Functional or

linguistic level) rhythm

Speech melody, or the pitch component of intonation, is the variations in the pitch of the voice which take place when voiced sounds, esp. vowels and sonorants, are pronounced in connected speech. The pitch of speech sounds is produced by the vibrations of the vocal cords.

Tamber (voice quality) is a special colouring of the voice in pronouncing sentences which is superimposed on speech melody and shows the speaker’s emotions, such as joy, sadness, irony, anger, etc.

The tempo of speech is the speed with which sentences or their parts are pronounced.

Closely connected with the tempo of speech is its rhythm: the recurrence of stressed syllables at more or less equal intervals of time.

The components of I. are said to form a unity, because they always function all together, and none of them can be separated from any of the others in actual speech: it is only possible to single out each component for purposes of intonation analysis.

 

The sentence is the basic unit of lang-e. It may either be a single intonational unit or consist of 2 or more intonational units. This intonational unit is called the intonation group (sense-group). An intonation group has the following characteristics:

§ it has at least 1 accented word carrying a marked change in pitch (a rise, a fall, etc.);

§ it is pronounced at a certain rate and without any pause within it;

§ it has some kind of voice quality.

Intonation pattern consists of the following parts:

Ø the prehead (any serious/unstressed or partially stressed syllable that precede the 1^st strongly stressed syllable;

Ø the head (the 1st accented syllable);

Ø the scale (a series of stressed and unstressed syllables that may be pitched variously starting with the 1^st stressed syllable);

Ø the nucleus (the last accented syllable) – the most important part of the intonation pattern;

Ø the tail – conveys no particular information.

 

The structure of syllable. Syllabic sounds in English and in Russian

The syllable may consist of the onset, the nucleus and the coda. The nucleus plus coda constitute the rhyme. There is no syllable without the nucleus, the presence of the onset and the coda depends on the phonotactic rules of a particular lang: in E there may be as many as three consonants in the onset, while Russian allows of four consonants in that position: splash, straw, screen, but вздрогнуть, всплеск. In E the first of these can only be [s], the second has to be selected from [ptk], and the third from [rlwj]. When a syllable ends in a vowel, with no final consonant, it is said to be an open syllable: be is an open syllable of CV (consonant+vowel) structure. When the syllable is terminated by a consonant, it is said to be closed: it is a closed syllable of VC (vowel+consonant) structure. We can also distinguish covered (CV) from uncovered (V or VC) syllables, depending on whether they have a consonant in the onset. If there is a long vowel or a diphthong, or more than one consonant in the rhyme (nucleus+coda), the syllable is called long or heavy. Heavy syllables attract stress in E. The syllables with just a short vowel without a consonant [i, ɘ, ʊ] are called light or short, and they are normally unstressed. All the four types of syllable can be found in E and in R.

The basic difference between E and R consists in the dominance of an open syllable in R (CV) and a closed syll in E (CVC). Another specific E feature is that approximants [l, m, n, r] may become syllabic after a consonant, which can be accounted for by sonority rule: rhyth-m.

The number of final consonants in closed syllables in E can range from one to four consonants (sick(CVC), six (CVCC), sixth (CVCCC)). In R the maximum number of consonants in coda is three.

The structure of English syllables can be summarized as follows:

• Many syllables have one or more consonants preceding the nucleus. These make up the syllable onset: me, so, plow.

• Many syllables have one or more consonants, following the nucleus. They make up the syllable coda. They are traditionally known as closed syllables: cat, jump.

• The combination of nucleus and coda has a special significance, making up the rhyming property of a syllable.

 

Билет 5

 

word accent. The phonetic characteristics & acoustic nature of word accent. Types of word accent (in terms of the phonetic nature of the word accent)

 

Dynamic aspect – 3^rd component of the phonetic basis – accentual structure of a word. DA is the manner of transition from a consonant to a consonant, from a cons-nt to a vowel, from a vowel to a cons-nt. DA suggests the dynamic articulation of vowel in (un)stresses syllable. Acc to DA, sounds are grouped in larger groups – syllables.

Word accent may be defined as the degree of prominence given to one of more syllable as compared to other syllables in one & the same word. This prominence is affected mainly by pronouncing the stressed syllable with 1) force of exhalation (выдох) & muscular tention, 2) with the change pitch direction, 3) increase in the length of the sound in the stressed syllable, 4) by pronouncing the vowel distinctly.

Nature of word stress. According to A.C.Gimson the effect of prominence is achieved by any or all of four factors - Force, tone, length, and vowel colour. The articulation of the stressed syllable greater mascular energy is produced by the speaker.
The english linguists D.Crystal, A.C.Gimson agree that in english word stress or accent is a complex phenomenon, marked by the variations in force, pitch, quantity and quality.
- When the tonic or musical component of word stress is involved it is the change of pitch level that is significant in making the syllable prominent, but not the type of tone direction.
If the words *import and im*port are said on a level tone and each vowel with it is own length, it is rather difficult to distinguish them. The tonic or musical component may be helpful in defining the place of stress in a word as it is observed within the syllable marked by the pitch change, which contributes to the syllable prominence.
Quantitative and qualitative components of word stress. Certain distinctions of the vowel length and colour are reduced or lacking in unstressed syllables. The fact strengthens the idea that the accentuation is influenced by the vowel length and quality. The vowel of the stressed syllable is perceived (пронимать, различать) as never reduced or obscure (непонятный) and longer than the same vowel in the unstressed syllables. Thus the word *stress* or *accent* is also defined as qualitative where the vowel colour or quality is a means of stress and quantitative with relatively increased length of the stressed vowel. Compare the quality (colour) and quantity (length) of the same vowel in a word e.g. ab*stract,*car-park.
In English the quantitative component of word stress is not of primary importance because of the nonreduced vowels in the unstressed syllables which sometimes occur in English words, e.g. *architect, *transport, *partake.
Languages are also differentiated according to the placement of word stress. There are fixed stress (on one and the same syllable) and free stress (on different syllables). In laguages with a fixed stress the occurrence of the word stress is limited to a particular syllable in a multisyllabic word. In languages with a free stress it is place not confined to a specific position in the word. On one word it may fall on the first syllable, in another on the second syllable, in the third word- on the last syllable, etc.
English: *appetite-be*ginning- ba*lloon
Russian:озеро-погода-молоко

 

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RP and GA IN THE SYSTEM OF VOWELS AND CONSONANTS (4)

 

Generally speaking, the main defining feature of British-oriented accents is the absence of post-vocalic r which makes all non-rhotic (r-less) compared to North-America-oriented accents which are predominantly rhotic (r-ful). However, within each country there are regionally marked accents: the Scottish, the Irish and some other provincial accents on the British Isles are rhotic; in the USA the Southern, the Eastern and Afro-American types of English accents are non-rhotic. These distinctive features become social markers.