- •5. Modifications of phonemes in the speech continuum. Classification of allophones.
- •2. . The structure and types of syllables in English, their graphical representation.
- •3. Functions of syllables.
- •11. Syllable formation theories. Main problems of the phonetic aspect of syllable in English.
- •1. It, us, oath, add; 2. May. Tea, new; 3. Penknife, what time? midday meal.
- •1. Phonotactics as a branch of phonology.
- •3. Typical phonotactic possibilities in the structure of English syllables and words.
- •4. Phonological constraints on sound clusters in onset and coda.
- •15. Suprasegmental phonology. Intonation as the complex semantic unity of suprasegmental phonology. Different approaches to the definition of intonation and its components.
- •18. Utterance stress, its types and problems of classification. The interrelation of word-stress and utterance-stress.
- •19. Speech melody as a subsystem of intonation. Functions of its components. Nuclear tones in the system of English intonation.
- •20. Pausation and tempo in the structure of English intonation. Their functions.
- •21.Rhythm as a linguistic notion. English speech rhythm. Types of rhythmic units. Guidelines for teaching English speech rhythm.
- •24 .The attitudinal function of intonation in the conversational style and the use of emphatic complex tones.
- •25.Main prosodic peculiarities of the publicistic (oratorical) phonostyle.
- •26. Main prosodic peculiarities of the academic (scientific) phonostyle.
- •27. Main prosodic peculiarities of the informationalphonostyle.
- •28. Main prosodic peculiarities of the Declamatory (Artistic or Belles-letter) phonostyle: fiction, drama, poetry.
- •30. The orthoepic norm of English and its types. Phonetic changes in the present- day standard English. Regional and social variants in the British English pronunciation.
- •31. Received Pronunciation and Estuary English as a recent development of standard British English. The socialinguistic aspect of Estuary English.
- •32. Regional types of English pronunciation. Major differences between regional variants of English pronunciation and Received Pronunciation.
- •33. American-based pronunciation standards of English. Major differences between General American and Received Pronunciation on the segmental and suprasegmental levels.
11. Syllable formation theories. Main problems of the phonetic aspect of syllable in English.
There are many theories of syllable formation: 1) Ancient theory of correspondence between the number of vowels and the syllables; 2) the expiratory theory – according to it, syllables are formed by breath-puffs. The theory has been abandoned, because we now know that in speaking, we take a new breath at the end of a syntagm, that no increase of breath force necessarily accompanies every syllable; 3) the sonority theory – is based upon the fact that each sound has a different carrying power. By means of linguistic experiments, the creator of this theory, prof. Otto Jespersen has proved that the least sonorous sounds(for which the mouth is closed) - /p,t,k/ have the least carrying power. The most sonorous sounds are foe which the mouth is wide open, thus these sounds have the most carrying power - /o, o:, a:, æ/. According to O. Jespersen, each sound is characterized by a certain degree of sonority which is understood as acoustic property of a sound that determines its perceptibility. According to this sound property a ranking of speech sounds could be established: <the least sonorous> voiceless plosives voiced fricatives -^voiced plosives voiced fricatives sonorants close vowels ->open vowels <the most sonorous>. In the word plant for example we may use the following wave of sonority: [pla:nt]. According to V.A. Vasssilyev the most serious drawback of this theory is that it fails to explain the actual mechanism of syllable formation and syllable division. Besides, the concept of sonority is not very clearly defined.
Although it is a step forward in solving the problem of the syllable, it does not help determine the principle of syllable division, of drawing a line of demarcation between two adjoining syllables. Prof. L.V. Scherba used two theories for this purpose: 1) the muscular tension theory; 2) the three types of consonants theory. He explained the phenomenon of syllable formation by muscular tension impulses. The fact that syllables cannot be further subdivided in connected speech proves that, in speaking muscular tension impulses follow one another. Each impulse has its strongest point - the peak of prominence and its weakest point - the valley of prominence. Valleys of prominence correspond to the points of syllabic division. The end of one syllable and the beginning of the next can be ascertained by determining the type of consonants which take part in forming the syllables. Consonants may be of three types: 1) initially strong; 2) finally strong; 3) geminate.
That is to say, consonants may be pronounced in three different ways: 1. The beginning of a consonant may be more energetic, while the end may be weaker; 2. The beginning of a consonant may be weak, and its end - more energetic; 3. A consonant may be pronounced in such a way that both the beginning and the end are energetic with a weakening of muscular tension in the middle. Acoustically, they give the impression of two consonants: