03092014

Phonetics as a science

Definitions of phonetics:

• a science of speech sounds;

• the science of speech sounds considered as elements of language;

• the science that “studies the sound system of the language that is segmental phonemes, word stress, syllabic structure and intonation”.

Connection of Phonetics with:

• Grammar:

  • morpheme -ed after voiced and voiceless consonants in past forms of verbes;

  • root consonants in singular and plural forms of nouns: leaf — leaves;

  • vowel interchanges: thesis — theses;

• Lexicology:

  • nouns — verbs (an 'object — to ob'ject);

  • adjectives — verbs ('separate — to sepa'rate);

  • homographs (wind [wind] — wind [waind]);

• Stylistics;

• Sociophonetics: ways in which pronunciation interacts with society;

• Kinesics: study of non-verbal means of communication.

Aspects of Phonetics and methods of their investigation

• articulatory;

• acoustic;

• auditory (perceptive);

• functional (linguistic).

1. Articulatory aspect:

• power mechanism — supply of the energy in the form of the air pressure and regulation the force of the air stream;

• vibration mechanism — vibrating when producing voice;

• resonator mechanism — principal resonators;

• obstruction mechanism — form different types of obstruction.

It studies (investigates) sound producing mechanism. Its method consists of observing 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. It borders with anatomy and physiology and the tools for investigating just what the speech organs do are tools which are used in these fields: direct observation, wherever it is possible, e.g. lip movement, some tongue movement; combined with x-ray photography or x-ray cinematography; observation through mirrors as in the laryngoscopic investigation of vocal cord movement, etc.

2. Acoustic aspect:

• the way in which the air vibrates between the speaker's mouth and the listener's ear;

• fundamental tone of voice — basic vibrations of the vocal cords over their whole length;

• partial tones — simultaneous vibrations of parts of the vocal cords;

• fundamental frequency — pitch of the voice and forms the acoustic basis of speech melody.

It studies the way in which the air vibrates between the speaker’s mouth and the listener’s ear. Has its basic method — instrumental. Speech sounds are investigated by means of operator called spectrograph. Intonation is investigated by intonograph. Acoustic phonetics comes close to studying physics and the tools used in this field enable the investigator to measure and analyse the movement of the air in the terms of acoustics. This generally means introducing a microphone into the speech chain, converting the air movement into corresponding electrical activity and analysing the result in terms of frequency of vibration and amplitude of vibration in relation to time. The use of such technical devices as spectrograph, intonograph and other sound analysing and sound synthesizing machines is generally combined with the method of direct observation.

Components of the sound matter of a language:

• fundamental frequency — pitch of the voice;

• spectral or formant — spectrum made up by formants;

• voice — timber — expression of all emotions in speech;

• intensity (force) — associated with stress;

• time (temporal) — duration or length of speech sounds and in pauses.

3. Auditory aspect combines the process of hearing with the process of discrimination of sounds.

It investigates the hearing process. Its interests lie more in the sensation of hearing, which is brain activity, than in the physiological 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 methods applied in auditory phonetics are those of experimental psychology: experimenting, usually based on different types of auditory tests.

4. Functional aspect — linguistic functions of individual sounds or segments of speech.

It is also termed phonology. Studies the way in which sound phenomena function in a particular language, how they are utilized in that language and what part they play in manifesting the meaningful distinctions of the language. So this is the branch of phonetics that studies the linguistic function of consonant and vowel sounds, syllabic structure, word accent and prosodic features, such as pitch, stress and tempo. In linguistics, function is usually understood to mean discriminatory function, that is, the role of the various elements of the language in the distinguishing of one sequence of sounds, such as a word or a sequence of words, from another of different meaning. The basic method is commutation or substitution, substituting sounds in different environments.

Functions of speech sounds:

• constitutive — speech sounds constitute the material forms of morphemes, words and sentences;

• distinctive — morphemes, words;

• recognitive — allophones of the same segmental phoneme are exclusive and not-distinctive.

Ways of distinguishing morphemes and words:

• different in the number of speech sounds [hɔt — ‘hɔtə];

• different speech sounds occur in identical positions [tæk — kæt — ækt];

• when two words or two grammatical forms are differentiated by only two different speech sounds occurred in identical positions — a minimal pair [mæt — pæt];

• speech sounds occurring in identical positions are capable of differentiating one member of a minimal pair from the other — mutually distinctive speech sounds [pæk — bæk].

Recognitive:

• none of them is used by the native speakers of the language in the same time position where any other allophone is used;

• if there were interchanges that wouldn’t lead to any confusion of items of language and to misunderstanding.

Components of the phonetic system of a language

1. Phonemic component:

• system of phonemes as discrete isolated units;

• distribution of the allophones of different phonemes;

• methods of joining speech sounds.

2. Syllabic structure of words: syllable formation and syllable division.

3. Accentual structure:

• physical (acoustic) nature of word stress;

• position of stress in disyllabic and polysyllabic words;

• degrees of word stress.

4. Intonational structure:

• prosodic components of intonation;

• structure of intonation patterns;

• representation of patterns in intonation groups.

Branches of Phonetics

1. According to the object of the study:

• articulatory phonetics — ways speech sounds are produces by the organs of speech;

• acoustic phonetics — study of the physical properties of speech sounds;

• auditory phonetics — way people perceive speech sounds;

• phonology — way in which sound phenomena function in a particular language.

2. According to the sphere of application:

• general phonetics — sound-producing possibilities of the human speech apparatus;

• special phonetics — phonetic system of a particular language.

3. According to the number of languages:

• descriptive phonetics — a single language;

• comparative phonetics — two or more languages.

4. According to the time characteristics:

• historical phonetics — successive changes in the phonetic system of a given language at different stages of its developments;

• contemporary phonetics — find and fix the peculiarities of speech sounds of the language at the present moment.

5. According to the field of application: practical and theoretical phonetics.