- •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
Unit II The phoneme theory
1. Sound. Phoneme. Allophone.
2. Phoneme as a functional, material and abstract linguistic unit.
3. Different opinions on the nature of phoneme.
4. Notation.
5. Methods of phonological analysis.
6. The system of English phonemes.
7. Segmental phonemes in writing.
Sound is a material unit, produced by speech organs. In every language the sounds are united in a comparatively small number of sound types, which are capable of distinguishing the meaning and the form of words. Such sound types are called phonemes.
Phoneme is the shortest functional unit of a language. Each phoneme exists in speech in the form of mutually non-distinctive speech sounds, its allophones. Any of the perceptually distinct units of sound in a specified language that distinguish one word from another: pad-bad, pit-put.
Allophones are qualitative variants or members of one and the same phoneme, which never occur in identical position, but are said to be in complementary distribution. They differ in the articulatory feature and have functionally no significance: the aspirated [k] in kit and the unaspirated [k] in skit are allophones of the phoneme [k].
Phoneme as a functional, material and abstract linguistic unit
The founder of the phoneme theory was the Russian scientist, representative of the Kazan linguistics school I.A. Baudauin de Courtenay. L.V. Shcherba separated phonetics from phonology. He took the positive ideas from his teacher I.A. Baudauin de Courtenay, overcame the drawbacks of his theory and worked out a truly materialistic theory of phoneme. According to L.V. Shcherba the phoneme may be viewed as a functional, material and abstract unit. These three aspects are concentrated in the definition of the phoneme suggested by Shcherba’s disciple V.A. Vassilyev who wrote that a phoneme is a dialectical unity of three aspects: 1) material, real and objective; 2) abstract; 3) functional.
I. As material, real and objective linguistic unit it realized in speech of all English-speaking people in the form of speech sounds, its allophones. The sets of speech sounds, that is, allophones belonging to the same phoneme, are not identical in their articulatory content though there remains some phonetic similarity between them.
II. Phoneme is a functional unit. In phonetics function is usually understood to mean discriminatory function, that is the role of the various components of the phonetic system of the language in distinguishing one morpheme from another, one word from another, one utterance from another. The opposition of phonemes in the same phonetic environment differentiates the meaning of morphemes, words and sometimes the whole phrase.
III. Phoneme is an abstract language unit. The native speakers do not notice the difference between the allophones of one and the same phoneme if this does not distinguish the meaning. They abstract themselves from the difference between the allophones because it has no functional value. Allophones of each phoneme possess a bundle of distinctive features that makes this phoneme functionally different from all other phonemes of the language. This functionally relevant bundle of articulatory features is called the invariant of the phoneme. Neither of the articulatory features that form the invariant of the phoneme can be changed without affecting the meaning. The articulatory features which form the invariant of the phoneme are called distinctive or relevant. The articulatory features which do not serve to distinguish meaning are called non-distinctive, irrelevant or redundant. Irrelevant features: partial devoicing of terminal voiced consonants, variation in the positional length of vowels, aspiration, palatalization, velarization, nasalization, clear [l], dark [ł].
In speech the phoneme serves to perform three functions:
Constitutive function – the function to constitute the material forms of morphemes, words and sentence;
Distinctive function – it is manifested most conspicuously in minimal pairs when the opposition of speech sounds is the only phonetic means of distinguishing one member of that pair from another;
Recognitive – allophones help to recognize words, phrases and sentences.