- •4 И (англ)
- •Предисловие
- •Part I. Theory Unit I Phonetics as a science
- •Acoustic aspect of speech sounds
- •Articulatory and physiological aspect of speech sounds
- •Glossary of phonetic terms
- •Unit II The phoneme theory
- •Phoneme as a functional, material and abstract linguistic unit
- •Different opinions in the nature of phoneme
- •Notation
- •Methods of phonological analysis
- •The system of English phonemes
- •English segmental phonemes in writing
- •Glossary of phonetic terms
- •Unit III Articulatory and physiological classification of English consonants and vowels
- •Classification of English consonants
- •1. Manner of noise production and the type of obstruction.
- •2. The place of articulation.
- •3. The work of vocal cords.
- •4. Position of the soft palate.
- •Classification of English vowels
- •1. Stability of articulation.
- •2. Position of the tongue.
- •3. Position of the lips.
- •4. Degree of tenseness.
- •5. Length.
- •Glossary of phonetic terms
- •Unit IV Modification of consonants and vowels in connected speech
- •Glossary of phonetic terms
- •Unit V Syllable
- •Theories of syllable formation
- •Glossary of phonetic terms
- •Unit VI Word stress
- •Disyllables
- •Polysyllables
- •Words with suffixes
- •1. Accent-attracting suffixes (suffixes carrying primary stress themselves).
- •3. Accent-fixing suffixes (suffixes that influence stress in the stem).
- •Prefixes and stress
- •2. Prefixes which have a distinct meaning of their own.
- •Compound words
- •I. The primary stress on the first element.
- •II. The primary stress on the second element.
- •Glossary of phonetic terms
- •Unit VII Sentence stress
- •Strong and weak forms
- •Unstressed vocalism
- •Phonemic status of the “schwa” vowel
- •Speech melody (pitch)
- •The heads
- •3. The Low Level Head. Pre-nuclear stressed syllables pronounced on the low pitch level. The Low pitch level generally occurs before the low rise and the low fall. Tempo of speech
- •Glossary of phonetic terms
- •Unit IX Phonetic styles
- •Intonational functional styles
- •Glossary of phonetic terms
- •Unit X Territorial varieties of English language
- •Functional stylistics and dialectology
- •Varieties of the English language
- •English-based pronunciation standards of English
- •American-based pronunciation standards of English
- •Glossary of phonetic terms
- •Несветайлова Ирина Валентиновна
3. The Low Level Head. Pre-nuclear stressed syllables pronounced on the low pitch level. The Low pitch level generally occurs before the low rise and the low fall. Tempo of speech
Speech tempo is the relative speed of utterance which is measured by the rate of syllable succession and the number and duration of pauses in a sentence.
The rate of speaking varies constantly. When two strongly stressed syllables occur close together, it is slower; when they are separated by unstressed syllables the speed is faster. The speed of utterance becomes slower or faster according to the number of unstressed syllables between the stressed ones.
Differences of rate are used to help the listener to differentiate the more important (slow rate) and the less important (fast rate) parts of the utterances.
Rate also performs emotional and attitudinal functions. It varies according to the emotional state of the speaker and the attitude conveyed. Fast rate, for instance, may be associated with anger, scolding.
Variations of rate of speech and pausation are closely connected with different phonetic styles, shades of meaning and the structure of the intonation group.
Pause is an act of stopping in the flow of speech. In speaking or reading aloud, we make pauses from time to time. These pauses break our speech or texts into paragraphs, sentences, intonation groups.
In English there are three main degrees of pauses: unit pause (one-unit), double (two-unit) and treble (three-unit) pause. The length of pauses is relative and is correlated with the rate of speech and rhythmical norms of an individual.
Rhythm
Rhythm is the regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. It is a movement, characterized by basically regular recurrence of elements or features, as beat, accent, in alternation with opposite or different elements or features.
Sense groups are divided into rhythmical groups. Most rhythmical groups consist of stressed and unstressed syllables. There are two kinds of speech rhythm: syllable-timed rhythm and stress-timed rhythm.
English is a stress-timed language. It is based primarily on the alteration of strongly and weakly stressed syllables. Within each intonation group the stressed syllables occur at fairly equal intervals of time. This means that if there are any unstressed syllables between stressed ones, they have to be fitted in without delaying the regular beat. The unstressed syllables, whether many or few, occupy approximately the same time between the stresses. The greater number of unstressed syllables there is between the stressed ones, the more weakly and rapidly they are pronounced. The unstressed vowels in this case have a noticeably different quality – they are shortened and weakened.
The main function of sentence-accent is to single out the communicative centre of the sentence which introduces new information.
The prominence is realized by variations of pitch, force, length and quality.
Three types of sentence accent are differentiated: normal (or syntactical), logical and emphatic.
Normal sentence accent is used to arrange words into sentences or intonation groups phonetically. Usually it is associated with the last notional word of the intonation group. Logical stress gives a special prominence to a new element in a sentence.
The word which is singled out by the logical stress is the most important in the sentence. Both normal and logical stresses can be unemphatic and emphatic. Emphatic stress increases the effort of expression.