- •1. The notion of the grammatical category: gr. Form & gr. Meaning. Means of form-building. Gr.Oppositions as the basis of gr. Categories. Types of oppositions. Reduction of gr. Oppositions
- •Typology of the Morphological Systems of r and e: Typology of parts of speech
- •3. Simple sentence as a monopredicative structure. The definitions of the sentence
- •The status of the sentence
- •Classification of sentences
- •Types of simple sentences
- •Primary and secondary sentence parts
- •4. Сomposite sentence as a polypredicative structure
- •Connectors
- •Inter-textual structure. (text units)
- •6. The word and its properties
- •2) Identity of the word (тождество).
- •The word as an arbitrary and motivated sign
- •Types of motivation
- •Phonetical motivation;
- •Morphological motivation;
- •Semantic motivation;
- •7. The problem of linguistic meaning
- •Main approaches to the study of meaning
- •Types of linguistic meaning
- •Differences between lexical and grammatical meanings
- •Types of connotative meaning
- •The structure of a polysemantic word
- •8. The etymological composition
- •9. Stylistic stratification of the english vocabulary. Literary and non-literary strata. The subsystems of the english lexicon: slang, jargon, euphemisms, neologisms, archaisms
- •Vulgarisms
- •10. The main and minor ways of word formation; affixation, conversion, compounding, blending, clipping, abbreviation, back formation
- •2 Types of word formation:
- •11. Lexical and grammatical valency of words. Collocations. Free word combinations vs. Idioms. Idioms: their characteristic features. Classifications of idioms
- •Language as a system of signs and as a structure. De saussure's dichotomies. The theory of sign
- •The relationship between language and thought. Language as a means of structuring and storing knowledge
- •Vygotsky’s view of the issue
- •Language and Thought from the Point of View of Cognitive Linguistics
- •Language as a means of communication. The processes of understanding and verbalizing. Text and discourse as units of communication
- •15. Relationship between language and culture. The specific feature of vocabulary and grammar as manifestations of world view
- •The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
- •16. Criteria for revealing the status of a phoneme
- •17. Mechanisms of speech sound production
- •In classifying consonants as different from vowels
- •Power mechanism
- •Vibrator mechanism
- •Resonator mechanism
- •Obstructer mechanism
- •18. Intonation as a component structure
- •Intonation
- •19. Reasons for phonetic modification
- •In regional and social accents of english
- •20. The geographical position and the environment of great britain
- •21. General review of the usa economics
- •Inventions and industrial development
- •Achievements of american economy
- •The American System of Government
- •1) The Legislative Branch of Power
- •2) The Executive Branch of Power
- •3) The Judiciary Branch of Power
- •The System of American Courts
- •Nominations, Campaigns and Elections
- •23. National and social population of great britain
- •Ancestors. Waves of invasion
- •Languages and nationalities
- •Social rates
- •Social class make-up
- •Migration waves
- •The ethnic dimension. Racism
- •24. The culture of great britain. Cultural realia
- •Traditions
- •The state opening of parliament
- •Changing the guard
- •Trooping the colour
- •The ceremony of the keys
- •Customs and traditions of scotland
- •English renaissance
- •The british museum
- •Some more museums of britain
- •The Tower of London
- •St. Paul's Cathedral
- •Some more cultural realia from the dictionary
- •25. The main historic periods of the usa
17. Mechanisms of speech sound production
In classifying consonants as different from vowels
Mechanisms of speech sound production make vowels different from consonants. There are 4 main mechanisms that take part in the production of consonants: the power mechanism, the vibrator mechanism, the resonator mechanism and the obstructer mechanism. But the obstructer mechanism doesn’t take part in the production of vowels. From the auditory point of view a vowel is voice or tone, and the obstructer mechanism creates noise.
The leading mechanism for the production of vowels is the resonator mechanism.
The leading mechanism for the production of consonants is the obstructer mechanism.
Power mechanism
It differentiates the force of exhalation (which is weaker for vowels in comparison with consonants) and produces the air stream. The air stream makes the vocal cords vibrate and fills the resonators with air to produce sounds. The PM also differentiates muscular tension and takes part in the mechanism of aspiration (see the vibrator mechanism).
Vowels. 1) The muscular tension is diffused. 2) The PM modifies the force of the stream of air, accordingly, we differentiate between tense / i:, u:/ and lax /all the rest/ vowels.
Consonants. 1) The muscular tension is concentrated in the point of articulation. 2) The PM makes the vocal cords vibrate for voiced consonants, sonorants and semi-vowels and keeps the vocal cords apart for voiceless consonants. 3) According to the force of exhalation, consonants are subdivided into fortis /all voiceless consonants: p, t, k, h, etc. = we need more effort to produce them!/ and lenis /all voiced consonants: b, d, etc./
Vibrator mechanism
It is responsible for the vibration of the vocal cords which gives voice or tone. It also differentiates duration of vibration of the vocal cords.
Vowels. According to the duration of vibration of the vocal cords, we single out long / i:. u:, a:, o:, ә:/ and short /all the rest/ vowels. The length is historical.
According to the speed (=rate) of vibration of the vocal cords, there are vowels different in pitch. The more rapid the rate of vibration, the higher is the pitch.
Consonants. 1) The VM creates voice for voiced consonants, sonorants, semi-vowels. 2) The VM gives the mechanism of aspiration. Aspiration is an additional puff of air for some consonant. There appear postponed vibrations after the release of / p, t, k, t∫ /, the vocal cords don’t start to vibrate immediately. There’s a gap within which a puff of air is given to the consonants. And only after the puff of air has been supplied, the vocal cords start vibrating for the following vowel. So there are aspirated and non-aspirated consonants.
Resonator mechanism
Vowels. !leading mechanism! In the production of vowels it involves the work of the mouth resonator only. The RM is the leading mechanism in the production of vowels as it specifies tone creating different vowels. The mouth resonator changes its shape, size and volume making all vowels different. The position of the lips and the movements of the tongue modify the shape, size and volume of the mouth resonator.
According to the horizontal movement of the tongue, the English vowels fall into:
front / i:, e, æ /
front-retracted / I /
central / ә , ә: /
back / o, o:, u:/
back-advanced / a:, u, /\ /
According to the vertical movement of the tongue, the English vowels are subdivided into 3 classes. Each of these classes is further subdivided into 2 variations – narrow and broad.
|
Close = high |
half-open = mid |
open = low |
narrow |
i: , u: |
e , ә: |
o: , /\ |
broad |
I , u |
ә |
æ , a: , o |
According to the position of the lips, the English vowels are classified into rounded / o, o:, u, u: / and unrounded /all the rest/.
According to the stability of articulation (= the stability of the shape, size and volume of the mouth resonator) the English vowels are divided into: 1) 10 monophthongs (the mouth resonator doesn’t change its properties), 2) 8 diphthongs (during their pronunciation the tongue and the lips move from one vowel position to another with the result that the properties of the mouth resonator change) and 3) 2 diphthongoids / i:, u:/ (diphthongoid is a vowel sound intermediate in character between a monophthong and a diphthong. Its elements are very close to each other, and the tongue and/ or the lips move an extremely short distance between them).
Consonants. In the production of consonants the RM can involve the work of 2 resonators: mouth resonator or nasal resonator. It provides the possibility for changing of the resonator (its shape, size, volume) because the soft palate can be raised (oral sounds) or lowered (nasal sounds).
Oral consonants: all voiced and voiceless consonants + 1 sonorant / l /
Nasal consonants : sonorants / m, n, ŋ /
The mouth resonator is the place of obstruction for the production of consonants.