The science of word sounds

Phonetics
is the science that studies the sound system of the language that is
segmental phonemes, word stress, syllabic structure and intonation.

Connections
with grammar, lexicology, stylistics, sociolinguistic, kinesics,
etc.

General
— the complex nature of phonetic phenomena and formulates phonetic
laws and principles.

Special
— the phonetic structure of a particular language.

Descriptive
— the phonetic structure of the language system synchronically.

Historical
— diachronically.

Segmental
— individual sounds.

Suprasegmental
— larger units (syllables, words, phrases, and text).

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2. Articulatory aspect of speech sounds

Speech
sound is a complex of definite coordinated and differentiated
movements and positions of the various speech organs.

Speech
organs: active and passive.

According
to the function:

—
power
mechanism
(to supply energy in the form of air pressure and regulate the force
of stream) — lungs, diaphragm, trachea, pharynx, oral and nasal
cavities;

—
vibrator
mechanism
— vocal cords, glottis;

—
resonator
mechanism
— pharynx, oral and nasal cavities;

—
obstruction
mechanism
— tongue, lips, teeth, alveoli, hard and soft palate, back boundary
of the pharynx, vocal cords.

Obstructions:
complete (occlusive), incomplete (constrictive), intermittent
(rolled — RUS ‘р’), occlusive-constrictive.

Articulatory
P.
studies the way in which the air is set in motion, the movements of
the speech organs, the coordination of these movements in the
production of single sounds or their sequences.

Methods
of investigation:

—
subjective (direct observation: lip & tongue movement);

—
instrumental (palatorgaphy, X-ray photography, electromyography).

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3. Acoustic aspect of speech sounds

Acoustic
phonetics deals with properties of speech sounds as presented in
vibrations of air between the speakers mouth and the listeners’
ear.

Components
of the sound matter of a language:

—
fundamental
frequency
— pitch of the voice (vocal cords vibrate);

—
spectral
(formant) — spectrum made up by formants (overtones), VC
vibrations determine the quality of vowels and sonorants, friction
of air particles passing through the obstuction — fricatives, sudden
burst — plosives;

—
voice
timber
— expression of all emotions in speech;

—
intensity
(force) — associated with stress;

—
time
(temporal) — duration or length of speech sounds and in pauses.

Physical
properties of a sound:

—
frequency
(number of vibrations per second);

—
intensity
(variations of loudness);

—
composition
(vibrates not only as a whole, but also in its parts).

Spectrography.

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4. Functional aspect of speech sounds

Functional
aspect
(phonology) — linguistic functions of individual sounds or
segments of speech.

Phonetics
— speech sound, phonology — phoneme.

Functions
of speech sounds:

—
constitutive
— speech sounds constitute the material forms of morphemes, words
and sentences;

—
distinctive
— differentiate morphemes, words;

—
recognitive
— allophones of the same segmental phoneme are exclusive and
not-distinctive.

Ways
of distinguishing morphemes and words:

—
different in the number of speech sounds [hɔt — ‘hɔtə];

—
different speech sounds occur in identical positions [tæk — kæt
— ækt];

—
when two words or two grammatical forms are differentiated by only
two different speech sounds occurred in identical positions — a
minimal
pair
[mæt — pæt];

—
speech sounds occurring in identical positions are capable of
differentiating one member of a minimal pair from the other —
mutually
distinctive
speech sounds [pæk — bæk].

Recognitive:

—
none of them is used by the native speakers of the language in the
same time position where any other allophone is used;

—
if there were interchanges that wouldn’t lead to any confusion of
items of language and to misunderstanding.

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1.

The subject of
theoretical
Phonetics

2.

What does phonetics study?
What sciences is phonetics connected
with?
How many branches and aspects of
phonetics do you know?

3.

The word “phonetics” is derived from the Greek “
(fo:ne:) which is meant sound, voice.
Phonetics is an old science. It was known to the ancient
“
Greeks and to the ancient Hindus. In India more than
2000 years ago there flourished a science of phonetics
more advanced than any that has since been known until
very recent times. The scientists of that time were
concerned with speech sounds only

4.

Phonetics is a science which studies
speech sounds, their distribution and
classification, its aspects and functions,
the syllabic structure of words, accentual
structure of the words, intonational
structure of the word.

5.

Phonetics is divided into 2 components:
Segmental( individual sounds/ phonemes)
and suprasegmental ( syllables, word,
intonation, phrases, texts)

6. The objects of phonetic investigation

phonemes and their distribution in words,
their mutual adaptation,
stress,
syllable formation,
intonation,
the relation between oral and written speech

7. What is sound?

A sound is a product of human activity
which shows the speaker s personality
and reveals the speaker s physiological
and emotional state geographical origin
education social status.

8. 4 aspects of a speech sound

Articulatory aspect: the study of the production of speech
sounds by the vocal tract by the speaker that is how
individual sound is articulated ( the position, shape, and
movement of speech organs, such as the lips, tongue, and
vocal folds)
Acoustic aspect : the study of the physical transmission of
speech sounds from the speaker to the listener (
frequency, amplitude, intensity (loudness), duration
(quantity of time, length), intonation,tempo,pitch)

9.

Auditory phonetics: the study of the reception and
perception of speech sounds by the listener ( how a
listener understands a sound, in Kazakh/ Russian there is
no sound Ө, that’s why our children have to work out a
new set of box in their minds for this sound)
Functional aspect its function – to differentiate, e.g. [t] –
occlusive, plosive, aspirate, voiceless, fortis; but: twice
(labialized variant), try (post-alveolar v.), little (exploded
literally), kitten (exploded nasally), tea (becomes
narrower), state (loses aspiration).

10.

The founder of linguistic aspects of speech sounds is
Badouin de Courtenay ( 1845-1929)

11. Is Phonetics connected with other sciences?

Grammar (Through the system of reading rules, correct
pronunciation of plural form,tense forms, sound
interchange help to differentiate between singular and
plural forms, the connection through intonation.
Sometimes intonation alone serves to single out the
communicative centre of the sentence (e.g. He came home).
In affirmative sentences the rising nuclear tone may show
that this is a question. )
Lexicology (distinguishing certain parts of speech )
Stylistics( distinguishing speaker’s attitudes )
Non-linguistic sciences: Physics ( movement) Anatomy
Physiology( speech organs)

In language studies, phonaesthetics is the study of the positive (euphonious) and negative (cacophonous) sounds of letters, words, and combinations of letters and words. Also spelled phonesthetics.  

Linguist David Crystal defines phonaesthetics as «the study of the aesthetic properties of sound, especially the sound symbolism attributable to individual sounds, sound clusters or sound types. Examples include the implication of smallness in the close vowels of such words as teeny weeny, and the unpleasant associations of the consonant cluster /sl-/ in such words as slime, slug and slush» (A Dictionary of Language, 2001). 

Etymology

From the Greek phōnē+aisthētikē,  «voice-sound» +  «aesthetics

Examples and Observations

Sound Quality (Timbre)

«We speak of words as soft, smooth,  rough, sonorous, harsh, guttural, explosive. About individual words not much can be said—even about ‘cellar-door,’ which is reputed to be one of the most beautiful-sounding words in our language. With a sequence of words, especially one that shapes itself into a meaningful sentence or line of verse, the sound becomes more determinate and controlled.

The still, sad music of humanity
(Wordsworth, ‘Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey’)

naturally calls for a grave and quiet reading.  The sound-quality of a discourse is, then, a regional quality that depends in part upon the qualities of its words and also upon [sound-similarity and sound-pattern].»
(Monroe C. Beardsley, Aesthetics: Problems in the Philosophy of Criticism, 2nd ed. Hackett, 1981)

Phonaesthetics and the Adopted Names of Actors

«Quite a few actors have changed their names simply because they didn’t like the one they already had…
«There is a tendency for men to avoid gentle continuant sounds, such as m and l, when looking for new names, and to go in for the hard-sounding ‘plosive’ consonants, such as k and g. Maurice Micklewhite became Michael Caine, Marion Michael Morrison became John Wayne, Alexander Archibald Leach became Cary Grant, Julius Ullman became Douglas Fairbanks.
«Women tend to go the other way. Dorothy Kaumeyer became Dorothy Lamour. Hedwig Kiesler became Hedy Lamarr. Norma Jean Baker became Marilyn Monroe.
«Actually, Roy Rogers is a bit weak, compared with most cowboy names. Cowboys tend to be full of plosives and short vowels—Bill, Bob, Buck, Chuck, Clint, Jack, Jim, Like, Tex, Tom, Billy the Kid, Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickok, Kit Carson. Roy doesn’t quite explode from the lips in the same way. His horse, Trigger, actually does rather better.
«These are only tendencies, of course. There are plenty of exceptions.»
(David Crystal, By Hook or by Crook: A Journey in Search of English. Overlook Press, 2008)

Phonaesthetics and Nicknames

«[N]icknames incorporate more pleasant and gentle sounds than full names for both men and women. One reason for this is the [i:] ending characteristic of so many nicknames (Nicky, Billy, Jenny, Peggy). Crystal (1993) noted the distinctly masculine characteristics of the nickname Bob. Bob is easy for children to pronounce because its repeated , [b], is mastered early (Whissell 2003b). Phonaesthetically, [b] is an unpleasant sound and the central vowel of the name is active and cheerful. Bob is, therefore, a prototypical masculine nickname, both in terms of the phonaesthetic system employed here and in terms of Crystal’s criteria. DeKlerk and Bosch (1997) argue for the importance of phonaesthetics in the assignment of nicknames, and point to the positive social intent of name-givers as a main concomitant of this assignment.»​ (Cynthia Whissell, «Choosing a Name: How Name-Givers’ Feelings Influence Their Selections.» The Oxford Handbook of the Word, ed. John R. Taylor. Oxford University Press, 2015)

Phonesthesia and Brand Names

• «The loose association of phonesthesia, applied to bigger chunks of sound, are … the source of an unignorable trend in brand names …​
  «Previously, companies named their brands after their founders (Ford, Edison, Westinghouse), or with a descriptor that conveyed their immensity (General Motors, United Airlines, U.S. Steel), or by a portmanteau that identified a new technology (Microsoft, Instamatic, Polavision), or with a metaphor or metonym connoting a quality they wished to ascribe (Impala, Newport, Princess, Trailblazer, Rebel). But today they seek to convey a je ne sais quoi using faux-Greek and Latinate neologisms built out of word fragments that are supposed to connote certain qualities without allowing people to put their finger on what they are. . . . Acura—accurate? acute? What does that have to do with a car? Verizon—a veritable horizon? Does it mean that good phone service will recede into the distance forever? Viagra—virility? vigor? viable? Are we supposed to think it will make a man ejaculate like Niagara Falls? The most egregious example is the renaming of the Philip Morris parent company as Altria, presumably to switch its image from bad people who sell addictive carcinogens to a place or state marked by altruism and other lofty values.» (Steven Pinker, The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window Into Human Nature. Viking, 2007)
• «Certainly, euphony should be a consideration in choosing a brand name. Lamolay sounds better than Tarytak for a toilet paper even though it has the same number of letters.» (John O’Shaughnessy, Consumer Behaviour: Perspectives, Findings and Explanations. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)

Sound and Sense

«[T]he poet … knows when the sound is carrying his sense, even if he doesn’t know why. In creating his names and his verse, [J. R. R.] Tolkien was exercising both skills, in pursuit of what he called ‘phonaesthetic pleasure’ (Letters 176).
«To illustrate, let’s turn back to our abandoned palato-velars. The phonaesthetics of the post-liquid palato-velar is a thing of beauty. It captured the heart of a young Texas poet with the unlikely name of Tom Jones when he was in college, and he filled a whole song with them, which became the opening song of The Fantasticks, the longest running musical in the history of the New York stage. The song was called ‘Try to Remember.’ The refrain was the single word we have looked at in its transformation from Old to Modern English: follow, follow, follow. In each stanza Jones crammed as many of the mutated-liquid words he could: first mellow, yellow, fellow, then willow, pillow, billow, and then follow and hollow, finally ending where the song began with mellow. . . .
«Tolkien does not incorporate quite so many of these mutated palatovelar words in any one place, but the mention of the word willow should signal to any Tolkien reader where I am going next: to the old Willowman of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and ‘The Old Forest’ chapter of The Lord of the Rings …«
(John R. Holmes, «‘Inside a Song’: Tolkien’s Phonaesthetics.» Middle-Earth Minstrel: Essays on Music in Tolkien, ed. by Bradford Lee Eden. McFarland, 2010) 

An Alternative View: Noisiness

«Many of those who have written about the topics of iconicity, sound symbolism, phonaesthetics and phonosemantics write as though to unfold the latent surplus of meaning contained in certain sounds, letters or groups of letters. But iconic language is in the literal sense idiotic, speaking the idiom of the blindly singular, of purely accidental and idiomatic noise. It may well be that certain clusters of sounds seem charged with certain kinds of meaningfulness—i seems to connote littleness, gl- seems to be associated with light, and gr- with irascibility—but the way these sounds work is by first signifying, not particular sound-qualities, but an abstract quality of noisiness as such—the sound of just sounding.»
(Steven Connor, Beyond Words: Sobs, Hums, Stutters and Other Vocalizations. Reaktion Books, 2014)   

Monty Python and the Lighter Side of Phonaesthetics

«When the Pythons are not making words and names take on new meanings, they are likely commenting upon the inherent qualities of words themselves. One fine example appears in the ‘Woody and Tinny Words’ sketch (ep. 42), in which an upper-middle-class family voice their opinions regarding the pleasure (or displeasure) derived simply from saying and hearing various words. For fun, try to see which of the following words sound woody (confidence building!) and which sound tinny (dreadful):

SET ONE: gorn, sausage, caribou, intercourse, pert, thighs, botty, erogenous, zone, concubine, loose women, ocelot, wasp, yowling
SET TWO: newspaper, litterbin, tin, antelope, seemly, prodding, vacuum, leap, bound, vole, recidivist, tit, Simkins*

«The euphony or cacophony of words (what the Oxbridge scholars in Python—and probably Gilliam, too, why not?—would have known as phonaesthetics, the study of positive and negative sounds in human speech) may lead users to project certain connotations upon individual words (Crystal, 1995, 8-12). Such phonaesthetic connotative projection devolves, in this skit, into a practically visible form of mental masturbation, wherein the father (Chapman) must be doused with a bucket of water to be calmed down after cogitating upon too many ‘woody sounding’ words. As he sagely notes, ‘ … it’s a funny thing … all the naughty words sound woody.’ It’s a theory not entirely without justification (the understanding of how linguistic connotations are often derived from sounds, not the masturbatory powers of individual words! Bloody pervert.)
«* Answer key: set one = woody: set two = tinny»
(Brian Cogan and Jeff Massey, Everything I Ever Needed to Know About _____ I Learned From Monty Python. Thomas Dunne Books, 2014)    

THEORETICAL PHONETICS (лекции)

1. Theoretical phonetics as science. Branches of phonetics. Methods of investigation.

Phonetics is concerned with the human noises by which the thought is actualized or given audible shape: the nature of these noises, their combinations, and their functions in relation to the meaning.

Practical or normative phonetics studies substance, the material form of phonetic phenomena in relation to meaning.

Theoretical phonetics is mainly concerned with the functioning of phonetic units in the language.

Phonetics studies the sound system of the language, that is segmental units (phonemes, allophones), suprasegmental units (word stress, syllabic structure, rhythmic organization, intonation). Phonetics is closely connected with general linguistics but has its own subject matter (Investigation).

Thus phonetics is divided into two major components: segmental phonetics, which is concerned with individual sounds (i.e. «segments» of speech), their behaviour; and suprasegmental phonetics whose domain is the larger units of connected speech: syllables, words, phrases and texts.

All speech sounds have 4 aspects (mechanisms):

— Articulatoty – it is the way when the sound-producing mechanism is investigated, that is the way the speech sounds are pronounced

— Acoustic – speech sound is a physical phenomenon. It exists in the form of sound waves which are pronounced by vibrations of the vocal cords. Thus each sound is characterized by frequency, certain duration. All these items represent acoustic aspect.

— Auditory – sound perception aspect. The listener hears the sound, percepts its acoustic features and the hearing mechanism selects from the acoustic information only what is linguistically important.

— Functional – every language unit performs a certain function in actual speech. Functional aspect deals with these functions.

In accord with these 4 aspects of speech sounds 4 branches are distinguished, each of them has its own method of investigation:

— Articulatoty phonetics — studies (investigates) sound producing mechanism. Its method consists of observing the way in which the air is set in motion, the movements of the speech organs and the coordination of these movements in the production of single sounds and trains of sounds. It borders with anatomy and physiology and the tools for investigating just what the speech organs do are tools which are used in these fields: direct observation, wherever it is possible, e.g. lip movement, some tongue movement; combined with x-ray photography or x-ray cinematography; observation through mirrors as in the laryngoscopic jivestigation of vocal cord movement, etc.

— Acoustic phonetics — studies the way in which the air vibrates between the speaker»s mouth and the listener»s ear. Has its basic method – instrumental. Speech sounds are investigated by means of operator called spectrograph. Intonation is investigated by intonograph. Acoustic phonetics comes close to studying physics and the tools used in this field enable the investigator to measure and analyse the movement of the air in the terms of acoustics. This generally means introducing a microphone into the speech chain, converting the air movement into corresponding electrical activity and analysing the result in terms of frequency of vibration and amplitude of vibration in relation to time. The use of such technical devices as spectrograph, intonograph and other sound analysing and sound synthesizing machines is generally combined with the method of direct observation.

— Auditory phonetics- the branch of phonetics investigating the hearing process. Its interests lie more in the sensation of hearing, which is brain activity, than in the physiological working of the ear or the nervous activity between the ear and the brain. The means by which we discriminate sounds — quality, sensations of pitch, loudness, length, are relevant here. The methods applied in auditory phonetics are those of experimental psychology: experimenting, usually based on different types of auditory tests,

— Functional phonetics – is also termed phonology. Studies the way in which sound phenomena function in a particular language, how they are utilized in that language and what part they play in manifesting the meaningful distinctions of the language. So this is the branch of phonetics that studies the linguistic function of consonant and vowel sounds, syllabic structure, word accent and prosodic features, such as pitch, stress and tempo. In linguistics, function is usually understood to mean discriminatory function, that is, the role of the various elements of the language in the distinguishing of one sequence of sounds, such as a word or a sequence of words, from another of different meaning. The basic method is commutation or substitution (замены), substituting sounds in different environments.

Another subdivision of phonetics:

1. General phonetics – studies general laws, formulates general theories (theoy of intonation, syllable, formation, phoneme)

2. Special phonetics – based on general phonetics. Deals with phonetical peculiarities of certain language.

3. Some linguists distinguish historical phonetics – it traces the development of the phonetic system in the course of time finding out the basic laws of the system.

2. Phoneme. Series of phoneme.

The definitions of the phoneme vary greatly.

L.V.Shcherba: the phoneme may be viewed as a functional, material and abstract unit.

V.A.Vassilyev: The phoneme is a smallest unit capable of distinguishing one word from another word, one grammatical form of word from another

Bloch: phoneme is a class of phonemically similar sounds contrasting and mutually exclusive with all similar classes in the language

Jacobson: phoneme is a minimal sound by which meaning may be discriminated

Let us consider the phoneme from the point of view of its thee aspects.

1. the phoneme is a functional unit. Function is usually understood to mean discriminatory function, that is, the role of the various components of the phonetic system of the language in distinguishing one morpheme from another, one word from another or also one utterance from another.

The opposition of phonemes in the same phonetic environment differentiates the meaning of morphemes and words, e.g. said— says, sleeper — sleepy, bath — path, light — like.

Also phoneme can fulfill a distinctive function — Sometimes the opposition of phonemes serves to distinguish the meaning of the whole phrases, e.g. He was heard badly — He was hurt badly.

2. the phoneme is material, real and objective. That means that it is realized in speech in the form of speech sounds, its allophones. The sets of speech sounds, that is the allophones belonging to the same phoneme are not identical in their articulatory content though there remains some phonetic similarity between them.

F.e. English phoneme [d] when not affected by the articulation of the preceding or following sounds is a plosive, fore-lingual apical, alveolar, lenis stop. This is how it sounds in isolation or in such words as door, darn, down, etc., when it retains its typical articulatory characteristics. In this case the consonant [d] is called the principal allophone. The allophones which do not undergo any distinguishable changes in the chain of speech are called principal. At the same time there are quite predictable changes in the articulation of allophones that occur under the influence of the neighbouring sounds in different phonetic situations. Such allophones are called subsidiary,

[d] is slightly palatalized before front vowels and the sonorant [j], e.g. deal, day, did, did you. [d] is pronounced without any plosion before another stop,. e.g. bedtime, bad pain, good dog; it is pronounced with the nasal plosion before the nasal sonorants [n] and [m], e.g. sudden, admit, could not, could meet; the plosion is lateral before the lateral sonorant [l], e.g. middle, badly, bad light. The alveolar position is particularly sensitive to the influence of the place of articulation of a following consonant. Thus followed by [r] the consonant [d] becomes post-alveolar, e.g. dry, dream; followed by the interdental [θ], [ð] it becomes dental, e.g. breadth, lead the way, good thing. When [d] is followed by the labial [w] it becomes labialized, e.g. dweller. In the initial position [d] is partially devoiced, e.g. dog, dean; in the intervocalic position or when followed by a sonorant it is fully voiced, e.g. order, leader, driver; in the word-final position it is voiceless, e.g. road, raised, old. These modifications of the phoneme [d] are quite sufficient to demonstrate the articulatory difference between its allophones, though the list of them could be easily extended. If you consider the production of the allophones of the phoneme above you will find that they possess three articulatory features in common, all of them are forelingual lenis stops.

Consequently, though allophones of the same phoneme possess similar articulatory features they may frequently show considerable phonetic differences.

Allophones are arranged into functionally similar groups, that is groups of sounds in which the members of each group are opposed to one another, but are opposable to members of any other group to distinguish meanings in otherwise similar sequences. Consequently allophones of the same phoneme never occur in similar phonetic contexts, they are entirely predictable according to the phonetic environment, and thus carry no useful information, that is they cannot differentiate meanings.

But the phones which are realized in speech do not correspond exactly to the allophone predicted by this or that phonetic environment. They are modified by phonostylistic, dialectal and individual factors. In fact, no speech sounds are absolutely alike.

The relationships between the phoneme and the phone (speech sound) may be illustrated by the following scheme:

3.allophones of the same phoneme, no matter how different their articulation may be, function as the same linguistic unit. Phonemes differentiate words like tie and die from each other, and to be able to hear and produce phonemic differences is part of what it means to be a competent speaker of the language. Allophones, on the other hand, have no such function: they usually occur in different positions in the word (i.e. in different environments) and hence cannot be opposed to each other to make meaningful distinctions. For example the dark [ł] occurs following a vowel as in pill cold, but it is not found before a vowel, whereas the clear [l] only occurs before a vowel, as in lip, like. These two vowels cannot therefore contrast with each other in the way that [1] contrasts with [r] in lip — rip or lake — rake, there are no pairs of words which differ only in that one has [ł] and the other — [1].

The function of phonemes is to distinguish the meaning of morphemes and words. So the phoneme is an abstract linguistic unit, it is an abstraction from actual speech sounds, that is allophonic modifications.

Allophones of each phoneme possess a bundle of distinctive features, that makes this phoneme functionally different from all other phonemes of the language concerned. This functionally relevant bundle of articulatory features is called the invariant of the phoneme. Neilher of the articulatory features that form the invariant of the phoneme can be changed without affecting the meaning. All the allophones of the phoneme [d], for instance, are occlusive, forelingual, lenis. If occlusive articulation is changed for constrictive one [d] will be replaced by [z], cf. breed— breeze, deal — zeal; [d] will be replaced by [g] if the forelingual articulation is replaced by the backlingual one, cf. dear — gear, day — gay. The lenis articulation of [d] cannot be substituted by the fortis one because it will also bring about changes in meaning, cf. dry — try, ladder— latter, bid— bit. That is why it is possible to state that occlusive, forelingual and lenis characteristics of the phoneme [d] are generalized in the mind of the speaker into what is called the invariant of this phoneme.

On the one hand, the phoneme is objective real, because it is realized in speech in the material form of speech sounds, its allophones. On the other hand, it is an abstract language unit. That is why we can look upon the phoneme as a dialectical unity of the material and abstract aspects. Thus we may state that it exists in the material form of speech sounds, its allophones. Speech sounds are necessarily allophones of one of the phonemes of the language concerned. All the allophones of the same phoneme have some articulatory features in common, that is all of them possess the same invariant. Simultaneously each allophone possesses quite particular phonetic features, which may not be traced in the articulation of other allophones of the same phoneme.

The articulatory features which form the invariant of the phoneme are called distinctive or relevant. If the opposed sounds differ in one articulatory feature and this difference brings about changes in the meaning of the words the contrasting features are called relevant — f.e. port and court

The articulatory features which do not serve to distinguish meaning are called non-distinctive, irrelevant or redundant; for instance, it is impossible in English to oppose an aspirated [p] to a non-aspirated one in the same phonetic context to distinguish meanings. That is why aspiration is a non-distinctive feature of English consonants.

Basic functions of the phoneme are:

1. Constitutive – phoneme constitutes words, word combinations etc.

2. Distinctive – phoneme helps to distinguish the meanings of words, morphemes

3. Recognitive – phoneme makes up grammatical forms of words, sentences, so the right use of allophones

3. The classification of English consonant sounds

There are two major classes of sounds traditionally distinguished by phoneticians in any language. They are termed consonants and vowels. The distinction is based mainly on auditory effect. Consonants are known to have voice and noise combined, while vowels are sounds consisting of voice only. From the articulatory point of view the difference is due to the work of speech organs. In case of vowels no obstruction is made. In case of consonants various obstructions are made. So consonants are characterized by so-called close articulation, that is by a complete, partial or intermittent blockage of the air-passage by an organ or organs. The closure is formed in such a way that the air-stream is blocked or hindered or otherwise gives rise to audible friction. As a result consonants are sounds which have noise as their indispensable and most defining characteristic.

On the articulatory level each consonant may be identified by stating two general facts about it:

1) what sort of articulatory posture it is formed by;

2) whereabout in the mouth (or pharynx) it is produced.

Besides these major characteristics the particular quality of a consonant may depend on a lot of other factors, that is by what articulatory organ (or organs) an obstruction is made, how vocal cords work at the moment of production, what cavity is used as a resonator, what is the force of articulatory effect and many others.

According to V.A.Vassilyev primary importance should be given to the type of obstruction and the manner of production of noise. On this ground he distinguishes two large classes of consonants:

a) occlusive, in the production of which a complete obstruction is formed;

b) constrictive, in the production of which an incomplete obstruction is formed.

The phonological relevance of this feature could be exemplied in the following oppositions:

[ti:] – [si:] – tea – sea (occlusive – constructive)

[si:d] – [si:z] – seed – seas (occlusive – constructive)

[pul] – [ful] – pull – full (occlusive – constructive)

[bзut] – [vзut] – boat – vote (occlusive – constructive)

Each of two classes is subdivided into noise consonants and sonorants. The division is based on the factor of prevailing either noise or tone component in the auditory characteristic of a sound. In their turn noise consonants are divided into plosive consonants (or stops) and affricates.

Another point of is that the first and basic principle of classification should be the degree noise. Such consideration leads to dividing English consonants into two general kinds:

A — noise consonants

B — sonorants

in production of sonorants the air passage between the two organs of speech is fairly wide, that is much wider than in the production of noise consonants. As a result, the auditory effect is tone, not noise — [r], [j], [w], for example. They are also characterized by sharply defined formant structure and the total energy of most of them is very high.

The phonological relevance of the degree of noise could be proved by the following oppositions:

[beik] — [meik] bake — make (noise consonant — sonorant)

[vi:l – [wi:l] veal — wheel (noise consonant — sonorant)

The place of articulation is determined by the active organ of speech against the point of articulation. According to this principle the English consonants are classed into:

1) labial,

2) lingual,

3) glottal.

The class of labial consonants is subdivided into: a) bilabial; b) labio-dental; and among the class of lingual consonants three subclasses are distinguished; they are: a) forelingual, b) mediolngual and c) backlingual.

[pæn] — [tæn] pan — tan (bilabial — forelingual)

[wai] — [lai] why — lie (bilabial — forelingual)

[weil] — [jeil] weil — yale (bilabial — mediolingual)

[pik] — [kik] pick — kick (bilabial — backlingual)

[les] — [jes] less — yes (forelingual .— mediolingual)

[dei] — [gei] day — gay (forelingual — backlingual)

[sai] — [hai] sigh — high (forelingual — glottal)

[fi:t] — [si:t] feet — seat (labio-dental — forelingual)

Another sound property is voiced — voiceless characteristic which depends on the work of the vocal cords. [p, b], [t, d], [k, g], [s, z], [f, v], [ƒ,ζ],»[tƒ, dζ]. All voiced consonants are weak (lenis) and all voiceless consonants are strong (fortis).

Thus it may be said that the oppositions [p — b], [t — d], [k — g], [f — v], [s — z], [f — 3], [tf — dj] are primarily based on energy difference, that is on fortis — lenis articulation, which are their phonologically relevant features. It is for this reason that such characteristics as voiceless — voiced have given place to «fortis» — «lenis» terms.

There is one more articulatory characteristic which is usually included into the set of principles on the basis of which the English consonants are classified, that is the position of the soft palate. According to this principle consonants can be oral and nasal. There are relatively few consonantal types in English which require the lowered position of the soft palate. They are the nasal occlusive sonorants [m], [n] and [ŋ]. They differ from oral plosives in that the soft palate is lowered allowing the escape of air into the nasal cavity.

4. The classification of English vowel sounds

There are two major classes of sounds traditionally distinguished by phoneticians in any language. They are termed consonants and vowels. The distinction is based mainly on auditory effect. Consonants are known to have voice and noise combined, while vowels are sounds consisting of voice only. From the articulatory point of view the difference is due to the work of speech organs. In case of vowels no obstruction is made. In case of consonants various obstructions are made. So consonants are characterized by so-called close articulation, that is by a complete, partial or intermittent blockage of the air-passage by an organ or organs. The closure is formed in such a way that the air-stream is blocked or hindered or otherwise gives rise to audible friction. As a result consonants are sounds which have noise as their indispensable and most defining characteristic.

vowels unlike consonants are produced with no obstruction to the stream of air, so on the perception level their integral characteristic is naturally tone, not noise. The most important characteristic of the quality of these vowels is that they are acoustically stable. They are known to be entirely different from one another both articulatorily and acoustically.

The quality of a vowej is known to be determined by the size, volume, and shape of the mouth resonator, which are modified by the movement of active speech organs, that is the tongue and the lips. Besides, the particular quality of a vowel can depend on a lot of other articulatory characteristics, such as the relative stability of the tongue, the position of the lips, physical duration of the segment, the force of articulation, the degree of tenseness of speech organs. So vowel quality could be thought of as a bundle of definite articulatory characteristics which are sometimes intricately interconnected and interdependent.

The analysis of the articulatory constituents of the quality of vowels suggests the following criteria termed:

a) stability of articulation;

b) tongue position;

c) lip position;

d) character of the vowel end;

e) length;

f) tenseness.

Stability of articulation specifies the actual position of the articulating organ in the process of the articulation of a vowel. There are two possible varieties: a) the tongue position is stable; b) it changes, that is the tongue moves from one position to another. In the first case the articulated vowel is relatively pure, in the second case a vowel consists of two clearly perceptible elements. There exists in addition a third variety, an intermediate case, when the change in the tongue position is fairly weak. So according to this principle the English vowels are subdivided into:

a) monophthongs,

b) diphthongs,

c) diphthongoids.

Though the interpretation we have just given is an obvious matter for Soviet phoneticians it does not mean that this way of seeing the situation is shared-by British phoneticians. A.C.Gim-son, for example, distinguishes twenty vocalic phonemes which are made of vowels and vowel glides. Seven of them are treated as short phonemes: [i], [e], [æ], [α], [u], [Λ], [ə] and thirteen as long ones: [a:], [o:] [3:] [i:], [u:], [ei], [3u], [ai], [au], [αu], [iə], [έə], [uə] five of which are considered relatively pure: [a], [o:] [3:], [i:], [u:]; the rest are referred to long phonemes with different glides: [ei], [ai], [αI] with a glide to [i]; [3u], [au] with a glide to [u]; and [iə], [uə], with a glide to [ə].

Diphthongs consist of two elements, the first of which, the nucleus, being strong and distinct and the second, the glide, being very weak and indistinct.

Another principle of classification is the position of the tongue. The position of the tongue in the mouth cavity is characterized from two aspects, that is the horizontal and vertical movement.

According to the horizontal movement there are five classes of English vowels. They are:

1) front: [i:], [e], [ei], [a], [έ(ə)];

2) front-retracted: [i], [i(ə)];

3) central: [Λ] [з:] [ə], [з (u)], [έ(u)];

4) back [D], [o:], [IU:], [a:];

5) back-advanced: [u], [u(ə)].

Vertical movement of the tongue:

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

b) broad: [i], [u], [i(ə)], [u(ə)];

2) mid a) narrow: [e], [3;], [ə], [e(i)], [3(u)];

b) broad: [ə], [Λ];

3) open a) narrow: [έ(ə)] [o:], [o(i)];

b) broad: [æ], [a(i, u)], [D], [a:]

[pen — pæn] pen — pan; [kæ p — ka:p] cap — carp; [pen — pin] pen — pin; [kæ p — kΛp] cap — cup; [bin — bi:n] bin — been; [bΛn — ba:n] bun — barn

Another principle of classification is lip rounding. Three lip positions are distinguished: spread, neutral and rounded. For the purpose of classification it is sufficient to distinguish between two lip positions: rounded and unrounded, or neutral. Any back vowel is produced with rounded lips, the degree of rounding is different and depends on the height of the raised part of the tongue; the higher it is raised the more rounded the lips are. So lip rounding is a phoneme constitutive indispensable feature, because no back vowel ran exist without it.

Our next point is checkness. This quality depends on the character of the articulatory transitiojn from a vowel to a consonant. As a result all English short vowels are checked when stressed. The degree of checkness may vary and depends on the following consonant. Before fortis voiceless consonant it is more perceptible than before a lenis voiced consonant or sonorant. All long vowels are free.

Another articulatory characteristic of English vowels is their length or quantity. The monophthongs are divided into two varieties according to their length:

a) short vowels: [i], [e], [æ], [D], [u], [Λ], [ə];

b) long vowels: [i:], [a:], [o:], [3:], [u:].

Vowel like any sound has physical duration — time which is required for its production (articulation). When sounds are used in connected speech they cannot help being influenced by one another. Duration is one of the characteristics of a vowel which is modified by and depends on the following factors:

1) its own length,

2) the accent of the syllable in which it occurs,

. 3) phonetic context,

4) the position of the sound in a syllable,

5) the position in a rhythmic structure,

6) the position in a tone group,

7) the position in a phrase,

the position in an utterance,

9) the tempo of the whole utterance,

10) the type of pronunciation,

11) the style of pronunciation.

There is one more articulatory characteristic — tenseness. It characterizes the state of the organs of speech at the moment of production of a vowel. Historically long vowels are tense while historically short vowels are lax.

5. The accent in English words

Syllables – minimal pronounceable units into which sounds show a tendency to group themselves. The syllable or syllables of the word are said to be stressed or accented. The correlation (взаимосвязь) of varying prominences (выделение) of syllables in a word is understood as the accentual structure of the word or its stress pattern.

Nature of word stress. According to A.C.Gimson the effect of prominence is achieved by any or all of four factors — Force, tone, length, and vowel colour. The articulation of the stressed syllable greater mascular energy is produced by the speaker.

The english linguists D.Crystal, A.C.Gimson agree that in english word stress or accent is a complex phenomenon, marked by the variations in force, pitch, quantity and quality.

— When the tonic or musical component of word stress is involved it is the change of pitch level that is significant in making the syllable prominent, but not the type of tone direction.

If the words *import and im*port are said on a level tone and each vowel with it is own length, it is rather difficult to distinguish them. The tonic or musical component may be helpful in defining the place of stress in a word as it is observed within the syllable marked by the pitch change, which contributes to the syllable prominence.

— quantitative and qualitative components of word stress. Certain distinctions of the vowel length and colour are reduced or lacking in unstressed syllables. The fact strengthens the idea that the accentuation is influenced by the vowel length and quality. The vowel of the stressed syllable is perceived (пронимать, различать) as never reduced or obscure (непонятный) and longer than the same vowel in the unstressed syllables. Thus the word *stress* or *accent* is also defined as qualitative where the vowel colour or quality is a means of stress and quantitative with relatively increased length of the stressed vowel. Compare the quality (colour) and quantity (length) of the same vowel in a word e.g. ab*stract,*car-park.

In English the quantitative component of word stress is not of primary importance because of the nonreduced vowels in the unstressed syllables which sometimes occur in English words, e.g. *architect, *transport, *partake.

Languages are also differentiated according to the placement of word stress. There are fixed stress (on one and the same syllable) and free stress (on different syllables). In laguages with a fixed stress the occurrence of the word stress is limited to a particular syllable in a multisyllabic word. In languages with a free stress it is place not confined to a specific position in the word. On one word it may fall on the first syllable, in another on the second syllable, in the third word- on the last syllable, etc.

English: *appetite-be*ginning- ba*lloon

Russian:озеро-погода-молоко

There are three degrees of stress: primary, secondary and weak — it is british variant. The american linguists B. Bloch and G.Trager find four contrastive degrees of word stress, namely: loud, reduced loud, medial and weak stresses.

Characteristics of English stress:

1) Recessive tendency – the word stress originally fell on the initial syllable or the second syllable, e.g. foresee,begin,apart,withdraw.

2) Rhythmical tendency — primary stress on the third syllable from the end

e.g. revo*lution, organi*sation, as*similation.

3) Retentive tendency- the stress in the derivative, words have stress on the same syllable with it*s original or parent word. *similar – as*similate; ,recom’mend -,recommen’dation

Word stress can differentiate lexical units, parts of speech, grammatical forms

*contrast – con*trast; *music – mu*sician; *habit – ha*bitual

Word stress a language performs three functions.

I. constitutive — it organizes the syllables a word into a language unit having a definite accentual structure, function.

2. identificatory (or recognitive) — it helps to identify a different combinations of sounds into meaningful linguistic units

3. distinctive — differentiate the meaninging of words or their forms. import — imp’ort; ‘billow — be»low.

6. The classification of functional phonetic styles

Intonational style – a system of interrelated intonational means which is used in a social sphere and serves s definite aim of communication.

There is no universally recognized classification of styles. Vinogradov distinguishes 3 styles:

1) Colloqual (COMMUNICATION)

2) Informing (scientific styles are included)

3) Emotive ( publicistic, belletrestyle).

This classification was critisized. There are 2 next marginal layers:

formal – suggests careful articulation of styles, relatively slow speed of the pronouncing

informal – everyday communication, rapid, colloquial, conversational

Stylistic use of intonation:

1) Informational — in press reporting, educational descriptive texts. May be represented in monologues, dialogues, polylogues. Phonostylistic characteristics: Loudness normal or increased; pauses are rather long; rhythm is stable, properly organized; falling tones on the semantic centres, falling-rsisng or rising in the initial intonation groups

2) Academic (scientific)- style of lectures (conferences, seminars). It is determined by the purpose of communication as the speaker*s aim is to attract the listener*s attention, to establish close contacts with the audience and to direct the public attention to the message carried in the contents of the text. Phonostylistic characteristics: Loudness increased; pauses are rather long; rhythm is properly organized; high proportion of compound terminal tones (high fall + low rise, fall – rise, rise-fall-rise), a great number of high categoric falls

3) Publicistic (oratorial)-this term serves for many kinds of oratorial activities (especially this style uses in political speeches). Phonostylistic characteristics: Loudness enormously increased; pauses are definitely long between the passages; rhythm is properly organized; tones mostly emphatic, especially emotionally underlined semantic centres, in non-final intonational groups falling-rising tones are frequent

4) Declamatory (artistic)- this is the style of declamation. This is a highly emotional and expressive intonational style, that is why it needs special training. Attitudinal, volitional and intellectual functions of intonation are of primary importance here and serve to appeal to the mind, will and feelings of the listener. This style can be heard on the stage, on the screen, in a TV studio, thus we see that it is always a written form of the language read aloud or recited. Phonostylistic characteristics: Loudness varied according to the size of the audience and to the emotional setting; pauses are long especially between the passages, prolonged emphatic pauses are used to underline the emphasis; rhythm is properly organized; common use of categoric low and high falls in final and initial intination groups and on semantic centres

5) Conversational (familiar) — this kind of English is a means for everyday communication, heard in natural conversational interaction between speakers. This style occurs mainly in informal external and internal relationships in speech of relatives, friends, well — acquainted people and so on. So this is spontaneous, colloquial, informal, everyday speech.

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