II. Sounds of speech as acoustic and articulatory units

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Homographs can be differentiated only due to pronunciation, because they are identical ш spelling, e.g.

bow /bau/ лук—bow /bau/ поклон

lead /li:d/ руководство—lead /led/ свинец

row /гэи/ ряд—row /rau/ шум

sewer /зэиэ/ швея—sewer /sjus/ сточная труба

tear /tea/ разрыв—tear /иэ/ слеза

wind /wind/ ветер—wind /wamd/ виток

Due to the position of word accent we can distinguish between homonymous words and word groups, e.g.

'blackbird дрозд—'black ⁴bird черная птица

Phonetics is also connected with stylistics; first of all through intonation and its components: speech melody, utterance stress, rhythm, pausation and voice tamber which serve to express emotions, to distinguish between different attitudes on the part of the author and speaker. Very often the writer helps the reader to interpret his ideas through special words and remarks such as: a pause, a short pause, angrily, hopefully, gently, incredulously, etc. For example:

"Now let me ask you girls and boys, would you paper a room with representations of horses?"

After a pause, one half of the children cried in chorus, "Yes, sirl" Upon which the other half, seeing in the gentleman's face that "Yes" was wrong, cried out in chorus, "No, sirl"—as the custom is in these examinations.

"Of course, no. Why wouldn't you?"

A pause. (Ch. Dickens. Hard Times)

If the author wants to make a word or a sentence specially promi­nent or logically accented, he uses graphical expressive means, e.g.:

Phonetics is also connected with stylistics through repetition of words, phrases and sounds. Repetition of this kind serves the basis of rhythm, rhyme and alliteration.

Regular recurrence of accented elements, or rhythm, may be used as a special device not only in poetry, but in prose as well.

For example, in the extract given below the repetition of the word fact helps Ch. Dickens to characterize his hero, Mr. Gradgrind as a narrow-minded person unable to see anything behind bare facts.

"Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts; nothing else will ever be of any service to them." (Ibid.)

In the description of Gradgrind's "mental introduction" rhythm is'achieved through the repetition of parallel constructions, beginning with the word man, which gradually develop and help to achieve the ■climax of significance.

"Thoraas Gradgrind, sir. A man of realities. A man of facts and calculations. A man who proceeds upon the principle that two and "two are four, and nothing over, and who is not to be talked into al­lowing for anything over. Thomas Gradgrind, sir — peremptorily Thomas—Thomas Gradgrind." (Ibid.)

The repetition of identical or similar sounds, which is called allit­eration, helps, together with the words to which they belong, to im­part a melodic effect to the utterance and to express certain emo­tions. Thus, the repetition of the sonant /m/ in the lines of the ballad, given below (together with the other stylistic devices), helps to pro­duce the effect of merriment.

There are twelve months in all the year, As I hear many men say, But the merriest month in all the year Is the merry month of May.

The repetition of the words year, say and May produces the effect of rhyme.

Onomatopoeia, a combination of sounds which imitate sounds produced in nature, is one more stylistic device which can serve as an example of the connection between phonetics and stylistics. E.g.: tinkle, jingle, clink, ting, chink; chatter, jabber, clatter, babble; chirp, cheep, twitter, chirrup; clap, dab, smack; crash, bang.

The study of phonetic phenomena from the stylistic point of view is phonostylistics. It is connected with a number of linguistic and non-linguistic disciplines, such as: paralinguistics, psychology, psy-cholinguistics, sociology, sociolinguistics, dialectology, literary crit­icism, aesthetics, information theory, etc.

Phonetics has the following branches: 1) articulatory (physiolog­ical) and perceptive (auditory), 2) acoustic, 3) functional (linguistic).

Articulatory and perceptive investigation of speech sounds is done on the basis of a good knowledge of the voice and sound produc­ing mechanisms, their structure, work and perceptive (auditory) effects, that is—physiology and psychology. Articulatory phonetics makes use of such instruments and devices as: a hand mirror, laryn­goscope, artificial palate, graphical representations of sounds, pho­tographs and X-ray photographs, gramophone records and magnetic tape recorder. TV classes and special films are also very helpful for the investigation and study of the articulatory aspect of speech.

Acoustic properties of sounds, that is, quantity, or length, tamber, intensity, pitch, temporal factor are investigated by the acoustic and auditory branch of phonetics.

Special laboratory equipment, such as kymograph, spectrograph,
oscillograph and Monograph help to obtain the necessary data about
prosodic properties of speech sounds.,..,_*

A kymograph records qualitative variations of sounds in the form of kymographic tracings,

A spectrograph produces sound spectrograms which help to list the frequencies of a given sound and its relative amplitudes".

An oscillograph records oscillograms of sound vibrations of any frequency. Automatically recorded oscillograms can be observed upon the screen.

An intonograph measures automatically: 1) the fundamental tone of the vocal cords, 2) the average sound pressure, 3) the duration or length of speech (pausation). The results are recorded: 1) visually upon the screen of the electron-ray tube, 2) on paper or film with the continuous reproduction by tape recorder, 3) in digits (while estimat­ing the limits of the recorded area along the screen of the electron-ray tube).

The phonological or functional properties of phonemes, syllables, accent and intonation are investigated by means of special linguistic methods, which help to interpret them as socially significant ele­ments.

Theoretical significance of phonetics is connected with the further development of the problem or the synchronic study and description of the phonetic system of a national language, the comparative ana­lysis and description of different languages and the study of the cor­respondences between them, the diachronic description of successive changes in the phonetic system of a language or different languages.

Practical significance of phonetics is connected with teaching foreign languages. Practical phonetics is applied in methods of speech correction, teaching deaf-mutes, film doubling, transliteration, radio and telephone.

Questions

1; What is the significance of speech according to the classics of Marxism-Leninism? 2. What are the vowel and consonant transcrip­tion symbols? 3. What rules for writing transcription symbols do you know? 4. How is phonetics connected with other sciences? 5. What are the branches of phonetics? 6. What are the methods and devices, of phonetic investigation? 7. What is the practical and theoretical significance of phonetics?

Exercises

*1. Write the plural forms of these words and transcribe them. Prove thai,': phonetics is connected with grammar.

witch judge half loaf wife mistress

glass crash knife self wolf sculptress

fox calf leaf sheaf actress waitress

gas elf life thief hostess lioness
14

*2. Write the three forms of these verbs and transcribe them. Prove that pho­netics is connected with grammar.

beg compel stop work nod invent

live recognize wrap pass permit rest

open arrive help ship wait load

travel " rain ask pack expect depend

cancel inform discuss look

■*3. Transcribe these words. Underline the interchanging vowels and conso­nants in the corresponding parts of speech.

nation—national advice—to advise

grave—gravity use—to use

provoke—provocative a house—to house

zeal—zealous an excuse—to excuse

supreme—supremacy a device—to devise

occur—'occurrence loose—to lose

close—to close

*4. Read these words and word combinations. Translate them into Russian. Prove that phonetics is connected with lexicology through accent.

'redbreast — fred 'breast I break-1 promise—'break 'promise

'bluebell—'blue 'bell 'heavy-weight—'heavy 'weight

'bluestone—'blue 'stone 'red-book—'red 'book

'blue-lines—'blue 'lines 'blue-stocking—'blue 'stocking

'bluebottle—'blue 'bottle 'blue-nose—'blue 'nose

'blackshirt—'black 'shirt 'blue-coat—'blue 'coat

'black-face—'black 'face 'blue-bonnet—'blue 'bonnet

tbird's-eye—'bird's 'eye 'black-hole—'black 'hole
'bread-and-butter—'bread and 'black mass—'black 'mass
'butter

*5. Transcribe, read and translate these pairs of words, Single out the sounds that differentiate the meaning of the words,

still—steel sell—sale but—bath

poo!—pull model—modal breath—breadth

ship—sheep saw—so diary—dairy

sit—seat Polish—polish suit—suite

fill—feel guard—guide patrol—petrol

live—leave worth—worse mayor—major

ill—eel truth—truce rout—route
slip—sleep

6. Read these pairs of words. State to what parts of speech they belong. Single out the sounds that interchange. Translate the words into Russian.

deep — depth antique—antiquity know—knowledge

brief—brevity coal—collier please—pleasure

sagacious—sagacity mead—meadow perceive—perception

strong—strength nature—natural describe — description

precise—precision beast—bestial abound—abundance

broad — breadth brass—brazen mode—modify

Slower—-flourish admit—admission pretend—pretention

assume—assumption correct—correction precise—precision

presume—presumption conclude —conclusion object—objection

confess—confession divide—division neglect—negligent

depress—depression collide—collision compete—competition

deceive—deception intent—intention rector—rectorial

'7. Read these compounds. Single out the sounds that interchange. Translate the compounds into Russian.

knick-knack shilly-shally ping—pong

mingle-mangle tick—tack sing—song

mish—mash wiggle—waggle slip—slop

prittle—prattle wig—wag tip—top

rickety—rackety zig-zag wish—wash

_riff__raff clip—clop wishy-washy
rip—rap
*8. Read the rhyme. State what stylistic effect is achieved through repetition.

To market,, to market, to buy a fat pig, Home again, home again, jiggety jig; To market, to market, to buy a fat hog. Home again, home again, jiggety jog. To market,' to market, to buy a plum bun, Home again, home again, market is done.

•*e. Read the rhyme. Why is the word "think" singled out?

Look to left and look to right, Note what traffic is in sight. Note, too, which light can be seen: The Red, the Amber, or the Green-Children, keep from dangerous play And THINK before you cross today.

*10. Read these rhymes. State what sounds are used to produce the effect of alliteration and for what purpose.

(a) She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore;

The shells she sells are sea-shells, I'm sure. So if she sells sea-shells on the sea-shore, Then I'm sure she sells sea-shore shells.

(b) Swan swam over the sea —
Swim, swan, swim;

Swan swam back again-Well swum swan.

*11. Read the rhyme. Transcribe the words ased to imitate the sounds made by different animals. State the stylistic device formed by this phonetic means.

Bow-wow, says the dog;

Mew, mew, says the cat; Grunt, grunt, goes the hog;

And squeak, goes the rat. Tu-whu, says the owl; Caw, caw, says the crow; Quack, quack, says the duck;

And moo, says the cow.

Control Tasks

1. How do you prove that phonetics is an independent science?

2. Cive examples to prove the significance of phonetics.

S. Give examples to prove that phonetics is connected with other sciences, *4. Translate these words and then transcribe them.

1. очень; меняться, изменяться; 2. личный; персонал, личный состав; 3. костюм; свита; 4. патруль; бензин; 5. мэр; майор; 6. бунт; разгром; маршрут, путь; 7. выносить, терпеть; пиво; 8. год; ухо; 9. набережная; очередь; 10. допускать; доступ, вход; 11. влиять; эффект; 12. сквозняк; засуха; 13, волосы; заяц; наследник; 14. на­ливать; бедный; лапа; 15. мужество; вагон: 16. требовать; приобре­тать

*5. Give the plural form of these words and then transcribe both^forms.

wolf, wife, life, leaf, thief, knife, sheaf, half, self, elf, loaf, calf, echo, potato, hostess, tigress, basis, thesis, crisis, analysis, man, foot, goose, mouse, bath, house, class, box, dish, inch, phenome­non, focus

*6. Single out pairs of sounds the interchange of which makes the words dif­ferent parts of speech.

clothe v —cloth n halve v —half n

glaze v —glass n live v —life n

loathe v —loath ft prove v —proof n

lose v —loss n serve v —serf n

*7. Accent and transcribe these words. Translate them into Russian.

insult—to insult outgrowth—to outgrow

object—to object outlay—to outlay

outgo—to outgo out throw—to outthrow

produce—to produce present—to present subject—to subject protest—to protest

torment—to torment

*8. Read the poem by an anonymous writer and state what phonetic expressive means the author ases to make it more^impress!ve.

Susan Simpson

Sudden swallows swiftly skimming.

Sunset's slowly spreading shade, Silvery songsters sweetly singing

Summer's soothing serenade.

Susan Simpson strolled sedately.

Stifling sobs, suppressing sighs. Seeing Stephen Slocum, stately

She stopped, showing some surprise.

"Say," said Stephen, "sweetest sigher;

Say, shall Stephen spouseless stay?" Susan, seeming somewhat shyer,

Showed submissiveness straightaway.

Summer's season slowly stretches, Susan Simpson Slocum she—

So she signed some simple sketches — Soul sought soul successfully.

Six September Susan swelters;

Six sharp seasons snow supplies; Susan's satin sofa shelters

Six small Slocums side by side.

*9. Say how the effect of rhythm and rhyme is achieved by phonetic expressive means in the poem by D. F. Alderson.

Lines on Montezuma

(an extract)

Montezuma

Met a puma

Coming through the rye:

Montezuma made the puma

Into apple-pie.

Invitation To the nation Everyone to come. Montezuma And the puma Give a kettle-drum.

Acceptation

Of the nation

One and all invited.

Montezuma—

And the puma

Equally delighted.

Speech sounds can be analysed from the viewpoint of three as­pects: (1) acoustic, (2) physiological and articulatory, (3) functional,

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