Methods of the identification of phonemes in a language

Types of transcription

A transcription which is a visual system of notation of the sound structure of speech. The transcription should provide each phoneme with a distinctive symbol to avoid ambiguity. It is called phonemic transcription, or broad. It contains as many symbols as there are phonemes in the language. /t/

If it is exactness in the differentiation of the allophones of each phoneme that is required, the transcription chould provide either different symbols for each allophone, or introduce special marks to represent the different features of the allophones. Phonetic transcription [t] is used to denote the different features the allophones are characterized by.

One of the principles of this transcription is to use the fewest possible symbols of the simplest possible shape.

11. The structure and functions of syllables in English

Syllable formation in English is based on the phonological opposition vowel - consonant. Vowels are usually syllabic while consonants are not with the exceptions of [l], [m], [n], which become syllabic in a final position preceded by a

noise consonant: bottle [bσtl], bottom [bσtm], button [b/\tn] and [r] (in those accents which pronounce [r]) perhaps [præps].

The structure of English syllables can be summarized as follows:

• Many syllables have one or more consonants preceding the nucleus. These make upthe syllable onset: me, so, plow.

• Many syllables have one or more consonants, following the nucleus. They make up the syllable coda. They are traditionally known as closed syllables: cat, jump.

• The combination of nucleus and coda has a special significance, making up the rhyming property of a syllable.

 

 

The English language has developed the closed type of syllable as the fundamental one while in Russian it is the open type that forms the basis of syllable formation.

The other aspect of this component is syllable division. The problem of syllable division in case of intervocalic consonants and their clusters, like in such words as city, extra, standing and others.

Let us consider the first word ['sit.i]. There exist two possibilities:

a) the point of syllable division is after the intervocalic consonant:

b) the point of syllable division is inside the consonant.

In both cases the first syllable remains closed because the shot vowel should remains check The result of instrumentally analyses show, that the point of syllable division in such words is inside the intervocalic consonant. EPD indicates the point of division after the consonant.

The second case. There are two syllables in the word extra but where should the boundary between them fall?

1) [e - kstrə]. It is unlike that people would opt for a division between [e] and [kstrə] because there are no syllables in English which begin with consonant sequence [kstr].

2) Similarly, a division between [ekstr] and [ə] would be unnatural.

3) [ek - strə], [eks - trə], [ekst - rə] are possible. People usually prefer either of the first two options here, but there no obvious way of deciding between them.

In some cases we may take into account the morphemic structure of words. For example, standing consists of two syllables; on phonetic grounds [stæn - diŋ). on grammatical grounds [stænd - iŋ].

Now we shall consider two functions of the 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 ofphonemes 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.

 

12. Theories on syllable formation and division

Speech can be broken into minimal pronounceable units into which sounds show a tendency to cluster or group. These smallest phonetic groups arc generally given the name of syllables. Being the smallest pronounceable units, syllables form morphemes, words and phrases. Each of these units is characterized by a certain syllabic structure. Thus a meaningful language unit phonetically may be considered from the point of view of syllable formation and syllable division.

The syllable is a complicated phenomenon and like a phoneme it can be studied on four levels - articulatory, acoustic, auditory andfunctional. The complexity of the phenomenon gave rise to many theories.

We could start with the so-called expiratory (chest pulse or pressure) theory by R.H. Stetson. This theory is based on the assumption that expiration in speech is a pulsating process and each syllable should correspond to a single expiration. So the number of syllables in an utterance is determined by the number of expirations made in the production of the utterance. This theory was strongly criticized by Russian and foreign linguists. G.P. Torsuyev, for example, wrote that in a phrase a number of words and consequently a number of syllables can be pronounced with a single expiration. This fact makes the validity of the theory doubtful.

Another theory of syllable put forward by O. Jespersen is generally called the sonority theory. According to O. Jespersen, each sound is characterized by a certain degree of sonority which is understood us acoustic property of a sound that determines its perceptibility. According to this sound property a ranking of speech sounds could be established: <the least sonorous> voiceless plosives à voiced fricatives àvoiced plosives à voiced fricatives à sonorants à close vowels àopen vowels <the most sonorous>. In the word plant for example we may use the following wave of sonority: [pla:nt]. According to V.A. Vasssilyev the most serious drawback of this theory is that it fails to explain the actual mechanism of syllable formation and syllable division. Besides, the concept of sonority is not very clearly defined.

Further experimental work aimed to description of the syllable resulted in lot of other theories. However the question of articulatory mechanism of syllable in a still an open question in phonetics. We might suppose that this mechanism is similar in all languages and could be regarded as phonetic universal.

In Russian linguistics there has been adopted the theory of syllable by LV Shcherba. It is called the theory of muscular tension. In most languages there is the syllabic phoneme in the centre of the syllable which is usually a vowel phoneme or, in some languages, a sonorant. The phonemes preceding or following the syllabic peak are called marginal. The tense of articulation increases within the range of prevocalic consonants and then decreases within the range of postvocalic consonants.

Russian linguist and psychologist N.I. Zhinkin has suggested the so-called loudness theory which seems to combine both production and perception levels. The experiments carried out by N.I. Zhinkin showed that the arc of loudness of perception level is formed due to variations of the volume pharyngeal passage which is modified by contractions of its walls. The narrowing of the passage and the increase in muscular tension which results from it reinforce the actual loudness of a vowel thus forming the peak of the syllabic. So the syllable is the arc оf loudness which correlates with the arc of articulatory effort on the speed production level since variations in loudness are due to the work of all speech mechanisms.

It is perfectly obvious that no phonetician has succeeded so far in giving an adequate explanation of what the syllable is. The difficulties seem to arise from the various possibilities of approach to the unit. There exist two points of view:

1. Sоme linguists consider the syllable to be a purely articulatory unit which lacks any functional value. This point of view is defended on the ground that the boundaries of syllables do not always coincide with those of morphemes.

2. However the majority of linguists treat the syllable as the smallest pronounceable unit which can reveal some linguistic function.

Trying to define the syllable from articulatory point of view we may talk about universals. When we mean the functional aspect of the syllable it should be defined with the reference to the structure of one particular language.

The definition of the syllable from the functional point of view tends to single out the following features of the syllable:

a) a syllable is a chain of phonemes of varying length;

b) a syllable is constructed on the basis of contrast of its constituents (which is usually of vowel - consonant type);

c) the nucleus of a syllable is a vowel, the presence of consonants is optional; there are no languages in which vowels are not used as syllable nuclei, however, there are languages in which this function is performed by consonants;

d) the distribution of phonemes in the syllabic structure follows by the rules which are specific enough for a particular language.

 

There are different points of view on syllable formation which are briefly the following:

1. The most ancient theory states that there are as many syllables in a word as there are vowels. This theory is primitive and insuffi­cient since it does not take into consideration consonants which also can
form syllables in some languages, neither does it explain the boundary of syllables.

2. The expiratory theory (chest -pulse theory) states that there are as many syllables in a word as there are expiration pulses. The borderline between the syllab­les is, according to this theory, the moment of the weakest expiration. This theory is inconsistent because it is quite possible to pronounce several syllables in one articulatory effort or expiration.

3. The sonority theory states that there are as many syllables in a word as there are peaks of prominence according to the scale of sono­rity. Thus, in the word sudden the most sonorous is the vowel / ʌ /, then goes the nasal sonorant /n/ which forms the second peak of prominence, /s/ and /d/ are sounds of low sonority, they cannot be consider» as syllable forming sounds. The sonority theory helps to establish the number of syllables in a word, but fails to explain the mechanism of syllable division because it does not state to which syllable the weak sound at the boundary of two syllables belongs.

4. The "arc of loudness" or "arc of articulatory tension" theory is based on L.V. Shcherba's statement that the centre of a syllable is the syllable forming phoneme. Sounds which precede or follow it constitute a chain or an arc which is weak in the beginning and in the end and strong in the middle.

If a syllable consists of one vowel, then its strength increases in the beginning, reaches the maximum of loudness and then, gradually decreases. In terms of the "arc of loudness" theory there are as many syllables in a word as there are "arcs of loudness". A syllable begins at the point where a new articulatory effort starts, and the end of the syllable is the point where the articulatory effort drops to the minimum.

So, a syllable can be defined as a phonetic unit, which is pronounced by one articulatory effort, by one muscular contraction, which results auditorily in one uninterrupted arc of loudness.

 

 

13. RP AS THE STANDARD ENGLISH ACCENT.

English has always had its regional pronunciations. Yet as early as the 16 century, one regional accent began to acquire social prestige. For reasong of politics, commerce, and the presence of the Court, it was the pronunciation of the south-east of England, and more particulary, that of the London region, that the prestige was attached. The early phonetician John Hart notes (1569) that it is in the Court and London that ‘the flower of the English toungue is used’. Already in those times pronunciatioin was a marker of position in society: those eager for social advancement felt obliged to modify their accent in the direction of the social standard. With times RP has come to symbolize a person's high position in society. During the 19th century, it became the accent of public schools, such as Eton and Harrow, and was soon the main sign that a speaker had received a good education. It spread rapidly throughout the Civil Service of the British Empire and the armed forces, and became the voice of authority and power. Because it was a regionally 'neutral' accent, and was thought to be more widely understood than any regional accent, it came to adopted by the BBC, when radio broadcasting began in the 1920s. During WW2, it became linked in many minds with the voice of freedom, and the notion of a "BBC pronunciation" grew. Today, with the breakdown of rigid divisions between social classes and the development of the mass media, RP has altered much over just a few decades. Less than 3 per cent of the British people speak it in a pure form now.

 

It is associated with the south-east, where most RP-speakers live or work, but it can be found anywhere in the country. Accents usually tell us where a person is from; RP tells us only about a person's social or educational background. RP is a special accent - a regionally neutral accent that is used as a standard for broadcasting and some other kinds of public speaking. RP is widely used is the academic world, both in Britain and globally. Along with General American., it is the most common model accent in teaching English as a foreign lanugage. Many Britons abroad modify their accent to make their pronunciation closer to RP in order to be better understood than if they were using their usual accent.

There are many people in England who do not speak RP though their English in good and correct. They speak Standard Englsih with a regional type of pronunciation. Phoneticians usually divide English speakers into three groups: 1. RP speakers of standard Engslih (those who speak Standard English without any local accent). 2. Non-RP speakers of Standard Englsh (those who speak E with a regional accent). 3. Dialectal speakers Within RP itself three main types are distinguished: 1. The conservative RP, the general RP form, which is heard on the BBC, and the trend-setting, or advanced RP form, associated with certain social and professional groups.

CURRENT CHANGES IN RP.

 

 

REALIZATIONAL CHANGES: Vowels: /i:/ and /u:/ are diphongized in final position, as in SEE or TWO. // Diphthong /oʊ / has changed its quality and became /əʊ /, its starting point now is a mid-central unrounded vowel, instead of back and rounded /o/, the transcription of the phoneme was changed in 1962// About 50 years ago /æ/ was considerably less open and tenser than is now customary. Triphthongs may lose their mid element, as in FIRE [faə], SCIENCE may be smoothed to /saəns/, POWER – to [paə]. Similarly, a diphthong will lose its second element when followed by another vowel, e.g., THROWING /ˈθrəʊɪŋ/ will become [θrɜɪŋ]. Consonants: L-vocalization. /l/ in the final position or in a final consonant cluster is now undergoing a process of vocalization (becoming a vowel). Thus in the words such as MILK, SHELF, TABLES,, the tongue tip may make no contact at all with the alveolar ridge. /w/, or rather a new kind of diphthong is used, so that MILK is [miwk] or [miok], SHELF is [∫eof] or [∫ewf], TABLES [‘teiboz], APPLE [‘æpo], ST PAUL’S CAHTEDRAL /powz/.

SYSTEMIC CHANGES: the only recent change that is now completed is the loss of /ɔə/ from the phonemic inventory, as in the words YOUR /jɔə/-/jɔ:/, POOR/pɔə/-/pɔ:/, SURE /ʃɔə/- /ʃɔ:/ TOURIST/’tɔərist/-/’tʊərist/or/’tɔ:rist/.

LEXICAL CHANGES: There is a storng trend towards selecting / ə / instead of unstressed /i/ in weak syllables. This usually occurs after /l/ and /r/, as in ANGRILY /’æŋgrili/ v. /’æŋgr ə li/, LAZILY (‘leizili/ v. (leiz ə li).

DISTRIBUTIONAL CHANGES: The most noteworthy trend concerning a change in the occurrence of a phoneme is the loss of /j/ after alveolar consonants /s/ and /l/, as in ALLUDE / ə ‘lu:d/, SUPER /’su:p ə, SUIT /su:t/. Coalescence /t+j/ and /d+j/ is increasingly common, e.g., /’edju:keit/ - /’eʤu:keit/, STATUE /’stætju:/ - /‘stætʧu:/, TUESDAY /’ʧu:zdi/

STRESS CHANGES: the changes affect adjectives ending in ‘-able’, ‘ible’. It tends now to fall later in the word, as in ‘APPLICABLE – APP’LICABLE, ‘FRAGMENTARY – FRAG’MENTARY, etc. The feminine suffex ‘-ess’ increasingly attracts primary stress in words like ‘COUN’TESS, ‘STEWARDESS. RE’SEARCH has given way to ‘RESEARCH, ‘HARASS to HA’RASS.

The most observably spreading change on the suprasegmental level occurs in sentence intonation. This is especially common among young people, but not exclusively so. The change lies in a tendency to use a rising nuclear tone on a statement where a fall might be expected. The (presumably unintended) effect may be one of reluctance to commit oneself, or of diffidence. We cannot be sure if the rising intonation conveys meaning, or is habitual

In almost all languages, there is a variation in the relative prominence of syllables. The prominence of syllables is referred to as stress. It is a function of pitch, duration/length/loudness, and quality. In different languages one of the factors is usually more significant than the others. Depending upon which factor is the principal one in giving prominence to a syllable, word stress in languages may be of different types. 1. If special prominence is achieved through the increased loudness (i.e. intensity of articulation), such word stress is termed DYNAMIC. 2. If special prominence in a stressed syllable is achieved mainly through the change of pitch, such type of word stress is MUSICAL, or TONIC. 3. QUANTITATIVE stress is when prominence is achieved through the changes in the quantity of vowels, i.e. their duration. 4. QUALITATIVE stress is when the stressed vowel is made prominent due to its clear and distinct character.

There are languages which do not have word stress, such as Evenk, or Kalmyk, but many languages combine various types of words stress. Russian displays qualitative, quantitative and dynamic features. Word stress in Ancient Greek used to be tonic, but is characterized as dynamic in Modern Greek. Scandinavian languages make use of both dynamic and tonic stresses in more or less equal degree. Oriental languages like Chinese, Japanese, Korean are tonic In English prominence is achieved due to increased duration, loudness and higher pitch, i.e. quantitative, tonic and dynamic stressing.

Some languages have fixed stress, associated with a certain syllable in a word. In Finnish, Czech, Latvian stress always falls on the first syllable, in Turkish – on the final syllable of the root form, in French – on the final syllable in the word. In English, Russian stress placement is free in that different words can have different stress pattern..

Any word with more than one syllable has a word stress. The stress pattern of a word reflects the distribution of

prominence among its syllables. In words that have one stress, the latter is called ‘ primary stress’. In longer

words, it is possible to pick out a second, weaker stressed syllable that bears secondary s tress notated as low

mark.

Two main tendencies determine the place and different degrees of word stress in English: the RECESSIVE tendency and the RHYTHMIC tendency.

The oldest of the English word accentuation tendencies is the RECESSIVE tendency, characteristic of all Germanic languages. It originally consisted in placing the word stress on the initial syllable of nouns, adjectives, and verbs and on the root syllable of words which belonged to other parts of speech and had a prefix. The recessive accent in Modern English is of two types: UNRESTRICTED and RESTRICTED (by an unstressed prefix). UNRESTRICTED recessive accent falls on the first (root) syllable, as in words FATHER, MOTHER, HUSBAND. RESTRICTED recessive accent falls on the second (root) syllable of native English words with a prefix which has lost its meaning: AMONG, BECOME, FORGET, INDEED. Under the influence of the native English tendency to unrestricted recessive stress, all the disyllabic and trisyllabic words borrowed from French until the 15^th century underwent ‘accentual assimilation’: the original accent on the final syllable of loan words and gradually shifted to the beginning: COLOUR, MARRIAGE, REASON< etc. In Chaucer’s poems we find such free accentual variants as ‘REASON and REA’SON. Loan words with prefixes which have no particular meaning now also have restricted recessive stress: CON’DUCT, DE’PEND, SUR’PRISE.
The RHYTHMIC tendency can be accounted for the presence in English of a great number of monosyllabic words, some of which are stressed (notional) words, others are not (form words). Such phenomenon has created the English rhythm, consisting of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables This tendency has caused the appearance in borrowed polysyllabic words of a secondary stress on the syllable separated from the word-final principal stress by an unstressed syllable. The words began to be pronounced in isolation on the model of short phrases in which a stressed syllable alternated with an unstressed one. Thus the word ‘RADICAL originally had a stress on the final syllable – RADI’CAL- but later it received the recessive stress on the initial syllable, while the final stress was still retained. The result of it was the typically English alternation of a stressed syllable with an unstressed one. For some time this and similar words had two stresses but gradually the word-final stress began to weaken and disappeared. Thus in tri-syllabic words there remained only one strong stress on the third syllable from the end of the word. The tendency to stress the third syllable from the end was extended to four-syllable words as well, and this stress is called RHYTHMICAL. Strictly speaking, the stress in such words as RADICAL, FAMILY, CINEMA, is rhythmical only in its origin, because in Modern English there is no alternation of a stressed syllable with an unstressed one in these words. The stress here is called HYSTORICALLY RHYTHMICAL In Modern English there is also GENINELY RHYTHMICAL stress. This is the secondary stress on the second PRETONIC syllable in words like PRO,NUNCI’ATION, E,XAMI’NATION, RE,LIA’BILITY, etc. There is also a RETENTIVE tendency which consists in the retention of the stress of the parent word in the derivatives. More commonly it is kept in the parent word as a secondary accent, e.g., ‘PERSON – ‘PERSONAL –,PERSO’NALITY.

The SEMANTIC factor can also condition the place and the degree of stress. The meaningful prefixes UN-, MIS-, EX-, UDNER-, etc, (UNKNOWN, EXWIFE, UNDERESTIMATE), or semantically more important part of a compound word get more prominence: BUTTONHOLE, TONGUETWISTER.

THE STRESS PATTERN OF ENGLISH WORDS. TENDENCIES

In almost all languages, there is a variation in the relative prominence of syllables. The prominence of syllables is referred to as stress. It is a function of pitch, duration/length/loudness, and quality. In different languages one of the factors is usually more significant than the others. Depending upon which factor is the principal one in giving prominence to a syllable, word stress in languages may be of different types. 1. If special prominence is achieved through the increased loudness (i.e. intensity of articulation), such word stress is termed DYNAMIC. 2. If special prominence in a stressed syllable is achieved mainly through the change of pitch, such type of word stress is MUSICAL, or TONIC. 3. QUANTITATIVE stress is when prominence is achieved through the changes in the quantity of vowels, i.e. their duration. 4. QUALITATIVE stress is when the stressed vowel is made prominent due to its clear and distinct character.

There are languages which do not have word stress, such as Evenk, or Kalmyk, but many languages combine various types of words stress. Russian displays qualitative, quantitative and dynamic features. Word stress in Ancient Greek used to be tonic, but is characterized as dynamic in Modern Greek. Scandinavian languages make use of both dynamic and tonic stresses in more or less equal degree. Oriental languages like Chinese, Japanese, Korean are tonic In English prominence is achieved due to increased duration, loudness and higher pitch, i.e. quantitative, tonic and dynamic stressing.

Some languages have fixed stress, associated with a certain syllable in a word. In Finnish, Czech, Latvian stress always falls on the first syllable, in Turkish – on the final syllable of the root form, in French – on the final syllable in the word. In English, Russian stress placement is free in that different words can have different stress pattern..

Any word with more than one syllable has a word stress. The stress pattern of a word reflects the distribution of

prominence among its syllables. In words that have one stress, the latter is called ‘ primary stress’. In longer

words, it is possible to pick out a second, weaker stressed syllable that bears secondary s tress notated as low

mark.

Two main tendencies determine the place and different degrees of word stress in English: the RECESSIVE tendency and the RHYTHMIC tendency.

The oldest of the English word accentuation tendencies is the RECESSIVE tendency, characteristic of all Germanic languages. It originally consisted in placing the word stress on the initial syllable of nouns, adjectives, and verbs and on the root syllable of words which belonged to other parts of speech and had a prefix. The recessive accent in Modern English is of two types: UNRESTRICTED and RESTRICTED (by an unstressed prefix). UNRESTRICTED recessive accent falls on the first (root) syllable, as in words FATHER, MOTHER, HUSBAND. RESTRICTED recessive accent falls on the second (root) syllable of native English words with a prefix which has lost its meaning: AMONG, BECOME, FORGET, INDEED. Under the influence of the native English tendency to unrestricted recessive stress, all the disyllabic and trisyllabic words borrowed from French until the 15^th century underwent ‘accentual assimilation’: the original accent on the final syllable of loan words and gradually shifted to the beginning: COLOUR, MARRIAGE, REASON< etc. In Chaucer’s poems we find such free accentual variants as ‘REASON and REA’SON. Loan words with prefixes which have no particular meaning now also have restricted recessive stress: CON’DUCT, DE’PEND, SUR’PRISE.
The RHYTHMIC tendency can be accounted for the presence in English of a great number of monosyllabic words, some of which are stressed (notional) words, others are not (form words). Such phenomenon has created the English rhythm, consisting of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables This tendency has caused the appearance in borrowed polysyllabic words of a secondary stress on the syllable separated from the word-final principal stress by an unstressed syllable. The words began to be pronounced in isolation on the model of short phrases in which a stressed syllable alternated with an unstressed one. Thus the word ‘RADICAL originally had a stress on the final syllable – RADI’CAL- but later it received the recessive stress on the initial syllable, while the final stress was still retained. The result of it was the typically English alternation of a stressed syllable with an unstressed one. For some time this and similar words had two stresses but gradually the word-final stress began to weaken and disappeared. Thus in tri-syllabic words there remained only one strong stress on the third syllable from the end of the word. The tendency to stress the third syllable from the end was extended to four-syllable words as well, and this stress is called RHYTHMICAL. Strictly speaking, the stress in such words as RADICAL, FAMILY, CINEMA, is rhythmical only in its origin, because in Modern English there is no alternation of a stressed syllable with an unstressed one in these words. The stress here is called HYSTORICALLY RHYTHMICAL In Modern English there is also GENINELY RHYTHMICAL stress. This is the secondary stress on the second PRETONIC syllable in words like PRO,NUNCI’ATION, E,XAMI’NATION, RE,LIA’BILITY, etc. There is also a RETENTIVE tendency which consists in the retention of the stress of the parent word in the derivatives. More commonly it is kept in the parent word as a secondary accent, e.g., ‘PERSON – ‘PERSONAL –,PERSO’NALITY.

The SEMANTIC factor can also condition the place and the degree of stress. The meaningful prefixes UN-, MIS-, EX-, UDNER-, etc, (UNKNOWN, EXWIFE, UNDERESTIMATE), or semantically more important part of a compound word get more prominence: BUTTONHOLE, TONGUETWISTER

 

MEANINGS OF PROSODY

The functions and meanings of prosody should be described with reference to the utterance as the basic communicative unit. The prosody of an utterance (intonation) carries independent meanings of its own, regardless of the words and the grammatical structure of the utterance.

The prosody of the utterance is polysemantic. Due to its structural comp­lexity it can express a number of different meanings of interrogation, non-finality, uncertainty, non—categoric attitude, surprise, etc. The inherent meanings of prosody which are of a general character (such as definiteness — uncertainty, assertiveness — reservations, separateness — connectedness, etc.) are specified and concretized when interacting with the grammatical and lexical meanings of the utterance. There may be cases of correlation and harmony between the inherent meanings of prosody and the meanings of words and grammatical structures as well as disbalance and disharmony. For example, "lt may be/So" (But I'm not quite sure). The falling—rising tone is in harmony with the modal verb. Whereas in "It may be so" (I'm absolutely sure about it) the falling tone makes the statement sound categoric. Or agajn, the meanings of the prosodic structures in the utterances "I like that" and "Clever 'aren't you?" with the challenging or antagonistic Rise—Fall are opposite to the meaning of the words. Intonation gives greater precision and point to the meaning. It provides important information which is not contained in any of the other features of utterance. Hence the role of utterance prosody in communication.

. FUNCTIONS OF PROSODY

 

The prosody of the utterance performs a number of functions, the basic of which are constitutive, distinctive and identificatory.

1. The constitutive function is to form utterances as commu­nicative units. Prosody unifies words into utterances, thus giving the latter the final form without which they cannot exist. A succession of words arranged syntactically is not a communicative unit until a certain prosodic pattern is attached to it. E.G. "Pete has left for Leningrad" is not a communi­cative unit until it is pronounced, i.e. until it acquires a certain pitch—and— stress pattern. Prosody is the only language device that transform words as vocabulary items into comnunicative units — utterances. In written speech prosodic features are to some extent indicated by punctua­tion marks, e.g. "Fire!" is a command or an exclamation, depending on the situation in which it occurs, "Fire?" — a question, "Fire". - a. statement.

Prosody forms all communicative types of utterances — statements, questions, imperatives, exclamations and modal (attitudinal) types: — e.g. categoric statements, non-categoric, perfunctory statements, quizzical statements, certainty and uncertainty questions, insistent questions, etc. In constituting an utterance, prosody at the same time performs the segmentative and de limitative function. It segments connected discourse into utterances and intonation groups, and simultaneously delimits them one from another, showing relations between them. It also signals the semantic nucleus and other semantically important words of an ut­terance (or an intonation group). Prosody also constitutes phonetic styles of speech

2. The distinctive function of prosody manifests itself in several particular functions, depending on the meaning which is differentiated. These are communicative—distinctive, modal-distinctive, culminative ("theme— rheme") distinctive, syntactical — distinctive and stylistic—distinctive functions.

The communicative —distinctive function is to differen­tiate the communicative types of utterances, i.e. statements, questions, ex­clamations, imperatives, and communicative subtypes: within statements — statesments proper, answers, announcements, etc.; within questions — first instance questions, repeated questions, echo ques­tions; within imperatives — commands, requests and so on.

The modal-distinctive (attitudinal-distinctive) function of prosody manifests itself in differentiating modal meanings of utterances (such as certainty versus uncertainty, definiteness versus indefiniteness) and the speaker's attitudes (for instance, a reserved, dispassionate versus involved, interested attitude, or antagonistic versus friendly attitude and so on). Into this function some phoneticians include differentiation of the speaker's emo­tions, the emotional function.

The culminative — distinctive function of prosody manifests itself in differentiating the location of the semantic nucleus of utterances and other semantically important words. This function is often called logical, pre­dicative and accentual.

The adherents to the theory of "sentence perspective" claim that in this way prosody indicates the "theme-rheme" organization of an utterance, i.e. it distinguishes between what is already known and what is new in the utte­rance.

The syntactical—distinctive function of prosody is to dif­ferentiate syntactical types of sentences and syntactical relations in sentences.

Stylistic — distinctive function of prosody manifests itself in that prosody differentiates pronunciation (phonetic) styles, determined by extralinguistic factors.

3. The identificatory function of prosody is to provide a basis for the hearer's identification of the communicative and modal type of an ut­terance, its semantic and syntactical structure with the situation of the discourse.

All the functions of prosody are fulfilled simultaneously and cannot be separated one from another. They show that utterance prosody is linguistically significant and meaningful.

 

FUNCTIONS OF PROSODY

 

The prosody of the utterance performs a number of functions, the basic of which are constitutive, distinctive and identificatory.

1. The constitutive function is to form utterances as commu­nicative units. Prosody unifies words into utterances, thus giving the latter the final form without which they cannot exist. A succession of words arranged syntactically is not a communicative unit until a certain prosodic pattern is attached to it. E.G. "Pete has left for Leningrad" is not a communi­cative unit until it is pronounced, i.e. until it acquires a certain pitch—and— stress pattern. Prosody is the only language device that transform words as vocabulary items into comnunicative units — utterances. In written speech prosodic features are to some extent indicated by punctua­tion marks, e.g. "Fire!" is a command or an exclamation, depending on the situation in which it occurs, "Fire?" — a question, "Fire". - a. statement.

Prosody forms all communicative types of utterances — statements, questions, imperatives, exclamations and modal (attitudinal) types: — e.g. categoric statements, non-categoric, perfunctory statements, quizzical statements, certainty and uncertainty questions, insistent questions, etc. In constituting an utterance, prosody at the same time performs the segmentative and de limitative function. It segments connected discourse into utterances and intonation groups, and simultaneously delimits them one from another, showing relations between them. It also signals the semantic nucleus and other semantically important words of an ut­terance (or an intonation group). Prosody also constitutes phonetic styles of speech

2. The distinctive function of prosody manifests itself in several particular functions, depending on the meaning which is differentiated. These are communicative—distinctive, modal-distinctive, culminative ("theme— rheme") distinctive, syntactical — distinctive and stylistic—distinctive functions.

The communicative —distinctive function is to differen­tiate the communicative types of utterances, i.e. statements, questions, ex­clamations, imperatives, and communicative subtypes: within statements — statesments proper, answers, announcements, etc.; within questions — first instance questions, repeated questions, echo ques­tions; within imperatives — commands, requests and so on.

The modal-distinctive (attitudinal-distinctive) function of prosody manifests itself in differentiating modal meanings of utterances (such as certainty versus uncertainty, definiteness versus indefiniteness) and the speaker's attitudes (for instance, a reserved, dispassionate versus involved, interested attitude, or antagonistic versus friendly attitude and so on). Into this function some phoneticians include differentiation of the speaker's emo­tions, the emotional function.

The culminative — distinctive function of prosody manifests itself in differentiating the location of the semantic nucleus of utterances and other semantically important words. This function is often called logical, pre­dicative and accentual.

The adherents to the theory of "sentence perspective" claim that in this way prosody indicates the "theme-rheme" organization of an utterance, i.e. it distinguishes between what is already known and what is new in the utte­rance.

The syntactical—distinctive function of prosody is to dif­ferentiate syntactical types of sentences and syntactical relations in sentences.

Stylistic — distinctive function of prosody manifests itself in that prosody differentiates pronunciation (phonetic) styles, determined by extralinguistic factors.

3. The identificatory function of prosody is to provide a basis for the hearer's identification of the communicative and modal type of an ut­terance, its semantic and syntactical structure with the situation of the discourse.

All the functions of prosody are fulfilled simultaneously and cannot be separated one from another. They show that utterance prosody is linguistically significant and meaningful.

 

Pitch

The pitch component of intonation or speech melody is the variations in the pitch of the voice which take place with voiced sounds. It is present in every word (inherent prominence) and in the whole sentence, because it serves to delimit sentences into sense groups, or intonation groups. The delimitative (con­stitutive) function of melody is performed by pitch variations jointly with pausation, be­cause each sentence is divided into intonation groups (on the auditory and acoustic level) or into sense groups (on the semantic level).

To describe the melody of an utterance it is necessary to determine the relevant pitch levels, pitch ranges, directions and rate of pitch movement in each intonation group.

The pitch I e v e I of the whole utterance (or intonation group) is de­termined by the pitch of its highest—pitched syllable. It shows the degree of semantic importance the speaker attaches to the utterance (or intonation group) in comparison with any other utterance (or intonation group), and also the speaker's attitude and emotions.

The number of linguistically relevant pitch levels in English has not been definitely established yet: in the works of different phoneticians it varies from three to seven. In unemphatic speech most phoneticians distinguish 3 pitch levels: low, mid and high. These levels are relative and are produced on different registers depending on the individual peculiarities of the voice.

The pitch range of an utterance is the interval between its highest-pitched syllable and its lowest—pitched syllable. According to cir­cumstances the speaker changes his voice range. It may be widened and nar­rowed to express emphasis or the speaker's attitudes and emotions. For example, if "Very good" is pronounced with a narrow (high) range it sounds less enthusiastic. Pronounced with a tow narrow range it sounds sincere, but not emotional. If said with a wide range it sounds both sincere and enthusiastic.

Most phoneticians distinguish three pitch ranges - wide, mid and nar­row.

The rate of pitch variations may be different depending on the time, during which these variations take place, and on the range of the variations. Differences in the rate of pitch variations are semantically important. When the rate of the fall is fast, the falling tone sounds more categoric and definite than when the rate of the fall is slow.

The basic unit used to describe the pitch component is the ton e. De­pending on whether the pitch of the voice varies or remains unvaried tones are subdivided into kinetic and static. Static tones may have dif­ferent pitch level of the voice — the high static tone, the mid static tone, the low static tone. The differentiation of kinetic tones as high falling and low falling, high rising and low rising, etc. is also based on the differentiation of the pitch level of their initial and final points.

As to the direction of pitch movement, kinetic tones are subdivided into simple and complex. Simple tones are unidirectional: the falling and the rising tones. Complex tones are bidirectional: the falling—rising tone, the rising-falling tone, and the rising-falling-rising tone.

 

Rhythm

 

An essential feature of connected speech is that the peaks of prominence - the stressed syllables - are inseparably connected with non-prominent syllables. The latter are attached to the stressed syllables, they never exist by themselves. The simplest example of a close relationship between the stressed and unstressed syllables is a polysyllabic word-utterance which is a phonetic and semantic entity incapable of division, e.g.:

`Excellent. To`morrow. `Certainly.

Thus an utterance is split into groups of syllables unified by a stressed syllable, i.e. stress-groups, each of which is a semantic unit - generally a word, often more than a word.

An important feature of English pronunciation is that the prominent syllables in an utterance occur at approximately equal periods of time. It means more or less equal time for each of the stressed groups:

I'd 'like to 'give you a 'piece of ad`vice.

When the number of syllables in adjacent stress-groups is not equal, the speed of utterance will be the highest in the group having the largest number of syllables and, vice versa, the tempo is noticeably slower in a group having fewer syllables. Thus the perceptible isochrony of stress-groups is based on the speakers tending to minimize the differences in thelength of stressed groups in an utterance.

Thus it has been shown that stress in English performs an important function of 'organizing' an utterance, providing the basis for its r h у t h m i с structure which is the realization of rhythm as a prosodic feature of speech.

Rhythm is defined in different languages in largely the same terms. The notion of rhythm implies, first of all, a certain periodicity of phonological events. For an English utterance these events, as has been made clear, are the stressed syllables. Such a periodicity is a peculiarity of English. English speech is therefore often described as more 'rhythmic' than, for example, Russian.

It follows that the units of the rhythmic organization of an utterance are stress-groups, which may be as well called rhythmic groups.

 

Pitch

The pitch component of intonation or speech melody is the variations in the pitch of the voice which take place with voiced sounds. It is present in every word (inherent prominence) and in the whole sentence, because it serves to delimit sentences into sense groups, or intonation groups. The delimitative (con­stitutive) function of melody is performed by pitch variations jointly with pausation, be­cause each sentence is divided into intonation groups (on the auditory and acoustic level) or into sense groups (on the semantic level).

To describe the melody of an utterance it is necessary to determine the relevant pitch levels, pitch ranges, directions and rate of pitch movement in each intonation group.

The pitch I e v e I of the whole utterance (or intonation group) is de­termined by the pitch of its highest—pitched syllable. It shows the degree of semantic importance the speaker attaches to the utterance (or intonation group) in comparison with any other utterance (or intonation group), and also the speaker's attitude and emotions.

The number of linguistically relevant pitch levels in English has not been definitely established yet: in the works of different phoneticians it varies from three to seven. In unemphatic speech most phoneticians distinguish 3 pitch levels: low, mid and high. These levels are relative and are produced on different registers depending on the individual peculiarities of the voice.

The pitch range of an utterance is the interval between its highest-pitched syllable and its lowest—pitched syllable. According to cir­cumstances the speaker changes his voice range. It may be widened and nar­rowed to express emphasis or the speaker's attitudes and emotions. For example, if "Very good" is pronounced with a narrow (high) range it sounds less enthusiastic. Pronounced with a tow narrow range it sounds sincere, but not emotional. If said with a wide range it sounds both sincere and enthusiastic.

Most phoneticians distinguish three pitch ranges - wide, mid and nar­row.

The rate of pitch variations may be different depending on the time, during which these variations take place, and on the range of the variations. Differences in the rate of pitch variations are semantically important. When the rate of the fall is fast, the falling tone sounds more categoric and definite than when the rate of the fall is slow.

The basic unit used to describe the pitch component is the ton e. De­pending on whether the pitch of the voice varies or remains unvaried tones are subdivided into kinetic and static. Static tones may have dif­ferent pitch level of the voice — the high static tone, the mid static tone, the low static tone. The differentiation of kinetic tones as high falling and low falling, high rising and low rising, etc. is also based on the differentiation of the pitch level of their initial and final points.

As to the direction of pitch movement, kinetic tones are subdivided into simple and complex. Simple tones are unidirectional: the falling and the rising tones. Complex tones are bidirectional: the falling—rising tone, the rising-falling tone, and the rising-falling-rising tone.

22. The structure of a prosodic contour (intonation group) in English. The functions of its elements. SUPRAPHRASAL UNITIES

The view of a text as 'built up' by utterances - the minimal self-contained units of communication - has been enriched in modern linguistics by introducing a “hierarchy” of text constituents which embraces a variety of 'intermediate' units lying between an unexpanded simple utterance and the text.

The higher units are formed by grouping utterances into complexes, or sets, each occupying a certain 'slot' in the semantic structure of the text, reflecting thereby the subdivision of the overall topic into a number of subtopics. The unit coming next to an utterance in the above-mentioned hierarchy is a supraphrasal unity (SPU)

The individual phrases within a SPU have specific language markers of a closer semantic relationship between them than between the initial phrase of a SPU and the preceding utterance, on the one hand, and the final phrase of a SPU and the following utterance in the text, on the other. Because of this 'marked' semantic closeness superphrasal unity is restricted in its length, which does not typically exceed 4 or 5 component phrases.

The identification of a supraphrasal unity in spoken language is achieved primarily with the help of prosodic features. This makes it possible to speak of the prosodic structure of a supraphrasal unity.

First of all, there are constant prosodic markers distinguishing initial, median а final phrases in the unity. These are the features of pitch, loudness and tempo. It has been proved, in particular, that the pitch of the onset syllable in an initial phrase is noticeably higher than that in the following phrases, the decrease of the pitch-height being gradual in many cases. The same tendency is observed for the degree of loudness. The tempo of speech tends to be somewhat slower at the beginning and end of the supraphrasal unity and faster in the middle.

An important feature marking the boundary of a supraphrasal unity is a pause which is considerably longer than any of the pauses separating the phrases within the unity. It is the so-called three-unit pause, e.g.:

College gets nicer and nicer, | I like the girls {and the teachers {and the classes | and the campus {and the things to eat. || We have ice-cream twice a week | and we never have corn-meal mush.

The degree of semantic completeness of the utterances within a supraphrasal unity is reflected in the degree of finality of its nuclear tone. The last utterance in a unity normally has a falling nuclear tone with the lowest ending point (Mid Wide Low Narrow Fall) while the fall in the non-final phrases doesn't generally reach the bottom of the voice-range (a falling tone with a not-low ending, e.g. the High narrow Fall, the Mid Narrow Fall). There is a rather higher probability for non-falling tones (Low Rise, Fall-Rise) in the initial and medial phrases than in the final phrase of a unity. Due to the specific prosodic markers an utterance isolated from a supraphrasal unity is easily recognized as 'contextual'. Besides the features referred to above, this repression depends on the accentual pattern, which is very often 'marked', i.e. characterized by a shift of prominence from its normal position. The placement of the nucleus in such a phrase can only be justified by a larger context.

In almost all languages, there is a variation in the relative prominence of syllables. The prominence of syllables is referred to as stress. It is a function of pitch, duration/length/loudness, and quality. In different languages one of the factors is usually more significant than the others. Depending upon which factor is the principal one in giving prominence to a syllable, word stress in languages may be of different types. 1. If special prominence is achieved through the increased loudness (i.e. intensity of articulation), such word stress is termed DYNAMIC. 2. If special prominence in a stressed syllable is achieved mainly through the change of pitch, such type of word stress is MUSICAL, or TONIC. 3. QUANTITATIVE stress is when prominence is achieved through the changes in the quantity of vowels, i.e. their duration. 4. QUALITATIVE stress is when the stressed vowel is made prominent due to its clear and distinct character.

There are languages which do not have word stress, such as Evenk, or Kalmyk, but many languages combine various types of words stress. Russian displays qualitative, quantitative and dynamic features. Word stress in Ancient Greek used to be tonic, but is characterized as dynamic in Modern Greek. Scandinavian languages make use of both dynamic and tonic stresses in more or less equal degree. Oriental languages like Chinese, Japanese, Korean are tonic In English prominence is achieved due to increased duration, loudness and higher pitch, i.e. quantitative, tonic and dynamic stressing.

Some languages have fixed stress, associated with a certain syllable in a word. In Finnish, Czech, Latvian stress always falls on the first syllable, in Turkish – on the final syllable of the root form, in French – on the final syllable in the word. In English, Russian stress placement is free in that different words can have different stress pattern..Any word with more than one syllable has a word stress. The stress pattern of a word reflects the distribution of prominence among its syllables. In words that have one stress, the latter is called ‘ primary stress’. In longer words, it is possible to pick out a second, weaker stressed syllable that bears secondary s tress notated as low mark. Two main tendencies determine the place and different degrees of word stress in English: the RECESSIVE tendency and the RHYTHMIC tendency. The oldest of the English word accentuation tendencies is the RECESSIVE tendency, characteristic of all Germanic languages. It originally consisted in placing the word stress on the initial syllable of nouns, adjectives, and verbs and on the root syllable of words which belonged to other parts of speech and had a prefix. The recessive accent in Modern English is of two types: UNRESTRICTED and RESTRICTED (by an unstressed prefix). UNRESTRICTED recessive accent falls on the first (root) syllable, as in words FATHER, MOTHER, HUSBAND. RESTRICTED recessive accent falls on the second (root) syllable of native English words with a prefix which has lost its meaning: AMONG, BECOME, FORGET, INDEED. Under the influence of the native English tendency to unrestricted recessive stress, all the disyllabic and trisyllabic words borrowed from French until the 15^th century underwent ‘accentual assimilation’: the original accent on the final syllable of loan words and gradually shifted to the beginning: COLOUR, MARRIAGE, REASON< etc. In Chaucer’s poems we find such free accentual variants as ‘REASON and REA’SON. Loan words with prefixes which have no particular meaning now also have restricted recessive stress: CON’DUCT, DE’PEND, SUR’PRISE.
The RHYTHMIC tendency can be accounted for the presence in English of a great number of monosyllabic words, some of which are stressed (notional) words, others are not (form words). Such phenomenon has created the English rhythm, consisting of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables This tendency has caused the appearance in borrowed polysyllabic words of a secondary stress on the syllable separated from the word-final principal stress by an unstressed syllable. The words began to be pronounced in isolation on the model of short phrases in which a stressed syllable alternated with an unstressed one. Thus the word ‘RADICAL originally had a stress on the final syllable – RADI’CAL- but later it received the recessive stress on the initial syllable, while the final stress was still retained. The result of it was the typically English alternation of a stressed syllable with an unstressed one. For some time this and similar words had two stresses but gradually the word-final stress began to weaken and disappeared. Thus in tri-syllabic words there remained only one strong stress on the third syllable from the end of the word. The tendency to stress the third syllable from the end was extended to four-syllable words as well, and this stress is called RHYTHMICAL. Strictly speaking, the stress in such words as RADICAL, FAMILY, CINEMA, is rhythmical only in its origin, because in Modern English there is no alternation of a stressed syllable with an unstressed one in these words. The stress here is called HYSTORICALLY RHYTHMICAL In Modern English there is also GENINELY RHYTHMICAL stress. This is the secondary stress on the second PRETONIC syllable in words like PRO,NUNCI’ATION, E,XAMI’NATION, RE,LIA’BILITY, etc. There is also a RETENTIVE tendency which consists in the retention of the stress of the parent word in the derivatives. More commonly it is kept in the parent word as a secondary accent, e.g., ‘PERSON – ‘PERSONAL –,PERSO’NALITY.

The SEMANTIC factor can also condition the place and the degree of stress. The meaningful prefixes UN-, MIS-, EX-, UDNER-, etc, (UNKNOWN, EXWIFE, UNDERESTIMATE), or semantically more important part of a compound word get more prominence: BUTTONHOLE, TONGUETWISTER.

WORD STRESS RULES.

There are some fairly regular word stress patterns (although there will often be exceptions)
1. In two-syllable verbs: a/ if the second syllable of the verb contains a long vowel or a diphthong, or if it ends with more than one consonant, the second syllable is stressed.

Examples: A’PPLY, COM’PLETE, A’RRIVE, RE’SIST, OB’JECT
b/ if the final syllable contains a short vowel and one (or no) final consonant, the first syllable is stressed. Examples: ‘ENTER, ‘OPEN, ‘EQUAL, ‘BORROW, ‘PROFIT
Exceptions to this rule include AD’MIT and PER’MIT (verb).

 

2. There are some suffixes (or word endings) that usually carry stress.
Words with these endings usually carry stress on the last syllable:
- ain ENTER’TAIN /// - ee REFU’GEE /// - eer MOUNTAI’NEER /// - ese PORTU’GUESE
- ette CIGA’RETTE (NB American English would stress the first syllable)

 

3. The suiffixes –ion, -ious/-eous, -ity, -ify, -ive, -ible, -igible, -ish, -graphy, -meter, -logy, require stress to be on the preceding syllable:
-ion/-ian DE’CISION, E’DITION, MA’GICIAN, CA’NADIAN; -ious /-eous CON’TENTIOUS, COU’RAGEOUS; - ity ‘QUALITY, SIM’PLICITY, NATIO’NALITY; -ify ‘TERRIFY, ‘JUSTIFY, I’DENTIFY; -ive EX’TENSIVE -ible IN’CREDIBLE, ‘TERRIBLE, -igible NE’GLIGIBLE, IN’TELLIGIBLE; -ish PUBLISH, FINISH, FURNISH, - graphy PHO’TOGRAPHY, BI’OGRAPHY
-meter THER’MOMETER /// -logy BI’OLOGY, TECH’NOLOGY, IDE’OLOGY

4. Words of two syllables ending in -ate place the accent on -ate eg,: TRAN’SLATE, DIC’TATE, DE’BATE, whereas words of three or more syllables ending in -ate have the main accent on the third syllable from the end. E.g.: NE’GOTIATE, ‘INDICATE, ‘IRRITATE.

5. In compound words or words made up of two elements, there are again some general patterns.: If the first element of the word is a noun, then the stress normally goes on the first element: ‘TYPEWRITER, ‘FRUIT-CAKE, ‘SUITCASE, ‘SCREWDRIVER, ‘TEACUP, ‘SUNRISE. If the first part is an adjective, then the stress goes on the second part: ˌLOUD’SPEAKER, ˌBAD-‘TEMPERED,

UTTERANCE STRESS

 

Words grouped into an utterance are not equally important. Depending on the context or the communication situation some words appear to contribute more information than others. Those that are semantically more impor­tant are made prominent. The special prominence given to one or more words in an utterance is called utterance stress.

Stress is part of the phonetic structure of the word. We always know the place of stress in a word. When the word is made prominent in an utterance, stress becomes a feature of the utterance.

The means, with the help of which the special prominence is achieved and the effect of stress is produced, are variations of pitch, loudness, length and quality. Acoustically, utterance stress is determined by variations of frequency, intensity, duration and formant structure.

The role of each of these acoustic parameters in creating the effect of ut­terance stress has been studied experimentally by a number of phoneticians in this country and abroad. It appears that frequency is more effi­cient in determining stresses in an utterance than intensity. Duration also appears to play a greater role than intensity.

As a rule the effect of utterance stress is created not by a single acoustic parameter but by a certain interaction of different parameters.

The subsystem of utterance stress in English includes three basic functio­nal types: nuclear stress, non-nuclear full stress and partial stress.

The main difference between these three types of stress is the difference in how the syllables that bear them are marked.