It contains one nucleus, which is often referred to as nuclear tone, or peak of prominence.

The interval between the highest and the lowest pitched syllable is called the range of a sense-group. The range usually depends on the pitch level: the higher the pitch, the wider the range. High, medium. and low pitch of the voice is shown on the staves. The change of pitch within the last stressed syllable of the tone-group is called a nuclear tone. It may occur not only in the nucleus but extend to the tail - terminal tone.

The inventory of tonal types given by different scholars is different.

Sweet distinguishes 8 tones: level, high rising, low rising, high falling, low falling, compound rising, compound falling, rising-falling-rising. Palmer has four basic tones: falling, high rising, falling-rising, low rising. Kingdon distinguishes high and low, normal and emphatic tones. O'Connor and Arnold give low and high falls and rises, rise-fall, fall-rise, and a compound fall + rise. (the latter is considered a combination of two simple tunes). Halliday recognizes seven major types. Vassilyev gives ten tone units. He states that tones can be moving and level.

Level Tones can be pitched at High, Mid and Low level.

Methods of indicating intonation are different: wedge-like symbols, staves with dots and dashes, which correspond to unstressed and stressed syllables within the voice range, tonetic stress marks, numerical system, etc. The system of staves is the most vivid, the system of tonetic symbols is the most economical and vivid, that's why they are most popular in our textbooks.

The basic unit of intonation is an intonation pattern: pitch movements and tempo. Intonation patterns are actualized in speech.

The tonetic units that constitute the total intonation pattern (contour) are the following:

1. unstressed and half stressed syllables preceding the first stressed syllable constitute the prehead of the intonation group;

2. stressed and unstressed syllables up to the last stressed syllable constitute the head, body or scale of the intonation group;

3. the last stressed syllable, within which fall or rise in the intonation group is accomplished, is called the nucleus

4. the syllables (or one syllable), that follow the nucleus, constitute the tail, e.g.

The most important part of the intonation group is the nucleus, which carries nuclear stress (nuclear tone).

According to the changes in the voice pitch preheads can be: rising, mid and low:

Scales can be: descending, ascending and level.

If one of the words in the descending scale is made specially prominent, a vertical arrow is placed before the dash-mark which indicates the stressed syllable on the staves, or before the word made specially prominent in the text - accidental rise, e.g. 'John is lvery busy.

This type of scale is called upbroken descending scale.

The falling tones convey completion and finality, they are categoric in character. The rising tones are incomplete and non-categoric. The level tones may express hesitation and uncertainty.

SyllabIe division

. SyllabIe division: experimental data

. There is another point to Ье considered here: the functional aspect,

WhlCh manifests ltself in frequencies of occurrence ofpermitted sound sе-

quences. Although there аге тоге similarities than differences in the in-

ventories ofphonological syl1able models in English and Russian the total

number being very similar (21 vs 23), with only one model of four-conso-

nant cluster in the Russian onset and а couple offour-consonant clusters

in Engllsh codas to.make the distinction, phonetically the majority ofRus-

sian syllables аге dlfferent from the Eng1ish ones.

The basic difference consists in the dominance of an ореп syllable in

Russш~ (CV), and а closed syllable. in English (СУС) in actual speech.

Ассогdшg to Russian scholars' research data, 78% ofRussian syllables аге

open.

According to Russian scholars research data, most English syllables

аге closed when there is а fortis consonant in the coda (Злаmоусmова и

др. 1997).

This takes us to one moге controversial роint in syllable division WhlCh

concerns medial cluster division in English.

There аге two authentic sources for looking up syllable boundary of

any given word in English: EPD (Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary

Ьу Daniel Jones, Cambridge, 2003) and LPD (Longman Рro-

nunciation Dictionary, 2"d ed., Longman, 2000 Ьу J.c. Wells).

The two sources agree оп the following:

1. Compounds should Ье divided into syl1ables according to the mor-

phological principle: hard-ware.

2. А single consonant which appears between two syl1ables after а short

stressed vowel should Ье attached to the preceding vowel: better ['bet -3].

However, there аге differences as to where to put а consonant which

fol1ows а long vowel ог а diphthong:

EPD attaches а single word-medial consonant to the fol1owing sylla-

Ые (Maximal Onset principle): la.dy, in.vi.ted, while LPD puts аll word-

medial single consonants and clusters to the stressed syllable (MaXlmal

Stress principle): lad у, in vit ed. (Неге we preserve their conventions .of

showing the phonetic syllabification.) Thus the word window will Ье dlf-

ferently attested in the two dictionaries due to the two different principles

ofsyllable division: EPD ['wш.d;зu], LPD ['wшd ;3U].

Experimental evidence, as reported from British sources Ьу Alan Crut-

tenden, shows that fol1owing а long vowel а consonant was syllabified wlth

the following syllable which supports EPD: la-dy (Cruttenden 2001).

Phonetics as a science, its history.

Phonetics is the science that studies the sound matter of the language, its semantic functions and the lines of development. It studies not only separate sounds but their functions as well. It also studies the relation between written and spoken language.

Phonetics was studied 2500 years ago in ancient India. The place and the manner of articulation of consonants were described in his 5th century BC treatise on Sanskrit.

The Ancient Greeks are considered to be the first to base a writing system on a phonetic alphabet. The origin of the word is a Greek “phona” – a sound, a voice. The theory of public speech and phonetic delivery were important in Greece.

Modern phonetics began with Alexander Melville Bell, whose Visible Speech (1867) introduced the system of precise notation for writing down speech sounds.

As an independent discipline phonetics has been known since the 19-th century. Most investigation was done in the 20-th century. Phonetics used to be a part of grammar. In the 20-th century it has become VERY important.

Phonetics has its own branches. The most important of them are general phonetics and special phonetics. General phonetics studies the sound systems of sev¬eral languages. It is a part of general linguistics. Special phonetics studies the sounds of one language either synchronically, that is at a particular period of time (it is descriptive phonetics), or diachronically, that is to study the sounds of a language in its historical development (historical phonetics).

The link of phonetics with other branches of linguistics: grammar, lexicology and stylistics.

Phonetics is connected with other, non-linguistic sciences: acoustics, physiology, psychology, logic, etc. Phonetics is one of the fundamental branches of linguistics like grammar, lexicology and stylistics.

The connection of phonetics with grammar, lexicology and stylistics is exercised first of all via orthography which in its turn is very closely connected with phonetics.

I. Phonetics is connected with grammar through:

1. The system of rules of reading (morphology). Phonetics formulates the rules of pronunciation of separate sounds and sound combinations.

a) It helps to pronounce correctly singular and plural forms of nouns and nouns in Possessive Case, e.g. [z] after voiced consonants and [s] after voiceless consonants hands[z], shoes[z], maps[s], safes[s], boxes[iz], classes[iz]; boy's[z], cat's[s], Alice's[iz].

b) The pronunciation of verbs in the form of the 3d person singular: reads[z], takes[s], crosses[iz].

c) The past tense forms and past participles of English regular verbs, e.g. after voiced consonants /d/ is pronounced (open - opened); after voiceless consonants - /t/ (discuss - discussed), after /t/ - /id/ (invent - invented).

2. Sound interchange (morphology).

a) This can be observed in the category of number. The interchange of /f—v/, /s—z/, /θ- ð/ helps to dif¬ferentiate singular and plural forms of such nouns as: leaf — leaves, wife – wives, house — houses, bath - baths.

b) Vowel interchange helps to distinguish the singular and the plural of such words as: foot—feet, goose - geese, mouse—mice, basis— bases /…sis—…si:z/,crisis— crises, analysis — analyses.

c) Vowel interchange is connected with the tense forms of irregular verbs, for instance: swim – swam – swum, sing—sang—sung; come-came-come, etc.

II. Phonetics is also connected with lexicology.

1. Sound interchange helps to distinguish

a) different parts of speech, e.g. breath — breathe, separate (adj) — separate (v).

b) homographs, be¬cause they are identical in spelling, e.g.

bow /bou/ лук — bow /bau/ поклон

row /rou/ ряд — row /rau/ шум

wind /wind/ ветер — wind /waind/ виток

2. Thanks to the presence of stress or accent in the right place, we can distinguish certain nouns from verbs (formed by conversion), e.g.

insult оскорбление; обида – to insult оскорблять; обижать

'abstract реферат – to ab'stract извлекать

'object предмет – to ob'ject не одобрять

3. Due to the position of word stress we can distinguish between compound words and word groups, e.g.

'blackbird дрозд – 'black 'bird черная птица

'bluebell колокольчик – blue bell голубой колокол

blue-stocking "синий чулок"; педантка – blue stocking синий чулок

III. Phonetics is also connected with stylistics.

1. Phonetics is also connected with stylistics through repetition of words, phrases and sounds. Repetition of this kind serves the bases of rhythm, rhyme and alliteration.

Alliteration - the repetition of similar consonant sounds at the beginning of neighbouring words. E.g.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

There are a lot of phraseological words, sayings and word combinations based on alliteration: Tit for tat; betwixt and between; neck or nothing; blind as a bat; to rob Peter to pay Paul.

Аlliteration is used in book titles: “Sense and Sensibility”, “Pride and Prejudice”(Jane Austin), “The School for Scandal”(Sheridan), “A Book of Phase and Fable”(Brewer).

Con¬so¬nance - the repetition of consonant sounds at the end of neighbouring words which have different vowel sounds. E.g. strength - earth – birth / home - same

Assonance - the repetition of similar vowel sounds in the middle of neighbouring words. E.g.

sweet dreams / fertile – birth

on a proud round cloud in a white high night

With the sound, with the sound, with the sound of the ground. - David Bowie

Rhythm - regular recurrence of stressed elements.

Rhyme – the repetition of identical or similar terminal sounds, sound combinations or words, usually at the end of lines, e.g. Tiger! Tiger! burning bright / In the forests of the night.

They may be used as a special device not only in poetry, but in prose as well. They impart a melodic effect to the utterance, adds beauty to the writing style, express certain emotions.

Onomatopoeia - the use of words which imitate the sound they refer to, e.g. jin¬gle, clink, chatter, jabber, clatter, babble; chirp, twit¬ter, chirrup; slap, clap, smack, crash, bang.

Sound symbolism refers to the idea that sounds have meaning, that there are words with combinations of sounds that may be associated with some meaning. E.g. /l/ - smooth, tender, soft; /i/ - happy; /d/ - gloomy; /m/ - puts to sleep. The combination of sounds [fl] may be associated with a quick movement: fly, flee, flood, flow, flop, [sk] — squeaky sounds: squeak, squeal, scratch, scrap, squelch, squawk, screech, scream.

These are sound devices that create an especially vivid impression.

2. Phonetics is also connected with stylistics through intonation and its components:

a) The emphasis can help to single out logical predicate of the sentence, e.g.

I have plans to 'leave (планы уехать)

I have 'plans to leave (документы, которые нужно оставить)

If we to place emphasis on the word leave, it’ll mean that I plan to leave. If we to place emphasis on the word plans, it’ll mean that I must leave plans, documents, maps.

b) Pauses may also serve to perform differentiating function. If we compare two similar sentences pronounced with different place of pause, we shall see that their meaning will be different. E.g.

'What 'writing 'poet is 'doing is .interesting.

If we make a pause after the word what, we are interested in what the poet is doing in general. If the pause is made after the word writ¬ing we want to know, what book or article the poet is writing.

c) Sometimes only the tone can help to single out the type of a sentence, author’s words, enumerations, parenthesis, e.g.

You've lost it.

If we pronounce this with a falling tone, we’ll get a statement; but if we pronounce this with a rising tone, we’ll get a question.

Tones also serve to express emotions, to distinguish between different attitudes on the part of the author and speaker. One can pronounce short phrases “Yes” and “No” with different tones and see the difference. They may sound: 1) reservedly, impartially; 2) socially, happily; 3) with approval; 4) interrogatively; 5) with doubt; 6) glaringly.

Phonetics has several branches: acoustic or auditory phonetics («acoustic or auditory aspect» in V.A. Vassilyev's terminology), physiological or articulatory phonetics, phonological or functional phonetics (linguistic or social aspect).

Acoustic or auditory phonetics deals with physical properties of sounds: quantity or length, intensity, pitch, temporal factor.

Physiological or articulatory phonetics describes and classifies speech sounds from the point of view of their articulation and in connection with the organs of speech by which they are produced.

Phonological or functional phonetics is the branch of phonetics which studies the system of sound units and their function.

Theoretical and practical significance of phonetics.

Theoretical significance of Phonetics is connected with the further development of the problem of the study and description of the Phonetic system of a national language and different languages, the study of the correspondences between them, the description of changes in the Phonetic system of languages.

Practical significance. The results of many phonetic investigations are of great importance and are used in different spheres.

The most ancient one is the creation and the development of written language.

Phonetic data are used to check and to increase the efficiency of communication facilities. Phoneticians cooperate with specialists in crime detection and develop special programs that help to identify a person by its voice. There is an opinion that speech spectrogram is as individual as fingerprints.

Nowadays scientists explore the ways of automatic voice identification. Such programs are expected to be widely used in all spheres of human life: vocal inquiry will receive and give out different information which is going to be useful in banks, hospitals, in institutes and factories to run different technical devices. Such speech synthesizers are also going to turn voice into a written language and vice versa.

Phonetics is also used in film doubling.

It is used in medicine to cure loss and disorder of speech. As well as speech correction (speech therapy), teaching deaf-mutes. In the 17th century the necessity to teach deaf people initiated the study of speech sounds production. Language teaching is always based on phonetics.