- •1. Phonetics as a linguistic science. Branches of phonetics. Phonetics and phonology
- •2. Articulatory classification of speech sounds
- •3. The phoneme as a linguistic unit. Its definition and functions
- •4. Manifestation of phonemes in speech. Phoneme and allophone
- •5. Methods of the identification of phonemes in a language
- •6. The distinctive and non-distinctive features of English vowels
- •7. The distinctive and non-distinctive features of English consonants
- •8. Problems of the phonemic inventory of English vowels
- •9. Problems of the phonemic inventory of English consonants
- •10. Types of phonetic transcription
- •11. The syllable as a phonetic, phonological unit. The functions of the syllable. Structural peculiarities of the English syllable
- •12. Theories of syllable formation and syllable division
- •13. The emergence of a pronunciation standard. Received Pronunciation (rp). Present-day situation
- •14. National and regional variants of English pronunciation
- •15. American English pronunciation. Peculiarities of General American pronunciation compared to British English
- •16. The syllable as a prosodic unit. Word stress, its nature and functions. Linguistically relevant types of word stress
- •17. The accentual tendencies in English. Basic word stress patterns in English
- •18. Speech prosody. Its perceptible qualities and acoustic properties
- •19. Prosody and intonation. Utterance prosody and its linguistic functions
- •20. The components (subsystems) of utterance prosody and units of its analysis
- •21. The tonal (pitch) subsystem of utterance prosody. Units of its analysis. Tones and tonal contours
- •22. The structure of a prosodic contour (intonation group) in English. The functions of its elements
- •23. Basic types of prosodic contours in English
- •24. Utterance stress in English, its phonetic nature and function. The relationship between utterance stress and word stress in English
- •25. Types of utterance stress. Factors conditioning the location of utterance stress
- •27. The basic unit of the rhythmic organization of speech and the problem of its phonetic delimitation in an utterance
- •28. The phonetic nature and types of speech rhythm in different languages.
- •29. Speech tempo and pausation
- •30. The notion of speech style. Phonetic style-forming means in English
7. The distinctive and non-distinctive features of English consonants
Most phoneticians agree that distinctive features of English consonants are:
1. manner of articulation way in which the obstruction of the airstream is produced - Vasiliev's point of view (occlusives – 2 articulators form a complete closure which is suddenly released, constrictives – the 2 articulators come close together forming a stricture, affricates)
2. place of articulation – the location in the vocal tract where a particular speech sound is produced (labial:bilabial/labio-dental, lingual:dental/interdental/alveolar/palato-alveolar/post-alveolar, glottal)
3. degree of noise - Sokolova's point of view (noise, sonorants)
The following characteristics are not important from the phonological point of view but still very important for the articulation of sounds:
1) palatalization – softening of the consonants due to the rising of the back of the tongue to the hard palate
2) aspiration – puff of air following the release of a plosive
3) nasalization- pronounce or utter (a speech sound) with the breath resonating in the nose
8. Problems of the phonemic inventory of English vowels
The 1st problem of the phonological analysis is to establish phonemes in a language. There are some difficulties in English:
1. IF THERE IS A SCHWA-VOWEL PHONEME? Though the schwa-vowel can be opposed only to weakened vowel phonemes, which are partially reduced due to their position in unstressed syllables, it can form phonological oppositions with the number of other phonemes and can distinguish words (accept-except, solar-solo).
2. IF DIPHTHONGS AND TRIPHTHONGS ARE MONOPHONEMIC OR BIPHONEMIC CLUSTERS? Trubetzkoy worked out a number of rules which help to determine whether a sound of a complex nature is monophonemic: 1) a phoneme is indivisible, as no syllable division can occur within a phoneme; 2) a phoneme is produced by 1 articulatory effort; 3) the duration of a phoneme should not exceed that of other phonemes in the language => 1. The syllabis and articulatory indivisibility of diphthongs and their duration of English historically vowels, clearly determine their monophonemic character. 2. triphthongs [aue, aie] are not produced by a single articulatory effort, as there is an increase in the force of articulation and intensity for the 1st and the last element. The syllabic division generally occurs in between the diphthong and the schwa-vowel. So they are regarded as biphonemic clusters.
In such a way it has been established that in RP there are 20 vowel phonemes (12 monophthongs, 8 diphthongs).
9. Problems of the phonemic inventory of English consonants
The 1st problem of the phonological analysis is to establish phonemes in a language. There are some difficulties in English:
1. IF [J] AND [W] ARE ALLOPHONES OF [I] AND [U] OR THEY ARE SEPARATE PHONEMES? Some linguists treat them as allophones on account of their weakness and unstable articulatory features. Others treat them as phonemes, because, as they say, [j] and [w] can form phonological oppositions with each other and with other phonemes (yell-well, yet-met); moreover, they occur in phonetic positions that are generally occupied by consonant phonemes, consequently, they cannot be considered to be allophones of vowel phonemes.
2. IF THE SOUNDS [Ч], [дЖ], [TR], [DR], [TS], [DZ] ARE MONOPHONEMIC? Trubetzkoy worked out a number of rules which help to determine whether a sound of a complex nature is monophonemic: 1) a phoneme is indivisible, as no syllable division can occur within a phoneme; 2) a phoneme is produced by 1 articulatory effort; 3) the duration of a phoneme should not exceed that of other phonemes in the language => 1. acoustic and physiologic analysis proved that the sounds [ч] and [дж] are produced by 1 articulatory effort, and their duration doesn't exceed the duration of either [t] or [ш], or [d]. Besides, no syllabic division occurs within the sounds. So they are monophonemic. 2. [ts] and [dz] are obviously biphonemic combinations, because their duration exceeds the average duration of either [t], [d], [s] or [z]. 3. some linguists consider [tr] and [dr] as affricates as they are closely linked in the pronunciation of Englishmen. But most phoneticians regard them as biphonemic clusters.