1. The subject-matter of phonetics, its practical aims.

Phonetics is an independent branch of linguistics like lexicology or grammar. Phonetics

studies the outer form of language; its sound matter. Phonetics occupies itself with the study
of the ways in which the sounds are organized into a system of units and the variation of the
units in all types and styles of spoken language.

Subject matter of phonetics. Phonetics occupies itself with the study of the ways in which the
sounds are organized into a system of units and the variation of the units in all types and
styles of spoken language. General phonetics is part of general linguistics and it is concerned
with the study of man’s sound-producing possibilities and the functioning of his speech
mechanism. It establishes the types of speech sounds which exist in various languages, the
way they are produced and the role they play when forming and expressing thoughts. The
special phonetics of a given individual language (descriptive phonetics) studies the
contemporary phonetic system of this particular language, i.e. the system of its
pronunciation, and gives a description of all the phonetic units of the language. Descriptive
phonetics is based on general phonetics. Comparative Phonetics is concerned with the
comparative study of the phonetic system of two or more languages. It is closely connected
with historical phonetics, whose aim is to trace and establish the successive changes in the
phonetic system of a given language (or a language family) at different stages of its historical
development. Theoretical phonetics of a particular language applies those theories to the
language analysis. By practical or normative (applied phonetics) we mean all the practical
applications of phonetics. Phonetics is of considerable importance for other fields of
language study, which have made use of the approaches and the linguistic methods worked
out by phonetics.

2. Verbal communication - the central notion of phonetics. Stages of speech production

process.

Phonetics and phonology are related, dependent fields for studying aspects of language.
Phonetics is the study of sound in speech; phonology is the study (and use) of sound patterns
to create meaning. Phonetics focuses on how speech is physically created and received,
including study of the human vocal and auditory tracts, acoustics, and neurology. Phonology
relies on phonetic information for its practice, but focuses on how patterns in both speech
and non-verbal communication create meaning, and how such patterns are interpreted.
Phonology includes comparative linguistic studies of how cognates, sounds, and meaning are
transmitted among and between human communities and languages.

3. Branches of phonetics. Theoretical Phonetics has the following branches: articulatory,

acoustic, auditory, functional /phonological. Each branch of Theoretical Phonetics
investigates the appropriate aspect of speech sounds. Articulatory Phonetics investigates the
functioning of one’s speech apparatus and mechanism. It is based on profound knowledge of
physiology and the structure of one’s speech apparatus. Acoustic Phonetics studies the
acoustic properties of sounds (quantity, timber/voice quality, intensity, the pitch of the voice
and temporal factor) in terms of the frequency of vibration and the amplitude of vibration in
 relation to time. The analysis begins with a microphone, which converts the air movement
into corresponding electrical activity. Auditory Phonetics is aimed at investigating the
hearing process which is the brain activity. Functional Phonetics presupposes investigating
the discriminatory (distinctive) function of speech sounds.
4. Articulatory classification of the English vowels.

Vowels are normally made with the air stream that meets no obstruction in the mouth,
pharyngeal and nasal cavities.

On the articulatory level the description of vowels notes changes:

in the stability of articulation in the tongue position in the lip position in their length

The stability of articulation

All English vowels are divided into 3 groups: monophthongs, diphthongs, diphthongoids.

Monophthongs are vowels the articulation of which is almost unchanging.

They are – [i e ǽ a: o o: U Λ ə: ə ].

In the pronunciation of diphthongs the organs of speech glide from one vowel position to
another within one syllable. The starting point, the nucleus, is strong and distinct.

They are – [ei ai oi au əu iə εə uə]

In the pronunciation of diphthongoids the articulation is slightly changing but the difference
between the starting point and the end is not so distinct as it is in the case of diphthongs.

They are – [i: u:]

Tongue Position

The tongue may move forward, backward, up, down, thus changing the quality of vowels.

1. When the tongue is in the front part of the mouth and the front part of the tongue is raised
to the hard palate a front vowel is pronounced. They are – [i: e ǽ]

2. When the tongue is in the front part of the mouth but slightly retracted and the part of the
tongue nearer to the centre than to front is raised, a front-retracted vowel is pronounced. It is – [i].

3. When the front of the tongue is raised towards the back part of the hard palate the vowel is
called central. They are – [Λ ə: ə].

4. When the tongue is in the back part of the mouth and the back of it is raised towards the soft
palate a back vowel is pronounced. They are – [a: o o: u:].
5. When the tongue is in the back part of the mouth but is slightly advanced and the central part of
it is raised towards the front part of the soft palate a back-advanced vowel is pronounced. It is –
[U].

Moving up and down in the mouth the tongue may be raised to different height towards the roof
of the mouth.

1. When the front or the back of the tongue is raised high towards the palate the vowel is called
close. They are – [ i: I u u:].

2. When the front or the back of the tongue is as low as possible in the mouth open vowels are
pronounced. They are – [ǽ a: o o:].

3. When the highest part of the tongue occupies the position intermediate between the close and
the open one mid vowels are pronounced. They are – [e Λ ə: ə].

Lip Position

When the lips are neutral or spread the vowels are called unrounded. They are – [i: i e ǽ a: Λ ə: ə].

When the lips are drawn together so that the opening between them is more or less round the
vowel is called rounded.They are – [o o: u u:].

Vowel Length

All English vowels are divided into long and short vowels.

Long vowels are – [i: a: o: u: ə:]

Short vowels are – [i e o u Λ ə]

5. Articulatory classification of the English consonants.

A consonant is a sound in the production of which an obstruction is formed in the mouth by

the active organs of articulation. CONSONANT SOUND PRODUCTION

Voiced sounds are pronounced with the vibration of the vocal cords

Voiceless sounds pronounced without the vibration of the vocal cords

As to the classification of English consonants there are few ways of seeing the situation. One
of them is the classification according to the type of obstacle. On this ground two large
classes of consonants are distinguished:

1) occlusive, which are produced when a complete obstruction is formed: [t, d, p, b, k, g], [m, n, ŋ];
2) constrictive, which are produced when an incomplete obstruction is formed: [s, z, f, v, Ɵ, ð, ʃ, ʒ,
h], [w, r, l, j].

Each of the 2 classes is subdivided into noise consonants (these are those in the production of which
noise prevails over tone) and sonorants (in the production of which tone component prevails).
Noise occlusive consonants are called stops because the air stream is completely stopped at some
point of articulation and then released with an explosion, that is why they are also called plosives:
[t, d, p, b, k, g]. Constrictive noise consonants are called fricatives, because the air escapes through
the narrowing with friction: [s, z, f, v, Ɵ, ð, ʃ, ʒ, h].

Occlusive-constrictive consonants or affricates are noise consonants produced with a complete

obstruction which is slowly released and the air stream escapes from the mouth with some friction.
There are only two affricates in English: [ʧ,ʤ].

POINT OF ARTICULATION – refers to the upper parts of the mouth which the lowers parts
(articulators) come in contact with the production of the consonant sound

BILABIAL – when the lower lip touches the upper lip to produce the consonant Sound /p/, /b/,
/m/ & /w/

LABIO-DENTAL – when the lower lip comes in contact with the upper front teeth /f/ & /v/

DENTAL – when the lower teeth approach the upper teeth /θ/ & /ð/

ALVEOLAR – when the tip of the tongue is raised close to the toothridge or the back of the upper
front teeth /t/ & /d/

POST ALVEOLAR – when the tip of the tongue is articulated against the back part of the alveolar
ridge /r/

PALATAL – when the tongue is arched towards the hard palate /∫/

VELARS – when the back of the tongue closes against the velum or soft palate /k/

GLOTTAL – when friction is produced by the air passing through the glottis /h/

NATURE OR OBSTRUCTION OR MANNER OF ARTICULATION

1. STOPS – are produced by stopping the passage of the breath stream with a build up of
pressure behind the closure before releasing the breath

Bilabial stops /p/ & /b/

Alveolar stops /t/ & /d/

Velar stops /k/ & /g/

2. FRICATIVES – are continuants produced when the air stream is not completely stopped but
passes through with friction or a hissing sound

Labiodental fricatives /f/ & /v/

Dental fricatives /θ/ & /ð/

Alveolar fricatives /s/ & /z/

Post alveolar fricatives /r/

Palatal fricatives /∫/ & /dz/

Glottal fricatives /h/

3. AFFRICATES – are produced when a stop combines with a fricative. Like fricatives, they are
also continuants. They may be prolonged as long as the speaker wishes.

Alveolar affricates /t∫/ & /dz/

4. NASALS – are produced with the air stream passing through the nose rather than the mouth

Bilabial nasal /m/

Alveolar nasal /n/

Velar nasal /ŋ/

5. LATERAL – is produced when the air stream is stopped in the center by the tip of the tongue
against the alveolar ridge, while the air passes along one or both sides of the tongue

Alveolar lateral /l/

6. SEMI-VOWELS – in their production, there is lack of friction and the sounds are vowel-like in
their voicing but they function as consonants

Bilabial /w/ - wear, win /wh/ - why

Palatal /y/ - new, view

On the articulatory level every consonant can be characterized by 2 facts: in what articulatory
position are organs of speech while pronouncing this consonant; where in the mouth this
consonant is formed. consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial
closure of the vocal tract. Examples are[p], pronounced with the lips; [t], pronounced with the front
of the tongue; [k], pronounced with the back of the tongue; [h], pronounced in the throat; [f] and
[s], pronounced by forcing air through a narrow channel (fricatives); and [m] and [n], which have
air flowing through the nose (nasals).

(I)Each sound is known to have three aspects: articulatory; acoustic and auditory; and therefore
can be studied on three levels. the first and basic principle of classification is the degree of noise. It
leads to dividing English consonants into two big groups: A - noise consonants- p, b, t, d; B –
sonorants-m,n,l. It is easy to see that the term "degree of noise" belongs to auditory level analysis.

(II)The manner of the production of noise and the type of obstruction is another characteristic of
English consonants. On this ground three classes of consonants are distinguished: a) occlusive, in
the production of which a complete obstruction is formed-p,b.m,n; b) constrictive, in the production
of which an incomplete obstruction is formed-v,h,f,s; c) occlusive-constrictive consonants
(affricates), in the production of which the obstruction is complete at the beginning of production,
then it becomes incomplete.-tʃ,dʒ

(III)The place of articulation is another characteristic of English consonants. According to this

principle the English consonants are classed into: 1) labial; 2) lingual; 3) glottal [h]. The class of
labial consonants is subdivided into: a) bilabial[p,b,m,w]l; b) labiodental[f,v], and among the class
of lingual consonants three subclasses are distinguished. They are: a) forelingual[A: According to
the position of the tip of the tongue they may be apical-t,d,s,z,n,l;cacuminal-r;B- According to the
place of obstruction forelingual consonants may be interdental-Ѳ,ð; alveolar-t,d,s,n,l; post-
alveolar-r; palato-alveolar -tʃ,dʒ]; b) mediolingual consonants are produced with the front part of
the tongue. They are always palatal. Palatal consonants are articulated with the front part of the
tongue raised high to the hard palate /j/. and c) backlingual consonants are also called velar, they
are produced with the back part of the tongue raised towards the soft palate “velum” /k, g, ŋ /.

(IV) According to the position of the soft palate all consonants are subdivided into oral and
nasal. When the soft palate is raised oral consonants are produced- p, t, k, f, v; when the soft palate
is lowered nasal consonants are produced-. m, n,ŋ

(V) According to the force of articulation consonants may be fortis-p,t,k,tʃ and lenis-b,d,g,dʒ.
This characteristic is connected with the work of the vocal cords: voiceless consonants are strong
and voiced are weak.

6. The phoneme theory as the basis of phonology.

A phoneme is a minimal abstract linguistic unit realized in speech in the form of speech
sounds that distinguish the meaning of words. Ph studies sounds as articulatory and acoustic
units, phonology investigates sounds as units which serve communicative purposes. The unit
of phonetics is a SPEECH SOUND, the unit of phonology is a PHONEME. Phonemes can be
discovered by the method of minimal pairs. This method consists in finding pairs of words
which differ in 1 phoneme, e.g. if we replace [b] by [t] in the word ban we produce a new
word tan, ban-tan is a pair of words distinguished in meaning by a single sound change. 2
words of this kind are termed MINIMAL PAIRS. The phonemes of a lang form a system of
 oppositions, in which any one phoneme is usually opposed to any other phoneme in at least 1
position.

The founder of the phoneme theory was Baudouin de Courteney. His theory of phoneme was
developed and perfected by Shcherba, who stated that in actual speech we utter a much greater
variety of sounds than we are aware of, and that in every lang these sounds are united in a
comparatively small number of sound types, which are capable of distinguishing the meaning and
the form of words. It is these sound types that should be included into the classification of
phonemes and studied as differentiatory units of the lang. The actually pronounced speech sounds
are variants or ALLOPHONES of phonemes. Allophones are realized in concrete words. They have
phonetic similarity, at the same time they differ in some degree and are incapable of differentiating
words, e.g. in speech we pronounce not the sound type [t] which is asperated, alveolar, forelingual,
apical, occlusive, plosive, voiceless-fortis – according to the classificatory definition, but one of its
variants, e.g. labialized in the word twice, dental in the word nineth, post-alveolar in try and so on.
The number of sound types, or phonemes, in each lang is much smaller than the number of sounds
actually pronounced. The variants used in actual speech are called SUBSIDIARY. Each phoneme
manifests itself in a certain pattern of distribution. The simplest of them is free variation, that is the
variation of one and the same phoneme pronounced differently, e.g. the pronunciation of the initial
[k] with different degree of aspiration. Complementary distribution is another pattern of phoneme
environment, when one and the same phoneme occurs in a definite set of context in which no other
phoneme ever occurs. Contrastive distribution is one more pattern of phoneme environment, e.g.
bad – bed, pit – peat – these are minimal pairs.

7. The functions of the phoneme.

The phoneme serves to perform tree main functions.

The first function is constitutive one. Phonemes serve like bricks to build the meaning for units
of the language (morphemes, words, sentences, phonemes, etc.). The most important function
is the constitutive one.

The second function is the recognative function. This function is closely connected with the
constitutive one, but very important from the point of view of perception.

The third function is the distinctive one.

So, the phoneme is the smallest linguistic unit used in a language for the formation of
meaningful units and for their differentiation and it’s exists in speech in its allophones.
Phonemic mistakes appear when you pronounce one phoneme instead of another

8. The phonemic inventory of the English language.

Let us consider the phoneme from the point of view of its aspects.
Firstly, the phoneme is a functional unit. In phonetics function is usually understood as a role of the
various units of the phonetic system in distinguishing one morpheme from another, one word from
another or one utterance from another. The opposition of phonemes in the same phonetic
environment differentiates the meaning of morphemes and words: e.g. bath-path, light-like.
Sometimes the opposition of phonemes serves to distinguish the meaning of the whole phrases: He
was heard badly - He was hurt badly. Thus we may say that the phoneme can fulfill the distinctive
function. Secondly, the phoneme is material, real and objective. That means it is realized in speech
in the form of speech sounds, its allophones. The phonemes constitute the material form of
morphemes, so this function may be called constitutive function. Thirdly, the phoneme performs
the recognitive function, because the use of the right allophones and other phonetic units facilitates
normal recognition. We may add that the phoneme is a material and objective unit as well as an
abstract and generalized one at the same time.

9. Modification of sounds in connected speech.

Speech is performed in larger units: words, phrases and texts. There are very big differences
between pronouncing a word in isolation and a word in connected speech.

There is a problem of defining the phonetic status of sounds in connected speech. As a result there
are some processes of phonetic changes in connected speech:

1. assimilation;
2. accommodation;
3. vowel reduction;
4. elision.

Assimilation is the adaptive modification of a consonant by neighboring sound:

eighth - at three

alveolar [t] becomes dental [Ɵ]

Accommodation is the adaptation of sounds combinations of vowel-consonants type and

consonant-vowel type:

never - man (consonant-vowel type)

nasal pronunciation of vowels

Labialization of consonants is before labialized vowels.

Vowel reduction is a quantitative or qualitative weakening of vowels in unstressed positions:

board - blackboard

man - postman
Elision is a complete loss of sounds, both vowels and consonants. In informal speech we can lose
many sounds. The process cannot be neglected in defining the

phonemic status of speech sounds. These phenomena represent the economy of energy from the
part of the speaker. Usually the listener doesn’t even notice this

because these changes don’t influence the meaning. The target of listener is usually to understand
the meaning but sometimes the meaning can also be influenced,

for example [z] can represent has, is, does, plural, possessive, third person singular. Now let us
consider which qualitative characteristics of consonants can

be changed in connected speech. Consonants can be modified according to the place of

articulation: assimilation takes place when a sound changes its character

in order to look like a neighboring sound and the characteristic which is involved in this is almost
always a place of articulation:

1. eighth - at the - said that

[t] [d] alveolar + [Ɵ] [ð] interdental = dental [t] [d]

Partial regressive assimilation

2. tree - true - dry - dream

[t] [d] alveolar + post alveolar [r] = post alveolar [t] [d]

Partial regressive assimilation

3. horseshoe - this shop

[s] [z] alveolar + [ʃ] post alveolar = post alveolar [s] [z]

Complete regressive assimilation

4. graduate - congratulate - did you - could you

[t] + [j]; [d] + [j] = affricates [ʧ] [ʤ]

Partial regressive assimilation

5. symphony

[m] bilabial + [f] labiodentals = [m] labiodentals

Partial regressive assimilation

Manner of articulation is also changed as a result of assimilation.

10.  Assimilation and its types.

When phonemes are joined together within words and at the junction of words, they have a
tendency to react one upon the other in such a way that the articulation of one phoneme
influences the articulation of a neighbouring phoneme making it similar to itself. This process
is called assimilation.

In assimilation the phoneme whose articulation is modified under the influence of a neighbouring
phoneme is called the assimilated phoneme; the phoneme which influences the articulation of a
neighbouring phoneme is called the assimilating phoneme.

In modern English it is mostly consonant phonemes that are affected by assimilation.

Assimilation may affect all the features of the articulation of a consonant phoneme or only
some of them. Thus we speak of:

I. Assimilation affecting (1) the place of obstruction or (2) both the place of obstruction and
the active organ of speech;

II. Assimilation affecting the manner of the production of noise;

III. Assimilation affecting the work of the vocal cords;

IV. Assimilation affecting the position of the lips.

DEGREES OF ASSIMILATION

Assimilation may be of three degrees: (A) complete, (B) partial, (C) intermediate.

(A) Assimilation is said to be complete when the articulation of the assimilated phoneme fully
coincides with that of the assimilating phoneme: horse-shoe / ʹhͻ:ʃ ʃu: /.

(B) Assimilation is said to be partial when the assimilated phoneme retains its main
phonemic features and becomes only partly similar in some feature of its articulation to the
assimilating phoneme: twice / twais /, on the table / ɒn ðǝ `teibl /.

(C) The degree of assimilation is said to be intermediate between complete and partial
when the assimilated phoneme changes into a different phoneme, but does not coincide with
the assimilating phoneme: gooseberry / ʹgʊzberɪ /.

DIRECTION OF ASSIMILATION

Assimilation may be of three types as far as its direction is concerned: (1) progressive, (2)
regressive, (3) reciprocal (double).
(1) In progressive assimilation the assimilated phoneme is influenced by the preceding
phoneme (A → B).

(2) In regressive assimilation the preceding phoneme is influenced by the one following it

(A ←B).

(3) In reciprocal, or double, assimilation the adjacent phonemes influence each other more or
less equally.

Loss of Plosion

When two plosives are in contact within a word or at a word junction there’s a complete loss
of plosion of the first sound, i.e. the obstruction is removed and a plosion is heard only after
the second consonant (tt, tb, kg, kd, pt, pb, pd, etc.). This phenomenon is known as loss of
plosion.

e.g. Blackboard, midday. What kind of book is it?

Nasal Plosion

At the junction of the plosive consonants [t, d, p, b, k, g] with the nasal sonorants [m, n] the
articulation of the sonorant starts when the articulation of the plosive consonant is not yet
finished. As a result of this, instead of removing the obstruction in the mouth cavity, the air
stream passes through the nasal cavity producing the effect of a nasal plosion.

e.g. Shouldn’t, wouldn’t. Send me a letter.

Lateral Plosion

At the junction of plosive consonants [t, d, p, b, k, g] with the lateral sonorant [l] the plosion
is heard during the pronunciation of the sonorant as the air stream passes along the sides of
the tongue lowered for the articulation of [l]. This is a case of assimilation known as lateral
plosion.

e.g. kettle, standard-lamp. I don’t like it.

Fricative Plosion

When a plosive consonant [t, d, p, b, k, g] precedes a fricative consonant in a word or at a

junction of words it has its release during the pronunciation of the fricative. This
phenomenon which is the result of close coarticulation of the adjacent consonants is called
fricative plosion (release).

e.g. let’s, what’s, kinds, upside.

 11.  The notion of elision.

In phonetics and phonology, elision is the omission of a sound (a phoneme) in speech. Elision
is common in casual conversation. More specifically, elision may refer to the omission of an
unstressed vowel, consonant, or syllable. Elision is the omission of sounds, syllables or words
in speech. This is done to make the language easier to say, and faster. Example

'I don't know' /I duno/ , /kamra/ for camera, and 'fish 'n' chips' are all examples of elision.

12.  Linking and intrusive r

Linking R Sound

In British English, when a word ends in an 'r', we do not pronounce this letter! There is only one
exception to this, and that is when the following word begins with a vowel sound, and in this case,
we do pronounce it, as it helps us link the two words together.

This pronunciation technique is known as the Linking R. Watch the video above to hear this Linking
R sound in the following examples:

Father-in law

The hare and the tortoise

There are four owls in her old barn.

Clear as water

Tower of London

Intrusive R Sounds

In a similar way, we sometimes add an imaginary 'r' sound, even when there isn't an 'r' at the end
of the first word. This pronunciation technique is known as the Intrusive R. Again, we do this to
speak more fluently and to make one word transition more easily into the next. Watch the video
above, and you will hear this Intrusive R being used in the following sentences:

The United States of America [r] is a big country.

Donna [r] and her mother.

A banana [r] is a yellow fruit.

Pamela [r] Anderson.

I want to visit China [r] and Vietnam.

13.  The notion of accommodation.

Accommodation is the process of mutual influence of consonants and vowels. The

modification in the articulation of a consonant under the influence of an adjacent vowel is
called accommodation. In accommodation the accommodated sound does not change its
main phonemic features and is pronounced slightly modified under the influence of a
neighboring sound.

Here are some most common types of accomodation.

Consonants tend to be labialized when followed by a rounded (labialized) vowel: cool, pot, rude.

Vowels are slightly nazalized under the influence of the preceding or following sonorants [m] and
[n]: and, nice, men, morning.

Alveolar plosive [t] in the intervocal position before unstressed vowels is replaced by a voiced tap:
pretty, better.

14.  Reduction and its types.

Reduction is a historical process of weakening, shortening or disappearance of vowel sounds

in unstressed positions.

In English there are certain words which have two forms of pronunciation: (1) strong, or full,

form and (2) weak, or reduced, form.

These words include form-words (articles, prepositions, conjunctions, particles, modal and

auxiliary verbs) and the following pronouns: personal, possessive, reflexive, relative and the

indefinite pronoun some, denoting indefinite quantity.

These words have strong (full) forms when they are stressed.

When unstressed, they are reduced. There are three degrees of reduction of strong forms:

1. The first degree consists in reducing the length of a vowel without changing its quality

(the so-called quantitative reduction).

2. The second degree of reduction consists in changing the quality of a vowel (the so-called

qualitative reduction).
 3. The third degree of reduction consists in the omission of a vowel or consonant sound (the

so-called zero reduction).

15. The syllable as an element of language structure.

Speech can be broken into minimal pronounceable units into which sounds show a tendency
to cluster or group. These smallest phonetic groups arc generally given the name of syllables.
Being the smallest pronounceable units, syllables form morphemes, words and phrases. Each
of these units is characterized by a certain syllabic structure. Thus a meaningful language
unit phonetically may be considered from the point of view of syllable formation and syllable
division.

The syllable is a complicated phenomenon and like a phoneme it can be studied on four levels -
articulatory, acoustic, auditory and functional. The complexity of the phenomenon gave rise to
many theories.

16.  The syllable formation theories.

The syllable is a complicated phenomenon and like a phoneme it can be studied on four levels
- articulatory, acoustic, auditory and functional. The complexity of the phenomenon gave rise
to many theories.

We could start with the so-called expiratory (chest pulse or pressure) theory by R.H. Stetson. This
theory is based on the assumption that expiration in speech is a pulsating process and each syllable
should correspond to a single expiration. So the number of syllables in an utterance is determined
by the number of expirations made in the production of the utterance. This theory was strongly
criticized by Russian and foreign linguists. G.P. Torsuyev, for example, wrote that in a phrase a
number of words and consequently a number of syllables can be pronounced with a single
expiration. This fact makes the validity of the theory doubtful.

Another theory of syllable put forward by O. Jespersen is generally called the sonority theory.
According to O. Jespersen, each sound is characterized by a certain degree of sonority which is
understood us acoustic property of a sound that determines its perceptibility. According to this
sound property a ranking of speech sounds could be established: <the least sonorous> voiceless
plosives  voiced fricatives voiced plosives  voiced fricatives  sonorants  close vowels open
vowels <the most sonorous>. In the word plant for example we may use the following wave of
sonority: [pla:nt]. According to V.A. Vasssilyev the most serious drawback of this theory is that it
fails to explain the actual mechanism of syllable formation and syllable division. Besides, the
concept of sonority is not very clearly defined.

Further experimental work aimed to description of the syllable resulted in lot of other theories.
However the question of articulatory mechanism of syllable in a still an open question in phonetics.
We might suppose that this mechanism is similar in all languages and could be regarded as
phonetic universal.
 17.  Basic rules of syllabification in English.

Syllable Division Rules

Compound Words Examples are: cup/cake, rain/coat, pop/corn.

*C–cvc/–Closed syllables have a short vowel with 1 to 3 consonants following it. "When a vowel is
closed by a consonant door, it says its short sound."
rob/in, nap/kin, kit/ten, hun/dred
*L–/cLE–Consonant LE syllables are found at the end of a word and are divided before the
consonant that comes before the LE.
no/ble, jun/gle, mar/ble

O–cv/–Open syllables have a vowel hanging open at the end of a syllable. The vowel usually has a
long sound. mo/ment, va/ca/tion

*V–cvvc/ or cv/vc–Double vowels, such as ea, ai, oa, which is not divided. Double vowels that are
not a usual combination, such as ia eu, can be divided between the two vowels to make a
multisyllable word, such as dial or museum.

*E–cvce–Silent e syllables are usually found at the end of a word. A silent e that follows the “v”
may or may not affect the preceding vowel:
in/vite, home/sick, in/ten/sive
*R–cvr–R-controlled syllables have a vowel followed by an r and can be found in any syllable of a
word.
car/pet, fur/ther/more, thir/sty
The English affricates [ʧ], [ʤ] cannot be split:
catching ['kæʧiŋ]

The syllabic structure of English has certain peculiarities. They are as follows:

1. Syllabic structure in English is not only vowels, but also sonants / m, n, l / when they are
preceded by a noise consonant. E.g. / teibl / “table”, / ga:dn / “garden”.

2. As to the type of sounds constituting the syllable (V, C) there exist 23 syllable structures in
English. Depending on the position of vowels, which is the peak of the syllable, and that of the
consonant (C), which form margins of the syllable, we distinguish the following 4 types of
syllables in English.
a) Open syllables, when there is no consonant after the vocalic peak, (CV) e.g. far, sea, tie.

b) Closed syllables, when the vocalic peak is followed by a consonant, (VC) e.g. art, sit.

c) Covered syllables, (CV(c)), when the peak is preceded by a consonant, e.g. long, shore.

d) Uncovered syllables, (VC(c)), when there is no consonant before the peak, e.g. apt, eat.

The fundamental syllable type in English is closed syll., the most frequent type in English is CVC.

3. Consonant clusters are very characteristic of the syll. structure of English, 19 structures out of
23 consonant clusters.

4. English checked vowels (i.e. short vowels) occur only in a closed syll. Checked vowels are
always followed by initially strong consonants. E.g. bed, Sunday, put. English free vowels (long
monophthongs, diphthongs & unstressed short monophthongs) can occur both in the open & in
the closed syll., bec. the end of free vowels is weaker than the beginning. E.g. car, tie, (s n) di, /
dvais /.

5. The syll. boundary never occurs after checked vowel. E.g. / twen-ti /, / kwik-li /, / let /, / big /.

If a checked vowel is separated from a succeeding stressed vowel by only one consonant sound,
the syll. in which such a vowel occurs is always open. E.g. / ai-di /, / ka: tu:n /, / i-rekt /.

7. When there is a cluster of consonants between 2 vowels the place of the syllabic boundary is
conditioned by whether this cluster occurs word-initially or not. If it does occur at the beginning
of vowels, the syllabic boundary is before it. E.g. / gri: /, / rigret/. If it doesn’t the boundary
between the consonants. E.g. / dmit /, / d vais /. When two vowels are separated by more than
2 consonants as e.g. in / ekstr / the boundary may be both before / s / & / t /, bec. / str / & / tr /
occur at the beginning of words.

8. The so-called triphthongs in English are disyllabic combinations. E.g. / sain- ns /, / fla - /.

9. The structure of the stressed syll. in English is different from the structure of the unstressed
syllable. The main difference is in the peak. The peak of the stressed syll. is always vocalic. In
the unstressed syllable the peak may be a vowel or a consonant. When the peak of the stressed
syllable is checked, the syllable must be “closed” by a

consonant. The structure of the stressed syllable ((open or closed) may be presented by the
following formula:

a. (C)V(C) – where V is a historically long monophthong or a diphthong & the brackets show
that the consonant may be absent;

b. (C)V(C) – where V is a historically long monophthongs.

 Summing up we can say that syllabic formation & syllabic division can more usefully be
described with the reference to an individual language, since each particular language has its
own syllabic structure.

18.  Functions of the syllable.

Now we shall consider three functions of the syllable.

The first is constitutive function. It lies in its ability to be a part of a word itself. The syllables
form language units of greater magnitude that is words, morphemes, and utterances. Within
a syllable (or syllables) prosodic characteristics of speech are realized, which form the stress
pattern of a word and the intonation structure of an utterance. In sum, the syllable is a
specific minimal structure of both segmental and suprasegmental features.
The other function is distinctiveone. In this respect, the syllable is characterized by its ability
to differentiate words and word-forms. One minimal pare has been found in English to
illustrate the word distinctive function in the syllabic: ['nai-treit] nitrate – ['nait-reit] night-
rate.
The third function of the syllable is the identificatory function: the listener can understand the
exact meaning of the utterance only when the correct syllabic boundary is perceived:
an aim — a name, an ice house — a nice house, peace talks — pea stalks.
Sometimes the difference in syllabic division might be the basic ground for differentiation
sentences in such minimal pairs as:
I saw her eyes. — I saw her rise.
I saw the meat. — I saw them eat.
Types of syllables
Closed Syllables: A closed syllable has one and only one vowel, and it ends in a consonant.
Examples include in, ask, truck, sock, stretch, twelfth, and on.
 
            Open Syllables: An open syllable has one and only one vowel, and that vowel occurs at
the end of the syllable. Examples include no, she, I, a, and spry.
 
            Silent-E Syllables: A silent-e syllable ends in an e, has one and only one consonant before
that e, and has one and only one vowel before that consonant. Examples
include ate, ice, tune, slope, strobe, and these.
 
Vowel Combination Syllables: A vowel combination syllable has a cluster of two or three vowels or
a vowel-consonant unit with a sound or sounds particular to that unit. Examples
include rain, day, see, veil, pie,piece, noise, toy, cue, and true.
 
            Vowel-R Syllables: A vowel-r syllable is one which includes one and only one vowel
followed by an r, or one vowel followed by an r which is followed by a silent e, or
a vowel  combination followed by an r. Examples include car, or, care, ire, air, and deer.
 
            Consonant-L-E Syllables: In these syllables, a consonant is followed by le. The vowel
sound in these syllables is the schwa sound that occurs before the l. Examples include 
-ble, -cle, -dle, -fle, and -gle.

19.  Types of English word stress.

Languages are also differentiated according to the place of word stress. The traditional
classification of languages concerning place of stress in a word is into those with a fixed stress
and those with a free stress. In languages with a fixed stress the occurrence of the word
stress is limited to a particular syllable in a polysyllabic word. For instance, in French the stress
falls on the last syllable of the word (if pronounced in isolation), in Finnish and Czech it is fixed
on the first syllable, in Polish on the one but last syllable. In languages with a free stress its
place is not confined to a specific position in the word. In one word it may fall on the first
syllable, in another on the second syllable, in the third word — on the last syllable, etc. The free
placement of stress is exemplified in the English, e.g. English: 'appetite - be'ginning - ba'lloon.
The word stress in English is not only free but it may also be shifting, performing the semantic
function of differentiating lexical units, parts of speech, grammatical forms. In English word
stress is used as a means of word-building; e.g. 'contrast — con'trast; 'habit — habitual 'music
— mu'sician.
There are actually as many degrees of stress in a word as there are syllables. The opinions of
phoneticians differ as to how many degrees of stress are linguistically relevant in a word. The
British linguists usually distinguish three degrees of stress in the word. A.C. Gimson, for
example, shows the distribution of the degrees of stress in the word examination.
5 Compound words (words with two parts)
rule example
For compound nouns, the stress is on the first part BLACKbird, GREENhouse
For compound adjectives, the stress is on bad-TEMpered, old-
the second part FASHioned
For compound verbs, the stress is on the second part to underSTAND, to overFLOW
The primary stress is the strongest, it is marked by number 1, the secondary stress is the second
strongest marked by 2. All the other degrees are termed weak stress. Unstressed syllables are
supposed to have weak stress. The American scholars B. Bloch and G. Trager find four
contrastive degrees of word stress, namely: loud, reduced loud, medial and weak stresses.
Other American linguists also distinguish four degrees of word stress but term them: primary
stress, secondary stress, tertiary stress and weak stress. The difference between the secondary
and tertiary stresses is very subtle and seems subjective. The criteria of their difference are very
 vague. The second pretonic syllables of such words as libe'ration, recog'nition are marked by
secondary stress in BrE, in AmE they are said to have tertiary stress. In AmE tertiary stress also
affects the suffixes -ory, -ary, -ony of nouns and the suffixes –ate, -ize, -y of verbs, which are
considered unstressed in BrE, e.g. 'territory, 'ceremony, 'dictionary; 'demonstrate, 'organize,
'simplify.
British linguists do not always deny the existence of tertiary stress as a tendency to use a
tertiary stress on a post-tonic syllable in RP is also traced.
The numerous variations of English word stress are systematized in the typology of accentual
structure of English words worked out by G.P. Torsuyev. He classifies them according to the number
of stressed syllables, their degree or character (the main and the secondary stress). The distribution
of stressed syllables within the word accentual types forms accentual structures of words.
Accentual types and accentual structures are closely connected with the morphological type of
words, with the number of syllables, the semantic value of the root and the prefix of the word.
The accentual types are:
1. ['___]. This accentual type marks both simple and compound words. The accentual structures of
this type may include two and more syllables, e.g. 'fafher, 'possibly, 'mother-in-law, 'gas-pipe.
2. [ '_ '_ ]. The accentual type is commonly realized in compound words, most of them are with
separable prefixes, e.g. 'radio-'active, 're'write, 'diso'bey.
3. [ '_' _ '_ ] and 4. ['_' _ '_ '_]. The accentual types are met in initial compound abbreviations like
'U'S'A.
5. ['_ ,___]. The type is realized both in simple and compound words, very
common among compound words, e.g. 'hair-,dresser, 'substructure.
6. [, _'___]. The accentual type marks a great number of simple words and some compound words
as well. In simple words the stresses fall onto:
1. the prefix and the root: maga'zine;
2. the root and the suffix: ,hospi'tality;
3. the prefix and the suffix: disorganization.
The other five types are rare and found in small number of words.
The data given above suggest an idea of the great variability in the accentual structure of English
words. The most widely spread among the enumerated accentual types are supposed to be Type 1,
Type 2, Type 5 and Type 6. Each type includes varieties of definite accentual structures with
different numbers of syllables and marks thousands of words. So the four of them cover the main
bulk of most common English words and are therefore most typical for the English vocabulary.
The variability of the word accentual structure is multiplied in connected speech. The accentual
structure of words may be altered under the influence of rhythm, e.g. An 'unpolished 'stone but:
The 'stone was un'polished.
The tempo of speech may influence the accentual pattern of words. With the quickening of the
speed the carefulness of articulation is diminished, the vowels are reduced or elided, the secondary
stress may be dropped, e.g. The 'whole organi'zation of the 'meeting was 'faulty.

20.  Word stress tendencies.

The accentual structure of English words is liable to instability due to the different origin of
several layers in the Modern English word-stock. In Germanic languages the word
stress originally fell on the initial syllable or the second syllable, the root syllable in the English
words with prefixes. This tendency was called recessive. Most English words of Anglo-Saxon
origin as well as the French borrowings (dated back to the 15th century) are subjected to this
recessive tendency. Unrestricted recessive tendency is observed in the native English words
having no prefix, e.g. mother, daughter, brother, swallow, ,in assimilated French borrowings,
e.g. reason, colour, restaurant. Restricted recessive tendency marks English words with prefixes,
e.g. foresee, begin, withdraw, apart. A great number of words of Anglo-Saxon origin are
monosyllabic or disyllabic, both notional words and form words. They tend to alternate in the
flow of speech, e.g. 'don't be'lieve he's 'right.
The rhythm of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables gave birth to the rhythmical
tendency in the present-day English which caused the appearance of the secondary stress in the
multisyllabic French borrowings, e.g. revolution, organi'sation, assimilation, etc. It also explains
the placement of primary stress on the third syllable from the end in three- and four-syllable
words, e.g. 'cinema, 'situate, ar'ticulate. The interrelation of both the recessive and the
rhythmical tendencies is traced in the process of accentual assimilation of the French-borrowed
word personal on the diachronic level, e.g. perso'nal — 'perso'nal — 'personal.
The appearance of the stress on the first syllable is the result of the recessive tendency and at
the same time adaptation to the rhythmical tendency. The recessive tendency being stronger,
the trisyllabic words like personal gained the only stress on the third syllable from the end,
e.g. 'family, 'library, faculty, 'possible.
The accentual patterns of the words territory, dictionary, necessary in AmE with the primary
stress on the first syllable and the tertiary stress on the third are other examples illustrating the
correlation of the recessive and rhythmical tendencies. Nowadays we witness a great number
of variations in the accentual structure of English multisyllabic words as a result of the
interrelation of the tendencies. The stress on the initial syllable is caused by the diachronical
recessive tendency or the stress on the second syllable under the influence of the strong
rhythmical tendency of the present day, e.g. 'hospitable — ho'spitable, 'distribute —
dis'tribute, 'aristocrat — a'ristocrat, 'laryngoscope — la'ryngoscope.
A third tendency was traced in the instability of the accentual structure of English word stress,
the retentive tendency: a derivative often retains the stress of the original or parent word,
e.g. 'similar — as'simitate, recom'mend — recommen 'dation.

21.  Functions of word stress.

 Production: speaker’s use of a more muscular energy used than in unstressed syllable.
Perception: Stressed syllable are more prominence than unstressed one(s), typically
characterized as having:

Louder sound

Longer sound

Higher pitch

Different quality

Level of stress

 Unstressed: having no recognizable amount of prominence.

 Primary stress (‘): Stress which has the most prominence.
 Secondary stress (,): Stronger than unstressed but weaker than the primary sterss.
 Identify three of them on the following words: Pronunciation Photographic

 Which syllables do we stress?

 Generally, stress rules can depend on:
 The grammatical category (abstract, conduct, export, present)

 The number of syllables

 The phonological structure
 Whether it’s a simple or complex word

 Strong syllable

A rhyme which either has a syllable nucleus which is a long vowel or diphthong, or
a vowel followed by more than one coda. A strong syllable is stressed.

 Weak syllable

A rhyme which has a syllable nucleus which is a short vowel and no coda or the
syllable nucleus is the schwa vowel.

A weak syllable is not stressed.

 Exception:

Honest, Perfect.

 Words composed more than one grammatical unit

 Example: carelessness
  Two types of complex words:

a. words made by basic words (stem)

by adding affixes (prefix or suffix)

(prefix) un + (stem) pleasant

(stem) good + (suffix) nesss

b. compound words

Affix

 receiving primary stress

semicircle, personality.

 stress on the stem

untidy, marketing

 stress shifted to different syllable

magnet > magnetic

Suffixes carrying stress

 -ee : refugee, evacuee

 -eer: mountainer, volunteer
 -ese: Portuguese, journalese, Japanese

Compound words
 Words that are characterized as having two independent words. Armchair, open-minded,
desk lamp.
 Normally on the first word:
typewriter, sunrise, car ferry, suitcase, teacup.
 Adjectival first element:
bad-tempered, ugly-looking, half-timbered, heavy-handed. (with secondary stress
being the first word)
 First element as number:
second-class, three-wheeler, five-finger.
 Functioning as adverbs:
down stream, head first, North-East.
 Functioning as verbs:
 downgrade, ill-treat, back-pedal.
Variable stress
 Not all stress pattern is fixed, either because of other words occurring next to the word in
question or because not all speakers agree on the placement of stress.
 A final stressed compounds tend to move to the preceding syllables:
bad-tempered and a bad-tempered person
heavy-handed and a heavy-handed sentece
 Disagreement among speakers: Controversy, ice cream, kilometer, formidable.

Word stress in a language performs three functions.

1. Word stress constitutes a word, it organizes the syllables of a word into a language unit
having a definite accentual structure, that is a pattern of relationship among the syllables; a
word does not exist without the word stress Thus the word stress performs the constitutive
function. Sound continuum becomes a phrase when it is divided into units organized by word
stress into words.
2. Word stress enables a person to identify a succession of syllables as a definite accentual
pattern of a word. This function of word stress is known as identificatoiy (or recognitive).
Correct accentuation helps the listener to make the process of communication easier, whereas
the distorted accentual pattern of words, misplaced word stresses prevent normal
understanding.
3. Word stress alone is capable of differentiating the meaning of words or their forms, thus
performing its distinctive function. The accentual patterns of words or the degrees of word
stress and their positions form oppositions, e.g. 'import — im'port, 'billow — below.
The sequence of syllables in the word is not pronounced identically. The syllable
or syllables which are uttered with more prominence than the other syllables of the word are
said to be stressed or accented. Stress in the isolated word is termed word stress; stress
in connected speech is termed sentence stress.
Stress is defined differently by different authors. B.A. Bogoroditsky, for instance, defined
stress as an increase of energy, accompanied by an increase of expiratory and articulatory
activity. D. Jones defined stress as the degree of force, which is accompanied by a strong
force of exhalation and gives an impression of loudness. H. Sweet also stated that stress, is
connected with the force of breath. According to A.C. Gimson, the effect of prominence is
achieved by any or all of four factors: force, tone, length and vowel colour.
If we compare stressed and unstressed syllables in the words contract ['kσntrækt], to
contract [kən'trækt], we may note that in the stressed syllable:
(a) the force is greater, which is connected with more energetic articulation;
(b) the pitch of voice is higher, which is connected with stronger tenseness of the vocal cords
and the walls of the resonance chamber;
(c) the quantity of the vowel [æ] in [kən'trækt] is greater, the vowel becomes longer;
 (d) the quality of the vowel [æ] in the stressed syllable is different from the quality of this vowel
in the unstressed position, in which it is more narrow than ['æ].

22.  General notion of prosody.

Intonation (prosody) is a complex unity of components, such as:

1. speech melody/pitch component; 5. rhythm;

2. loudness; 6. pausation;

3. tempo; 7. voice timbre.

4. sentence stress;

Speech melody is the variations in the pitch level (high, medium and low) and the pitch range
(the

interval between two pitch levels). Two more pitch parameters are pitch ranges and pitch
levels. Three pitch ranges are generally distinguished: normal, wide, and narrow. Pitch levels
may be high, medium, and low.

Loudness is the amplitude of vibration of the vocal cords.

Tempo is the relative speed of utterance determined by the rate (speed) of syllable succession and
the length of pauses. The tempo of speech is the third component of intonation. The term tempo
implies the rate of the utterance and pausation. The rate of speech can be normal, slow and fast.
The parts of the utterance which are particularly important sound slower. Unimportant parts are
commonly pronounced at a greater speed than normal.
Any stretch of speech can be split into smaller portions, i.e. phonetic wholes,
phrases, intonation groups by means of pauses.
Pausation – pauses in an utterance (long, short and very short; syntactic, emphatic, hesitation
pauses). By 'pause' here we mean a complete stop of phonation. We may distinguish the following
three kinds of pauses:
1. Short pauses which may be used to separate intonation groups within a phrase.
2. Longer pauses which normally manifest the end of the phrase.
3. Very long pauses, which are approximately twice as long as the first type, are used to
separate phonetic wholes.
Functionally, there may be distinguished syntactic, emphatic and hesitation pauses.
 Syntactic pauses separate phonopassages, phrases, and intonation groups.
 Emphatic pauses serve to make especially prominent certain parts of the utterance.
 Hesitation pauses are mainly used in spontaneous speech to gain some time to think over what
to say next. They may be silent or filled.
 Sentence stress is a greater prominence given to one or more words in a sentence according
to their importance.

Rhythm is regular flow of speech in which stressed and unstressed syllables occur at definite
intervals.

Voice timbre is a special coloring of human voice.

23.  Intonation as a complex unity of prosodic features.

Intonation is a complex unity of sentence stress, rhythm, tempo, speech melody and voice
timbre. Each syllable in a sense group is pronounced on a certain pitch level and bears a
definite amount of loudness. Intonation patterns serve to actualize sense groups. Intonation
is a language universal. According to R. Kingdon the most important nuclear tones in English
are: Low Fall, High Fall, Low Rise, High Rise, and Fall-Rise. The sense group is a group of
words which is semantically and syntactically complex. In Phonetics actualized sense groups
are called intonation groups.

In linguistics, intonation is variation in spoken pitch when used, not for distinguishing words
(a concept known as tone), but, rather, for a range of other functions such as indicating the
attitudes and emotions of the speaker, signalling the difference between statements and
questions, and between different types of questions, focusing attention on important
elements of the spoken message and also helping to regulate conversational interaction.
(The term tone is used by some British writers in their descriptions of intonation but to refer
to the pitch movement found on the nucleus or tonic syllable in an intonation unit. Although
intonation is primarily a matter of pitch variation, it is important to be aware that functions
attributed to intonation such as the expression of attitudes and emotions, or highlighting
aspects of grammatical structure, almost always involve concomitant variation in other
prosodic features.

24.  Sentence stress in English.

Sentence stress is the governing stress in connected speech. All words have their individual
stress in isolation. When words are connected into sense groups (also called thought groups,
i.e., logically connected groups of words), and sense groups are connected into sentences,
content words keep their stress, and function words lose their stress. The most important words
in the sentence receive stronger stress. The last stressed word in the sentence receives the
strongest stress with the help of a fall or a rise.

ANN is READing a NEW \BOOK.

WHAT BOOK is she \READing?

Does she LIKE the /BOOK?

 Stress in some words or word combinations may be shifted or weakened in a certain way to
keep the rhythm of speech. For example: New YORK – NEW York CITy; in the afterNOON –
AFternoon SLEEP.

Sentence stress is not just a phonetic peculiarity of English. Sentence stress has a very
important function of marking the words that are necessary for understanding an utterance.
When native speakers of English listen to their conversation partners, they listen for stressed
words, because stressed words provide important information. It is often difficult to understand
the meaning of the sentence in which even one content word is missing. It is also difficult to
understand the sentence in which an important word is not stressed or a function word is
stressed. For example, a message from your friend says, "Missed train back Sunday." You will
understand that it means "I missed my train. I will be back on Sunday", right? Only content
words are written in the message, but the meaning is clear. In the same way you should listen
for stressed content words in speech to understand the meaning of the whole utterance. And
you should stress content words in your speech so that other people could understand you.
Sentence stress is the key component of English intonation. Intonation organizes words into
sentences, distinguishes different types of sentences, and adds emotional coloring to
utterances. English intonation is quite difficult for Russian students. Developing the ability to
hear, understand, and reproduce sentence stress in speech is the main prerequisite to
mastering English intonation.

25.  The main functions of intonation.

 The attitudinal function. The most obvious role of intonation is to express our
attitudes and emotions – to show shock or surprise, pleasure or anger, interest or
boredom, seriousness or sarcasm, and many others. We do this by tone.
 The grammatical function. Intonation helps identify grammatical structures in speech,
rather as punctuation does in writing. We use intonation to mark the beginning and
of grammatical units such as clause and sentence (the demarcative function). We do
this by tonality. We also use intonation to distinguish clause types, such as question
vs. statement, and to disambiguate various grammatically ambiguous structures (the
syntactic function). We do this mainly by tone.
 The focusing (also called accentual or informational) function. Intonation helps to
show what information in an utterance is new and what is already known. We use it
to bring some parts of the message into focus, and leave other parts out of focus; to
emphasis or highlight some parts and not others. We do this by tonicity and by the
placement of other accents. This is one of the most important functions of English
intonation, and perhaps the function most readily taught in the EFL classroom. We
combine accentuation with the choice of tone to present some longer stretches of the
message as constituting the foreground of the picture we paint, while leaving other
stretches as background. These are pragmatic functions.
 The discourse (or cohesive) function. Intonation signals how sequences of clauses and
sentences go together in spoken discourse, to contrast or to cohere. It functions like
the division of writing text into sentences and paragraphs. It enables us to signal
 whether or not we have come to the end of the point we are making; whether we
want to keep talking or are ready to give another speaker a turn.

26.  The components of the intonation group.

The Nucleus (nuclear tone) – is the basic element of the intonation group. It is a marked

change of pitch which occurs on the final stressed syllable in the intonationgroup.
The Head (the Scale) is a unit which starts from the 1-st stressed syllable and precedes the
nuclear tone.
The Pre-Head – the unstressed syllables that precede the Head.
The Tail – the unstressed syllables that follow the nuclear tone.

27.  The nuclear tones and their meanings.

According to R. Kingdon the most important nuclear tones in English are: Low Fall, High Fall,
Low Rise, High Rise, and Fall-Rise.
The meanings of the nuclear tones are difficult to specify in general terms. Roughly speaking
the falling tone of any level and range expresses certainty, completeness, and independence.
A rising tone on the contrary expresses uncertainty, incompleteness or dependence. A falling-
rising tone may combine the falling tone's meaning of assertion, certainty with the rising tone's
meaning of dependence, incompleteness. At the end of a phrase it often conveys a feeling of
reservation; that is, it asserts something and at the same time suggests that there is something
else to be said. At the beginning or in the middle of a phrase it is a more forceful alternative to
the rising tone, expressing the assertion of one point, together with the implication that
another point is to follow. The falling-rising tone, as its name suggests, consists of a fall in pitch
followed by a rise. If the nucleus is the last syllable of the intonation group the fall and rise both
take place on one syllable.
A falling tone may be used in referring expressions as well.

I've spoken with the CLEAner.

Questions that begin with wh-questions are generally pronounced with a falling tone:

Where is the PENcil?

Imperative statements have a falling tone.

Go and see a DOCtor.

 Take a SEAT.
Requests or orders have a falling tone too.

Please sit DOWN

Call him IN.

Exclamations:

Watch OUT!

Yes/No questions and tag questions seeking or expecting confirmation can be uttered with a
falling tone. And the response to it may be lengthened. Consider the following example:

a) You like it, DON'T you?

b) YEES.

In English there is often clear evidence of an intonation-group boundary, but no audible nuclear
tone movement preceding. In such a circumstance two courses are open: either one may
classify the phenomenon as a further kind of head or one may consider it to be the level nuclear
tone. Low Level tone is very characteristic of reading poetry. Mid-Level tone is particularly
common in spontaneous speech functionally replacing the rising tone.
There are two more nuclear tones in English: Rise-Fall and Rise-Fall-Rise. But adding
refinement to speech they are not absolutely essential tones for the foreign learner to acquire.
Rise-Fall can always be replaced by High Fall and Rise-Fall-Rise by Fall-Rise without making
nonsense of the utterance.
According to D. Crystal, there are nine ways of saying Yes as an answer to the question Will
you marry me?
Low fall. The most neutral tone; a detached, unemotional statement of fact.
Full fall. Emotionally involved; the higher the onset of the tone, the more involved the speaker;
choice of emotion (surprise, excitement, irritation) depends on the speaker's facial expression.
Mid fall. Routine, uncommitted comment; detached and unexcited.
Low rise. Facial expression important; with a 'happy' face, the tone is sympathetic and friendly;
with a 'grim' face, it is guarded and ominous.
Full rise. Emotionally involved, often «disbelief or shock, the extent of the emotion depending
on the width of the tone.
High rise. Mild query or puzzlement; often used in echoing what has just been said.
Level. Bored, sarcastic, ironic.
Fall-rise. A strongly emotional tone; a straight or 'negative' face conveys uncertainty, doubt, or
tentativeness; a positive face conveys encouragement or urgency.
 Rise-fall. Strong emotional involvement; depending on the face, the attitude might be
delighted, challenging, or complacent.

28.  Rhythm.

Rhythm is the regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. It is so typical of an

English phrase that the incorrect rhythm betrays the non-English origin of the speaker. The
units of the rhythmical structure of an utterance are stress groups or rhythmic groups. The
perception of boundaries between rhythmic groups is associated with the stressed syllables
or peaks of prominence. Unstressed syllables have a tendency to cling to the preceding
stressed syllables — enclitics, or to the following stressed syllables — proclitics. In English, as
a rule, only initial unstressed syllables cling to the following stressed syllable, non-initial
unstressed syllables are usually enclitics. Each sense-group of the sentence is pronounced at
approximately the same period of time, unstressed syllables are pronounced more rapidly.
Proclitics (`unstressed syllables) are pronounced faster than enclitics (stressed syllables).
Rhythm is connected with sentence stress. Under the influence of rhythm words which are
normally pronounced with two equally strong stresses may lose one of them, or may have
their word stress realized differently, e. g. ,Picca'dilly — ,Piccadilly 'Circus — 'close
to ,Picca'dilly

29.  American English.

30.  British English.

There are many differences in pronunciation between British and American English, but most of
them are not very important. Here we are only going to write about the most important
differences for an English student, to help understand the other accent better. (We will use the
British phonetic symbols).

 THE LETTER R

This is probably the most important difference. British people only pronounce the letter R when
it is followed by a vowel. American people pronounce this letter always.

sorry     /sɒrɪ/
teacher     /ti:tʃə/     /ti:tʃər/

 FINAL SCHWA 

A final Schwa is pronounced very very weak in both BrE and AmE, but if it happens at the end of
speech (if after the schwa we pause or stop), then in BrE it often opens and becomes a sound
very similar to / ʌ /, but in AmE it doesn't change.

teacher     /ti:tʃər/ in BrE it sounds similar to   /ti:tʃʌ / (but in the phonetic

transcription we still use an  : /ti:tʃə/
  THE VOWEL   (as in SOCK)

 In American English this vowel is more open than in BrE, so it sounds like the British
vowel   (as in "father" or "car") but short. [similar to Spanish or Italian A].
 In British English this vowel sounds a little bit similar to the vowel  (as in fork) [a bit
similar to Spanish or Italian O].

 THE VOWEL   (as in HUT)

 In American English this vowel is more closed than in BrE, so it sounds a bit like the British
vowel   [similar to Spanish or Italian O].   In British English this vowel sounds a bit
similar to the American vowel  [similar to Spanish or Italian A].

 THE CONSONANT -T-

In BrE this consonant sounds / t / in front of a vowel or between vowels. In American English it
sounds / t / in front of a vowel, but it is flapped when it goes between vowels, like a quick /
t / (we'll use the special symbol: / D / ) [it sounds like the Spanish or Italian flapped R, as in
"cara"]

tourist     /tɔ:rɪst/   /tɔ:rɪst/

Peter     /pi:tə/   /pi:Dər/

But in colloquial BrE that may also happens. The difference is that the sound / D / occurs only in
colloquial BrE, but in AmE that is the only possibility when the T goes between vowels.

 PRONUNCIATION OF THE LETTER -U-

In British English, the letter U sometimes sounds   (but, fun, must) and sometimes
sounds / ju: / (tube, music, stupid).

American people also pronounce this letter with   (but, fun, must), but for many of the
words with / ju: / , they use the vowel 

stupid     /stju:pɪd/    /stu:pɪd/

But this only happens with some words and not everywhere in America. Other words are
pronounced with / ju: / like in BrE (music, cute, you, etc), and others may be pronounced with /
ju: / or with  , depending on the area or the speaker (new, Cuba, etc.)
  THE VOWEL   (as in CAT)

In BrE, this sound is something between   and  , in AmE this sound is usually longer
and much more similar to . In fact, in some parts of the USA, the main difference
between   and   is that the first one is short and the second one long, but the sound
is almost the same. Also, in many parts this vowel is simply   , not a different sound.

 SHORT / LONG VOWELS

In BrE all the vowels can be classified as short (       , etc) or long (   

  , etc.). In AmE they are all the same in length, or the difference is much smaller
than in Britain. The difference is usually made with a contrast between tense and non-tense
pronunciation rather than long and short.

 INTONATION

Another important difference is intonation. When we speak, our voice goes up and down. When
English people speak, their voice can go very high and quite low. When American people speak
their voice is quite flat, they do go up and down but not so much. So the effect is that British
people sing a lot, and American people sound much more monotonous by comparison.

PHONOSTYLES

1. Phonostylistics as a branch of linguistics.

Phonostylistics is a branch of phonetics which studies the way phonetic units (both segmental and
suprasegmental) are used in particular extralinguistic situations. It is concerned with the
identification of style-forming means, i.e. The phonetic features that enable the native speaker to
distinguish intuitively between different styles of pronunciation. Phonostylistic is concerned with
the study of phonetic phenomena and processes from the stylistic point of view. It cropped up as a
result of a certain amount of functional overlap between phonetics and stylistics.

Intonation plays a central role in stylistic differentiation of oral texts. Stylistically explicable
deviations from intonational norms reveal conventional patterns differing from language to
language.

The uses of intonation show that the information so conveyed is, in many cases, impossible to
separate from lexical and grammatical meanings expressed by words and constructions in a
language (verbal context) and from the co-occurring situational information (non-verbal context).
The meaning of intonation cannot be judged in isolation. However, intonation does not usually
correlate in any neat one-for-one way with the verbal context accompanying and the situational
variables in an extra-linguistic context. Moreover, the perceived contrast with the intonation of the
previous utterance seems to be relevant.

2. Stylistic use of Intonation.

Intonation plays a central role in stylistic differentiation of oral texts.

The uses of intonation in this function show that the information is, in many cases, impossible
to separate from lexical and grammatical meanings expressed by words and constructions in a
language (verbal context) and from the co-occurring situational information (non-verbal
context). The meaning of intonation cannot be judged in isolation.

One of the objectives of phonostylistics is the study of intonational functional styles. An

INTONATIONAL STYLE can be defined as a system of interrelated intonational means which is
used in a certain social sphere and serves a definite aim in communication.

Sokolova distinguishes 5 style categories:

(1) informational (formal) style; (2) scientific (academic) style; (3) declamatory style; (4)
publicistic style; (5) familiar (conversational) style.

Intonational styles distinction is based on the assumption that there are three types of
information present in communication: (a) intellectual, (b) emotional, (c) volitional.
Consequently, there are three types of int. patterns: (a) intonation patterns used for intellectual
purposes, (b) for emotional and attitudinal purposes, (с for volitional.

All intonational styles include intellectual intonation patterns, because the aim of any kind of
intercourse is to express some intellectual information. The frequency of occurrence of
emotional and volitional patterns is dif. in each style.

- INFORMATIONAL predominance of intellectual int. patterns. The task set is to communicate

information without giving it any emotional evaluation. Used by radio and television
announcers when reading weather forecasts, news, etc. or in various official situations.

- In SCIENTIFIC intellectual and volitional patterns are used. The speaker's purpose is not only to
prove a hypothesis, to create new concepts, etc., but also to direct the listener's attention to the
message. Used by university lecturers, schoolteachers, or by scientists in formal and informal
discussions;

- In DECLAMATORY the intellectual, volitional and emotional. The speaker's aim is to appeal
simultaneously to the mind, the will and feelings of the listener. Used in stage speech,
classroom recitation, verse-speaking or in reading aloud fiction.
 - PUBLICISTIC predominance of volitional patterns. The aim is to convince him that the speaker's
interpretation is the only correct. By political speech-makers, radio and television
commentators, judges

- The usage of FAMILIAR is typical of the English of everyday life. It occurs both within a family
group and in informal external relationships, in the speech of intimate friends or well-
acquainted people.

3. Functional Styles.

Functional Style is a system of interrelated language means serving a definite aim in

communication. It is the coordination of the language means and stylistic devices which shapes the
distinctive features of each style and not the language means or stylistic devices themselves.
Each style, however, can be recoquized by one or more leading features which are especially
conspicuous. For instance the use of special terminology is a lexical characteristics of the style of
scientific prose, and one by which it can easily be recognized.
A style of language can be fined as a system of coordinated, interrelated and inter-coordinated
language means intended to full-fill a specific function of communication and aiming at a defined
effect. Style of language is a historical category.
The English literary system has evolved a number of styles easily distinguishable one from another.
They are not homogeneous and fall into several variants of having some central point of
resemblance or better to say. All integrated by the invariant  – i.e. the abstract ideal system.
They are:
 1) Official(documents and papers);
 2) Scientific (brochures, articles, other scientific publications);
 3) Publicistic (essay, public speech);
 4) Newspaper style(mass media);
 5) Belles-lettres style(genre of creative writing);

Each of mentioned here styles  can be expressed in two forms: written and oral.
Stylistics is a sides that examines the complex of stylistically marked elements of any language
level.
 1) scientific style is employed in professional communication to convey some information. It’s
most conspicuous feature is the abundance of terms denoting objects, phenomena and
processes characteristics of some particular field of science and technique. Also precision
clarity logical cohesion.
 2) Official style is the most conservative one. It uses syntactical constructions and archaic
words. Emotiveness is banned out of this style.
 3) Publicistic style is famous for its explicit pragmatic function of persuasion directed at
influencing the reader in accordance with the argumentation of the author.
 4) Newspaper style – special graphical means are used to attract the readers attention.
  5) Belles-lettres style – the richest register of communication besides its own language means,
other styles can be used besides informative and persuasive functions, belles-lettres style has a
unique task to impress the reader are aesthetically.

4. Intonational Styles.

An intonational styleis a system of interrelated intonation means which is used in a social sphere
and serves a definite aim of communication. classification given by Gaiduchic (according to the
spheres of communication):

 solemn
 scientific business
 official business
 everyday
 familiar

The factors that determine the phonostylistic varieties of intonation in spoken discourse.

Extralinguistic situations: 1.purpose 2.participants 3.setting

the aim of communication (the style-forming factor)

Style-modifying factors:

- speaker’s attitude

- the form of communication

- the degree of formality

- the degree of spontaneity

The factors are interdependent and interconnected.

The aim of communicationis the main strategy of the speaker. We may want: to inform, to
instruct, to convince, to entertain, to advertise.

In each case we choose intonation which will serve our purpose and make our speech effective.

It basically determines the choice of intonation means, thus it forms the style (style-forming).

Speaker’s attitude

Any oral communication reflects a variety of attitudes and emotions, concerning the listener, the
subject matter and etc.
Intonation varieties are as numerous as varieties of attitudes and emotions are. The speaker can be
involved/ indifferent, friendly/ hostile and so on.

It’s both emotions and attitudes we should take into consideration.

The form of communication

 monologuing
 dialoguing

Monologuing is speaking of 1 individual, dialoguing presupposes the participance of the speaker.

Monologues are usually more extended and characterized by a greater SOMETHING

and grammatical cohesion (связанность). They are better organized.

Polyloquing can be singled out.

The Degree of formality:

Formal informal

It reflects social roles and relations of the participants.

In a formal situation the speaker tends to make his speech more distinct and precise while in
informal situation speech is more careless and rapid. Rapid colloquial speech (assimilations,
reductions…)

The Degree of Spontaneity

The types of speech:

Prepared, half-prepared,spontaneous

Spontaneous speechtakes place when verbal formation is simultaneous to the formation of the
idea in the speaker’s mind.

Half-prepared speech -

Full prepared – written and rehearsed in advance.

All these factors determine the choice of particular intonation means which can be attributed to
particular intonational style and phonetic style.

5. Intonational Styles and Modification of Sounds in Connected Speech.

6. Formal and Informal English.
 Formal English is used in “serious” texts and situations — for example, in official
documents, books, news reports, articles, business letters or official
speeches. Informal English is used in everyday conversations and in personal letters.
Formal English
 Used in official, literary, academic, etc. content.
 Typically used in careful, edited writing — when the
writer has a lot of time to polish his text. Formal
English also occurs in speech, usually when the
speaker is saying something that was prepared
beforehand (for example, reading the news
ordelivering an official speech).
 Sentences are longer and more complicated, for
example: Toyota’s US sales bounced back in March as
substantial discounts helped to win back customers
who had been shaken by the firm’s mass safety recalls.
 The standard of correctness is higher. Some phrases
are considered correct (or at least acceptable) in
informal English, but wrong in formal English. For
example:
o I have made less mistakes. (formal:I have made
fewer mistakes.)
o She’s liking it. (formal: She likes it.)
o I feel real good. (formal: I feel really good.)
Formal English
Informal English
 Used in everyday, personal
conversations.
 Typically used in “improvised” speech
— when the speaker is speaking
without preparation, as in a
conversation (in real life or over the
phone). Informal English also occurs in
writing, usually whenever the writer is
writing quickly and without editing
(for example, in an Internet chatroom
or in quick, personal e-mails).
 Sentences are simpler and shorter, for
example: Did you see Toyota’s sales
figures? Looks like the discounts have
actually worked.
Informal English
o Use “delaying expressions” to give
themselves time: Well, I think they
should have asked us first, you
know?
o Use “correcting expressions” to

 A huge number of words and phrases are used mainly
in formal English. For example: nevertheless, to
disclose, to constitute, to
undertake, daunting,impervious, anew, truly, solace,  huh,nope (= no), to
to enchant, frantically, sizeable, to clutch, heyday, as
it happens,upsurge, retrieval
 Many (but not all) phrasal verbs are avoided.
correct themselves: He’s not well. I
mean, he’s not sick, but he’s very
tired.
o Use “qualifying expressions” to
show that what they said is not
exactly right: This
whole bloggingthing is getting kind
of old.
 Informal English contains useful
“everyday phrases”, for example:
o Here you are. There you go. (when
giving something to someone)
o Excuse me?, Come again? (to ask
someone to repeat something)
o What do you mean? (to ask for
explanation)
o So, you’re saying that...? (to ask for
confirmation)
o Exactly!, I couldn’t agree with you
more. (to agree with someone)
o By the way..., Anyway... (to change
the topic)
o See you. Take care. (to say
goodbye)
 A huge number of words and phrases
are used mainly in informal English.
For example: dude, freaking, uh-
puke, trashy,grownup, awesome, to
chill out,stuff, hard-up, to tick
somebody off,to sell like crazy.
 Phrasal verbs are used frequently. For
example, in informal situations,
people usually say found out instead
of discovered, came across instead
ofencountered and got away instead
ofescaped.
  Words and phrases are sometimes
pronounced in a shortened and
simplified way, e.g. Lemme go!, I’m
doin’ fine, Whassup?, Whatcha
gonna do?

7. Informational Style  in writing and speaking.

Informational style  - is the most neutral among styles, which we employ in educational
descriptive narratives, press reporting and broadcasting. In these texts loudness normal. The
rate of speech does not vary greatly, the tempo is marked as moderato, rhythm is organized
properly, pauses are not prolongued. Timbre-characteristics of such speech are not emotional
because the speaker tries to be objective. Sense-groups are not complicated in their structure.
Terminal tones are rather categoric.

Informational (formal) style is characterised by the predominant use of intellectual intonation

patterns. It occurs in formal discourse where the task set by the sender of the message is to
communicate information without giving it any emotional or volitional evaluation. This
intonational style is used, for instance, by radio and television announcers when reading
weather forecasts, news, etc. or in various official situations. It is considered to be stylistically
neutral.

8. The prosodic characteristics of  informational style.

The most neutral among styles is informational style (formal, neutral) which we employ in educational
descriptive narratives, press reporting and broadcasting.

In these texts loudness Is stable or normal, diminishing towards the end of the passage. The rate of
speech does not vary greatly, the tempo is marked as moderate, pauses are not prolongued, rhythm is
organized properly. We pay special attention (accent) on the most important semantic centers of the
passages (singling out the main ideas). Here we resort to such terminal tones as falling, mid-level and
low rising. There are no great contrasts between accented and unaccented segments of phrases.

In informational dialogues when we have a speaker and a listener we must support the attention of the
speakers towards each other. The utterances are not complete, great is the role of pauses and
paralinguistic factors - gestures, body movements, noises and so an. Interjections and pause-fillers are
frequent. Speech arc not emotional (neutral) because the speaker tries to be objective.

9. Registers (Spheres of Discourse) of  Informational Style.

10.   The prosodic characteristics of  Conversational Style.

This is the style of every-day communication between friends, relatives, well-acquainted people. It is relaxed,
characterized by the lack of planning, so it is unpredictable, there are a lot of errors, slips, hesitations,
elliptical constructions:

 falling or rising tones with Level or Falling Heads;

 normal loudness;
 varied speed;
 intonation groups are rather short separated by pauses, mostly hesitations, which can be both silent
and filled;
 irregular rhythm.

As we have mentioned already, each style has some varieties depending on the extra-linguistic factors. Each
can be realized in different forms: monologue, dialogue, polilogue, in speaking and reading, etc. It’s also
important to note that any style is seldom realized in its pure form, each oral text usually includes phonetic
characteristics of different styles, so there’s overlapping (or fusion) of styles. But the knowledge of
peculiarities of the usage of different phonetic styles improves the effectiveness of speech, facilitates
understanding and communication, so it shouldn't be ignored in both teaching and learning a foreign
language.

11.   Registers (Spheres of Discourse) of  Conversational Style.

The usage of familiar (conversational) style is typical of the English of everyday life. It occurs
both within a family group and in informal external relationships, namely, in the speech of
intimate friends or well-acquainted people. In such cases, it is the emotional reaction to a
situational or verbal stimulus that matters, thereby the attitude- and emotion-signalling
function of intonation here comes to the fore. Nevertheless, intellectual and volitional
intonation patterns also have a part to play. In informal fluent discourse, there are examples of
utterance where the effect of intellectual intonation is neutralized. Generally speaking, familiar
(conversational) style, unlike other styles, will allow the occurrence of the entire range of
intonation patterns existing in English. This is due to the fact that there seemed to be no social
restrictions on the range of emotions and attitudes, which might be displayed in a
conversational situation. It is extremely important for the participants in conversation to show
an active interest in what is going on. The choice of intonation patterns varies to a certain
extent depending on such situational factors as the relationship of the speakers to each other,
the chosen subject-matter, the fluency of an individual, his emotional state and so on.

12.   Paralinguistic peculiarities of  Conversational Style.

13.   Varieties of Scientific Style of speech.

Scientific texts have a clear structure. For scientific texts consistent style characteristic division
into sections, paragraphs, points, points. Research has clearly organized style syntax. In
scientific texts dominated complicated sentence, but "correct" structure, often complicated
phrases, stringing registered form. In many sentences, nouns and adjectives relative little
verbs, including personal forms.
 With existing verb forms used more often impersonal, generalized or uncategorized. Science
has the substyle style: a scholarly monograph, article, scientific report, reports, theses; popular
science presentation of scientific data for non-specialists - books, articles in non-special
journals; scientific and educational textbooks, lectures, discussions and more.

Signs of scientific style are informative, intelligibility and objectivity, objectivity, logical
consistency, generality, simplicity, accuracy, conciseness, evidence, persuasion, analysis,
synthesis, argumentation, explanation of cause-effect relationships, conclusions.

Linguistic markers scientific style find abstract vocabulary, symbols, terms, diagrams, tables,
graphs, foreign words, scientific phraseology resistant terminological phrases, quotes, links,
unambiguous common lexicon, without subjectivity, impersonality syntax, the absence of
anything that would indicate the identity of the author and its preferences emotionally
expressive synonyms suffixes ambiguous words, art trails, individual neologisms.

14.   Academic style in writing and speaking.

The academic style:  This style characterizes lectures, scientific discussion, conferences, classes
to entertain. It is used to deliver this message to the audience, to establish a contact with the
listeners. The speaker must sound self-assured, authoritative, instructive. Terminal tones are
compound, there is a great number of high categoric falls, the contrast between accented and
nonaccented segments is not great. Loudness may be increased, sometimes strongly, pauses
may be prolongued, rhythm is organized properly, especially while giving the rules, reading
them, drawing conclusions (scansion). The acoustic impression of rhythmicality is present. 

15.   Style-forming prosodic features of Scientific Style.

16.   Language means of the Scientific Style.

Scientific Style (Academic)

 Characterizes lectures, scientific discussion, conferences
 The speaker must sound self-assured, authoritative, instructive
 Terminal tones are compound
 A great number of high categoric falls
 The contrast between accented & unaccented segments isn’t great
 Loudness may be increased
 Pauses may be prolonged
 Rhythm is organized properly
 Intellectual & Volitional information prevails

17. Paralinguistics  as a science.

Paralinguistics are the aspects of spoken communication that do not involve words. These may add
emphasis or shades of meaning to what people say. Some definitions limit this to verbal communication
that is not words.

Example 
Body language, gestures, facial expressions, tone and pitch of voice are all examples of paralinguistic
features.

18.   Paralinguistic peculiarities of Scientific Style.

19. Publicistic Style  as a phonetic style.

Publicistic style:  The aim of the speaker is to persuade and influence the audience, the
substantiate his arguments. Here we can meet all tricks which are based on numerous
contrasts in ail prosodic features. Oratorical skills need special training. There are famous
schools of public speech makers where intonation plays an important role. Speech of this kind
is always prepared. There are different opinions as to whether to make use of different notes
(they may distract the speaker is to produce an impression on his listeners, to inspire them, to
arouse their enthusiasm). The speaker is concerned about the effect he produces on his
listeners. There are great contrasts of pitch, loudness, tempo and tambre accompanied by
Kinetics. The clarity of articulation (enunciation) is very strong here every sound must be
distinct, together with dignified slow tempo, sonority and resonance, strict rhythm. As one of
the aims of the speaker is to entertain his listeners he must combine publicistic style with
declamatory, informational and conversational.

20.   Veraieties  of    Publicistic Style  of  speech.

The publicistic style became a separate style in the middle of the 18 th  century. It falls into three varieties.
Unlike other literary styles, the publicistic style has a spoken variety –  the oratorical sub-style.  The
development of radio and television has brought into being a new spoken variety of  the radio and
television commentary.  The other two sub-styles are  essay(moral, philosophical, literary)
and  journalistic articles  (political, social, economic) in newspapers, journals and magazines.

Book reviews in journals, newspapers and magazines and also pamphlets are generally included among
essays.

The general aim of the publicistic style is to influence public opinion, to convince the reader (or the
listener) that the writer’s (or speaker’s) interpretation is the only correct one, and to make the reader
(listener) accept the author’s viewpoint not merely through logical argumentation but through
emotional appeal as well.

This function is most effective in oratory (ораторское искусство, риторика, красноречие) where the
most powerful instrument of persuasion, the human voice, is brought into play.
 21. Publicistic Style  in writing and speaking.

Oratory and Speeches

Direct contact with the listener permits a combination of the syntactical, lexical and phonetic peculiarities of
both the written and spoken varieties of language. In its leading features, however, oratorical style belongs
to the written variety of language, though it is modified by the oral form of the utterance and the use of
gestures.  This style is evident in speeches on political and social problems of the day, in orations and
addresses on solemn occasions, in sermons (проповедь) and debates.

The sphere of application of oratory is confined to an appeal to an audience. The SDs employed in oratorical
style are determined by the communicative situation. If the speaker intends to rouse the audience and keep
it in suspense, he will use various traditional SDs. But undue prominence given to form may lead to an
exaggerated use of these devices, to embellishment (приукрашивание).

Tradition is very powerful in oratorical style and the 16 th  century rhetorical principles laid down by Thomas
Wilson in his  Arte of Rhetorique  are sometimes still used in modern oratory, though, on the whole, modern
oratory tends to lower its key more and more, confining itself to a quiet businesslike exposition of ideas. SDs
are closely interwoven and mutually complementary (дополняющий), thus building up an intricate pattern.

The Essay

As a separate form of English literature the essay dates from the end of the 16 th  century. It is a literary
composition of moderate length on philosophical, social, aesthetic, or literary subject, but it merely touches
upon the surface. Personal treatment of the theme and a natural manner of expression are two of its most
obvious characteristics. An essay is rather a series of personal and witty comments than a completed
argument or a conclusive (заключительный, окончательный) examination of any matter.

The essay was very popular in the 17th and 18 th  centuries. At that time essays were written on topics
connected with morals and ethics, and on political and philosophical problems.

The 18th  century was the great age of essay writing.

In the 19th  century the essay as a literary term gradually changed into what we now call the journalistic
article or feature article (очерк) which covers all kinds of subjects from politics, philosophy or aesthetics to
travel, sport and fashion.

Feature articles are generally published in newspapers, especially weeklies and Sunday editions. They are
often written by one and the same writer or journalist, who has cultivated his own individual style.

22.   Style-making prosodic features of  Publicistic Style.

The basic aim of publicistic speech is to extend persuasive and emotional influence on the listeners, and
volitional and desiderative information is predominant in oratorical texts/speech. The invariant of
phonostylistic characteristics of publicistic speech is as follows:
  timbre: dignified, self-assured, concerned and personally involved;
 delimitation: phonopassages – phrases – intonation groups;
 style – making prosodic features;
 loudness – enormously increased, ranging from forte to fortissimo;
 ranges and levels – greatly varied; the predominant use of wide ranges within the
phonopassages;
 rate – moderately slow; the public speaker slows down the tempo of his speech to bring out
communicatively important centres;
 pauses – definitely long between the passages; a great number of breath-taking pauses; a
frequent stop of phonation before the emphatic semantic centre; “ rhetorical silence” is used to
exert influence on the public;
 rhythm – properly organized; the accentuation of semantic centres:
 terminal tones – mostly emphatic, especially on emotionally underlined semantic centres; in
non-final intonation groups falling-rising tones are frequent;
 pre-nuclear patterns – common use of the descending sequence of stressed syllables; a large
proportion of falling and stepping heads frequently broken by accidental rises to increase the
emphasis;
 the contrast between accented and unaccented segments – not great;
 paralinguistic features.

23.   Paralinguistic peculiarities of  Publicistic Style.

24.   Language means of the  Publicistic Style.
25.   Declamatory Intonational Style.

26.   Varieties of    Declamatory  Style  of  speech.

The declamatory reading displays a great variety of intonation property as regards to the types of
written texts. There is almost endless variety in the way writers express themselves; but no matter how
pleasurable the way of writing may be, meaning always comes first. In each case style, the way
something has been written, must be adapted to suit the subject matter.
It is common knowledge that prose, which describes an action or a series of actions to tell a story, is
called  narrative,e.g.
Though it was nearly midnight when Andrew reached Bryngow-er, he found Joe Morgan waiting for
him, walking up and down with short steps between the closed surgery and the entrance to the house.
(A  J.Cronin.  The Citadel)
 The prose is  descriptivewhen scenes, objects, people, or even a person's feelings are described in such
a way that we can imagine them vividly. In good descriptive writing an author builds up a picture in
words in much the same way as an artist paints a landscape or a portrait, e.g.
We got out at Sonning and went for a walk round the village. It is a most fairy-like little nook on the
whole river. It is most like a stage village that one builds of bricks and mortar. Every house is
smothered in roses and now, in early June, they were bursting forth in clouds of dainty
splendour...  (Jerome K. Jerome.  Three Men in a Boat)
In order to appreciate a prose passage it is not enough to understand its meaning: it is necessary to
grasp the author's intentions and the means he has employed to fulfil them. In a sense good narrative
and descriptive prose have much in common with poetry. The writer need not always have an audience
in mind. His aim is to tell a story or describe a scene as well as he can. The "devices" that occur arise
from the prose itself and are, as it were, coincidental with this main purpose.
It is desirable, of course, before reading aloud to appreciate the written text. For this one should firstly
read the passage carefully without worrying over the meaning of a few difficult wofds. Then, while
reading it, pay close attention to the sequence of events described, or to the stages which lead to the
main event. See if the writer gives reasons why the event or events described occurred. When you have
read a prose passage carefully you should be in a position to pause a little bit and try to realize general
meaning, a detailed meaning and be able to define the intentions of the writer and state why you have
liked or disliked what you have read.
What makes a story a pleasure to read is usually the writer's way of telling it. The way scenes and
people are described, the way the characters think, talk or act are quite as important as the events
themselves and contribute largely to our enjoyment. When appreciating the prose it is necessary to
understand how these qualities or devices help a story to develop and how they add colour to it.
One should also bear in mind that any story is a unity, though divided into passages. It is very
important to understand how pieces of narratives are put together. A reader responds to a text, its
linguistic clues (internal evidence), but also to situational clues (external evidence). In responding to a
text a reader usually takes into account all he knows of the environment: what is going on, who is
involved as well as what part language is playing.
Evidently the next step will be to delimit the text, to break it into phonopassages that may not coincide
with the written passages. Then the passage should be split into phrases, the latter into intonation
groups. The most necessary procedure, of course, is to underline the communicative centres in each
group and think what prosodic features are preferable for expressing the meaning and the emphasis.

27.   Style-forming features in  Declamatory Style.

Attitudinal, volitional and intellectual functions of intonation are of primary importance in the performance
of the declamatory style. This style is represented by a written form of the language read aloud or recited.
The invariant of phonostylistic characteristics of the declamatory prose reading is as follows:

1. timbre: concerned, personally involved, emotionally rich;

2. delimitation: phonopassages – phrases – intonation groups;
3. style – making prosodic features;
4. loudness – varied according to the size of the audience;
 5. ranges and levels – variable;
6. rate – deliberately slow, necessitated by the purpose of reading changes in the
speed of reading utterances are determined by the syntactic structures, importance
of information and the degree of emphasis;
7. pauses – long, especially between the passages. The declamatory reading is
distinctly marked by a great number of prolonged emphatic pauses;
8. rhythm – properly organized; the isochronic recurrence of stressed and unstressed
syllables;
9. the accentuation of semantic centres:
10. terminal tones – common use of categoric low and high falls in final and even initial
intonation groups and on semantic centres; occasional use of rising and level tones
to break the monotony;
11. pre-nuclear patterns – varied, contain patterns which have both common emphatic
and non-emphatic usage;

28.   The prosodic characteristics of Reading Poetry.

29.   The prosodic characteristics of Reading Prose.

On the prosodic level the markers of the declamatory style reading are:
 Timbre: concerned, personally involved, emotionally rich.
 Levels and ranges: variable
 Rate: slow, necessiated by the purpose of the reading: the complete understanding of the author's
message by the listener; changes in the speed of utterances are determined by the syntactic structures,
importance of information, and the degree of emphasis.
 Pauses: long, especially between the passages. Internal boundary placement is always syntactically or
semantically predictable. A declamatory reading is distinctly marked by a great number of prolonged
emphatic pauses - the device used by the reader to underline the emphasis.
 Rhythm: properly organized, the isochronic recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables.
 Terminal tones: common use of categoric low and high falls in final and even initial intonation groups
and on semantic centres; occasional use of rising and level tones to break the monotony and in initial
groups to connect segments of the phrase, to lead the listener on the later developments.

Written English

It is first necessary to define what sort of Written English. Semi-formal Written English is in one sense less
and in another sense more redundant than the spoken forms of the language.

Repetitions and duplications are usually avoided to a greater extent than in conversation, though a semi-
formal style may still render some examples.

Intonation contours, stress patterns, junctures (transition and boundary features) and tone of voice are
absent in Written English. But spelling, word boundaries and punctuation are present.

Spoken Prose
Spoken prose may consist of a speech, a sermon, a taped report or a radio broadcast scripted in advance
and in the form of a monologue. It may be read or recited almost anywhere, but the speaker may equally be
within visual contact of an audience.

It is not created spontaneously in the same way as Conversation is born, but the speaker may nevertheless
make conscious or incidental use of expressive features such as tone of voice, gesture and facial expression.

30.   The common prosodic characteristics of Intonational Styles.

Intonational style  – a system of interrelated intonational means which is used in a social sphere
and serves s definite aim of communication.

There is no universally recognized classification of styles. Vinogradov distinguishes 3 styles:

1) Colloquial (COMMUNICATION)

2) Informing (scientific styles are included)

3) Emotive (publicistic, belletrestyle).

This classification was criticized. There are 2 next marginal layers:

- formal  – suggests careful articulation of styles, relatively slow speed of the pronouncing

- informal  – everyday communication, rapid, colloquial, conversational

Stylistic use of intonation:

1) Informational – in press reporting, educational descriptive texts. Loudness normal or increased;

pauses arerather long; rhythm is stable, properly organized; falling tones on the semantic centers,
falling-rising or rising in the initial intonation groups;

2) Academic (scientific) – style of lectures (conferences, seminars). Loudness increased; pauses are
rather long; rhythm is properly organized; high proportion of compound terminal tones (high fall
+ low rise, fall-rise, rise-fall-rise), a great number of high categorical falls;

3) Publicistic (oratorical). Phonostylistic characteristics: Loudness enormously increased; pauses

are definitely long between the passages; rhythm is properly organized; tones mostly emphatic,
especially emotionally underlined semantic centers, in non-final intonational groups falling-rising
tones are frequent;

4) Declamatory (artistic). This is a highly emotional and expressive intonational style. Attitudinal,
volitional and intellectual functions of intonation are of primary importance here and serve to
appeal to the mind, will and feelings of the listener. This style can be heard on the stage, on the
screen, in a TV studio, thus we see that it is always a written form of the language read aloud or
recited. Phonostylistic characteristics: Loudness varied according to the size of the audience and
to the emotional setting; pauses are long especially between the passages, prolonged emphatic
 pauses are used to underline the emphasis; rhythm is properly organized; common use of
categorical low and high falls in final and initial intonation groups and on semantic centers;

5) Conversational (familiar) – this kind of English is a means for everyday communication, heard
in natural conversational interaction between speakers. This style occurs mainly in informal
external and internal relationships in speech of relatives, friends. This is spontaneous, colloquial,
informal, everyday speech.

Informational Formal Style (Neutral)

press reporting, broadcasting & educational descriptive narratives
the rate of speech doesn’t vary greatly
pauses are not prolonged
rhythm is organized properly
single out the main ideas
falling, mid-level, low-rising tones
no great contrasts between accented & unaccented segments of phrases
Intellectual information prevails
Declamatory Style (Artistic, Stage style)
Theatrical activities, screen productions, TV
Sounds pronounced distinctly
Loudness varies according to the type of emotion rendered and the listeners
The rate of speech is deliberately slow
Pauses are long, emphatic
The contrast between accented & unaccented segments isn’t great
Terminal tones contain – a lot of categoric low and high falls in final and initial intonational
groups
Emotional information prevails
 
Publicistic Style (Oratorical)
The aim of the speaker is to persuade & influence the audience
Speech is always prepared
Great contrasts of pitch, loudness, tempo, timbre
Every sound must be distinct
Strict rhyt
Volitional information prevails
 
Conversational Style
The speakers are comparatively free, sound neutral, use non-standard forms of speech
Conversations are not planned
The utterances are incomplete
A lot of hesitational pauses, slips of the tongue
A lot of introductory phrases
The intonational groups are short
Tone groups are often broken
The tempo varies greatly
Reduction of vowel