Phonetics as a science
The History of the Science
- Ancient times – an awareness of speech, its origin and abnormalities
- More than 2000 years ago – Indian scholars: attempts to preserve the current pronunciation of their Sanskrit holy texts
- The classical Greeks – the first to develop a writing system based on a phonetic alphabet
- 17th century – some works of articulatory phonetics
- 1829 – laryngoscope
- 1852 – first observations of the vocal cords
- 1867 – VISIBLE SPEECH by Alexander Melville Bell
- 1877 – gramophone
- 1886 – IPA: the International Phonetic Association
The IPA
- The aim: to promote the study of the science of phonetics and the various practical applications of that science
- Started publications of a special phonetic magazine
- Stated phonetic symbols for sounds of many existing languages – the International Phonetic Alphabet based on the Roman alphabet including letters and additional symbols from a variety of other sources
The Objects of Phonetic Investigation - phonemes and their distribution in words - mutual adaptation of phonemes - stress - syllable formation and division - intonation |
Four Components of Pronunciation - phonemic - accentual - syllabic - intonational |
Two Major Components of Phonetics
Phonetics |
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Segmental Phonetics |
Suprasegmental Phonetics |
segments |
suprasegmentals |
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or PROSODIC FEATUREs: stress; pitch (tone and intonation) |
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or WORD JUNCTURE |
Four Aspects of Speech Sounds
- Articulatory
- Acoustic
- Auditory
- Functional (linguistic, social)
The Articulatory Aspect
A complex of definite finely coordinated and differentiated movements and positions of various speech organs ➯ ARTICULATION
The Acoustic Aspect
- sound waves
- pitch, intensity, timber, length and spectral components
The Auditory Aspect
- the sensation of hearing (while speaking about this aspect we analise…)
- quality, sensations of pitch, loudness, length
The Functional (Linguistic, Social) Aspect
It is also known as Linguistic or Social. It is called functional because of the role that speech sounds play in the functioning of language.
- Tense – tend – tent
- Fall – feel – fill – full – foul
- It’s cold. – It’s gold.
Each of these branches of phonetics has its own methods of investigation and its own terminology.
Characteristics of Speech Sounds from their Different Aspects
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NASALS |
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PHONEMES |
[m, n, ŋ] |
RESONANTS |
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SONORANTS
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2. Branches of Phonetics
1. Articulatory Phonetics
2. Acoustic and Auditory Phonetics. Experimental Phonetics
3. Functional Phonetics or Phonology
Articulatory Phonetics
- the study, description and classification of speech sounds from the point of view of their articulation
- the subjective method: the method of direct observation (visual and auditory)
- the objective methods: the use of various instrumental techniques: mirror, laryngoscope, photography, X-ray, photograph, video- and audio-recordings
Acoustic and Auditory Phonetics. Experimental Phonetics
- the ways in which the air vibrates between the speaker's mouth and the listener’s ear
- a wide use of instrumental methods
Functional Phonetics / Phonology
- The phoneme theory
- I.A. Baudouin de Courtenay: the first foundations of this theory (1868 – 1881)
- N.S. Trubetskoy: phonology is a linguistic science; articulatory and acoustic phonetics is limited to anatomy, physiology and acoustics
- The study of the functional aspect of speech sounds and all the other components of the sound matter of language
Phonetics and Phonology
A broader term: it is the study of … - how speech sounds are made (articulatory phonetics) - the acoustic properties of speech sounds (acoustic phonetics) - how speech sounds are organized in language (linguistic phonetics) The unit: a speech sound |
The study of the sound patterns that occur within languages - The unit: a phoneme – the smallest unit of the language which doesn’t possess any meaning, but helps to distinguish one word from another: pen – ten – den – Ben
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Other Branches of Phonetics
General Phonetics, Descriptive Phonetics, Historical Phonetics, Comparative Phonetics, Phonostylistics Phonosemantics, Theoretical Phonetics, Practical Phonetics
General Phonetics
- studies all the sound-pronouncing possibilities of the human speech apparatus and the ways they are used for purposes of human intercommunication by means of language
- determines the nature, types and role of other phonetic means, such as word accent and intonation
- investigates the laws governing the changes which speech sounds undergo in the flow of speech; finds out the types of such changes in various languages
Descriptive Phonetics
- the contemporary phonetic system of this particular language
Historical Phonetics
- The aim: to trace and establish the successive changes in the phonetic system of a given language at different stages of its historical development
- The phonological method of investigation
- The study of written monuments and the comparison of different spellings of one and the same word; the study of rhymes and metres in poetry
Comparative Phonetics
- The study of the correlation between the phonetic systems of two or more languages, esp. kindred ones and of the correspondences between the speech sounds of kindred languages
Phonostylistics
- The study of the ways in which phonetic means are used in this or that situation
The analysis of all possible kinds of spoken utterances
The identification of the phonetic features (segmental and suprasegmental) restricted to certain kinds of contexts
The explanation why such features have been used
- Some spheres of interest:
styles of pronunciation
phonetic synonyms ([i:ðə] = ['aiðə])
pronunciation and sexism
phonetic stylistic means
Phonosemantics
- The meaning of language units:
The analysis of the sound motivation of language units – the connection between the sound form and the meaning
- Onomatopoeia
- Sound symbolism (sounds or combination of sounds may evoke different semantic associations):
sl (quite unpleasant): slab, slime, slack
Movingless light – gl: glow, glare, glint, gleam
Moving light – fl: flash, flame, flare
3. Methods of Phonetic and Phonological Investigations
1. The method of direct observation
- observing the movements and positions of one’s own or other people’s organs of speech in pronouncing various speech sounds
- analysing one's own kinesthetic sensations during the articulation of speech sounds and comparing them with the resultant auditory impressions
2. The instrumental method
- Spectrograph: a visible record of any kind of sounds
- Intonograph: data about fundamental frequency or pitch
- Speech synthesizers (electronic signal generators and amplifiers or digital computers): the values of the required sound waves
Methods of Phonological Investigations
3. Linguistic method
- The aim: observing and analysing the actual facts of language (any concrete phonetic phenomena) in order to determine in what way these phonetic features are used in a language to convey a certain meaning (that is, interpreting their social significance)
4. The method of commutation
or discovery of minimal pairs
or the method of substitution
or the semantic method
- The aim: to establish the phonemes of a given language
- A minimal pair is pair of words that differ in meaning and one sound only: ten – pen
- A subminimal pair: tense – dance
- The procedure: the commutation test
5. The commutation test
/pit/ - a hole in the ground /bit/ - a small piece or amount /tit/ - titmouse = a small European bird /dit/ --- <not a member of a minimal pair> /kit/ - a set of articles or tools needed for a particular purpose or job |
/pit/ - a large deep opening in the ground /pet/ - a tame animal kept for companionship or pleasure /pæt/ - to tap lightly with the hand /peit/ - old use/humour: the top of the head
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6. Distributional analysis
- The aim: to establish the distribution of speech sounds = all the positions or combinations in which each speech sound of a given language occurs (or does not occur) in the words of that language
7. The statistical method
- The aim: to establish the frequency, probability and predictability of occurrence of phonemes and their allophones in different positions in words, e.g.:
[w] and [h] are never followed by a consonant, they always occur in pre-vocalic position, they never occur in terminal position
4. Phonetics and Other Branches of Linguistics
Phonetics isn’t a separate independent science. It’s a branch of linguistics like the other branches such as lexicology, grammar, stylistics.
1. Phonetics and Lexicology (is connected due to)
- Presence of accent (=stress) on the right place: object – to object, abstract – to abstract (to distinguish a noun or a verb)
- Homographs (can be differentiated only due to the pronunciation as they are identical in spelling): lead [li:d] – lead [led], wind [wɪnd] – wind [waɪnd], row [roʊ] – row [raʊ]
- (due to the word accent we can distinguish between) Homonymous words and word groups: blackbird – black bird
- Onomatopoeia: twitter, clap, crash, chatter, mew, buzz, ding-dong, ping-pong
2. Phonetics and Grammar
- Rules of reading:
wish – wished, beg – begged, want – wanted
bag – bags, book – books, fox – foxes
- Sound interchange
leaf – leaves, house – houses
basis [-is] – bases [-i:z],
Man – men, goose – geese
Sing – sang – sung
Bath – bathe, hot – heat, relief – relieve, etc.
- Intonation – functional sentence perspective:
He came home. (Who came home?)
He came home. (Did he come?)
He came home. (Where did he come?)
3. Phonetics and Stylistics
- Intonation and its components (serve to express emotions, different attitudes)
- Repetitions of words, phrases and sounds (serve the basis of rhythm, rhyme, alliteration)
- Alliteration, or repetition of similar sounds, e.g.: sudden, swallows, swiftly, skimming. (express certain emotion)
Sunset’s slowly spreading shade …
- Onomatopoeia (a combination of sounds which imitate sounds produced in nature)
- Sound symbolism
5. Practical Application of Phonetics
Theoretical significance:
- further development of the problem of the synchronic study and description of the phonetic system of a national language,
- the comparative analysis and description of different languages and the study of the correspondences between them,
- the diachronic description of successive changes in the phonetic system of a language or different languages
Practical significance
- teaching languages:
+ the pronunciation of the mother tongue and foreign languages
+ the correct pronunciation and good enunciation, or elocution
+ speech therapy or logopedics
+ surdo-pedagogics
- devising alphabets and orthographies for unwritten languages and in reforming existing orthographies
- transcription and transliteration
- sound technology: technical acoustics and computer technology
- film-dubbing