- •Theoretical english phonetics phonic substance of language and ways of its analysis and description
- •1. Language use in oral verbal communication
- •2. Pronunciation as a way of materializing of oral form of language
- •3. Phonic structure of language and its components
- •4. Units of language vs. Speech
- •5. Phonetics as a science and its branches. Phonetics and phonology
- •Pronunciation varieties/accents of english
- •1. Defining an accent
- •2. Major accents of english
- •1) Southern English or rp/bbc English;
- •2) General American/GenAm or Network English.
- •3. Social shapes of english
- •4. Pronunciation norm and its codification
- •5. Specialist dictionaries of english pronunciation
- •Articulatory and functional aspects of speech sounds
- •1. Aspects of speech sounds
- •2. Speech sounds as articulatory units and the problem of their classification
- •The sounds of English
- •3. The articulatory classification of the english vowels
- •4. The articulatory classification of the english consonants
- •5. Vowel and consonant adjustments in connected speech: coarticulatory phenomena
- •Basic rules of syllabification in english
- •Guidelines for syllabification of syllabic consonants
- •Division into syllables in writing
- •Word stress
- •1. The nature of english word stress
- •2. Types of english word stress
- •3. English word stress functions
- •4. Word accentual paterns. Guidelines to english word stress placement
- •Lexical stress of three-syllable simple words
- •Lexical stress of words of four or more syllables
- •Words with prefixes
- •References
4. Units of language vs. Speech
Language and speech can be the two main objects of analysis in our attempt to understand the nature and functioning of oral verbal communication. These global concepts structurally can be divided into smaller units. Here we will outline in brief the taxonomy of language versus speech units. Ch. W. Kreidler gives the description of the LANGUAGE UNITS as follows:
In their use of language speakers express themselves mainly in sentences which can be organized into texts.
Sentences consist of phrases, and phrases consist of words. Every word consists of at least one morpheme, a minimal unit that contributes in some way to the meaning of the word.
A morpheme is expressed in some sequence of the phonemes of a language. A phoneme is an abstract unit (‘a sound in the mind’) which is realized in speech as different segments in different positions.
The features which are present in all the allophones are distinctive features; those which are present in one or several but not all the allophones are redundant features.
Phonology may also be thought of as a collection of phonemes and a collection of rules for putting these units together to express the meanings of morphemes, words, phrases, sentences and texts which are the units used in describing language.
Thus, the units of LANGUAGE from largest to smallest are:
TEXT→SENTENCE→PHRASE→WORD→MORPHEME→PHONEME→DISTINCTIVE FEATURE
The units of SPEECH:
1. The concept of discourse is used to refer to any act of speech which occurs in a place and during a given period of time. Discourse in this meaning is ‘spoken discourse’.
2. A discourse consists of at least one utterance, which is defined as a stretch of speech produced by a single speaker, with silence before and after, on the part of that speaker.
3. An utterance consists of at least one tone unit, a sequence of words spoken in a single breath, a stretch of speech which has describable melody or intonation, one out of a fairly small inventory of intonation contours that exist in the language.
4. Tone units are broken into smaller ‘chunks’ - rhythmic groups (= feet, phonetic words).
5. A rhythmic group consists of at least one syllable and usually a number of syllables.
6. A syllable consists of at least one segment and usually of more than one.
7.In the articulation of a segment, the vocal organs have some particular setting - the lips are rounded or stretched, the tongue is low in the mouth or not, it has a flat surface or not, the vocal cords are vibrating or not, etc. Each such position or movement is an articulatory feature. These features always occur in simultaneous bundles.
Thus, the units of SPEECH from largest to smallest are:
DISCOURSE→UTTERANCE→TONE UNIT→SYLLABLE→SEGMENT→ART1CULATORY FEATURE
5. Phonetics as a science and its branches. Phonetics and phonology
Phonetics is the science which studies the characteristics of human sound-making, especially those sounds which are used in speech, and provides methods for their DESCRIPTION, CLASSIFICATION and TRANSCRIPTION.
Three traditional branches of the subject are generally recognized:
1) articulatory phonetics is the study of the way speech sounds are made (‘articulated’) by the vocal organs;
2) acoustic phonetics studies the physical properties of speech sound, as transmitted between mouth and ear;
3) auditory phonetics studies the perceptual response to speech sounds, as mediated by ear, auditory nerve and brain.
4) functional phonetics is concerned with the range and function of sounds in specific languages. It is typically referred to as phonology. What is the main distinction between phonetics and phonology?
Phonetics is the study of how speech sounds are made, transmitted, and received, i.e. phonetics is the study of all possible speech sounds. The human vocal apparatus can produce a wide range of sounds.
Phonology is the study of those segmental (speech sound types) and prosodic (intonation) features which have a differential value in the language. It studies the way in which speakers systematically use a selection of units – phonemes or intonemes - in order to express meaning. It investigates the phonetic phenomena from the point of view of their use.
People engaged in the study of phonetics are known as phoneticians.
People engaged in the study of phonology are known as phonologists.