A). Consonants. 4 страница

d) the range of intonation in a syntagm may be widened or narrowed.

Breaking the descending scale is achieved by pushing up the pitch of an important word, and then continuing the descending scale from that point. This pitch rise is called “special (or accidental) Rise” and the head in which it is used is called the Upbroken Descending Head. A special rise giving some more prominence to the word pronounced in this way, is higher that the preceding syllable but not as high as the first stressed syllable.

In syntagms with homogeneous members a rise is generally used. Such enumeration is called simple and it is distinguished from emphatic (or dramatic enumeration), where the use of the falling tone, instead of a rising one, makes the utterance more expressive.

There are many ways of widening the range of intonation. One of them is connected with breaking the descending scale: the syntagm is started at a certain pitch from which the descending scale begins, until, on an important word, the pitch is raised and a new descending scale begins. Another way is a fall from a rather high pitch after the descending scale reaches a certain point. The fall usually begins from a higher pitch than the initial pitch of the syntagm. Widening the intonation range is also realized when the syntagm begins at a higher level and the intervals in the pitch of stressed syllables are made greater, so that the descending scale is practically destroyed due to the fact that there are only one or more important words, while all the other syllables are unstressed.

If the important words are emphasized by means of a fall-rise; all the other syllables are usually unstressed and as a rule, the descending scale is also usually absent. The fall-rise may occur within the same syllable, or it may be spread over a number of syllables. Sometimes one of the stressed syllables may be pronounced higher than the preceding one after which the downstepping pitch movement is resumed.

Widening the range of intonation serves to express unrestrained feelings and to produce an effect of general liveliness or cheerfulness. Narrowing the range of intonation serves to emphasize suppressed or painful emotions and expresses no cheerfulness or liveliness on the part of the speaker.

45.46.47 The pre-head forms the initial part of the intonation pattern consisting of unstressed syllables preceding the first stressed one. According to the changes in the voice pitch the pre-head may be: low, rising and high. A low pre-head consists of unstressed syllables pronounced at a low pitch. If unstressed syllables gradually ascend to the pitch of the first stressed syllable they form a rising pre-head. A highpre-head consists of unstressed syllables pronounced on a high level. The low pre-head is used so frequently that it may be considered common in unemphatic speech. Its main function is to mark the comparative unimportance of initial unstressed syllables. The high pre-head is very emotional, it is characteristic of emphatic speech and gives a bright, lively, encouraging character to the utterance.

The head (body, or scale) is the part of the intonation pattern including all the stressed and unstressed syllables up to the last stressed one. R. Kingdon differentiates between “the head” (the first stressed syllable in a syntagm) and “the body” (stressed syllables of a syntagm without the first and the last). According to the general pitch direction the head may be: descending, ascending and level. According to the direction of pitch movement within and between syllables, descending and ascending scales can be: stepping, falling (rising), sliding and scandent. The head beginning on a high pitch and then gradually descending in “steps”, each consisting of one stressed syllable and all unstressed syllables following it and pronounced on the same level, is called Descending Stepping Head. The pitch movement is realized through pitching each stressed syllable a little lower than the preceding one. The descending stepping head is the commonest type used in English. It usually conveys the impression of the balanced, active mood of the speaker.The head in which all stressed and unstressed syllables gradually descend is called falling. The Descending Sliding Headis formed by a series of “jumps” which may consist of only stressed or stressed and unstressed syllables. Each stressed syllable in this head is pronounced a little higher than the end of the preceding “jump” and each unstressed syllable is pitched a little lower than the preceding one. The use of the sliding head gives some additional prominence to all the stressed words in the utterance. It usually reflects an excited state of mind of the speaker and sometimes a very emotional attitude to the situation.The Descending Scandent Head is formed by a descending succession of syllables pronounced with pitch rises in stressed syllables (if they are not followed by unstressed ones) or on a level pitch while each unstressed syllable is pitched a little higher than the preceding one. It is used for emphasis expressing liveliness and sometimes impatience.The Ascending Stepping, Sliding and Scandent Headsare very much like the Descending Head of thesame types, only the general pitch direction is different: the ascending head starts on the lowest pitch and gradually rises. The ascending head is usually used to show surprise, protest, hurt feelings, etc. If the pitch rises on all stressed and unstressed syllables the head is called rising.

Not all stressed syllables are of equal importance. One of the syllables has the greater prominence than the others and forms the accentual nucleus, or focal point of a syntagm. Formally the nucleus may be described as a strongly stressed syllable which is generally the last stressed syllable of a syntagm. It is an obligatory component because it carries one of the basic tones and is always associated with the communicative centre of the sentence, the latter being the most important word or group of words in this sentence. So the nucleus marks the focus of information or the part of the pattern to which the speaker especially draws the hearer’s attention. The nucleus may coincide with the communicative centre if it is represented by a monosyllabic word or constitute its part in a polysyllabic word. The change of pitch within the last stressed syllable of the syntagm is called a nuclear tone. 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 one syllable which is its nucleus, while the head, pre-head and tail are optional elements.

The inventory of tonal types given by different scholars is different. According to the classification, accepted for teaching purposes, all English tones may be level, or static(tones of unchanging pitch) and moving, or kinetic(tones of changing pitch), moving tones are divided into simple(changing in one direction) and complex(changing in more than one direction). Level tones can be pitched at high, mid and low level. Moving tones include simple tones, such as: low fall, high fall, low rise, high rise, and complex tones: fall-rise, rise-fall. The fallingtones render an idea of finality and completion, the categoric nature of the utterance, its independence of a following utterance and, therefore, its greater semantic weight. The risingtones carry a sense of incompletion and non-finality (continuation), the non-categoric nature of the utterance, its dependence on a following utterance or the reaction of the listener, its smaller semantic weight.

The Low Fallstarts at a medium pitch level or a bit lower and falls to a very low pitch. It expresses finality and indicates a number of attitudes ranging from neutral to grim, cool, detached, phlegmatic attitudes. The High Fallstarts at a high pitch and falls to a very low pitch. Italso expresses finality but the range of attitudes is different: it indicates liveliness, polite and friendly interest, personal involvement and concern and sometimes a mild surprise. The Low Risestarts low and rises to a medium pitch or a little lower. It expresses non-finality, incompleteness, it is non-categoric and implicatory in character. The High Risestarts at a medium pitch or a little higher and rises to a very high pitch. It is an interrogating and echoing tone. It is used in all kinds of echoes and in questions calling for repetition. The Fall-Risefalls from a high or medium pitch level to the low pitch level and then slowly rises to a little below the mid pitch level. It is a contrastive, implicatory tone, expressing politeness, apology, concern, uncertainty, etc. The Rise-Fall starts in the middle of the voice range, rises to a very high pitch and then falls to a very low pitch. It is final and categoric in character. It expresses both pleasant and unpleasant attitudes, ranging from irony or sarcasm to admiration and has an intensifying function.

These tones may be made emphatic: they may be given a degree of stress beyond the normal.

The use of this or that nuclear tone determines the duration of the nuclear syllable. A syllable containing a high fall is longer than one with a low fall, whereas a syllable with a falling-rising tone, or a rising-falling-rising tone is much longer than one with any other nuclear tone.

The tail forms the final part of the intonation pattern. It includes all unstressed and half-stressed syllables following the nucleus. There are three types of the tail – level, rising (ascending) and falling (descending). The occurrence of this or that type of tail is determined by the kind of the nuclear tone used. The descending tail occurs when the fall of the nuclear tone does not reach the lowest level. The level tail occurs when the preceding fall is complete, or when the nuclear tone is even but on a mid level. The level tail is pronounced on a very low pitch. The ascending tail is observed after the even low-pitched nuclear tone or after a rising nuclear tone. In fact it is the tail which produces the rising effect. Each type of tail is a kind of the continuation of a particular nuclear tone, and the two together constitute a so called terminal tone.

Syntagms are not fixed and unchangeable phenomena; they are formed in the process of speaking, and depend upon many conditions, such as: the meaning of what is being spoken, the construction of sentences, the length of the phrase and the degree of semantic importance or emphasis given to various parts of it, the speed of speaking, as well as the syntactical structure of each particular language as a whole.

A syntagm does not represent one particular syntactic category. It may consist of a number of words or of one word only, even of an interjection. It may correspond to a sentence consisting of a number of words, to a clause, principal or subordinate. A syntagm may contain two clauses. This is usually the case with object clauses. The subject group and the predicate group usually form separate syntagms, especially in slow tempo, and when extended. A syntagm may coincide with one member of a sentence. Homogeneous members also require separate syntagms. A syntagm cannot be composed of more than one complete sentence.

48.. Standard pronunciation of English and its development. The types of Received Pronunciation.

A national language has two material forms: written and spoken. But spoken language is not the same throughout the country, it may vary from locality to locality. Distinct forms of a spoken language distinguished from each other by difference in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary are called dialects. “Dialect” is the term broader than “accent”, as the latter is used to denote varieties in pronunciation only. So the word “dialect” can be used in the meaning of accent (referring to pronunciation only), but not vice versa. Consequently, dialectology is the branch of phonetics which deals with dialectal differences in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary.

The spoken form has its national pronunciation standard. A standard is a socially accepted variety of a language established by a codified norm of correctness. There are other terms denoting standard national pronunciation such as orthoepic norm (from the word “orthoepy” – the correct pronunciation of the words of a language), orthoepic standard, literary pronunciation.

For certain geographical, economic, political, cultural and social reasons one of the dialects develops into the standard language of the nation (literary language) and its pronunciation becomes the national standard. Thus the literary language of England developed on the basis of the London dialect, because London expanded rapidly into an important centre of commerce, industry and learning as early as the 14^th. century. The pronunciation based on the London dialect became Standard English Pronunciation. It is also termed as Southern English pronunciation, Public School pronunciation, Received English Pronunciation (RP). The term “Southern English pronunciation” indicates only the birth place of this type of English pronunciation and does not mean that it is confined nowadays only to this locality. The term “Public School pronunciation” emphasizes that this type of pronunciation used to be taught in the expensive boarding school for the children of the rich. The term “Received Pronunciation” means that this type of pronunciation is accepted as correct by the majority of English people, it is the so called social standard within Britain. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) adopted this form of pronunciation for its announcers. RP is acknowledged as the teaching norm in most countries, where English is taught as the foreign language.

RP is not homogeneous and stable. Some linguists distinguish four main types within it today.

1) conservative RP, used by the older generation and, traditionally, by certain professions or social groups;

2) general RP, used most commonly and adopted by the BBC;

3) advanced RP, used by young people of exclusive social groups mostly of the upper classes, but also for prestige value in certain professional circles; it reflects the tendencies typical of changes in pronunciation.

These three types were singled out by A. Gimson. The researchers Trudgill and Hannah suggest one more type:

4) near-RP Southern, used by many native speakers especially teachers of English and professors of colleges and universities (particularly from the South and South-East of England), which closely resembles RP but is not identical to it.

49. Regional and national variants of Standard English pronunciation.

Languages, spoken by more than one nation, have several national variants of standard pronunciation. One of such languages is English. As a result of the colonial expansion of British Empire, the English language spread from the British Isles to all the continents of the earth, and as the colonies and dominions gained their independence and attained nationhood English became the national language of several countries, such as the United States of America, Australia, New Zealand and the greater part of Canada. It is native to many who live in India, Israel, Malta, Ceylon, the Republic of South Africa.

All the English-speaking nations have their own standard variants of English pronunciation, which possess many features in common, because they are of common origin. At the same time, they acquire varying number of differences due to the new conditions of their development after separation from the British English and to the degree of their connection with the British English after that separation.

Thus, there are the following national variants of Standard English pronunciation:

1) Australian pronunciation standard;

2) New Zealand pronunciation standard;

3) American pronunciation standard;

4) Canadian pronunciation standard.

New Zealand and Australian types of pronunciation are British-based standards. Canadian pronunciation standard exhibits features common with American English and British English. Like American speakers, most Canadians use the retroflex [r] and dark [l] in all positions and pronounce [æ] in place of [α:]. Some scholars consider Canadian pronunciation American based standard.

Besides the National variant of Standard pronunciation there may be other types of pronunciation considered equally correct or acceptable. They are spread in large regions of the country and used by educated people. Such types of Standard pronunciation are called regional variants of standard (orthoepic, or literary) pronunciation of the language in contradistinction to local dialectal variants, restricted to relatively small localities and used by uneducated people.

Thus in the British Isles the regional types of Standard English Pronunciation are:

1) Southern English pronunciation;

2) Northern English pronunciation;

3) Standard Scottish pronunciation;

4) Welsh English pronunciation;

5) Northern Ireland English pronunciation.

Of all the types of Standard English pronunciation in the British Isles Southern English Pronunciation (RP) is the least regional in character which is why it has the status of the national pronunciation standard.

The number of local (nonstandard) dialects in England is very great. They are classified into following main classes, each class including several groups:

a) the dialects of Scotland (9 groups);

b) the dialects of Ireland (3 groups);

c) the dialects of England and Wales, which includes 5 divisions:

Northern (3 groups);

Midland (10 groups);

Eastern (5 groups);

Western (2 groups);

Southern (10 groups).

There are also social dialects – varieties, spoken by a socially limited number of people.

50.. Received and General American Pronunciation in comparison.

The most significant differences between GA and RP are:

a) within the consonant system;

b) within vowel system;

c) within the accentual system;

d) within the intonation system.

The phoneme [l] exists in GA only in the form of its dark variant [l], which is slightly darker than the RP dark [l] and occurs both before vowels and [j] in which positions clear variants are used in RP and after a vowel or between a vowel and a consonant (as in RP):

In GA the intervocalic [t] as in “pity” and [t] between a strongly stressed vowel and a sonorant as in ‘partly’ is most normally voiced. The result is neutralization of the opposition between [t] and [d] in this position (ex. latter – ladder). The original distinction is preserved through vowel length with the vowel before [t] being shorter.

GA speakers may drop [l] in words like “twenty”, “little”. Thus “winner” and “winter” may sound identical.

In the pronunciation of GA [r] the top of the tongue is curled back further than in RP so that a wider air passage is formed. This process is called retroflexion. However, when preceded by [t, d, θ, ∫] the phoneme [r] is articulated in both GA and RP almost identically. In pre-vocalic position [r] in GA is accompanied by lip-rounding. The phoneme [r] of GA differs from its RP counterpart not only in articulation, but also in distribution, since it is pronounced between a vowel and before a consonant or after a vowel in the word final position (ex. turn [tз:rn], bird [bз:rd], star [stα:r]).

The sonorant [j] is usually weakened or omitted by GA speakers between a consonant (especially a forelingual one) and [u:] (ex. news [nu:z], student ['stu:dənt], suit [su:t], tube [tu:b], stupid ['stu:pid] etc.).

The use of the cluster [hw] in words spelt with the initial diagraph “wh” makes in GA sound differently such words as “which” and “witch”, “whether” and “weather”, “where” and “ware”, which are considered homophones in RP.

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