 ПОЗНАВАТЕЛЬНОЕ Сила воли ведет к действию, а позитивные действия формируют позитивное отношение Как определить диапазон голоса - ваш вокал Игровые автоматы с быстрым выводом Как самому избавиться от обидчивости Противоречивые взгляды на качества, присущие мужчинам Вкуснейший "Салат из свеклы с чесноком" Натюрморт и его изобразительные возможности Применение, как принимать мумие? Мумие для волос, лица, при переломах, при кровотечении и т.д. Как научиться брать на себя ответственность Зачем нужны границы в отношениях с детьми? Световозвращающие элементы на детской одежде Как победить свой возраст? Восемь уникальных способов, которые помогут достичь долголетия Классификация ожирения по ИМТ (ВОЗ) Глава 3. Завет мужчины с женщиной
Оси и плоскости тела человека - Тело человека состоит из определенных топографических частей и участков, в которых расположены органы, мышцы, сосуды, нервы и т.д.
| The intonational structure of sentences in GA
Questions 1.What is phonetics? 2.What does phonetics study? 3.With what sciences s phonetics connected? Give the examples. 4.What branches of phonetics do you know? 5.What methods of investigation n phonetics can you name? 6.What are the functions which speech sounds fulfill? 7.How are the branches of phonetics interconnected? 8.What do general and special phonetics deal with? 9. What do you know about historical and comparative phonetics? 10. Why is theoretical phonetics important?
Practical task: 1) Make a glossary of the main notions and give their definitions. 2) Transcribe the following words and sentences and prove that phonetics s connected with grammar, lexicology, stylistics and others: an abstract-to abstract; desks, sofas, take-took-taken, advice-to advice, goose-geese, foxes, Would you believe it? – Would you believe it!; woman-women; an insult-to insult; cars; boats, You say it’s a funny story? – You say it’s a funny story!
2 Ағылшын тілі фонетикалық жүйесінің негізгі компоненттері– The phonetic structure of the English language
The English phonetic structure is systemic in character. It is made of the following components: 1) The system of English phonemes; 2) The syllabic structure of English words; 3) The accentual structure of words; 4) The intonational structure of English sentences. The phonemic component includes not only the system of English phonemes but also the combination of their allophones, which occur in words. The character of this component means that phonemes and their allophones may occur only in definite positions in words. Definite allophones of phonemes may occur only in definite positions. This phenomenon is called distribution of allophones. e.g. /twais/ - the rounded allophone of the /t/ phoneme is used before /w/; /eito/ - the dental allophone of the /t/ phoneme is used before /o/; /trai/ - the post-alveolar allophone of the /t/ phoneme is used before /r/ /ritn/ - the nasally released allophone of the /t/ phoneme is used before /r/ etc. The same can be said about combinations of consonants and vowels. Their usage is determined by some regular rules of the language. For example, the combination of consonants /tl, dl, tn, dn/ never occurs at the beginning of English words. They may occur at the end or in the middle of words. (In Russian, on the contrary, they may come at the beginning and in the middle of words, but never at the end, eg. Тлеть, длина, атлас, отлично, дни, одна и т.д. In Kazakh such combinations of consonants are impossible. To the phonemic component also belong different methods of joining sounds together in words and at the junction of words. We may speak of the following four types of sound transitions in English: CV transitions, as in /ti:/, /mai/, /ka:/ etc. VC transitions, as in /it/. CC transitions, as in /lukt/, /trai/. VV transitions, as in /mai a:nt/. VC transitions are reflected in syllable division of English words. The short stressed vowels are always checked. They can only occur in closed type of syllable. Loss of plosion may serve an instance for CC transitions, as in October, effect, helped, strict, next day, wanted to come, blackboard, etc. Compare the similar Russian and Kazakh combinations of two plosives, which are pronounced with two plosions, as in: куртка, аптека, откуда, отбор, сковородка; өкпе, айтқайб сатпақ In VV transitions we may have two different ways of joining vowels, with and without the glottal stop between them. The second componentof the phonetic system of English is syllabic structure of its words in isolation and in phrases and sentences. This component may be viewed from two points – its syllable formation and its syllable division. The third component of the phonetic system of English is the accentual structure of its words. It may be studied from three aspects: 1) the physical nature of word accent; 2) the position of word accent in different words; 3) the degree of word accent. Languages may differ in the accentual structure of words as well. The most important of the three aspects enumerated above is the position of accent in disyllabic and polysyllabic words in English and in Russian, because these languages have the so-called free word accent. It means that the accent may rest on any syllable in different words, eg. Fellow, repeat, represent, representation – завтра, сегодня, посвящать, позавчера и т.д. In Kazakh language the word accent is fixed on the last syllable, eg. Бала, балалар, балалық, баласы. The fourth component of the phonetic system of English is the intonation structure of sentences. Intonation is a complex unity of speech melody, prominence of words, tempo and voice-tamber which serve to express the speaker’s thoughts, emotions, feelings and attitudes towards reality. Intonational structure of English, Russian and Kazakh differ greatly. All the four components of the phonetic system of English (phonemic, syllabic, accentual and intonational) constitute the English pronunciation. Questions 1) Is the English language systemic in character? 2) What does the English phonetic structure consist of? 3) What do we call distribution? Give examples. 4) Which component of the phonetic structure do different methods of joining sounds belong to? 5) What are the types of sound transitions in English? Give examples. 6) What does the term “syllabification” mean? 7) Do English, Russian and Kazakh coincide in syllable formation and syllable division? Prove it. 8) Which is the most important aspect of the accentual structure of English and Russian words? 9) Has Kazakh fixed or free word accent? 10) What is intonation? Practical task
1. Make a glossary of the main notions and give their definitions. 2.Comment on the allophones of the phonemes /t, k, r, s, l/ in the examples: At the, little, eaten, twenty; quick, looked, cool, sky; rose, cry, threat; simple, swift, soap; plate, load. 3. Comment on the different types of sound transitions in English. CV: key, port, talk, time, calm, turn, cat, pen. VC: button, letter, happy, worry, money, body, coming, syllable. CC: act, checked, begged, kicked, liked, meet Tom. VV: my apple, he is, there is, we always, the actress, she asks. Think of your own examples and compare them with the corresponding types of transitions in your mother tongue. 4. Transcribe the following English words and underline the transcription symbol which corresponds to each syllabic sound in the words: Candle, sand, sadden, can’t, don’t, listen, here, fire, our, needn’t, floor. 5. Transcribe the following words, show the point of syllable division in each of them by putting a bar between the syllables (table [tei/bl]. Ready, nature, natural, picture, finish, many, pity, pupil, study, discover, story.
3 Ағылшын тілі дыбыстарының артикуляциялық құрылымы - Сөйлеу механизмдері – Speech mechanisms Speech sounds are the results of various movements and positions of human speech organs. They are products of the complicated work of the speech mechanisms. According to their main sound-producing function the speech organs can be divided into the following 4 groups: the power mechanism, the vibrator mechanism, the resonator mechanism, and the obstructer mechanism. These 4 mechanisms are closely interconnected, because in the process of production of a sound several speech mechanisms function simultaneously. Besides, one and the same speech organ may belong to different mechanisms. The main speech organs of speech belonging to the power mechanism are as follows: the lungs, the windpipe, the glottis, the pharynx, the oral cavity and the nasal cavity. In order to speak we need breath. Hence, the function of the power mechanism is to supply the organs of speech with energy in the form of air pressure, and to regulate it during speech. Breathing consists of 2 phases – inhalation and exhalation. Breathing may be of two kinds: 1) ordinary biological breathing which takes place when we are silent, and 2) sound-producing breathing. In ordinary breathing both phases are nearly of the same duration. In sound-producing breathing the phases are of different duration: inhalation is quick and deep, whereas exhalation is longer and drawn out. During speech the air goes out in spurts corresponding to syllables, words and sense-groups. All the speech sounds in English, Russian, Kazakh and many other languages are made during exhalation. In ordinary breathing the stream of air flows out freely: the vocal cords are apart and the glottis is widely open, the soft palate is lowered letting the air through the nasal cavity. In sound-producing breathing the out flowing air undergoes some modifications in the glottis, in the pharynx and in the mouth cavity. The vocal cords and the glottis constitute the vibrator mechanism. The vocal cords are situated in the upper part of the windpipe, called larynx. The vocal cords resemble 2 muscular folds which run in horizontal direction from back to front. The opening between the folds is called the glottis. The vocal cords may take up different positions: 1) When they are kept apart, the glottis is wide open and the breath can pass them by being checked. Sounds formed with the glottis thus open are known as voiceless sounds. In ordinary breathing the vocal cords are also drawn apart. 2) When the vocal cords are pulled close together and the glottis reduced to a mere slit, they become an obstacle to the out flowing breath. The air pressure below the vocal cords becomes very strong. As it passes through the narrow slit into the outer air, it makes the vocal cords vibrate. Such vibrations are heard as voice. All English vowels and many English consonants are voiced. 3) The vocal cords may be drawn together tightly, so that the air cannot pass between them. In this case the voc. Cords fulfill the function of an obstructer mechanism. To the resonator mechanism belong: the pharynx, the oral cavity and the nasal cavity. All the 3 resonance cavities (or resonators) have boundaries or walls. By changing the position of the movable boundaries we may modify the shape and size of the resonators. The nasal cavity is fixed, while the pharynx and the oral cavity are modifiable. The direction in which the air flows depends on the position of the soft palate. When the soft palate is lowered the air passes through the nasal resonator. When it is held in its raised position the air stream is directed towards the oral cavity. The majority of speech sounds in English, Russian and Kazakh are articulated in the oral cavity. It is due to the different movements and positions of the tongue and the lips that the oral resonator may take up various shapes and sizes. The oral resonator is responsible for the articulation of vowels. Movements of the tongue in different directions provide a basis for classification of vowels according to two important principles: 1) according to the horizontal movement of the tongue; 2) according to the vertical movement of the tongue. The particular quality of a vowel sound depends not only on the position of the tongue but also on that of the lips. The lips perform a double function. The natural resonance is determined not only by the shape and size of the resonator but also by the shape and size of the opening of the resonator. When the lips are spread the front boundary of the oral resonator is formed by the teeth; when the lips are rounded the front boundary is formed by the lips themselves. In this case the oral resonator is lengthened. This is one of the functions of the lips. (i. E. to form the front boundary of the oral resonator). Another function of the lips consists in forming the front opening of the oral resonator. Consequently, the position of the lips is included into the vowel classification. Some vowels in English are pronounced with a fixed resonator (the tongue and the lips do not change their position), others are articulated with a modified resonator (the tongue and the lips move from one position to another). The former resonator corresponds to monophthongs, the latter corresponds to diphthongs. This principle is included into the classification of vowels in accordance with the stability of articulation. In the articulation of vowel sounds no obstruction is made. The obstructor mechanism is responsible only for the production of consonants. To the obstructor mechanism belong the following active and passive speech organs: the tongue, the lips, the teeth, the alveoli, the palate, the back boundary of the pharynx and the vocal cords. When articulating sounds the organs of speech may occupy one or the other position. There are several types of articulatory obstruction: complete, incomplete and intermittent. The obstruction is complete when the articulating organs are in close contact. The air passage is completely blocked. Consonants articulated with this type of obstruction are called occlusive. The obstruction is incomplete when the organs of speech are not blocked but only constricted, or narrowed leaving a passage for the air to go through. Consonants produced with this type of obstruction are called constrictive. The obstruction is intermittent when the 2 articulating organs form a series of rapid intermittent taps. Consonants articulated in this way are known as rolled, like the Russian /p/ or the Scottish /r/ of the American English /t/. There also may a complicated type of obstruction, beginning and ending with an incomplete one. Consonants produced with this type of obstruction are called occlusive-constrictive or affricates. The type of obstruction is one of the main principles in the classification of consonants. Different organs of speech participate in production of different consonants. An articulatory obstruction may be formed either by two active speech organs, or by an active organ in conjunction with a passive one. In consonant classification this principle is called “according to the active organ of speech and the place of obstruction”. The lips, the tongue and the back boundary of the pharynx (and also the vocal c-s) are the active speech organs. Hence, depending on the active speech organs consonants may be: labial, lingual and pharyngeal. According to the place of obstruction (or the passive speech organs) consonants may be: dental, alveolar, palatal and velar. As has been said already the vocal c-s may also function as part of the obstructor mechanism to produce consonantal noises. The vocal c-s form a complete obstruction to the out flowing stream of air. By quickly separating the vocal c-s a speech sound is produced which is called the glottal stop. Consonants may come up against one or two articulatory obstructions. Those with one obstruction are called unicentral. Consonants with two centers of obstruction are known as bicentral. Most consonants in English are unicentral. The second articulatory obstruction may be formed either by raising the middle part of the tongue towards the hard palate, or by raising the back part of the tongue towards the soft palate. They are distinguished as the front secondary obstruction, and the back secondary obstruction. Palatalization makes the consonants “softer” as in the English /l, ∫/ while velarization makes the consonants “harder”, as in the English /ł, w/. In Russian almost all the consonants may be either palatalized or velarized. People belonging to different races and nationalities possess an identical speech apparatus. That’s why in all existing languages there are typologically identical sounds, such as consonants, vowels and sonorant. For instance, in all European languages and there are such typologically identical sounds as /a, o, u, i, e, t, m, k, l/ etc. And, yet, not a single sound of one language is absolutely identical spectrally with a typologically identical sound of another language. This is due to the fact that people use their speech organs differently, or as phoneticians say, it is due to the difference in the articulation basis. The articulation basis may be defined as the general tendencies (or habits) in the way native speakers use their speech organs both during speech and at rest. The articulation basis influences the phonemic system of a language. The articulation basis of one language may differ from the art-n basis of another language. Though the articulation basis of English, Kazakh and Russian have not yet been studied we may only speak about the most characteristic features of RP art-n basis as compared with the Kazakh and Russian Standard art-n bases. Difference in the art-n bases of English, Kazakh and Russian, reflected in the system of consonants, are as follows: 1) The English have a tendency to hold the tip of the tongue in neutral position at the level of the alveoli (or teeth-ridge), whereas the Russians and the Kazakhs keep it much lower, at tooth level. That is why there are about 50% of all the consonants in RP which are articulated with the tip of the tongue against the alveoli, as in /t, d, n, l, s/ etc. they are alveolar, palato-alveolar and post-alveolar in accordance with the place of obstruction. The tip of the tongue in the articulation of Russian and Kazakh forelingual consonants occupies dental position. 2) the English and the Kazakhs have a general habit to hold the bulk of the tongue in neutral position a little further back, lower and flatter than the Russians. This may be observed in the art-n of the consonants /h, ŋ/ in British RP and /h, ң, қ, ғ/ in Kazakh. 3) The English have a specific way of articulating final consonants. Voiced consonants in final position are always weak in English (even partially devoiced). They are called lenis. Voiceless consonants in final position, on the contrary, are strong. They are called fortis. In Russian voiced consonants are impossible in final positions (except sonorant), and voiceless cons-s in final position are always weak. In Kazakh sonorant and /з/ are possible in final position, e. g. көз. 4) There is a specific way of articulating voiceless plosive cons-s in English. When they are followed by a stressed vowel they are aspirated, as in ‘teacher’, ‘paper’. In Kazakh and Russian they are non-aspirated. 5) There is a tendency to lengthen the English word-ending sonorant before a pause, especially when they are precede by a short vowel. As in Tom, doll, long. The similar Russian and Kazakh sonorants are short in the same position. Difference in the art-n bases of English, Kazakh and Russian, reflected in the system of vowels, are as follows: 1) The positions and movements of the lips are very peculiar. On the one hand, when an English is silent, his lips occupy the so-called flat-type position, they are more or less tense and the corners are raised as in a smile. A Russian and a Kazakh keep the lips rather lax with the corners of the lips lowered. Spreading of the lips for front vowels is rather typical of English. In Russian and Kazakh the lip position for unrounded vowels is neutral. On the other hand, in the production of the Russian vowels /o, у/ and the Kazakh /o, e, у, ү, ұ/ the lips are considerably protruded. In English such protrusion does not take place, as in /o, o:, u, u:/. 2) In the production of English vowels the bulk of the tongue is more often at the back of the mouth; in the production of Russian and Kazakh vowels the tongue is mostly in the front part of the mouth. Besides, the tongue may occupy more positions when articulating English vowels than in Russian or Kazakh vowel production. 3) English and Kazakh vowels are more tense than Russian. This is especially felt in unstressed syllables. In English and Kazakh an unstressed vowel does not always differ greatly from a stressed one. In Russian it is always short, lax and reduced. 4) There are in English short and long vowels which are different both in quality and quantity. There are no such phonemic oppositions in the Russian and Kazakh languages.
Questions
1. What do speech mechanisms produce? 2. Into what four groups are speech mechanisms divided? 3. Why are the speech mechanisms closely connected? 4. What organs of speech belong to the power mechanisms? 5. What is the function of the power mechanisms? 6. How many phases does breathing consist of? What are they? 7. What are the two kinds of breathing? 8. What are the phases of inhalation and exhalation like in ordinary biological breathing? 9. Are the inhalation and exhalation of the same duration in sound-producing breathing? 10. Which is longer? 11. Why is exhalation longer in sound-producing breathing? 12. What belong to the vibrator mechanism? 13. Where are the vocal cords situated? 14. What do we call the glottis? 15. What position do the vocal cords occupy when voiceless sounds are produced? 16. What position do the vocal cords occupy when voiced consonants are articulated? 17. What speech organs belong to the resonator mechanism? 18. Which resonators are fixed and which are modifiable? 19. When does the air pass through the nasal resonator? 20. When does it go through the oral cavity? 21. For the articulation of what sounds is the oral resonator responsible? 22. How is the movement of the tongue reflected in the classification of vowels? 23. Is the position of the lips of any importance to the particular quality of a vowel? 24. What functions do the lips perform? 25. What do you understand by stability of articulation?
Practical task: 1) Make a glossary of the main notions and give their definitions. 2) Speak about the work of the four speech mechanisms when articulating the following English phonemes: /b, r,j, n,f,w,e,Ө,æ,ə/. 3) Speak about the work of the obstructer mechanism in the following cases: Wear, lesson, shy, regime, child, January, window, fall; Уголок – уголек Гроз – грез Среды – среди Добыли – добили Толка – телка Вера – веря Погона – погоня 4) Give your examples of palatalized and velarized consonants in Kazakh. 4 Дыбыстардың акустик және фонологиялық аспектісі - The acoustic and phonological aspects of speech sounds Any sound in nature is an acoustic phenomenon. It is a form of moving matter and energy. A sound is generated by a physical body which is set into vibration by some external force. When an external force is applied to a physical body the physical body begins to oscillate – to move forward and back. These alternate movements of the physical body produce condensations and rarefactions of air which are known as sound waves. A speech sound is also a physical phenomenon. As it has been said before it is a product of the complex work of the speech mechanisms which regulate the air stream, thus producing condensations and rarefactions of air. A sound has a number of physical properties: frequency, intensity, duration. Frequency is a number of vibrations per second. A man’s ear may perceive the vibrations of the air when they occur at a rate of 16 to 20000 cycles per second. Frequency is measured in cycles per second. Sound waves may rhythmical and non-rhythmical. When the vibrations are repeated at regular intervals of time we get rhythmical waves. They are perceived as vowels. When the vibrations are repeated as irregular intervals of time we get non-rhythmical waves. They are perceived as consonants. Frequency of sounds depends upon the mass, length and tension of the vibrator. For example, the vocal cords which are greater in mass produce slow vibrations; they are perceived as low-pitched. If the vocal c-s are longer they produce slow vibrations too, which are also perceived as low-pitched. If the vocal c-s are less tense they produce slow vibrations which are perceived as low-pitched too, and vice versa. That is why a man’s voice is usually lower than that of a woman. A child’s voice is usually the highest. Our perception of frequency is the pitch of the sound. The second physical property of a sound is its intensity. Intensity of a sound depends upon the force which is applied to a physical body. The greater the force, the larger the amplitude and vice versa. These sound waves have the same frequency, but the amplitude of vibration is different. The first has twice the amplitude of the second. It means that the sound of larger amplitude is louder, and the sound of smaller amplitude is less loud. Changes in intensity are perceived as variations in the loudness of a sound. This is measured in decibels. The third physical property of a sound is its duration. Sounds can only exist in time. The duration of a sound is measured in milliseconds - thousandths of a second. In speech there are no definite boundaries between different speech sounds: one speech sound gradually fades into another. Duration of a sound is perceived by man as its length. All the physical properties of a sound exist simultaneously. They may be singled out and separated from one another only for purposes of acoustic analysis. Phonology is a branch of phonetics which studies the functional aspect of speech sounds. Phonology is based on the phoneme theory, which came into being in Russia. As has been said before its founder was the Russian scientist prof. Ivan Alexandrovitch Baudouin de Courtenay (1845 - 1929). Baudouin de Courtenay tried to analyze phonemes according to their functions. He did it through studying phoneme alternations and trying to explain this phenomenon. But his theory was known only to a few linguists (as Baudouin de Courtenay wrote only in Russian and Polish). It was only after 1928 when the first International Linguistic Congress took place that this phoneme theory became widly known and spread. It has been thoroughly analysed and developed ever since. Many followers continued the work of I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay, such as N. S. trubetskoy, some linguists of the Moscow school: R. I. Reformatsky, P. S. Kuznetsov and others. The most gifted pupil of Baudouin de Courtenay was prof. L. V. Shcherba (1880 - 1944). Prof. Shcherba said that “… in actual speech we utter a much greater variety of sounds than we are aware of; in every language these sounds are united in a comparatively small number of sound types which are capable of distinguishing the meaning and the form of words; that is they serve the purpose of social intercourse. It is these sound types that we have in mind when discussing speech sounds. Such sound types are to be called phonemes. The various sounds that we actually utter and which are the individual representing the universal (the phonemes), are to be called phonemic variants.” There are several conceptions of the phoneme both in our country and abroad. But linguists have not yet arrived at a definition of the phoneme acceptable to all. Prof. V. A. Vassilyev developed L. V. Shcherba’s theory in his book “English Phonetics. A theretical course”. Here is his working definition of the phoneme to which we will stick: “The segmental phoneme is the smallest language unti that exists in the speech of all the members of a given language community as such speech sounds which are capable of distinguishing one word form from another word of the same language or one grammatical form of a word from another grammatical form of the same word. The number of phonemes in each language is much smaller than the its number of allophones. It means that each phoneme has several allophones. Classification of allophones is very important for practical teaching because in actual speech it is allophones that people pronounce and not phonemes. Allophones are divided into two groups: typical and subsidiary. The most representative allophone is called typical. It is the one that is not influenced by neighboring speech sounds. Typical allophones are described in English textbooks. They are included in the classification of the phonemes of the language. For example, the typical allophone of the /t/ phoneme is characterized by the following features: occlusive plosive, forelingual alveolar, voiceless- fortis, oral. Subsidiary allophones may be positional and combinatory. Positional allophones are used in certain positions traditionally. For example, the English /l/ phoneme is always ‘dark’ in final position and before consonants as in ‘tell’, ‘ball’, ‘cold’, etc. the English /l/ phoneme is always ‘light’ in initial position as in ‘light’, ‘lesson’, ‘language’, etc. Combinatory allophones are those which are influenced by the neighboring speech sounds. They are the result of assimilation, adaptation, accommodation, and of the specific process of sound transitions (VC, CV, CC, VV).
Questions 1. What kind of phenomenon is any sound in nature? 2. What is a sound generated by? 3. What does a physical body begin to do when an external force is applied to it? 4. What are sound waves? 5. What are the physical properties of a sound? 6. What do we call frequency? 7. What kind of vibrations may a man’s ear perceive? 8. What is frequency measured in? 9. What kind of waves do we get when vibrations are repeated at regular intervals of time? 10. How are rhythmical waves perceived by man? 11. What kind of waves do we get when vibrations are repeated at irregular intervals of time? 12. How are non-rhythmical waves perceived by man? 13. What does frequency depend on? 14. Why is the man’s voice usually lower in pitch? 15. Whose voice is the highest in pitch? 16. What is the second physical properties of a sound? 17. What does intensity of a sound depend on? 18. How is intensity perceived by man? 19. What is intensity measured in? 20. What is the third physical properties of a sound?
Practical task: 1) Make a glossary of the main notions and give their definitions. 2) Demonstrate graphically the pronunciation of the same speech sound with different intensity. 3) Transcribe the following words and say what allophones (typical or subsidiary) the underlined letters represent. If the allophone is subsidiary say whether it is positional or combinatory. Fellow, for, better, beaten, cattle, he, sold, what’s, has, noodle, health, language, well, at times.
5 Ағылшын тілінің буындық құрылымы – Syllabic stricture of the English language
The English phonetic structure is systemic in character. It is made of the following components: 1) the system of English phonemes: 2) the syllabic structure of English words; 3) the accentual structure of words; 4) the intonational structure of English sentences. The phonemic component includes not only the system of English phonemes but also the combination of their allophones, which occur in words. The character of this component means that phonemes and their allophones may occur only in definite positions in words. Phonemes are seldom pronounced in isolation, they usually occur in sequences. Any speech flow consists of series of peaks and valleys of prominence with the more sonorous phonemes at the peaks and the less sonorous phonemes in the valleys. Thus, sound sequences are acoustically broken up into smaller units known as syllables, which are the minimal units of sounding speech. A syllable may consist of one or a number of phonemes, i.e. it may be formed by any vowel or by a word-final sonorant (l, m, n, ŋ) preceded by a consonant, as in I, are, we, garden etc. A speech sound which is capable of forming a syllable is called syllabic. It is the most sonorous sound in the syllable and makes up the peak of prominence. Speech sounds which are not capable of forming a syllable are called non-syllabic. They are the less sonorous sounds of the syllable and make up the valleys of prominence. Prof. Vassiliev defines the syllable as “one or more speech sounds forming a single uninterrupted unit of utterance, which may be a whole word, e.g. man or a commonly recognized and separable subdivision of a word e.g. En-glish, la-ter. The syllabic structure of words may be graphically represented by the letter V standing for a vowel sound, and the letter C standing for a consonant sound. The syllabic sonorant is represented by Ş. Every syllable has a definite structure. It belongs to one of the following 4 main types of syllables: V, VC, CV. CVC. They are classified as covered, uncovered, open and closed. A syllable which begins in a vowel is called uncovered, a syllable which begins in a consonant is called covered. A syllable which ends in a vowel is called open, a syllable which ends in a consonant is called closed. So, the main types of syllables may be defined in the following way: V – uncovered, open: e.g. /o:/ (or) VC – uncovered, closed: e.g. /it/ (it) CV – covered, open: e.g. /si:/ (see) CVC – covered, closed: e.g. (catch). There are a great number of variants in the syllabic structure which are formed by increasing the number of consonants in the initial and final position, as in: VCC e.g. and, act, oaks etc. VCCC e.g. ends, acts CCV e.g. blue, clay etc. The similar syllabic structures exist in Russian too. Though the same structures are used in both languages their frequency of occurrence is different. Some of them are extremely rare in Russian, while in English they are in common use. The most common syllables that sonorants form are of Ş, CŞ and CŞC type. For instance, Ş type: /'æp-l/ (apple); CŞ type: /'tei-bl/ (table); CŞC type: /'nei-ʃnz/ (nations). In Russian and Kazakh sonorants are non-syllabic. There are several theories which try to explain the mechanism of syllable formation and syllable division. The oldest of them is the so-called expiratory theory(also breath-puff, pressure. or. chest-pulse theory). According to this theory each syllable corresponds to one expiration. A word consists of as many syllables as there are such expirations made when the word is uttered. Each syllable begins with a fresh expiration. For instance, the word "forty" has two syllables. According to the expiratory theory there must be two expirations. The point where a new expiration starts indicates the syllabic boundary of the word. The expiratory theory is strongly criticized here and abroad (by B.I.Zh1nkin,.G.P.Torsuyev, A.C.Gimson and others). According to the last experimental data more than ten syllables can easily be pronounced during one expiration. Next appeared the so-called sonority theory of the syllable. It was propounded (предлагать на обсуждение) by Otto Jesperson. This theory is nowadays widespread among foreign linguists. The term "sonority" in taken by O.Jesperson as "the degree of perceptibility". All speech sounds have different inherent sonority. The most sonorous are open back vowels, the least sonorous are the voiceless stops. O.Jesperson classified all speech sounds according to 7 levels of sonority:
Each syllable contains one peak of sonority. For instance let us analyse the words "popular"' and "articulation".
The word "popular" consists of three peaks that is why it has three syllables. The sonority theory is also criticized because it cannot explain the mechanism of syllable formation and syllable division. Besides this theory is helpless in determining the number of syllables in such words as "going", "highest". "speak", "ski", etc. According to Pro.L.V.Shcherba all consonants may be of three types: 1) initially strong (and finally weak), as in: it, on, us; 2) finally strong (and 1nitially weak). as in: may, tea; 3) double consonants which are strong at both ends and have a weakening in the middle as in: good day. The most energetic part of a consonant is attached to a vowel. For instance in the word “ten" there are two consonants: /t/ and /n/. The consonant /t/ is finally strong (and initially weak), because the vowel is attached to the end of the consonant. The consonant /n/ is initially strong (and finally weak) because the vowel is attached to the beginning of /n/. It may be represented graphically in the following way. At the beginning the /t/ is weak, at the end it gets stronger. The muscular tension increases still until it reaches its climax produced by the vowel /e/. Then the muscular tension begins to diminish. The /n/ is still strong at the beginning but gets quite weak at the end. The syllabic boundary lies at a point where the consonant is the weakest. Initially weak consonants constitute the beginning of a syllable. Finally weak consonants constitute the end of a syllable. Double-peaked consonants may only occur at the juncture of two syllables, as in /'gud-'dei/ (good day), /mis-spel/ (misspell), etc. Prof.L.V.Shcherba's theory was further developed by his followers and now it is known among Soviet linguists as "muscular tension theory". Prof.N.I.Zhinkin's investigation of the mechanism of syllable formation and syllable division in the pronunciation of the Russian language may serve as a basis for a general theory of syllables. By using different complicated techniques Prof. B.I.Zhinkin found out which speech organ causes a syllable to be formed. This organ is the pharyngeal cavity. When the walls of the pharynx are contracted the passage through the pharyngeal cavity gets narrower. This process increases the actual loudness of the sound and the latter produces an "arc of loudness". Prof.N.I.Zhinkin's theory is often referred to as "loudness theory” Prof.N.I.Zhinkin has proved that the "arc of loudness" is due to the complex work of the speech mechanism as a whole (including the work of the power, vibrator, resonator and obstructor mechanisms). That is why Prof.V.A.Vassilyev suggests that it would be more precise to call a syllable an “arc of articulatory effort" but not an "arc of loudness". A syllable begins at a point where a new articulatory effort starts and ends at a point where the articulatory effort ends. Each language has its own peculiarities in its syllabic structure. One of the peculiarities of syllable division in Russian and Kazakh. for instance, is that the sequence of CVCV makes for two open syllables: ca-ды. мо-pe, қа-ра, жә-не. They are strong-end consonants in Russian and Kazakh. There are a number of factorsdetermining the rules for syllable division in English, as well. Syllable division in English is closely connected with the checked or free character of the vowel in a stressed position. The sequence of CVCV may have different types of syllable depending on the character of the vowel sound. In this case the syllable division is governed by the following rules: 1) The sequence of /’CVCV/ may include two open syllables if the stressed vowel is a long monophthong or a diphthong, e.g., /si:-liŋ/ (ceiling), /tai-tl/ (title), etc. The syllable division of Russian and Kazakh fully coincides with this pattern in English. In the three languages the consonants are strong-end consonants. 2) The sequence of /’CVCV/ has a closed syllable and an open one /'CVC-V/ if the stressed vowel is a short monophthong, 'pit-i/ (pity), /'mer-i/ (merry) etc. Syllables of this type present a great difficulty to Russian and Kazakh students because in similar Russian and Kazakh words there are two open syllables. In English the intervocalic consonants of this type are initially strong while in Russian and Kazakh they are finally strong, 3) Short and long monophthongs' and diphthongs make for an open type syllable it they are unstressed and are separated from the adjacent vowels by only one consonant, e.g. /ri:’ ækt/ (react), /bi’gin/ (begin) Phonetic and orthographic syllables should not be confused. They sometimes coincide and sometimes do not. For instance, phonetically disy1labic words like "apple". "higher", "eaten". "flower", "battle". "fire", "drizzle", etc. are treated in writing as monosyllabic words. Whereas orthographically disyllabic words like "type", "come", "wrote", "theme", "change". have only one phonetic syllable. Here are some examples: /a:-tis-tik/ art-ist-ic – the syllabic boundary does not coincide. /ə:-li/ ear-ly – the syllabic boundary coincides. The phonetic syllable division is governed by the three rules which have been stated above. The orthographic syllable division is governed by the morphemic principle, as in: star-less, writ-er etc. The syllabic structure of English performs three main functions: constitutive, distinctive and recognitive. The syllabic structure fulfills constitutive function because syllables constitute the material forms of all the words, phrases and sentences. Te latter can not exist without syllables. The distinctive function of the syllabic structure includes differences in both syllable formation and syllable division. Presence or absence of a syllable in one and the same position, as well as different syllabic boundaries may differentiate one word (or phrase, or sentence) from another word (or phrase, or sentence). Here are some phonological oppositions of presence vs. absence of a syllable in the same position in a minimal pair: /bet/ - /betə/ bet - better /beit - / ə’bate/ bate – abate There are a number of combinations of words distinguished from each other by different syllabic boundaries: a name – an aim I scream – ice-cream etc. The recognitive function of the syllabic structure manifests itself in the fact that the right syllabic boundary makes it easier to recognize words, phrase, and sentence. The violation of the recognitive function of the syllabic structure results in the following: 1) wrong syllable division produces a strong foreign accent; 2) it produces a comic impression upon an Englishman; 3) it hampers the process of communication.
Questions 1. What is our speech acoustically broken into? 2. How many phonemes may a syllable consist of? 3. What sounds may form syllables in English? 4. What speech sound is called syllabic? 5. What speech sounds are called non-syllabic? 6. What main types of syllables do you know? 7. What is an open syllable? 8. What is a closed syllable? 9. What are variants of the main types of syllables formed? 10. What can you say about the syllabic structure of English, Russian and Kazakh? 11. What types of syllables may be formed with the help of a sonorant? 12. What is the oldest theory of syllable formation and syllable division? 13. How many syllables does a word consist of according to this theory? 14. Why is the expiratory theory criticized? 15. Who propounded the so-called sonority theory? 16. How did O.Jesperson classify all the speech sounds of English? 17. Why is this theory criticized too? 18. What are the three types of consonants according to LV.Shcherba? 19. Give examples of initially strong consonants, finally strong and double consonants. 20. Where is the syllabic boundary lie according to this theory? 21. What is Prof. Shcherba’s theory called nowadays?
Practical task: 1) Make a glossary of the main notions and give their definitions. 2)Transcribe the following words and show their syllabic structure using O.Jesperson’s seven levels of sonority: Public, foundation, popularity. 3) Transcribe the following words and break them up into phonetic syllables: shooter, houses, apple, title, morning, butter, begin, react, artistic. 4) Transcribe the following English, Kazakh and Russian words and underline syllabic phonemes: raising, idle, handle, ерке, алғы, лимон, идея, созвать. 5) Divide these words into phonetic syllables. Give their syllabic structural patterns.
6 Ағылшын сөздерінің акценттік құрылысы – Accentual structure of the English language Different syllable in one and the same word are usually pronounced with a different degree of prominence. Such special prominence given to one or more syllables in the same word is called word accent (or word stress). Different linguists define word accent differently. There exist different ways of making a syllable more prominent. That is why we may speak of different types of word accent: 1) The pronunciation of a syllable may be made more prominent if the syllable is said with greater force. Prof.D.Jones said in this respect “stress may be described as the degree of force with which a sound or a syllable is uttered. A strong force of utterance means energetic action of all the articulating organs. This generally gives the objective impression of loudness “. Word accent of this type is known as force accent(or dynamic accent). 2) A syllable may become more prominent if it is pronounced at different pitch levels or in different pitch directions. Word accent of this type is called musical accent(or pitch accent). 3) A syllable may become more prominent if its vowel is pronounced longer than the same vowel in an unstressed position. For instance, the /i:/ vowels of the word /’θi:s:z/ (theses) are of different lengths. It is longer in a stressed position and shorter in an unstressed one. This type of word accent is known as quantitative accent. 4) A syllable may become more prominent if the vowel is pronounced distinctly and its quality is not obscured. For instance, the /iə/ vowels in /’siəriəs/ (serious) are a bit different in quality: the stressed /iə/ is distinct and clear, while the unstressed /iə/ is somewhat obscured. According to Prof.G.P.Torsuyev this type of word accent is qualitative accent. All existing languages have either the force or the musical type of word accent as leading principle, while the quantitative and the qualitative types play a subsidiary role. English, Russian, Kazakh, German, French and other European languages belong to the force type of word accent, the only difference being in the degree of the force with which the stressed syllables are pronounced. To the musical type of word accent belong Swedish, Norwegian, and oriental languages, such as Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean and others. For example, if the syllable /ma/ of Chinese is said with the falling tone, it means “scold”, but if it is said with the rising tone, then it means “hemp” (конопля). Another example, from Swedishs if the word “Anden” is pronounced with It is a standard and genu1ne joke in linguistic circles that in one Burmese dialect the word /ma/ pronounced in five different tones corresponds to the sentence: “Help the horse; a mad dog comes!” British and Soviet phoneticians distinguish three degrees of word accent in English: primary, secondary and weak. The strongest accent is primary, the second strongest is secondary. The syllables with primary and secondary accents are called stressed, while syllables with weak accents are called unstressed. The primary accent is indicated by Prof.D.Jones by placing a raised stress mark /’/ before the accented syllable, the secondary accent is indicated by a lowered stress mark /, /; the weak accent is not marked in any way. The American scientists are not unanimous in treating of the degrees of word accent in English. B.Bloch and C.Trager, for instance, distinguish four degrees of word accent and call them: loud, reduced loud; medial and weak. H.A.Cleason and most American descriptivists also distinguish four degrees of word accent and call them: primary stress /′/, secondary stress /ˆ/, tertiary stress / /, and weak stress / v/. The difference between secondary and tertiary stresses is not clear enough, and there are no indicators for differentiating between them. This results in different treatments of the same example by American linguists. For instance, according to B.Bloch and G.Trager a free word combination like “black bird” has secondary-primary stresses /^ ′/; according to H.A.Gleason it has primary-secondary stresses/′ ^/. One more example: such words as “examination” have tertiary-primary stresses according to American descriptivists; but they have secondary-primary stresses according to British phoneticians. These examples really prove that it is difficult to say which a secondary stress is and which a tertiary one is. Prof.V.A.Vassilyev offers two ways of solving this problem. The easiest one is to do away with the tertiary stress altogether and treat it either as a secondary stress or a weak stress and thus follow the accentuation system of the British phoneticians.The second way of solving this problem consists in finding some objective criteria for determining the position of both secondary and tertiary stresses. According to Prof.V.A.Vassilyev a tertiary stress is post-tonic. It occurs in words after the primary stress. There are several groups of words of primary-tertiary type having the following pitch pattern. They are: - a large group of compound nouns of the “blackbird”type: black-ball, blackbook, blackcap, black-cock, blackguard, black-head, black Jack, blackleg, black-list, blackmail, black sheep, blacksmith, class-room, class-book, class-fellow, book-case, hair-pin, door-mat, playhouse, greenhouse, green-room, dancing-girl, missing-list, street-cleaner, etc; - polysyllabic verbs ending in –ate, -ise(-ize), -fy(-py), etc., as in: occupy, demonstrate, situate, emphasize, satisfy, memorize, articulate, colonize, negotiate, etc; -polysyllabic words in General American English ending in –ary(-ory, -ery), -ony(-oly), etc., as in: secretary, testimony, etc; According to Prof.V.A.Vassilyev a secondary stress is pre-tonic. It occurs in words before the primary stress. There are several groups of secondary-primary type which have the following pitch pattern. They are: -a large group of polysyllabic nouns ending In the suffix –tion(-sion, -cian), as in: assimilation, realization, modification, participation, consideration, investigation, simplification, testification, colonization, representation, qualification, phonetician, academician, etc.; -a group of polysyllabic abstract nouns ending in the suffix –ity, as in: possibility, impossibility, peculiarity, credibility, theatricality, muscularity, permissibility, perfectibility, regularity, etc.; -a fairly large group of polysyllabic adjectives ending in the suffixes –al, -ic(-ical), as in: experimental, aristocratic, continental, democratic, arithmetic(al), mathematic(el), economic(al), horizontal, incidental, categoric(al),etc. There may be distinguished some other groups of words belonging to a secondary-primary type too. Languages may also be classified according to the position of word accent in disyllabic and polysyllabic words. From this point of view languages have either free word accent or fixed word accent. To the fixed type of word accent belong French and Kazakh (the final syllable is accented), Polish (the penultimate предпоследний syllable is accented). English and Russian belong to the so-called free word accent. It means that the main accent may fall in different words on a syllable occupying any position. The position of the stress in each particular word remains unchanged, or fixed. In Russian and English there are words in which the main stress falls either on the first, or the second, or the third, etc. syllable in a word, Accent is called shifting if it changes its position from one morpheme to another in different derivatives and grammatical forms of the word. For example: in Russiant: холод, холодный, холода; in English: ‘accent, to aс’cent, accentu’ation, ac’centuate; ‘subject, sub’jective, subjec’tivity, etc. In languages with free word accent it is extremely difficult to determine the position of the stress in every word. Such is the case with the Russian language. Its accentuation system must be learnt individually. The accentual system of English is also free. But it is easier to learn the English accent than the Russian one due to a number of reasons. There exist in English certain tendencies which make the occurrence of word accent more predictable than in Russian. Prof.V.A.Vasailyev describes them as follows: the recessive tendency, the rhythmic tendency, the retentive tendency, and the semantic factor. These four help learners to determine the position of word accent in most English words. The recessive tendency which is the oldest one is characteristic of all the Germanic languages. According to this t tendency most native words in English received a stress either on the initial syllable (e.g. father, mother, husband, wonder, etc.) or on the root morpheme in words with prefixes that have lost their meaning (e.g. among, before, forget, become, begin). The recessive tendency has always been very strong throughout the historical development of the English language. Its strong character is reflected in the fact that most French words which were borrowed into English before the 15th century underwent accentual assimilation. For example: reason, marriage, colour etc. (the initial syllable is stressed); conduct, compose, surprise, produce, remain, depend, etc. (the root morpheme is stressed). English speech is characterized by rhythmic alternations of stressed and unstressed syllables, in which stressed notional words alternate with short unstressed form words. This feature has caused the development of the so-called rhythmic tendency in the English word accentuation system. Two types of rhythmical stress are distinguished in English: 1) historically rhythmical; 2) synchronically rhythmical stress. We speak of historically rhythmical stress in case of French words which were borrowed before the 15th century. In present-day English such borrowed words as “family, opinion, colony, radical”, etc. have a recessive stress on the first syllable. But during the development of the language these words underwent rhythmic changes. Formerly they had a fixed stress on the final syllable, as all French words. Under the influence of a strong recessive tendency they also received a stress on the initial syllable as well. For some time such words had two stresses: on the initial and on the final syllables with an unstressed syllable in-between. That is why this type of stress is called historically rhythmical – because it is rhythmical only in its origin. In English there is a fairly large group of words with genuinely rhythmical stress. Such type of stress existing in present-day English is called synchronically rhythmical. This group of words are achieved by the alternation of a secondary and a primary stress. To this group belong polysyllabic nouns with the suffixes -tion(-sion, -cian), -ity; also polysyllabic adjectives with the suffixes -al, -ic(-ical); polysyllabic verbs, etc. For instance: – population, punctuation, mathematician, derivation, delegation, arithmetician, decoration, etc. – contiguity, continuity, desirability, temporality, removability, etc. – deferential, demagogic, energetic, enthusiastic, etymologic-(al), etc. – represent, underline, recommend, reproduce, understand, recollect, etc. The so-called retentive tendency consists in retaining the accent (either primary or secondary) in derivatives on the same syllable as in the original word. The difference between retentive accent and constant accent lies in the following: constant accent remains on the same syllable in all the derivatives and grammatical forms of the word; retentive accent in one group of derivatives falls on the same syllable, while in another it may be shifted. For example: – retentive accent: con’verse, conversable, conversant, but: conversation, conversational; – expect, expectancy, expectant, expectative,but: expectation, (Cf. constant accent: begin, begins, began, begun, beginner, beginners, beginning, etc.). The accentuation structure of some English words is determined by the semantic factor. The influence of the semantic factor upon the word accent may be commonly observed in compound words. Most of them have two equally strong accents. Both elements of such compound words are considered to be semantically important. We can distinguish the following groups of double stressed words in English the accentual structure of which is determined by the semantic factor: a) words with strong prefixes (which have definite meaning of their own), as in: ‘anti-fascist, ‘ arch-‘enemy, ‘disbelieve, ‘ex-president, half-‘price, ‘in’dooro, ‘interco’nnect, ‘ vice-chairman, etc.; b) compound adjectives, as: ‘well-bred, ‘ill-‘tempered, ‘light-blue, timber-‘headed, ‘good-looking, ‘dark-green, etc.; c) compound verbs with postverbal adverbs, such as: “come ‘in, ‘go ‘out, ‘put ‘on, ‘put ‘off, ‘switch ‘on, ‘turn ‘on, ‘turn ‘off, etc.; d) simple numerals from 13 to 19. Each word of a compound numeral is stressed, e.g. ‘nineteen, -‘thirteen, ‘fifty-seven, etc.; e) a small group of compound nouns in which both elements are semantically important. They have two primary stresses, as in: ‘ice-cream, gas-stove, ‘arm-chair, ‘eye-witness, absent-mindedness, etc. The great majority of English compound nouns belong to the “blackbird” type. As Prof.V.A.Vassilyev states the accentual system of present-day English is a product of the combined action of all the three tendencies (recessive, rhythmic, retentive) end the semantic factor as well. The accentual structure of English words may also be analysed from the phonological point of view. The accentual structure fulfils three main functional constitutive, distinctive, recognitive.
The distinctive function may be observed in phonological oppositions: presence of stress vs. absence of stress. In English’ word accent is capable of differentiating one word from another word, e.g. ‘conduct (n) - conduct (v), ‘local (adj) - local (n), ‘billow (n) - . be’low (adv), ‘insight (n) - incit |
The constitutive function of the accentual structure is proved by the fact that all the words when pronounced in isolation have word accent irrespective of the number of syllables in them. We cannot pronounce any word without making it prominent. Even monosyllabic words pronounced as vocabulary items have word accent.