1.Phonetics as a linguistic science. Branches.Phonetics and phonology.Phonetics first of all is a linguistic science. Phonetics as a science is a branch of linguistic. The subject of it- the way in which humans produce and hear speech.It studies sounds in the broad sense, comprising segmental sounds (vowels and consonants) and prosodic phenomena(pitch, stress, tempo, rhythm). Phonetics occupies itself with the study of the ways in which the sounds are organized into a system of units and the variation of the units in all types and styles of spoken language.Being a science in its own right, it is at the same time closely connected with other linguistic sciences – grammar, lexicology, stylistic and the history of the language. Applications of phonetic knowledge: recording,teaching language,speech therapy,speech pathology,speech synthesis,speech recognition.

4 main Branches of phonetics:

1. Articulatory phonetics is concerned with the study of sound as a result of the activities of speech organs. It deals with our voice-producing mechanism and the way we produce sounds. It studies respiration, voive-production,articulation and also the mental processes necessary for the mastery of a phonetic system.

2. Auditory phonetics occupies itself with the study of man’s perception of segmental sounds, pitch variation, loudness, and duration.It studies the ways in which sound perception is determined by the phonetic system of a language. The perception of speech sounds involves the activity of our hearing mechanism

3. Acoustic phonetics is concerned with the acoustic aspect of speech sounds.

4.Functional. Segmental sounds and prosodic features are linguistic phenomena. Representing language units in actual speech, they perform certain linguistic functions.They constitute meaningfull units-morphemes,words,word-forms,utterances.It is called functional because of the role which sound matter plays in the functioning of language as a social phenomenon.

All the branches of phonetics are of great use and importance in teaching the pronunciation of foreign languages.Phonetics-a general description of how vowel or consonant sounds can be made and perceived.Phonology –the analysis and description of the vowels and consonants of particular languages. Phonetic research:precise measurement of vowel/consonant length,behavior of the larynx during voicing,acoustic consequences of voicing,methods and techniques used in natural sciences.Phonological research:identifying and characterizing the total number of distinct vowels/consonants in English,classifying the sounds of English according to distinctive properties such as voicing or voicelessness,formulating rules of predictable pattern such as vowel lengthening before voiced consonants,the mental organization of the language,the systematization of distinctions within a language modeling of a speakers knowledge as a set of rules.

2Articulatory classification of speech sounds.VOWELS are speech sounds based on voice which is modified in the supralaringeal cavities.Classification: according to the horizontal movement of the tongue; to the vertical movement; to the position of the lips; to the degree of the muscular tension of the articulatory organs; to the force of articulation at the end of a vowel; to the stability of articulation; to the length of a vowel.

according to the horizontal movement :front, front-retracted,mixed,back-advanced

to the vertical movement:close (high), mid and open (low)

to the position of the lips, whether they are rounded, spread or neutral: rounded and unrounded.

to the degree of the muscular tension of the articulatory organs: tense and lax. All the long vowels are believed to be tense, while short vowels are lax.

to the force of articulation at the end of a vowel: free and checked. Free vowels are pronounced in an open syllable with a weakening in the force of articulation towards their end. These are long monophtongs and diphthongs and unstressed short vowels. Checked vowels are those in the articulation of which there is no weakening of the force of articulation.

to the stability of articulation : monophtongs and diphthongs, diphthongoids.

to the length long and short (differs from the positional length).

CONSONANTS are speech sounds in the articulation of which there is an obstruction, the removal of which causes noise-plosion and friction.An indispensable constituent of a consonant is noise. The source of noise is in obstruction.

According to the type of obstruction and the manner of the production of noise: occlusives(plosives and nasal), constrictives ( Fricatives and oral sonants), occlusive-constrictive.

According to the active speech organ which forms an obstruction: labial (bilabial – p, b, m, w, labio-dental – v, f) , lingual (forelingual – t, d, n, s, z, r, mediolingual – j) , Backlingual – k, g).

According to the place of obstruction: dental, alveolar (t, d, n, l, s, z), post-alveolar(r) , palatal (j) , palato-alveolar (t) , velar.

According to the presence or absence of voice: voiced (b, d, g, v, z) and voiceless (p, t, k, f, s, t).

According to the force of articulation : lenis(muscular tension is weak) and fortis(is strong).

According to the position of the soft palate: oral(p, b, t, d, k, g, f, v,) and nasal (m, n).

3. The phoneme as a linguistic unit. Its definitions and functions.

The phoneme - the smallest linguistically relevant unit of the sound structure of a given language which serves to distinguish one word from another. The phoneme is a minimal abstract linguistic unit realized in speech in the form of speech sounds opposable to other phonemes of the same language to distinguish the meaning of morphemes and words.

Firstly, the phoneme is a functional unit .In phonetics function is usually understood as a role of the various units of the phonetic system in distinguishing one morpheme from another, one word from another or one utterance from another. The opposition of phonemes in the same phonetic environment differentiates the meaning of morphemes and words: e.g. bath-path, light-like. Sometimes the opposition of phonemes serves to distinguish the meaning of the whole phrases: He was heard badly - He was hurt badly. Thus we may say that the phoneme can fulfill the distinctive function.Secondly, the phoneme is material, real and objective. That means it is realized in speech in the form of speech sounds, its allophones. The phonemes constitute the material form of morphemes, so this function may be called constitutive function.Thirdly, the phoneme performs the recognitive function, because the use of the right allophones and other phonetic units facilitates normal recognition. We may add that the phoneme is a material and objective unit as well as an abstract and generalized one at the same time.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

4. Manifestation of phonemes in speech. Phoneme and allophone.Every phoneme displays a vast range of variation in connected speech.Among the different types of variation we distinguish idiolectal,diaphonic and allophonic variation.

Idiolectal v. embraces the individual peculiarities of articulating sounds which are caused by the shape and form of the speaker’s speech organs and by his articulatory habits.(thish ish instead of this is// a f-f-fine d-d-day)Diaphonic variation affects the quality and quantity of particular phonemes.The less noticeable variation of phonemes is allophonic variation, which is conditioned by phonetic position and environment. The number of allophones of each phoneme is no less than the number of phonetic positions and environments in which the phoneme occurs. Allophones of a certain phoneme are speech sounds which are realizations of one and the same phoneme and witch can’t distinguish words. 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.

5. methods of the identification of phonemes in a language. The first problem of phonological analysis is to establish the phonemes in a definite language.This can be carried out only by phonological analysis based on phonological rules.There are 2 methods to do that:The distributional method is based on the phonological rule that different phonemes can freely occur in one and the same position, while allophones of one and the same phoneme occur in different positions and can’t be phonologically opposed to each other. (/p/ and /b/ can freely occur in the same position as in pea-bee they are consequently different phonemes) This method is purely formal method of identifying the phonemes of a language. The semantic method is based on the phonological rule that a phoneme can distinguish words when opposed to another phoneme or zero in an identical phonetic position.The opposition /z/ versus /t/ is called phonological opposition. The opposition /z/ versus /-/ is called zero opposition.If 2 speech sounds distinguish words with different meanings, they form a phonological opposition. If not they are allophones of one and the same phoneme. In English /s/ and /t/ are realizations of 2 different phonemes (sea-tee), while /t/ aspirated and /t/ no aspirated are allophones of one and the same phoneme, as they can not distinguish words.

6. The distinctive and non –distinctive features of English vowels. The following 20 vowel phonemes are distinguished in BBC English (RP): [i:, a:, o:, u:, з:, i, e, æ, σ, υ, л, ə; ei, ai, oi, аυ, eυ, υə, iə].Principles of classification provide the basis for the establishment of the following distinctive oppositions. Vowels have two main characteristics. The first is vowel length and the second is vowel quality. Distinctive is quality. The length of English vowels depends on a lot of factors, the first being the phonetic context. ([iː] be [biː] – the longest / beed [biːd] – a bit shorter / beat [biːt] – much shorter .)Vowel quality is distinctive, regardless of the position of the vowel. Vowel length is dependent on the phonetic context, in particular on the following consonant. It is the so-called “positional length”. Vowels are the longest in the open syllable. Slightly shorter before a sonorant or a voiceless lenis consonant, and they are the shortest before voiceless fortis consonant.

The components of vowel quality:

1) Stability of articulation

short vowels [ɪ]. [ʌ], [ɔ], [e], [æ], [u], [ə],

long vowels [ɔː], [ɑː], [iː], [uː], [ɜː], [eɪ], [aɪ], [ɔɪ], [ɪə], [ɛə], [uə], [ɔu], [au]

monophthongs [ɪ]. [ʌ], [ɔ], [e], [æ], [u], [ə], [ɔː], [ɑː], [ɜː]

diphthongs [eɪ], [aɪ], [ɔɪ], [ɪə], [ɛə], [uə], [ɔu], [au]

diphthongoids [iː], [uː]

2) The position of the tongue

* Horisontal movements of the tongue:

1. front vowels [iː], [e], [æ]

2. central vowels [ʌ], [ɜː], [ə]

3. back vowels [ɔ], [ɔː], [uː], [ɑː]

4. front-retracted [ɪ]

5. back-advanced [u]

* Vertical movements of the tongue:

1. close vowels (close-narrow [iː], [uː] /close-broad [ɪ], [u] )

2. mid vowels ( mid-narrow [e], [ɜː] / mid-broad [ʌ], [ə] )

3. open vowels ( open-narrow [ɔː] / open-broad [æ], [ɑː], [ɔ] )

3) Lip rounding.Traditionally three lip positions are distinguished, that is spread, neutral and rounded. For the purpose of classification it is sufficient to distinguish between two lip position: rounded and unrounded. In English lip rounding is not relevant phonologically since no two words can be differentiated on its basis.

4) Checkness .This quality depends on the character of the articulatory transition from a vowel to a consonant. All English short vowels are checked when stressed. Before fortis voiceless consonants it is more perceptible that before a lenis voiced consonant or sonorant. All long vowels are free.

5)Tenseness .It characterizes the state of the organs of speech at the moment of production of a vowel. Special analysis shows that historically long vowels are tense while historically short vowels are lax.

Summary -Functionally relevant articulatory features of English vowels are: stability of articulation , tongue position

The following characteristics have no phonological value. They are indispensable constituents of vowel quality and are considerably important in teaching English phonetics. - lip position , length, character of vowel end (checkness), tenseness

For example, in words bead- bid not only the length of the vowels is different but in the [i:] articulation the bulk of the tongue occupies more front and high position then in the articulation of [i].

7. The distinctive and non –distinctive features of English consonants

The phonological analysis of English consonant sounds helps to distinguish 24 phonemes: [p, b, t, d, k, g, f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ∫, ж, h, t∫, dж, m, n, ŋ, w, r, 1, j]. Relevant features make up the basis of the phonological description, while irrelevant features are redundant from the phonological point of view but still very important for the articulation of the sounds. Most phoneticians agree that relevant features of English consonants are: degree of noise; place of articulation; manner of articulation.

Manner of articulation :

1. Occlusive ( noise - plosives [b],[d],[g]; [p],[t],[k] / affricates [ʤ], [ʧ] / sonorants [m], [n], [ŋ] )

2. Constrictive ( noise [f],[v],[s],[z],[θ],[ð],[ʃ],[ʒ],[h] / sonorants - lateral [l] / medial [w],[r],[j] (й) )

Place of articulation:

1. Labial ( bilabial [p],[b], [m], [w] / labio-dental [f], [v] )

2. Lingual ( forelingual -interdental [θ],[ð] / alveolar [t],[d],[s],[z],[n],[l] / post-alveolar [r] / palate-alveolar [ʃ],[ʒ], [ʤ], [ʧ]

medialingual [j]

backlingual [k],[g],[ŋ] )

3. Glottal [h]

Degree of noise

1. Noise( occlusive [p],[b],[t],[d],[k],[g] / constrictive [f],[v],[s],[z], [θ],[ð],[ʃ],[ʒ],[h] / occlusive-constrictive [ʤ], [ʧ] )

2. Sonorants ( occlusive [m],[n], [ŋ] / constrictive - medial [w],[r],[j] / lateral [l] )

The problem of affricates:Some phoneticians consider affricates a separate class. That is, occlusive-constrictive consonants which are produced with a complete obstruction which is slowly released, and the air escapes from the mouth with friction. So, on the articulatory level we can’t refer affricates either to occlusive or to constrictive consonants, because they are known to consist both of the closure and the narrowing. So, the two English affricates, [ʧ] and [ʤ] form a quite independent group of occlusive-constrictive consonants. The problem of sonorants: David Crystal defines sonorants as vowel-like consonants, that can be sounded continuously without any friction. It goes without saying that sonorants differ from all other consonants of the language. That is the reason why some phoneticians refer sonorants [r], [w], [j] to the special class of semi-vowels. However, most Russian phoneticians concider sonorants to belong to consonants. That can be easily proved with the help of phonological oppositions: [ben – men], [leɪk - seɪk].

Summary-Functionally relevant articulatory features of English consonants are: degree of noise; place of articulation; manner of articulation.

The following characteristics have no phonological value. They are indispensable features and are considerably important in teaching English phonetics: palatalization; aspiration; nasalization.

8. Problems of the phonemic inventory of english vowels.

The inventory of phonemes of a language is all phonemes of this language. Every language has it's own inventory of speech sounds that it uses to contrast meaning. English has one of the larger inventories among the world's languages. The English diphthongs are the object of a sharp phonological controversy, whose essence is the same as in the case of affricates are the English diphthongs biphonemic sound complexes or composite monophonemic entities?Diphthongs are defined differently by different authors. One definition is based on the ability of a vowel to form a syllable. Since in a diphthong only one element serves as a syllabic nucleus, a diphthong is a single sound. Another definition of a diphthong as a single sound is based on the instability of the second element. The 3d group of scientists defines a diphthong from the accentual point of view: since only one element is accented and the other is unaccented, a diphthong is a single sound.D. Jones defines diphthongs as unisyllabic gliding sounds in the articulation of which the organs of speech start from one position and then glide to another position.N.S. Trubetzkoy states that a diphthong should be (a) unisyllabic, that is the parts of a diphthong cannot belong to two syllables; (b) monophonemic with gliding articulation; (c) its length should not exceed the length of a single phoneme.

The same phonological criteria may be used for justifying the monophonemic treatment of the English diphthongs as those applicable to the English affricates. They are the criteria of articulatory, morphophonological (and, in the case of diphthongs, also syllabic) indivisibility, commutability and duration. Problem of length. There are long vowel phonemes in English and short. However, the length of the vowels is not the only distinctive feature of minimal pairs like Pete -pit, beet - bit, etc. In other words the difference between i: i. u: - υ is not only quantitative but also qualitative, which is conditioned by different positions of the bulk of the tongue. For example, in words bead- bid not only the length of the vowels is different but in the [i:] articulation the bulk of the tongue occupies more front and high position then in the articulation of [i].

10. Types on phonetic transcription

A transcription which is a visual system of notation of the sound structure of speech is also a generalization of great variety of sounds that are uttered by speakers of a given language.The extent generalization may vary.One can classify the sounds into phonemes accroding to the different degrees of aspiration, labialization, longhand other phonologically irrelevant fearures of the sounds and also disregarding those features.There may be different types of transcription depending upon the degree of exactness required.A phonemic transcription is based on the principal: one symbol per phoneme. Thus each of its symbols denotes a phoneme as a whole : as an obstraction and generalization. The symbols of it are usually placed between slanting lines / / . For example the symbol/e/ denotes the vowel phoneme in such a word as bell in general,it stands for all its allophones,while a phonemic transcription of the whole word is /bel/.It contains as many symbols as there are phonemes in the language. /t/

An allophonic or narrow transcription is based on the principle one symbol per allophone.Thus an allophonic transcription provides a special sign for each variant of each phoneme. The symbol are usually placed between square brakets{ }.Foe example the symbol {E} denotes an opener variant of the English /e/-phoneme. The word bell may be transcribed allophonically {bEl}.Also such transcription is also called phonetic transcription.

Phonemic transcriptions are used more extensively.The main reason for this is that an allophonic transcription contains too many symbols for a language learner to master with ease. It has some more advantages: it’s easier, quicker and more convenient to write by and because most of its symbols coincide in shape with letters of the alphabet. One of the principles of this transcription is to use the fewest possible symbols of the simplest possible shape.

9. Problems of the phonemic inventory of English consonants.

There are some problems of phonological character in the English consonantal system; it is the problem of affricates - their phonological status and their number. The question is: what kind of facts a phonological theory has to explain:1) Are the English [t∫, dж] sounds monophonemic entities or biphonemic combinations (sequences, clusters)?2) If they are monophonemic, how many phonemes of the same kind exist in English, or, in other words, can such clusters as [tr, dr] and [tθ, dð] be considered affricates?One thing is clear: these sounds are complexes because articulatory we can distinguish two elements. Considering phonemic duality of affricates, it is necessary to analyze the relation of affricates to other consonant phonemes to be able to define their status in the system.The problem of affricates is a point of considerable controversy among phoneticians. According to Russian specialists in English phonetics, there are two affricates in English: [t∫, dж]. D. Jones points out there are six of them: [t∫, dж], [ts, dz], and [tr, dr]. Russian phoneticians look at English affricates through the eyes of a phoneme theory, according to which a phoneme has three aspects: articulatory, acoustic and functional..Before looking at this from a functional point of view it is necessary to define their articulatory indivisibility. 1. Syllabic indivisibility(butcher [but∫ -ə] -lightship [lait-∫ip], mattress [mætr-is] - footrest [fut-rest], curtsey [kз:-tsi] -out-set [aut-set]In the words in the left column the sounds [t∫], [tr], [ts], [tθ] belong to one syllable and cannot be divided into two elements by a syllable dividing line.2. Articulatory indivisibility. Special instrumental analysis shows that all the sound complexes are homogeneous and produced by one articulatory effort.3. Duration. With G.P. Torsuyev we could state that length of sounds depends on the position in the phonetic context, therefore it cannot serve a reliable basis in phonological analysis. He writes that the length of English [t∫] in the words chair and match is different; [t∫] in match is considerably longer than |t| in mat and may be even longer than [∫] in mash. This does not prove, however, that [t∫] is biphonemic.According to morphological criterion a sound complex is considered to be monophonemic if a morpheme boundary cannot pass within it because it is generally assumed that a phoneme is morphologically indivisible. If we consider [t∫], [dж] from this point of view we could be secure to grant them a monophonemic status, since they are indispensable. As to [ts], [dz] and [tθ], [dð] complexes their last elements are separate morphemes [s], [z], [θ], [ð] so these elements are easily singled out by the native speaker in any kind of phonetic context. These complexes do not correspond to the phonological models of the English language and cannot exist in the system of phonemes. We could say that the two approaches have been adopted towards this phenomenon are as follows: the finding that there are eight affricates in English [t∫], [dж], [tr], [dr], [ts], [dz], [tð], [dθ] is consistent with articulatory and acoustic point of view, because in this respect the entities are indivisible. ( the British phoneticians ). On the other hand, Russian phoneticians are consistent in looking at the phenomenon from the morphological and the phonological point of view which allows them to define [t∫], [dж] as monophonemic units and [tr], [dr], [ts], [dz], [tð], [dθ] as biphonemic complexes. However, this point of view reveals the possibility of ignoring the articulatory and acoustic indivisibility.The problem of affricates:Some phoneticians consider affricates a separate class. That is, occlusive-constrictive consonants which are produced with a complete obstruction which is slowly released, and the air escapes from the mouth with friction. So, on the articulatory level we can’t refer affricates either to occlusive or to constrictive consonants, because they are known to consist both of the closure and the narrowing. So, the two English affricates, [ʧ] and [ʤ] form a quite independent group of occlusive-constrictive consonants. The problem of sonorants: David Crystal defines sonorants as vowel-like consonants, that can be sounded continuously without any friction. It goes without saying that sonorants differ from all other consonants of the language. That is the reason why some phoneticians refer sonorants [r], [w], [j] to the special class of semi-vowels. However, most Russian phoneticians concider sonorants to belong to consonants. That can be easily proved with the help of phonological oppositions: [ben – men], [leɪk - seɪk].

11. The syllables as a phonetic/phonological unit. The structure and functions of syllables in EnglishSyllable formation in English is based on the phonological opposition vowel - consonant. Vowels are usually syllabic while consonants are not with the exceptions of [l], [m], [n], which become syllabic in a final position preceded by a noise consonant: bottle [bσtl], bottom [bσtm], and [r] perhaps [præps].The structure of English syllables can be summarized as follows:• Many syllables have one or more consonants preceding the nucleus. These make up the syllable onset: me, so, plow.• Many syllables have one or more consonants, following the nucleus. They make up the syllable coda. They are traditionally known as closed syllables: cat, jump.• The combination of nucleus and coda has a special significance, making up the rhyming property of a syllable.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 other aspect of this component is syllable division. The problem of syllable division in case of intervocalic consonants and their clusters, like in such words as city, extra, standing and others.Let us consider the first word ['sit.i]. There exist two possibilities:

a) the point of syllable division is after the intervocalic consonant:

b) the point of syllable division is inside the consonant.In both cases the first syllable remains closed because the shot vowel should remains check The result of instrumentally analyses show, that the point of syllable division in such words is inside the intervocalic consonant. EPD indicates the point of division after the consonant.The second case. There are two syllables in the word extra but where should the boundary between them fall?1) [e - kstrə]. It is unlike that people would opt for a division between [e] and [kstrə] because there are no syllables in English which begin with consonant sequence [kstr].Similarly, a division between [ekstr] and [ə] would be unnatural. [ek - strə], [eks - trə], [ekst - rə] are possible. functions of the syllable.- constitutive function. It lies in its ability to be a part of a word itself. The syllables form language units of greater magnitude that is words, morphemes, and utterances. It this respect two things should be emphasized. First, the syllable is the unit within which the relations between distinctive features of phonemes and their acoustic correlates are revealed. Second, within a syllable prosodic characteristics of speech are realized, which form the stress pattern of a word and the intonation structure of an utterance. In sum, the syllable is a specific minimal structure of both segmental and suprasegmental features.The other function is distinctive one. The syllable is characterized by its ability to differentiate words and word-forms. One minimal pare has been found in English to illustrate the word distinctive function in the syllabic: nitrate — night-rate. There analogical distinction between word combinations can be illustrated by many more examples: an aim - a name; an ice house - a nice house, etc.

12. . THEORIES ON SYLLABLE FORMATION AND DIVISION

Speech can be broken into minimal pronounceable units into syllables. Being the smallest pronounceable units, syllables form morphemes, words and phrases. The syllable be studied on four levels - articulatory, acoustic, auditory and functional. We could start with the so-called expiratory (chest pulse or pressure) theory by R.H. Stetson. E.i. the number of syllables in an utterance is determined by the number of expirations made in the production of the utterance. Another theory of syllable put forward by O. Jespersen is generally called the sonority theory. each sound is characterized by a certain degree of sonority which is understood us acoustic property of a sound that determines its perceptibility.

In Russian linguistics there has been adopted the theory of syllable by LV Shcherba. It is called the theory of muscular tension. In most languages there is the syllabic phoneme in the centre of the syllable which is usually a vowel phoneme or, seldom a sonorant. The phonemes preceding or following the syllabic peak are called marginal. The tense of articulation increases within the range of prevocalic consonants and then decreases within the range of postvocalic consonants.Zhinkin has suggested the so-called loudness theory which seems to combine both production and perception levels.So the syllable is the arc оf loudness which correlates with the arc of articulatory effort on the speed production level since variations in loudness are due to the work of all speech mechanisms.no phonetician has succeeded giving an adequate explanation of syllable. The difficulties :1. Sоme linguists consider the syllable to be a purely articulatory unit which lacks any functional value. This point of view is defended on the ground that the boundaries of syllables do not always coincide with those of morphemes.2.the majority of linguists treat the syllable as the smallest pronounceable unit which can reveal some linguistic function.The definition of the syllable from the functional point of view tends to single out the following features of the syllable:a) a syllable is a chain of phonemes of varying length; b) it is constructed on the basis of contrast of its constituents (which is usually of vowel - consonant type);c) the nucleus of it is a vowel, the presence of consonants is optional; there are no languages in which vowels are not used as syllable nuclei, however, there are languages in which this function is performed by consonants; d) the distribution of phonemes in its structure follows by the rules which are specific enough for a particular language.There are different points of view on syllable formation which are briefly the following:The most ancient theory states that there are as many syllables in a word as there are vowels. This theory is primitive and insuffi­cient since it does not take into consideration consonants which also canform syllables in some languages, neither does it explain the boundary of syllables.The expiratory theory ( chest -pulse theory) states that there are as many syllables in a word as there are expiration pulses. The borderline between the syllab­les is, according to this theory, the moment of the weakest expiration. This theory is inconsistent because it is quite possible to pronounce several syllables in one articulatory effort or expiration.The sonority theory states that there are as many syllables in a word as there are peaks of prominence according to the scale of sono­rity. The sonority theory helps to establish the number of syllables in a word, but fails to explain the mechanism of syllable division because it does not state to which syllable the weak sound at the boundary of two syllables belongs.4. The "arc of loudness" theory is based on L.V statement that the centre of a syllable is the syllable forming phoneme. Sounds which precede or follow it constitute a chain or an arc which is weak in the beginning and in the end and strong in the middle / So, a syllable can be defined as a phonetic unit, which is pronounced by one articulatory effort, by one muscular contraction, which results auditorily in one uninterrupted arc of loudness.

14. PRONUNCIATIN VARIETIES OF BRITISH ENGLISHThere is a wide range of pron. varieties of the English . they reflect the social class the speaker belongs to, the geo­graphical region he comes from, and they also convey stylistic connotations of speech. Some of these varieties are received pronunciations, others are not. Every national variant of the English language has an orthoepic norm of its own.It is generally conceded that the orthoepic norm of British English is "Received Pronunciation" . (RP) was accepted as the phonetic norm of Eng­lish about a century ago. It is mainly based on the Southern English regional type of pronunciation. RP is actually a social standard pronunciation of English. It is often referred to as the prestige accent.But there are many educated people in Britain who do not speak RP, though their English is good and correct. They speak Standard English*with a regional type of pronunciation. English people by the way they talk: 1.RP speakers of Standard English ;2. non—RP speakers of Standard English(speak Standard English with a regional accent);3. Dialect speakers.One of the best examples of a local dialect is Cockney. It is used by the less educated in the region of London. Studies of regional and dialectal pronunciations generally concentrate on the phonemic structures of words and differences in the realizations of de­finite phonemes. But it appears that these pronunciations, besides that, have differences in their phoneme inventories. For example, Cockney has no [θ] и [ ð] phonemes. The Northern regional type of English pronunciation is characterized by features that are common to all the dialects used in the northern part of Eng­land. The main distinctions of the Northern type of English pronunciation,are as follows: /æ/ is more open and more retracted back, as in /a/ (e.g."back","bad"). /ɑ:/ is fronted compared with RP /ɑ:/ and it approximates to /æ/ in words which do not contain "r" in spelling (e.g. "glass", "after"), (c) /ʊ/ is used instead of /ʌ/ (e.g. "cup", "love", "much"), so there is no distinction between words like "could" and "cud", "put" and "putt".(d) / ǝʊ / is pronounced as a monophthongal / ɔ:/ (e.g. "go", "home")./e/ or are pronounced instead of /ei/ (e.g. "may", "say", "take")./ɒə/ is widely used, so they distinguish words like "pore" and "paw"All tones are drawled and speech is generally slower than in Southern English. The Low Rising Tone is used much oftener than in RP. The Scottish type of English Pronunciation is also based on the dialects spoken in Scotland which vary among themselves in some respects. Their common features, which distinguish the Scottish type of pronunciation from RP, are as follows:/ ɜ:/ is not used in the Scottish type of pronunciation, instead of RP /ɜ:/ they use the sequences /ir/, /er/ or /ʌr/ (e.g. "bird"/bird/ "heard /herd/, "word" /wʌrd/. Similarly monophthongs are used instead of diphthongs in "beard", "there", "poor", "sure", etc./u/ is used instead of /au/ (e.g. "down" /dun/).The Scottish pronunciation does not distinguish between /æ/ and / ɑ:/; words like "bad", "path", "grass", "dance", "half", "part" are pronounc­ed with /æ/, /a/ or /ɒ/.All vowels are short. There is no distinction in the length of the vo­wels in words like "pull" and "pool", /r/ is an alveolar flap not only between and before vowels, as in "hurry" and "brown", but also after vowels, as in "word", "born". In the Scottish type of pronunciation there appears a backlingual fricative /x/, which resembles the corresponding Russian sound (e.g. "loch").

15. AMERICAN ENGLISH PRONUNCIATIONEnglish is spoken not only in Britain. It is the national language in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, and of a great part of the population in Canada. Each of those nations has its own orthoepic norm which exists alongside of regional types and numerous dialects.Though the national languages have peculiar features of their own, which differentiate them from British English (BE) and from each other, they have much more in common. That is why they are considered to be variants of the same language, the English language.American English (AE), which is a variant of the English language, has developed its own peculiarities in vocabulary, grammatical structure and pro­nunciation. With the beginning of the 19th century the mobility of the population in the USA increased greatly: there was migration to the west of the country, and with the growth of industrial centres a considerable proportion of the farm population moved to the cities. As a result - dialectal differences have been reduced to fewer, more or less general, regional types. The most wi­dely used regional types of AE pronunciation are the Eastern, the Southern, and the General American types, the latter spoken mainly in the Middle Atlan­tic States Region.The GA (General American) pronunciation is usually referred to as the standard pronunciation of AE, though it is often debated whether there is a standard pronunciation in the USA. Nevertheless it is the GA that has the greatest "acceptability" if not prestige, in the United States.The peculiarities of GA lie in 1) the pronunciation of sounds and sound combinations; 2) differences in the stress patterns of words, and 3) diffe­rences in intonation. Peculiarities of pronunciation of GA sounds and sound combinations as compared to those of RP.

/r/ in GA is retroflexive, i.e. the tip of the tongue is curled back;

/t/ is voiced between a vowel and a sonorant (as in "battle", "twen­ty") , or between two vowels the second of which is unstressed (as in "pity", better"). But the distinction between /t/ and 1d1 is not neutralized, because the voiced [t] is extremely short and resembles a one—tap alveolar /r/. Ameri­cans easily distinguish between "writer" and "rider", "latter" and "ladder";/l/is always dark, even before vowels (e.g. "film, look");

/ʃ/ is voiced in words like "excursion" lʒnl, "version" /ʒn/;

/h/ is often dropped in weak syllables, but it is retained when the syl­lable is stressed (e.g. "I saw him"/ai 'so :im/, but "him" /him/);

(f) /j/ is omitted before /u/ (e.g. "duty" /duti/, "student" /studnt/, "new"/nu:/);(g) /d/ is dropped after /l/ and /n/( e.g. "cold", "old", "individual");(h) /k/ is omitted before /t/ (e.g. "asked" )

All American vowels are long.(f) / æ / instead of /a:/ in words which do not contain "r" in spoiling (e.g. "path", "glass", "laugh", "can't", "last", "grass" etc. Exceptions: "father, palm, balm, alms")'(I) / æ / in GA is wider and longer than RP / æ /, the Americans pronounce it with a twang (e.g. "man", "pass");(m) /o u / is much less diphthongal than in RP. It may be represented as /o:/. Thus to represent Englishmen on the American stage the actors very often exaggerate the diphthongal character of /ou/,(n) /u ǝ / tends to be monophthongized. (e.g. "usually" / juʒali/, "rural"/'rural/).The GA /ǝ/ phoneme occurs both in stressed syllables (as in "but", "son", "blood") and in unstressed syllables (as in unstressed "of", "was", "does").Peculiarities in the stress patterns of words American speakers make much greater use of secondary stress in polysyl­labic words than British speakers do. In words which end in "-ary", "-ory". "—ery", "—mony", "-ative" the first syllable in the suffix bears tertiary stress (i.e. stress which is somewhat weaker than secondary stress).E.g.'dictioֽnary, 'terriˌtory. Peculiarities of GA intonation.The most frequent intonation contour for statements and requests in GA is the tune, beginning low, rising to a high level, and then steadily falling.E.g. He asked me to do it. He asked me to do it.The same type of falling intonation contour may characterize the so called General Questions in GA.Did he ask you to do it?"Rising" tunes that rise from a low pitch level and end on a high pitch level occur with some General Questions, especially in situations where a very polite form is desirable.E.g. Do you know him?Though the so—called Special Questions are pronounced with a falling tone in both RP and GA, the difference lies in the pronunciation of the Scale. If in RP it is usually the Descending Scale, in GA the whole utterance is generally pronounced on a level tone.

Such questions sound dispassionate and disrespectful to an RP speaker.

The RP Special Questions pronounced with a rising tone (polite questions) are perceived by the Americans as questions implying curiosity.

Another frequent intonational characteristic in GA is to end a sentence with a high—pitched fall—rise.On account of the fact that the features which distinguish AE from Bri­tish English are so numerous, some linguists claim that AE can no more be con­sidered a variant of the English language.

But most of the linguists express the opposite point of view. It has been proved that the distinctions between AE and BE do not affect the inventory of the main lan­guage units. Those distinctions are but functional variations of language units which are common to both variants of the English language: AE and BE.Thus, there is a wide range of pronunciation varieties of the English lan­guage. These varieties reflect the social class the speaker belongs to, the geo­graphical region he comes from, and they also convey stylistic connotations of speech. Some of these varieties are received pronunciations, others are not.Every national variant of the English language has an orthoepic norm of its own: RP, or Southern English, for British English, GA for American English, the Australian Standard Pronunciation for Australian English. Each of these orthoepic norms tolerates a definite range of phonemic variation, and each of them has its own peculiarities of combinatory phenomena.

16. The syllable as a prosodic unit. Word stress, its nature and functions.

The syllable as a prosodic unit. Word stress, its nature and functions. The syllable is the smallest prosodic unit. It has no meaning. tone, stress, dura­tion depend on its position and function in the rhythmic unit and in the ut­terance. Rhythmic unit is either 1 stressed syllable or a str. syllable with a number of unstr. ones grouped around it.The stressed syllable is the nucleus of the rhythmic unit. There are as many rhythmic units in an utterance as there are stressed syllables in it. The unstressed syllables are clitics. Those preceding the stressed syllable are called proclitics, and those following it — enclitics.The intonation group is hierarchically higher than the rhythmic unit. It has also been termed "syntagm", "sense-group", "tune". a syllable can be defined as a phonetic unit, which is pronounced by one articulatory effort, by one muscular contraction, which results auditorily in one uninterrupted arc of loudness.

LINGUSTICALLY RELEVANT DEGREES OF WORD STRESS

a polysyllabic word has as many degrees of stress as there are syllables in it American and English phoneticians give the following pattern of stress distribution in the word examination. They mark the strongest syllable, with primary accent with the numeral 1, then goes 2, 3, etc.The majority of British phoneticians distinguish three degrees of word-stress. The strongest stress is called primary stress, the second strongest secondary, while all the other degrees of stress are grouped together under the cover term of weak stress. The syllables bearing either primary or secondary stress are termed stressed, while syllables with weak stress are called, somewhat inaccurately, unstressed.

In the phonetic transcription it is indicated by placing mark before the symbol of the first sound of the accented syllable, primary stress marked by a short vertical stroke (tick), secondary stress by a lowered one. The American descriptivists distinguish a greater number of degrees of word-stress. Gleason distinguish also four degrees of word-stress in English, (1) primary stress—/'/, (2) secondary stress — /′`/, (3) tertiary stress — /‵/, and (4) weak stress — /`′/.

Stress in the isolated word is termed word stress; stress in connected speech is termed sentence stress. Bogoroditsky, defined stress as an increase of energy, accompanied by an increase of expiratory and articulatory activity. Jones defined stress as the degree of force, which is accompanied by a strong force of exhalation and gives an impression of loudness. Sweet also stated that stress, is connected with the force of breath. If we compare stressed and unstressed syllables in the words contract ['kσntrækt], to contract [kən'trækt], we may note that in the stressed syllable:(a) the force is greater, which is connected with more energetic articulation;

(b) the pitch of voice is higher, which is connected with stronger tenseness of the vocal cords and the walls of the resonance chamber;(c) the quantity of the vowel [æ] in [kən'trækt] is greater, the vowel becomes longer;

(d) the quality of the vowel [æ] in the stressed syllable is different from the quality of this vowel in the unstressed position, in which it is more narrow than ['æ].

On the auditory level a stressed syllable is the part of the word which has a special prominence. According to the most important feature, different types of word stress are distinguished in different languages.1) If special prominence in a stressed syllable or syllables is achieved mainly through the intensity of articulation, such type of stress is called dynamic, or force stress.2) If special prominence in a stressed syllable is achieved mainly through the change of pitch, or musical tone, such accent is called musical, or tonic. It is characteristic of the Japanese, Korean and other oriental languages.3) If special prominence in a stressed syllable is achieved through the changes in the quantity of the vowels, which are longer in the stressed syllables than in the unstressed ones, such type of stress is called quantitative.4) Qualitative type of stress is achieved through the changes in the quality of the vowel under stress.

English word stress is traditionally defined as dynamic.Russian word stress is not only dynamic but mostly quantitative and qualitative. Now we should like to distinguish the notions of word stress and sentence stress. Word stress is naturally applied to a word, as a linguistic unit, sentence stress is applied to a phrase. in a speech chain the phonetic structure of a word obtains additional characteristics connected with rhythm, melody, and tempo. Though the sentence stress falls on the syllable marked by the word stress it is not realized in the stressed syllable of an isolated word but in a word within speech continuum. Sentence stress organizes a sentence into a linguistic unit, helps to form its rhythmic and intonation pattern.

Functions and tendencies of the English stress

1. Word stress constitutes a word, it organizes the syllables of a word into a language unit having a definite accentual structure, that is a pattern of relationship among the syllables; a word does not exist without the word stress Thus the word stress performs the constitutive function. Sound continuum becomes a phrase when it is divided into units organized by word stress into words.

2. Word stress enables a person to identify a succession of syllables as a definite accentual pattern of a word. This function of word stress is known as identificatoiy(у него так в лекции) (or recognitive). Correct accentuation helps the listener to make the process of communication easier, whereas the distorted accentual pattern of words, misplaced word stresses prevent normal understanding.

3. Word stress alone is capable of differentiating the meaning of words or their forms, thus performing its distinctive function. The accentual patterns of words or the degrees of word stress and their positions form oppositions, e.g. 'import — im'port, 'billow — below.

The accentual structure of English words is liable to instability due to the different origin of several layers in the Modern English word-stock. In Germanic languages the word stress originally fell on the initial syllable or the second syllable, the root syllable in the English words with prefixes. This tendency was called recessive. Most English words of Anglo-Saxon origin as well as the French borrowings (dated back to the 15th century) are subjected to this recessive tendency. Unrestricted recessive tendency is observed in the native English words having no prefix, e.g. mother, daughter, brother, swallow, ,in assimilated French borrowings, e.g. reason, colour, restaurant. Restricted recessive tendency marks English words with prefixes, e.g. foresee, begin, withdraw, apart. A great number of words of Anglo-Saxon origin are monosyllabic or disyllabic, both notional words and form words. They tend to alternate in the flow of speech, e.g. 'don't be'lieve he's 'right.

The rhythm of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables gave birth to the rhythmical tendency in the present-day English which caused the appearance of the secondary stress in the multisyllabic French borrowings, e.g. revolution, organi'sation, assimilation, etc.

17. the accentual tendencies in English. Basic word stress patterns in English In almost all languages, there is a variation in the relative prominence of syllables. The prominence of syllables is referred to as stress. It is a function of pitch, duration/length/loudness, and quality. Word stress in languages may be of different types. 1. If special prominence is achieved through the increased loudness (i.e. intensity of articulation), such word stress is termed DYNAMIC. 2. If special prominence in a stressed syllable is achieved mainly through the change of pitch, such type of word stress is MUSICAL, or TONIC. 3. QUANTITATIVE stress is when prominence is achieved through the changes in the quantity of vowels, i.e. their duration. 4. QUALITATIVE stress is when the stressed vowel is made prominent due to its clear and distinct character.There are languages which do not have word stress(Kalmyk), but many languages combine various types of words stress. In English prominence is achieved due to increased duration, loudness and higher pitch, i.e. quantitative, tonic and dynamic stressing. Some languages have fixed stress, associated with a certain syllable in a word. In Finnish, Czech, Latvian stress always falls on the first syllable.Any word with more than one syllable has a word stress. The stress pattern of a word reflects the distribution of prominence among its syllables. In words that have one stress, the latter is called ‘primary stress’. In longer words, it is possible to pick out a second, weaker stressed syllable that bears secondary stress notated as low mark. Two main tendencies determine the place and different degrees of word stress in English: the RECESSIVE tendency and the RHYTHMIC tendency.The oldest of the English word is the RECESSIVE tendency, characteristic of all Germanic languages. It originally consisted in placing the word stress on the initial syllable of nouns, adjectives, and verbs and on the root syllable of words which belonged to other parts of speech and had a prefix. The recessive accent in Modern English is of two types: UNRESTRICTED and RESTRICTED (by an unstressed prefix). UNRESTRICTED recessive accent falls on the first (root) syllable, as in words FATHER, MOTHER, HUSBAND. RESTRICTED recessive accent falls on the second (root) syllable of native English words with a prefix which has lost its meaning: AMONG, BECOME, FORGET, INDEED.The RHYTHMIC tendency can be accounted for the presence in English of a great number of monosyllabic words, some of which are stressed (notional) words; others are not (form words). Such phenomenon has created the English rhythm, consisting of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables. This tendency has caused the appearance in borrowed polysyllabic words of a secondary stress. Thus the word ‘RADICAL originally had a stress on the final syllable – RADI’CAL- but later it received the recessive stress on the initial syllable, while the final stress was still retained. The result of it was the typically English alternation of a stressed syllable with an unstressed one.Thus in tri-syllabic words there remained only one strong stress on the third syllable from the end of the word. The tendency to stress the third syllable from the end was extended to four-syllable words as well, and this stress is called RHYTHMICAL. In Modern English there is also GENINELY RHYTHMICAL stress. This is the secondary stress on the second PRETONIC syllable in words like PRO,NUNCI’ATION, E,XAMI’NATION, RE,LIA’BILITY,etc.