- •5. Modifications of phonemes in the speech continuum. Classification of allophones.
- •2. . The structure and types of syllables in English, their graphical representation.
- •3. Functions of syllables.
- •11. Syllable formation theories. Main problems of the phonetic aspect of syllable in English.
- •1. It, us, oath, add; 2. May. Tea, new; 3. Penknife, what time? midday meal.
- •1. Phonotactics as a branch of phonology.
- •3. Typical phonotactic possibilities in the structure of English syllables and words.
- •4. Phonological constraints on sound clusters in onset and coda.
- •15. Suprasegmental phonology. Intonation as the complex semantic unity of suprasegmental phonology. Different approaches to the definition of intonation and its components.
- •18. Utterance stress, its types and problems of classification. The interrelation of word-stress and utterance-stress.
- •19. Speech melody as a subsystem of intonation. Functions of its components. Nuclear tones in the system of English intonation.
- •20. Pausation and tempo in the structure of English intonation. Their functions.
- •21.Rhythm as a linguistic notion. English speech rhythm. Types of rhythmic units. Guidelines for teaching English speech rhythm.
- •24 .The attitudinal function of intonation in the conversational style and the use of emphatic complex tones.
- •25.Main prosodic peculiarities of the publicistic (oratorical) phonostyle.
- •26. Main prosodic peculiarities of the academic (scientific) phonostyle.
- •27. Main prosodic peculiarities of the informationalphonostyle.
- •28. Main prosodic peculiarities of the Declamatory (Artistic or Belles-letter) phonostyle: fiction, drama, poetry.
- •30. The orthoepic norm of English and its types. Phonetic changes in the present- day standard English. Regional and social variants in the British English pronunciation.
- •31. Received Pronunciation and Estuary English as a recent development of standard British English. The socialinguistic aspect of Estuary English.
- •32. Regional types of English pronunciation. Major differences between regional variants of English pronunciation and Received Pronunciation.
- •33. American-based pronunciation standards of English. Major differences between General American and Received Pronunciation on the segmental and suprasegmental levels.
2. . The structure and types of syllables in English, their graphical representation.
There are following main types of syllables in English:
1) V – uncovered open (err), 2) VC – uncovered closed (eat), 3) CVC – covered closed (pit), 4) CV – covered open (dew).
A syllable can be formed: by a vowel: (V); by a vowel and a consonant: (VC); by a consonant and a sonorant (CS). V - types of syllable called uncovered open, VC - types of syllable called uncovered closed, CVC - types of syllable called covered closed, CV - types of syllable called covered open.
G.P. Torsuyev suggests a differentiation of the following types of syllabic structures: V type: fully open, CVC type: fully closed, CV type: initially covered, VC type: finally covered. One of the most noticeable features of English is that many syllables are weak. The distribution of strong and weak syllables is very closely connected with stress, which is a major factor in determining whether a syllable will be strong or weak. Elision is a closely related subject, and in considering intonation the difference between strong and weak syllables is also important. Finally, words with "strong" and "weak" forms are clearly a related matter. Now we shall discuss the general nature of weak syllables.
What do we mean by "strong" and "weak"? In the present context, we are using these terms to refer to phonetic characteristics of syllables. We could describe them partly in terms of stress (by saving, for example, that strong syllables are stressed and weak syllables unstressed), but until we describe what "stress" means, such a description would not be very useful. The most important thing to note at present is that any strong syllable will have as its centre one of the vowel phonemes (or possibly a triphthong), but not ‘shwa’. Weak syllables, on the other hand, as they are being defined here, can only have four types of centre: 1) ‘shwa’; 2) a closed front unrounded vowel in the general area of i: and I; 3) a close back rounded vowel in the general area of u and u: ; 4) a syllabic consonant.
3. Functions of syllables.
Now we shall consider two functions of the syllable.
The first is constitutive function. It lies in its ability to be a part of a word itself. The syllables form language units of greater magnitude that is words, morphemes, and utterances. It this respect two things should be emphasized. First, the syllable is the unit within which the relations between distinctive features of phonemes and their acoustic correlates are revealed. Second, within a syllable (or syllables) prosodic characteristics of speech are realized, which form the stress pattern of a word and the intonation structure of an utterance. In sum, the syllable is a specific minimal structure of both segmental and suprasegmental features.
The other function is distinctive one. In this respect the syllable is characterized by its ability to differentiate words and word-forms. One minimal pair has been found in English to illustrate the word distinctive function in the syllabic: nitrate — night-rate. There analogical distinction between word combinations can be illustrated by many more examples: an aim - a name; an ice house - a nice house, mice kill - my skill, peace talks -pea stalks, etc. Sometimes the difference in syllable division may be the basic ground for differentiation in such pairs as I saw her rise. -1 saw her eyes; I saw the meat — I saw them eat.