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The process of generalization.
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The branches of Phonetics.
I.
scheme 1
-> General phonetics – общая фонетика (studies phonetic laws, problems and principles in any language/ common of all phonetics/ general for any language)
-> Special phonetics – частная фонетика (English theoretical phonetics vs. Russian –||- and etc. Studies phonetics of a particular languages/ compares it to other languages) Our theme is English phonetics.
II Subdivision according to the speech production:
The drawing “How human noises are produced”
We call it the chain of events which takes places when one person is speaking and the other one is listening.
The process of speech production is realized in the folowing scheme:
1) the message is formed and incoded in the brain of the speaker (linguistic / psychological level)
2) it is transmitted to the organs of speech and some sounds are articulated (physiological stage)
3) the movement of the organs of speech produces sound waves (physical/ acoustic stage)
4) the sound waves are perceived, identified and decoded by the listener (NB stages 4 and 5 in the picture)
The reason is that each of these stages correlate to different branches of phonetics (is studied by a particular branch…):
- articulation phonetics studies the mechanisms of speech production;
- acoustic phonetics is concerned with the physical characteristics of speech sounds and uses special techniques to measure these sounds;
- auditory phonetics studies the perception of speech
- the linguistic interpretation is given by phonology
Phonology studies the system of sounds units (фонетические единицы) and their function. Phonology is quite a controversial subject, because some schools think that it’s a separate discipline. But we observe it as a part of Phonetics:
Phonetics stands for physical aspect, Phonology stands for the meaning of a word.
Phonetics focuses on the physical characteristic of a sound, and phonology – on its meaning.
III The subdivision according to segments.
scheme 2
Phonetics studies:
- the sound system;
- syllabic structure;
- word-stress;
- intonation
è segmental phonetics studies sounds, i.e. segments of speech.
è suprasegmental (сверхсегментная) phonetics studies bigger units of connected speech (words, phrases)
There are more subdivisions:
IV.
scheme 3
The methods of Phonetic Analysis
Each branch of phonetics uses its own method of investigation, which changes (develops):
- articulation phonetics uses method of direct observation, photography, cinematography, X-ray photography;
- in acoustic phonetics we use instrumental method. Two basic machines are called spectrograph and intonograph, nowadays computer software (programmes) is also used.
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- in auditory phonetics we use methods of auditory / perception analysis (marking the text).
Generally in phonetic research we combine different methods.
Connection with other sciences.
Which sciences are connected with phonetics?
- medicine
- physics
- psychology (pshychophonetics)
- linguistics
- rytorics
- mathematics, statistics, computer technologies
scheme 4
Phonetics and Social Sciences
Language is not an isolated phenomenon, it’s a part of society. The use of language and pronunciation in particular is determined by the social context (situation).
Sociophonetics studies the way language functions in social context. The social features/ factors we are interested in:
- regional/ geographical factor
- the age of the speaker
- gender
- social status
- sphere of communication
Phonetics is necessary in:
- linguistics
- communication engineering
- foreign language teaching
- rhetorical training (эффективная коммуникация)
- speech posology treatment Communication Technology (Criminal Law)
Прагмалингвистика – влияние
Экстралингвистическая ситуация – то, что не имеет отношения к лингвистике.
The Phoneme Theory
Segmental phonetics – the linguistic function of individual sounds or segments of speech.
[let] apical alveolar fortis [l]
[led] apical alveolar lenis [d]
[let them] dental [t] (assimilation)
are different in one feature, but the contrast between first 2 sounds changes the meaning.
The contrast between 1 and 3 sounds has no functional significance because it doesn’t change the meaning.
In our speech we are not aware of sounds differences which don’t change the meaning.
2 terms: a phoneme and an allophone
a phoneme – is a sound in its contrasting position (capable of distinguishing the meaning of a word)
an allophone – is a representation of a phoneme in a particular position/ context.
[let] – [led] phonemes
[let] - [let them] allophones
The phoneme is a minimal abstract language unit realized in speech in the ofrm of speech sounds opposable to other phonemes of the same language to distinguish the meaning of morphemes and words (by Shcerba + Vasiliev).
3 aspects of the phoneme:
1) material;
2) abstract (generalized);
function
The material aspect.
Each phoneme is realized in speech as a set of predictable (=depended on the context) speech sounds which are called allophones.
phoneme [t]
[to:k] apical alveolar [t] |
[tip] slightly palatalized [t] |
[not there] dental [t] | allophones
[not kwait] loss of plosion |
[trai] post-alveolar [t] |
[stei] not aspirated [t] |
The requirements to the allophones of the same phoneme:
1) they poses similar articulating feature, but at the same time they can show considerable phonetic differences.
2) they never occur in the same phonetic context
3) they are not capable of differentiating the meaning
Types of allophones: principal and subsidiary
Principal are the allophones which don’t undergo any changes in the flow of speech => they are the closest to the phoneme) Ex: [t] -> [to:k]
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In the articulation of a subsidiary allophone we observe predictable changes under the influence of the phonetic context.
Ex: [d] – occlusive plosive stop, forelingual, apical-alveolar, voiced lenis (the phoneme)
[do:], [dog] – the principal allophones
- [d] is slightly palatalized before front vowels and [j]: [ded], [did ju:]
- without plosion before another stop: [gud dei], [bad pain]
- with nasal plosion before nasal sonorants [m], [n]: [‘s^nd]
- before [l] a literal plosion: [midl]
- followed by “r” – [pst alveolar [d]: [dr^m]
- before interdental sounds it becomes dental: [bredth]
- when followed by [w] it becomes labialized: [dwel]
- in word final position it’s partly devoiced: [ded]
They are all fore-lingual lenis stops, but they show some differences. The allophones of the same phoneme never occur in the same phonetic context.
We can’t pronounce a phoneme, we pronounce allophones, which are accompanied by several social and personal characteristics. The actual pronounced sounds which we hear are formed with stylistic, situational, personal and etc. characteristics. They are called phones.
The Abstract aspect
The phoneme is a minimal language unit.
The phoneme belongs to the language, the allophone – to the speech.
Language is an abstract category, it’s an abstraction from speech. Speech is the reality of a language, thus the phoneme as a language unit is materialized in speech sound. The phoneme is a sort of generalization (abstraction).
The process of generalization.
The native speaker doesn’t pay attention to the allophones which don’t change the meaning. But every native speaker has a generalized idea of a complex of distinctive features that can’t be changed without changing the meaning.
scheme 1
The features which can’t be changed without a change of meaning are called relevant (or distinctive)
The invariant of a phoneme – a native speaker’s generalized variants. The invariant of a phoneme is a bundle of its distinctive features.
The functional aspect
.. to dinstinguish the meanings. Phonemes are capable of distinguishing the meaning of words and morphemes: seem ed [d] ó see ms [z]
and changing the meanings of whole sentences:
Ex: He was heard badly. – He was hurt badly.
There is no room for you in my hut. – There is no room for you in my heart.
This function is performed when the phoneme is opposed to another phoneme in the same phonetic context: [ka:t] – [pa:t]
backlingual bilabial (relevant features)
The features that do not effect the meaning are called irrelevant features (non - distinctive). Ex: aspiration.
Distinctive features for English consonants:
1) place of articulation;
2) manner of articulation;
3) absence/ presence of voice
Distinctive features for English vowels:
1) the vowel quality: [sit] – [si:t]
monothong dipthongoid
(front-retractive) (front)
Phonetic and Phonological Mistakes:
If an allophone of some phoneme is replaced by an allophone of a different phoneme – the mistake is phonological.
If an allophone of some phoneme is replaced by another allophone of the same phoneme – the mistake is called phonetic.
The phoneme is a unity of 3 aspects: material, abstract and function.
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