National standards

§ RP (Received Pronunciation), or BBC English, in the UK;

§ GA (General American), or American Network English, in the USA;

§ GenCan (General Canadian) in Canada;

§ GenAus (General Australian) in Australia.

National pronunciation standards are associated with radio and television newsreaders and presenters of serious channels. There are also professional groups and public figures whose speech is symbolic of certain types of accents.

 

Smaller geographical divisions are regional standards which are accents of educated population in a certain area.

· Southern, Northern, Scottish and Northern Irish on the British Isles,

· Northern, Northern Midland, Southern Midland, Southern, Western in the USA.

In the US, geographically, the situation is quite the reverse: it is the South and South Midland which stand out for their marked difference from the standard pronunciation.

Less educated people use numerous local accents which can be:

a) urban (characteristic of a city like Liverpool or New York);

b) rural (spoken in the countryside).

 

 

THE NOTION OF INTERFERENCE. PREREQUISITES FOR PHONETIC INTERFERENCE (SEGMENTAL LEVEL) (12)

 

The problem of interference was introduced in 1943 by Jacobson and Gavrinek.

Interference has long been interested in a long before (B. de Courtene, Scherba, Брызгунова, Кулешов).

Interference is super-imposing of one language system on another one language system => certain changes in the structure of one language (Russian) under the influence of another (English) and visa versa => interaction of 2 lang-s.

Interference may take place in every aspect of the language (different levels):

- phonetic

- grammatical

- lexical

Interference is most prominent at phonetic level. This is explained by thу fact that audio-pronouncing skills are considered to be the least controlled in speech production & speech perception.

Prerequisites:

1) The differences in the phonological systems of the l-ges that are in contact (in English – system of diphtongs; in Russian – no. In English the nuclear is made stronger, but in Russian – visa versa.

2) The differences in the phonetic laws (English voiced cons-s are not devoiced; in Russian – absolutely devoiced [cæt];

3) The differences in phonetic basis (тут можно начать плести про phonetic basis)

 

Билет 8

 

Types of syllable. The specific character of syllable in English and Russian. Mistakes which occur as a result of the differences in the articulatory bases of E and R in terms of syllable formation and syll division (18).

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) (we) from uncovered (V or VC) (ant) 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 longor 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.

It is important for Russians not to make English syllables open (city – [sit-i], [си-ти]). Wrong S division on the articulatory level leads to inadequate perception of phrases and consequently to misunderstanding.

The specific character of syll division in E and in R

The basic dif-ce consists in the dominance of an open syllable in R (CV), and a closed syll in E (CVC). (78% of R syllables are open). Another important feature concerns the dynamics of syllable articulation. There is a close contact in the R syllable between the onset consonants and the following vowels (CV), which affects the quality of vowels. In E there is a close contact between the vowel and the coda consonants (VC), which affects the length of vowels. Most E syll-s are closed when there is a fortis consonant in the coda. There is one more controversial point in syll.division which concerns medial cluster division in E. There are two authentic sources for looking up syllable boundary of any given word in E: EPD (Cambridge Engl Pronouncing Dict-y) and LPD (Longman). The two sources agree on the following: 1. Compounds should be divided into syllables according to the morphological principle: hard-ware. 2. A single consonant which appears between two syllables after a short stressed vowel should be attached to the preceding vowel: bett|er. However there are differences as to where to put a consonant which follows a long vowel or a diphthong. EPD attaches a single word-medial consonant to the following syllable (Maximal Onset principle): la.dy, in.vi.ted, while LPD puts all word-medial single consonants and clusters to the stressed syllable (Maximal Stress principle): lad y, in vit ed. Thus the word window will be differently attested in the two dictionaries due to the two different principles of syllable division: EPD win.dow, LPD wind ow. Experimental evidence, as reported from British sources by Alan Crutenden, shows that following a long vowel a consonant was syllabified with the following syllable which supports EPD: la-dy. The retention stage of a consonant belongs to the previous short vowel, while the release is with the next syllable. In fact, the boundary between the two syllables runs within the medial consonant: city [sit-ti] better [bet-t`].]

 

Билет 9