Добавил:
ivanov666
Опубликованный материал нарушает ваши авторские права? Сообщите нам.
Вуз:
Предмет:
Файл:Теоретическая фонетика английского языка. Курс лекций и практикум. Учебно-методическое пособие
.pdf
— loss of plosives [p, t, k, b, d, g] in clusters followed by another consonant (next
day, just one, last time, old man);
— loss of [θ, d] in clusters with [s, z, f, v] (months, clothes, fth, sixth);
— loss of [v] before other consonants in rapid speech (give me your pen).
Insertion is a process of sound addition to the word structure. There are the follow-
ing cases of this consonant modication type in English:
— linking [r], which reveals its potential pronunciation (car-owner);
— intrusive [r] pronounced in word combinations with vowels in the
word-nal and word-starting positions (china-and glass);
— inserted [j] after word-nal diphthongs gliding to [ı] (saying, trying);
— inserted [w] after word-nal diphthongs gliding to [u] (going, allowing);
— inserted [t∫, ] instead of word-nal [t, d] before [j] (could you). [3, c.55]
Assimilation.
The articulation of one sound affects the articulation of the neighbouring one as-
similating the latter. There are four types of assimilation:
1) assimilation affecting the direction;
2) assimilation affecting the place of obstruction;
3) assimilation affecting the position of the lips;
4) assimilation affecting the work of the vocal cords.
The rst type is divided into three subtypes: progressive, regressive, and double
(reciprocal) assimilation.
a) Progressive assimilation happens when the preceding sound affects the articula-
tion of following one, and the preceding sound remains unchanged. For example:
looked
[lukt]
b) Regressive assimilation happens when the following sound affects articulation
of the preceding one.
c) Double assimilation means complex mutual inuence of the adjacent sounds. For example:
tree, try.
↔ ↔
[tri:] [traı] [3, c.155]
21
The Syllable Construction in English
Words can be cut up into units called syllables. Humans seem to need syllables as
a way of segmenting the stream of speech and giving it a rhythm of strong and weak
beats, as we hear in music. Syllables don’t serve any meaning-signalling function
in language; they exist only to make speech easier for the brain to process. A word
contains at least one syllable. Most speakers of English have no trouble dividing a
word up into its component syllables. Sometimes how a particular word is divided
might vary from one individual to another, but a division is always easy and always
possible. Here are some words divided into their component syllables (a period is used
to mark the end of a syllable): tomato = to.ma.to window = win.dow
The syllable can be studied on four levels: acoustic, articulatory, auditory and
functional. On the articulatory level, we could start with the so-called expiratory
theory of R.H. Stetson. For him expiration in speech is a pulsation process and each
syllable corresponds to a single expiration, so the number of syllables in an utterance is
determined by a number of expirations. Another theory is put forward by O. Jesperson.
It is called the sonority theory. According to it, each sound is characterized by a
certain degree of sonority which is understood as acoustic property of a sound that
determines its perception, so the most sonorous sounds tend to form the centre of the
syllable and the least sonorous- the marginal segments. There exist a great number
of other theories, such as F. de Saussure’ theory, A. Rosetti’s, Hala’s. The problem
is still under discussion. In our country there has been adopted L.V. Scerba’s theory
of muscular tension. The energy increases within the range of prevocalic consonants
and then decreases within the range of postvocalic consonants. However, the majority
of linguists treat the syllable as the smallest pronounceable unit which can reveal
some linguistic function. So, a syllable is a chain of phonemes of varying length; it
is constructed on the basis of contrast of its constituents, which is usually the vowelconsonant type; the nucleus of a syllable is a vowel, the presence of consonants is
optional; the distribution of phonemes in the syllabic structure follows the rules which
are specic enough for a particular language. Syllable formation in English is based
on the phonological opposition vowel- consonant. Vowels are usually syllabic while
consonants are not, with the exception of [l], [m], [n], which are syllabic in some
cases [garden]. The other aspect of the dialectical unity is syllable division. The
linguistic importance of syllable division in different languages is in nding typology
22
of syllables and syllabic structure of meaningful units of a language that is morphemes
and words… There are two functions of the syllable.
1. The constitutive function. It lies in the ability to be a part of a word or a word
itself.
2. The distinctive function. The syllable is characterized by its ability to differentiate
words and word-forms.
The Nature of English Word Stress. Sentence Stress
The sequence of syllables in the word is not pronounced identically. The syllable
or syllables which are pronounced with more prominence than the other syllables of
the word are said to be stressed or accented. The correlation of varying prominences of
syllables in a word is understood as the accentual structure of the word.
According to A.C. Gimson, the effect of prominence is achieved by any or all of four
factors: force, tone, length and vowel colour. The dynamic stress implies greater force
with which the syllable is pronounced. In other words in the articulation of the stressed
syllable greater muscular energy is produced by the speaker. The European languages
such as English, German, French, Russian are believed to possess predominantly
dynamic word stress. In Scandinavian languages the word stress is considered to be
both dynamic and musical (e.g. in Swedish, the word komma (comma) is distinguished
from the word komma (come) by a difference in tones). The musical (tonic) word stress
is observed in Chinese, Japanese. It is effected by the variations of the voice pitch in
relation to neighbouring syllables. In Chinese the sound sequence “chu” pronounced
with the level tone means “pig”, with the rising tone “bamboo”, and with the falling
tone “to live”.
It is fair to mention that there is a terminological confusion in discussing the
nature of stress. According to D. Crystal, the terms “heaviness, intensity, amplitude,
prominence, emphasis, accent, stress” tend to be used synonymously by most writers.
The discrepancy in terminology is largely due to the fact that there are 2 major views
depending on whether the productive or receptive aspects of stress are discussed.
The main drawback with any theory of stress based on production of speech is that
it only gives a partial explanation of the phenomenon but does not analyze it on the
perceptive level.
Instrumental investigations study the physical nature of word stress. On the
23
acoustic level the counterpart of force is the intensity of the vibrations of the vocal
cords of the speaker which is perceived by the listener as loudness. Thus the greater
energy with which the speaker articulates the stressed syllable in the word is associated
by the listener with greater loudness. The acoustic counterparts of voice pitch and
length are frequency and duration respectively. The nature of word stress in Russian
seems to differ from that in English. The quantitative component plays a greater role
in Russian accentual structure than in English word accent. In the Russian language
of full formation and full length in unstressed positions, they are always reduced.
Therefore the vowels of full length are unmistakably perceived as stressed. In English
the quantitative component of word stress is not of primary importance because of
the non-reduced vowels in the unstressed syllables which sometimes occur in English
words (e.g. “transport”, “architect”).
In discussing accentual structure of English words we should turn now to the
functional aspect of word stress. In language the word stress performs 3 functions:
1) constitutive – word stress constitutes a word, it organizes the syllables of a
word into a language unit. A word does not exist without the word stress. Thus the
function is constitutive – sound continuum becomes a phrase when it is divided into
units organized by word stress into words.
2) Word stress enables a person to identify a succession of syllables as a denite
accentual pattern of a word. This function is known as identicatory (or recognitive).
3) Word stress alone is capable of differentiating the meaning of words or their
forms, thus performing its distinctive function. The accentual patterns of words or the
degrees of word stress and their positions form oppositions (“/import – im /port”, “/
present – pre /sent”).
There are actually as many degrees of word stress in a word as there are syllables.
The British linguists usually distinguish three degrees of stress in the word. The
primary stress is the strongest (e.g. exami/nation), the secondary stress is the second
strongest one (e.g. ex,ami/nation). All the other degrees are termed “weak stress”.
Unstressed syllables are supposed to have weak stress. The American scholars, B.
Bloch and J. Trager, nd 4 contrastive degrees of word stress: locid, reduced locid,
medial and weak.
In Germanic languages the word stress originally fell on the initial syllable or the
second syllable, the root syllable in the English words with prexes. This tendency
24
was called recessive. Most English words of Anglo-Saxon origin as well as the French
borrowings are subjected to this recessive tendency.
Languages are also differentiated according to the placement of word stress. The
traditional classication of languages concerning the place of stress in a word is
into those with a xed stress and a free stress. In languages with a xed stress the
occurrence of the word stress is limited to a particular syllable in a multisyllabic word.
For example, in French the stress falls on the last syllable of the word (if pronounced
in isolation), in Finnish and Czech it is xed on the rst syllable.
Some borrowed words retain their stress.
In languages with a free stress its place is not conned to a specic position in the
word. The free placement of stress is exemplied in the English and Russian languages
(e.g. E. appetite – begin – examination
R. озеро – погода – молоко)
The word stress in English as well as in Russian is not only free but it may also be
shifting performing semantic function of differentiating lexical units, parts of speech,
grammatical forms. It is worth noting that in English word stress is used as a means of
word-building (e.g. /contrast – con/trast, /music – mu /sician).
Sentence stress is the governing stress in connected speech. All words have their
individual stress in isolation. When words are connected into sense groups (also
called thought groups, i.e., logically connected groups of words), and sense groups
are connected into sentences, content words keep their stress, and function words lose
their stress. The most important words in the sentence receive stronger stress. The last
stressed word in the sentence receives the strongest stress with the help of a fall or a
rise.
Sentence stress is not just a phonetic peculiarity of English. Sentence stress has a
very important function of marking the words that are necessary for understanding an
utterance. When native speakers of English listen to their conversation partners, they
listen for stressed words, because stressed words provide important information. It is
often difcult to understand the meaning of the sentence in which even one content
word is missing. It is also difcult to understand the sentence in which an important
word is not stressed or a function word is stressed.
Sentence stress is the main means of providing rhythm in speech. Rhythm is the
key to uent English speech. Imagine a metronome beating the rhythm. The stressed
25
syllables are like the beats of the metronome: regular, loud, and clear. The unstressed
syllables between the beats are shortened, obscured, and joined together.[12]
To preserve speech rhythm, all unstressed vowels in the sentence become shorter
and less distinct. Completely unstressed vowels in unstressed syllables become very
short and are often pronounced as the neutral sound. In some cases, the neutral sound
may be dropped, for example, can [kən], [kn], BAKery [‘beikəri], [‘beikri].
Intonation and Rhythm in English
The term intonation refers to a means for conveying information in speech which
is independent of the words and their sounds. Central to intonation is the modulation
of pitch, and intonation is often thought of as the use of pitch over the domain of the
utterance. However, the patterning of pitch in speech is so closely bound to patterns
of timing and loudness, and sometimes voice quality, that we cannot consider pitch in
isolation from these other dimensions. The interaction of intonation and stress — the
patterns of relative prominence which characterise an utterance — is particularly close
in many languages, including English.
Intonation is used to carry a variety of different kinds of information. It signals
grammatical structure, though not in a one-to-one way; whilst the end of a complete
intonation pattern will normally coincide with the end of a grammatical structure such
as a sentence or clause, even quite major grammatical boundaries may lack intonational
marking, particularly if the speech is fast. Intonation can reect the information
structure of an utterance, highlighting constituents of importance. Intonation can
indicate discourse function; for instance most people are aware that saying ‘This is the
Leeds train’ with one intonation constitutes a statement, but, with another, a question.
Intonation can be used by a speaker to convey an attitude such as friendliness,
enthusiasm, or hostility; and listeners can use intonation-related phenomena in the
voice to make inferences about a speaker’s state, including excitement, depression, and
tiredness. Intonation can also, for instance, help to regulate turn-taking in conversation,
since there are intonational mechanisms speakers can use to indicate that they have had
their say, or, conversely, that they are in full ow and don’t want to be interrupted.
On perceptional level intonation is a complex, a whole, formed by signicant
variations of pitch, loudness and tempo closely related. Some linguists regard speech
timber as the fourth component of intonation. Though it certainly conveys some shades
26
of attitudinal or emotional meaning there’s no reason to consider it alongside with the
3 prosodic components of intonation (pitch, loudness and tempo). Nowadays the
term “prosody” substitutes the term “intonation”.
On the acoustic level pitch correlates with the fundamental frequency of the
vibrations of the vocal cords; loudness correlates with the amplitude of vibrations;
tempo is a correlate of time during which a speech unit lasts.
The auditory level is very important for teachers of foreign languages. Each syllable
of the speech chain has a special pitch colouring. Some of the syllables have signicant
moves of tone up and down. Each syllable bears a denite amount of loudness. Pitch
movements are inseparably connected with loudness. Together with the tempo of
speech they form an intonation pattern which is the basic unit of intonation.
An intonation pattern contains one nucleus and may contain other stressed or
unstressed syllables normally preceding or following the nucleus. The boundaries of
an intonation pattern may be marked by stops of phonation, that is temporal pauses.
Intonation patterns serve to actualize syntagms in oral speech. The syntagm is a
group of words which are semantically and syntactically complete. In phonetics they
are called intonation groups. The intonation group is a stretch of speech which may
have the length of the whole phrase. But the phrase often contains more than one intonation group. The number of them depends on the length of phrase and the degree of
semantic impotence or emphasis given to various parts of it. The position of intonation
groups may affect the meaning.
The communicative function of intonation is realized in various ways which can
be grouped under ve – six general headings:
1) to structure the intonation content of a textual unit. So as to show which
information is new or can not be taken for granted, as against information which the
listener is assumed to possess or to be able to acquire from the context, that is given
information;
2) to determine the speech function of a phrase, to indicate whether it is intended
as a statement, question, etc;
3) to convey connotational meanings of attitude, such as surprise, etc. In the written
form we are given only the lexics and the grammar;
4) to structure a text. Intonation is an organizing mechanism. It divides texts into
smaller parts and on the other hand it integrates them forming a complete text;
27
5) to differentiate the meaning of textual units of the same phonetic structure and
the same lexical composition (distinctive or phonological function);
6) to characterize a particular style or variety of oral speech which may be called
a stylistic function.
Classication of intonation patterns:
Different combinations of pitch sections (pre-heads, heads and nuclei) may result in
more than one hundred pitch-and-stress patterns. But it is not necessary to deal with all
of them, because some patterns occur very rarely. So, attention must be concentrated
on the commonest ones:
1. The Low (Medium) Fall pitch-and-stress group
2. The High Fall group
3. Rise Fall group
4. The Low Rise group
5. The High Rise group
6. The Fall Rise group
7. The Rise-Fall-Rise group
8. The Mid-level group
No intonation pattern is used exclusively with this or that sentence type. Some
sentences are more likely to be said with one intonation pattern than with any other. So
we can speak about “common intonation” for a particular type of sentence.
a) Statements are most widely used with the Low Fall preceded by the Falling or
the High level Head. They are nal, complete and denite.
b) Commands, with the Low Fall are very powerful, intense, serious and strong.
c) Exclamations are very common with the High Fall.
Rhythm, actually, is timing patterns among syllables. However, the timing patterns
are not the same in all languages. There are, particularly, two opposite types of rhythm
in languages: stress-timed and syllable-timed. Stress-timed rhythm is determined by
stressed syllables, which occur at regular intervals of time, with an uneven and changing number of unstressed syllables between them; syllable-timed rhythm is based on
the total number of syllables since each syllable takes approximately the same amount
of time. English, with an alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables, is obviously
stress-timed, while Chinese, for instance, with nearly equal weight and time in all syllables, is syllable-timed. These two languages, therefore, are very different in rhythm.
28
Pronunciation is important.
Fig.3. The difference between the English rhythm and the Chinese rhythm.
In the above illustration (Fig.3), the English rhythm is composed of adults (stressed
syllables) and children (unstressed syllables), which suggests that English has different
syllable length and weight; by contrast, the Chinese rhythm is composed of soldiers
(each soldier represents a syllable), which suggests that Chinese has the same length
and weight in all syllables. [8]
The distribution of syllables within rhythmic groups is unequal and the regularity
is provided by strong ‘beats’. The more unstressed syllables there are after a stressed
one, the quicker they must be pronounced.
The peculiarities of English rhythm implying the regular stress-timed pulses of
speech, create the abrupt effect of English rhythm. It has the immediate connection
with such phonetic phenomena as vowel reduction and elision, placement of wordstress and sentence-stress.
The effect of English rhythm is also presupposed by the analytical structure of the
language. It explains greater prominence of notional words and a considerable number
of unstressed monosyllabic form words. [3, c. 100]
發 音 很 重 要
Social and Territorial Varieties of English Pronunciation
It is common knowledge that between 375 million people now speak English as
their rst language / mother tongue. It is the national language of Great Britain, the
USA, Australia, New Zealand and Canada (part of it). Nowadays two main types of
English are spoken in the English-speaking world: English English and American
English.
29
According to British dialectologists (P. Trudgill, J. Hannah, A. Hughes and others) the following variants of English are referred to the English-based group: English
English, Welsh English, Australian English, New Zealand English; to the Americanbased group: United States English, Canadian English.
Scottish English and Irish English fall somewhere between the two being somewhat by themselves.
British English Accents
English English
Southern Northern
Southern
East Anglia
South-West
1. Northern
2. Yorkshire
3. North-West
4. West Midland
Welsh
English
30
Scottish English
Educated
Sc.English
Regional
Varieties
Northern
Ireland
English
Соседние файлы в предмете [НЕСОРТИРОВАННОЕ]