The functional aspect of speech sounds

Мета:to find out about functional phonetics.

Короткі теоретичні відомості

«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?

Phonetics is 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.

Phonology is the study of 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 – phonemes or intonemes – in order to express meaning. It investigates the phonetic phenomena from the point of view of their use.

In such a wayphonetics has two main divisions: on the one hand, phonology, the study of the sound patterns of languages, of how a spoken language functions as a 'code', and on the other, the study of substance, that carries the code.

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.

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 physical or 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 interpretation of the information conveyed.

Завдання до теми

Read the tongue-twisters:

1. Unique New York

2. United States twin-screw steel cruisers.

3. Upper roller, lower roller.

4. Urgent detergent!

5. Valuble valley villas.

6. Very well, very well, very well.

7. Vincent vowed vengence very vehemently.

Контрольні питання

1. What is the main distinction between phonetics and phonology?

2. What is phonetics?

3. What is phonology?

4. How does the vocal mechanism act?

5. What stages does the process of speech comprise?

Література [6, c. 22-23].

Практичне заняття № 5

Тема. Поняття про фонему

Sounds and Phonemes

Мета: to find out about phoneme and speech sounds.

Короткі теоретичні відомості

Speech sounds are grouped into language units called phonemes. A phoneme may be thought as the smallest contrastive language unit which exists in the speech of all people belonging to the same language community in the form of speech sounds and may bring about the change of meaning.

The phoneme is a functional unit. That mans that being opposed to others phonemes in the same phonetic context it is capable of differentiating the meaning, eg: pie – tie Are you fond of this cut?

lot – lit Are you fond of this cart?

The phonemes is realized in speech in the material form of speech sounds of different type. Various speech realizations of the phoneme are called its allophones. The difference between the allophones of the same phoneme is due to their position in various phonetic contexts. For example, the consonant [d] in the isolated position as well as in such a sound sequence as [dot] is lenis voiced stop articulated with the tip of the tongue against the teeth ridge. In the position before an interdental constrictive [ө] as in breadth it is formed with the tip of the tongue against the upper teeth, when [d] is followed by the post-alveolar [r] as in dry the tip of the tongue is placed behind the teeth ridge.

The list of the allophones of the phoneme [d] might continue. Nevertheless all the allophones of the phoneme [d] have a few articulatory features in common. All of them are forelingual lenis stop. If any of these features is modified the meaning of the word is either changed or destroyed accordingly. In case the forelingual articulation is changed for the labial one the word dot is modified into pot. Those articulatory features which are common to all the allophones of the same phoneme and are capable of differentiating the meaning are called distinctive.

Allophones of the same phoneme never occur in the same phonetic context. They cannot differentiate the meaning since there is no mutual opposition possible in this case. Such speech sounds are grouped into a phoneme and function as a language unit opposed to other language units, i.e. phonemes. All allophones of the same phoneme are indicated by the same symbol.

Vowels and Consonants

The organs of speech are capable of uttering many different kinds of sounds. From the practical point of view it is convenient to distinguish two types of speech sounds; vowels and consonants. Vowels are voiced sounds produced without any obstruction in the supra-glottal cavities and consequently have no noise component. In the articulation of consonants a kind of noise producing obstruction is formed in the supra-glottal cavities. Such sounds may be pronounced with or without vocal cords vibration.

Завдання до теми

Read the tongue-twisters:

1. Ten tame tadpoles tucked tightly together in a thin tall tin.

2. Terry Teeter, a teeter-totter teacher, taught her daughter Tara to teeter-totter, but Tara Teeter didn’t teeter-totter as Terry Teeter taught her to.

3. Thank the other three brothers of their father’s mother’s brother’s side.

4. That bloke’s back bike brake-block broke.

5. The batter with the butter is the batter that is better!

6. The big black bug bit the big black bear, but the big black bear bit the big black bug back!

7. The big black bug’s blood ran blue.

8. The black bloke’s back brake block broke.

9. The bleak breeze blights the bright blue blossom

10. The blue bluebird blinks.

Контрольні питання

1. What is phoneme?

2. Why phoneme is a functional unit?

3. What is allophone?

4. What is the difference between phoneme and sound?

5. Do allophones of the same phoneme never occur in the same phonetic context?

Література: [3, c. 130 - 134].

Практичне заняття № 6

Тема. Фонема і її відтінки

Phoneme and its shades

Мета:to find out the main difference between phoneme and sound.

Короткі теоретичні відомості

When we talk about the sounds of a language, the term 'sound' can be interpreted in two rather different ways. A linguist uses two separate terms: «phoneme» is used to mean 'sound' in its contrastive sense, e.g.: tie − die, seat − seed and «allophone» is used for sounds which are variants of a phoneme. They usually occur in different positions in the word (i.e. in different environments) and hence cannot contrast with each other, nor be used to make meaningful distinctions (різниця, розбіжність).

The phoneme is a minimal abstract linguistic unit realized in speech in the form of speech sounds opposable (чинний стосовно чогось) to other phonemes of the same language to distinguish (розрізняти) the meaning of morphemes and words.

Let us consider the phoneme from the point of view of its three aspects:

· Firstly, the phoneme is a functional unit.Function is usually understood to mean discriminatory (дифференційний; той, що відрізняє) function, that is, the role of the various components of the phonetic system of the language in distinguishing one morpheme from another, one word from another or also one utterance from another. The opposition of phonemes in the same phonetic environment differentiates the meaning of morphemes and words, e.g. said – says, sleeper – sleepy, bath – path, light – like.

Sometimes the opposition of phonemes serves to distinguish the meaning of the whole phrases, e.g. He was heard badly – He was hurt badly. Thus we may say that the phoneme can fulfill the distinctive function (дифференційна функція).

· Secondly, the phoneme is material, real and objective.That means that it is realized in speech of all English-speaking people in the form of speech sounds, its allophones. The sets of speech sounds, that is the allophones belonging to the same phoneme are not identical in their articulatory content though there remains some phonetic similarity between them. As a first example, let us consider the English phoneme [d], which when not affected by the articulation of the preceding or following sounds is a plosive (проривний), fore-lingual apical (апікальний передлінгвальний), alveolar (альвеолярний), lenis stop (слабкий). This is how it sounds in isolation or in such words as door, darn, down, etc., when it retains its typical articulatory characteristics. In this case the consonant [d] is called the principal (головний) allophone. At the same time there are quite predictable changes in the articulation of allophones that occur under the influence of the neighbouring sounds in different phonetic situations. Such allophones are called subsidiary(допоміжний).[d] is slightly palatalized (трішки пом'якшується, тобто палаталізується) before front vowels (голосні переднього ряду) and the sonorant (сонорний) [j], e.g. deal, day, did, did you. [d] is pronounced without any plosion (не вибуховий) before another stop, e.g. bedtime, bad pain, good dog; it is pronounced with the nasal plosion (носовий вибух) before the nasal sonorants [n] and [m], e.g. sudden, admit, could not, could meet; the plosion is lateral (бічний) before the lateral sonorant [l], e.g. middle, badly, bad light. Followed by [r] the consonant [d] becomes post-alveolar (постальвеолярний) (e.g. dry, dream; followed by the interdental (міжзубний) ([θ], [ð] it becomes dental (зубний), e.g. breadth, lead the way, good thing. When [d] is followed by the labial (губний) [w] it becomes labialized (лабіалізований), e.g. dweller. In the initial position [d] is partially devoiced (частково оглушається), e.g. dog, dean; in the intervocalic (між голосними) position or when followed by a sonorant it is fully voiced (дзвінкий), e.g. order, leader, driver; in the word-final position it is voiceless (глухий), e.g. road, raised old.

· Thirdly, the phoneme is abstract (абстрагований) or generalized (узагальнений) and that is reflected in its definition as a language unit. It is an abstraction because we make it abstract from concrete realizations for classificatory purposes.

Завдання до теми

Read the tongue-twisters:

1. Sally is a sheet slitter, she slits sheets.

2. Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore. But if Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore then where are the sea shells Sally sells?

3. Salty broccoli, salty broccoli, salty broccoli

4. Sam’s shop stocks short spotted socks.

5. Sarah saw a shot-silk sash shop full of shot-silk sashes as the sunshine shone on the side of the shot-silk sash shop.

6. Sarah sitting in her Chevrolet, All she does is sits and shifts, All she does is sits and shifts.

7. Sarah, Sarah, sits in her Chevrolet. When she shifts she sips her Schlitz, and when she sips her Schlitz she shifts.

8. Say this sharply, say this sweetly; Say this shortly, say this softly; Say this sixteen times in succession.

9. Scissors sizzle, thistles sizzle.

10. Selfish sharks sell shut shellfish.

Контрольні питання

1. How many aspects of speech sounds can be differentiated? Explain the essence of each aspect.

2. Define the phoneme.

3. What is an allophone?

4. What are the three aspects of a phoneme?

5. What allophones are called principal / subsidiary?

6. Define the invariant of the phoneme.

7. What is the difference between distinctive and non-distinctive articulatory

features?

8. What types of transcription do you know?

Література [6, c. 22-23]

Практичне заняття № 7

Тема. Алофони

Allophones

Мета: to find out about functional groups allophones are arranged into.

Короткі теоретичні відомості

Allophones are arranged into functionally similar groups, that is groups of sounds in which the members of each group are not opposed to one another, but are opposable to members of any other group to distinguish meanings in otherwise similar sequences.

Allophones of the same phoneme, no matter how different their articulation may be, function as the same linguistic unit. The native speaker is quite readily aware of the phonemes of his language but much less aware of the allophones: it is possible, in fact, that he will not hear the difference between two allophones like the alveolar and dental consonants [d] in the words bread and breadth even when a distinction is pointed out; a certain amount of ear-training may be needed. The reason is that the phonemes differentiate words like tie and die from each other. Allophones, on the other hand, have no such function.

At the same time native speakers realize, quite subconsciously of course, that allophones of each phoneme possess a bundle of distinctive features, that makes this phoneme functionally different from all other phonemes of the language concerned. This functionally relevant bundle of articulatory features is called the invariant(інваріанта, постійна величина)of the phoneme. Neither of the articulatory features that form the invariant of the phoneme can be changed without affecting the meaning. All the allophones of the phoneme [d], for instance, are occlusive, forelingual (передлінгвальний), lenis (слабкий). If occlusive articulation is changed for constrictive one [d] will be replaced by [z], cf. breed – breeze, deal – zeal; [d] will be replaced by [g] if the forelingual articulation is replaced by the backlingual one, cf. dear – gear, day – gay. The lenis articulation of [d] cannot be substituted by the fortis one because it will also bring about changes in meaning, cf. dry – try, ladder – latter, bid – bit.

The articulatory features which form the invariant of the phoneme are called distinctive (характерний, відмінний) or relevant (релевантний, значущий). To extract a relevant feature of the phoneme we have to oppose it to some other phoneme in the same phonetic context. If the opposed sounds differ in one articulatory feature and this difference brings about changes in the meaning of the words the contrasting features are called relevant. For example, the words port and court differ in one consonant only, that is the word port has the initial consonant [p], and the word court begins with [k]. Both sounds are occlusive and fortis, the only difference being that [p] is labial and [k] is backlingual. Therefore it is possible to say that labial and backlingual articulations are relevant in the system of English consonants.

The articulatory features which do not serve to distinguish meaning are called nondistinctive (нехарактерний), irrelevant (той, що не стосується справи) or redundant (надлишковий, надмірний); for instance, it is impossible in English to oppose an aspirated [p] to a non-aspirated one in the same phonetic context to distinguish meanings. That is why aspiration is a non-distinctive feature of English consonants.

If an allophone of some phoneme is replaced by an allophone of a different phoneme the mistake is called phonological, because the meaning of the word is inevitably affected, e.g.: beat – bit.

If an allophone of the phoneme is replaced by another allophone of the same phoneme the mistake is called phonetic. It happens when the invariant of the phoneme is not modified and consequently the meaning of the word is not affected, e.g.: When the vowel [i:] is fully long in such a word as sheep, for instance, the quality of it remaining the same, the meaning of the word does not change.

Завдання до теми

Read the tongue-twisters:

1. Raise Ruth’s red roof.

2. Rattle your bottles in Rollocks’ van.

3. Ray Rag ran across a rough road. Across a rough road Ray Rag ran. Where is the rough road Ray Rag ran across?

4. Real rock wall, real rock wall, real rock wall.

5. Real weird rear wheels

6. Really leery, rarely Larry

7. Red Buick, blue Buick

8. Red lolly, yellow lolly.

9. Reed Wade Road

10. Rhys watched Ross switch his Irish wristwatch for a Swiss wristwatch.