Phonetics as a Branch of Linguistics

 

Contents

 

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………….3

1. Phonetics as a Branch of Linguistics………………………………………….…5

2.Methods of Investigating the Sound Matter of the Language…………………..14

CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………...17

REFERENCE……………………………………………………………………..19

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction

Knowledge of the structure of sound system and its articulatory and acoustic characteristics is very important in teaching and learning foreign languages. The teacher has to know the starting point from which to begin teaching; he must be able to point out the differences between the pupil’s mother tongue and the language to be learnt. He should be able to choose adequate training exercises.

That’s why it is vital to know, at least, the basic principles of this science.

The term "phonetics" comes from the Greek words meaning "sound or matters pertaining to voice". What does phonetics study? It is concerned with the human noises by which the thought is actualized (that is the oral aspect of speech communication). However phonetics takes the content level into consideration too. Only meaningful sound sequences are regarded as speech and phonetics is concerned only with such sounds which are carriers of organized information of a language. Phonetics analyses the nature of these sounds, their combinations and their functions in relation to the meaning. No kind of linguistic study can be carried out without constant consideration of the material on the expression level. Consequently, phonetics is important in the study of a language. An understanding of it is a basis for any adequate understanding of the structure or functioning of a language.

It follows from this that phonetics is a basic branch - many would say the most fundamental branch of linguistics, because it gives a language a definite form. The vocabulary and grammar of a language can function only when the language has a phonetic form. So grammar and vocabulary depend on phonetics, they cannot exist outside of phonetics, because all lexical and grammar phenomena are expressed phonetically. Neither linguistic theory nor linguistic description can do without phonetics and is complete without it.

Phonetics, being a branch of linguistics, occupies a peculiar position. On the one hand it serves as a means of expressing grammatical and lexical phenomena. On the other hand it has laws of its own which are independent of grammar and vocabulary. Besides it is closely connected with a number of other sciences, such as physics, biology, physiology, psychology etc. The more phonetics develops the more various branches of science become involved in the field of phonetic investigation.

Phonetics is not a new science. It was known to the ancient Greeks and to the ancient Hindus. The scientists of that time were concerned with speech sounds only. It may be said that the orthography of all written languages which use alphabets developed in the course of a very detailed phonetic analysis. Nevertheless, phonetics as an independent science began to develop only in the 19th century, before that it used to be a part of grammar. There has been considerable progress and growth in the 20th century. New concepts, methods of investigation, new theories and schools have been developed. Not only has the sphere of investigation in phonetics become wider, but several new branches of phonetics have also arisen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Phonetics as a Branch of Linguistics

Phonetics is concerned with the human noises by which the thought is actualized or given audible shape: the nature of these noises, their combinations, and their functions in relation to the meaning. Phonetics is subdivided into practical and theoretical. Practical or normative phonetics studies the substance, the material form of phonetic phenomena in relation to meaning. Theoretical phonetics is mainly concerned with the functioning of phonetic units in the language. Theoretical phonetics regards phonetic phenomena synchronically without any special attention paid to the historical development of English.

Phonetics is itself divided into two major components: segmental phonetics, which is concerned with individual sounds (i.e. "segments" of speech) and suprasegmental phonetics whose domain is the larger units of connected speech: syllables, words, phrases and texts. The way these elements of the phonetic structure of English function in the process of communication will be the main concern of this course. The description of the phonetic structure of English will be based on the so-called Received Pronunciation. There is no much agreement, however, as far as the term "norm" is concerned. This term is interpreted in different ways. Some scholars, for instance, associate "norm" with the so-called "neutral" style. According to this conception stylistically marked parameters do not belong to the norm. More suitable, however, seems to be the conception put forward by Y. Screbnev, who looks upon the norm as a complex of all functional styles.

Phonetics  is  primarily  concerned  with  expression  level.  However,  phonetics  is obliged to take the content level into consideration too, because at any stage of the analysis, a considerable part of the phonetician's concern is with the effect which the expression unit he is examining and its different characteristics have on meaning. Only meaningful sound sequences are regarded as speech, and the science of phonetics, in principle at least, is concerned only with such sounds produced by a human vocal apparatus as are, or may be, carriers of organized information of language. Consequently, phonetics is important in the study of language. An understanding of it is a prerequisite to any ad-equate understanding of the structure or working of language. No kind of linguistic study can be made without constant consideration of the material on the expression level.

Three traditional branches of the subject are generally recognized:

• articulatory phonetics is the study of the way speech sounds are made ('articulated') by the vocal organs, i.e. it 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 single sounds and trains of sounds;
• acoustic phonetics studies the physical properties of speech sound, as transmitted between the speaker’s mouth and the listener’s ear;
• auditory  phonetics studies  the  perceptual  response  to speech sounds, as mediated by ear, auditory nerve and brain, i.e. its interests lie more in the sensation of hearing, which is brain activity, than in the psychological working of the ear or the nervous activity between the ear and the brain. The means by which we discriminate sounds – quality, sensations of pitch, loudness, length, are relevant here.

The fourth branch – 'functional phonetics' – is concerned with the range and function of sounds in specific languages. It is typically referred to as phonology.

Phonetics is the study of how speech sounds are made, transmitted, and received, i.e. phonetics is the study of all possible speech sounds. The human vocal apparatus can produce a wide range of sounds; but only a small number of them are used in a language to construct all of its words and utterances.

Phonology is the study of those segmental (speech sound types) and prosodic (intonation) features which have a differential value in the language. It studies the way in which speakers systematically use a selection of units – phonemes or intonemes – in order to express meaning. It investigates the phonetic phenomena from the point of view of their use.

Within phonology, two branches of study are usually recognized: segmental and supra-segmental.  Segmental  phonology  analyses  speech  into  discrete  segments, such as phonemes; supra-segmental or non-segmental phonology analyses those features which extend over more than one segment, such as intonation contours.

The primary aim of phonology is to discover the principles that govern the way that sounds are organized in languages, to determine which phonemes are used and how they pattern – the phonological structure of a language. The properties of different sound systems are then compared, and hypotheses developed about the rules underlying the use of sounds in particular groups of languages, and in all the languages - phonological universals.

Phonology also solves:

• the problem of the identification of the phonemes of a language;
• the problem of the identification of the phoneme in a particular word, utterance.

It establishes the system of phonemes and determines the frequency of occurrence in syllables, words, utterances. The distribution and grouping of phonemes and syllables in words are dealt with an area of phonology which is called phonotactics.

People engaged in the study of phonetics are known as phoneticians.

People engaged in the study of phonology are known as phonologists.

Phonology was originated in the 30s of the 20th  century by a group of linguists belonging to the Prague school of linguistics – Vilem Matesius, Nickolai Trubetskoy, Roman Jakobson. The theoretical background of phonology is the phoneme theory whose foundations were first laid down by I.O. Baudouin de Courtenay (1845-1929) in the last quarter of the 19th  century (between the years of 1868-1881). The most important work in phonology is The Groundwork of Phonology (1939) by Nickolai Trubetskoy. He claimed that phonology should be separated from phonetics as it studies the functional aspect of phonic components of language. Phonetics is a biological science which investigates the sound-production aspect. Contemporary phoneticians hold the view that form and function cannot be separated and treat phonology as a linguistic branch of phonetics.

Before analyzing  the  linguistic function  of  phonetic  units  we  need  to  know  how the vocal mechanism acts in producing oral speech and what methods are applied in investigating the material form of the language, that is its substance.

Phonic  shaping  of  oral  form  of  language  is  called  pronunciation. 

The concept pronunciation has several meanings in present-day phonetics.

In its narrow meaning it is restricted to the features manifested in the articulation of the sounds of a language.

Its wide interpretation implies the entity of discourse features relating to:

• the sound system of a language (the so-called segmental phonemes in the form of their actual speech manifestations – allophones or variants);
• the  syllabic structure of  a  language  (syllable  formation  and  syllable  division);
• word-stress/ lexical stress;
• intonation as a complex unity of  pitch, force and temporal components.

In discussing the pronunciation of English we can focus on one or both of two aspects:

1. on the one hand, we may want to describe what speakers do when they are speaking English. This is the aspect of speech, an activity carried on by communicators who use English in communicating;
2. on the other hand, we may address the question, what are the characteristics of English words and sentences that are realized in speech. This is the aspect of language.

Speech  is  not  the  same  as  language.  Speech  is  an  activity  which  is  carried  on numerous events; language is knowledge, a code which is known and shared by speakers who use their knowledge for transmitting and interpreting verbal messages in these events. When someone is speaking, anyone who is close enough can hear. But only a person who knows the language can understand what is said.

Pronunciation is the primary medium through which we bring our use of language to the attention of other people. It is a process of materializing of features relating to the system of sounds/phonemes, the syllabic structure, prosody (word stress and intonation) while speech/oral verbal message is constructed.

Human speech is the result of a highly complicated series of events. The formation of the concept takes place at a linguistic level, that is in the brain of the speaker; this stage may be called psychological. The message formed within the brain is transmit ted along the nervous system to the speech organs. Therefore we may say that the human brain controls the behaviour of the articulating organs which effects in producing a particular pattern of speech sounds. This second stage may be called physiological. The movements of the speech apparatus disturb the air stream thus producing sound waves. Consequently the third stage may be called physical or acoustic. Further, any communication requires a listener, as well as a speaker. So the last stages are the reception of the sound waves by the listener's hearing physiological apparatus, the transmission of the spoken message through the nervous system to the brain and the linguistic interpretation of the information conveyed.

Language  is  shaped  into  a  spoken  message  by  means  of  its  phonic  structure/sound matter which is traditionally treated as a combination of four components:

1.   the segmental/phonemic component;

2.   the syllabic structure;

3.   the accentual structure/word stress/lexical stress;

4.   intonation.

Word  stress  and  intonation  can  be  treated  together  under  the  heading  supra-segmental or prosodic component because these effects are superimposed on the segmental chain of sounds and carry the information which the sounds do not contain.

Now we will give a brief overview of each of the above given components.

The segmental/phonemic component. First of all, a spoken message/an utterance can be thought as a succession of the smallest, further indivisible segments which are easily singled out in the flow of speech as separate discrete elements. They are called sounds of a language or speech sounds. Definite sequences of speech sounds constitute the material forms of morphemes, words and utterances.

Sounds function as phonemes, i.e. linguistically distinctive, relevant units capable of differentiating the meanings of morphemes, words, sentences. Phonemes are abstract representations of those speech sounds which can differentiate the meaning – i.e. 'sounds in the mind' (the term suggested by Peter Roach). Each language has its own set of phonemes – the ABC (alphabet) of speech sounds. Realizations of a definite phoneme in definite positions in words are called allophones/variants, i.e. 'sounds in the mouth' (the term suggested by Peter Roach).

The sounds of the language constitute its segmental/phonemic component - the first and basic component of the phonic substance of language. The segmental/phonemic component has a systemic character.

It is manifested in the following ways:

1. It can be reflected in various classifications of its phonemes in which the latter are divided first into two fundamental sound types - vowels (V) and consonants (C) with further subdivision of each type.

2. Each segmental phoneme of a language has a definite number of  2.  allophones which occur in definite positions in words. The occurrence of the allophones of a phoneme іn  different  positions  in  a  word  is  called  their  distribution.  Typical  combinations or sequences of sounds are governed by certain regulations and occur in definite positions.

3. The articulations of allophones within words and at the junctions of the words in the  flow of speech merge and interpenetrate each other. Thus there are specific rules for joining the sounds together in every language. These rules affect articulatory V+C, C+C, and V+V transitions.

So the segmental component of language phonic structure can be studied and

described as:

1. system of phonemes;
2. certain patterns of allophones and their distribution;
3. a set of methods of joining speech  sounds/allophones  together in  words  and  at  their junctions – coarticulatory/adjustment phenomena.

The syllabic structure. A unit of spoken message larger than a single sound and smaller than a word is a syllable.

Articulatorily a word may be pronounced "syllable at a time", e.g. un-der-'stand; so the syllable is the smallest further indivisible unit of speech production.

Auditorily the syllable is the smallest unit of perception: the listener identifies the whole of the syllable and only after that the sounds contained. The notion of syllable is very real to native speakers, and is used in everyday conversation.

Thus the second component of the phonic structure of language is the syllabic structure of its words both in citation forms and in utterances. The syllabic structure of words has two inseparable aspects :

1. syllable formation;
2. syllable division/separation.

Both aspects are sometimes covered by the term syllabification. The study and description of how syllables are formed and separated is part of the description of phonic substance of language.

Word/lexical stress. The amount of effort or energy expended in producing a syllable is called stress. For the hearer, stress is manifested as perceptual prominence, or strength. In other words, a stressed syllable seems more prominent or stronger than the other syllables in a word: it stands out [Pennington 1996:129].

Stress is a cover term for three main features, any of which may result when extra effort is expended in producing a syllable and any of which may give an impression of perceptual prominence. These are: duration, or length; intensity, or loudness; and pitch, or fundamental frequency. The English stressed syllable – especially its vocalic nucleus – tends to have a greater degree of length, loudness and pitch associated with it than the unstressed syllable.

Traditionally,  the  word  'stress'  denotes  prominence  referring  to  die  syllables  in words as items of vocabulary, i.e. pronounced in isolation, but not in phrases and sentences  – word  stress/lexical  stress  which  constitutes  the  third  component  of  phonic structure of language.

The problem of word stress has three aspects:

• the physical nature of word stress;
• the position of the word stress in disyllabic and polysyllabic words;
• the degrees of word stress.

Languages differ in all these aspects of word/lexical stress.

Supra-segmental/prosodic features/intonation. Words in speech are not used

in isolation but in phrases and sentences where they are organized according to grammar rules, get different degrees of prominence, each syllable of a word is pronounced with a different degree of pitch and loudness of the voice, and tempo/speed of utterance. Variations in pitch, prominence/stress, and tempo are considered to be supra-segmental or prosodic. They are traditionally termed intonation.

The most important intonation/supra-segmental effects in a language are provided by:

1. the linguistic use of pitch, or speech melody. Different levels of  pitch  (tones)  are  used  in  particular sequences  (contours)  to  express  a wide range of meanings. For example, all languages seem to differentiate between a falling and a rising pitch pattern. This distinction is used to express a contrast between 'stating' and 'questioning';
2. the linguistic use of utterance-level /sentence stress. It is the amount of perceptual prominence given to particular words or syllables in an utterance/sentence because of the particular meaning the speaker wishes to convey in a particular situation. That perceptual prominence is principally achieved by  pitch  change  accompanied  by  greater  loudness,  duration  and  more  clearly defined vowel qualities. It is also termed accent by some phoneticians. The speakers choose to accent certain words (or to de-accent others) in an utterance and this accentuation (or de-accentuation) is defined by the meaning of the utterance.
3. the linguistic use of speech tempo. It is possible to speed up or slow down the rate with which syllables, words, and sentences are produced to convey several kinds of meaning. In many languages, a sentence spoken with extra speed conveys urgency. Rapidly pronounced, clipped syllables may convey irritation; slowly uttered ones – greater personal involvement, etc.

Pitch, loudness/prominence and tempo together create the rhythm of a language, loudness is the basis of rhythmical effects in English [Crystal 1997]. In other languages, such as oriental ones, pitch height (high vs. low) is a central feature of rhythm.

Languages also vary in the way in which rhythmical contrasts are made. English rhythm is believed to preserve roughly equal intervals of time between stressed syllables respective of the number of unstressed syllables that come between them. This is defined as a 'stress-timed/based' (or isochronous) rhythm or a stress/based rhythm. However, experimental research suggests that isochrony (i.e. the property of being equally spaced at in time) is rarely found in natural speech. Traditionally regarded as stress-timed language, English reveals an important feature: there is a tendency for unstressed syllables to become weak, and to contain short, centralized/reduced vowels.

In this respect, it differs from Ukrainian or Russian as well as other languages (Spanish, French, and Japanese, etc.) which are described as 'syllable-timed'.

Such languages depend on the principle that all syllables are of equal values and they follow each other in a steady flow without a strong contrast of stress (a 'machine-run effect). Unstressed vowels tend to retain the quality and quantity found in their stressed counterparts.

In sum, a detailed description of phonic/sound substance of a language will consist of the study of

1.   its segmental subsystem;

2.   the combinatory possibilities of the sounds – syllable structure;

3.   the prosody of the language (the supra-segmental subsystem), i.e. how features of pitch, loudness and tempo work to produce stress/accent, intonation and rhythm.

 

2.Methods of Investigating the Sound Matter of the Language

Let us consider the methods applied in investigating the sound matter of the language.

It is useful to distinguish between phonetic studies carried out without other instruments of analysis than the human senses and such as are based upon the witness of registering or computing machines and technical analyzing or synthesizing devices. The use of such a device as the tape-recorder does not of course imply in itself any instrumental analysis of the speech recorded, but simply serves the purpose of facilitating the speech analysis and conserving a replica of the speech the informants use.

If controlled phonetic experiments employ the use of measuring devices and instrumental techniques, this sub-field of phonetics is called instrumental phonetics. Instrumental methods deriving from physiology and physics were introduced into phonetics in the second half of the 19th  century in order to supplement and indeed to rectify the impressions deriving from the human senses, especially the auditory impressions, since these  are  affected  by  the  limitations  of  the  perceptual  mechanism,  and  in  general  are rather subjective.

The use of instruments is valuable in ascertaining the nature of the limitations and characteristics of the human sensory apparatus by providing finer and more detailed analysis against which sensory analysis can be assessed. In a general way, the introduction  of  machines  for  measurements  and  for  instrumental  analysis  into  phonetics  has resulted in their use for detailed study of many of the phenomena which are present in the sound wave or in the articulatory process at any given moment, and in the changes of these phenomena from moment to moment. This is strictly an instrumental method of study. This type of investigation together with sensory analysis is widely used in experimental phonetics.

The results available from instrumental analysis supplement those available from sensory analysis. Practically today there are no areas of phonetics in which useful work can and is being done without combining these two ways of phonetic investigation. The "subjective" methods of analysis by sensory impression and the "objective" methods of analysis by instruments are complementary and not oppositive to one another. Both "objective" and "subjective" methods are widely and justifiably used in modern phonetics.

Articulatory phonetics borders with anatomy and physiology and the tools for investigating just what the speech organs do are tools which are used in these fields: direct observation, wherever it is possible, e.g. lip movement, some tongue movement; combined with x-ray photography or x-ray cinematography; observation through mirrors as in the laryngoscopic investigation of vocal cord movement; palatography – recording patterns of contact between the tongue and the palate; glottography – studying the vibrations of the vocal cords, etc.

Acoustic phonetics comes close to studying physics and the tools used in this field  enable  the  investigator  to  measure  and  analyze  the  movement  of  the  air  in  the terms  of  acoustics.  This  generally  means  introducing  a  microphone  into  the  speech chain, converting the air movement into corresponding electrical activity and analyzing the result in terms of frequency of vibration and amplitude of vibration in relation to time. The use of such technical devices as spectrograph, intonograph and other sound analyzing and sound synthesizing machines is generally combined with the method of direct observation.

The methods applied in auditory phonetics are those of experimental psychology.

The above mentioned instrumental techniques are used in experimental phonetics, but not all instrumental studies are experimental: when a theory or hypothesis is being tested under controlled conditions the research is experimental, but if one simply makes a collection of measurements using devices the research is instrumental.

As was stated above, phoneticians cannot act only as 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, how they are utilized in that language and what part they play in manifesting the meaningful distinctions of the language.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

Phonetics is concerned with the human noises by which the thought is actualized or given audible shape: the nature of these noises, their combinations, and their functions in relation to the meaning.

Practical or normative phonetics studies substance, the material form of phonetic phenomena in relation to meaning.

Theoretical phonetics is mainly concerned with the functioning of phonetic units in the language.

Phonetics studies the sound system of the language, that is segmental units (phonemes, allophones), supra-segmental units (word stress, syllabic structure, rhythmic organization, intonation). Phonetics is closely connected with general linguistics but has its own subject matter (Investigation).

Thus phonetics is divided into two major components: segmental phonetics, which is concerned with individual sounds (i.e. "segments" of speech), their behaviour; and supra-segmental phonetics whose domain is the larger units of connected speech: syllables, words, phrases and texts.

All speech sounds have 4 aspects (mechanisms):

Articulatoty – it is the way when the sound-producing mechanism is investigated, that is the way the speech sounds are pronounced.

Acoustic – speech sound is a physical phenomenon. It exists in the form of sound waves which are pronounced by vibrations of the vocal cords. Thus each sound is characterized by frequency, certain duration. All these items represent acoustic aspect.

Auditory – sound perception aspect. The listener hears the sound, percepts its acoustic features and the hearing mechanism selects from the acoustic information only what is linguistically important.

Functional – every language unit performs a certain function in actual speech. Functional aspect deals with these functions.

Another subdivision of phonetics:

1. General phonetics – studies general laws, formulates general theories (theory of intonation, syllable, formation, phoneme)

2. Special phonetics – based on general phonetics. Deals with phonetical peculiarities of certain language.

3. Some linguists distinguish historical phonetics – it traces the development of the phonetic system in the course of time finding out the basic laws of the system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

1. Трубецкой Н.С. Основы фонологии. – М., 1960.
2. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics/ David Chrystal. – Cambridge University Press, 1997. – P. 290-292.
3. Roach,   Peter.   A   Little   Encyclopedia   of   Phonetics, http://www.personal.reading.ac.uk/~llsroach/peter/
4. Pennington,  Martha.  Phonology  in  English  Language  Teaching:  An  International Approach. – London and New York: Longman, 1996.
5. Stevick, Earl W. Toward a Practical Philosophy of Pronunciation: Another View // TESOL Quarterly/–Vol.12. – No.2. – June 1978. – P. 145-150.
6. Vassilyev, V. A. English Phonetics: A theoretical course. – Moscow: Higher School Publishing House, 1970. -P. 30-33.