3 Classes of ling units.

1) non-specific (neutral)

2) relatively specific. When the word is used in several spheres. For example the word “operation”, it may be used in medicine, criminology, mathematics, banking, military matters.

3) absolutely specific- those which belong to one sublanguage only. For instance, psychotherapy, carditis, pulmonary.

3. Phonetic means of speech characterization and expressive phonetic means.

In fact writing has limited our capacity to evaluate phonetic properties of texts . Orthography can reproduce phonetic peculiarities only with the help of graphons- unusual, non-standard spelling of words, showing either deviations from Standard English or some peculiarity in pronouncing words or phrases emphatically. Graphons are style-forming.

• Individual mispronunciation of certain sounds is observed in the graphon th (s) showing the speech of those who have a lisp. “Your thervant. Thith ith a bad pieth of biethnith. ”

• Most spelling alterations show features of territorial or social dialect. Cockney – the vernacular of the lower classes of the London population. Features: dropping the H-s: 'ave, 'am, 'at. (have, ham, hat). The substitution of the diphthong ai for the ei: fyce (face), gyme (game).

• Variants of pronunciation. The speaker may strengthen, emphasize, make some word more prominent by the following devices: 1) doubling the letter ‘N-no!!!” 2) scanning – uttering each syllable as a phonetically independent unit- hyphenated spelling “Im-pos-sible!!!” 3) italics or capitalization. Often a word is stressed by the speaker without retardation and dividing it into syllables. In this case we use italics or capitalization. She was simply beautiful. I ll NEVER see him again.

“Apppeeeee Noooyeerrrr!” (= Happy New Year!)

• Prosodic features- stress, intonation, tones, melody.

• Aesthetic evaluation of sounds viewed as units. The sounds themselves possess a kind of expressive meaning and ,hence, stylistic value. Certain internal qualities of sounds contribute to a very generalized evaluation. For instance, the plosives b,g,k,p are abrupt in comparison with sonorant consonants m,n,l.

Some other sounds in certain positions also have more or less definite stylistic value/ An English-speaking person can hardly fail to feel a certain quality common to words ending in –sh: crush, hush, bosh,flush- something negative and unpleasant.

• Onomatopoeia- sound imitation- demonstrating by phonetic means, the acoustic picture of reality. The cries of beasts and birds ( bow-bow, mew, cock-a-doodle-doo), noise-imitating interjections (bang, crack). Sound imitation may be used for comical representation of foreign speech.

• Mental verbalization of extralingual sounds (noise produced by animals, natural phenomena, traffic noises)- turning non-human sounds into human words, a process opposite to onomatopoeia psychologically/ In other words one hears what one subconsciously wishes (or fears ) to hear. For instance, in Edgar Poe s poem “The Raven” the croak of a stray raven seems to the author s inflamed imagination to be the ominous verdict Nevermore.

Syntagmatic phonetics

This part of st-cs deals with prosody and interaction of speech sounds in sequences.

The term “prosody” denotes suprasegmental characteristics of speech (tonality, length, force, tempo, rhythm).

• Alliteration. It denotes recurrence of an initial consonant in two or more words which either follow one another or appear close enough to be noticeable. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (Ch. Dickens) , Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austin). Set expressions: now or never, good as gold, cool as cucumber, forgive and forget.

• Assonance. This term is employed to signify recurrence of stressed vowels. “Vocalic alliteration”.

• Paronomasia. Paronyms are words similar (though not identical) in sound but different in meaning. Phonetic similarity and positional propinquity makes the listener search for semantic connection of the paronyms. This propensity of language users to establish imaginary sense correlations on the grounds of formal affinity is named by some linguists “patronymic attraction”. “never”-“raven”, “poultry”- “politics”.

• Rhythm and metre. The flow of speech presents an alteration of stressed and unstressed elements. The pattern of interchange of strong and weak segments is called rhythm. If there is no regularity of stressed and unstressed syllables-this is an example of prose, if rises and falls recur periodically at equal intervals the text is classed as poetry.

Disyllabic metres:

1. trochee. The first syllable is stressed. Disyllabic words: duty, honey, pretty

2. Iambus . The first is unstressed. Mistake, prepare, enjoy, again.

Trisyllabic metres.

1. Dactyl. The stress is upon the first syllable. Wonderful, dignity, beautiful

2. Amphibrach. The stress- on the second(medial) syllable. Umbrella, continue, returning.

3. Anapest. The last syllable is stressed. Disagree, interfere, understand.

Accented verses. Only the number of stresses is taken into account. The number of syllables and the type of the feet is irrelevant. Accented verses is only “tonic”/ The example: Work!Work!work!

While the cock is crowing aloof!

And work-work-work-

Till the stars shine through the roof!

Every line has three stresses.

Rhyme. – a complete coincidence of acoustic impressions produced by stressed syllables (often together with surrounding unstressed ones). They usually occur at the very end of verse lines.

Rhymes in words ending with a stressed syllable are called male (or singular)

Rhymes: dreams-streams, obey-away.

Rhymes in words with the last syllable unstressed are female (double): duty-beauty, berry-merry.

Rhymes in which the stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed ones are “dactylic” rhymes (treble rhymes). Tenderly-slenderly, battery- flattery.

According to the position of the rhyming lines, adjacent rhymes (a a b b), crossing a b a b, ring rhymes a b b a are distinguished.