- •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
11. The unstressed vocalism of the English language.
Vowels in stressed syllables differ from vowels in unstressed syllables by quantity and quality. In the English language articles, conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns, auxiliary and semi-auxiliary verbs, which are, as a rule, unstressed are used in speech in the reduced forms. The verbs have, has, had are used in their strong form as notional verbs. The major role in the system of the unstressed vocalism of the English language belongs to the neutral vowel [ə]. It is necessary to remember that unstressed vowels may be used in the strong forms, e.g.: blackboard [blækbɔd]
unstressed vowels in English may either change their quality and quantity or remain unchanged. For example the indefinite article a may be pronounced as /э/, which differs from /ei/ qualitatively. He may be pronounced as /hi'/ which diilers from /hi:/ quantitatively. In the word potato the final /9U/ remains unchanged though it occurs in an unaccented syllable /pa'teitsu/.
The major role in the system of unstressed vocalism in English belongs to the neutral vowel /a/. It originated as a result of the development of the analytical grammar structures, which led to the reduction of some vowels not only in inflexions but also in other parts of lexical and grammatical words.
According to the data of modern phoneticians /i, э, u, ou/ are always unstressed, /ei, ai/ are unstressed rather often, /d:, л, э: au, is/ are rarely unstressed, ja., u:, i:, 01, еэ, иэ/ are practically never unstressed.
The neutral vowel /з/ may alternate with any vowel of full formation, e.g.
There are some digraphs in English which are pronounced in unstressed syllables either as /э/ or /1/, e. g. er — teacher /ftiitfa/ ar—mortar /'mo:to/ or—motor /imauts/ et—foreign /iform/ ir—elixir /iihksa/ ie—hobbie /Ihobi/ ou(s)—famous /ifeimas/.
12. The notion of alternation and its types
The sound variations in words, their derivatives and grammatical form words, are known as sound alternations. For example: the dark [l] in spell alternate with the clear [l] in spelling; combine (n) [‘kσmbain], combine [kəm’bain] where [n] in the stressed syllable of the noun alternates with the neutral sound. It is perfectly obvious that sound alternations of this type are caused by assimilation, accommodation and reduction in speech. To approach the matter from the phonological viewpoint, it is important to differentiate phonemic and allophone alternations. Some sound alternations are traced to the phonemic changes in earlier periods of the language development and are known as historical. Historical alternations mark both vowels and consonants, though the alternating sounds are not affected by the phonemic position or context. The sounds changes, which occurred in the process of historical development of the language, are reflected in present-day English as alternations of phonemes differentiating words, their derivatives and grammatical forms. The following list of examples presents the types of alternations: 1. Vowel alternations. 1.1 Distinction of irregular verbal forms [i:-e-e] mean - meant - meant; [i-æ-A] sing - sang - sung; [i-ei-i] give - gave - given; 1.2 Distinction of causal verbal forms: [i-e] sit - set; [ai-ei] rise - raise; [o - e] fall-fell 1.3 Distinction of parts of speech in etymologically correlated words [a: - æ] class - classify, [o: - e] long - length; [ei - æ] nation - national 2. Consonants alternations 2.1 Distinction of irregular verbal forms [d - t] send - sent 2.2 distinction of parts of speech [s - z] advice - advise; [k - t∫] speak - speech; 3. Vowel and consonant alternations [i - ai] + [v - f] live - life; [a: - ae] + [θ - ð] bath - bathe.