Phonetics as a Branch of Linguistics

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 517.

Plan

INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE OF THEORETICAL PHONETICS

Lecture 1

1. Phonetics as a branch of linguistics.

2. The work of the organs of speech.

3. Methods of investigating the sound matter of the language.

4. The importance of phonetics as a theoretical discipline.

5. Phonetics and its connection with social sciences.

6. Theories of teaching pronunciation in current TEFL / TESOL practices.

Phonetics is concerned with the human noises by which the thought is actualized or given audible shape: the nature of these noises, their combinations, and their functions in relation to the meaning. Phonetics is subdivided into practical and theoretical.

Practicalor normativephonetics studies the substance, the material form of phonetic phenomena in relation to meaning. Theoreticalphonetics is mainly concerned with the functioning of phonetic units in the language. Theoretical phonetics regards phonetic phenomena synchronically without any special attention paid to the historical development of English.

Phonetics is itself divided into two major components: segmentalphonetics, which is concerned with individual sounds (i.e. “segments” of speech) and suprasegmentalphonetics whose domain is the larger units of connected speech: syllables, words, phrases and texts. The way these elements of the phonetic structure of English function in the process of communication will be the main concern of this course. The description of the phonetic structure of English will be based on the so-called Received Pronunciation.

We all agree that we are to study the “norm” of English, as a whole, and the “norm” of English pronunciation in particular. There is no much agreement, however, as far as the term “norm” is concerned. This term is interpreted in different ways. Some scholars, for instance, associate “norm” with the so-called “neutral” style. According to this conception stylistically marked parameters do not belong to the norm. More suitable, however, seems to be the conception put forward by Y. Screbnev, who looks upon the norm as a complex of all functional styles. We shall give priority to the second point of view as it is clearly not possible to look upon the pronunciation norm as something ideal which does not, in fact, exist in objective speech. We shall look upon the norm as a complex unity of phonetic styles realized in the process of communication in accordance with varying extralinguistic and social factors.

Phonetics is primarily concerned with expression level.However, phonetics is obliged to take the content levelinto consideration too, because at any stage of the analysis, a considerable part of the phonetician's concern is with the effect which the expression unit he is examining and its different characteristics have on meaning. Only meaningful sound sequences are regarded as speech, and the science of phonetics, in principle at least, is concerned only with such sounds produced by a human vocal apparatus as are, or may be, carriers of organized information of language. Consequently, phonetics is important in the study of language. An understanding of it is a prerequisite to any adequate understanding of the structure or working of language. No kind of linguistic study can be made without constant consideration of the material on the expression level.

Three traditional branches of the subject are generally recognized:

1. articulatory phonetics (артикуляторна фонетика) is the study of the way speech sounds are made (‘articulated') by the vocal organs, i.e. it studies the way in which the air is set in motion, the movements of the speech organs and the coordination of these movements in the production of single sounds and trains of sounds;

2. acoustic phonetics (акустична фонетика) studies the physical properties of speech sound, as transmitted between the speaker's mouth and the listener's ear;

3. auditory phonetics (аудитивна фонетика) studies the perceptual response to speech sounds, as mediated by ear, auditory nerve and brain, i.e. its interests lie more in the sensation of hearing, which is brain activity, than in the psychological working of the ear or the nervous activity between the ear and the brain. The means by which we discriminate sounds – quality, sensations of pitch, loudness, length, are relevant here.

The fourth branch – ‘functional phonetics'(функціональна фонетика) – 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?

Phoneticsis 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; but only a small number of them are used in a language to construct all of its words and utterances.

Phonologyis 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 – phonemesor intonemes –in order to express meaning. It investigates the phonetic phenomena from the point of view of their use. Within phonology, two branches of study are usually recognized: SEGMENTAL and SUPRA-SEGMENTAL. Segmental phonologyanalyses speech into discrete segments, such as phonemes; supra-segmentalor non-segmental phonologyanalyses those features which extend over more than one segment, such as intonation contours.

The primary aim of phonology is to discover the principles that govern the way that sounds are organized in languages, to determine which phonemes are used and how they pattern – the phonological structureof a language. The properties of different sound systems are then compared, and hypotheses developed about the rules underlying the use of sounds in particular groups of languages, and in all the languages -phonological universals.

Phonologyalso solves:

1. the problem of the identification of the phonemes of a language;

2. the problem of the identification of the phoneme in a particular word, utterance. It establishes the system of phonemes and determines the frequency of occurrence in syllables, words, utterances. The distribution and grouping of phonemes and syllables in words are dealt with an area of phonology which is called phonotactics.People engaged in the study of phonetics are known as phoneticians (фонетисти). People engaged in the study of phonology are known as phonologists (фонологи).

Phonologywas originated in the 30s of the 20th century by a group of linguists belonging to the Prague school of linguistics – Vilem Matesius, Nickolai Trubetskoy, Roman Jakobson. The theoretical background of phonology is the phoneme theory whose foundations were first laid down by I.O. Baudouin de Courtenay (1845-1929) in the last quarter of the 19th century (between the years of 1868-1881). The most important work in phonology is THE GROUNDWORK OF PHONOLOGY [1939] by Nickolai Trubetskoy. He claimed that phonology should be separated from phonetics as it studies the functional aspect of phonic components of language. Phonetics is a biological science which investigates the sound-production aspect. Contemporary phoneticians hold the view that form and function cannot be separated and treat phonology as a linguistic branch of phonetics.

Before analysing the linguistic function of phonetic units we need to know how the vocal mechanismacts in producing oral speechand what methods are applied in investigating the material form of the language, that is its substance.

Phonic shaping of oral form of language is called pronunciation.(Звукове оформлення усної форми мови називається вимовою).

The concept pronunciationhas several meanings in present-day phonetics. In its narrow meaning it is restricted to the features manifested in the articulation of the soundsof a language. Its wide interpretation implies the entity of discourse featuresrelating to:

1. the SOUND SYSTEM of a language (the so-called segmental phonemes in the form of their actual speech manifestations – allophones or variants);

2. the SYLLABIC STRUCTURE of a language (syllable formation and syllable division);

3. WORD-STRESS/LEXICAL STRESS;

4. INTONATION as a complex unity of pitch (тональний), force (силовий) and temporal (темпоральний) components [Vassilyev 1970].

In discussing the pronunciationof English we can focus on one or both of two aspects:

1. on the one hand, we may want to describe WHAT SPEAKERS DO WHEN THEY ARE SPEAKING ENGLISH. This is the aspect of SPEECH(мовлення), an activity carried on by communicators who use English in communicating.

2. on the other hand, we may address the question, WHAT ARE THE СHARACTERISTICS OF ENGLISH WORDS AND SENTENCES (DISCOURSE) that are realized in speech? This is the aspect of LANGUAGE (мова).

Speech is not the same as language. Speechis an activity which is carried on numerous events; languageis knowledge, a code which is known and shared by speakers who use their knowledge for transmitting and interpreting verbal messages in these events. When someone is speaking, anyone who is close enough can hear – the air waves set up in the air by the speaker reach the airdrums of the hearer. But only a person who knows the language can understand what is said.

Pronunciationis the primary medium through which we bring our use of languageto the attention of other people [Stevick 1978:145]. It is a process of materializing of features relating to the system of sounds/phonemes, the syllabic structure, prosody (word stressand intonation)while speech/oral verbal messageis constructed.

Human speech is the result of a highly complicated series of events. The formation of the concept takes place at a linguistic level, that is in the brain of the speaker; this stage may be called psychological.The message formed within the brain is transmitted along the nervous system to the speech organs. Therefore we may say that the human brain controls the behaviour of the articulating organs which effects in producing a particular pattern of speech sounds. This second stage may be called physiological.The movements of the speech apparatus disturb the air stream thus producing sound waves. Consequently the third stage may be called physicalor acoustic. Further, any communication requires a listener, as well as a speaker. So the last stages are the receptionof the sound waves by the listener's hearing physiological apparatus, the transmissionof the spoken message through the nervous system to the brain and the linguistic interpretationof the information conveyed.

Language is shaped into a spoken message by means of its phonic structure/sound matter(звукової матерії) which is traditionally treated as a combination of four components:

1. the segmental/phonemic component;

2. the syllabic structure;

3. the accentual structure/word stress/lexical stress;