Тренувальні вправи щодо самостійної роботи студентів 1 курсу з практичного курсу англійської мови (практична фонетика)

Укладачі: кандидат філологічних наук, доцент Валуєва І.В., магістрант факультету дошкільної та початкової освіти Ковтуненко О.

TONETIC SYMBOLS

1. The stressed syllable is shown by a dash ( _ ).

2. A ll unstressed syllables are shown by a dot ( . ).

3. Low Fall:

4. Mid Fall:

5. High Fall:

6. Low Rise:

7. Mid Rise:

8. High Narrow Rise:

9. High wide rise:

10. Fall Rise (low, mid, high):

11. Rise-Fall-Rise:

12. High level:

13. Mid level:

14. Low level:

15. L evel rise:

16. A long pause:

17. A shorter pause:

18. A short pause:

Intonation

As we read or speak each sense group, the voice does not re­main on the same level, but rises and falls. This rising and falling of the voice is called melody. The combination of stress and melo­dy is called intonation. Every language has melody in it. No language is spoken on the same musical note all the time. The voice goes up and down and the different pitches of the voice combine to make tunes. In some lan­guages the tune mainly belongs to the word, being part of its shape.; In other languages the tune belongs to the word group. If you say the English word ‘no’ with different tunes it is still the same word, but tune plays an important part in English. We can utter a word group definitely or we can utter it hesitantly, we can say it angrily or kindly, we can say it with interest or without interest, and these differences are largely made by the tune we use: the words do not change their meaning but the tune we use adds something to the words. This way of using tunes is called intonation.

English intonation is English: it is not the same as the in­tonation of any other language. Some people imagine that intona­tion is the same for all languages, but this is not true. The stu­dents must learn the shapes of the English tunes, and these may be quite different from the normal tunes of their own language; the meanings of the English tunes must be learnt because they are important. For example, ‘thank you’ may be said in two ways: in the first the voice starts high and ends low, and this shows real gratitude; in the second the voice starts low and ends high, and this shows a rather casual acknowledgement of something not very important. A bus conductor will say ‘thank you’ in this se­cond way when he collects your money and this is quite reasonable since he does not feel great gratitude. But if an English friend invites you to spend a week-end at his home and you reply with the second ‘thank you’ instead of the first your friend will be offended because you don’t sound really grateful. You may have made an honest mistake but it is difficult for him to realize that; he will think you are being impolite.

METHODS OF INDICATING INTONATION

It is due to the close connection between speech melody and sentence-stress and to their greatest importance that in the graph­ical representation of English intonation which is now in common use only these two components of intonation are actually reflect­ed. Thus the pitch and prominence of syllables in a sentence are denoted in the following way.

A dash ( - ) represents a stressed syllable pronounced with level pitch.

A downward curve ( ) represents a stressed syllable pro­nounced with a fall in pitch within that syllable.

An upward curve ( ) represents a stressed syllable pro­nounced with a rise in pitch within that syllable.

A dot (.) represents an unstressed syllable.

These signs are written on staves, i. e. between two horizontal (parallel) lines which represent the approximate upper and lower limits of the pitch of the voice in speech, or the range of the voice, and thus show the contour of intonation.

The tonetic transcription shows variations in the pitch of the voice rather approximately. It does not reflect minute changes in pitch, it does not indicate the exact pitch and the range of the voice and it does not denote the tempo, rhythm and tamber of speech.

The temporal component of intonation can be indicated graph­ically only as far as pauses are concerned.

Two vertical strokes ( || ) denote a long pause, which usually occurs at the end of a sentence.

A single vertical stroke ( | ) denotes a short pause inside a sentence.

A vertical wavy line ( ) denotes a pause that is extremely short, imperceptible, or even actually absent, but possible and therefore non-obligatory.

All the syllables following this tone mark and preceding the next tone mark have the same high level pitch; for example

This indicates the so-called Low Fall. All subsequent un­marked syllables and syllables marked have a very low level pitch; for example

This indicates High Fall; for example

This indicates Low Rise; for example.

This indicates High Narrow Rise; for example

This indicates High Wide Rise; for example

This indicates Rise-Fall; for example

This indicates Fall-Rise; for example

This indicates relatively high level pitch; for example

This indicates High Level Tone; for example

This indicates Mid Level Tone; for example

This indicates Low Level Tone; for example

When an unmarked syllable or a syllable marked (•) imme­diately follows, this indicates a relatively high level pitch with the following syllables constituting a descending pitch scale which finishes lower than the beginning pitch of the next . In a succession of the first is higher than the second, the second is higher than the third and so on; for example

T his placed before the first stressed syllable indicates the Ascending Stepping scale; for example

T his placed before the stressed syllables of the scale indi­cates the Scandent Stepping Scale; for example

• This indicates the stressed syllable pronounced on the same pitch level as the previous stressed syllable; for example

Intonation may be unemphatic (when the speaker does not em­phasize any thought or word particularly), or emphatic (when a thought or word is given particular emphasis).

An intonation group having a falling tone at the end is called Tune 1. It is the ¹richest 'library in the „world.

An intonation group having a rising tone at the end is called Tune 2. 'Do you ,understand? 'Have you ,seen him?

Intonation may be shown on parallel lines, called staves, as follows:

The dots represent unstressed syllables. The dashes represent stressed level syllables. The downward curve represents the fall­ing tone. The upward curve represents the rising tone.

The characteristic features of a Tune 1 intonation group are:

a) The first stressed syllable has the highest pitch.

b) The following stressed syllables form a descending scale un­til the last stressed syllable is reached.

c) Within the last stressed syllable, the pitch of the voice falls to a low level.

The characteristic features of a Tune 2 intonation group are the same as Tune 1, except:

1. If the last stressed syllable is not final, it is pronounced on a low level note, and the unstressed syllables following it rise from this note.

2. I f the last stressed syllable is final, the rise takes place with­in this syllable.

THE USE OF TUNE 1 (THE FALLING TONE)

The falling tone is used in the following communicative types of sentences: (1) in categoric statements, or assertions; (2) in spe­cial questions; (3) in commands; (4) in exclamations (or state­ment-like exclamations); (5) in sentences expressing offers to do something or suggestions that something should be done.

( 1) Categoric statements:

It’s time to get up.

It wasn’t ready.

It was a 'busy 'little „street.

Is it raining?

(In the last sentence a categoric statement of a negative char­acter is expressed in the grammatical form of a general question. It is equivalent to the statement I don’t believe it is really raining and might be said in reply to such a sentence as Don’t go out, it is raining.)

(2) Special questions:

H ow do you pronounce this word?

How do you spell this word?

Who is on duty to-day?

Who is absent to-day?

¹Why did you 'go a,way?

PHONETIC EXERCISES FOR PRACTISING PHONEMES