1. Phonetics as a science and its branches. Phonetics at the intersection of linguistic studies. Phonetics and English language teaching. Theoretical and practical importance of research in the field of phonetics.

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

Phonetics has two main divisions; on the one hand, phonology, the study of the sound patters of languages, of how a spoken language functions as a “code”, and on the other, the study of substance, the carries the code (система сигналів).

There are 3 branches of phonetics each corresponding to a different stage in the communication process mentioned above. Each of these branches uses quite special sets of methods.

The branch of phonetics that studies the way 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 is called articulatory phonetics.

Acoustic phonetics studies the way in which the air vibrates between the speaker’s mouth and the listener’s ear. Until recently, articulatory phonetics has been the dominating branch, and most descriptive work has been done in articulatory terms.

The branch of phonetics investigating the hearing process is known as auditory phonetics. Its interests lie more in the sensation of haring, which is brain activity, than in the physiological working of the ear or the nervous activity between the ear and the brain. This branch of phonetics is of great interest to anyone who teaches of the language.

2. Phonological system of English. The hierarchy of phonological units. Phoneme as the smallest discrete phonological unit and its functions.

There are two major classes of sounds traditionally distinguished by phoneticians in any language. They are consonants and vowels. The distinction is based mainly on auditory effect. Consonant 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.

The vowel is a speech sound in the production of which the air stream coming out of the lungs meets no obstruction on its way.

The consonant is a speech sound in the production of which the air stream coming out of the lungs meets obstructions on its way.

The phoneme is the smallest linguistic unit which is capable of differentiating the meaning and the grammar forms of words. Phonemes are elements of the language. The number of them is quite definite for every separate language. In British English there are 44 phonemes, 20 vowel phonemes and 24 consonants one. In speech they manifest themselves in the form of phonemic variants or allophones.

3. Basic methods of phonological analysis. Phonological rules. The system of phonological opposition in English.

It is interesting to consider the methods applied in investigating the sound matter of the language.

Instrumental methods deriving from physiology and physics were introduced into phonetics in the 2^nd half of the last century in order to supplement and indeed to rectify the impressions deriving from the human sense, especially the auditory impressions, since these are affected by the limitations of the perceptual mechanism and in general are rather subjective.

The use of instruments is valuable in ascertaining the nature of the limitations and characteristics of the human sensory apparatus by providing finer and more detailed analysis against which sensory analysis can be assessed. In a general way, 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, and in the changes of these phenomena from moment to moment. This is strictly an instrumental method of study. This type of investigation together with sensory analysis is widely used in experimental phonetics.

4. The distinctive feature theory. The system of phonological oppositions. From the history of phoneme theory. Schools of Phonology.

5. Modification of phonemes in speech continuum. Classification of allophones.

Modifications of Consonants. There are some remarkable differences between the pronunciation of a word in isolation and of the same word in a block of connected speech. These changes are mostly quite regular and predictable. Speech sounds influence each other in the flow of speech. As a result of the intercourse between consonants and vowels and within each class there appear such processes of connected speech as assimilation, accommodation, vowel reduction, and elision which is sometimes termed deletion. The adaptive modification of a consonant by a neighbouring consonant in the speech chain is known as assimilation, e.g. the alveolar [t] followed by the interdental [O] becomes dental: eighth, at three.

The term accommodation is often used by linguist to denote the interchanges of “vowel + consonant type” or “consonant + vowel type”, for instance, some slight degree of nasalization of vowels preceded or followed by nasal sonorants: never, men; or labilization of consonants preceding the vowel [o], [y] in Russia: конь, думать, лучше.

One of the wide-spread sound changes is certainly vowel reduction. Reduction is actually qualitative or quantitative weakening of vowels in unstressed position: board – blackboard, man – postman.

Elision or complete loss of sound, both vowels and consonants, is often observed in English. Elision is likely to be minimal in slow careful speech and maximal in rapid relaxed colloquial forms of speech.

Modifications of vowels.

In discussing vowels we should turn to vowel reduction. The modification of vowels in a speech chain are traced in the following directs: they are either quantitative or qualitative or both. These changes of vowels in a speech continuum are determined by a number of factors such as the position of the vowel in the word, accentual structure, tempo of speech, rhythm, etc.

The decrease of the vowel quantity or in the words the shortening of the vowel length is known as a quantitative modification of vowels:

1. The shortening of the vowel length occurs in unstressed position. In these cases reduction affects both the length of the unstressed vowels and their quality.

2. The length of a vowel depends on its position in a word.

Qualitative modification of most vowels occurs in unstressed positions. Unstressed vowels lose their “colour”, their quality.

1. In Unstressed syllables vowels of full value are usually subjected to qualitative changes: man – sportsman. In this case the quality of the vowel is reduced to the neutral sound.

2. Slight degree of nasalization marks vowels preceded or followed by the nasal consonants [n], [m]: never, no, then, men.

The realization of reduction as well as assimilation and accommodation is connected with the style of speech. In rapid colloquial speech reduction may result in vowel elision, the complete omission of the unstressed vowel, which is also known as zero reduction. Zero reduction is likely to occur in a sequence of unstressed syllables: history, literature.