Phonetic styles and their classification

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 843.

The notion of styles of pronunciation was introduced by M. Lomonosov in the 18^th century. Since then it has attracted many linguists. Though the difference in the styles of pronunciation are recognized by all, there is no generally accepted classification of styles of pronunciation as yet L. Scherba, one of the first linguists to make a study of the styles of pronunciation, distinguishes two styles: the full style & the colloquial style. The full styles is the pronunciation used in deliberately careful speech, while the colloquial style of pronunciation, as he defines it, is the pronunciation used in ordinary conversation. Cf. “Александр Александрович” & “Альсан Саныч” or “Сан Саныч”. L.Scherba notes that the colloquial style embraces different varieties of pronunciation which, as he says, are not easily differentiated one from another. Most of the phoneticians who deal with Russian pron-n (R. Avanesov, L. Bulanin) distinguish 3 styles of pronunciation:

a) the full style or elevated style (used when speaking officially, reciting & reading aloud to a large audience)

b) the neutral style (used when lecturing, broadcasting)

c) colloquial style (used in rapid & careless speech)

English phoneticians distinguish a greater number of styles of pronunciation, although among them there is no generally accepted classification of pronunciation styles either. Thus, D.Jones distinguishes 5 styles of pronunciation:

a) The rapid familiar style,

b) The slower colloquial style,

c) The natural style used in addressing an audience,

d) The acquired style of the stage,

e) The acquired style used in singing.

J.Kenyon distinguishes 4 principal styles of “Good Spoken English”:

a) Familiar colloquial,

b) Formal colloquial,

c) public-speaking style,

d) public-reading style.