˈtract

ˈprocess – proˈcess

ˈextract - exˈtract

4. Find your own examples to prove the semantic

importance of word stress in English and in

Russian.

5. Make reports about the rules of word stress

placement in English (in grammatical classes of

words, in compounds, etc.). Illustrate your reports

with examples.

144








Владос, 2008.




2006.



2006.



Edition, 2001.




145

VIII. ENGLISH INTONATION, ITS

STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS

Key words: complex/compound/simple nuclear tones,

emphatic/hesitation/ syntactic pause, fundamental

frequency, head, intensity, intonation pattern,

loudness, nucleus, pausation, pitch, pitch level (key,

register), pitch range, pre–head, prosody, syntagm,

tail, tempo, timbre (tamber), time (duration), tune

(melody), tone (intonation) group.

attitudinal/distinctive (phonological)/organizing/

pragmatic/rhetorical/social (indexical)/stylistic

function, delimitation (segmentation)/integration,

discourse, information content, information focus,

marked/unmarked position, phonopassage, phrase,

rheme/theme, syntactic types of sentences.

Another part of suprasegmental phonology is

intonation. Intonation is a language universal. There

are no languages which are spoken as a monotone,

without any change of prosodic parameters. But

intonation functions in various languages in a different

way. So our attention will be turned to the role of

intonation in the language and its contribution to the

communicative value of the act of speech.

Intonation hasn’t been thoroughly investigated yet,

as such research involves the use of both special skills

and particular technical devices and equipment. From

the very beginning of phonetics as a science

146

phoneticians preferred to study segmental phonemes

rather than intonation, so now we have a far more

detailed analysis of English sounds than of its

intonation patterns. Teachers of phonetics also prefer

to concentrate their attention on sounds, as the

recognition of intonation variations requires a special

skill, the so-called musical ear, which is difficult to

acquire and develop. Native speakers use intonation

unconsciously. Intonational differences in the native

language seem to be the first to be perceived and

acquired by children, so they are rooted so deeply in

their minds that when they come to studying a foreign

language, interference (influence) of the native

intonation is the strongest and the most difficult to get

rid of. More than that. Very often the misuses of

intonation patterns in a foreign language are perceived

by native speakers not as mistakes, but as an

intentional act, so such situations may cause

misunderstanding and even offence.

The study of intonation went through many stages:

as individual sounds, intonation can be examined on

different levels – auditory, acoustic and functional.

We shall start with the description of intonation on the

auditory and acoustic levels, and then pass on to its

linguistic function.

147

8.1. The Structure of English Intonation

Most linguists agree that on perception level

intonation is a complex unity formed by significant

variations of pitch, tempo, loudness and timbre.

Nowadays there is another term – prosody – which is

used in linguistics, sometimes meaning “intonation”.

According to the British School intonation refers to

pitch (or melody) variations, and prosody embraces

pitch, loudness, tempo and voice quality (or timbre).

Intonation starts with a phrase, an utterance, while

prosody has a wider domain: from a syllable to the

whole text. But for convenience in our textbook we

shall not discriminate between prosody and intonation

and use the terms interchangeably.

There hasn’t been created a suitable definition of

either intonation or prosody, but we can see that pitch

comes first as the most important and most

“linguistic” component. Timbre or voice quality has

been recently added to the definition of intonation, as

it serves to give additional or emotional colouring to

the speech. Some scientists consider it the least

linguistic component and refer it to paralinguistics.

On acoustic level pitch correlates with the

fundamental frequency (the rate of vibrations of the

vocal cords), loudness correlates with intensity (the

148

amplitude of vibrations), tempo is the correlate of

duration (or time), voice quality correlates with

spectral characteristics.

The linguistic level is concerned with the meanings

expressed by the components of intonation or the

function of intonation in the process of

communication.

As we’ve mentioned already among the four

components of intonation pitch and pitch movements

seem to have some priority, though the other three

parts can’t be ignored either. Each syllable of the

speech chain has a special pitch colouring and bears a

definite amount of loudness. Pitch movements are

connected with loudness; together with the tempo of

speech they form an intonation pattern, which is the

basic unit of intonation.

Intonation patterns serve to actualize syntagms in

oral speech. A syntagm is a group of words which is

semantically and syntactically complete. In phonetics

actualized syntagms are called intonation groups. A

phrase may contain more than one intonation group.

The number of intonation groups depends on the

length of the phrase and the degree of semantic

importance or emphasis given to various parts, etc.:

ˋThis boy │ was not a ˈmodel ˋpupil||

149

This boy was ˈnot a ˈmodel ˋpupil||

Now let’s see how each of the constituents of

intonation actualizes such language units as syntagms,

sentences, phrases. Among the pitch parameters we

shall concentrate on the variations in the direction of

pitch, pitch level and pitch range. Pitch changes can’t

be separated from loudness, so we shall discuss pitch-

and-stress structure of the intonation pattern.

Not all stressed syllables in a phrase are of equal

importance. One of the syllables has the greater

prominence than the others and forms the nucleus of

an intonation pattern. The nucleus is normally the last

strongly accented syllable in an intonation pattern,

which marks a significant change of pitch direction

(where it goes up or down). The nuclear tone is the

most important part of the intonation pattern without

which the latter cannot exist at all. On the other hand

an intonation pattern may consist of only one syllable

which is its nucleus.

In general nuclear tones may be falling, rising and

level or a combination of these movements. Each

movement may begin on a lower or higher level, thus

producing a variety of nuclear tones. For teaching

purposes the following most important and frequently

150

used nuclear tones are chosen: Low Fall, ˋ igh ( id)

Fall, Low Rise, ˊHigh (Mid) Rise, ˬFall-Rise, Rise-

Fall, >Level. Speakers are said to select from a choice

of tones according to how they want the utterance to

be heard. During the development of modern

phonetics in the twentieth century it was hoped that

scientific study of intonation would make it possible

to state what the function of each different aspect of

intonation was, and that foreign learners could then be

taught rules to enable them to use intonation in the

way that native speakers use it. However these rules

are not quite adequate as a complete practical guide to

how to use English intonation.

The meanings of the nuclear tones are difficult to

specify even in general terms. Roughly speaking,

falling tone is usually regarded as more or less

“neutral”, it gives an impression of “finality,

completeness and certainty”:

I’ll come in an hour.

Rising tone conveys an impression that something

more is to follow, it has the general meaning of

“incompleteness, uncertainty, dependence”:

→ Have you seen Ann? - No.

151

Some not very important parenthetical information

is often spoken with a rising tone to show that it’s

incomplete and depends on the main sentence:

…and then, on the left, you’ll see my house.

The fall-rise is used a lot in English, it combines the

meaning of falling tone’s certainty and the rising

tone’s meaning of dependence, so it often conveys a

feeling of reservation:

- Do you smoke - Sometimes. (not in general)

- I’ve heard it’s a good film. - Yes. (but I don’t

completely agree)

The rise-fall is used to convey rather strong feelings

of approval, disapproval or surprise:

- Isn’t the view lovely - Yes.

The level nuclear tone is usually used to express a

feeling of something routine, uninteresting or boring.

I’m afraid I can’t >manage it…

Mid-level tone is common in spontaneous speech

and low-level tone is characteristic of reading poetry:

And >then │ my >heart │with ˋpleasure

feels…

And dances │with the daffodils│

An intonation pattern contains one nucleus and may

contain other stressed or unstressed syllables, which

normally precede or follow the nucleus. The part that

152

extends from the first stressed syllable up to (but not

including) the nucleus is called the head. The

unstressed syllables which precede the first stressed

syllable of the head are called the pre-head, and any

syllables between the nucleus and the end of the

utterance are the tail.

The tone of a nucleus determines the pitch of the

rest of the intonation pattern (that is the tail), thus after

a falling tone the rest of the intonation pattern is at a

low pitch. After a rising tone the rest moves in an

upward direction:

No ˌMary. \ Well Mary.

The nucleus and the tail form what is called the

terminal tone.

Variations within the pre-nuclear part do not

usually affect the grammatical meaning of the

utterance, though they often reflect speaker’s attitude

and phonetic styles. There are three common types of

pre-nucleus - a descending type, in which the pitch

gradually descends (smoothly or in steps); an

ascending type in which syllables form an ascending

sequence; and a →level type, when all the syllables

stay more or less on the same level.

All parts of the intonation pattern can be combined

in various ways, thus manifesting changes in meaning.

153

The number of combinations is more than a hundred,

but not all of them are really important, so in teaching

we deal only with a very limited number of intonation

patterns.

Two more pitch parameters are pitch range and

pitch level. Each speaker has his or her own normal

pitch range: a top level which is the highest pitch

normally used by the speaker, and a bottom level that

the speaker’s pitch normally doesn’t go below. In

ordinary speech the intonation tends to take place

within the lower part of the speaker’s pitch range, but

in situations where strong feelings are to be expressed

it is usual to make use of extra pitch height. For

example, if we represent the pitch range by drawing

two parallel lines showing the highest and lowest

limits of the range, then a normal unemphatic “yes”

could be diagrammed like this:

but a strong emphatic “yes” – like this:

154

So pitch range can be normal, wide and narrow.

Narrow pitch range is associated with dull

monotonous speech.

Another component of intonation is tempo. It

implies the rate of the utterance and pausation. The

rate can be normal, slow and fast. The parts of the

utterance which are particularly important sound

slower and those which bear additional, not significant

information are pronounced at a faster rate. Utterances

are split into smaller portions by means of pauses. By

pause is meant a complete stop of phonation. Pauses

differ according to their length. Usually three kinds of

pauses are distinguished for teaching purposes:

Short pauses which separate intonation

groups within a phrase;

Longer pauses which manifest the end of

the phrase;

Very long pauses (twice as long as the

first type) are used to separate paragraphs.

Functionally pauses may be syntactic, emphatic and

hesitation. Syntactic pauses separate phonopassages,

phrases and intonation groups. Emphatic pauses serve

155

to make prominent certain parts of the utterance. They

are used to draw the listeners’ attention to what the

speaker is going to say. Hesitation pauses are mainly

used in spontaneous speech to gain time to think over

what to say next. They may be silent or filled.

Sometimes we can perceive a pause, when there is

no stop of phonation at all. It may happen when pitch

changes its direction; variations in the rate of the

utterance, aspiration, etc. can also produce this effect.

Timbre or voice quality has not been thoroughly

investigated yet. Phoneticians describe three types of

voice quality settings which depend on the position of

speech organs, the characteristics of the vocal cords

and muscular tension. For the moment it is known that

voice quality differences do contribute to a foreign

accent and that they stem from both linguistic and

sociolinguistic factors, but further research is needed

on this phenomenon for more accurate information.

The changes of pitch, loudness and tempo are

highly organized in any particular language. No matter

how different the individual variations of these

prosodic components are they are standard, so that all

speakers of the language use them in similar ways

under similar circumstances. These characteristics of

156

intonation structure form the prosodic system of

English.

8.2. The Functional Aspect of English Intonation

Our further point will be the description of

intonation on the functional level. Intonation is a

powerful means of human intercommunication. One

of the aims of communication is the exchange of

information between people. The meaning of an

English utterance derives not only from the

grammatical structure, the lexical composition and the

sound pattern. It also derives from variations of

intonation or its prosodic parameters. We can see that

intonation makes it easier for a listener to understand

what a speaker is trying to convey. The ways in which

intonation does this are very complex, and there exist

various points of view on the number and aims of

intonation functions in a language.

P.Roach, for example, singles out the following

intonation functions:

grammatical

accentual

attitudinal

discourse

157

Let’s have a closer look at them. First of all

intonation serves to mark boundaries between phrases,

clauses or sentences to indicate the grammatical

subordination and to show the difference between

questions, statements, commands, etc., so this function

is called grammatical. The placement of the

intonation-group boundary is important for

differentiating the meaning of some ambiguous

sentences, as in the example:

Those who ˬsold │ˌ uickly ˌmade a profit║

ˈThose who ˈsold ˬ uickly │made a profit║

The intonation-group boundary can occur not only

between words, but other grammatical units such as

phrases and clauses, thus showing what is subordinate

to what, as in the example:

The boys │ who weren’t punished │ were

happy║

The boys who weren’t punished │ were happy║

(only some boys)

Some skilful speakers use this ability of intonation

as a special rhetorical device to attract the listeners’

attention or to hold the floor a bit longer.

The choice of nuclear tones also has grammatical

significance, as it makes clear whether the person is

telling something, asking or commanding. Basic tones

158

are generally associated with certain communicative

types of sentences. The falling tone is most common

in statements, special questions, commands and

exclamations. The rising tone is characteristic of non-

final parts of statements, general questions, requests

and warnings. The grammatical function here seems to

overlap with the pragmatic function and depends on

the speaker’s pragmatic aim. The choice of the nuclear

tone can turn the command into a polite request:

→Close the door │ will you║

→Close the door │ will you║

a question into an exclamation:

Isn’t she beautiful║

Isn’t she ˋbeautiful║

an apology into a request to repeat:

I’m sorry║

I’m sorry║

a statement into a question (mostly in colloquial

speech):

You ˋ did it║

You did it║

As we’ve said already intonation helps to produce

the effect of prominence, the placing of nucleus on a

particular syllable marks out the word to which it

belongs as the most important in the intonation group.

159

It highlights the focus of information in the utterance

indicating that it’s new (it’s called rheme) while the

rest of the given information is called theme as it’s

either known to the listener or can be easily

understood from the context. Thus intonation can

structure the information content of an intonation

group or a phrase. This function is called accentual.

The location of the nucleus is of considerable

linguistic importance. The most common position for

it is on the last lexical word. In this case sentence

stress is normal. But there are cases when a speaker

may shift the nucleus to an earlier part of the

intonation group for contrastive or emphatic purposes.

In this position the stress is logical.

I’m going to ˈleave soon║ (normal)

I’m →going to leave soon║ (contrastive,

meaning I’m going not to stay)

I ˋam going to leave soon║ (emphatic)

The position of the nucleus can also differentiate

the actual meaning of the sentences, as in the example:

I have →plans to leave║ (=I’m planning to

leave)

I have plans to leave║ (=I have some plans that

I have to leave)

160

By putting the stress on one particular word, the

speaker shows that he is treating the word as the

carrier of new information, and that the information of

the other words is not new and can be easily

understood from the situation.

The next function of intonation is the attitudinal

one. Intonation enables us to express emotions and

attitudes and this adds a kind of special meaning to

spoken language. The ability of intonation to express

attitudes is associated with tones and pitch range

features accompanied by voice quality and tempo and

loudness changes. Some phoneticians make a

distinction between the attitude towards what the

speaker is saying and his/her emotional state.

Then there are also culture-specific norms of

demonstrating emotions and attitudes. This makes it

difficult for a foreign learner to interpret what he/she

has heard and to use an appropriate intonation pattern

in a certain situation. For example, Russian falling

tone when used in English parting remarks may seem

offensive or even insulting to native speakers of

English, who usually use rising tone in saying good-

bye. On the other hand English emotional High Falls

or a wide pitch range may sound unnatural and

pretentious to Russian speakers.

161

This function of intonation is closely connected

with paralinguistics which includes facial expressions,

gestures and body movements.

In the last few years the attention of phoneticians

has been focused on a larger context in which

sentences occur – that is discourse, in the structuring

of which intonation plays a significant role. Generally

intonation helps to focus the listeners’ attention on

aspects of the message that are most important and to

regulate the conversational behaviour of the

participants.

As we’ve said already the placing of the nucleus on

a certain syllable of one particular word signals that

the information conveyed by it is most important and

new. It’s clear that the placement of the nuclear tone is

at least partly determined by the larger context. The

chosen other parameters of the intonation group can

also indicate whether they are used to present new

information or refer to that which is already possessed

by the listener, is common knowledge or part of the

cultural background. Foreign learners of English,

having in general less common ground or shared

knowledge with the native speaker, might also have

some difficulty in deciphering the message.

162

Another area of intonational discourse function is

the regulation of conversational behaviour. Speakers

use various intonation components to indicate to

others that they have finished speaking, that another

person is expected to speak, that a particular type of

response is required, etc.

Some phoneticians also distinguish a semantic

function of intonation (other terms are distinctive or

phonological). Some parameters of the intonation

pattern are capable of differentiating the actual

meaning of a phrase or utterance of the same

grammatical structure and the same lexical

composition:

I don’t like to read anything║ (=вообще не

люблю читать)

I don’t like to read ˬ anything ║(=не люблю

читать все подряд)

Intonation can also be in contradiction with the

syntactic structure and lexical content of the utterance,

thus neutralizing them:

- Do you know what I’m here for - No

(=question)

- I’ve broken your vase. - →How nice of you

(=sarcasm, reprimand)

163

One more important function of intonation, singled

out by some phoneticians, is a stylistic one, as

intonation is used to characterize a particular style or a

variety of oral speech. As it’s rather a wide topic it

will be discussed in a separate units later.

To sum it up we can say that all the functions of

intonation overlap and can be viewed as different

aspects of discourse function.

QUESTIONS AND TASKS


works, answer the questions and comment on

one of the problems:

Any stretch of continuous conversation will

consist of a number of tone groups. There are some

criteria which would allow us to place boundaries

between adjacent tone groups. We may use

grammatical, semantic and phonetic criteria to delimit

tone groups.

Tone group boundaries tend to occur at major

grammatical boundaries, for example those between

phrases.

There are two tone groups in each of the

following examples. In the first example the boundary

falls between the two clauses, while in the second it

falls between phrases but not in the middle of them.

The tone groups coincide with grammatical

164

constituents, and also have meaning. If the boundary

were to fall between alligator and eyed, then the tone

group would cut across grammatical constituents, and

produce a tone group which was semantically

anomalous. This tendency for tone group boundaries

to coincide with major grammatical boundaries gives

tone groups both grammatical and semantic

coherence.

It was only yesterday | that I decided not to go.

The large evil alligator | eyed the spectators.

Kuiper, Koenraad, Allan W.Scott. An Introduction to

English Language. Sound, Word and Sentence. –

Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. – PP. 106-107.

1. What is a tone group and what are the criteria for

their delimitation? Give your own examples for each

criterion.

A major source of difference among the ways

intonation has been described has been disagreement

about how its meaning can best be represented. Some

note that a change in intonation seemingly alters the

grammatical organisation of a sentence. Others see a

relationship between the intonation of certain

utterances and the supposed attitude or emotional state

of the speaker. A problem with observations like these

is that they seem only to apply on particular occasions.

The task of pairing different kinds of utterance with

different intonation patterns seems like an enormous,

165

and perhaps even an open–ended, one. Having

explained how intonation affects one sentence, you

move on and find that a quite different kind of

explanation is needed for the next.

To describe the meaning of any intonation

feature, we have to think of the tone unit as being part

of some interactive event: that is to say, the speaker is

to be thought of as addressing a known listener, or

listeners, at a particular moment in time. Each feature

then reflects the speaker's view of what state of

background understanding exists at that moment

between speaker and listener. This means, of course,

that discussion of the intonation of isolated sentences

must be avoided: the context must always be taken

into account.

Brazil, David. Pronunciation for Advanced Learner’s

of English. – Cambridge University Press, 1994. – PP.

15-17.

1. Why is there much disagreement in describing

meanings of intonation?

A spoken utterance consists of words put

together in a grammatical construction; this part is

verbal and vocal. While people are producing such

utterances, they are also communicating something,

intentionally or not, by elements that are not part of

language, neither vocal nor verbal, such as gestures,

appearance, stance, and proximity to the addressees –

166

popularly called body language, labelled kinesics by

those who study such things systematically. Some of

the elements may be considered vocal gestures that

accompany speech: laughing, giggling, whispering,

falsetto, a quavering or 'breaking' voice. Some are

individual ways of speaking: some people are louder

than others, or louder at certain times; some have

higher–pitched voices than others; some speak in a

near monotone while others have a broad pitch range;

some clip syllables short by comparison with others

who drawl. These and other such phenomena are part

of speech but not part of language.

Intonation is vocal, non–verbal, and part of

language. It is the use of (relative) pitch changes in

patterns used and recognized by all speakers of a

language (allowing for dialect differences analogous

to other phonological and semantic differences) and

which can impart different meanings to otherwise

identical utterances.

Kreidler, Charles W. Describing Spoken English. An

Introduction. – Hartnolls Limited, Bodmin, Cornwall,

1997. – PP. 192-193.

1. Comment on the ways of communication.

The final topic within the general subject of

prosody is voice quality, defined as the long–term and

stable characteristics of a given voice which span

167

stretches of speech. Voice quality is the term used to

describe the auditory impression made by a certain

mechanical setting of the speech organs over stretches

of speech. The term voice setting is sometimes used in

the same way as voice quality but can also mean the

physical postures of the articulators which produce a

particular voice quality <...> Different individuals and

groups of speakers have different ways of setting their

tongue, jaw opening, lip shape and vocal cords to

achieve a characteristic voice quality.

<...> intonation and stress, as well as the

articulation of vowels and consonants, are produced

within the limits of the voice quality set by the

articulators and the breath stream coming up from the

lungs. For example, if the setting of the vocal cords is

very tense, it is not possible to produce as full a range

of pitch as when they are set at a more moderate level

of tension. As a second example, if the voice is set at

low volume – i.e. soft voice – the possibilities for

producing stress contrasts are thereby reduced <...>

Pennington, Martha C. Phonology in English

Language Teaching: an International Approach. –

Longman: London and New York, 1996. – P. 156.

1. Give the definition of voice quality.

2. State the difference between voice quality and voice

setting (if any).

3. Prove that voice quality is an aspect of prosody

(intonation).

168

Because different voices have different natural

and symbolic associations, they are often exploited in

acting, pretending or playing various roles. In English

and some other languages, labialized articulation can

signify baby talk <...> A combination of retroflex and

labialized articulation made the American actor,

Jimmy Stewart, seem ingenuous – a combination of

childlike and rural. A palatalized articulatory setting,

sometimes with nasalization, is used in English for

baby talk as well as for mocking. The combination of

nasal voice and a spread lip setting in the speech of the

American actor, Jack Nicholson, gives a sinister

impression – a man who mocks and smiles at the same

time.

By raising the larynx – e.g. by raising the chin

and leaning the head backward – an adult voice can be

made to sound more like that as a child, as this

stretches the vocal cords and raises the pitch as a

consequence. This is a setting that might be used for

the voice of a cartoon character (e.g. Mickey Mouse),

a doll or an adult playing a child <...> In contrast,

producing a voice with a lowered larynx creates a

deeper, more adult voice and so might be the voice

adopted by a child attempting to imitate an adult,

especially a male adult. An army drill sergeant might

“bark out” orders in a harsh shout while also placing

his chin on his chest, thereby lowering the larynx and

making the voice lower and more “commanding” <...>

169

Pennington, Martha C. Phonology in English

Language Teaching: an International Approach. –

Longman: London and New York, 1996. – PP. 160-

161.

1. What effects can be achieved by changing voice

quality?

Functions of English

We will move on to look more closely at its

functions. Perhaps the best way to start is to ask

ourselves what would be lost if we were to speak

without intonation: you should try to imagine speech

in which every syllable was said on the same level

pitch, with no pauses and no changes in speed or

loudness. This is the sort of speech that would be

produced by a "mechanical speech" device that made

sentences by putting together recordings of isolated

words. To put it in the broadest possible terms, we can

see that intonation makes it easier for a listener to

understand what a speaker is trying to convey. The

ways in which intonation does this are very complex,

and many suggestions have been made for ways of

isolating different functions. Among the most often

proposed are the following:

i) Intonation enables us to express emotions and

attitudes as we speak, and this adds a special kind of

"meaning" to spoken language. This is often called the

attitudinal function of intonation.

170

ii) Intonation helps to produce the effect of

prominence on syllables that need to be perceived as

stressed, and in particular the placing of tonic stress on

a particular syllable marks out the word to which it

belongs as the most important in the tone–unit. This

has been called the accentual function of intonation.

iii) The listener is better able to recognise the

grammar and syntactic structure of what is being said

by using the information contained in the intonation;

for example, such things as the placement of

boundaries between phrases, clauses or sentences, the

difference between questions and statements and the

use of grammatical subordination may be indicated.

This has been called the grammatical function of

intonation.

iv) Looking at the act of speaking in a broader

way, we can see that intonation can signal to the

listener what is to be taken as "new" information and

what is already "given", can suggest when the speaker

is indicating some sort of contrast or link with material

in another tone–unit and, in conversation, can convey

to the listener what kind of response is expected. Such

functions are examples of intonation's discourse

function.



184.

1. Why is intonation important?

171

2. Comment on the most often proposed functions of

intonation.

The attitudinal function has been given <...>

much importance in past work on intonation <...>,

although it should eventually become clear that it

overlaps considerably with the discourse function. In

the case of the other three functions, it will be argued

that it is difficult to see how they could be treated as

separate; for example, the placement of tonic stress is

closely linked to the presentation of "new"

information, while the question/statement distinction

and the indication of contrast seem to be equally

important in grammar and discourse. What seems to

be common to accentual, grammatical and discourse

functions is the indication, by means of intonation, of

the relationship between some linguistic element and

the context in which it occurs. The fact that they

overlap with each other to a large degree is not so

important if one does not insist on defining watertight

boundaries between them.


Cambridge: Cambr. Univ. Press, 2000. – P. 184.

1. Prove that all functions of intonation are

interrelated.

2. What is your idea of the discourse function of

intonation? Which function does it overlap with?

172

Speaker meaning, in so far as it deviates from

the surface meaning of an utterance, is generated in a

systematic way, usually when there is a perceived

mismatch between the content of an utterance and the

context in which it is conveyed. I assume that at least

some intonationally conveyed attitudes are also

conveyed by some kind of mismatch, for example

between the intonation and the message, or between

the intonation and the context. Some attitudes, of

course, are not conveyed by mismatch. Sometimes we

say what we mean. The response wonderful! with a

smile and a high fall to a friend's announcement that

he is to become a father needs little explanation. The

wide pitch range is a typical expression of strong

feeling (here, given the meaning of 'wonderful', it

conveys pleasure – the same pitch contour on no!

might express a very different emotion); the

expression of pleasure can be interpreted as a positive

attitude towards the proposition contained in the

message, and this in turn is likely to be inferred by the

receiver as implying a positive attitude, such as

'friendly' or 'supportive', towards himself.

Many intonationally conveyed attitudes,

however, in particular negative ones, are the result of

some kind of mismatch. In the situation I just

described, the response wonderful! with a narrow

pitch range and no smile would indicate that the

speaker meant something else, although any implied

173

or inferred meaning would depend on the situation.

Clearly, if we are to investigate mismatches we must

first have a clear idea of what constitutes a 'match'. It

must be possible to assign to a particular intonation

pattern, or some aspect of intonational behaviour, a

'normal' or 'expected' meaning which then has the

potential to be exploited in an unexpected way, either

intentionally, generating a prosodic implicature, or

unintentionally, generating an inference on the part of

the receiver. These implied or inferred meanings are in

my view the key to many cases of perceived 'tone of

voice' or attitude. However, until we are in a position

to identify a 'normal' association between intonation,

text and context we are not in a position to identify

any deviation from that norm.

<...> different people may make very different

inferences from the same interaction, depending on

their beliefs about the nature of the context.

Wichmann, Anne. Intonation in Text and Discourse. –

Pearson Education Limited, 2000. – PP. 145-146.

1. Do we always say what we mean? What helps

listeners to understand speaker meaning?

2. Give your own examples of mismatches between

the intonation and the message, or between the

intonation and the context.

3. Compare Anne Wichman’s approach to the

attitudinal function of intonation with Peter Roach’s

point of view.

174

The discourse function of intonation

Intonation is also important in the

conversational interaction of two or more speakers.

Most of the research on this has been on

conversational interaction of a rather restricted kind –

such as between doctor and patient, teacher and pupil

or between the various speakers in court cases. In such

material it is comparatively easy to identify what each

speaker is actually doing in speaking – for example,

questioning, challenging, advising, encouraging,

disapproving, etc. It is likely that other forms of

conversation can be analysed in the same way,

although this is considerably more difficult. In a more

general way, it can be seen that speakers use various

prosodic components to indicate to others that they

have finished speaking, that another person is

expected to speak, that a particular type of response is

required and so on. The difference between falling and

rising intonation on question–tags is supposed to

indicate to the listener what sort of response is

expected. It seems that key (the part of the pitch range

used) is important in signalling information about

conversational interaction. We can observe many

examples in non–linguistic behaviour of the use of

signals to regulate turn–taking: in many sports, for

example, it is necessary to do this – footballers can

indicate that they are looking for someone to pass the

ball to, or that they are ready to receive the ball, and

175

doubles partners in tennis can indicate to each other

who is to play a shot. Intonation, in conjunction with

"body language" such as eye contact, facial

expression, gestures and head–turning, is used for

similar purposes in speech, as well as for establishing

or confirming the status of the participants in a

conversation.



201.

1. How can intonation regulate conversational

behaviour?

2. Could all the separate functions of intonation be

seen as different aspects of discourse function?

Intonation in conversation: structure and meaning

Some contributions to a conversation are not

intended as an independent contribution but to

encourage the current speaker to continue. Such

'backchannels' can include nods, and verbal responses

such as mmmhh, yes, right, oh, oh yes etc, or verbal

echoes, repetition and reformulation of current

utterances.

<...> One assumption we make about

conversation is that in principle participants co–

operate. Of course this is not always the case –

questions are not answered, summonses are not

responded to, and backchannel feedback is withheld if

176

a participant so chooses. This is, of course,

independent of intonation, but intonation can play a

subtle role in indicating non–compliant behaviour.

An obvious example is the competitive

interruption, the attempt to take a turn before the

current speaker has ceded the floor. <...> competitive

interruptions are 'markedly raised in pitch and

loudness' When both raised pitch and loudness are

present in an interruption, the current speaker modifies

his or her speech prosodically, indicating a willingness

to relinquish the floor or, presumably by further

raising pitch and loudness, the intention to continue.

There are times when verbal responses are

realised in a way which constitutes not so much

encouragement or support for the current speaker's

talk but a challenge to it. Backchannelling, for

example, is essential to the maintaining of interaction,

but speakers may choose to do apparently conflicting

things: provide the required 'yes, I'm listening'

responses but at the same time discourage the other

speaker in some way (signalling disaffiliation while

observing interactional rules). This distinction can be

crucial to the understanding of the discourse processes

but is one which cannot always be made on the basis

of the orthographic transcription alone. Sometimes its

identification lies in the prosody and not in the words.


Pearson Education Limited, 2000. – PP. 138-140.

177

1. Comment on the term “backchannels”. Is

backchanneling important in the interaction?

2. What is meant by non–compliant behaviour?

3. What is the difference between turn–competitive

and non–competitive interruptions?


1. What branch of Phonetics studies intonation?

2. What is intonation on the perception level?

3. Comment on the British, American and Russian

approaches to intonation.

4. What is prosody?

5. What are the acoustic correlates of pitch,

loudness and tempo?

6. What types of pauses are distinguished

according to their length and function?

7. Give the definition of the intonation pattern.

What are its constituents?

8. What is the intonation group?

9. Is it possible to specify the meanings of nuclear

tones? Illustrate your answer with your own

examples.

10. Comment on the other components of the

intonation pattern, their structure, types and

function.

11. What is the meaning of the intonation group

derived from? Illustrate your answer with your

own examples.

178

12. Comment on different types of representing

intonation in the text.

13. Which method of intonation notation do you

prefer? Justify your choice.

14. View intonation on the functional level. Prove

that intonation is a powerful means of human

communication.

15. Which are the functions of intonation described

(distinguished) by phoneticians?

16. Which function of intonation is considered the

main one?

17. What is meant by distinctive function of

intonation?

18. How do prosodic means contribute to

organizing the text?

19. What is meant by marked and unmarked

position of the nucleus?

20. How can the shift of the nuclear tone affect the

information focus?


1. Mark the components of intonation patterns and

state their types:

elen’s eyes were not very good║

My mother-in- law is coming toˋmorrow║

→What are you going to do║

→Would you like me to drive║

I can’t ˋstand it anymore║

179

This book is not really ˬmine║

2. Divide the text into intonation groups by means

of pauses:

The national character of the English has been very

differently described, most of commentators agree

of a one quality, which they describe as fatuous

self-satisfaction, serene sense of superiority or

insular pride. English patriotism is based on the

deep sense of security. Englishmen as individuals

may have been insecure, threatened with the loss of

a job, unsure of themselves or unhappy in many

ways. But as a nation they have been for centuries

secure, serene in their national successes. They

have not lived in a state of hatred of their

neighbours as Frenchmen and Germans have often

lived. This national sense of security hardly

threatened by the Armada or by Napoleon or by the

First World War has been greatly weakened by the

Second World War and by the invention of the

atomic bomb.

3. Define the meanings and attitudes expressed in

the following phrases (according to their

intonation patterns):

He ˋread the book║

- →Lovely ˋweather│ - Yes║

180

She is ill║

The sell shoes gloves bags║

The sell shoes gloves bags║

- Let’s go there together│ – I’m sorry║

- Let’s go there together│ – I’m ˬsorry║

I’m not going to in vite anybody║

I’m not going to in vite ˬanybody║

y sister │who is forty now │is going to get

married║

My sister who is forty now │is going to get

married║

- Do you ever go to the night clubs? - Sometimes║

How ˋdare you speak like that║

4. Locate the nucleus in each intonation group.

I’ve got a small cake | but I want a large cake.

I can see the beginning of the sentence | but where’s

the end of the sentence?

He can finish this translation tomorrow | but not today.

She’ll have done her homework by nine o’clock | but

not by seven o’clock.

I can recognize the woman in the red dress | but who’s

in the black dress?

I met their eldest son | but didn’t meet their youngest

son.

She wasn’t at the club yesterday | she was at the

exhibition.

181

I wouldn’t like chicken and pasta | I would like beef

and pasta.

Do you want a medium cola | or a large cola?

My husband’s a doctor | and I want my son to be a

doctor too.

5. Suggest a question to which each sentence might

be a response with a) marked nucleus (focus) and b)

unmarked nucleus.

I can’t drive a car.

She’s doing her English course at Cambridge.

It was an early morning.

I’ve cooked some Italian dishes.

e’s coming to visit us soon.

They’re out next-door neighbours.

6. Shift the nucleus in the following phrases and

state what differences in the meaning it’s caused:

The exercise has to be done in writing.

I’ll do the flat as soon as I can.

You can translate the article tomorrow.

Why have you told him about it?

Did you enjoy the meal?

7. Make the following phrases sound 1) serious, 2)

relieved, 3) boring, 4) sarcastic, 5) irritated, 6) with

a feeling of reservation:

I’m tired.

182

The door is open.

This thing was mine.

Thank you very much.

Why not phone him.


1. Intonation on the perception level

2. Various approaches to the description of

intonation

3. British, American and Russian approaches to

intonation.

4. Different points of views on the classifications of

nuclear tones

5. The communicative function of intonation

6. The role of intonation in structuring the discourse

7. The pragmatics of discourse and the choice of

prosodic means

8. The rhetorical function of intonation

9. The social and indexical function of intonation

10. Non-verbal means of communication






183



Владос, 2008.




2006.



2006.

5. Блох М.Я., Фрейдина Е.Л. Публичная

речь и ее просодический строй. –

М.:Прометей, 2011.






8. Wells J.C. English Intonation. An

introduction. Cambridge University Press,

2006.

9. Wichmann A. Intonation in Text and

Discourse. Harlow: Pearson Education

Limited, 2000.

184

IX. THE RHYTHMIC STRUCTURE OF THE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Key words: aesthetic / pragmatic function,

alliteration, arhythmicality / rhythmicality, assonance,

delimitation / integration, enclitics / proclitics,

intonation group, isochrony, phonopassage, phrase,

repetition, rhyme, rhythm, rhythmic unit, speech

rhythm, stress–timed / syllable–timed, syntactic

parallelism, foot (the rhythmic group), line, stanza.

English intonation can’t be described without

reference to speech rhythm. Prosodic components

(pitch, loudness, tempo) and speech rhythm work

interdependently and some linguists even consider

rhythm to be one of the components of intonation.

In general rhythm involves some event happening

at regular intervals of time. Properties of speech

rhythm are common with and conditioned by our

biological rhythms, such as heartbeat and breathing.

Speech rhythm is traditionally defined as recurrence of

stressed syllables at more or less equal intervals of

time in speech.

English as well as Russian, German, Arabic and

other languages is considered to be a stress-timed

language. It means that stressed syllables tend to occur

at relatively regular intervals irrespectively of the

185

number of unstressed syllables separating them.

Though the amount of time given on each syllable

varies, the total time of uttering each rhythmical unit

is practically unchanged. To the Russian learners

English seems to sound very rhythmical while Russian

rhythm is more smooth and flexible. It is due to the

fact that English is an analytical language with a lot of

monosyllabic words, which are unstressed. French,

Spanish, Japanese and some other languages have

syllable-timed rhythm: in these languages all syllables,

whether stressed or unstressed, tend to occur at regular

time-intervals and the time between stressed syllables

will be shorter or longer depending on the number of

unstressed syllables separating them.

The basic rhythmic unit in both groups of languages

is a speech segment which contains a stressed syllable

and a number of unstressed ones. The most frequent

type of an English rhythmic group includes 2-4

syllables, one of which is stressed. The division into

rhythmic groups greatly depends on the language

group. In most Germanic languages (English, German,

Danish, etc.) the enclitic tendency prevails: in a stress

group unstressed syllables are grouped with a

preceding stressed syllable, so the rhythmic group

starts with a stressed syllable and includes all

186

following unstressed syllables up to (but not

including) the following stressed syllable:

Take me to the │ seaside re│ sort║

In slow formal speech the semantic tendency may

prevail: the unstressed syllables are drawn to the

stressed syllable of the same word or the lexical unit

according to their semantic connection:

Take me│ to the seaside │re sort║

In Roman languages (French, Italian, Spanish, etc.)

the proclitic tendency is more obvious: unstressed

syllables are grouped with a following stressed

syllable.

In speech the rhythmic effect is obtained by all the

prosodic parameters (pitch, loudness and tempo). The

beginning of the rhythmic unit is usually marked by

maximal pitch level and loudness and relatively slow

rate, while the end is accompanied by a relative drop

of pitch and loudness and the increase of the rate; but

each time these parameters come on a different level,

on a larger scale and in a new variety of

interrelationship.

The more organized the speech is, the more

rhythmical it appears. Poetry is the most extreme

example of this. Prose read aloud or delivered in the

form of a public speech or a lecture is more

187

rhythmical than colloquial speech. On the other hand

rhythm is also individual. Absolutely regular rhythmic

speech produces the effect of monotony, so people

usually vary the degree of rhythmicality of their

speech: sometimes they speak very rhythmically (this

is typical of some styles of public speaking or in

reading poetry) while at other times they may speak

arrhythmically (without any rhythm) if they are

nervous or hesitant.

So we can see that rhythm is an important speech

phenomenon which has a functional value. First of all

rhythm serves to organize elements in speech: it unites

smaller units (intonation groups, phrases) into larger

ones and at the same time it separates large units into

smaller ones. This function is called integrative and

delimitative. Rhythmically organized speech is easily

perceived and has a definite effect on a person. Thus

rhythm performs its aesthetic function. On the

linguistic level the pragmatic value of speech rhythm

is realized in its volitional function. Rhythm is also

capable of expressing different degrees of emotional

effect on the listener.

188

QUESTIONS AND TASKS




Imagine yourself at public auditions in which

four conductors are competing for the top job in an

orchestra. Each competitor has to conduct the same

piece of music, and each to the same metronome. As

he waves his baton, the first conductor begins with the

words, “One, two, three, four.” The second says “One

and two and three and four.” The next says “One and a

two and a three and a four.” And the last aspirant says

“One and then a two and then a three and then a four.”

Which of these conductors will miscue the orchestra?

The answer is “None.” Each of these four sentences

takes exactly the same amount of time to say. This

illustrates a key and yet peculiar feature of our

language. It is called the stress–timed rhythm of

English.

Stress–timing: We can illustrate with almost

any word of two or more syllables – for example,

“syllable.” We stress this word using the pattern Ooo,

placing primary emphasis on the first segment of the

word. In English every long word has its own stress

pattern. Think of the words “import” and “record,” for

example. Both words can be pronounced using either

the pattern Oo or the pattern oO. Which pattern you

use fundamentally changes the meaning of the word.

Something else happens after you choose which

189

syllable to stress. The pronunciation of the main vowel

in the unstressed syllable changes, often to the sound

‘uh’ which is the single most common sound in the

English language. This sound has its own special

name, schwa, and about 30 per cent of the sounds we

make when we speak English are the sound schwa. In

English, schwa can be represented by any vowel.

<...> This practice of replacing unstressed

vowels with schwa also occurs in connected speech –

English as we use it in our daily lives. If I ask “Where

are you from?” I will stress the word “from,”

pronouncing the short ‘o’ sound quite clearly. If you

answer “I’m from Sydney,” you will most likely

reduce the ‘o’ to schwa. The reason is that you are

likely to stress the word “Sydney” instead. This

reduction of vowel is the key to the stress–timing of

most forms of English.

<...> Native English speakers <...> frequently

use schwa in unstressed syllables. This is why it takes

the same amount of time to say “One, two, three, four”

as it does to say “One and then a two and then a three

and then a four.” Reducing vowels enables us to speed

through unstressed syllables. This is how we achieve

the particular rhythm of English, in which stressed

syllables are roughly equidistant in time, no matter

how many syllables come in between.

Most of the world's other major languages have quite

a different pattern. They are known as ‘syllable–

timed’ languages. Each syllable receives

190

approximately the same amount of stress as the others

in a word or a sentence. These languages thus have

quite a different rhythm from that of English.

McKenzie–Brown, Peter. The Stress–timed Rhythm of

English. –

http://languageinstinct.blogspot.com/2006/10/stress-

timed-rhythm-of-english.html, 2006.

1. What is typical of English rhythm? Give your

definition of stress pattern.

2. What is the key to the stress–timing?

3. Comment on the difference between syllable–timed

and stress–timed languages.

Stress in many languages is what defines the

rhythm of speech. Rhythm can be defined as the

pattern of occurrence in time of relatively ‘strong’ and

relatively ‘weak’ events. In a language like English,

the strong events are stressed syllables and the weak

events are the unstressed ones. There is a tendency

<...> for stressed syllables to occur at roughly equal

intervals in time in English and in other languages. If

we listen to a sentence like: John can’t have forgotten

Sally’s birthday, the strong beats that fall on the

stressed syllables appear to be roughly equally spaced

in time, although as we can see, the number of

unstressed syllables between each pair of beats varies:

0 between the first pair, 2 between the second pair,

and 1 between the third and fourth pairs. In table 1 are

http://languageinstinct.blogspot.com/2006/10/stress-timed-rhythm-of-english.html




191

some very rough measurements in milliseconds of the

durations of each stressed syllable and any following

unstressed ones, taken from a recording of the

sentence.

Table1. Foot duration measurements

Foot Syllable count Duration (ms)

John 1 406

can’t have for– 3 542

gotten 2 427

Sally’s 2 500

birthday 2 675

Each stressed syllable and any following

syllables constitute a unit known as a foot. Compare

the duration of the first and second feet. Certainly the

second is longer than the first, but it is nowhere near

three times as long, although there are three times as

many syllables. This means that the syllable rate in the

second foot must be faster than that of the first foot.

The constant alteration of syllable rate to maintain a

roughly equal foot duration is characteristic of many

accents of English and also of other languages. These

languages are sometimes called stress–timed. Not all

languages, and not even all accents of English, are like

this. French, for example, tends to have, or at least to

sound as if it has, most syllables equal in duration.

Languages like this are called syllable–timed.

192

This distinction between stress–timed and

syllable–timed languages is very probably an

oversimplification. It is probably more accurate to say

that some languages make greater use of one kind of

rhythm, but both types can be found in most

languages. It is also true that different accents of the

same language may have different rhythmic

characteristics.

Ashby M. and Maidment J. Introducing Phonetic

Science. – Cambridge University Press, 2007. – PP.

161–162.

1. What defines rhythm in English?

2. What languages are called syllable–timed and

stress–times?

We all make judgements about how quickly

someone is speaking, but it is not at all easy to work

out what we base these judgements on <...> Can we

establish scientifically that there really are

characteristic differences in speaking speed? There

are, it seems to me, three possibilities:

(1) some languages really are spoken more rapidly,

and some more slowly, than others as a natural result

of the way their sounds are produced.

(2) we get the impression that some languages are

spoken more quickly than others because of some sort

of illusion.

193

(3) in some societies it is socially acceptable or

approved to speak rapidly, and in others slow speaking

is preferred.

We need to look for appropriate ways to

measure how quickly someone is talking. We are used

to measuring the speed at which someone can type,

write or take shorthand dictation in terms of how

many words per minute are taken down. In measuring

speech, we can do the same thing – we can give

someone a passage to read, or a speaking task such as

describing what they did on their last holiday, and

count how many words they speak in a given time.

However, in speech it makes a big difference whether

or not we include pauses. Most studies of speaking

have found it necessary to make two different

measurements of the rate at which we produce units of

speech: the rate including pauses and hesitations, and

the rate excluding such things. The terms usually used

are speaking rate and articulation rate <...> It is quite

possible that some languages make more use of pauses

and hesitations than others, and our perception of

speed of speaking could be influenced by this. In

comparing different languages, however, there is a

more serious problem: some languages (e.g. German,

Hungarian) have some very long words while others

(e.g. Chinese) have very few words of more than one

or two syllables. It has been found that Finnish was

faster than English if syllables per second are

194

measured, but slower if words are counted, since

Finnish words tend to be longer than English words.

Many investigators have chosen instead to

measure the number of syllables spoken in a given

amount of time. This usually results in a syllables–

per–second measurement, and at this more detailed

level of measurement it is usual to exclude pauses.

However, we should bear in mind that different

languages have very different syllable structures.

any of the world’s languages do not use syllables

with more than three or four sounds, while others

allow syllables of many more sounds. So if a language

with a relatively simple syllable structure like

Japanese is able to fit more syllables into a second

than a language with a complex syllable structure such

as English or Polish, it will probably sound faster as a

result. It seems, then, that we should compare

languages’ speaking rate by measuring the number of

sounds produced per second, rather than the number of

syllables. Within a particular language, it is clear that

speech rate as measured in sounds per second does

vary quite widely: In theory, then, it could happen that

in speaking quickly I might produce no more sounds

per second than when speaking slowly. In order to get

a meaningful measure, it would be necessary to count

not the sounds actually observable in the physical

signal, but the “underlying phonemes” that I would

have produced in careful speech.

195

'Language Myths', eds. Bauer L. and Trudgill P. –

Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1998. – PP. 150–158.

1. Are there any characteristic differences in speaking

speed?

2. How could we measure the speed of speech?

Social factors influence the speakers of a

language in different ways: in some societies it is

regarded as acceptable or approved to speak rapidly,

while in others slow speech is preferred. There is

almost certainly an interaction with gender here, with

slow speech usually being preferred for males. This

would mean that, while at normal speaking speed the

sounds–per–second rate for all languages may be

effectively the same, some languages are

characteristically using higher and lower speaking

rates than other languages in particular social

situations. In a carefully controlled study, Kowal et al

(1983) looked at two very different types of speech

(storytelling and taking part in interviews) in English,

Finnish, French, German and Spanish. They found

significant differences between the two styles of

speech (both in terms of the amount of pausing and of

the speaking rate) but no significant difference

between the languages. They concluded that the

influence of the language is negligible compared with

the influence of the style of speech <...>

196

Certainly we are all capable of speaking faster

and slower when we want to. There are variations in

speed associated with the situation in which the

speech is being produced – we speak more rapidly if

we are in a hurry, or saying something urgent, or

trying not to be interrupted in a conversation. We tend

to speak more slowly when we are tired or bored. The

emotional state of the speaker at the time of speaking

is clearly influential. There seems also to be a personal

factor – some people are naturally fast talkers, while

others habitually speak slowly, within the same

language and dialect and in the same situation.

Research has shown that our opinion of speakers is

influenced by their speaking rate: Giles (1992) reports

that “a positive linear relationship has repeatedly been

found between speech rate and perceived

competence”, and Stephen Cowley (personal

communication) says that in Zulu society, slow speech

tempo is a sign of respect and sincerity. Yet another

social factor is the amount of temporal variability,

where the alternation between speaking rapidly and

speaking slowly may itself have considerable

communicative value <...>

'Language Myths', eds. Bauer L. and Trudgill P. –

Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1998. – PP. 150–158.

1. What factors influence the speaking rate?

2. Comment on the differences between male and

female speech rate.

3. How does tempo influence our opinion of speakers?

197

<...> It is widely claimed that English speech

tends towards a regular alternation between stronger

and weaker, and tends to adjust stress levels to bring

this about. The effect is particularly noticeable in

cases such as the following, which all show the effect

of what is called stress–shift:

compact (adjective) [kəmˈpækt] but compact disc

[ˈkɒmpæktˈdɪsk]

thirteen [θɜ:ˈti:n] but thirteenth

place [ˈθɜ:ti:nθˈpleɪs]

Westminster [westˈmɪnstə] but Westminster

Abbey [ˈwestmɪnstərˈæbɪ]

In brief, it seems that stresses are altered

according to context <...>

An additional factor is that in speaking English

we vary in how rhythmically we speak: sometimes we

speak very rhythmically (this is typical of some style

of public speaking) while at other times we may speak

arhythmically (that is without rhythm) if we are

hesitant or nervous. Stress–timed rhythm is thus

perhaps characteristic of one style of speaking, not of

English speech as a whole; one always speaks with

some degree of rhythmicality, but the degree varies

between a minimum value (arythmical) and a

maximum value (completely stress–timed rhythm).

Peter Roach. English Phonetics and Phonology. A

Practical Course. – Cambridge University Press.

2000. – P. 137.

198

1. What are the factors that influence rhythmicality of

our speech?

<...> Many foreign learners of English are

made to practice speaking English with a regular

rhythm, often with the teacher beating time or

clapping hands on the stressed syllables. It must be

pointed out, however, that the evidence for the

existence of truly stress–timed rhythm is not strong.

There are many laboratory techniques for measuring

time in speech, and measurement of the time intervals

between stressed syllables in connected English

speech has not shown the expected regularity;

moreover, using the same measuring techniques on

different languages, it has not been possible to show a

real difference between “stress–timed” and “syllable–

timed” languages. Experiments have shown that we

tend to hear speech as more rhythmical than it actually

is, and one suspects that this is what the proponents of

the stress–timed rhythm theory have been led to do in

their auditory analysis of English rhythm. However

one ought to keep an open mind on the subject,

remembering that the large scale, objective study of

suprasegmental aspects of real speech is difficult to

carry out, ad much research remains to be done.

What, then, is the practical value of the

traditional “rhythm exercise” for foreign learners? The

argument about rhythm should not make us forget the

199

very important difference in English between strong

and weak syllables. Some languages do not have such

a noticeable difference (which may, perhaps, explain

the subjective impression of “syllable–timing”), and

for native speakers of such languages who are learning

English it can be helpful to practice repeating strongly

rhythmical utterances since this forces the speaker to

concentrate on making unstressed syllables weak.

Speakers of languages like Japanese, Hungarian and

Spanish – which do not have weak syllables to

anything like the same extent as English does – may

well find such exercises of some value <...>

Peter Roach. English Phonetics and Phonology. A

Practical Course. – Cambridge University Press.

2000. – PP. 137–138.

1. What is the practical value of the traditional

“rhythm exercises”?

2. Are such exercises useful of Russian learners of

English? Why?


1. What is understood by rhythm in a broad sense?

2. What does the notion of speech rhythm imply?

3. Into what groups are languages divided

depending on their type of rhythm?

4. What languages are called syllable–timed?

5. What languages are called stress–timed?

6. What phenomena create the spiky effect of

English rhythm?

200

7. Give the definition of the rhythmic group.

8. Comment on the tendencies of grouping of

stressed and unstressed syllables in a rhythmic

group. Which tendency is more typical of

English?

9. What are the constituents of rhythmicality?

10. What factors regulate speech rhythm?

11. What is the most rhythmical style of speech?

12. What are the basic rhythmic units in poetry?

13. What other devices contribute to the effect of

rhythmicality in poetry? Illustrate your

answer with your own examples.

14. Comment on the hierarchy of rhythmic

structures in prose. Illustrate your answer with

your own examples.

15. Speak about the rhythmical organization of

spontaneous speech.

16. Comment on the functions of rhythm.

17. What recommendations would you give to

Russian learners of English concerning the

acquisition of English rhythm?


1. Divide the phrases into rhythmic groups.

Observe a) enclitic tendency, b) semantic

tendency:

What’s your idea of a really good holiday?

Try some of this fruit pie.

201

Perhaps she wants to go somewhere this evening.

It became the largest seaside resort.

An old lady came up to a train conductor.

2. Read the poems and find examples of

phonetic, syntactical and semantic devices

which contribute to the impression of

rhythmicality:

With rue my heart is laiden,

For golden friends I had,

For many a rose-lipped maiden,

For many a light-foot lad.

By brooks too broad for leaping

The light-foot boys are laid.

The rose-lipped girls are sleeping

In fields where roses fade. (A.E.HOUSMAN)

Down by the Sally Gardens my love and I did meet,

She passed the Sally Gardens with little snow-white

feet.

She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on

the tree,

202

But I being young and foolish with her would not

agree.

In a field by the river my love and I did stand,

And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-

white hand.

She bid me take life easy as the grass grows on the

weirs,

But I was young and foolish and now am full of

tears. (W.B.YEATS)

Some say the world will end in fire

Some say - in ice.

From what I tasted of desire

I hold with those who favour fire.

But if it had to perish twice

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And will suffice. (ROBERT FROST)

When I was one and twenty

I heard a wise man say:

Give crowns and pounds and guineas,

But not your heart away.

203

Give pearls away and rubies,

But keep your fancy free,

But I was one and twenty -

No use to talk to me.

When I was one and twenty

I heard him say again:

The heart out of the bosom

Was never given in vain.

'Tis paid with sighs a plenty

And sold for endless rue.

And I'm two and twenty

And Oh, 'tis true, 'tis true. (A.E.HOUSMAN)


1. Rhythm in poetry

2. Rhythmic organisation of prose.

3. Rhythm of spontaneous speech.

204








Владос, 2008.




2006.



2006.






205

X. PHONOSTYLISTICS AND THE

STYLISTIC USE OF INTONATION

Key words: academic (scientific) / conversational

(familiar) / declamatory (artistic) / informational /

publicistic (oratorial) style, aim (purpose) of

communication, functional style, degree of formality,

degree of spontaneity, dialogue / monologue /

polylogue, extralinguistic, formal / informal, forms of

communication, gender, general activity types,

participants, phonostylistics, setting, social status,

speaker’s attitude, specific subject matter, speech

behaviour, style forming / modifying factors, tenor of

discourse.

accommodation, assimilation, coarticulation,

colloquial (casual) speech, consonant cluster, elision,

formal speech, monophthongization, reduction

(qualitative / quantitative), simplification.

10.1. Problems of Phonostylistics

A speaker uses a great number of varieties of the

language according to the situations he finds himself

in. As he/she moves through the day, so the variety of

the language he/she uses is moving. It is changed

instinctively or consciously at home, with friends, at

work, so on. An educated speaker is multilingual.

Functional stylistics studies certain aspects of

language variations. The aim of it is to analyze

206

language habits and identify the linguistic features

which are restricted to certain social contexts, to

explain them and to classify them.

It is important to realize what kind of English is

used in the process of teaching. We all agree that we

are to teach the norm of English. But there isn't much

agreement as far as the term "norm" is concerned.

This term is interpreted in different ways. Some

scholars associate “norm” with the so-called "neutral"

style. According to this conception all stylistically

marked parameters do not belong to the norm. More

suitable, however, seems to be the conception which

considers the norm as a complex of all functional

styles.

There are 3 so called levels of functional stylistics:

lexical, syntactic and phonetic. We shall deal only

with phonetic stylistics or phonostylistics.

Phonostylistics studies the way phonetic means of

the language function in various oral realizations of

the language. The choice of the phonetic means

suitable to this or that situation depends on a number

of factors, among which extra-linguistics ones are

very important as they result in phonostylistic

varieties.

207

The most important extra-linguistic factor is the aim

of utterance, which is a sort of strategy for the

language user. People speak in order to inform,

persuade, instruct, narrate, etc. In each particular case

speakers select a number of intonational means that

serve his/her purpose and make his/her speech more

effective. That is why the aim of utterance is

considered to be a style-forming factor, whereas the

rest are style-modifying ones.

The nature of intercourse or the form of speech can

also influence the choice of a phonetic style. It

suggests listening, speaking, or exchanging remarks

and may be a lecture, a discussion, a conversation, etc.

Depending on the number of participants it may be a

monologue, a dialogue or a polilogue. The last factor

sets the degree of speech spontaneity or preparedness.

An utterance can be qualified as fully spontaneous,

when the verbal realization of speech is simultaneous

to reproduction of the idea in the mind of the speaker.

Speech is half-prepared when the speaker has thought

over what he/she is going to say (for example, a

teacher giving explanations at a lesson). Speech is

fully prepared when the speaker prepares the reading

of a piece of prose (or poetry) or when he/she quotes.

208

In this case the speech is prepared in advance, is

written on paper and is generally read.

Other style-modifying factors include social and

psychological situations. The occupations of the

speaker and the listener, the social status, age and

gender determine the degree of formality of speech

and the attitudes expressed (it may be a friendly talk, a

formal conversation, public or non-public speech,

etc.). If the situation is formal the speaker will tend to

articulate more slowly and carefully. Individual

sounds will be given their full forms, none will be

omitted. In a very informal situation, on the other

hand, he/she will be more likely to speak quickly, less

carefully, and some sounds will either change their

form or be omitted entirely.

All these factors are interconnected and

interdependent in everyday life situations and it’s

normally the combination of several of them that

characterizes the phonetic style.

The task of phonostylistics is firstly, to identify the

set of phonetic expressive means, which are

stylistically significant; secondly, it must outline a

method of analysis, which would allow to arrange

these features in such a way as to facilitate the

comparison of the use of one language with any other;

209

thirdly it must decide on the function of these features

by classifying them into categories, based on the

extra-linguistic purpose they have.

One of the most urgent problems of phonostylistics

is the classification of phonetic styles. Different

scholars name different styles according to the

principle the classification is based on. We give

preference to the classification suggested by the

phoneticians of our faculty. Taking the aim of

utterance as the main principle of their classification

they distinguish the following phonetic styles:

Informational

Scientific or academic

Publicistic

Declamatory

Familiar or conversational

Any of these styles has a great many varieties in

accordance with style-modifying factors. Besides any

of these styles may be realized either in the form of

reading or in the form of speaking.

Speaking and reading are two different psychic

processes in which the sounding utterance is generated

in different ways. When a person reads a text, he/she

has a ready piece of information, written on paper. So

he/she doesn't have to think what to say. The only

210

thing he/she has to think of is how to say, how to

make it sound proper, according to the norm of the

language, suitable for the situation. As a result the

usage of phonetic means is characterized by a high

degree of regularity.

When a person produces a spontaneous text, that

has not been written or prepared beforehand, he has to

think of both: what and how to say. When such a

person starts speaking he/she has only an intention to

make an utterance. In most cases he/she doesn't even

know how long the utterance is going to continue. The

speaker has to decide spontaneously how to express

what he intends using proper lexical, phonetic and

grammatical means. The main thing that differs

reading and speaking is the segmentation (or

delimitation) of speech into phrases and intonation

groups. In reading a phrase corresponds to a written

sentence. The end of the phrase is marked by a pause

with a complete stop of phonation and by the falling

nuclear tone. Intonation groups in the text which is

read coincide with syntagms. Each intonation group

has a semantic centre.

Intonation groups of a spontaneous text may be

syntactically complete or incomplete (they may lack a

semantic centre). The end of the intonation group is

211

characterized by the absence of any pause and often is

pronounces with the mid-level or even rising nuclear

tone. While reading a person makes mainly syntactic

pauses, those which mark the end of a phase or an

intonation group. Sometimes a reader makes emphatic

pauses too, to emphasize the following part of

utterance. While speaking a person makes three kinds

of pauses - syntactic, emphatic and hesitational,

among which hesitations prevail. Hesitation pauses are

characteristic of spontaneous speech belonging to any

style.

In spontaneous speech semantic centres are more

prominent, they are much louder, pronounced at a

much higher pitch and are much slower compared to

the rest of the utterance. We can say that rhythm in

spontaneous texts is often non-systematic, variable

and unpredictable.

Normally, each act of communication is addressed

at a listener, so it’s important to understand what

perceptional characteristics of an oral text have a

style-differentiating value for him/her. The most

important ones are considered to be delimitation (or

segmentation), the accentuation of semantic centres

and the speaker’s timbre.

212

10.2. Intonational Styles

Now we are going to discuss the main intonational

features of each style. It should be born in mind that

each style exists in a number of varieties which

depend on the style-modifying factors.

1) Informational Style

It seems to be the most neutral as its main purpose

is to convey information without expressing any

emotions or attitudes. It is the least marked kind of

situationally influenced English. This kind of style is

used mostly in broadcasting, press reporting, oral

representation of any information or a written text, in

formal business conversations and classroom teaching.

Among the prosodic features characteristic of this

style we should mention the following:

Low Fall/Rise with Descending Heads and

High Level Head;

stable and normal loudness;

normal or relatively slow speed;

mostly syntactic pauses;

systematic and properly organised rhythm.

213

2) Academic Style

It is used in lectures, scientific discussions,

conferences, etc. Its purpose is to inform, to win the

attention and interest of the public, to establish a

contact with the audience. As it is an intellectual and

volitional type of speech (the speaker appeals to the

intellect and will of the listener) it requires some

emotional colouring. It is achieved by varying

prosodic features, by the alternation of pauses, types

of heads and terminal tones, by using tempo contrasts:

High/Low Falls and Fall-Rises with Stepping

Head;

rather high loudness;

a large proportion of pauses that serve to

bring out semantic centres;

normal or relatively slow speed

systematic and properly organized rhythm.

3) Publicistic Style

This is the style of public discussions on political,

judicial or economic topics, sermons, parliamentary

debates. Its aim is to persuade, to influence, to

involve the audience into the talk and to make the

listeners take the speaker’s point of view. It is never

spontaneous and is often even rehearsed. This style is

214

extremely emotional, mimics and gestures are widely

applied.

The prosodic features are the following:

a lot of High Falls and Fall-Rises with

Descending and Ascending Heads;

changes of loudness from fortissimo to

whispering;

rather slow speed;

intonation groups are not short, separated

with rather long mostly syntactical and

emphatic pauses;

properly organized rhythm.

4) Declamatory Style

It is used on stage, TV screen or in class in reading

aloud prose or poetry. Its aim is to appeal

simultaneously to the mind and emotions of the

listener, so this style is highly emotional and

expressive. It requires special training. On the prosodic

level the following features are the most common:

falling, level nuclear tones with Low/High

Level or Stepping Head;

varied loudness;

rather slow speed;

properly organized and stable rhythm.

215

5) Conversational Style

This is the style of every-day communication

between friends, relatives, well-acquainted people. It is

relaxed, characterized by the lack of planning, so it is

unpredictable, there are a lot of errors, slips,

hesitations, elliptical constructions:

falling or rising tones with Level or Falling

Heads;

normal loudness;

varied speed;

intonation groups are rather short separated by

pauses, mostly hesitations, which can be both

silent and filled;

irregular rhythm.

As we have mentioned already, each style has some

varieties depending on the extra-linguistic factors.

Each can be realized in different forms: monologue,

dialogue, polilogue, in speaking and reading, etc. It’s

also important to note that any style is seldom realized

in its pure form, each oral text usually includes

phonetic characteristics of different styles, so there’s

overlapping (or fusion) of styles. But the knowledge

of peculiarities of the usage of different phonetic

styles improves the effectiveness of speech,

216

facilitates understanding and communication, so it

shouldn't be ignored in both teaching and learning a

foreign language.

QUESTIONS AND TASKS




‘Style’ refers to a way of doing something.

Think of architectural styles and the striking rustic

style of house–building in rural Sweden. That

particular style – what allows us to call it a style – is

an assemblage of design choices. It involves the use of

timber frames, a particular type of roofline and so on.

We can place this style. It belongs somewhere, even if

this style is lifted out of its home territory and used

somewhere else. It has social meaning. The same is

true for styles in all other life–domains. Cultural

resonances of time, place and people attach to styles

of dress and personal appearance in general, to styles

in the making of material goods, to styles of social and

institutional practice, perhaps even to styles of

thinking. The world is full of social styles.

This general account of style can of course be

applied to linguistic forms and processes too. We are

all familiar with the idea of linguistic style, and most

people will think first of language in literary style.

Literary style relates to the crafting of linguistic text in

217

literary genres and to an aesthetic interpretation of

text. This book is about style in speech and about ways

of speaking, not about literary style, although it would

be wrong to force these areas of study too far apart.

Coupland N. Style. Language Variation and Identity. –

Cambridge University Press, 2007. – PP. 1–2.

1. How does the author view style in cultural and

social context?

2. ow does he describe the concepts of “literary

style” and “linguistic style”?

The discipline label ‘stylistics’ was popularized

in the 1950s, and it came to be thought of a discrete

field of linguistics or applied linguistics. ‘General

stylistics’ was interested in all forms of language text,

spoken and written, distinguished from the sub–field

of literary stylistics. Early stylistics was dominated by

linguistic structuralism, which emphasized the

structural properties of texts at different levels of

linguistic organization (phonological, grammatical,

lexical, prosodic). It gloried in the technical

sophistication of linguistic description, at a time when

linguistics was still developing momentum. Stylistics

was largely based on taxonomies – lists of language

features, levels and functions. For example, a very

simple hierarchical analysis of English style was

offered by Martin Joos in his strangely titled book

“The Five Clocks” (1962). The ‘clocks’ were levels of

218

formality in spoken and written English, which Joos

labelled ‘frozen’, ‘formal’, ‘consultative’, ‘casual’,

‘intimate’. It was based on an intuition about degrees

of familiarity/intimacy between people which, Joos

argued, impacted on communicative style. The detail

of how Joos meant these terms to be applied is not

particularly important here, but the ‘clocks’ idea

endorses a linear scale of ‘formality’. Formality or

communicative ‘carefulness’ is assumed to dictate a

speaker’s stylistic choices or designs.

Coupland N. Style. Language Variation and Identity. –

Cambridge University Press, 2007. – PP. 10.

1. What were early stylistic studies focused on?

Now it is also observable language events do

not occur in isolation from other aspects of human

behaviour; rather, we know that they operate within

the manifold complex of human social behaviour and

are mutually related to it. They take place in

situations, and situation is the third aspect of the

language event: ‘the environment in which text comes

to life’ ( alliday, 1975b). For the moment, situation

can be thought of as the relevant extra–textual

circumstances, linguistic and non–linguistic, of the

language event/text in question.

These, therefore, are the three essential aspects

of the language event: substance, which is either

phonic (audible sound waves) or graphic (visible, or in

219

the case of Braille, tactile, marks on a surface); form,

its meaningful internal pattering; and situation, its

relevant extra–textual circumstances, linguistic and

non–linguistic. These aspects of the language event

are relatable to the levels or strata of language and

linguistic description. The lexico–grammatical level

(syntax, morphology and vocabulary) is concerned

with form; semantic statements correlate the

contextual relations between situation and form; and

phonology links form and substance, attempting to be

explicit about how sounds and features of sound are

utilized in a given language in order to realize the

meaningful contrasts of grammar and lexis.

A framework for understanding and describing

language varieties has to deal with the constant

features of the situational circumstances of language

events that can be consistently related to variety in the

language texts.

Gregory M., Carroll S. Language and Situation. –

London: Rontledge and Kegen Paul Ltd, 1978. – P. 4.

1. Comment on “situation” as a component of language event.

2. How does the author view the role of phonetic

means in communication?

The mode of discourse is the linguistic

reflection of the relationship the language user has to

the medium of transmission. Initially, this relationship

220

may be seen as a simple one: which medium is being

used, speech or writing. However, as soon as

relationships such as those between conversation in

real life and dialogue in novels and plays, or between

a speech and an article, are considered, then more

delicate distinctions are necessary, and differences

between spontaneous and non–spontaneous speech,

and between what is written to be spoken and what is

written “to be read with the eye”, become relevant.

Categories such as user’s individuality,

temporal provenance, geographical provenance, social

provenance, range of intelligibility, purposive role,

medium relationships and personal and functional

addressee relationship are, then, general situational

categories for the description of language events. They

pattern with idiolect, temporal, geographical, social,

standard and non–standard dialects, field, mode, and

personal and functional tenors of discourse, which are

general contextual categories when they are applied to

a particular language.

The relationship the user has with his audience,

his addressee(s), is the situational factor that is

involved in tenor of discourse. Tenors of discourse

result from the mutual relations between the language

used and the relationships among the participants in

language events. When the relationship is considered

on the personal axis, variation ranging from extreme

degrees of formality through norms to extreme

degrees of informality is relevant, and the user’s

221

personal addressee relationship and personal tenor of

discourse are appropriate general categories. However,

there are also variations related to what the user is

trying to do with language (in a sense that is different

from the purposive–role/field–of discourse factors)

for, or to, his addressee(s) – whether he is teaching,

persuading, advertising, amusing, controlling, etc.

Functional addressee relationship and functional tenor

of discourse are the categories to cope with this

constant source of significant situational and linguistic

variation.

Gregory M., Carroll S. Language and Situation. –

London: Rontledge and Kegen Paul Ltd, 1978. – P. 8–

9.

1. How does the author define the “mode of

discourse”?

2. What is meant by the “tenor of discourse”?

3. Name general situational categories for the

description of language events.

If we compare a piece of written English with a

piece of spoken English, regarding them simply as

physical objects or events and forgetting for the

moment the fact that they convey meaning to us, it is

apparent at once that they bear no resemblance to each

other whatever. The piece of written English consists

of groups of small black marks arranged on a white

surface, while the piece of spoken English consists of

222

a succession of constantly varying noises. It would

hardly be possible for two things to be more different.

However, we have only to recall the fact that both of

them convey meaning, to be in no doubt that, utterly

dissimilar as they may be, they are both equally

English. As soon as we make explicit this identify

lying behind the complete difference, we have in fact

drawn the distinction in question: we have recognized,

in effect, that the piece of spoken English and the

piece of written English are the same language

embodied in different mediums, one medium

consisting of shapes, the other of noises.

Abercrombie D. Elements of General Phonetics. –

Edinburgh University Press, 1967. – PP. 1–2.

1. What observations are made by the author when

he compares written and spoken English?

One assumption we work on here, of course, is

that on the whole people want to be friendly; they

want to get on well with others, which involves telling

jokes, making pleasantries, and the like. And the point

is that a good deal of everyday humour, as well as

much of the informality of domestic conversation,

relies on deviance from accepted norms of one kind or

another. Person A may adopt a ‘posh’ tone of voice in

making a point to B; he may deliberately speak in an

archaic, or religious, or journalistic way to get a

particular effect; or he may extend a structural pattern

223

in the language further than it is normally permitted to

go – as when, on analogy with ‘three hours ago’. All

this might be referred to as ‘stylistic’ variation (using

a rather restricted sense of ‘stylistic’ here).

Crystal, David and Davy, Derek, Advanced

Conversational English. – Longman Group Limited

1979. – P. 10.

1. Comment on “stylistic variation” as seen by the authors.

We can also distinguish between public and

private speech. Interactional behaviour exhibited in

private may be constrained by the conventions of a

public arena. Media interviewers are trained, for

example, not to give too much back–channel

feedback. An interviewee, aware of wanting to sound

as articulate as possible, may consciously suppress

filled pauses (ums and ers). A politician wishing to

avoid the interruption of an aggressive journalist may

develop techniques of dispensing with any end–of–

sentence pauses that might offer an opportunity to

interrupt, pausing only mid–phrase where an

interruption is less likely.

As we have seen, there are many different kinds

of speech, or speaking styles, varying according to a

number of contextual parameters. I have discussed

here only a subset of these parameters, summarized

below:

224

speech event: monologue vs. dialogue

public vs. private

goal–oriented vs. unconstrained

mode : scripted vs. unscripted

rehearsed vs. spontaneous

There are many other contextual factors, such as

speaker–hearer relationships (including power

relationships) which may also be crucially important.

Future research in discourse prosody will have to

consider very many more dimensions of variation than

is currently the case.


Pearson Education Limited, 2000. – PP. 22.

1. What are the differences between public and private

speech?

2. What contextual factors determine the style of

speech?

3. What other contextual parameters can be added to

the list given by the author?


1. What factors are called extra-linguistic?

2. What does phonostylistics study?

3. What is “the style”? Explain the difference

between phonetic and functional style. What

criterion is used for singling out phonetic and

functional styles?

4. What is the extralinguistic situation?

225

5. Enumerate the components of the

extralinguistic situation.

6. Speak about the purpose of communication. In

what way does it direct the activities of the

participants throughout the situation?

7. Enumerate the factors that determine the

variation of phonetic means.

8. Why is the aim of communication called the

most important “style forming factor”? What

aims of communication can be distinguished?

Give your own examples.

9. Comment on the formality of the situation.

What are social relations reflected in?

10. What are the most important characteristics of a

spoken spontaneous text?

11. Why is the speaker’s attitude included into the

set of style forming factors?

12. Enumerate the forms of communication. In

what way do they determine the choice of

phonetic means?

13. Which extralinguistic factor determines the

stylistic modifications of speech sounds?

14. Which extralinguistic factor determines the

variations of intonation?

15. What factor in the given classification based

on?

16. Which phonetic styles are singled out according

to this classification?

226

17. Speak about each phonetic style: the sphere of

discourse, extralinguistic and prosodic

characteristics:

- Informational style;

- Academic style;

- Publicistic style;

- Declamatory style;

- Conversational style.








Владос, 2008.




2006.



2006.


Penguin Books, 2007

227

6. Wichmann A. Intonation in Text and

Discourse. Harlow: Pearson Education

Limited, 2000.




228

XI. TERRITORIAL VARIETIES OF

ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION

Key words: accent, advanced / conservative / general

/near– / refined / regional RP, BEPS, bilingualism /

monolingualism, Brummie, Cockney, dialect,

dialectology, diglossia, Estuary English,

ethnolinguistics, General American pronunciation

(GA), idiolect, literary pronunciation, national

pronunciation standard, national variant, orthoepic

norm, Received Pronunciation (RP), Scouse,

sociolinguistics.

The English language is spoken in a variety of

ways. It’s the official language of the UK, the USA,

Canada, Australia, New Zealand and in a number of

former British colonies. English spoken in these

countries differs in vocabulary, grammar and

pronunciation. The varieties of the language are

conditioned by language communities. Speaking

about the nations we refer to the national variants of

the language, that is the language of a nation, the

standard of its form, the language of its nation’s

literature.

It’s important to distinguish between dialect and

accent. Dialect refers to variations in vocabulary,

grammar and pronunciation, while accent means a

229

type of pronunciation, that is the way sounds, stress,

rhythm and intonation are used in the given language

community. Today all the English-speaking nations

have their own national variants of pronunciation (and

national pronunciation standards) and their own

peculiar features that distinguish them from other

varieties of English. National pronunciation standards

are associated with radio and TV newsreaders and

public figures. It is generally accepted that for the

"English English" the national standard is "Received

Pronunciation" (RP), for the "American English" -

"General American", for the "Australian English" -

"Educated Australian".

National standards are not fixed; they undergo

constant changes due to various internal and

external factors.

Within a national language there are a number of

territorial or regional standards. Regional standards

are used by most educated people in the region, and

show a certain degree of deviation from the national

standard. In Britain several groups of regional

accents are recognized: Southern, Northern, Welsh,

Scottish and Northern Irish. In the United States

there are three major groups: Southern, Western

and Eastern. Less educated people use numerous

230

local accents which can be either urban or rural. For

certain economic, political and cultural reasons one

of the dialects becomes the standard language of the

nation. This was the case of London dialect whose

accent became RP.

An individual may speak RP in one situation

(with teachers, at work, etc.) and then use a native

local accent in other situations. This phenomenon

is called diglossia. It shouldn't be mixed up with

bilingualism which is the command of 2 different

languages.

Correspondingly every social community has

its own social dialect and social accent

(professional, educational, according to one's age,

gender, e t c . ) .

It is evident that language means are chosen

consciously and unconsciously by a speaker

according to his perception of the situation.

Individual speech of members of the same language

community is known as idiolect.

11.1. British English

RP is believed to be a social marker, a prestige

accent of an Englishman, often referred to as the

“Queen’s English” or “BBC English”. It’s estimated

that only 3-5% of the population of Great Britain

231

speak RP and some phoneticians even say that there

are more foreign speakers of English who use RP

that native English speakers themselves. Nowadays

RP is not homogeneous. Three types are

distinguished within it: the conservative RP (the

language of the royal family, aristocracy and court),

the general RP (spoken by most educated people and

BBC announcers) and the advanced RP (used by

young people). This last type of RP is believed to

reflect the tendencies typical of changes in

pronunciation. Some of its features may be results of

temporary fashion; some are adopted as a norm.

The status of RP has changed in the last years. It

used to be associated with high-class society,

aristocracy, authority and competence. Nowadays,

however, RP speakers may be disliked because they

sound “posh”. Though most BBC announcers still

speak RP, other national TV and radio channels have

become tolerant of broadcasters’ local accents.

As we’ve mentioned already, pronunciation is

subject to all kinds of innovations. Considerable

changes are observed in the sound system of the

present-day English:

- there is a tendency for all short vowels to be

made nearer the centre of the mouth;

232

- the vowels [i:] and [u:] become more

diphthongized (and more fronted);

- [eɪ] is becoming shorter or more like a

pure sound [e]: said [sed], again [əˈgen];

- the diphthong [ʊə] tends to be [ɔ:]: sure [ʃɔ:],

poor [pɔ:];

- [æ] is often replaced by [a]: have [hav], and

[and];

- in rapid speech [h] is lost in the pronouns and

the auxiliary “have”: her [ɜ:], he [i:], had

[æd];

- palatalized final [k] is often heard: weak

[wi:k’], Dick [dɪk’];

- the sound [t] in the intervocalic position is

made voiced: better [ˈbedə], letter [ˈledə];

- the dark [ł] is used instead of [l]: believe

[bɪˈłi:v];

- [j] is lost following [l, s, z, n]: suit [su:t],

illuminate [ɪˈlu:mɪneɪt], exuberant

[ɪgˈzu:b(ə)r(ə)nt], neutral [ˈnu:tr(ə)l];

- [t+j, d+j] become affricates: fortune

[ˈfɔ:ʧu:n], duty [ˈʤu:tɪ];

- pre-consonantal [t] becomes a glottal stop:

don’t come [dɜʊnʔˈkʌm].

233

There is also a strong tendency for elision,

reduction and assimilation.

There has appeared a new classification of RP

types: general, refined and regional. Refined RP is

defined as an upper-class accent; the number of

people speaking it is declining. Regional RP

represents, in fact, Regional Standards, among which

one has become very popular and is said to be

substituting RP in general. This is the so-called

“Estuary English”. It is a variety of modified regional

speech, a mixture of non-regional and local south-

eastern English pronunciation and intonation. Estuary

English speakers place themselves “between Cockney

and the Queen”.

The phonetic features of Estuary English include:

- the use of [w] where RP uses [l] in the final

positions or in a final consonant cluster:

faulty = fawty; all full = awful;

- glottal stop for [t] and [d]: Scoʔland,

neʔwork;

- elision of [j] after “n, l, t, s”: news [nu:z],

tune [ʧu:n], absolute [ˈæbsəlu:t], assume

[əˈsu:m];

234

- [ɪ] is prolonged in the final position and may

tend towards the quality of a diphthong: very

[ˈveri:], city [ˈsɪti:];

- triphthongs [aʊə] and [aɪə] smooth into one

long [a:]: hour [a:], tired [ta:d].

Estuary English intonation is characterized by

frequent prominence given to prepositions and

auxiliary verbs, in some cases the nuclear tone can fall

on prepositions:

Let’s get to the point.

The pitch of intonation patterns in Estuary English

appears to be narrower than that of RP.

Estuary English nowadays is believed to describe

the speech of a far larger and currently more

linguistically influential group than advanced RP

speakers. The popularity of Estuary English among

the young is significant for the future. The RP

speakers may be aware that RP (Conservative and

Advanced) can arouse hostility and general RP is no

longer perceived as a neutral accent. So Estuary

English is attractive to many, as it obscures

sociolinguistic origins.

11.2. American English

The formation of the American English underwent

under the influence of minorities' languages, but its

235

starting point was the English language of the 17th

century. The American language has fewer dialects as

Standard English had already existed when first

English settlers came to America. Still three main

types of cultivated speech are recognized in the USA:

the Eastern type, the Southern type and Western or

General American. The following phonetic features

of GA are distinguished:

- length is not differentiated in [i:] - [ɪ] and [u:]

- [ʊ];

- [e] is more open;

- [æ] is used in the words in which RP has

[a:], often before a combination of [s] with

another consonant, but when there is no letter

“r” in spelling: dance [dæns], can’t [kænt];

- there is no vowel [ɒ], which is replaced by

[ɑ:]: god [gɑd:], clock [klɑ:k];

- there are no diphthongs, ending in [ə], all

vowels occurring before “r” within a syllable

become “r-coloured”: more [mɔ:r], heard

[hɜ:rd], letter [ˈletɚ];

- [r] is retroflex (pronounced with the tip of

the tongue curled back) and is used in all the

positions where there is an “r” in spelling;

- [1] is hard: relieve [rɪˈłi:v];

236

- [t] between vowels is voiced: better [ˈbedə],

letter [ˈledə];

- when [t] follows [n], it is omitted and the

vowel becomes nasalized: twenty [ˈtwenɪ],

winter [ˈwɪnə];

- in [ju:] [j] is not pronounced in all positions:

mute [mu:t], super [ˈsu:pɚ], nuclear

[ˈnu:klɪɚ];

- in "where", "when", etc. [w] is pronounced as

[hw];

- the suffixes -ory, -ary, -mony have an

additional secondary stress

(sometimes called tertiary): ˈdictioˌnary,ˈ testiˌmony,

laˈbora.tory.

Intonation is smoother and seems rather dull and

monotonous due to the narrower pitch range and Mid-

level Head. Level-rising tones in special questions and

statements are also common in American English:

- What’s your name - ˏSixbie.

So as we can see the norms of GA and RP

pronunciations are highly variable and are subject to

further changes.

237

QUESTIONS AND TASKS




The British are well–known for being extremely

sensitive about how they and others speak the English

language. Accent differences seem to receive more

attention here than is general anywhere in the world,

including other English–speaking countries. It may be

for this reason that native and non–native teachers of

English view the matter with considerable interest.

Additionally, their own pronunciation is important

because it is the model for their students to imitate.

The teacher of British English as a foreign language

typically chooses Received Pronunciation as the

model (or BBC English, Standard English, Queen's

English or Oxford English as it is sometimes called).

RP (for short) is the most widely understood

pronunciation of those in the world who use British

English as their reference accent. It is also the type of

British English pronunciation that Americans find

easiest to understand.

Rosewarne David. Estuary English: Tomorrow’s RP

// English Today 37, Vol. 10, No. 1, January 1994. –

P. 1.

1. Why is RP typically chosen as a model in teaching

pronunciation?

238

<...> It seems, however, that the pronunciation

of British English is changing quite rapidly. What I

have chosen to term Estuary English may now and for

the foreseeable future, be the strongest native

influence upon RP.

"Estuary English" is a variety of modified

regional speech. It is a mixture of non–regional and

local south–eastern English pronunciation and

intonation <...>

The heartland of this variety lies by the banks of

the Thames and its estuary, but it seems to be the most

influential accent in the south–east of England. It is to

be heard on the front and back benches of the House

of Commons and is used by some members of the

Lords, whether life or hereditary peers. It is well

established in the City, business circles, the Civil

Service, local government, the media, advertising as

well as the medical and teaching professions in the

south–east. "Estuary English" is in a strong position to

exert influence on the pronunciation of the future <...>

<...>In the circles of those privileged young

people who are likeliest to be influential in the future,

the accepted pattern is very often set by the children of

the upwardly mobile socially. For these groups the

standard pronunciation is often "Estuary English". My

contention is that "Estuary English" describes the

speech of a far larger and currently more linguistically

influential group than "Advanced" RP speakers. The

239

popularity of "Estuary English" among the young is

significant for the future.



PP. 1-2, 7.

1. What is the circle of Estuary English usage?

The intonation of "Estuary English" is

characterized by frequent prominence being given to

prepositions and auxiliary verbs which are not

normally stressed in General RP. This prominence is

often marked to the extent that the nuclear tone (the

syllable highlighted by pitch movement) can fall on

prepositions. An example of this would be: "Let us get

TO the point". There is a rise fall intonation which is

characteristic of 'Estuary English" as is a greater use

of question tags such is "isn't it?" and "don't I?" than

in RP. The pitch of intonation patterns in "Estuary

English" appears to be in a narrower frequency band

than RP. In particular, rises often do not reach as high

a pitch as they would in RP. The overall effect might

be interpreted as one of deliberateness and even an

apparent lack of enthusiasm.



P. 6.

1. State the difference in intonation between RP

and Estuary English.

240

<...> What is unusual about RP <...> is that it is

the accent of English English with the highest status

and that it is totally non–regional. It is a defining

characteristic of the RP accent that, while it is clearly

a variety that is associated with England, and to a

certain extent also with the rest of the United

Kingdom, it otherwise contains no regional features

whatsoever. Of course, typologically it has its origins

in the southeast of England <...> The point is,

however, that it is not possible to ascribe any

geographical origins to a genuine native RP speaker

other than that they are almost certainly British, and

probably English. This peculiar lack of regionality

must be due to a peculiar set of sociolinguistic

preconditions, and has in fact often been ascribed to

its origin in British residential, and therefore also non–

regional, schools for the children of the upper–classes,

the so–called Public Schools.

Trudgill, Peter. Sociolinguistic Variation and Change.

– Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2001. –

PP. 172-173.

1. What is the origin of RP – geographical or

sociolinguistic one?

<...> Discrimination on the grounds of accent

still, unfortunately, occurs in British society. But this

discrimination is no longer against all regional accents

but only against those from, as it were, lower down

241

the triangle. And it is also no longer permitted in

British society to be seen to discriminate against

someone on the basis of their accent – it has to

masquerade as something else. This hypocrisy is a

sign of progress, of an increase in democratic and

egalitarian ideals. This has also, probably, though

again we lack the research, had the consequence that

an RP accent can be even more of a disadvantage in

certain social situations than was formerly the case. In

many sections of British society, some of the strongest

sanctions are exercised against people who are

perceived as being 'posh' and 'snobbish'. These factors

also mean that many fewer people than before are now

speakers of what Wells <...> has called adoptive RP:

that is, many fewer people than before who are not

native speakers of RP attempt, as adolescents or

adults, to acquire and use this accent. Even

Conservative Party politicians no longer have to strive

for RP accents, as a recent Conservative Prime

Minister once did.

<...>As far as RP is concerned, the ongoing

work of Fabricius (2000) shows that the younger

generations of those sections of the community one

would expect to be RP speakers still are RP speakers.

Pupils at Eton, and undergraduates at Cambridge

University who are former pupils at the big Public

Schools, are still for the most part RP speakers. Their

RP has some new features, but these features are all,

242

including /t/–glottaling, non–regional features and

therefore must still be considered as being RP.



PP. 176.

1. Is RP still spoken in Great Britain?

2. Is an RP accent considered to be of an advantage or

a disadvantage in modern British society? Prove it.

<...> This leads me again to raise the topic of

which model to employ for teaching so–called 'British

English', in reality English English, to non–native

learners. It has been suggested that it would now make

more sense to teach learners 'Estuary English' rather

than RP. Of course, it must be true that there are more

speakers of 'Estuary English' in England than there are

of RP. And of course it is a good idea if 24–year–old

Poles, say, sound as much as possible like 24–year–

old, rather than 94–year–old, English people. I would

therefore advocate rather strongly teaching intrusive

/r/ and some forms of /t/–glottaling at least to

advanced students. But I would not advocate the

teaching of 'Estuary English' or of features associated

solely with it, such as diphthong–shifted vowels or /l/–

vocalisation, since these are specifically regional

features.

<...> I am a non–RP speaker, but I believe that

it is convenient that students learning English English

243

still have a non–regional model available to them. The

fact is that in spite of the developments just outlined,

the triangle model remains an accurate one for a

description of social and regional patterns of accent

variation in Britain. The development of a network of

regional varieties in Britain is taking place, as it were,

underneath a non–regional, nationwide layer provided

by RP. This layer is thinner than it was – the minority

is probably even smaller than it was – but it is likely to

remain intact until British society undergoes even

more radical changes in its social structure than it has

already undergone in the last twenty years.



PP. 179-180.

1. Do you agree with the author’s reasons for teaching

RP to non–native speakers?

"Our analysis reveals that the Queen's

pronunciation of some vowels has been influenced by

the standard southern British [SSB] accent of the

1980s, which is more typically associated with

speakers younger and lower in the social hierarchy,"

said Jonathan Harrington and three colleagues at

Macquarie University in Sydney. "We conclude that

the Queen no longer speaks the Queen's English of the

1950s, although the vowels of the 1980s Christmas

244

message are still clearly set apart from those of an

SSB accent."

The researchers report in Nature today that they

see the gentle shift from cut–glass to cockney as part

of the blurring of class distinctions in Britain. Modern

Received Pronunciation, for instance, resists the

dropped "h" of those born within the sound of Bow

bells, but there is a cockney–influenced tendency to

pronounce the "l" in milk as if it were a vowel. Some

of these changes have been led by younger people

who reject establishment pronunciation, the

researchers say. Could the older generation have

resisted the influence of the young?

So Dr Harrington and his colleagues went

straight to the older generation at the pinnacle of the

British establishment. "The Queen's Christmas

broadcasts were ideal for addressing this issue. Firstly

they have been annual for a long period of time;

secondly the Queen's accent is obviously not going to

be influenced by geographical changes; thirdly any

changes we observe are not going to be influenced by

changes to style and content of the messages, because

these have been quite consistent throughout."

With the blessing of Buckingham Palace and

help from the BBC archives, the team compared the

royal vowels of the 1950s and 1980s with the vowels

of other female broadcasters. They found that in each

case the Queen's accent had drifted towards the

vowels of the younger generation.

245

"We are all familiar with the change that has

taken place in the vowels of words like 'that man'

where, in the 1930s, we still had something like 'thet

men,' " said Jonathan Wells, professor of linguistics at

University College London. "She is only following

along trends that exist in any case. She still remains

well behind them, shall we say, and of course she still

sounds upper–class, the way she always did."

The Queen's English of today: My 'usband and I ...

Special report: the future of the monarchy, science

editor Radford, Tim // Guardian Unlimited (C)

Guardian News and Media Limited, Thursday

December 21, 2000. –

http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/estuary/queen.htm.

1. What are the changes in the Queen’s

pronunciation? Do they reflect the tendencies in

modern British English pronunciation?

In a Brompton Road bar sit three expensively

dressed girls, surrounded by shopping bags. They are

decked out from head to toe in well–cut finery, but

this year's most fashionable accessory is worn on the

tongue. "E's go' a tewwibuw 'abit", they say, in

deepest Estuary, as they discuss a friend with a

cocaine habit.

Ten years ago they would have been sharing dorms

and speaking like royalty. Today they are footloose

and consonant–free.

246

Tamara Beckwith despairs of them. "I would

certainly never pretend that I was brought up in

Hackney," she has said, and complains that some of

her friends from "equally grand families" are prone to

such outbursts as – she mimics – "Aawight, Tam,

know worra mean, innit?"

Relax, Tamara – when the girls go home normal

service will be resumed. They are simply following

the new rule: Never say "brown" in town, it's always

"bran". These days you don't just change your clothes

to suit the occasion, you change your accent too. Sir

Roy Strong may have complained long ago about

Princess Diana's "common" accent, but now it is the

Knightsbridge norm for modish young Sloanes. OK

yah–ing is so Eighties.

There is, of course, a long tradition of rich girls

slumming it. However, even at the height of

proletarian chic, there were limits. Posh punks kept up

standards in the Seventies: their artfully ripped bin–

liners were worn with a cut–glass accent. The

difference today is that Tamara's pals are not making a

statement – they're just going with the flow. Speech

codes, like dress codes, have been relaxed. And if

London's the place to be, London's the accent to

speak.

Times have changed since John Wyndham

famously observed that the English were "branded on

the tongue". But accent does still matter. It's just that

today it is more to do with etiquette than origins.

247

Serious "downgrading" began in the Eighties,

among the students who colonised the inner cities,

squatting in council flats and opening galleries and

vegetarian cafés. And if you walked the walk (in black

jeans and Dr Martens), you had to talk the talk too. A

new lingo evolved: let's call it Hackney Down. Since

then it has become the lingua franca of the low–paid,

low–prestige liberal professions, such as teaching and

social work. And its influence can be detected in all

those now swimming in the modern mainstream, from

young actresses to New Labour's new women.

<...> Sometimes people upgrade out of

necessity. The big publishing houses, television news

and current affairs departments, and the "quality

press", are largely staffed by RP–speakers. RP

remains the voice of authority. Former citadels of RP

such as the City have fallen, but accents remain

segregated: the public schoolboys are brokers and the

"barrow boys" are traders.

Generally speaking, flexibility is the name of

the game <...> This flexibility may be effective, but it

signals a big change in the outlook of the upper–

middle classes. In the past they wouldn't have had to

worry about fitting in with their social inferiors. Now

middle class men embrace "working class" male

culture because they want to fit in and not draw

attention to themselves.

All accents are in a constant state of flux,

geographically as well as socially <...> While Estuary

248

sweeps all before it in the South, prejudice about

regional accent is alive and well. "Let's face it," said a

Home Counties recruitment consultant quoted in a

recent report, "people with Scouse accents sound

whiny and people with Brummie accents sound

stupid." In a survey of British attitudes, Received

Pronunciation came out on top, with the industrial

accents: Glaswegian, Scouse, Brum and Cockney at

the bottom.

Sellars, Kirsten. We wanna talk like common people. –

Telegraph Group Limited, 1997. –

http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/estuary/sellars.htm.

1. Why do people pick up a certain accent?

2. Enumerate all the accents mentioned in the

extract and comment on their peculiarities.

The Institute of Personnel and Development

found that accents were seen as crucially important by

many employers. A London consultant said: "They

communicate background, education and birthplace

and, frankly, some backgrounds are more marketable

than others. I would advise anyone with a 'redbrick' or

industrial accent to upgrade. Politicians and lawyers

do it, so why shouldn't others?" A majority of

recruiters agreed that people with strong regional or

working class accents were most likely to suffer

discrimination.

249

Public figures with recognisable provincial accents

had mixed feelings about the findings.

The Liverpudlian poet Roger McGough, who

was awarded an OBE in the New Year's honours list,

said he thought that prejudice against regional accents

had died out. He was sad that it seemed to be

returning. He said: "I have lived in London for about

20 years and my accent has definitely softened, but I

love regional accents. I think everybody should have

one. As long as your grammar is good and you can

speak properly then no one should take any notice of

your accent."

The former Arsenal and England footballer

Allan Smith now writes on soccer for The Telegraph,

but said he feared that his Birmingham accent would

obstruct a move into broadcasting. "I have done some

radio, but I don't think that my accent would help if I

wanted to make it a permanent job," he said. "Scottish

accents work really well on the radio, but you don't

hear many Brummies. I don't think it's discrimination

– just that my nasal tones don't come over that well."

Edwina Currie, Tory MP for Derbyshire South and

originally from Liverpool, admitted to adapting her

accent to the nature of her audience. She said: "I used

to have a really strong Scouse accent and in the 1960s

it would open all sorts of doors, but it has softened a

bit now. When I am in the Midlands I have a much

stronger accent and if I am having an argument in a

pub then I can do a Midlands voice as well as the rest

250

of them. Nowadays I would say the biggest

discrimination is against 'Oxford posh'."

Clare Short, the Labour frontbencher, said she

believed that there was resistance to the Birmingham

accent. "I have never tried to change mine and no one

has ever been rude about it," she said. "But I think

people have tended to look down their noses at the

Brummie voice. We should hang on to regional

accents and not try to iron them all out. That would be

so dull."

The Midland Bank said that it had carried out

extensive research before making the decision to base

its telephone bank, First Direct, in Leeds. "Our

research showed that people found a northern accent

more acceptable," a spokesman said.

Watson–Smyth, Kate. How you say it puts the accent

on success // The Daily Telegraph, 2 January 1997. –

http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/estuary/smyth.htm.

1. Do “negative” accents really exist in your opinion?

2. Do you agree that accents create a certain image of

a person?


1. What is the connection between sociolinguistics

and other branches of linguistics?

2. What is the national variant of the language?

3. ow do you understand the term “national pronunciation standard”? What is another term

for it?

251

4. What are national pronunciation standards for

Great Britain, the USA, Australia?

5. Prove that national pronunciation standards are

not fixed.

6. Comment on the phenomena of bilingualism

and monolingualism.

7. What are the reasons for one of the dialects

becoming the standard language of the nation?

8. What regional dialect of Great Britain has

become the national standard of the English

language? Is it homogeneous?

9. What is diglossia and how does it differ from

bilingualism?

10. What are social dialects and social accents?

11. ow can you define the term “idiolect”?

12. In what countries is English spoken as the

native language?

13. What are British English pronunciation

standards and accents?

14. Why can we say that RP is a regionless accent

within Britain?

15. What groups are distinguished within RP?

Comment on each of them.

16. What changes are observed in the sound system

of the present–day English?

17. What aspects of vowel quality are subject to

changes?

18. Comment on the changes in RP consonants.

19. Is English intonation subject to changes?

252

20. Do you agree that American English is the

national variant of English, or is it a different

language?

21. How can you explain the fact that there are

fewer dialects in American English that in

British English?

22. What three main types of cultivated speech are

recognized in the USA?

23. Comment on the peculiarities of General

American.

253








Владос, 2008.




2006.



2006.




6. Trudgill P. Sociolinguistic Variation and

Change. – Edinburgh: Edinburgh University

Press, 2001.

254

PRESENTING AN ARTICLE

Useful Phrases

The article is devoted to, illustrates, contains an

overview of, introduces

The author gives an overview of

The author highlights, point out, outlines,

specifies, claims, argues, proves

Special focus (attention) is given to

In terms of

As regards

It is highly relevant

Respectively

In a broad sense, in a general sense

The established approach is

It is generally acknowledged

It is implied

The idea is supported by

The crucial factor (question) is

The explanation is based upon

The most obvious conclusion to draw here is

An influential linguist

To maintain, to claim, to assume, to convey

Reliable criterion

To tend

To be bound to

It follows from this that

To be faced with

255

As contrasted with

Indication of

To state a problem

Connectives

Therefore

Moreover

Firstly, secondly, lastly

Similarly

On the whole

On the contrary

As it is

In other words

In addition

Finally

Commenting

The article was designed to establish (identify,

describe)

The key concept is

The basic assumption is

The author’s primary concern is I’d like to give an overview

It’s a very crucial area

If we look at

Now a quick word on

256

What needs to be stressed here

It is clearly evident

It is perfectly clear

We can note that

It is most marked in

All this shows conclusively that

To sum up

Finally I’ll try to outline the relevant

conclusions

257

CHECK YOURSELF

Questions and tasks for revision:

1. Who was the originator of the Phoneme

Theory?

2. What branch of Phonetics studies the functional

aspect of speech sounds?

3. What science is not connected with Phonetics?

A – Psychology B – Physics C –

Chemistry

4. What are articulatory differences between

vowels, consonants and sonorants?

5. For which sound(s) are the lips rounded?

6. For which sound(s) do we need to use teeth?

7. For which sound(s) can you feel your Adam’s Apple vibrate?

8. Compare the places of articulation of the

English [h] and the Russian [х].

9. In what word will the vowel be the shortest?

The longest? Why?

duty – do – doom


vowels are relevant? Irrelevant? Find examples

to prove it.


consonants are relevant? Irrelevant? Find

examples to prove it.

12. [p – b] and [f – v] pairs differ by the feature:

A – The degree of noise B – The manner of

articulation C – The place of articulation

258

13. Is the following opposition singular, double,

multiple?

wet – met

14. Is palatalization a distinctive feature in

English? In Russian?

15. Is force of articulation a distinctive feature in

English? In Russian?

16. Where is commutation test used?

17. The phonemes in the [b–m] pair differ by:

A – one feature B – two features C – three

features

18. There exists a triple distinction between:

A – [p], [ð] B – [p], [Ɵ] C – [b], [ð]

19. The phonemes [w], [j], [r] possess one common

property. They are all

A – back consonants B – lingual consonants

C – sonorants

20. What type of modifications of sounds does not

refer to consonants?

A – Assimilation B – Reduction C –

Elision

21. Which principle of the consonant classification

is relevant?

A – Presence of voice B – Place of

obstruction C – Aspiration

22. Which principle of the vowel classification is

irrelevant?

A – Length B – Stability of articulation C

– Tongue position

259

23. What is the phone?

24. Is lip position a relevant feature?

25. What is a diphthong?

26. What does the invariant of the phoneme consist

of?

27. Is vowel length relevant?

28. Can you pronounce an allophone?

29. What is a vowel?

30. What is a subsidiary allophone?

31. Can you pronounce a phoneme?

32. What is a consonant?

33. What are minimal pairs?

34. Why do we need International Phonetic

Alphabet?

35. How many syllables are there in the word

“tablet”?

A – One B – Two C – Three

36. The English language is

A – stress–timed B – syllable–timed

37. How many syllables are there in the word

“tablet”?

A – One B – Two C – Three

38. The English stress is

A – fixed B – shifting

39. How is stress achieved?

40. How can you explain the difference between

men’s, women’s and children’s voice qualities

(timbres)?

260

41. What is the acoustic correlate of pitch?

Loudness? Speed of utterance?

42. What is the auditory impression of a periodical

sound wave? Non–periodical?

43. Without which part can’t the intonation pattern

exist?

44. Intonation is a complex of

A – pitch, tempo, loudness B – pitch

variations C – prosodic variations

45. Functionally pauses may be:

A – short B – long C – hesitational

46. What does the number of intonation groups in a

sentence depend on?

47. What is a nucleus?

48. What is the general meaning of Fall–Rise?

49. How can intonation mark the communicative

centre?

50. What is the role of pitch?

51. What is the intonation pattern?

52. What is the difference between prosody and

intonation according to British Scholars?

53. What is the general meaning of Low Fall?

54. What is the syntagm?

55. What is the function of a tail?

56. What is the structure of intonation?

57. What is pitch range and its function/role?

58. Divide the phrases into rhythmic groups.

Observe a) enclitic tendency, b) semantic

tendency:

261

It became the largest seaside resort.

59. What extra-linguistic factor is a style forming

one?

60. What style is a hesitation pause typical of?

61. What is our classification of phonetic styles

based on?

62. Which style is considered to be neutral?

A – Conversational B – Informational C –

Scientific

63. Which style requires special training?

64. What is assimilation?


following word combinations: don’t go.


following word:

blackboard

67. What type of assimilation is observed in just

think (complete/partial,

progressive/regressive)?

68. What is reduction?

69. What is the difference between an accent and a

dialect?

70. What is Received Pronunciation?

71. What is diglossia?

72. What is Estuary English?

73. What do we call the Standard English

Pronunciation?

A – General English B – Educated English

C – Received Pronunciation

262

GLOSSARY

Academic style – also scientific style, a style of

speech used in lectures, scientific discussions,

conferences, etc.

Accent – 1) type of pronunciation, that is the way

sounds, stress, rhythm and

intonation are used in the given language community.

2) see stress.

Accommodation - modifications of consonants

under the influence of the neighbouring vowels and

vice versa.

Acoustic Phonetics – science which deals with the

physical property of sounds.

Affricates - noise consonants produced with a

complete obstruction which is slowly released and the

air stream escapes from the mouth with some friction.

Allophones – variants of a phoneme, usually occur

in different positions in the word, cannot contrast with

each other and are not used to differentiate the

meaning.

Alveolar – sounds produced with the tip of the

tongue against the upper teeth (alveolar) ridge.

American English – the national variant of the

English language spoken in the USA.

Amplitude - the distance to which the air particles

are displaced from their position of rest by the

application of some external force.

Apical – sounds articulated with the tip of the

tongue.

263

Applied Phonetics – a branch of phonetics used for

practical purposes in speech therapy and logopedia.

Articulatory Phonetics – also Physiological

Phonetics, a branch of phonetics which is concerned

with the study of speech sounds as regards their

production by the human speech organs.

Ascending head – a type of head in which syllables

form an ascending sequence.

Assimilation - The modification of a consonant by

a neighbouring consonant in the speech chain.

Auditory Phonetics – a branch of phonetics which

is concerned with the way our auditory mechanism

works to process speech information, also Perceptual

Phonetics.

Back vowels – vowels formed with the tongue in

the back part of the mouth.

Back-advanced vowels - vowels formed with the

tongue in the back-advanced position in the mouth.

Back-lingual – see velar.

BBC English – the accent used on BBC radio and

TV channels, is considered a standard English spoken

in Great Britain, also Received Pronunciation.

Bilabial – sounds produced when both lips are

active.

Bilingualism - the command of 2 different

languages by a person.

British English - the national variant of the

English language spoken in Great Britain.

264

Broad transcription – also phonemic

transcription, provides special symbols for all the

phonemes of a language.

Broad variations – a subclass of the vertical

positions of the tongue which in this case is placed

slightly lower in the mouth cavity.

Cacuminal – sounds articulated with the tip of the

tongue curled back.

Central vowels – sounds articulated when the front

part of the tongue is raised towards the back part of

the hard palate.

Checked vowels – short stressed vowels followed

by strong voiceless consonants.

Checkness – a vowel property which depends on

the character of articulatory transition from a vowel to

a consonant

Close vowels – sounds articulated when the tongue

is raised high towards the hard palate.

Closed syllable – a syllable which ends in a

consonant.

Coda - one or more phonemes that follow the

syllabic phoneme.

Communicative centre – a word or a group of

words which conveys the most important point of

communication in the sentence or the utterance.

Commutation test – the procedure of substituting a

sound for another sound in the same phonetic

environment with the aim of establishing the

phonemic system of a language

265

Comparative Phonetics – a branch of phonetics

which studies the correlation between the phonetic

systems of two or more languages

Consonant – a sound made with air stream that

meets an obstruction in the mouth or nasal cavities.

Conversational style – also conversational style, a

style of speech used in everyday communication.

Declamatory style - a style of speech used in stage

speech, recitations, etc.

Delimitation - segmentation of speech into phrases

and intonation groups.

Dental - sounds produced with the blade of the

tongue against the upper teeth

Descending head - a type of head in which

syllables form an descending sequence

Descriptive Phonetics – a branch of phonetics that

studies the phonetic structure of one language only in

its static form, synchronically.

Devoicing – a process that results in a voiced

consonant being pronounced as voiceless.

Dialect – a variety of language which differs from

others in vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.

Diglossia – a phenomenon when an individual

may speak RP in one situation a native local accent

in other situations.

Dynamic stress – force accent based mainly on

the expiratory effect.

Diphthong - a vowel which consists of two

elements, strong (a nucleus) and weak – (a glide).

266

Diphthongoid – a vowel articulated when the

change in the tongue position is fairly weak, in this

case the articulated vowel is not pure, but it still

consists of one element.

Direct methods – methods of phonetic

investigation which consist in observing the

movements and positions of one's own or other

people's organs of speech in pronouncing various

speech sounds, as well as in analysing one's own

kinaesthetic sensations during the articulation of

speech sounds and in comparing them with the

resultant auditory impressions.

Discourse - a larger context in which sentences

occur.

Dorsal – sounds produced when the blade of the

tongue is active.

Duration - the quantity of time during which the

same vibratory motion, the same patterns of vibration

are maintained.

Elision - complete loss of sounds, both vowels and

consonants, often observed in spoken English.

Enclitic – unstressed words or syllables which refer

to the preceding stressed word or syllable.

Estuary English - a variety of modified regional

speech, a mixture of non-regional and local south-

eastern English pronunciation and intonation. Estuary

English speakers place themselves “between Cockney

and the Queen”.

267

Experimental Phonetics – a branch of phonetics

which deals with research work carried out with the

help of different technical devices for measurements

and for instrumental analysis

Extra-linguistic factors – non-linguistic factors,

such as the purpose of utterance, participants and

setting or scene of speaking, which result in

phonostylistic varieties.

Familiar style – see conversational style.

Forelingual – sounds articulated with the front part

of the tongue

Fortis consonants – voiceless consonants

pronounced with strong muscular tension and strong

expiratory effect.

Free variants - variants of a single phoneme which

occur in a language but the speakers are inconsistent

in the way they use them, as for example in the case of

the Russian words "галоши/ калоши".

Free vowel - a weak vowel followed by a weak

(lenis) voiced consonant or by no consonant at all.

Frequency - a number of vibrations per second.

Fricative - constrictive noise consonants articulated

when the air escapes with friction through the

narrowing formed by speech organs.

Front vowels – vowels in the production of which

the body of the tongue is in the front part of the mouth

cavity and the front of the tongue is raised.

268

Front-retracted vowels - vowels produced with the

body of the tongue in the front but retracted position

in the mouth cavity.

Functional Phonetics – see phonology.

General American - the national standard of the

English language spoken in the USA.

General Phonetics - a branch of phonetics that

studies all the sound-producing possibilities of the

human speech apparatus and the ways they are used

for purposes of human communication by means of

language.

Glide – the second weak element of English

diphthongs.

Glottal - sounds articulated in the glottis.

Glottal stop – a sound heard when the glottis opens

suddenly and produces an explosion resembling a

short cough.

Glottis - the opening between the vocal cords,

through which the air passes.

Hard palate – the roof of the mouth.

Head – part of the intonation group, contains

stressed syllables preceding the nucleus with the

intervening unstressed syllables.

Hesitation pause - silent or filled pause mainly

used in spontaneous speech to gain time to think over

what to say next.

Historical Phonetics - a branch of phonetics that

studies the phonetic structure of a language in its

historical development, diachronically.

269

Idiolect - individual speech of members of the

same language community

Informational style - a style of speech used by

radio and television announcers conveying

information or in various official situations.

Instrumental methods - methods of phonetic

investigation based upon registering or computing

machines and technical devices

Intensity - a property of a sound produced by the

amplitude of vibrations.

Interdental – sounds articulated with the tip of the

tongue projected between the teeth.

International Phonetic Alphabet – a set of

symbols adopted by the International Phonetic

Association as a universal system for the transcription

of speech sounds.

Intonation - pitch (or melody) variations used to

convey meaning. See also prosody

Intonation group – an actualized syntagm.

Intonation pattern - pitch movements together

with loudness and the tempo of speech extending over

an intonation group.

Intonation style – a complex of interrelated

intonational means which is used in a social situation

and serves a definite aim of communication.

Intonogramme – the picture of the sound wave of

a syllable, word or an utterance received with the help

of intonograph.

270

Intonograph – a technical device which gives

pictures of sound waves of syllables, words and

utterances.

Kinetic – relating to motion.

Labial – sounds articulated by the lips.

Labiodental – sounds articulated with the lower lip

against the edge of the upper teeth

Laryngoscope – a special device which helps to

observe the vocal cords, epiglottis and the glottis.

Larynx – part of the vocal tract containing the

vocal cords.

Lateral – sounds produced when the sides of the

tongue are active.

Lateral plosion – sudden release of air which

escapes along the sides of the tongue.

Lax – historically short vowels in the articulation of

which muscular tension of speech organs is weak.

Lenis consonants – voiced consonants pronounced

with weak muscular tension.

Lip rounding – a position of the lips when their

corners are brought toward one another so that the

mouth opening is reduced.

Loudness – the intensity of sound is produced by

the amplitude of vibrations.

Manner of articulation – one of the principles of

consonant classifications which is connected with the

type of obstruction to the air stream.

Maximum onsets principle – this principle states

that where two syllables are to be divided, any

271

consonants between them should be attached to the

right–hand syllable, not the left, as far as possible

within the restrictions governing syllable onsets and

codas.

Medio-lingual – sounds produced with the front

part of the tongue raised high to the hard palate

Minimal pair – a pair of words or morphemes

which are differentiated by one sound only in the same

position.

Modifications of sounds – positional and

combinatory changes of sounds in connected speech.

Monophthong – a vowel articulated when the

tongue position is stable, in this case the articulated

vowel is pure, it consists of one element.

Mouth cavity – the cavity between the teeth and

the pharynx.

Narrow transcription – also phonetic

transcription, provides special symbols for all the

allophones of the same phoneme

Narrow variations - a subclass of the vertical

positions of the tongue which in this case is raised

slightly higher in the mouth cavity

Nasal consonants – sounds articulated when the

soft palate is lowered and the air stream goes out

through the nose.

Nasal Cavity – the cavity inside the nose which is

separated from the mouth cavity with the soft palate

and the uvula.

272

Nasal plosion – sudden release of air by lowering

the soft palate so that the air escapes through the

nose.

National variants - the language of a nation, the

standard of its form, the language of its nation’s

literature.

Neutral vowel – a mid central vowel, also schwa.

Neutralisation – the loss of qualitative and

quantitative characteristics of vowels in unstressed

positions.

Noise consonants – consonants in the production of

which noise prevails over voice, the air stream passes

through a narrowing and produces audible friction

(compare with sonorants).

Normative Phonetics – see Practical Phonetics.

Notation – another term for transcription.

Nuclear tone - a significant change of pitch

direction on the last strongly accented syllable in an

intonation pattern. In general nuclear tones may be

falling, rising and level or a combination of these

movements.

Nucleus – 1) the last strongly accented syllable in

an intonation pattern;

2) the most prominent part of a diphthong;

3) the centre of a syllable, usually a vowel.

Obstructer mechanism – a group of speech organs

which form obstructions during articulation of

consonants, it includes tongue, lips, hard and soft

palate and teeth.

273

Occlusive – sounds produced when a complete

obstruction to the air stream is formed.

Onset - sounds that precede the nucleus of a

syllable.

Open syllable - a syllable which ends in a vowel.

Open vowels – vowels produced when the tongue

is in the low part of the mouth cavity.

Opposition – see phonetic oppositions.

Oral consonants - sounds articulated when the soft

palate is raised and the air stream goes out through the

mouth.

Organs of speech – the human organs which

together with biological functions take part in sound

production.

Palatal – sounds produced with the front part of the

tongue raised high to the hard palate.

Palatalisation – softening of consonants due to the

raised position of the middle part of the tongue

towards the hard palate.

Palato-alveolar - sounds made with the tip or the

blade of the tongue against the teeth ridge and the

front part of the tongue raised towards the hard palate,

thus having two places of articulation (two foci).

Paralinguistics – a branch of linguistics which is

concerned with non-verbal means of communication.

Perceptual Phonetics – see Auditory Phonetics.

Pharynx – the part of the throat which connects the

larynx to the upper part of the vocal tract.

274

Phonation – voicing, the vibration of the vocal

cords.

Phone – a sound realised in speech and which bears

some individual, stylistic and social characteristics of

the speaker.

Phoneme - the smallest further indivisible language

unit that exists in the speech of all the members of a

given language community as such speech sounds

which are capable of distinguishing one word of the

same language or one grammatical form of a word

from another grammatical form of the same word.

Phonemic transcription – see broad

transcription.

Phonetic mistakes – pronunciation mistakes made

when an allophone of some phoneme is replaced by an

allophone of a different phoneme.

Phonetic oppositions - comparison of sounds,

words and morphemes in order to single out their

minimal distinctive features.

Phonetic transcription – see narrow

transcription.

Phonetics – a branch of linguistics which is

concerned with the human noises by which the

thought is actualized. Phonetics analyses the nature of

these sounds, their combinations and their functions in

relation to the meaning.

Phonological analysis – analysis whose aim is to

determine which differences of sounds are

275

phonemic/non-phonemic and to find the inventory of

the phonemes of this or that language

Phonological mistakes - pronunciation mistakes

made when an allophone of the phoneme is replaced

by another allophone of the same phoneme; in this

case the meaning of the word is affected.

Phonology - also Functional Phonetics, a branch

of phonetics that is concerned with the social

functions of different phonetic phenomena.

Phonosemantics – a branch of psycholinguistics

that studies the relations between the sound structure

of a word and its meaning.

Phonostylistics – a branch of phonetics that

studies the way phonetic means of the language

function in various oral realizations of the language.

Phonotactics - the study of the possible phoneme

combinations of a language.

Physiological Phonetics – see Articulatory

Phonetics.

Pitch – the auditory characteristic of a sound, it

corresponds to the fundamental frequency (the rate of

vibrations of the vocal cords).

Pitch level – a particular height of pitch.

Pitch range – the interval between two pitch levels

or two differently pitched syllables or parts of a

syllable.

Place of articulation – the place in the vocal tract

where the air stream is obstructed.

276

Plosives – consonants produced when the air stream

is completely stopped for a short time, also stops.

Post-alveolar - sounds articulated with the tip or

the blade of the tongue against the back part of the

teeth ridge

Power mechanism - a group of speech organs

which supplies energy for sound production, it

includes lungs, diaphragm, windpipe, bronchi.

Practical Phonetics – a branch of phonetics which

teaches how to pronounce sounds correctly and what

intonation to use to convey this or that meaning or

emotion. It is called Normative Phonetics because

teaches the "norm" of English pronunciation.

Pragmalinguistics – a branch of linguistics that

studies what linguistic means and ways of influence

on a hearer to choose in order to bring about certain

effects in the process of communication.

Pragmaphonetics – a branch of Pragmalinguistics

whose domain is to analyse the functioning and

speech effects of the sound system of a language.

Pre-head - the unstressed syllables which precede

the first stressed syllable of the head.

Primary stress – the strongest stress compared

with the other stresses in a word.

Principal allophone - allophones which do not

undergo any significant changes in the chain of

speech.

Proclitic - unstressed words or syllables which

refer to the following stressed word or syllable

277

Prosody - a complex unity formed by significant

variations of pitch, tempo, loudness and timbre.

Psycholinguistics – a branch of linguistics which

covers an extremely broad area, from acoustic

phonetics to language pathology, and includes such

problems as acquisition of language by children,

memory, attention, speech perception, second-

language acquisition and so on.

Publicistic style - a style of speech used in public

discussions on political, judicial or economic topics,

sermons, parliamentary debates

Qualitative – connected with the spectral

characteristics of a sound.

Quantitative – referring to the length of a sound.

Received Pronunciation (RP) – the national

standard of the English language spoken in Great

Britain.

Reduced vowel – a weakened vowel.

Reduction - weakening (either qualitative or

quantitative) of vowels in unstressed positions.

Resonator mechanism - a group of speech organs

which can change their shape and volume, thus

forming the spectral component of the sound, it

includes nasal and mouth cavities. Rhyme

Rhythm - recurrence of stressed syllables at more

or less equal intervals of time in speech.

Rhythmic group - a speech segment which

contains a stressed syllable and a number of

unstressed ones. The most frequent type of an English

278

rhythmic group includes 2-4 syllables, one of which is

stressed.

Rounded – a sound articulated with added lip

rounding.

Schwa – see neutral vowel.

Scientific style – see academic style.

Secondary allophones - allophones which undergo

some predictable changes in different phonetic

context.

Secondary stress – a less strong stress than the

primary one, usually precedes the primary stress in a

word.

Segmental Phonetics – a division of phonetics

which is concerned with individual sounds

("segments" of speech)

Segmentation – division of speech into phrases and

intonation groups.

Semantic centre – see communicative centre.

Sentence stress – the greater degree of prominence

given to certain words in an utterance.

Sociolinguistics – a branch of linguistics that

studies the way the language interacts with society.

Soft palate – the back, soft part of the hard palate.

Sonorants - consonants in the production of which

noise prevails over voice, the air stream passes

through a narrowing and produces audible friction

(compare with sonorants).

Sonority – a degree of loudness relative to that of

other sounds with the same length, stress and pitch.

279

Special Phonetics – a branch of phonetics which is

concerned with the study of the phonetic structure of

one language only.

Spectrogram – a picture of the spectrum of sounds,

their frequency, intensity and time.

Spectrograph – a device which carries out the

spectral analysis of speech.

Stops – see plosives

Stress – a greater degree of prominence which is

caused by loudness, pitch, the length of a syllable and

the vowel quality.

Stress-timed languages – in these languages

stressed syllables tend to occur at relatively regular

intervals irrespectively of the number of unstressed

syllables separating them.

Strong vowel – the full form of a vowel in the

stressed position.

Stylistic modifications - sound changes which

happen under the influence of extra-linguistics

factors.

Subsidiary allophone – see secondary allophone.

Suprasegmental Phonetics – a division of

phonetics whose domain is larger units of connected

speech: syllables, words, phrases and texts

Syllable - a sound sequence, consisting of a centre

which has little or no obstruction to airflow and which

sounds comparatively loud; before and after this

centre there will be greater obstruction to airflow and

less loud sound.

280

Syllable-timed languages - in these languages all

syllables, whether stressed or unstressed, tend to occur

at regular time-intervals and the time between stressed

syllables will be shorter or longer depending on the

number of unstressed syllables separating them.

Syntagm - a group of words which is semantically

and syntactically complete.

Tail - any syllables between the nucleus and the

end of the utterance.

Tempo - the rate of the utterance and pausation.

Tense - historically long vowels in the articulation

of which muscular tension of speech organs is great.

Terminal tone - the nucleus and the tail of the

utterance.

Tertiary stress – a less strong stress than the

primary one, usually follows the primary stress in a

word.

Theoretical Phonetics – a branch of phonetics

which is mainly concerned with the functioning of

phonetic units in the language. It discusses the

problems of phonetics in academic terms and gives a

scientific approach to the phonetic theory.

Timbre - voice quality.

Tone languages - the meaning of words in these

languages depends on the variations of voice pitch in

relation to neighbouring syllables.

Tongue – the most movable and flexible speech

organ.

281

Transcription – the system of symbols to represent

speech in written form.

Unstressed – bearing no stress.

Utterance – a spoken sentence or a phrase.

Uvula – the end of the soft palate.

Velar – consonants produced with the back part of

the tongue raised towards the soft palate

Vibrator mechanism - a group of speech organs

which vibrate while the air passes through, thus

producing voice, it includes larynx, vocal cords,

glottis.

Vocal cords – two soft folds in the larynx which

can be brought together and apart, thus producing

voice.

Voice quality – timbre.

Voiced consonants – sounds produced when the

vocal cords are brought together and vibrate.

Voiceless consonants - sounds produced when the

vocal cords are brought together and vibrate.

Vowel – a sound in the production of which no

obstructions are made.

Weak form – the unstressed form of a sound or a

word.

Windpipe – trachea or air passage.

Word stress - a greater degree of prominence on

one of the syllables in a word.

282

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Св.план 2016 г., поз. 207

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