Theoretical

Theoretical Phonetics has the following branches:

1. Articulatory, 2. Acoustic, 3. Auditory / Perceptual, 4. Functional /Phonological Definition: It is the smallest identifiable unit found in a stream of speech that is able to be transcribed with an IPA symbol.

Phoneme Definition: A is the smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of a .

Discussion: Phonologists have differing views of the phoneme. Following are the two major views considered here: In the American structuralist tradition, a phoneme is defined according to its and environments.

In the Generative tradition, a phoneme is defined as a set of distinctive features. .

Sounds interact in

If you are saying a that ends in /s/ or /z/ and this is following a word that begins with /ʃ / or /j/ the final /s/ tends to turn into /ʃ/ whereas the final /z/ tends to turn into /ʒ/. Sounds interact in connected speech

This should be clearer in an example, given by Roach (2009, 111). In connected speech ‘this shoe’ might end up being pronounced

whereas ‘those years’ might sound

When changes like this happen it is as if one sound has become more similar, or has assimilated to another. The phenomenon is called assimilation. Accommodation

Accommodation is the process of mutual influence of and . The modification in the articulation of a under the influence of an adjacent is called accommodation. In accommodation the accommodated sound does not change its main phonemic features and is pronounced slightly modified under the influence of a neighboring sound.

/əˌkɒm.əˈdeɪ.ʃən/ Accommodation Here are some most common types of accomodation. • Consonants tend to be labialized when followed by a rounded (labialized) vowel: cool, pot, rude. • Vowels are slightly nazalized under the influence of the preceding or following [m] and [n]: and, nice, men, morning. • Alveolar [t] in the intervocal position before unstressed vowels is replaced by a voiced tap: pretty, better. Assimilation Assimilation is a process of alternation of speech sounds as a result of which one of the sounds becomes fully or partially similar to the adjoining one. . Assimilation The influence of the neighbouring sounds in English can act in • progressive, • regressive • or reciprocal (double, mutual) direction. Assimilation 1. When some articulatory features of the following sound are changed under the influence of the preceding sound, which remains unchanged, assimilation is called progressive. e.g. The pronunciation of the plural suffix –s of nouns depends on the quality of a preceding consonant: it is pronounced as [z] after voiced consonants (pens [penz], calls [kO:lz]) and as [s] after voiceless consonants (desks [desks], books [bVks]) Within the sandwich, grandmother, etc under the influence of [n] the consonant [d] changed into [n] and then disappeared (sandwich ['sændwɪʤ →' 'sænwɪʤ])

2. When the following sounds influences the articulation of the preceding one assimilation is called regressive. e.g. Within the word width and in the word combination in them, the alveolar [d] and [n] become dental before the interdental [T] and [D].

3. Reciprocal (mutual, double) assimilation means complex mutual influence of the adjacent sounds. e.g. Within the word tree [tri:] the [r] is partly devoiced under the influence of the voiceless [t] and the alveolar [t] becomes [post-alveolar before the post-alveolar [r].

Assimilation can affect the place of obstruction and the active organ of speech; the work of the vocal cords; the position of the lips; the position of the soft palate; the manner of the release of plosive consonants. Assimilation 2. When the following sounds influences the articulation of the preceding one assimilation is called regressive. e.g. Within the word width and in the word combination in them, the alveolar [d] and [n] become dental before the interdental [T] and [D].

Assimilation 3. Reciprocal (mutual, double) assimilation means complex mutual influence of the adjacent sounds. e.g. Within the word tree [tri:] the sonorant [r] is partly devoiced under the influence of the voiceless [t] and the alveolar [t] becomes [post-alveolar before the post-alveolar [r].

Assimilation Assimilation can affect 1. the place of obstruction and the active organ of speech; 2. the work of the vocal cords; 3. the position of the lips; 4. the position of the soft palate; 5. the manner of the release of plosive consonants.

Let’s get started with the textbook… A phone is … A phoneme is … One of many possible sounds A contrastive unit in the sound in the of the world. system of a particular language. The smallest identifiable unit A minimal unit that serves to found in a stream of speech. distinguish between meanings of words. Pronounced in a defined way. Pronounced in one or more ways, depending on the number of allophones. [b], [j], [o] /b/, /j/, /o/

Represented between brackets Represented between slashes by convention. by convention.

BrE /dɪstrɪˈbjuːʃ(ə)n/, AmE /ˌdɪstrəˈbjuʃ(ə)n/ The possible patterns of sounds are often called their distribution What is ‘distribution’? Is it frequency of occurrence or extent of existence? Is it the result of distributing? Is it some sort of order or arrangement? Is it a method of linguistic analysis?

… or perhaps more frequently, are referred to by the term ‘’. How would you explain the derivative structure of this term? Does it mean the same as distribution? A more precise statement will be that /nd/ is not allowed at the beginning of words, but is allowed at the end of words. Are we talking about words (that is ‘lexemes’ or in other words ))) word forms paradigms) or about word forms? Even more precise descriptions of English will have to use the notion of when explaining phonotactics. What the hell is a syllable? What is a structure of a syllable? For example, to explain the distribution of the sound // in English, … What the hell is ‘distribution’? What is a ’sound’? Is it a phoneme or phone?

… we have to be able to say that it does not appear at the beginning of . How would you explain the structure of the syllable?

Different languages might impose different constraints on what sounds can go at the beginning or at the end of syllables. But what exactly is a syllable? OK, ‘onset’ is the technical term for beginning; then ‘coda’ is the technical term for the ending. Is syllable a sum of these? ???/phones are rarely pronounced in isolation, they usually occur in sequences. Sound sequences are broken up into smaller units known as syllables, which are the minimal units [?] of sounding speech. A syllable may consist of one or a number of phonemes, i.e. it may be formed by any vowel (alone or in combination with consonants) or by a word-final sonorant preceded by a consonant. 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 (the centre of the syllable, the nucleus).

Speech sounds which are not capable of forming syllables are called non-syllabic. The consonants which precede the peak are called the onset and those which follow it are called the coda. J.Kenyon defines the syllable as “one or more speech sounds forming a single uninterrupted unit of utterance, which may be a word (e.g. man), or a commonly recognized subdivision of a word (e.g. [ɪƞ- glɪʃ]) or wordform (e.g. [leɪ-tǝ].” Prof. Lev Vladimirovich Shcherba /1880-1944/ put forward another theory of syllable formation and syllable division, which was further developed by his followers and at present is known as the theory of muscular tension. According to this theory a syllable is an arc of muscular tension, which is weak in the beginning and in the end and strong in the middle. If a syllable consists of a vowel, its strength increases in the beginning, reaches the maximum at the peak and then gradually decreases. Consonants within a syllable are characterized by different distribution of muscular tension. Prof. Shcherba distinguishes the following types of consonants: 1) initially strong and finally weak, as in it, on, us; 2) finally strong and initially weak, as in may, tea, no; 3) double consonants (two similar sounds) which are strong at both ends and weak in the middle, as in good day, misspell, etc. Syllable is a of speech (Make your comment on this!!!) that consists of a vowel, with or without one or more accompanying consonant sounds immediately preceding or following—for example, a, I, out, too, cap, snap, check [V, VC, CV, CVC, CCVC]. A , such as the final /n/ sound in button and widen, also constitutes a syllable.What quality do you think a consonant needs to possess to form a nucleus of a syllable? In phonetics and , Closed (checked) syllables are those that end in a consonant; Open (free) syllables end in a vowel. The role that syllables play in the production of speech is a matter of considerable debate. So too is any more precise definition of the syllable in phonetics and phonologyThe word "blessed. " can be pronounced as a monosyllable or a disyllable /daɪˈsɪl.ə.bəl/. The syllable /ðə ˈsɪləbl/ is a phonetic unit consisting of a sound or a sound sequence pronounced by one articulatory effort which results auditorily in one uninterrupted unit of perception. Every language manifests a particular way of combining its sounds to form meaningful words or parts of words, called syllables. Each language puts certain restrictions on these possible combinations. For example, in English we can't have a word which begins with a consonant sequence bfj, zbf or tzp. When we analyse what restrictions (and regularities) are found in the language under study, we are studying the syllable structure of that language. How would you explain the structure of the syllable?

A syllable is a group of one or more sounds. The essential part of a syllable is a vowel sound (V) which may be preceded and/or followed by a consonant (C) or a cluster of consonants (CC or CCC) (see below). Some syllables consist of just one vowel sound (V) as in I and eye/aI/, owe/əu/. In English, a syllable can consist of a vowel preceded by one consonant (CV) as in pie/paI/, or by two consonants (CCV) as in try/traI/, or by three consonants (CCCV) as in spry/spraI/. The vowel of the syllable may also be followed by one consonant (VC) as in at/æt/, or by two consonants (VCC) as in its/Its/, or by three consonants (CVCCC) as in text/tekst/or by four consonants (CVCCCC) as in texts/teksts/. We can divide words into one or more syllables. For example, tin has one syllable, brother has two and important has three syllables each. The structure of the syllable /ðə ˈstrʌkʧər əv ðə ˈsɪləbl/ depends on the number and the arrangement of consonants. In English there are four phonetic types of syllables: 1) V – uncovered open which consists of one vowel sound, e.g.: I /aɪ/, or /ɔ:/; 2) VC – uncovered closed which consists of a vowel followed by one or more consonants, e.g.: odd /ɒd/; 3) CV – covered open which consists of a vowel preceded by one or more consonants, e.g.: no /nәʊ/; 4) CVC – covered closed which consists of a vowel preceded and followed by one or more consonants, e.g.: cat /kæt/. The “covered” type of syllable is more characteristic of English than the “uncovered” type. 1) V – I; VC – eat; VCC – act; VCCC – asks. 2) CV – no; CVC – cat; CVCC – fact; CVCCC – linked; CCVC – plan; CCCVC – spleen; CCVCC – twiddle; CCVCCC – stamps; CCCVCC – spleens; CVCCCC– texts. The commonest types of the syllable in English are VC and CVC. As to the number of syllables in the English word it can vary from one to eight, for example: one – come /kʌm/,two – city /ˈsɪ-tɪ/, three – family /ˈfæ-mɪ?-lɪ/, four – simplicity /sɪm-ˈplɪ-sɪ-tɪ/, five – unnaturally /ʌn- ˈnæ-t∫ə-rə-lɪ/,six – compatibility /kəm-ˌpæ-tɪ-ˈbɪ-lɪ-tɪ/,seven – incompatibility /ɪn-kəm-ˌpæ-tɪ-ˈbɪ-lɪ-tɪ/,eight–unintelligibility /ʌn-ɪn-te-lɪ- ʤɪ-ˈbɪ-lɪ-tɪ/. Nevertheless, the characteristic feature of English is monosyllabism: it contains between four and five thousand monosyllabic words. Most of the words of the origin are of one syllable. Sonority

•All speech sounds have different inherent sonority. The most sonorous are open back vowels, the least sonorous are the voiceless stops. •Otto Jespersen classified all speech sounds according to seven levels of sonority:

(1) vowels; (2) semi-vowels /j,w,/; (3) sonorants /l,r,m,n,ƞ/; (4)voiced /v, z,ʒ,/; (5) voiced stops /b,d,g/; (6) voiceless fricatives /f,ѳ,s,ʃ,/; (7) voiceless stops /p,t,k/. In any sequence the most sonorous sounds tend to form the peak of the syllable. For example, 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”, etc. According to the sonority theory the words “going” and “highest” consist of one syllable, because there is only one peak (or rather plateau) of prominence. But in reality the words have two syllables. Syllables can also be classified according to 1) the position in the word: (a) initial /ɪˈnɪʃəl/, (b) medial /ˈmi:djəl/, (c) final/ˈfaɪnəl/. 2) the relation to : (a) pretonic /prɪˈtɒnɪk/, (b) tonic /ˈtɒnɪk/, (c) postonic /pəʊstˈtɒnɪk/, (d) atonic /əˈtɒnɪk/. tre- men- dous initial medial final post- pretonic tonic tonic Phonetic and orthographic syllables should not be confused. Sometimes they coincide (ear-ly - /ǝ:-lɪ/, late-ly - /leɪt-lɪ/), sometimes they do not (art-ist-ic - /a:-tɪs-tɪk/, driv-er - /draɪ- vǝ/, lat-er - /leɪ-tǝ/. Division of words into syllables in is based on morphological principles. The part of a word which is separated should be either a prefix, or a suffix, or a root. The syllabic structure of English performs three main functions: 1) constitutive, 2) distinctive, 3) recognitive.

The constitutive function consists in the fact that syllables constitute the material forms of all the words, phrases and sentences. 2) 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 : /bet/ - /betǝ/, /dri:m/ - /dri:mɪ/, /sli:p/ - /ǝ’sli:p/. The word-distinctive function of syllable division may be illustrated by examples. The number of combinations of words distinguished from each other by different syllabic boundaries is rather considerable: a name – an aim, I scream – ice- cream, a nice house – an ice house, I saw her eyes – I saw her rise, that’s tough – that stuff, confined – can find, a notion – an ocean, I saw the meat, I saw them eat, etc. 3) The recognitive function of the syllabic structure manifests itself in the fact that the right syllabic boundary makes it easier to recognize words, phrases and sentences. The 3 types of syllables ( ))) ) 1) phonetic are produced in pronunciation. 2) orphographic is the one into which words are devided in writing. The 1 and the 2 one may or may not go inside (name). 3) morphemic. The morphemic boundary goes inside with the syllabic ones in “lately” but does not in the word “later”. Phonological treatments of syllable structure usually call the first part of a syllable the onset, the middle part the peak and the end part the coda; the combination of peak and coda is called the . Phonological treatments of syllable structure usually call … The onset The Rhyme The first part the middle the end part part The onset the peak the coda The combination of peak and coda is called the rhyme, usually taken as identity of the terminal sounds in lines of verse or in words. Phonologists are interested in the structure of the syllable, since there appear to be interesting observations to be made about which phonemes may occur at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of syllables. The study of sequences of phonemes is called phonotactics, and it seems that the phonotactic possibilities of a language are determined by syllabic structure; this means that any sequence of sounds that a native speaker produces can be broken down into syllables without any segments being left over. For example, in ‘Their strengths triumphed frequently’, we find the rather daunting sequences of consonant phonemes /ŋθstr/ and /mftfr/, but using what we know of English phonotactics we can split these clusters into one part that belongs to the end of one syllable and another part that belongs to the beginning of another. Thus the first one can only be divided [ŋθ / str] or [ŋθs / tr] and the second can only be [mft / fr.] Phonotactic studies of English come up with some strange findings: certain sequences seem to be associated with particular feelings or human characteristics, for no obvious reason. o Why should ‘bump’, ‘lump’, ‘hump’, ‘rump’, ‘mump(s)’, ‘clump’ and others all be associated with large blunt shapes? o Why should there be a whole family of words ending with a plosive and a syllabic l all having meanings to do with clumsy, awkward or difficult action (‘muddle’, ‘fumble’, ‘straddle’, ‘cuddle’, ‘fiddle’, ‘buckle’ (vb.), ‘struggle’, ‘wriggle’)? o Why can’t English syllables begin with pw, bw, tl, dl when pl, bl, tw, dw are acceptable? Questions for your self-control:

1. What is a syllable? 2. How is the syllable formed in English? 3. Why are the English sonorants /w/ and /j/ never syllabic? 4. How is it possible to establish the number of syllables according to the syllable- forming elements? 5. Name and characterize structural types of syllables. 6. What are the commonest types of the syllable in English structurally? 7. What is the characteristic feature of English according to the number of syllables in the word? 8. What is the limit for the number of syllables in a word in English? 9. How can syllables be classified according to the position in the word and the relation to stress? REDUCTION

When a syllable in English is unstressed, it frequently happens that it is pronounced differently from the “same” syllable when stressed; the process is one of weakening, where vowels tend to become more -like (i.e. they are centralised), and tend to become fricatives. REDUCTION

The reduced forms of vowels can be clearly seen in the set of words ‘photograph’ / ˈfoʊtəˌɡɹæf /,

‘photography’ / fəˈtɑɡɹəfi /, ‘photographic’ /ˌfoʊtəˈɡɹæfɪk / – when one of the three syllables does not receive stress its vowel is reduced to /ə/. This is felt to be an important characteristic of English phonetics, and something that is not found in all languages How would you explain the term distribution?

REDUCTION

It is possible that the difference between languages which exhibit and those which do not is closely parallel to the proposed difference between “stress-timed” and “syllable- timed” languages. Complementary distribution is the distribution of (two) certain linguistic elements in their respective linguistic environments in which one never appears in the same context as the other. When two variants are in complementary distribution, one can predict when each will occur because one can simply identify the environment in which the alternant [ɔːl'tɜːnənt] (say or allomorph, i.e. a phonemic [fə'niːmɪk] or morphemic variant) is occurring. The concept of complementary distribution is applied both in the analysis of allophones (phonology) and the analysis of word forms ().

Within frame of phonological analysis Complementary distribution is the distribution of phones in their respective phonetic environments in which one phone never appears in the same phonetic context as the other. When two variants are in complementary distribution, one can predict when each will occur because one can judge by the environment in which the allophone is occurring.

Complementary distribution is most commonly applied to phonology in which similar phones in complementary distribution are usually allophones of the same phoneme. For instance, in English, [p] and [pʰ] are allophones of the phoneme /p/ because they occur in complementary distribution. 1) [pʰ] always occurs when it is the syllable onset and followed by a stressed vowel (as in the word pin). 2) [p] occurs in all other situations (as in the word spin, or in sippin' in colloquial pronunciation, with /ŋ/ flattened to /n/).

There are cases of elements being in complementary distribution but not being considered allophones. For example, English [h] and [ŋ] are in complementary distribution: [h] occurs only at the beginning of a syllable and [ŋ] only at the end. However, because they have so little in common in phonetic terms, they are still considered separate phonemes.

Two different word forms (allomorphs) can actually be different "faces" of one and the same word (or ).

An example is the English indefinite articles a and an. The usages an aardvark and a bear are grammatical, but the usages **a aardvark (BrE /ˈɑːdvɑːk/ - трубкозуб) and **an bear are ungrammatical (as is marked with "**" in linguistics). The form an is used before a word that begins with a vowel sound. That can be notated as "__ V". The form a is used before a word beginning with a consonant sound. That can be notated as "__ C". The "distribution" (usage according to environments) of the forms an and a is "complementary" because of three factors:

(1) an is used if a is not used;

(2) a is used if an is not used;

(3) both environments together cover every legitimate potential environment for the word.

The forms an and a work together like a team and take care of every instance (environment) in which the English indefinite article is used, i.e. there are two different "forms" of the same "word" instead of two different words. This conclusion is based on the fact of the tested and proven complementary distribution of these two word forms.

Free variation is the phenomenon of two (or more) sounds or forms appearing in the same environment without a change in meaning and without being considered incorrect by native speakers. When phonemes are in , speakers are sometimes strongly aware of the fact (especially if such variation is noticeable only across a dialectal or sociolectal divide), and will note, for example, that tomato is pronounced differently in British and (/təˈmɑːtoʊ/ and /təˈmeɪtoʊ/ respectively), or that either has two pronunciations that are distributed fairly randomly. However, only a very small proportion of English words show such variations. In the case of English allophones, however, free variation is exceedingly common and, along with differing patterns, variation in allophony is the most important single feature in the characterization of regional accents. English’s deep and the language's wide variety of accents often cause confusion, even for native speakers, on how written words should be pronounced. That allows for a significant degree of free variation to occur in English. In linguistics, the orthographic depth of an alphabetic orthography indicates the degree to which a written language deviates from simple one-to-one letter - phoneme correspondence. Contrastive distribution in linguistics, as opposed to complementary distribution or free variation, is the relationship between two different elements in which both elements are found in the same environment with a change in meaning. For example, in English, the sounds [p] and [b] can both occur word- initially, as in the words pat and bat (minimal pairs test), which are distinct . In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, spoken or signed, that differ in only one phonological element, such as a phoneme, toneme or , and have distinct meanings. They are used to demonstrate that two phones are two separate phonemes in the language. In morphology, two morphemes are in contrastive distribution if they occur in the same environment, but have different meanings.

In syntax, the requirements are similar. For example, in English, the expression of the indicative and the subjunctive moods is contrastive: (1) If I am a rich man, then I have a lot of money. (2) If I were a rich man, then I would have a lot of money. The change from non-past first-person singular indicative am to the subjunctive were results in a change in the grammatical mood of the sentence.

The commutation test

•This test is a metalingual subjective system for analysing textual or other material. It has evolved from a limited method for investigating the structure of individual signs.

The commutation test

Its primary uses are to: 1. identify distinctive signifiers, 2. define their significance, and 3. divide material into paradigmatic classes and identify the codes to which the signifiers belong.

The commutation test

According to Daniel Chandler, the commutation test may involve any of four basic transformations which, to a greater or lesser extent, involve modification of the syntagm: • Paradigmatic transformations • substitution; • transposition • Syntagmatic transformations • addition; • deletion.

A piece of commutation test analytics

• Take the phrase: “The man hit the boy.” • Now substitute "boy" with a) "baby", b) "girl", c) "child", d) "pansy", e) "thief". Each of these alternatives affects the implication of the phrase. A "man" rather than a ‘father’ or ‘parent’ randomly striking a baby or girl might be considered sexist and a crime. Each of these alternatives affects the implication of the phrase. If the boy was a thief, this would explain but not excuse the man's behaviour as retaliation or revenge. If the boy is a pansy which has pejorative connotations of cowardice or homosexuality, the man may be intolerant or overly judgemental but the victim is also presented in a less sympathetic way. Each of these alternatives affects the implication of the phrase. The use of child not differentiated by gender is a more common usage in the context of paedophilia. And here comes a most predictable conclusion •Close Reading is a method of learning. •Meta-language of linguistics is a method of research. •And Research is a method of learning.

Thank you for attention