Ответы а гос экзамены Теорфонетика

1. Principles of classification of English consonants and vowels

Principles of classification of English consonants.

Consonants are made with air stream that meets an obstruc­tion in the mouth or nasal cavities. That is why in the produc­tion of consonant sounds there is a certain degree of noise.

Consonants are the bones of a word and give it its basic shape. English accents differ mainly in vowels, the consonants are more or less the same wherever English is spoken. So if your vowels are not perfect you may still be understood by the listen­er, but if the consonants are imperfect there may be some misun­derstanding.

The sentence "W-l y- -nv-t- m-1- th- p-t-?" "Will you invite me to the party?" is easy for understanding even if all the vowel letters would be left out. But if we leave all the consonant letters out : "-i- -ou i—i-e -e -o —e -a-y" it is impossible to make any sense out of it.

On the articulatory level the consonants change:

1. In the degree of noise.

2. In the manner of articulation.

3. In the place of articulation.

.Classification of English consonants according to the manner of articulation. Mistakes typical of Russian learners of English and way of correcting them.

The manner of articulation of consonants is determined by the type of obstruction. The obstructions may be complete, in­complete and momentary. When the obstruction is complete the organs of speech are in contact and the air stream meets a clo­sure in the mouth or nasal cavities as in the production of the English [p, b, t, d, k, g, tf, dj, m , n, n] .

In case of an incomplete obstruction the active organ of .speech moves towards the point of articulation and the air stream goes through the narrowing between them as in the production of the English [f, v, s, z, d, h, w, l, r, j] and the Rus­sian [ф, ф']. Momentary obstructions are formed in the production of the Russian sono­rants [p, p'] when the tip of the tongue taps quickly several times against the teeth ridge.

According to the manner of articulation consonants may be of four groups:

1. Occlusive.

2. Constrictive.

3. Occlusive-constrictive (affricates).

4. Rolled.

1.Occlusive consonants are sounds in the production which the air stream meets a complete obstruction in mouth.

Occlusive voiced consonants are: the English [b, d, g].

Occlusive voiceless consonants are: the English [p, t, k|.

2.Constrictive consonants are those in the production of which the air stream meets an incomplete obstruction in the resonator, so the air passage is constricted. Both noise consonants and sonorants may be constrictive.

Constrictive noise consonants are called fricatives.

The English fricatives: [f, v, s, z, h].

The English voiced fricatives: [v, d, z, 3].

The English voiceless fricatives: [f, s, h].

3.Occlusive-constrictive consonants or affricates are noise consonant sounds produced with a complete obstruction which is slowly released and the air escapes from the mouth with some friction. There are only two occlusive-constrictives in English: [tf,dz] . The English [dz] is voiced and weak; [tf] is voiceless and strong .

4.Rolled consonants are sounds pronounced with periodical momentary obstructions when the tip of the tongue taps quickly several times against the teeth ridge and vibrates in the air stream. (They are the Russian [p, p']).

The place of articulation is determined by the active organ of speech against the point of articulation. There may be one place of articulation or focus, or two places of articulation or foci when active organs of speech contact with two points of articulation. In the first case consonants are called unicentral, in the second they are bicentral.

According to the position of the active organ of speech against the point of articulation consonants may be:

1. Labial

2. Lingual

3. Glottal

Labial consonants are made by the lips. They may be bilabial and labio-dental. Bilabial consonants are produced when both lips are active: [p, b,m, w].

Labio-dental consonants are articulated with the lower lip against the edge of the upper teeth: [f, v].

Lingual consonants are classified into forelingual, mediolingual and backlingual.

Forelingual consonants are articulated with the tip or the blade of the tongue. According to its work they may be:

apical, if the tip of the tongue is active [t, d, s, z, tf, n, l].

cacuminal, if the tip of the tongue is at the back part of the teeth ridge, but a depression is formed in the blade of the tongue as [r].According to the place of obstruction forelingual consonants may be: interdental, dental., alveolar, post-alveolar., palato-alveolar.

Interdental consonants are made with the tip of the tongue projected between the teeth: the English [ð, Ө].

Dental consonants are produced with the blade of the tongue against the upper teeth.

Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tip against the upper teeth ridge: the English [t, d, s, z, n, 1].

Post-alveolar consonants are made when the tip or the blade of the tongue is against the back part of the teeth ridge or just behind it: the English [r].

Palato-alveolar consonants are made with the tip or the blade of the tongue against the teeth ridge and the front part of the tongue raised towards the hard palate, thus having two places of articulation.

. Principles of classification of English vowels. Modification of English vowels in connected speech. Reduction.

Vowels are normally made with the air stream that meets no closure or narrowing in the mouth, pharyngal and nasal cavi­ties. That is why in the production of vowel sounds there is no noise component characteristic of consonantal sounds.

On the articulatory level the description of vowels notes changes:

1. in the stability of articulation,

2. in the tongue position,

3. in the lip position,

4. in the character of the vowel end.

Stability of Articulation. All English vowels are divided into three groups: pure vowels or monophthongs, diphthongs and diphthongoids.

Tongue Positions. The changes in the position of the tongue determine largerly the shape of the mouth and pharyngal cavities. The tongue may move forward and backward, up and down, thus changing the quality of vowel sounds.

Lip Position. The shape of the mouth cavity is also largely dependent on the position of the lips. When the lips are neutral or spread the vowels are termed unrounded.

Character of Vowel End. The quality of all English monophthongs in the stressed position is strongly affected by the following consonant of the same syllable. If a stressed vowel is followed by a strong voiceless consonant it is cut off by it. In this case the end of the vowel is strong and the vowel is called checked. Such vowels are heard in stressed closed syllables ending in a strong voiceless consonant, eg better, cart.

Reduction is a historical process of weakening, short­ening or disappearance of vowel sounds in unstressed positions. Reduction reflects the process of lexical and grammatical changes. Reduction is closely connected not only with word stress but also with rhythm and sentence stress.

Reduction is realized:

1. in unstressed syllables within words

2. in unstressed form-words, auxiliary and modal verbs, per­sonal and possessive pronouns within intonation groups and phrases.

Three different types of reduction are noticed in English.

1. Quantitative reduction, i.e. shortening of a vowel sound in the unstressed position, affects mainly long vowels

2. Qualitative reduction, i.e. obscuration of vowels to­wards [a, i, o], affects both long and short vowels

Vowels in unstressed form-words in most cases undergo both quantitative and qualitative reduction

3. The third type is the elision of vowels in the unstressed positio

Classification of English vowels according to the stability of articulation. Monophthongs. Diphthongoids. Mistakes typical of Russian learners of English and ways of correcting them.

Vowels are normally made with the air stream that meets no closure or narrowing in the mouth, pharyngal and nasal cavi­ties. That is why in the production of vowel sounds there is no noise component characteristic of consonantal sounds.

According to the stability of articulation there are 3 groups of vowels: monophthongs, diphthongs and diphthongoids.

Monophthongs are vowels the articulation of which is almost unchanging. The quality of such vowels is relatively pure. Most Russian vowels are monophthongs. The English monophthongs are: [i, e, ae, a, o, o:, u, , a].

In the pronunciation of diphthongs the organs of speech glide from one vowel position to another within one syl­lable. The starting point, the nucleus, is strong and distinct. The glide which shows the direction of the quality change is very weak. In fact diphthongs consist of two clearly perceptible vowel elements. There are no diphthongs in Russian. The English diph­thongs are: [ei, ai, oi, au,, ie].

In the pronunciation of diphthongoids the articula­tion is slightly changing but the difference between the starting point and the end is not so distinct as it is in the case of diph­thongs. There are two diphthongoids in English: [i:, u:]. The ini­tial "o" may serve as an example of a Russian diphthongoid, eg очень.

2. Sociophonetics: geographical and social variation

in general terms, sociophonetics involves the integration of the principles, tech­niques, and theoretical frameworks of phonetics with those of sociolinguistics. However, there has been considerable variation both in the usage of the term and the definition of the field, so that sociophonetic research may orient more towards the concerns of sociolinguists on the one hand or phoneticians on the other.

The first recorded use of the term "socio-phonetic" (sic) is by Deshaies-Lafontaine (1974), a dissertation on variation in Canadian French carried out squarely within the emergent field of Labovian or variationist sociolinguistics. The term was coined as a parallel to "sociolinguistic" in order to capture the project's emphasis on phonetic rather than syntactic or lexical variables (Deshaies, p.c.).¹ Among phoneticians, sociophonetics has been used as a thematic label at the quadrennial International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS) since 1979. The nine papers presented under this heading at the 1979 conference followed the pattern set by Deshaies-Lafontaine in addressing central questions in sociolinguistics with reference to phonetic variables. Contributions included papers by eminent sociolinguists such as Labov (on vowel normalization) and Romaine (on variation and change in Scottish / r/). Probably the first example of explicitly sociophonetic work published in a prominent journal is the variationist study of Viennese German by Dressler and Wodak (1982, although they prefer the epithet "sociophonological," with synonymous intent).

Since these early studies the quantity of research which can be described as sociophonetic has increased rapidly, particularly since the mid 1990s, and the scope of that research has become ever broader.

1. Sources of variation

The majority of work carried out under the rubric of sociophonetics has focused on identifying the indexical roles of features of speech production. It has been established that speech varies in systematic ways as a function of a very wide range of social factors. This has been one of the fundamental contributions of Labovian sociolinguistics more generally, and is reflected in the early sociophonetic works referred to in the introduction. One of Labov's principal motivations at the inception of his highly influential studies of English in New York City was to show, contra earlier works on American urban varieties such as Hubbell (1950), that linguistic variation is not random, inexplicable, or theoretically irrelevant. This manifesto, laid out explicitly in Labov (1966a), informs all subsequent work carried out under the variationist sociolinguistics banner.

Early sociolinguistic work focused on sources of variation identified as correlating with broad demographic categories such as social class, age, speaker sex, and ethnicity, and with speaking style

1. Regional variation

In addition to the social dimensions of variation we should also comment on studies of regional variation, since speech also indexes a person's geographical identity. Regional studies have a particularly long history, and in fact, from the perspective of our definition of sociophonetics, it is possible to regard the pioneers of nineteenth-century dialectology as the first socio­phoneticians (e.g., Wenker, 1895). Their work not only yielded descriptive documenta­tion of geographical variation, it also showed awareness of the social variation within communities through the predominant focus on older rural males as the harbingers of maximally archaic forms, as well as a recognition that traditional dialects were undergoing change through processes such as standardization (Chambers & Trudgill, 1998). Contemporary analyses of regional variation operate with more complex notions of space which acknowledge "distance" between locations as having social and psychological dimensions rather than being defined solely in terms of geographical proximity (Britain, 2002). Such factors may include

political boundaries and differing orientations towards larger economic centers (e.g., Boberg, 2000; Woolhiser, 2005; Llamas, 2007).

The wider mobility of some groups, implicit and explicit processes of national and supralocal standardization, and people's exposure to and awareness of other regional varieties have been prime areas of interest for sociophoneticians. Advances in telecommunications, recording, and analysis technologies have facilitated the exploration of interaction and interference between a wide range of subtly differ­ent phonetic systems. For an overview of recent studies carried out within this framework and the development of increasingly sophisticated theoretical models to which they contribute see Auer et al. (2005).

1. Geographical Variation

Speech and language can give us an indication of a person’s geographical identity. In fact, “geographical diversity was ... the first observation made in linguistics” (Saussure, 1974:191). A speaker’s geographical identity determines the particular regional accent used. The specific variety of accent depends on where a speaker was bom, or where he or she grew up. The phonetic/phonological system is primarily responsible for differentiating regional types so the term accent is used to describe regional based variation. Speakers can be said to have “an Australian accent”, “a South African accent”, “a New York accent” or “a London accent”, for example.

The accuracy with which a person’s region of origin can be pinpointed depends on a listener’s familiarity with the region and the degree to which the speech in that area varies as a consequence of regionality (Wells, 1982a). For instance, an Australian may be able to recognise that an accent is English but perhaps not the particular region in England where that ^accent is characteristic. However, the English would more accurately be able to identify the place of origin, possibly even the city of origin, of the speaker from the particular realisations of sounds that are used. There are many distinct regional accents in England but in countries such as Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, where English has only been spoken for a relatively short time, the language is much more homogeneous and regional variation within these territories is negligible (Wells, 1982a).

3. The problem of pronunciation norm, regional standards.