- •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
10. Types of phonetic transcription
TRANSCRIPTION - a visual system of notation of speech sounds; a set of symbols representing speech sounds; phonetic alphabet. The 1st attempt to use transcription - the 16th century. In 1904 the modern transcription was accepted by International Phonetic Association (based on Latin alphabet, is universal).
There are 2 types of transcription:
1. PHONEMIC/LINGUISTICALLY BROAD - all the phonemes of the language are marked with one symbol.
2. PHONETIC/ALLOPHONIC/LINGUISTICALLY NARROW - 1 symbol per 1 allophone of the phoneme (separate symbols for voiced and devoiced consonants, light and dark "l", syllabic sonorants, etc.).
The phonemic (1) transcription has an advantage over the phonetic one (2) because it is easier, quicker, more convenient to write.
11. The syllable as a phonetic, phonological unit. The functions of the syllable. Structural peculiarities of the English syllable
When we divide our speech into the smallest units, we divide it into syllables. SYLLABLE - 1 articulatory effort, the smallest perceptable unit; a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds.
Functions:
1. CONSTITUTIVE - a syllable is able to be a part of a word itself; the syllables form the language units of greater magnitude - words, morphemes, utterances.
2. DISTINCTIVE - a syllable is able to differentiate words and word-forms: a name - an aim, a nice house - an ice house.
Structural peculiarities:
1) many syllables have 1 or more consonants preceding the nucleus; these make up the syllable ONSET.
2) many syllables have 1 or more consonants following the nucleus; they make up the syllable CODA.
3) the combination of nucleus and coda has a special significance, making up the rhyming property of a syllable.
12. Theories of syllable formation and syllable division
1. THE MOST ANCIENT ONE: there are as many syllables in the word as there are vowels.
2. EXPIRATORY/CHESTPULSE/PRESSURE THEORY (American psychologist R.H. Stetson): there are as many syllables in the word as there are expires/chestpulses.
3. SONORITY THEORY (Danish phonetician O. Jesperson): there are as many syllables in the word as there are peaks of prominence/sonority. O. Jesperson proved that the least sonorous sounds are those for which the mouth is closed (the most sonorous: open vowels - mid open vowels - close vowels - semi-vowels - sonorants - voiced fricatives - voiced stops - voiceless fricatives - voiceless stops: the least sonorous)
4. THEORY OF MUSCULAR TENSION (L. Sherba): the centre of a syllable is a syllable-forming phoneme and the sounds preceding and following it make an arc of tension. 3 types of consonants: 1. initially strong: beginning - strong, ending - weak (time, see); 2. finally strong: ending - strong, beginning - weak (sad, pet); 3. double-peaked: combination of 2 similar sounds, beginning and ending - energetic, middle - weak (good-day, pen-knife). This theory helps to understand when we pronounce "a name" and "an aim".
5. LOUDNESS THEORY (Zhinkin - Moscow school): every phoneme possesses a specific loudness; a syllable is a peak of loudness. Loudness shouldn't be confused with sonority (loudness - amplitude of sound waves, sonority - degree of noise).
6. ACOUSTIC THEORY: peak of syllable vowel or sonorant has more prominence than consonant.