Introduction. 1.Phonetics as a branch of linguistics

Unit 1

1. Phonetics as a branch of linguistics.

2. Branches of phonetics.

3. Relation of phonetics to social sciences.

I) The word “phonetics” is derived from the Greek word “sound”. It is a branch of linguistics which is concerned with the sound system of the language, i. e. phonemes, word stress, syllabic structure and intonation. However, it occupies a peculiar position in linguistics. On the one hand, it is an independent branch of linguistics and develops according to its own laws. Today the sphere of phonetics is wider and deeper than ever before: phonemes and their distribution in words, their mutual adaptation, stress, syllable formation, intonation, the relation between oral and written speech are the objects of phonetic investigation.

On the other hand, phonetics is closely connected with a number of other sciences, such as physics (or rather acoustics), biology, physiology and some social sciences. The more phonetics develops, the more various branches of science get involved in phonetic investigation.

Phonetics is an essential part of a language, because it gives a language a definite form: the vocabulary and grammar of a language can function only when the language has its phonetic form. All lexical and grammatical phenomena are expressed phonetically.

E. g. 1) One word may differ from another in one sound only big – bag – bog (connection with lexicology).

2) The 3 forms of irregular verbs differ from one another because of vowel alterations in the root: rise – rose – risen

swim – swam – swum

II) Phonetics is not a new science. If was known to the ancient Greeks and Hindus. But as an independent science it began to develop in the 19^th century.

We should differentiate between special and general phonetics.

General phonetics studies the sound system of a language irrespective of the specific features of any particular language.

Special phonetics is concerned with the study of the phonetic structure of a given language.

Phonetics may be subdivided into descriptive phonetics and historical phonetics.

Descriptive phonetics deals with the sound system of a language as it exists at a given time.

Historical phoetics is concerned with the study of the phonetic structure of a language in its historical development.

According to the linguistic function of the organs of speech, phoneticians point out 3 branches of phonetics.

- The branch of phonetics that studies the way in which the air is set in motion, the movements of the speech organs and the coordination of these movements in the production of speech sounds (both single and chains of sounds) is called articulatory phonetics.

- Acoustic phonetics studies the way in which the air vibrates between the speaker’s mouth and the listener’s ear.

- Auditory phonetics investigates the hearing process. Its interests lie more in the sensation of hearing than in the physiological working of the ear.

Besides, in this country 2 courses of phonetics are introduced:

- practical or normative, that studies the substance, the material form of phonetic phenomena in relation to meaning,

- theoretical phonetics, that is mainly concerned with the functioning of phonetic units in the language

There is the last point to indicate here. Phonetics is itself divided into 2 major components: segmental phonetics which studies individual sounds (“segments” of speech) and suprasegmental phonetics whose domain is the larger units of connected speech: syllables, words, phrases and texts.

III) Phonetics and social sciences.

Phoneticians are not only describers and classifiers of the material form of phonetic units. They are also interested in the way in which sound phenomena function in a particular language. The branch of phonetics that studies the linguistic function of consonant and vowel sounds, syllabic structure, word accent and prosodic features (such as pitch, stress and tempo) is called phonology.

In linguistics, function is usually understood to mean discriminatory function, (различительная) but we can’t ignore the other functionof phonetic units, i. e. their role in the formation of syllables, words, phrases and even texts. This functional or social aspect of phonetic phenomena was first introduced by I.A. Baudouin-de-Courtenay. The majority of Russian phoneticians shares this view point and consider phonology a branch of phonetics that investigates its most important social aspect.

There exists another point of view first expressed by N.S. Trubetskoy. He declared phonology to be a linguistic science, limiting articulatory and acoustic phonetics to anatomy, physiology and acoustics only. This conception is shared by many foreign linguistics who investigate the material form and the function of oral speech units separately.

Through study of the nature of spoken language, we gain valuable insights into human psychology and into the functioning of man in society. That’s why phonetics has a considerable social value.

So, our further point should be made in connection with the relationship between phonetics and social sciences.

In the past few decades we have witnessed the development of distinct interdisciplinary subjects, such as sociolinguistics (and sociophonetics), psycholinguistics, mathematical linguistics and others.

Sociophonetics studies the ways in which pronunciation interacts with society. It is the study of the way in which phonetic structures change in response to different social functions (when we are talking to equals, superiors or subordinates; when we are “on the job”, when we are old or young, male or female etc).

There in another example of interdisciplinary overlap.

Psycholinguistics developed in the early 60s of the 20^th century. It studies various aspects of the relation of linguistics to psychology: the acquisition of language by children, the extent to which language structures thinking; the extent to which language is influenced and itself influenced such things as memory, attention, recall and constraints on perception; the problems of speech production etc.

So, it is the application to linguistic phenomena that makes phonetics a social science in the proper sense of the word.

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