- •1. Phonetics as a Branch of Linguistics
- •2. Branches of Phonetics
- •3. The classification of English consonant sounds
- •4. The classification of English vowel sounds
- •5. The phoneme
- •6. Methods of phonetic analysis
- •7. Main phonological schools.
- •8. Main trends in phoneme theory
- •9. The system of consonant phonemes. Problem of affricates.
- •10. The system of vowel phonemes. Problems of diphthongs and vowel length.
- •11. The unstressed vocalism of the English language.
- •12. The notion of alternation and its types
- •13. Contextual alternations in English.
- •14. Modifications of sounds in English. Modification of English consonants in connected speech. Assimilation.
- •15. Modification of English sounds in connected speech. Elision. Accommodation. Vowel reduction.
- •16. Syllable. Functional characteristics of the syllable
- •17.Theory on syllable division and formation.
- •18. He structure and functions of syllables in English.
- •19. Nature of word stress. Place of word stress in English. Degrees of stress.
- •20. Functions and tendencies of the Englishstress
- •21. Interrelation of word stress and sentence stress.
- •22. Typology of accentual structures.
- •23. Intonation and prosody: definition, approaches, functions, spheres of application.
- •24. Components of intonation and the structure of English tone-group.
- •25. Temporal and timber components of intonation.
- •27. Spoken and written language.
- •28. The communicative function of intonation.
- •29. Extralinguistic situation and its components.
- •30. Classification of phonetic styles on suprasegmental level.
- •31. Classification of phonetic styles on segmental level. Stylistic modifications of sounds.
- •Informational
- •32. Othography and its principles.
- •33. National language, national variants, dialects.
- •34. American English as a national variety of the English language.
- •35. Variations of pronunciation within orthoepic norms.
- •36. Received Pronunciation. Classifications of main types.
- •37. The main changes in Received Pronunciation.
- •38. Main differences between southern and northern dialects of England.
- •39. Classification of pronunciation variants in English. British and American pronunciation models.
- •40. Phonostylistics. Types and styles of pronunciation in English. Intonational styles.
- •41. Standard English pronunciation. Tendencies of Modern English pronunciation
- •42. Social and territorial differentiation of English pronunciation.
- •43. Style-modifying factors
23. Intonation and prosody: definition, approaches, functions, spheres of application.
Phonemes, syllables and words, as lower—level linguistic units, are grouped by various prosodic means into a higher unit — the utterance. Every concrete utterance, alongside of its phonemic and syllabic structures has a certain prosodic structure, or intonation.
Intonation is a complex unity of speech melody, sentence stress, tempo, rhythm and voice timbre, which enables the speaker to express his thoughts, emotions and attitudes towards the contents of the utterance and the hearer.
Acoustically, intonation is a complex combination of varying fundamental frequency, intensity and duration.
Speech melody is primarily related with fundamental frequency, tempo — with duration.
On the articulatory, or production, level intonation is also a complex phenomenon. In the production of speech melody certain (subglottal, laryngeal and supraglottal) respiratory muscles regulate the subglottal air—pressure, which makes the vocal cords vibrate. An increase of subglottal pressure raises the pitch of the voice, and its decrease lowers the pitch.
The definition of intonation given above is a broad definition. It reflects the actual interconnection and interaction of melody, stress, tempo, rhythm and timbre in speech.
A great number of phoneticians abroad, (including D.Jones, L.Armstrong and I.Ward, K.Pike, R.Kingdon, A.Gimson, J.O'Connor and G.Arnold) define intonation as the variation of the pitch of the voice, thus reducing it to one component — speech melody. This is a narrow approach to the definition of intonation.
Thus G.Arnold writes: "When we talk about English intonation we mean the pitch patterns of spoken English, the pitch tunes or melodies, the musical features of English ".
Some foreign phoneticians give broader definitions of intonation. Thus L. Hultzen includes the variations of pitch, loudness and duration, F.Danes — the variations of pitch and intensity, D.Crystal — tone, pitch range, loudness, with rhythmicality and tempo closely related.
Alongside of the term "intonation" the term "prosody" is widely used. "Prosody" and "prosodic" denote non—segmental phenomena, i.e. those which do not enter into the system of segmental phonemes. D. Crystal defines prosodic features as "vocal effects constituted by variations along the parameters of pitch, loudness, duration and silence".
From the definition of prosody and intonation we can clearly see that both the notions include essentially the same phenomena. But the terms "intonation" and "prosody" are used differently by different linguists.
Some phoneticians apply the term "prosody" and "prosodic" only to the features pertaining to the syllable and phonetic word, or rhythmic unit (which are regarded as meaningless prosodic units) and oppose prosody to intonation (which is a meaningful phenomenon).
We adhere to the point of view that prosodic features pertain not only to syllables, words and rhythmic units, but to the intonation group and the utterance as well, since the latter are constituted by these units.
The notion of prosody, consequently, is broader than the notion of intonation as it can be applied to the utterance, the word, the syllable, whereas prosody of the utterance and intonation are equivalent notions.
Whatever the views on the linguistic nature of prosodic phenomena, the phonic substance of prosody is regarded by all phoneticians as the modifications of fundamental frequency, intensity and duration. The most complicated and unsolved problems of prosody are the interaction between its acoustic properties, their functioning in speech and their systematization. R.Jakobson says that prosody is one of the most difficult and controversial problems of modern linguistic studies.