Connection with Lexicology

Лекция 1

outline - план

subject matter – тема обсуждения

branch – раздел

utterance – высказывание

peculiarity – особенность

separate - отдельный

meaning – значение

phenomenon – явление

sequence –последовательность

to convey – передавать

to consider – рассматривать

to take into consideration – принимать во внимание

to be connected with – рассматривать

to be concerned with – рассматривать

to deal with – иметь дело с

to state – заявлять

to characterize – характеризовать

to differentiate – дифференцировать, проводить различия

to distinguish – различать

to define – давать определение, определять

to determine – определять, устанавливать

to view – рассматривать

to concern – заниматься ч-л, касаться ч-л

to dwell upon – подробно останавливаться

to investigate – исследовать

to observe – наблюдать, замечать

to analyse – анализировать

to apply – применять, употреблять

voiced consonant – звонкий согласный

voiceless consonant – глухой согласный

syllable - слог

 

Phonetics as a Branch of Linguistics

Four Branches of Phonetics

“Phonetics” is of Greek origin. It’s a subject matter dealing with voice and sounds (roughly speaking).

Phonetics came into existence long ago. It’s a part of Linguistics standing side by side with Lexicology and Grammar. Phonetics is a basis of all the other disciplines. Why is it of great importance? Because, first of all, we must pronounce the words to convey any message. It’s concerned with human noises by which the thought is actualized. Phonetics studies the sound system of the language. The Phonetic structure of the language consists of the components:

§ The sound sequence

§ Word stress

§ Syllable structure

§ Intonation

Phonetics is the most fundamental branch of Linguistics. Neither Linguistic theory nor Linguistic practice can do without Phonetics. That’s why Phonetics is an independent branch of Linguistics like Lexicology, Grammar or Stylistics. And thus it claims to be of equal importance with them.

As is known Phonetics is connected with non-linguistic sciences as well – physiology, psychology, logic.

The connection with Grammar, Lexicology and Stylistics is exercised (проявляется) through orthography (орфография), which in its' turn is very closely connected with Phonetics.

Phonetics formulates the rules of pronunciation of separate sounds and sound groups, for example:

daughter - [d:tə]

“au” - [:]

“ght” - [t]

“er” - [ə]

So through the system of reading rules Phonetics is connected with Grammar and helps to pronounce correctly

• Singular and plural forms of nouns:

The plural suffix

“S”

[s] [z] [iz]

Shops a) bags, trains boxes, foxes, noses

Books dolls, dogs, hands strawberries

Looks b) bees, plays, flowers

after voiceless a) after voiced consonants after “x”

Consonants b) after vowels

• Past tense forms of regular verbs:

“ed”

[t] [d] [id]

Wished begged, cleaned needed, travelled

Switched

Washed

after voiceless after voiced consonants after “t/d”

Consonants

 

One of the most important Phonetics phenomena (sound interchange) is another manifestation of the connection of Phonetics with Grammar.

Again this connection can be observed in the category of number, for example:

Leaf – leaves

Wife- wives

Calf – calves

House – houses

[s] - [z]

Connection with Lexicology

It’s only due to the presence of stress in the right place, that we can distinguish certain nouns from verbs. Serves to differentiate parts of speech.

 

Èobject – to obÈject

Èincrease – to inÈcrease

Èinsult – to inÈsult

Ètransfer – to transÈfer

Èconduct – to conÈduct

Èabstract – to abÈstract

 

Due to the position of word stress we can distinguish between homonymous (омонимы) words and word groups. Phonetics is also connected with Stylistics mainly through intonation.

 

Èblackbird - дрозд

Èblack Èbird – чёрная птица

Two courses of Phonetics in the institutes are introduced:

• Practical Phonetics, which studies the material form of Phonetics phenomena

§ Theoretical Phonetics, which is supposed to discuss those problems of modern Phonetic science which are concerned with teaching of English language.

 

Phonetics itself is divided into 2 major levels:

• Segmental Phonetics, which is concerned with individual sounds or segments of speech.
• Supersegmental Phonetics, which deals with larger units of connected speech (связная речь) (syllables, words, phrases and texts)

 

• Special Phonetics, the aim of which to study the sounds of one language at a particular period of time
• General Phonetics, which studies the sound systems of several languages. It’s also a part of General Linguistics.

• Comparative Phonetics, which compares the sound systems of 2 languages
• Experimental Phonetics, which deals with research work

 

Branches of Phonetics

Phonetics has 4 following branches:

1) ArÈticulatory

2) AÈcoustic

3) ÈAuditory

4) ÈFunctional (linguistic)

Articulatory Phoneticsstudies speech sounds from the point of view of the articulation and in connections with the organs of speech by which they have produced.

The branch of Phonetics that studies acoustic effects produced by the organs of speech is called Acoustic Phonetics.

 

Both of them use special methods of research work. There are two groups of methods:

1) Methods of direct observation

2) Instrumental methods

 

Methods of direct observation are applied without special instruments for analyses. In this case an investigator analyses his own speech or the speech of the informant (native speaker).

 

Instrumental methods were introduced in Phonetics in the second part of the 19^th century. In this case, certain technique and devises are applied. When analyses segmental uses: hand mirror, laryngoscope, photographs, X-ray photographs, gramophone records and the latest technology. If you want to investigate Supersegmental Phonetics you need an intonograph.

 

Articulatory Phoneticsis one of the oldest branches of Phonetics. Articulator research of speech sounds is conducted on the basis of physiology. Talking about physiological system we can distinguish 4 mechanisms:

• Power mechanism (силовой)
• Vibration mechanism
• Resonant mechanism (резонаторный)
• Obstructer mechanism (образования преграды)

 

The function of the power mechanism is to supply force necessary of the production of speech (breathing mechanism). The function of thevibration mechanism is to generate (порождать) sounds. The function of theresonant mechanism is to modify tones and overtones (обертоны). The function of theobstructer mechanism is to form obstructions to the stream of air.

 

“Articulatory basis” (артикуляционная база) was introduced by the Russian linguist – a set of pronunciation tendencies characterizing speech gestures (работа органов речи) with a special reference to members of a given language community.

 

Auditory Phoneticsis concerned with auditory impressions made by Phonetics’ segments. The method used in Auditory Phonetics is called the listener’s test (аудиторский анализ).

 

Functional Phonetics or Phonologyis concerned with the meaningful value of articulatory, acoustics and auditory features. Phonetics is older than Phonology (1850^th). The foundation of Phonology was laid down by Иван Алексеевич Бодуен де Куртене.

 

Nowadays Phonetics is sharply divided into Phonetics and Phonology. They are closely related and independent. They are two different sizes of the same coin. The central category of Phonology is phoneme. A sound and a phoneme are also two different sizes of the same coin.

 

Phoneme – is the smallest, further indivisible (более неделимая) language unit that exists in the speech of all the members of the given language community as such speech sounds which are capable of distinguishing one word from another one or one grammar form of a word from another one of the same word. (профессор Васильев). Phoneme – a minimum linguistic unit realized in speech in the form of speech sounds.

3 aspects of the Phoneme:

• Material (real and objective)
• Abstractional and generalize
• Functional

Лекция 2

principal – главный

subsidiary – вспомогательный

environment – окружение

to affect – влиять

distinctive features – отличительные черты

relevant – значимые, важные, релевантные

irrelevant – не относящиеся к делу, нерелевантные

to treat – толковать, трактовать

scholar – учёный