Сухарева_Теория фонетики
.pdfArticulatory phonetics studies the physiology of speech and the mechanism of sound production. It studies the movements of the speech organs and their coordination in the production of sounds. So, it deals with the work of speech apparatus, its organs and their functioning.
Acoustic phonetics studies the physical features of sounds. It studies the way in which the air vibrates between the speaker’s mouth and the listener’s ear. The tools used in this field enable the investigator to measure and analyze the air movements in the terms of acoustics. This generally means converting the air movement into electrical activity and analyzing the frequency & amplitude of sound vibration.
Auditory phonetics started its development in the middle of the 20th century alongside with intensive development of electro-acoustic equipment. The principal question for researchers was to explore the mechanism of speech perception and recognition. How is speech signal recognized, how are different features of sounds sorted and discriminated? Also, auditory phonetics studies the hearing process, the way our brain differentiates sounds as for their quality, pitch, loudness and length.
Functional phonetics (Phonology) studies phonetic units as elements of a system in terms of their functions, mutual relations and rules of realization. Functional phonetics studies the way sounds are utilized in a particular language, their role in manifesting meaningful distinctions of the language. Functional phonetics aims at detecting distinctive features that facilitate successful communication in a certain language on both segmental (individual sounds) and suprasegmental (sound sequences) levels.
Applications of Phonetics.
As a linguistic science, phonetics is naturally connected with other linguistic disciplines, such as grammar, lexicology, stylistics, dialectology and sociolinguistics. Also, phonetics is related to a number of non-linguistic sciences which study the mechanism of speech production and speech perception.
Here are just a few spheres phonetic investigation results are applied in: communication engineering, medicine (speech pathology), psychology,
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psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, oratory and of course, foreign language teaching…
Stop and think!
Think of examples for each of the applications of phonetics mentioned above. Account for the role of phonetics in foreign language acquisition. What problems do learners face?
Stop and check!
Discussion and Practice 1: Phonetics as a science. “Music” of the language. Questions
1.What is special about phonetics as a linguistic discipline? How can this peculiarity be accounted for by the origin of phonetics?
2.How would you interpret the phrase “success of communication”? Think of some examples to illustrate how phonetic units “work” in a language system (take any language you know) to provide successful communication.
3.Name the methods of phonetic studies, comment on their advantages and disadvantages.
4.What are the objectives of different branches of phonetics?
5.What are applications of phonetics?
6.Account for the role of phonetics in foreign language acquisition. What problems do learners face? Wilhelm von Humboldt, the founder of linguistics as a science, described the process of language acquisition in the following way: the first thing a person acquires is some rhythm, some music of the language, which is not yet knowledge but still a grounded anticipation, the turning point at which true language competence starts. Do you agree?
Practical tasks Exercise 1.
a) Listen to the records and mark pauses (//) and prominent syllables (Ο).
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Pinoccio
Once upon a time there was a piece of wood. Just a common block of firewood, one of those thick solid blocks that are put on the fire in the winter to make cold rooms cosy and warm. And so it happened that one day this piece of wood found itself in the shop of Jupetto, the woodcarver.
Буратино
Давным-давно в маленьком городке на берегу Средиземного моря жил старый столяр Джузеппе.
Однажды ему попалось под руку полено. Джузеппе надел очки и начал тесать полено топориком.
Now compare the number of pauses and prominent syllables in the English and Russian texts. What can you notice?
Listen again and mark the tones of the prominent syllables in the two texts. What differences can you notice?
Now try and read the tale in Russian following the English rhythmic pattern. What is the effect?
b) Listen to the following English and Russian lullabies and kids songs and compare their rhythms.
Bye baby bunting Daddy’s gone a hunting Gone to get a rabbit skin
To wrap his baby bunting in.
Eency-Weency Spider
The Eency Weency Spider went up the water spout down came the rain
and washed the spider out
Месяц над нашею кpышею светит, Вечеp стоит у двоpа.
Маленьким птичкам и маленьким детям Спать наступила поpа.
Дом для поросят
Всем на свете нужен дом – Людям и зверятам.
Всем на свете нужен дом - Даже, даже, даже, даже
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out came the sun
and dried up all the rain
and the Eency Weency Spider went up the spout again
up, up, up and down up, up, up and down
Поросятам!
Хорошо прийти домой, Как приятно это. Очень жалко, что зимой, Очень жалко, что зимой, Не бывает лета!
Why do you think the “music” of the language is best noticed in tales and lullabies? Think of other examples in which the typical rhythm of a language is demonstrated.
Exercise 2. Although England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all parts of the same country, the “music” of the English speech is obviously different from the Irish, Scottish and Welsh rhythms, which, in their turn, have a number of common features, though.
Now listen to a traditional Scottish song. Does it sound anyhow different from the ones in ex.1? What do you think this difference might be caused by?
Oh mo dhuthaich (Oh, my country)
Gaelic |
English |
Oh mo dhúthaich' stu th'air m'aire |
Oh my country, you are on my mind |
Uibhist chúmhraidh úr nan gallan |
Fresh fragrant Uist of the saplings |
Far a faighte na daoin' uaisle |
Where the noble men are found |
Far'm bu dual do Mhac 'ic Ailein |
Who gave their hereditary allegiance |
|
to Mac ic Ailein. |
Tir a' mhurain, tir an eorna |
Land of seabed, land of barley |
Tir 's am pailt a h-uile seorsa |
Land of abundance of every kind |
Far am bi na gillean óga |
Where the young lads will be |
Gabhail òran's g`ól an lionna |
Singing songs and drinking beer |
Thig iad ugainn, carach seólta |
They will come to us cunning and wily |
Gus ar mealladh far ar n-eólais; |
In order to entice us from our homes |
Molaidh iad dhuinn Manitoba, |
They will praise Manitoba to us |
Dúthaich fhuar gun ghual, gun mhóine. |
A cold country with no coal and no peat |
Cha leig mi leas 'a bith 'ga innse, |
I don't need to say that when we reach it |
Nuair ruigear, 'sann a chithear, |
we'll see it |
Samhradh goirid foghar sitheil, |
A short summer and a peaceful autumn |
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Geamhradh fada na droch-shide. |
A long winter of bad weather |
Nam biodh agam fhin de storas |
If I had riches |
Da dheis aodaich, paidhir bhrogan |
A change of clothes and a pair of shoes |
Agus m'fharadh bhith 'nam phóca' |
And my prayer in my pocket |
Sann air Uibhist dheanainn seóladh. |
It is to Uist I would be sailing. |
Discussion and Practice 2: Accent.
Questions
The English language is a flea market of words, handed down, borrowed or created over more than 2000 years. And it is still expanding, changing and trading. Our language is not purely English at all – it is a ragbag of diverse words that have come to our island from all around the world. Words enter the language in all sorts of ways: with invaders, migrants, tradesman; in stories, artworks, technologies and scientific concepts; with those who hold power, and those who try to overthrow the powerful.
1.Do you think the idea above can refer to English pronunciation as well, with “a flea market of words” being “a flea market of accents”? Give examples to support your opinion.
2.What is your personal attitude to pronunciation? Do you think an accent can affect the attitude to the speaker?
3.An outstanding Russian linguist L.V. Shcherba was convinced that “…те ошибки будут грубыми, которые мешают взаимопониманию, а это гораздо чаще будутошибки произношения, нежели ошибки грамматические” . Would you agree with this idea? Why/not?
Practical tasks
Exercise 1. Learners speak...
You will hear learners of English talking. Who do you think has made the best progress? Rate them in order of their language competence (as you see it).
Щерба Л.В. Вступительная статья // Вводный курс фонетики немецкого языка / И.П. Сунцова. – М., 1958.
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Check yourselves with the key. What manner of speaking is considered to be better? Can you explain why?
Exercise 2. Where are you from?
You will hear speakers from 5 different countries (Poland, India, China, Japan, Spain) talking about their families. Where do you think each speaker is from? Speaker 1 is from __________________
Speaker 2 is from __________________
Speaker 3 is from __________________
Speaker 4 is from ________________
Speaker 5 is from __________________
What is there about their pronunciation that helped you make your guesses? Do you feel the same about all the accents? Are there ones that sound “pleasant”, or “difficult”, or “easy”? What do you like or dislike in an accent?
Exercise 3.
Listen to the results of a survey of what business people in England think about the pronunciation of their employees and partners.
What accent(s) do they favour? Why?
What accent(s) are they prejudiced against? Why?
Exercise 4.
Look at some of the results of an online poll about people’s attitude to accent commissioned by BBC.
Who have the most/least pleasant accents, according to the poll? Why? What accent turns out to be the most preferable when it comes to getting a job?
Comment on Dr. Upton’s opinion about accents. Do you agree?
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What’s in a Voice?
What do you like or dislike in an accent? Ever heard of the the word Daddocky or Vorest? The latest project from the BBC aims to understand the diverse languages and dialects that are spread across the United Kingdom...
David Beckham may be the biggest football and fashion icon in the world but when it comes to accents his instantly gets the red card. Also up there in the hall of fame of those with the least pleasant accents in the British Isles are ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here’ Janet Street-Porter, Jasper Carrot, Cilla Black and even comedian Billy Connolly.
According to people in the West super-smooth Sean Connery is the ‘most pleasant speaker’ with Trevor McDonald and Joanna Lumley also ranking in their top five. Having a news reader's voice does come in handy as does the Queen’s English if you’re looking for a job.
These are just some of the results of a BBC commissioned online poll which sampled people’s attitudes to accent, dialect and the way we speak. It
is a light-hearted precursor to an ambitious investigation into the English language currently being collected and delivered by the BBC.
The BBC’s Voices project has audio-gatherers recording the voices of at least 1,000 interviewees from an eclectic mix of people from all corners of the UK. Linguistics expert, Dr Clive Upton, said:
“Scratch the surface and language can create huge debate. We are passionate about it because it’s about our identity who we are and where we are from. What we want to unearth is real language and how it affects real people. For example who is to say that non-standard English, phrases like, ‘I’m not going nowhere’ is substandard English. This goes back to Shakespeare and beyond. It’s the same with accents, who is to say one sounds more educated than another? Many of our prejudices and misconceptions about language are just not logical.”
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Section 2. Articulatory Phonetics.
Issues to Study and Discuss:
1.The speech apparatus.
2.Articulatory characteristics of sounds: place, organs and manner of articulation.
3.Articulation and coarticulation. Types of assimilation.
4.Articulatory basis of a language. Major differences between English and Russian articulatory bases.
5.Problems of teaching pronunciation.
Phonetics has 2 main divisions.
On the one hand, there is phonology, or functional phonetics, which studies how language functions as a “code” of communication. On the other hand, there are branches studying the substance that carries the code - articulatory and acoustic phonetics.
1.The speech apparatus. Active and passive speech organs.
Articulatory Phonetics studies the way the air is set in motion, the position
and movements of the speech organs in the production of speech sounds. All speech sounds are produced by means of the speech apparatus. The speech apparatus is principally the same with all people and consists of 3 parts: the lungs (respiratory apparatus), the larynx (which contains the vocal cords) and organs of articulation located in mouth and nasal cavities.
The air stream released by the lungs goes through the wind-pipe and comes to the larynx, which contains the vocal cords. The vocal cords are two elastic folds which may be kept apart or brought together. The opening between them is called the glottis. If the tense vocal cords are brought together, the air stream forcing an opening makes them vibrate and we hear some voice. Such sounds are called voiced. Voiceless sounds are made with the vocal cords kept apart.
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There is one more state of the vocal cords - the glottal stop. When the vocal cords are brought close together and then opened suddenly by the air stream there comes a sort of coughing noise, a kind of the 'click' of the vocal cords. This sound is called the glottal stop.
The most important organ of speech is the tongue. Phoneticians divide the tongue into four sections, the part which lies opposite the soft palate is called the back of the tongue; the part facing the hard palate is called the front; the one lying under the teeth ridge is known as the blade and its extremity the tip. The central part of the tongue is the area where the front and back meet. The tongue may lie flat or move in the horizontal or vertical directions. It can also change its shape so that the sides are curved up forming a groove.
The lips can take up various positions as well. They can be brought firmly together or kept apart neutral, rounded, or protruded forward.
All the organs of speech can be divided into two groups:
(1)active organs of speech, movable and taking an active part in the sound formation: (a) the vocal cords which produce voice; (b) the tongue which is the most flexible, movable organ; (c) the lips affecting very considerably the shape of the mouth cavity; (d) the soft palate with the uvula, directing the stream of air either to the mouth or to the nasal cavity; (e) the back wall of the pharynx contracted for some sounds; (f) the lower jaw which movement controls the gap between the teeth and also the disposition of the lips; (g) the lungs providing air for sounds;
(2)passive organs of speech: (a) the teeth, (b) the teeth ridge, (c) the hard palate and (d) the walls of the resonators.
2. Articulatory characteristics of sounds: place, organs and manner of articulation.
There are 2 types of speech sounds distinguished: vowels and consonants. Vowels are voiced sounds produced without any obstruction in the supra-glottal cavities and consequently have no noise component. Consonants are produced
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with a kind of noise obstruction formed in the supra-glottal cavities. These sounds may be pronounced with or without vibration of vocal cords.
On the articulatory level speech sounds are generally characterized according to the following criteria:
place of articulation
organs of articulation involved
manner of articulation
The place of articulation is the place where 2 organs of speech come close to each other and form an opening for the air stream to go through.
According to the place of articulation, sounds can be: labial (m, b ,p),
labio-dental (v, f), alveolar (t, d, s, z, n, l), palatal (j)
velar (g, k, η) uvular (r) glottal (h)
As for the organs of articulation involved, sounds can be: labial (m, b, p, v, f),
lingual:
forelingual (t, d, s, z, θ, ð, ∫, З , t∫, dЗ, n, 1, r) mediolingual (j)
backlingual (g, k, η) glottal (h)
The manner of articulation is determined by the type of obstruction (if any) for the air stream. There are 3 major modes of articulation: open, narrow and close (with an explosion). Vowels, for example, are open sounds, when the air stream
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