Theoretical Phonetics

6 LECTURES, 4 WORKSHOPS
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OSTAPCHUK IRYNA
 L 1. PHONETIC SYSTEM OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Outline:
Phonetics as a linguistic science and its branches.
General characteristics of phonology.
The phonetic system of a language.
The phoneme and its functions.
Variants of the phoneme and their classification.
Main trends in phoneme theory.
 Origins and relations

Phonetics as a branch of linguistics: (needs addition)

Indian
Greek
A.Bell, H.Sweet, B.de Courtenay, N.Trubetskoy
Schools of phonology
Phonetics is connected with:
 Grammar
 Lexicology
 Stylistics
 The History of the Language
 Sociophonetics
There are four main branches of
phonetics:

 ARTICULATORY (АРТИКУЛЯТОРНА),
 - ACOUSTIC (АКУСТИЧНА),
 - AUDITORY (АУДИТИВНА),
 - FUNCTIONAL (ФУНКЦІОНАЛЬНА)
PHONETICS.
ALSO
 PRACTICAL
 THEORETICAL
Acoustic and articulatory functioning
 Phonology

Phonology was originated in the 30s of the 20th

century by a group of linguists be­longing to the
Prague school.
The first essential work in phonol­ogy is THE
GROUNDWORK OF PHONOLOGY [1939] by
Nickolai Trubetskoy.

Phonetics Phonology
Within phonology, two branches of study are usually
recognized: SEGMENTAL & SUPRASEGMENTAL.
 to discover the principles that
govern the way that phonemes are
organized in languages, to
The primary
determine which phonemes are
aim of
phonology is used and how they pattern the
phonological structure of a
language.
 The phonetic system of a language

four basic components:

the segmental/phonemic component;
vowels and consonants
the syllabic structure;

the accentual structure/word

stress/lexical stress;
intonation. prosody
 The phoneme and its functions

A phoneme has 3 aspects of definition:

Functional
Material
Abstract

the phoneme can be defined as a minimal

abstract linguistic unit of a sound structure of
a given language which serves to distinguish
the meaning of morphemes and words.
 Functions of the phoneme
1) CONSTITUTIVE –

2) IDENTIFICATORY-

3) DISTINCTIVE –
 Variants of the phoneme

The allophone is a set of multiple possible spoken

sounds (or phones) used to pronounce a single
phoneme: for example, the phoneme [p] in words
pin, spin, slipper.
Principal
Subsidiary:
-Positional
-Combinatory
Invariant: distinctive and irrelevant features
 Main trends in phoneme theory

needs addition

1) The "mentalistic" 3) The "abstract"

or "psychological" view
view

4) The "physical"

2) The "functional" view
view
 Further discussion

https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBb2jI-DCJM&ab_cha
nnel=VODANBKCH
https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlARGDlRDKg&ab_ch
annel=VODANBKCH
https://
bpb-us-e2.wpmucdn.com/labs.utdallas.edu/dist/7/1
28/files/2021/06/phonetics-intro-lecture.pdf
(till slide 25)