- •Phonological system of English. The hierarchy of phonological units. Phoneme as the smallest discrete phonological unit and its functions.
- •Basic methods of phonological analysis. Phonological rules. The system of phonological opposition in English.
- •Modification of phonemes in speech continuum. Classification of allophones.
- •The articulation basis of English and that of the student’s mother tongue. Articulatory distinction of typologically identical sounds in the student’s mother tongue.
- •7. The system of English phonemes. Types of transcription: broad and narrow. Basic problems of phonetic transcription. International Phonetic Alphabet.
- •English consonants. Problems of their phonological analysis and classification.
- •English vowels. Problems of their analysis and classification.
- •Syllable as a phonetic and phonological unit. The phonotatic structure and types of syllables in English, their graphical representation. Functions of a syllable.
- •Syllable formation theories. Main problems of the phonetic aspect of the syllable in English.
- •Word accent as a component of the phonetic structure of a word and its functions. Acoustic and perceptual cues to word accent. Types of word accents. Linguistically relevant degreed of word stress.
- •Accent types of words
- •Word accentuation tendencies and basic word stress patterns in English. Rhythmical patterns of lexical stress in words of Anglo-Saxon origin and in French borrowings.
- •Suprasegmental Phonology. Intonation as the complex semantic unity of suprasegmental features. Different approaches to the definition of intonation and its components.
Syllable formation theories. Main problems of the phonetic aspect of the syllable in English.
Syllable formation in English is based on the phonological opposition vowel – consonant. Vowels are usually syllabic while consonants are not, with the exception of [l], [m], [n] which become syllabic if they occur in an unstressed final position proceeded by a noise consonant.
The structure of the syllable is known to vary because of the number and the arrangement of consonants. In English there are distinguished 4 types of syllable;
Open
Closed
Covered
Uncovered.
Due to its structure the English language has developed the closed type of syllable as the fundamental one while in Russian it is the open type that forms the basis of syllable formation. The number of syllable varieties from the point of view of their structure is 23. As to the number of syllables in the English word it can vary from 1 to 8: come, family, incompatibility.
The other aspect of the dialectical unity which characterizes the speech continuum is syllable division. The linguistic importance of syllable division in different languages is in finding typology of syllables and syllabic structure of meaningful units of a language, that is morphemes and words. It is the syllable division that determines the syllabic structure of the language, its syllabic typology.
In the English language the problem of syllable division exists only in case of intervocalic consonants and their clusters like the words city, agree, extra and other. In such cases the point of syllable division is not easily found. Theoretically two variants are possible:
The point of syllable division is after the intervocalic consonant
The point of syllable division is inside the consonant.
In both cases the 1st syllable remains closed according to phonotactic rules of the English language, because the short vowels should remain checked. The Russian learners of English should keep in mind that in the Russian language the stressed syllable in the structure (C)VCV(C) is always open, for example у-хо, мя-та, while in English this kind of syllable is always closed if the syllabic vowel is short and checked. Another type of intervocalic consonant clusters (VCCV type – agree, abrupt) – to determine the syllabic boundary in words of this type is necessary to apply phonological criteria, the 1st of which might be the distribution of segmental phonemes. These words should be divided into syllables in the following way e-gri:, e-br…pt because such combinations of consonants as [gr], [br] are permissible initial clusters for the English language.
Phonotactics as a branch of phonology. Basic rules of syllable division. Typical phonotactic possibilities in the structure of English syllables and words. Phonological constraints on sound clusters in the onset and coda.
Phonology is the study of the sound system of languages, and of the general properties displayed by these systems. By contrast with phonetics, which studies all possible sounds that the human vocal apparatus can make, phonology studies only those contrasts in sound which make differences of meaning within language. When we listen carefully to the way people speak English, we will hear hundreds of slight differences in the way individuals pronounce particular sounds.
Syllable formation in English is based on the phonological opposition vowel – consonant. Vowels are usually syllabic while consonants are not, with the exception of [l], [m], [n] which become syllabic if they occur in an unstressed final position proceeded by a noise consonant.
The structure of the syllable is known to vary because of the number and the arrangement of consonants. In English there are distinguished 4 types of syllable;
Open
Closed
Covered
Uncovered.
Due to its structure the English language has developed the closed type of syllable as the fundamental one while in Russian it is the open type that forms the basis of syllable formation. The number of syllable varieties from the point of view of their structure is 23. As to the number of syllables in the English word it can vary from 1 to 8: come, family, incompatibility.
The other aspect of the dialectical unity which characterizes the speech continuum is syllable division. The linguistic importance of syllable division in different languages is in finding typology of syllables and syllabic structure of meaningful units of a language, that is morphemes and words. It is the syllable division that determines the syllabic structure of the language, its syllabic typology.
In the English language the problem of syllable division exists only in case of intervocalic consonants and their clusters like the words city, agree, extra and other. In such cases the point of syllable division is not easily found. Theoretically two variants are possible:
The point of syllable division is after the intervocalic consonant
The point of syllable division is inside the consonant.
In both cases the 1st syllable remains closed according to phonotactic rules of the English language, because the short vowels should remain checked. The Russian learners of English should keep in mind that in the Russian language the stressed syllable in the structure (C)VCV(C) is always open, for example у-хо, мя-та, while in English this kind of syllable is always closed if the syllabic vowel is short and checked. Another type of intervocalic consonant clusters (VCCV type – agree, abrupt) – to determine the syllabic boundary in words of this type is necessary to apply phonological criteria, the 1st of which might be the distribution of segmental phonemes. These words should be divided into syllables in the following way e-gri:, e-br…pt because such combinations of consonants as [gr], [br] are permissible initial clusters for the English language.