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THE SUBJECT-MATTER OF PHONETICS

1. What do you know about the history of phonetic development?

Phonetics deals with speech sounds. In Greek phōnētikós means: per­taining [p«:ÈteInIN] ‘относящийся’ to voice and sound.

The significance of phonetics is evident явный, очевидный; ясный, наглядный, несомненный, since speech is the most im­portant means of human intercourse [ÈInt«k:s] ‘общение; взаимодействие; связи, контакты, взаимоотношения’.

In the process of historical development the need for communication created and perfected speech organs, gradually men learned to pronounce and modulate speech sounds into combinations of words and sentences.

Sounds of speech are segments interconnected связанный, взаимосвязанный; соединённый; сблокированный with minimal distinc­tive units — phonemes [Èf«unI:mz] ‘фонемы’. Supersegmental units [Çsjup«s«gÈment(«)l] ‘суперсегментные единицы’ of speech — tone, stress and intonation are longer units of speech: syllables, words and intona­tion groups.

Ancient [einnt] ‘древний; старинный, старый’ objects, drawings, and written documents show that voice and speech always fascinated men. Written documents and evidences from ancient civilizations point to an awareness ‘осведомлённость, компетентность’ of speech, its origin and abnormalities ненормальность, неправильность, отклонение; аномалияa long time ago.

In India more than 2,000 years ago there flourished расцветать a science of pho­netics more advanced than any that has since been known until very re­cent times. The results, embodied воплощённый, олицетворённый in a series of Sanskrit texts, were first introduced to the West only some 80 years ago.

Here are some data connected with the history of phonetic develop­ment:

1829 — laryngoscope was invented,

1852 — first observations of the vocal cords were made,

1877 — gramophone was invented,

1886 — International Phonetic Association (IPA) was founded. IPA started publications of a special phonetic magazine "Le Mattre Phonetique". It stated phonetic symbols for sounds of many existing lan­guages.

2. How is phonetics connected with other sciences?

Phonetics is an independent branch of linguistics like lexicology, gram­mar and stylistics. It studies the sound matter, its aspects аспект, подход, сторона and functions.

Phonetics is connected with linguistic and non-linguistic sciences: acoustics, physiology, psychology, logic, etc.

The connection of phonetics with grammar, lexicology and stylistics is exercised осуществление, применение, использование; использовать, осуществлять, проявлять, применять first of all via orthography, which in its turn is very closely connected with phonetics.

Phonetics formulates the rules of pronunciation for separate sounds and sound combinations. The rules of reading are based on the relation of sounds to orthography and present certain difficulties in learning the English language, especially on the initial stage of studying.

Through the system of rules of reading phonetics is connected with grammar and helps to pronounce correctly singular and plural forms of nouns, the past tense forms and past participles of English regular verbs, e.g. /d/ is pronounced after voiced consonants (beg — begged), /t/ — after voiceless consonants (wish — wished). It is only if we know that /s/ is pronounced after voiceless consonants, /z/ after voiced and /Iz/ af­ter sibilants [ÈsIbIl«nt] ’свистящий, шипящий звук’, that we can pronounce the words books, bags, boxes cor­rectly. The ending -ed is pronounced /id/ following /t/ or /d/, e.g. waited /weitid/, folded /'f«uldId/. Some adjectives have a form with /id/, e.g. crooked /'krukId/, naked /'neIkId/, ragged /'rQgId/.

One of the most important phonetic phenomena — sound interchan­ge ['int«tSeindZ] ‘чередование, изменение’ — is another manifestation ‘проявление, олицетворение; пример (чего-л.)’ of the connection of phonetics with gram­mar. For instance, this connection can be observed [«'bz«:vd] ‘полученный путём наблюдения; наблюдаемый’ in the category of number. Thus, the interchange of /f— v/, /s — z/, / T — D/ helps to dif­ferentiate singular and plural forms of such nouns as: calf — calves /f—v/, leaf — leaves /f— v/, house — houses /s — z/

Vowel interchange helps to distinguish [diÈstiNgwiS] ‘проводить различие, находить отличия; различать, распознавать’ the singular and the plural of such words as: basis — bases /'beisis — 'beisi:z/, crisis — cri­ses /'kraisis — 'kraisi:z/, analysis — analyses /«'nQl«sis — «'nQl«si:z/ and also: man — men /mQn — men/, foot — feet /fut — fi:t/, goose — geese /gu:s — gi:z/, mouse — mice /maus — mais/.

Vowel interchange is connected with the tense forms of irregular verbs, for instance: sing — sang — sung; write — wrote — written, etc.

Vowel interchange can help to distinguish between

a) nouns and verbs, e.g. bath — bathe /a: — ei/,

b) adjectives and nouns, e.g. hot — heet / — i:/,

c) verbs and adjectives, e.g. moderate — moderate /ei — i/,

d) nouns and nouns, e.g. shade — shadow /ei — Q/,

e) nouns and adjectives, e.g. type — typical /ai — i/.

Vowel interchange can be observed in onomatopoeic compounds:

jiggle —joggle толчок, покачивание

flip — flop легкий удар, шлепок

chip — chop рубить топором, штыковать

flap — flop шлепать, шлепнуть

hip — hop подпрыгивать при ходьбе

Consonants can interchange in different parts of speech for example in nouns and verbs:

extent — extend /t — d/

mouth — mouth / T — D /

relief—relieve/f—v/

Phonetics is also connected with grammar through its intonation com­ponent. Sometimes intonation alone can serve to single out predication in the sentence. Intonation compensates for the fixed word-order of English sentence. Compare:

ÍHe came home. Not Mary or John.

He Ícame home. So you can see him now.

He came Íhome. He is at home, and you said he was going to the club.

In affirmative sentences the rising nuclear tone may serve to show that it is a question. Cf.:

He 'came Íhome.

He 'came Ìhome?

Pausation may also perform a differentiatory function. If we compare two similar sentences pronounced with different places of the pause, we shall see that their meaning will be different.

'What 'writing 'poet is doing is Íinteresting.

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 writing we want to know, what book or article the poet is writing.

Phonetics is also connected with lexicology. It is only due to the pres­ence of stress, or accent, in the right place, that we can distinguish cer­tain nouns from verbs (formed by conversion), e.g.

'abstract реферат — to ab'stract извлекать

'object предмет — to ob'ject не одобрять

'transfer перенос — to trans'fer переносить

Homographs can be differentiated only due to pronunciation, because they are identical in spelling, e.g.

bow /b«u/ лук — bow /bau/ поклон

lead /li:d/ руководство — lead /led/ свинец

row /r«u/ ряд — row /rau/ шум

sewer /s«u«/ швея — sewer /sju:«/ сточная труба

tear /tE«/ разрыв — tear /ti«/ слеза

wind /wind/ ветер — wind /waind/ виток

Due to the position of word accent we can distinguish between homonymous words and word groups, e.g.

'blackbird дрозд - 'black 'bird черная птица

Phonetics is also connected with stylistics; first of all through intona­tion and its components: speech melody, utterance stress, rhythm, pause and voice tamber which serve to express emotions, to distinguish between different attitudes позиция; отношение on the part of the author and speaker. Very often the writer helps the reader to interpret his ideas through special words and remarks such as: a pause, a short pause, angrily, hopefully, gently, incredulously [in'kredjul«sli] ‘недоверчиво’, etc.

If the author wants to make a word or a sentence specially prominent or logically accented, he uses graphical expressive means.

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

The repetition of identical or similar sounds, which is called allitera­tion, helps, together with the words to which they belong, to impart a melodic effect to the utterance and to express certain emotions.

Onomatopoeia [] ‘’, a combination of sounds which imitate sounds pro­duced in nature, is one more stylistic device which can serve as an example of the connection between phonetics and stylistics. E.g.: tinkle, jin­gle, clink, ting, chink; chatter, jabber, clatter, babble; chirp, cheep, twit­ter, chirrup; clap, dab, smack; crash, bang.

The study of phonetic phenomena from the stylistic point of view is phonostylistics. It is connected with a number of linguistic and non-lin­guistic disciplines, such as: paralinguistics, psychology, psycholinguistics, sociology, sociolinguistics, dialectology, literary criticism, information theory, etc.

3. What are the branches of phonetics?

Phonetics has the following branches: 1) articulatory (physiological) and perceptive (auditory), 2) acoustic, 3) functional (linguistic).

Articulatory and perceptive investigation of speech sounds is done on the basis of a good knowledge of the voice and sound producing mecha­nisms, their structure, work and perceptive (auditory) effects, that is — physiology and psychology. Articulatory phonetics makes use of such instruments and devices ‘приборы’ as: a hand mirror, laryngoscope, artificial pal­ate ['a:tifiS«l 'pQlit] ‘искусственное небо’, graphical representations of sounds, photographs and X-ray photo­graphs, CD records ['rek:dz] and magnetic ['mQgnitik] tapes. TV and computer classes are also very helpful for the investigation and study of the articulatory as­pect of speech.

Acoustic properties of sounds, that is, quantity, or length, tamber, in­tensity, pitch, temporal factor are investigated by the acoustic and audi­tory branch of phonetics.

4. What are the meth­ods and devices of phonetic investigation?

Special laboratory equipments, such as kymograph, spectrograph, os­cillograph and intonograph help to obtain the necessary data about prosodic properties of speech sounds.

A kymograph records qualitative variations of sounds in the form of kymographic tracings.

A spectrograph produces sound spectrograms which help to list the frequencies of a given sound and its relative amplitudes.

An oscillograph records oscillograms of sound vibrations of any fre­quency. Automatically recorded oscillograms can be observed upon the screen.

An intonograph measures automatically: 1) the fundamental tone of the vocal cords, 2) the average sound pressure ['preS«] ‘давление. Внутриполостное надгортанное или подгортанное давление воздуха, возникающее в результате частичного или полного торможения выдоха’, 3) the duration or length of speech (pausation). The results are recorded: 1) visually upon the screen of the electron-ray tube, 2) on paper or film with the continuous repro­duction by tape recorder, 3) in digits ‘цифра’ (while estimating the limits of the recorded area along the screen of the electron-ray tube) - digital recorder ‘цифровой самописец’.

The phonological or functional properties of phonemes, syllables, ac­cent and intonation are investigated by means of special linguistic meth­ods, which help to interpret them as socially significant elements.

5. What is the practical and theoretical significance of phonetics?

Theoretical significance of phonetics is connected with the 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, 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 of phonetics is connected with teaching foreign languages. Practical phonetics is applied in methods of speech correc­tion, teaching deaf-mutes, film dubbing, transliteration, radio and television.

THE SUBJECT-MATTER OF PHONETICS

1. What do you know about the history of phonetic development?

Phonetics deals with speech sounds. In Greek phōnētikós means: per­taining [p«:ÈteInIN] ‘относящийся’ to voice and sound.

The significance of phonetics is evident ‘ явный, очевидный; ясный, наглядный, несомненный ’, since speech is the most im­portant means of human intercourse [ÈInt«k:s] ‘ общение; взаимодействие; связи, контакты, взаимоотношения ’.

In the process of historical development the need for communication created and perfected speech organs, gradually men learned to pronounce and modulate speech sounds into combinations of words and sentences.

Sounds of speech are segments interconnected ‘связанный, взаимосвязанный; соединённый; сблокированный’ with minimal distinc­tive units — phonemes [Èf«unI:mz] ‘фонемы’. Supersegmental units [Çsju:p«s«gÈment(«)l] ‘суперсегментные единицы’ of speech — tone, stress and intonation are longer units of speech: syllables, words and intona­tion groups.

Ancient [ein(t)S(«)nt] ‘ древний; старинный, старый’ objects, drawings, and written documents show that voice and speech always fascinated [ÈfQsineitid] ‘ восхищать, приводить в восторг, очаровывать, пленять ’ men. Written documents and evidences from ancient civilizations point to an awareness ‘осведомлённость, компетентность’ of speech, its origin and abnormalities ‘ ненормальность, неправильность, отклонение; аномалия’ a long time ago.

In India more than 2,000 years ago there flourished [ÈflÃriS] ‘расцветать, процветать, преуспевать’ a science of pho­netics more advanced than any that has since been known until very re­cent times. The results, embodied [imÈbdi] ‘ воплощать (в себе); изображать, олицетворять (чем-л.); заключать в себе (какую-л. идею) ’ in a series of Sanskrit texts, were first introduced to the West only some 80 years ago.

Here are some data connected with the history of phonetic develop­ment:

1829 — laryngoscope [l«ÈriNg«sk«up] ‘ларингоскоп (инструмент для осмотра гортани)’ was invented,

1852 — first observations [Ǎbz«ÈveiS(«)n] ‘наблюдение’ of the vocal cords were made,

1877 — gramophone [ÈgrQm«f«un] was invented,

1886 — International Phonetic Association (IPA) [«Çs«usiÈeiS(«)n] was founded. IPA started publications of a special phonetic magazine "Le Mattre Phonetique". It stated phonetic symbols for sounds of many existing lan­guages.

2. How is phonetics connected with other sciences?

Phonetics is an independent branch of linguistics like lexicology, gram­mar and stylistics. It studies the sound matter ‘факт; материал’, its aspects ‘аспект, сторона’ and functions.

Phonetics is connected with linguistic and non-linguistic sciences: acoustics, physiology, psychology, logic, etc.

The connection of phonetics with grammar, lexicology and stylistics is exercised ‘осуществление, применение, использование; использовать, осуществлять, проявлять, применять’ first of all via orthography, which in its turn is very closely connected with phonetics.

Phonetics formulates the rules of pronunciation for separate sounds and sound combinations. The rules of reading are based on the relation of sounds to orthography and present certain difficulties in learning the English language, especially on the initial stage of studying.

Through the system of rules of reading phonetics is connected with grammar and helps to pronounce correctly singular and plural forms of nouns, the past tense forms and past participles of English regular verbs, e.g. /d/ is pronounced after voiced consonants (beg — begged), /t/ — after voiceless consonants (wish — wished). It is only if we know that /s/ is pronounced after voiceless consonants, /z/ after voiced and /Iz/ af­ter sibilants [ÈsIbIl«nt] ‘свистящий, шипящий звук’, that we can pronounce the words books, bags, boxes cor­rectly. The ending -ed is pronounced /id/ following /t/ or /d/, e.g. waited /weitid/, folded /'f«uldId/. Some adjectives have a form with /id/, e.g. crooked /'krukId/, naked /'neIkId/, ragged /'rQgId/.

One of the most important phonetic phenomena — sound interchan­ge ['int«tSeindZ] ‘ чередование, изменение’ — is another manifestation ‘проявление, олицетворение; пример (чего-л.)’ of the connection of phonetics with gram­mar. For instance, this connection can be observed [«'bz«:vd] ‘полученный путём наблюдения; наблюдаемый’ in the category of number. Thus, the interchange of /f— v/, /s — z/, / T — D/ helps to dif­ferentiate singular and plural forms of such nouns as: calf — calves /f—v/, leaf — leaves /f— v/, house — houses /s — z/

Vowel interchange helps to distinguish [diÈstiNgwiS] ‘проводить различие, находить отличия; различать, распознавать’ the singular and the plural of such words as: basis — bases /'beisis — 'beisi:z/, crisis — cri­ses /'kraisis — 'kraisi:z/, analysis — analyses /«'nQl«sis — «'nQl«si:z/ and also: man — men /mQn — men/, foot — feet /fut — fi:t/, goose — geese /gu:s — gi:z/, mouse — mice /maus — mais/.

Vowel interchange ‘ (последовательное) чередование ’ is connected with the tense forms of irregular verbs, for instance: sing — sang — sung; write — wrote — written, etc.

Vowel interchange can help to distinguish between

a) nouns and verbs, e.g. bath — bathe /A: — ei/,

b) adjectives and nouns, e.g. hot — heet / — i:/,

c) verbs and adjectives, e.g. moderate — moderate /ei — i/,

d) nouns and nouns, e.g. shade — shadow /ei — Q/,

e) nouns and adjectives, e.g. type — typical /ai — i/.

Vowel interchange can be observed in onomatopoeic [Ǎn«ÇmQt«'pi:ik] ‘звукоподражательный’ compounds ‘строение, структура, целостное образование; смесь; составной; сложный ’:

jiggle —joggle толчок, покачивание

flip — flop легкий удар, шлепок

chip — chop рубить топором, штыковать

flap — flop шлепать, шлепнуть

hip — hop подпрыгивать при ходьбе

Consonants can interchange in different parts of speech for example in nouns and verbs:

extent — extend /t — d/

mouth — mouth / T — D /

relief—relieve/f—v/

Phonetics is also connected with grammar through its intonation com­ponent. Sometimes intonation alone can serve to single out predication in the sentence. Intonation compensates for the fixed word-order of English sentence. Compare:

ÍHe came home. Not Mary or John.

He Ícame home. So you can see him now.

He came Íhome. He is at home, and you said he was going to the club.

In affirmative sentences the rising nuclear tone may serve to show that it is a question. Cf.:

He 'came Íhome.

He 'came Ìhome?

Pausation may also perform a differentiatory function. If we compare two similar sentences pronounced with different places of the pause, we shall see that their meaning will be different.

'What 'writing 'poet is doing is Íinteresting.

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 writing we want to know, what book or article the poet is writing.

Phonetics is also connected with lexicology. It is only due to the pres­ence of stress, or accent, in the right place, that we can distinguish cer­tain nouns from verbs (formed by conversion), e.g.

'abstract реферат — to ab'stract извлекать

'object предмет — to ob'ject не одобрять

'transfer перенос — to trans'fer переносить

Homographs ['hm«grA:f] ‘омограф’ can be differentiated only due to pronunciation, because they are identical in spelling, e.g.

bow /b«u/ лук — bow /bau/ поклон

lead /li:d/ руководство — lead /led/ свинец

row /r«u/ ряд — row /rau/ шум

sewer /s«u«/ швея — sewer /sju:«/ сточная труба

tear /tE«/ разрыв — tear /ti«/ слеза

wind /wind/ ветер — wind /waind/ виток

Due to the position of word accent we can distinguish between homonymous words and word groups, e.g.

'blackbird дрозд - 'black 'bird черная птица

Phonetics is also connected with stylistics; first of all through intona­tion and its components: speech melody, utterance stress, rhythm, pause and voice tamber which serve to express emotions, to distinguish between different attitudes ‘позиция; отношение’ on the part of the author and speaker. Very often the writer helps the reader to interpret his ideas through special words and remarks such as: a pause, a short pause, angrily, hopefully, gently, incredulously [in'kredjul«sli] ‘недоверчиво’, etc.

If the author wants to make a word or a sentence specially prominent or logically accented, he uses graphical expressive means.

Phonetics is also connected with stylistics through repetition of words, phrases and sounds. Repetition of this kind serves the basis [beisis] ‘ базис, основа, основание, фундамент ’ of rhythm, rhyme and alliteration.

The repetition of identical or similar sounds, which is called allitera­tion, helps, together with the words to which they belong, to impart a melodic effect to the utterance and to express certain emotions.

Onomatopoeia [Ǎn«ÇmQt«'pi:«] ‘ ономатопея, звукоподражание; звукоподражательное слово ’, a combination of sounds which imitate sounds pro­duced in nature, is one more stylistic device which can serve as an example of the connection between phonetics and stylistics. E.g.: tinkle, jin­gle, clink, ting, chink; chatter, jabber, clatter, babble; chirp, cheep, twit­ter, chirrup; clap, dab, smack; crash, bang.

The study of phonetic phenomena from the stylistic point of view is phonostylistics. It is connected with a number of linguistic and non-lin­guistic disciplines, such as: paralinguistics, psychology, psycholinguistics, sociology, sociolinguistics, dialectology, literary criticism, information theory, etc.

3. What are the branches of phonetics?

Phonetics has the following branches: 1) articulatory (physiological) and perceptive (auditory), 2) acoustic, 3) functional (linguistic).

Articulatory and perceptive investigation of speech sounds is done on the basis of a good knowledge of the voice and sound producing mecha­nisms, their structure, work and perceptive (auditory) effects, that is — physiology and psychology. Articulatory phonetics makes use of such instruments and devices ‘приборы’ as: a hand mirror, laryngoscope, artificial pal­ate ['a:tifiS«l 'pQlit] ‘искусственное небо’, graphical representations of sounds, photographs and X-ray photo­graphs, CD records ['rek:dz] and magnetic ['mQgnitik] tapes. TV and computer classes are also very helpful for the investigation and study of the articulatory as­pect of speech.

Acoustic properties of sounds, that is, quantity, or length, tamber, in­tensity, pitch, temporal factor are investigated by the acoustic and audi­tory branch of phonetics.

4. What are the meth­ods and devices of phonetic investigation?

Special laboratory equipments, such as kymograph, spectrograph, os­cillograph and intonograph help to obtain the necessary data about prosodic properties of speech sounds.

A kymograph records qualitative variations of sounds in the form of kymographic tracings.

A spectrograph produces sound spectrograms which help to list the frequencies of a given sound and its relative amplitudes.

An oscillograph records oscillograms of sound vibrations of any fre­quency. Automatically recorded oscillograms can be observed upon the screen.

An intonograph measures automatically: 1) the fundamental tone of the vocal cords, 2) the average sound pressure ['preS«] ‘давление. Внутриполостное надгортанное или подгортанное давление воздуха, возникающее в результате частичного или полного торможения выдоха’, 3) the duration or length of speech (pausation). The results are recorded: 1) visually upon the screen of the electron-ray tube, 2) on paper or film with the continuous repro­duction by tape recorder, 3) in digits ‘цифра’ (while estimating the limits of the recorded area along the screen of the electron-ray tube) - digital recorder ‘цифровой самописец’.

The phonological or functional properties of phonemes, syllables, ac­cent and intonation are investigated by means of special linguistic meth­ods, which help to interpret them as socially significant elements.

5. What is the practical and theoretical significance of phonetics?

Theoretical significance of phonetics is connected with the 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, 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 of phonetics is connected with teaching foreign languages. Practical phonetics is applied in methods of speech correc­tion, teaching deaf-mutes, film dubbing, transliteration, radio and television.