The phonological aspect of speech sounds.

Phonology is a branch of phonetics which studies the functional aspect of speech sounds. Both Phonetics and Phonology study speech sounds but Phonetics studies them as articulatory and acoustic units whereas Phonology investigates them as functional distinctive units which perform a discriminatory and a social function.

The discriminatory function consists in distinguishing one sequence of sounds (words, sentences, texts) from another with a different meaning (e.g. back – bag: due to the force of articulation we can differentiate between the meaning = fortis /k/ and lenis /g/).

A social function of speech sounds manifest itself in their role in forming syllables, words, word combinations and sentences. A social function of speech sounds is determined by social and territorial stratification of the language. One’s pronunciation may change in accordance with a social situation and the contents of information.

· In informal situations we may observe certain phonetic modifications: accidental assimilations (give me /gimmi/, let me /lemmi/), non-standard elisions (phonetics /f’netiks/, the next day /DE'neksdei/), the simplification of the diphthongs – the omission of glides (take it /‘tekit/, I’m /am/).

· In formal situations speech sounds are realized very distinctly. Assimilations and elisions are only established. There is no simplification of the diphthongs.

The social function of speech sounds also signifies one’s origin. That is the place a person comes from. A representative of Cockney dialect pronounces insread of milk /milk/ - milk /mivk/; lady /leidi/ - lady /laidi/.

Prof. V. A. Vassilyev developed L. V. Shcherba’s theory in his book “English Phonetics. A theoretical course”. Here is his working definition of the phoneme to which we will stick: “The segmental phoneme is the smallest language unti that exists in the speech of all the members of a given language community as such speech sounds which are capable of distinguishing one word form from another word of the same language or one grammatical form of a word from another grammatical form of the same word.

12.Phonological schools.

Phonology became an independent linguistic discipline in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Its founders were N. S. Trubetskoi, R. Jakobson, and S. O.Kartsevskii, who presented the fundamental concepts of phonology at the First International Congress of Linguists, held in 1928 in TheHague. A landmark in the development of phonology was Trubetskoi’s Principles of Phonology (1st German ed., 1939), the first systematicdiscussion of the aims, principles, and methods of phonology. However, the foundations of phonology had been laid in the late 19th centuryby the German linguist J. Winteler and the British linguist H. Sweet. F. de Saussure and K. Biihler helped develop the theoretical basis ofphonology. Of particular importance was the contribution of I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay, who established the concept of the phoneme and itsfeatures, although this concept was to change over the course of time.

Two Russian schools of phonology were based on the studies of Baudouin de Courtenay: the Leningrad school, which included L. V.Shcherba, L. R. Zinder, M. I. Matusevich, and L. V. Bondarko, and the Moscow school, which included V. N. Sidorov, R. I. Avanesov, P. S.Kuznetsov, A. A. Reformatskii, A. M. Sukhotin, and M. V. Panov. Also based on the work of Baudouin de Courtenay were the originalconcepts of S. I. Bernshtein. The Moscow and Leningrad schools differed in their concept of the phoneme and in their view of the degree towhich phonology is independent of morphology, that is, in their view of the role of morphological criteria in determining the identity ofphonemes.

Phonology was the subject of analyses by members of the Prague Linguistic Circle, the center of phonological studies in Europe. Phonologyis presently studied at the London School of Linguistics, founded by D. Jones in the 1930’s, and by the English School of Phonology.Linguists associated with this center, including J. Firth, W. Allen, F. Palmer, and R. Robins, made important contributions to the developmentof suprasegmental phonology from the 1940’s through the 1960’s. Phonology has been developed to a lesser degree by the CopenhagenLinguistic Circle.

Several scholars not formally associated with any linguistic school but ideologically closest to the Prague Linguistic Circle have made majorcontributions to the development of phonology, among them A. Martinet, J. Kurylowicz, B. Malmberg, and A. Sommerfelt. Other importantcontributions have been made by the American descriptive linguists L. Bloomfield and E. Sapir and by their students M. Swadesh and W.Twaddell. An important achievement of American phonology has been the development of the method of distributional analysis by C.Hockett, H. Gleason, B. Bloch, G. Trager, and K. Pike.

13.The syllabic structure of English words.

The syllable is a basic unit of speech studied on both the phonetic and phonological levels of analysis.

A speech sound which is capable of forming a syllable is called syllabic. It is the most sonorous sound in the syllable and makes up the peak of prominence.

Speech sounds which are not capable of forming a syllable are called non-syllabic. They are the less sonorous sounds of the syllable and make up the valleys of prominence. Prof. Vassiliev defines the syllable as “one or more speech sounds forming a single uninterrupted unit of utterance, which may be a whole word, e.g. man or a commonly recognized and separable subdivision of a word e.g. En-glish, la-ter.

The syllabic structure of words may be graphically represented by the letter V standing for a vowel sound, and the letter C standing for a consonant sound. The syllabic sonorant is represented by Ş.

Every syllable has a definite structure. It belongs to one of the following 4 main types of syllables: V, VC, CV. CVC. They are classified as covered, uncovered, open and closed. A syllable which begins in a vowel is called uncovered, a syllable which begins in a consonant is called covered. A syllable which ends in a vowel is called open, a syllable which ends in a consonant is called closed.

So, the main types of syllables may be defined in the following way:

V – uncovered, open: e.g. /o: / (or)

VC – uncovered, closed: e.g. /it/ (it)

CV – covered, open: e.g. /si: / (see)

CVC – covered, closed: e.g. (catch).

There are a great number of variants in the syllabic structure which are formed by increasing the number of consonants in the initial and final position, as in:

VCC e.g. and, act, oaks etc.

VCCC e.g. ends, acts

CCV e.g. blue, clay etc.

syllable

Phonetic syllable

Orthographic syllable

Phonemic syllables: [‘mei-kә ][‘ei-ljә n]

Orthographic syllable: Mak-erRang-ingDo-ing

There are two functions of syllable

The first is constitutive function. It lies in its ability to be a part of a word itself. The syllables form language units of greater magnitude that is words, morphemes, and utterances. It this respect two things should be emphasized. First, the syllable is the unit within which the relations between distinctive features of phonemes and their acoustic correlates are revealed. Second, within a syllable (or syllables) prosodic characteristics of speech are realized, which form the stress pattern of a word and the intonation structure of an utterance. In sum, the syllable is a specific minimal structure of both segmental and suprasegmental features.

The other function is distinctive one. In this respect the syllable is characterized by its ability to differentiate words and word-forms. One minimal pare has been found in English to illustrate the word distinctive function in the syllabic: nitrate — night-rate.

There analogical distinction between word combinations can be illustrated by many more examples: an aim - a name; an ice house - a nice house, etc. Sometimes the difference in syllable division may be the basic ground for differentiation in such pairs as I saw her rise.- I saw her eyes; I saw the meat — I saw them eat.

14.Theories of syllable formation and syllable division compared with Kazakh /Russian.

There are several theories which try to explain the mechanism of syllable formation and syllable division.

The oldest of them is the so-called expiratory theory(also breath-puff, pressure. or. chest-pulse theory). According to this theory each syllable corresponds to one expiration. A word consists of as many syllables as there are such expirations made when the word is uttered. Each syllable begins with a fresh expiration. For instance, the word " forty" has two sylla­bles. According to the expiratory theory there must be two expi­rations. The point where a new expiration starts indicates the syllabic boundary of the word.

The expiratory theory is strongly criticized here and abroad (by B.I.Zh1nkin,.G.P.Torsuyev, A.C.Gimson and others). According to the last experimental data more than ten syllables can easily be pronounced during one expiration.

Next appeared the so-called sonority theory of the syllable. It was propounded by Otto Jesperson. This theory is nowadays widespread among foreign linguists. The term " sonority" in taken by O.Jesperson as " the degree of perceptibility".

All speech sounds have different inherent sonority. The most sonorous are open back vowels, the least sonorous are the voiceless stops. O.Jesperson classified all speech sounds according to 7 levels of sonority:

Each syllable contains one peak of sonority. For instance let us analyse the words " popular" ' and " articulation".

The word " popular" consists of three peaks that is why it has three syllables.

The sonority theory is also criticized because it cannot explain the mechanism of syllable formation and syllable divi­sion. Besides this theory is helpless in determining the number of syllables in such words as " going", " highest". " speak", " ski", etc.

According to Pro.L.V.Shcherba all consonants may be of three types:

1) initially strong (and finally weak), as in: it, on, us;

2) finally strong (and 1nitially weak). as in: may, tea;

3) double consonants which are strong at both ends and have a weakening in the middle as in: good day.

The most energetic part of a consonant is attached to a vowel. For instance in the word “ten" there are two consonants: /t/ and /n/. The consonant /t/ is finally strong (and initially weak), because the vowel is attached to the end of the consonant. The consonant /n/ is initially strong (and finally weak) because the vowel is attached to the beginning of /n/. It may be represented graphically in the following way.

At the beginning the /t/ is weak, at the end it gets stronger. The muscular tension increases still until it reaches its climax produced by the vowel /e/. Then the muscular tension begins to diminish. The /n/ is still strong at the beginning but gets quite weak at the end.

The syllabic boundary lies at a point where the consonant is the weakest. Initially weak consonants constitute the beginning of a syllable. Finally weak consonants constitute the end of a syllable. Double-peaked consonants may only occur at the junc­ture of two syllables, as in /'gud-'dei/ (good day), /mis­-spel/ (misspell), etc.

Prof.L.V.Shcherba's theory was further developed by his followers and now it is known among Soviet linguists as " muscular tension theory".

Prof.N.I.Zhinkin's investigation of the mechanism of syllable formation and syllable division in the pronunciation of the Russian language may serve as a basis for a general theory of syllables. By using different complicated techniques Prof. B.I.Zhinkin found out which speech organ causes a syllable to be formed. This organ is the pharyngeal cavity. When the walls of

the pharynx are contracted the passage through the pharyngeal cavity gets narrower. This process increases the actual loudness of the sound and the latter produces an " arc of loudness". Prof.N.I.Zhinkin's theory is often referred to as " loudness the­ory”

Prof.N.I.Zhinkin has proved that the " arc of loudness" is due to the complex work of the speech mechanism as a whole (includ­ing the work of the power, vibrator, resonator and obstructor mechanisms).

That is why Prof.V.A.Vassilyev suggests that it would be more precise to call a syllable an “arc of articulatory effort" but not an " arc of loudness".

A syllable begins at a point where a new articulatory effort starts and ends at a point where the articulatory effort ends.

Each language has its own peculiarities in its syllab­ic structure. One of the peculiarities of syllable division in Russian and Kazakh. for instance, is that the sequence of CVCV makes for two open syllables: ca-ды. мо-pe, қ а-ра, жә -не. They are strong-end consonants in Russian and Kazakh.

There are a number of factorsdetermining the rules for syllable division in English, as well. Syllable division in English is closely connected with the checked or free character of the vowel in a stressed position. The sequence of CVCV may have different types of syllable depending on the character of the vowel sound. In this case the syllable division is governed by the following rules:

1) The sequence of /’CVCV/ may include two open syllables if the stressed vowel is a long monophthong or a diphthong, e.g.,

/si: -liŋ / (ceiling),

/tai-tl/ (title), etc.

The syllable division of Russian and Kazakh fully coincides with this pattern in English. In the three languages the conso­nants are strong-end consonants.

2) The sequence of /’CVCV/ has a closed syllable and an open one /'CVC-V/ if the stressed vowel is a short monophthong,

'pit-i/ (pity), /'mer-i/ (merry) etc.

Syllables of this type present a great difficulty to Russian and Kazakh students because in similar Russian and Kazakh words there are two open syllables. In English the intervocalic conso­nants of this type are initially strong while in Russian and Kazakh they are finally strong,

3) Short and long monophthongs' and diphthongs make for an open type syllable it they are unstressed and are separated from the adjacent vowels by only one consonant, e.g.

/ri: ’ æ kt/ (react),

/bi’gin/ (begin)

Phonetic and orthographic syllables should not be con­fused. They sometimes coincide and sometimes do not. For in­stance, phonetically disy1labic words like " apple". " higher", " eaten". " flower", " battle". " fire", " drizzle", etc. are treated in writing as monosyllabic words. Whereas orthographically disyllabic words like " type", " come", " wrote", " theme", " change". have only one phonetic syllable.

Here are some examples:

/a: -tis-tik/ art-ist-ic – the syllabic boundary does not coincide.

/ə: -li/ ear-ly – the syllabic boundary coincides.

The phonetic syllable division is governed by the three rules which have been stated above. The orthographic syllable division is governed by the morphemic principle, as in: star-less, writ-er etc.

The syllabic structure of English performs three main functions: constitutive, distinctive and recognitive.

The syllabic structure fulfills constitutive function because syllables constitute the material forms of all the words, phrases and sentences. Te latter can not exist without syllables.

The distinctive function of the syllabic structure includes differences in both syllable formation and syllable division. Presence or absence of a syllable in one and the same position, as well as different syllabic boundaries may differentiate one word (or phrase, or sentence) from another word (or phrase, or sentence).

Here are some phonological oppositions of presence vs. absence of a syllable in the same position in a minimal pair:

/bet/ - /betə / bet - better

/beit - / ə ’bate/ bate – abate

There are a number of combinations of words distinguished from each other by different syllabic boundaries:

a name – an aim

I scream – ice-cream etc.

The recognitive function of the syllabic structure manifests itself in the fact that the right syllabic boundary makes it easier to recognize words, phrase, and sentence.

The violation of the recognitive function of the syllabic structure results in the following:

1) wrong syllable division produces a strong foreign accent;

2) it produces a comic impression upon an Englishman;

3) it hampers the process of communication.