1 Pronunciation as a way of materializing of oral form of language

Phonic shaping of oral form of language is called pronunciation. The concept pronunciation has several meanings in present-day phonetics.

In its narrow meaning it is restricted to the features manifested in the articulation of the sounds of a language. Its wide interpretation implies the entity of discourse features relating to:

1. the SOUND SYSTEM of a language ( the so-called segmental phonemes in the form of their actual speech manifestations- allophones or variants);

2. the SYLLABIC STRUCTURE of a language (syllable formation and syllable division);

3. WORD-STRESS/LEXICAL STRESS;

4. INTONATION as a complex unity of pitch (тональний), force (силовий) and temporal (темпоральний) components.

In discussing the pronunciation of English we can focus on one or both of two aspects:

a) on the one hand, we may want to describe WHAT SPEAKERS DO WHEN THEY ARE SPEAKING ENGLISH. This is the aspect of SPEECH (мовлення), an activity carried on by communicators who use English in communicating.

b) on the other hand, we may address the question, WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ENGLISH WORDS AND SENTENCES (DISCOURSE) that are realized in speech? This is the aspect of LANGUAGE (мова).

Speech is not the same as language. Speech is an activity which is carried on numerous events; language is knowledge, a code which is known and shared by speakers who use their knowledge for transmitting and interpreting verbal messages in these events.

2. Phonic structure of language and its components

Language is shaped into a spoken message by means of its sound matter (звукової матерії) which is a combination of four components.

PHONIC structure of language звукова будова мови

4.

Supra-segmental/prosodic component (супрасегментний / просодичний компонент) = variations in pitch, prominence/stress, and tempo = INTONATION

4.1. The pitch component (мелодійний компонент)/= 4.1.1. Speech melody (мелодика мовлення)

4.2. The force component (силовий компонент) = 4.2.1. Utterance stress фразовий наголос

4.3. The temporal component (темпоральний компонент)= 4.3.1. Tempo темп 4.3.2. Pauzation паузація

3.

Lexical STRESS словесний наголос

2.

SYLLABLE склад

1.

SEGMENTAL/PHONEMIC COMPONENT (сегментний/фонемний компонент) = the first and basic component of the phonic substance of language

s

p

e

e

c

h

s

o

u

n

d

s

the smallest, further indivisible segments easily singled out in the flow of speech as separate discrete elements

in language phonemes фонеми sounds in the mind -the ABC (alphabet) of speech sounds Each language has its own set of phonemes

in speech allophones / variants алофони ‘sounds in the mouth’

vowels(V) + consonants (C)

vowel allophones +consonant allophones

3.1. The segmental/phonemic component (сегментний компонент/складова). First of all, a spoken message/an utterance can be thought as a succession of the smallest, further indivisible segments which are easily singled out in the flow of speech as separate discrete elements. They are called sounds of a language or sounds.

Sounds function as phonemes, i.e. linguistically distinctive, relevant units capable of differentiating the meanings of morphemes, words, sentences. Phonemes are abstract representations of those speech sounds which can differentiate the meaning - i.e. ‘sounds in the mind’ (the term suggested by Peter Roach). Realizations of a definite phoneme in definite positions in words are called allophones / variants, i.e. “sounds in the mouth” (the term suggested by Peter Roach).

The sounds of the language constitute its segmental/phonemic (сегментний/фонемний) component. The segmental component can be studied and described as:

1. a) a system of phonemes vowels (20 V) - and consonants (24 C ); b) certain patterns of allophones and their distribution. Each segmental phoneme of a language has a definite number of allophones which occur in definite positions in words. Allophones fall into 2 groups: principal (which occur in isolation) and subsidiary (in connected speech). Subsidiary allophones in their turn are subdivided into: combinatory and positional. The occurrence of the allophones of a phoneme in different positions in a word is called their distribution.;

2. c) a set of methods of joining speech sounds/allophones together in words and at their junctions- coarticulatory/adjustment phenomena.

3.2. In phonetics, the syllable is a group of sounds that are pronounced together [Wells 2000:758]. The problem of the syllabic structure of words has two aspects:

1) syllable formation, 2) syllable division/separation.

Articulatorily, the syllable is the minimal articulatory unit of the utterance.

Auditorily, the syllable is the smallest unit of perception: the listener identifies the whole of the syllable and after that the sounds which it contains.

Phonologically it is a structural unit which consists of a sequence of one or some phonemes of a language in numbers and arrangements permitted by the given language.

Different languages have different kinds of syllable structure. In English the syllable is formed:

1) by any vowel alone or in combination with one or more consonants - not more than 3 preceding and not more than 4 following it, e.g. are /a:/ , we /wi:/, it /t/, sixths /sikss/.

2) by a word final sonorants /n/, /l/, /m/ immediately preceded by a consonant: e.g. rhythm ^, garden ^ Examples are taken from: EPD 1997.

Structurally , the commonest types of the syllable in English are VC; CVC.

CV is considered to be the universal structure. CV syllabic types constitute more than half of all structural types in Russian and Ukrainian.

3.3. LEXICAL STRESS.

3.4. INTONATION (prosodic component) consists of pitch, force and temporal components.

The pitch component is made up by the speech melody, e.i. variations in the pitch of the voice in connected speech. Different levels of pitch (tones) are used in particular sequences to express a wide range of meanings.

The force component is represented by sentence stress (the greater prominence of one or more words among other words in an utterance).

The temporal component is represented by variations in tempo. Rhythm as regular recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables is a combination of force and temporal components. English has stress-timed rhythm.