Phonetics as a branch of linguistics 2 страница
11) 6.1. The Syllabic Structure of English Words
Phonemes usually occur in sequences. Sound sequences are pronounced in such a way, that not all the sounds are uttered with the same degree of force, the energy with which we articulate alternately increases and diminishes. Certain sounds are pronounced louder than the other ones. When we listen to the word even we’ll hear a distinct rise of prominence and loudness in pronouncing the [i:] sound. Several theories have been created to explain the mechanism of syllabic formation. Some explained the phenomenon of syllable formation by muscular tension impulses (L.V. Shcherba), some proclaimed a “loudness theory” (N.I. Zhinkin), others describe it as “sonority theory” (O.Jesperson).
This phenomenon can be analyzed on phonetic (the way we produce them) and phonological (the way phonemes are combined) levels. Phonetically a syllable is a sound sequence, consisting of a centre which has little or no obstruction to airflow and which sounds comparatively loud; before and after this centre there will be greater obstruction to airflow and less loud sound. In pronouncing a syllable the energy of articulation increases until it reaches its climax - the most energetically articulated sound - the syllabic phoneme (or the nucleus), one or more phonemes that follow it (the coda) are pronounced with less energy, the weakest articulation marks the boundary between two syllables. Some syllables have an onset – sounds that precede the nucleus, as in bar, key, law. There is no syllable without the nucleus, the presence of the onset and coda is optional. Usually the nucleus is a vowel, though in some languages this function can be performed by a consonant. In English, for example, the sonorants [l-m-n] can become syllabic if they occur in an unstressed final position preceded by a noise consonant, as in ˈgarden, ˈsettle, ˈtable.
A syllable may consist of one phoneme or a number of phonemes. Four types of syllables are distinguished in English according to the number and the arrangement of sounds:
1) open – no, he, be (CV)
2) closed – odd, it, is (VC)
3) covered – coat, mark, sat CV(C)
4) uncovered – are, or, err V(C)
The study of the possible phoneme combinations of a language is called phonotactics. There are some universal and language-specific rules of phonotactics. In English the syllable can begin with a vowel, one, two or three consonants. No syllable begins with more than three consonants. The syllable may end with a vowel, or with one, two, three or four consonants. No word ends with more than four consonants. The consonant [ŋ] never begins and [w] never terminates the syllable. If there is a long vowel or a diphthong, or more than one consonant in the rhyme (nucleus + coda), the syllable is called heavy or long, for example, ˈbeauty, aˈttempt, aˈnnoy. Heavy syllables attract stress in English. The syllables with a short vowel without a consonant are called light or short, and they are normally unstressed.
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The basic difference between Russian and English syllables is that the closed syllable is the fundamental one for the English language, while in Russian the most common type of syllable is the open one. This fact is proved by experimental data. In the Russian language there is a close contact between the onset consonant and the nucleus, in English the contact is closer between the nucleus and the following coda consonants. This difference is the source of mistakes of Russian learners in pronouncing English words, as in English short vowels should be checked (compare funny, city [ˈfʌn-ɪ, ˈsɪt-ɪ] \ Си-ти, Фа-ня). Besides such clusters of consonants at the end of a word as in “text, seventh” are unfamiliar to Russians as well. Here care should be taken not to insert a vowel between these consonants in learning English pronunciation.
There are still problems with the phonetic description of the syllable, and one of the most urgent is syllable division or rather its place. Let’s look at the word extra. There are 5 possible ways of dividing it into syllables:
[e-kstrə]
[ek-strə]
[eks-trə]
[ekst-rə]
[ekstr-ə]
In such cases the maximum onsets principle is applied. This principle states that where two syllables are to be divided, any consonants between them should be attached to the right-hand syllable as far as possible. In our case according to the rules of phonotactics in English (the syllables can’t begin with four consonants) it is [ek-strə].
In dividing an English word into syllables one should also remember that syllables with a short vowel and no coda do not occur in English (unless the vowel is [ə]). So the syllable division in such words as sorry, pressure, letter will be [ˈsɒr-ɪ], [ˈpreʃ-ə], [ˈlet-ə].
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Now let’s consider the functions of the syllable. The most important are two functions – constitutive and distinctive.
1. Constitutive function. The syllable is either a part of a word or a word itself. It forms language larger units - morphemes, words and utterances. It is also a minimal prosodic unit in which prosodic features of pitch, length and loudness are realised. It is a specific minimal structure of both segmental and suprasegmental phonetics: on the one hand within a syllable the distinctive features of the phonemes and their acoustic correlates are revealed. On the other hand within a syllable prosodic characteristics of speech are realised, which form the stress-pattern of a word and the rhythmic and intonation structures of an utterance.
2. The other function of the syllable is its distinctive function. The syllable has the ability of differentiating words and word-forms. Depending on the syllabic boundary we can distinguish between the minimal pairs: an aim - a name; I scream – ice-cream, might rain – my train. As it has been mentioned already, the realization of the phoneme in different positions in a syllable results in different allophones, which makes it possible to differentiate the meaning of words, word combinations and utterances.
Russian learners of English should be well aware of these regularities and peculiarities of English syllables, as the wrong syllable division can lead to inadequate perception of phrases and misunderstanding.
6.2. The Accentual Structure of English Words
Not all the syllables in a word are pronounced with the same degree of force. Usually one syllable is made more prominent than the others, and it is said to be stressed or accented. Stress is usually studied from two points of view: its production and its perception. The production of stress is generally believed to depend on the speaker using more muscular energy than is used for unstressed syllables. From the perceptual point of view, all stressed syllables have one characteristic in common, and that is prominence. At least four factors contribute to a greater prominence of a syllable:
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• loudness (a louder syllables is perceived as more prominent)
• pitch (especially the change of pitch level)
• the length of a syllable (a longer syllables is perceived as stressed)
• the vowel quality (long vowels and diphthongs are generally more prominent than short vowels, while among short vowels themselves open ones are more prominent, and [ɪ-ʊ-ə] are the least prominent)
Generally, these four factors work together in combination, although syllables may sometimes be made prominent by means of only one or two of them.
Languages differ according to the type of stress. European languages such as English, German, French, Russian, etc. are said to have the dynamic stress which implies greater force (greater muscular energy) with which the syllable is pronounced. The musical (tonic) word stress is observed in Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, etc. The meaning of words in these languages depends on the variations of voice pitch in relation to neighbouring syllables. For example, in Chinese the sound sequence ma pronounced with the level tone means mother, with the rising tone – “material”, with the falling-rising tone – “a horse” and pronounced with the abrupt fall it means “an insult”. In Scandinavian languages the word stress is considered to be both dynamic and musical.
The nature of word stress in Russian seems to differ from that in English. The quantitative component of stress plays a greater role in Russian word stress. In the Russian language we never pronounce vowels of full formation and length in unstressed positions, they are always reduced. In English nonreduced vowels occur sometimes in the unstressed syllables as in transport [ˈtræspɔ:t], museum [mju:ˈzi:əm], hotel [hɜʊˈtel].
Now a brief word on the degree of stress. Phonetic prominence of a syllable in a word is relative, i.e. compared with the preceding one. In fact there are as many degrees of prominence as there are syllables in the word. Phonologically, there are only three degrees: primary - the strongest, secondary and weak (or unstressed): eˌxamiˈnation, ˌorganiˈsation. Some linguists also distinguish tertiary stress, which is as weak as secondary but has a different distribution: it follows the primary stress, while the secondary stress precedes it. Tertiary stress is usually found in American English: ˈsecreˌtary, ˈdictioˌnary.
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Languages are also differentiated according to the placement of word stress. It can be fixed (or limited to a particular syllable - the last in French, the last but one in Polish, the first in Czech) or free (or variable). English word-stress has many peculiarities, which make it very complicated. These peculiarities are due to the fact, that in English there are many borrowed words from different languages with various rules of syllable formation. Though stress placement in English words is free it follows certain rules. As we have already mentioned, phoneticians divide syllables into strong (heavy) and weak (light). A strong syllable contains a long vowel or a diphthong or a short vowel plus two consonants; syllables with a short vowel and no coda are weak ones. Only strong syllables can be stressed (although not all of them), but weak syllables are never stressed. Other factors that may determine the placement of stress are: the morphological structure of the word (whether it is simple, complex or compound), its grammatical category (noun, verb, adjective, etc.) and the number of syllables in the word.
The word stress in English as well as in Russian is not only free, but it may also be shifting, thus differentiating lexical units, parts of speech and grammatical forms: ˈcontrast - conˈtrast, ˈtransport - transˈport, ˈзамок - заˈмок, ˈмука - муˈка.
Besides the stress pattern of English words can vary under the influence of some factors. First of all in the present day English stress can shift under the influence of rhythm to avoid a succession of weak syllables (stress shifts to the second syllable, or the third one from the end) as in ˈhospitable - hosˈpitable, disˈtribute - ˈdistribute, ˈaristocrat - aˈristocrat, etc. In compounds the stress on a final-stressed compound tends to move to a preceding syllable if the following word begins with a strongly stressed syllable: afterˈnoon - ˈafternoon ˈtea.
The stress pattern can change under the influence of tempo as well; in this case secondary stresses are dropped. It sometimes happens that a word’s stress pattern is influenced not only by rhythm, but also by the stress structure of a derivative: preˈfer - preˈferable (instead of the regular ˈpreferable; ˌdistriˈbution - ˈdistribute (instead of the regular diˈstribute.
Word stress is closely interrelated with sentence stress, which usually falls on the syllable marked by word stress. So the arrangement of stresses in an utterance depends on the stress patterns of words. Besides, the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables is common to both sentence and word stress. At the same time they are different in application (word\utterance) and secondly, the word stress may be omitted in a phrase: ˈLet’s buy an ˈice-cream. Word and sentence stress perform different functions as well. The three functions of word stress are the following:
• constitutive
• identificatory
• distinctive
First of all word stress builds up a word by making one (or more) syllables more prominent than the others, it organizes the syllables of a word into a language unit. Thus the word stress performs the constitutive function. Sound sequences become a phrase when they are divided into units organized by word stress into words. The recurrent stress pattern of the word helps the listener to recognize (identify) it in the flow of speech. Correct accentuation facilitates the process of communication and prevents misunderstanding. This function is called identificatory (or recognitive). Word stress is capable of differentiating the meaning of words or their forms, thus performing its distinctive function: ˈcontent – conˈtent; ˈinsult – inˈsult; ˈconcrete – conˈcrete.
The complicated system of the stress structure of English words is a major cause of intelligibility problems for foreign learners, and should be treated very attentively. The possible mistakes are: the placement of stress in a word; words with secondary stresses; and words with the full vowel in the unstressed syllable.
The stress structure of English words in speech is inseparably connected with the rhythmic organisation of speech chain, which will be discussed in the following chapters.
12) Another part of suprasegmental phonology is intonation. Intonation is a language universal. There are no languages which are spoken as a monotone, without any change of prosodic parameters. But intonation functions in various languages in a different way. So our attention will be turned to the role of intonation in the language and its contribution to the communicative value of the act of speech.
Intonation hasn’t been thoroughly investigated yet, as such research involves the use of both special skills and particular technical devices and equipment. From the very beginning of phonetics as a science phoneticians preferred to study segmental phonemes rather than intonation, so now we have a far more detailed analysis of English sounds than of its intonation patterns. Teachers of phonetics also prefer to concentrate their attention on sounds, as the recognition of intonation variations requires a special skill, the so-called musical ear, which is difficult to acquire and develop. Native speakers use intonation unconsciously. Intonational differences in the native language seem to be the first to be perceived and acquired by children, so they are rooted so deeply in their minds that when they come to studying a foreign language, interference (influence) of the native intonation is the strongest and the most difficult to get rid of. More than that. Very often the misuses of intonation patterns in a foreign language are perceived by native speakers not as mistakes, but as an intentional act, so such situations may cause misunderstanding and even offence.
The study of intonation went through many stages: as individual sounds, intonation can be examined on different levels – auditory, acoustic and functional. We shall start with the description of intonation on the auditory and acoustic levels, and then pass on to its linguistic function.
7.1. The Structure of English Intonation
Most linguists agree that on perception level intonation is a complex unity formed by significant variations of pitch, tempo, loudness and timbre. Nowadays there is another term – prosody – which is used in linguistics, sometimes meaning “intonation”. According to the British School intonation refers to pitch (or melody) variations, and prosody embraces pitch, loudness, tempo and voice quality (or timbre). Intonation starts with a phrase, an utterance, while prosody has a wider domain: from a syllable to the whole text. But for convenience in our textbook we shall not discriminate between prosody and intonation and use the terms interchangeably.
There hasn’t been created a suitable definition of either intonation or prosody, but we can see that pitch comes first as the most important and most “linguistic” component. Timbre or voice quality has been recently added to the definition of intonation, as it serves to give additional or emotional colouring to the speech. Some scientists consider it the least linguistic component and refer it to paralinguistics.
On acoustic level pitch correlates with the fundamental frequency (the rate of vibrations of the vocal cords), loudness correlates with intensity (the amplitude of vibrations), tempo is the correlate of duration (or time), voice quality correlates with spectral characteristics.
The linguistic level is concerned with the meanings expressed by the components of intonation or the function of intonation in the process of communication.
As we’ve mentioned already among the four components of intonation pitch and pitch movements seem to have some priority, though the other three parts can’t be ignored either. Each syllable of the speech chain has a special pitch colouring and bears a definite amount of loudness. Pitch movements are connected with loudness; together with the tempo of speech they form an intonation pattern, which is the basic unit of intonation.
Intonation patterns serve to actualize syntagms in oral speech. A syntagm is a group of words which is semantically and syntactically complete. In phonetics actualized syntagms are called intonation groups. A phrase may contain more than one intonation group. The number of intonation groups depends on the length of the phrase and the degree of semantic importance or emphasis given to various parts, etc.:
ˋThis boy │ was mnot a ˈmodel ˋpupil||
This mboy was ˈnot a ˈmodel ˋpupil||
Now let’s see how each of the constituents of intonation actualizes such language units as syntagms, sentences, phrases. Among the pitch parameters we shall concentrate on the variations in the direction of pitch, pitch level and pitch range. Pitch changes can’t be separated from loudness, so we shall discuss pitch-and-stress structure of the intonation pattern.
Not all stressed syllables in a phrase are of equal importance. One of the syllables has the greater prominence than the others and forms the nucleus of an intonation pattern. The nucleus is normally the last strongly accented syllable in an intonation pattern, which marks a significant change of pitch direction (where it goes up or down). The nuclear tone is the most important part of the intonation pattern without which the latter cannot exist at all. On the other hand an intonation pattern may consist of only one syllable which is its nucleus.
In general nuclear tones may be falling, rising and level or a combination of these movements. Each movement may begin on a lower or higher level, thus producing a variety of nuclear tones. For teaching purposes the following most important and frequently used nuclear tones are chosen: ̖Low Fall, ˋHigh (Mid) Fall, ̷Low Rise, ˊHigh (Mid) Rise, ˬFall-Rise, ̭Rise-Fall, >Level. Speakers are said to select from a choice of tones according to how they want the utterance to be heard. During the development of modern phonetics in the twentieth century it was hoped that scientific study of intonation would make it possible to state what the function of each different aspect of intonation was, and that foreign learners could then be taught rules to enable them to use intonation in the way that native speakers use it. However these rules are not quite adequate as a complete practical guide to how to use English intonation.
The meanings of the nuclear tones are difficult to specify even in general terms. Roughly speaking, falling tone is usually regarded as more or less “neutral”, it gives an impression of “finality, completeness and certainty”:
I’ll come in an ̖hour.
Rising tone conveys an impression that something more is to follow, it has the general meaning of “incompleteness, uncertainty, dependence”:
→ Have you seen ̷Ann? - ̷ No.
Some not very important parenthetical information is often spoken with a rising tone to show that it’s incomplete and depends on the main sentence:
…and ̷ then, on the ̷ left, you’ll see my house.
The fall-rise is used a lot in English, it combines the meaning of falling tone’s certainty and the rising tone’s meaning of dependence, so it often conveys a feeling of reservation:
- Do you smoke? - ̬ Sometimes. (not in general)
- I’ve heard it’s a good film. - ̬̬Yes. (but I don’t completely agree)
The rise-fall is used to convey rather strong feelings of approval, disapproval or surprise:
- Isn’t the view lovely! - ̭Yes.
The level nuclear tone is usually used to express a feeling of something routine, uninteresting or boring.
I’m afraid I can’t >manage it…
Mid-level tone is common in spontaneous speech and low-level tone is characteristic of reading poetry:
And >then │ my >heart │with ˋpleasure feels…
And ̖dances │with the ̖daffodils│
An intonation pattern contains one nucleus and may contain other stressed or unstressed syllables, which normally precede or follow the nucleus. The part that extends from the first stressed syllable up to (but not including) the nucleus is called the head. The unstressed syllables which precede the first stressed syllable of the head are called the pre-head, and any syllables between the nucleus and the end of the utterance are the tail.
The tone of a nucleus determines the pitch of the rest of the intonation pattern (that is the tail), thus after a falling tone the rest of the intonation pattern is at a low pitch. After a rising tone the rest moves in an upward direction:
̖No ˌMary. \ ̷ Well ̍Mary.
The nucleus and the tail form what is called the terminal tone.
Variations within the pre-nuclear part do not usually affect the grammatical meaning of the utterance, though they often reflect speaker’s attitude and phonetic styles. There are three common types of pre-nucleus - a mdescending type, in which the pitch gradually descends (smoothly or in steps); an kascending type in which syllables form an ascending sequence; and a →level type, when all the syllables stay more or less on the same level.
All parts of the intonation pattern can be combined in various ways, thus manifesting changes in meaning. The number of combinations is more than a hundred, but not all of them are really important, so in teaching we deal only with a very limited number of intonation patterns.
Two more pitch parameters are pitch range and pitch level. Each speaker has his or her own normal pitch range: a top level which is the highest pitch normally used by the speaker, and a bottom level that the speaker’s pitch normally doesn’t go below. In ordinary speech the intonation tends to take place within the lower part of the speaker’s pitch range, but in situations where strong feelings are to be expressed it is usual to make use of extra pitch height. For example, if we represent the pitch range by drawing two parallel lines showing the highest and lowest limits of the range, then a normal unemphatic “yes” could be diagrammed like this:
but a strong emphatic “yes” – like this:
So pitch range can be normal, wide and narrow. Narrow pitch range is associated with dull monotonous speech.
Another component of intonation is tempo. It implies the rate of the utterance and pausation. The rate can be normal, slow and fast. The parts of the utterance which are particularly important sound slower and those which bear additional, not significant information are pronounced at a faster rate. Utterances are split into smaller portions by means of pauses. By pause is meant a complete stop of phonation. Pauses differ according to their length. Usually three kinds of pauses are distinguished for teaching purposes:
• Short pauses which separate intonation groups within a phrase;
• Longer pauses which manifest the end of the phrase;
• Very long pauses (twice as long as the first type) are used to separate paragraphs.
Functionally pauses may be syntactic, emphatic and hesitation. Syntactic pauses separate phonopassages, phrases and intonation groups. Emphatic pauses serve to make prominent certain parts of the utterance. They are used to draw the listeners’ attention to what the speaker is going to say. Hesitation pauses are mainly used in spontaneous speech to gain time to think over what to say next. They may be silent or filled.
Sometimes we can perceive a pause, when there is no stop of phonation at all. It may happen when pitch changes its direction; variations in the rate of the utterance, aspiration, etc. can also produce this effect.
Timbre or voice quality has not been thoroughly investigated yet. Phoneticians describe three types of voice quality settings which depend on the position of speech organs, the characteristics of the vocal cords and muscular tension. For the moment it is known that voice quality differences do contribute to a foreign accent and that they stem from both linguistic and sociolinguistic factors, but further research is needed on this phenomenon for more accurate information.
The changes of pitch, loudness and tempo are highly organized in any particular language. No matter how different the individual variations of these prosodic components are they are standard, so that all speakers of the language use them in similar ways under similar circumstances. These characteristics of intonation structure form the prosodic system of English.
13) Our further point will be the description of intonation on the functional level. Intonation is a powerful means of human intercommunication. One of the aims of communication is the exchange of information between people. The meaning of an English utterance derives not only from the grammatical structure, the lexical composition and the sound pattern. It also derives from variations of intonation or its prosodic parameters. We can see that intonation makes it easier for a listener to understand what a speaker is trying to convey. The ways in which intonation does this are very complex, and there exist various points of view on the number and aims of intonation functions in a language.
P.Roach, for example, singles out the following intonation functions:
• grammatical
• accentual
• attitudinal
• discourse
Let’s have a closer look at them. First of all intonation serves to mark boundaries between phrases, clauses or sentences to indicate the grammatical subordination and to show the difference between questions, statements, commands, etc., so this function is called grammatical. The placement of the intonation-group boundary is important for differentiating the meaning of some ambiguous sentences, as in the example:
Those who sold ┊ˌquickly ˌmade a profit|
ˈThose who ˈsold quickly ┊ˌmade a profit|
The intonation-group boundary can occur not only between words, but other grammatical units such as phrases and clauses, thus showing what is subordinate to what, as in the example:
The boys ┊ who weren’t punished ┊ were happy|
The boys who weren’t punished ┊ were happy| (only some boys)
Some skilful speakers use this ability of intonation as a special rhetorical device to attract the listeners’ attention or to hold the floor a bit longer.
The choice of nuclear tones also has grammatical significance, as it makes clear whether the person is telling something, asking or commanding. Basic tones are generally associated with certain communicative types of sentences. The falling tone is most common in statements, special questions, commands and exclamations. The rising tone is characteristic of non-final parts of statements, general questions, requests and warnings. The grammatical function here seems to overlap with the pragmatic function and depends on the speaker’s pragmatic aim. The choice of the nuclear tone can turn the command into a polite request:
ˈClose the ̖door ┊ˎwill you|
ˈClose the ˎdoor ┊͵will you|
a question into an exclamation:
Isn’t she ͵beautiful|
ˈIsn’t she ‵beautiful|
an apology into a request to repeat:
I’m ˎsorry|
I’m ͵sorry|
a statement into a question (mostly in colloquial speech):
You ‵did it|
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