3. Connection of phonetics with other sciences.

As a linguistic science, phonetics is naturally connected with other linguistic disciplines, such as grammar, lexicology, stylistics, dialectology and sociolinguistics. Also, phonetics is related to a number of non-linguistic sciences which study the mechanism of speech production and speech perception.

Sound interchange обмен is manifestation of the connection of Ph with grammar, e.g. this connection can be observed in the category of number. Thus the interchange of f/v, s/z, th/the helps to differentiate singular and plural forms of such words as basis- bases, and also man-men, foot-feet. Vowel interchange is connected with the tense forms of irregular verbs (sing-sang-sung). Vowel interchange can also help to distinguish between: 1) nouns and verbs (bath-bathe), 2) adj and nouns (hot-heat), 3) verbs and adj (moderate-moderate), 4) nouns and nouns (shade-shadow), 5) nouns and adj (type-typical).

Ph is connected with grammar through its intonation component. Sometimes intonation alone can serve to single out the logical predicate. ‘he came home, he ‘came home, he came ‘home). Pausation may also perform a differentiatory function. If we compare 2 similar sentences pronounced with different places of pause, the meaning will be different.

Ph is also connected with lexicology. It is only due to the presence of stress in the right place, that we can distinguish certain nouns from verbs (formed by convercion): ‘object-ob’ject.

Homographs can be differentiated only due to pronaunciation, because they are identical in spelling: bow(ou луг)-bow(au поклон), row(ou ряд)-row(au шум).

Ph is also connected with stylistics; first of all through intonation and its components: speech melody, utterance (произнесение) stress, rythm, pausation and voicetember which serves to express emotions.

Ph is also connected with stylistics through repetition of words, phrases and sounds. Repetition of this kind serves the basis of rythm, rhyme and alliteration. The repetition of identical or similar sounds, which is called alliteration, helps to impart ( передавать) a melodic effect to the utterance and to express certain emotions.

Practical significance of Ph is connected with teaching foreign languages, speech correction, teaching deaf-mutes глухонемой, film doubling.

All the branches of phonetics are absolutely indispensable to the teaching of the pronunciation of foreign languages.

Phonetics is also widely used in teaching correct pronunciation and enunciation or elocution to actors,' singers, radio-announcers and other public speakers; in eliminating dialectal features; in logopedics - in curing numerous and various speech defects and pathologic disturbances of speech, such as various forms of aphasia ([æ'feɪzɪə] потеря речи), in surdo-pedagogics, i.e. in teaching normal oral speech to deaf глухой and dumb немой people (surdomutes).

4. The phoneme theory (the definition of a phoneme, its functions).

The founder of the phoneme theory was Baudouin de Courteney. His theory of phoneme was developed and perfected by Shcherba, who stated that in actual speech we utter a much greater variety of sounds than we are aware of and that in every lang these sounds are united in a comparatively small number of sound types, which are capable of distinguishing the meaning and the form of words. It is these sound types that should be included into the classification of phonemes and studied as differentiatory units of the lang. The actually pronounced speech sounds are variants or allophones of phonemes. Allophones are realized in concrete words. They have phonetic similarity, at the same time they differ in some degree and are incapable of differentiating words, e.g. in speech we pronounce not the sound type [t] which is asperated, alveolar, forelingual, apical, occlusive, plosive, voiceless-fortis – according to the classificatory definition, but one of its variants, e.g. labialized in the word twice, dental in the word nineth, post-alveolar in try and so on. The number of sound types, or phonemes, in each lang is much smaller than the number of sounds actually pronounced.

Бодуэн-де-Куртене defined the phoneme as a physical image of a sound, he originated the so called “mentalist” view of the phoneme.

To know how sounds are produced is not enough to describe and classify them as language units. When we talk about the sounds of language, the term "sound" can be interpreted in two different ways. First, we can say that [t] and [d], for example, are two different sounds in English: e.g. ten-den, seat-seed. But on the other hand, we know that [t] in let us and [t] in let them are not the same. In both examples the sounds differ in one articulatory feature only. In the second case the difference between the sounds has functionally no significance. It is clear that the sense of "sound" in these two cases is different. To avoid this ambiguity, linguists use two separate terms: phoneme and allophone.

The phoneme is a minimal abstract linguistic unit realized in speech in the form of speech sounds opposable to other phonemes of the same language to distinguish the meaning of morphemes and words.

Let us consider the phoneme from the point of view of its aspects.

Firstly, the phoneme is a functional unit. In phonetics function is usually understood as a role of the various units of the phonetic system in distinguishing one morpheme from another, one word from another or one utterance from another. The opposition of phonemes in the same phonetic environment differentiates the meaning of morphemes and words: e.g. bath-path, light-like. Sometimes the opposition of phonemes serves to distinguish the meaning of the whole phrases: He was heard badly - He was hurt badly. Thus we may say that the phoneme can fulfill the distinctive function.

Secondly, the phoneme is material, real and objective. That means it is realized in speech in the form of speech sounds, its allophones. The phonemes constitute the material form of morphemes, so this function may be called constitutive function.

Thirdly, the phoneme performs the recognitive function, because the use of the right allophones and other phonetic units facilitates normal recognition. We may add that the phoneme is a material and objective unit as well as an abstract and generalized one at the same time.