Теоретическая фонетика английского языка
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Основная коллекция
Тематика:
Английский язык
Издательство:
НИЦ ИНФРА-М
Автор:
Митрофанова Елена Николаевна
Год издания: 2025
Кол-во страниц: 212
Дополнительно
Вид издания:
Учебное пособие
Уровень образования:
ВО - Бакалавриат
ISBN: 978-5-16-016676-6
ISBN-онлайн: 978-5-16-109255-2
DOI:
10.12737/1214580
Артикул: 728008.01.01
В учебном пособии изложены основные разделы фонетики английского языка. Рассмотрены звукопроизношение, понятие о слоге, слогоделение, словесное ударение, ритм речи, интонация, фоностилистика, социальные и региональные варианты произношения, приведены примеры. Даны контрольные задания для проверки усвоения материала. Приведен обширный список научной и учебной литературы по фонетике на русском и английском языке.
Для студентов педагогических вузов, обучающихся по направлениям подготовки «Иностранные языки», «Лингвистика и межкультурная коммуникация».
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ОКСО:
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- 44.04.01: Педагогическое образование
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Е.Н. МИТРОФАНОВА ТЕОРЕТИЧЕСКАЯ ФОНЕТИКА АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА THEORETICAL PHONETICS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE УЧЕБНОЕ ПОСОБИЕ Москва ИНФРА-М 2025
УДК 811.111+81`34(075.8) ББК 81.432.1:81.051я73 М67 Р е ц е н з е н т ы: Тарасюк Н.А., доктор педагогических наук, профессор, профессор Курского государственного университета; Голощапова М.В., кандидат филологических наук, доцент, доцент Курского государственного университета Митрофанова Е.Н. М67 Теоретическая фонетика английского языка (Theoretical Phonetics of the English Language) : учебное пособие / Е.Н. Митрофанова. — Москва : ИНФРА-М, 2025. — 212 с. — (Высшее образование). ISBN 978-5-16-016676-6 (print) ISBN 978-5-16-109255-2 (online) В учебном пособии изложены основные разделы фонетики английского языка. Рассмотрены звукопроизношение, понятие о слоге, слогоделение, словесное ударение, ритм речи, интонация, фоностилистика, социальные и региональные варианты произношения, приведены примеры. Даны контрольные задания для проверки усвоения материала. Приведен обширный список научной и учебной литературы по фонетике на русском и английском языке. Соответствует требованиям федеральных государственных образовательных стандартов высшего образования последнего поколения. Для студентов педагогических вузов, обучающихся по направлениям подготовки «Иностранные языки», «Лингвистика и межкультурная коммуникация». УДК 811.111+81`34(075.8) ББК 81.432.1:81.051я73 ISBN 978-5-16-016676-6 (print) ISBN 978-5-16-109255-2 (online) © Митрофанова Е.Н., 2024
Preface This book is intended for students of university departments of foreign languages who have to acquire not only practical phonetic skills in English but also the theoretical basis for phonetic analysis, research and pronunciation teaching. The material has been accumulated and perfected over more than twenty years. The lectures and seminars in Theoretical Phonetics conducted over this period revealed a number of difficult theories and problems which required a more detailed explanation in addition to the materials presented in the main textbooks. Besides, students need some guidance on contemporary phonetic research issues. To provide this assistance for those studying Theoretical Phonetics as part of their basic linguistic curriculum is the purpose of this course. The chapters cover the main themes of phonetic theory paying special attention to debatable and contentious problems such as division of words into syllables, variability of word stress, identification of intonation units and functions, phonostylistic and territorial variation of English pronunciation. The materials available in the main textbooks were supplemented with recent publications and research findings listed in the references. All the basic theories are illustrated with a number of examples which make the corresponding theory clear and convincing. Each of the eight units is followed by a set of questions provided for the students’ self-check on the basic notions, classifications, and theories discussed in the chapter. Answering these questions can be viewed as the first step in preparing for the corresponding seminars. There is an attempt to reveal connections between different levels of the English phonetic system, whereby smaller elements determine some features of larger size units and, vice versa, suprasegmental characteristics influence the realizations of smaller segments. These connections lead the students from somewhat atomized treatment of particular problems to the formation of a broad outlook on the subject. The chapters contain some comparison between the corresponding phonetic units in English as a foreign language (EFL) and Russian as a mother tongue. Such comparisons contribute to the development 3
of the students’ abilities to do typological research and of their awareness of the native pronunciation system. Some emphasis is also laid on the dynamic, developing character of the pronunciation system, as well as the phonetic theory which describes the current changes. The students are invited to join phonetic research and introduce their fresh views and original solutions. For this purpose methods of phonetic investigation are brought to the foreground. Appendix 1 offers a few themes for phonetic research. First and foremost, the manual is for those university students who are studying linguistics and methods of teaching foreign languages. As a result of taking this course, students are expected to know: • • the components of the English pronunciation system (sounds, syllables, word and sentence stress, intonation, rhythm), their functions and variability in speech; • • the basic phonetic terms in English and their equivalents in Russian; • • the popular systems of phonetic notation for all the levels of phonetic structure; • • the well-known linguistic theories explaining the structure and functions of the phonetic units (the theory of the phoneme, of syllable formation and division, of kinds and degrees of word stress, of kinds and units of rhythm and how rhythmicallity is executed in speech, of intonation components, units and functions, of the trends in the territorial, social and communicative variation of English pronunciation); • • some debatable aspects of phonetic theory and methods of phonetic research. The basic phonetic knowledge should enhance the students’ abilities: • • to read and speak English in a clear, intelligible way without making phonological and gross phonetic mistakes; • • to apply their knowledge to speech analysis and language teaching; • • to discuss phonetic problems and make reports in the scientific style; • • to compare the English pronunciation system with that of their mother tongue; • • to differentiate the national standards and major accents of English pronunciation; • • to carry out some research on phonetic problems. 4
The course is intended to help students to acquire: • • the basic theoretical knowledge in phonetics as a means to improve their practical skills in listening and speaking and to solve professional problems of speech analysis and teaching; • • the systems of phonetic notation to present phonetic material graphically; • • methods of phonetic research to analyze and conduct investigations of spoken English; • • a number of speech patterns and various illustrative material to substantiate the phonetic theories. The book may be of interest not only for professional linguists but also for those who would like to understand the structure and functions of the English pronunciation system and use the knowledge for self-correction and pronunciation improvement. Tests collected in Appendix 2 aim at checking practical phonetic skills and the ability to see connection between phonetic theory and practice. The author hopes that the focus of this course on the application of theoretical knowledge will bring linguistic theory closer to the students and contribute to their appreciation of the phonetic harmony of the English language. 5
1. Phonetics as a Branch of Linguistics Theoretical Phonetics among Other Phonetic Disciplines 1.1. PHONETICS AS A LINGUISTIC DISCIPLINE AND ITS SECTIONS Phonetics is a linguistic discipline studying the pronunciation system of a particular language or language at large. The former section is called particular phonetics, such as English, German or Russian phonetics. The latter is referred to as general phonetics concentrated on finding common regularities in the pronunciation systems of a great number of languages. The examples of such common pronunciation features may be the division of sounds into vowels and consonants, the presence of stressed and unstressed syllables, falling and rising nuclear tones. The most popular books on general phonetics in this country are those by L.R. Zinder (2007), L.V. Zlatoustova et al. (1997), S.V. Kodzasov & O.F. Krivnova (2001). Particular English phonetics is presented in numerous practical courses — by A. Baker (2006), B. Bradford (1988), J. Gilbert (2005), M. Hancock (2009), P. Roach (2009), I.S. Tikhonova et al. (2009), S. Cameron (2018), M.D. Averbukh (2018), to name just a few supplemented with audio recordings. Phonetics is a vast area of investigation as it studies numerous pronunciation units: sounds, syllables, phonetic words, rhythmic groups, intonation groups, utterances and coherent texts. The branch of phonetics concerned with sounds, i.e. the smallest, further indivisible units, is called segmental. The branch of phonetics studying units larger than sounds, beginning with syllables, is called suprasegmental. The syllable is the lowest level in the phonetic hierarchy on which prosody starts functioning to absorb individual sounds into a smooth stream of connected speech. A century ago segmental phonetics and separate speech sounds used to be in the centre of scientific interest and didactic efforts. Nowadays there is a growing awareness of the integrating role of suprasegmental features in speech, which raises the proportion of investigations involving prosody and intonation among other suprasegmentals. At present phoneticians realize the importance of a two-way approach (one combining a bottom-up and a top-down directions) to describing and teaching a pronunciation system. This 6
awareness is reflected, among other things, in such book titles as “From Sound to Text” [Николаева, 2000] or “Speech Communication: From Sound to Utterance” [Потапова, Потапов, 2012]. To put this theoretical approach to practice most textbooks of English phonetics go away from concentrating predominantly on sounds and arrange pronunciation practice on syllables, stress, rhythm and intonation. Some branches of phonetics may be singled out on the basis of their connection with the speech act components. The speech act includes the speaker (S), the listener (L), the physical waves carrying the speech signal studied by acoustics (A), and the function of the enunciation studied by functional (theoretical) phonetics (F). The speaker articulates sounds and syllables which make up larger units. The branch of phonetics describing the articulatory movements made by the speaker which are usually correlated with separate speech sounds or their clusters is called articulatory phonetics. Used for didactic purposes this section of phonetics teaches how to articulate particular sounds of a foreign language. For instance, the English vowel [e] may be described as a front, mid narrow, unrounded monophthong. This articulatory description means that in order to pronounce [e] one should activate the front part of the tongue and slightly raise it to the hard palate in the front part of the mouth, with the side edges of the tongue making a light contact with the upper teeth. The lips are loosely spread [Тихонова и др., 2009: 33]. Many courses of practical phonetics may be called articulatory as they introduce and drill the articulatory features of the sounds of a particular language. The perception of sounds and larger units by the listener is studied by perceptional (auditory) phonetics. To help learners arrive at the correct auditory image perceptional phonetics can describe, say, the same English vowel [e] as a sound resembling the Russian vowel [э] in a palatalized position where it is narrowed: пена — pen, лето — let, эти — ate. On the basis of this auditory comparison Russian learners of English can realize that their native vowel [э] is more open and retracted but it can sound more similar to its English counterpart (which is more front and narrower) only in a certain position. Such comparisons are based on auditory impressions which are generalized into auditory mental images (gestalts, attractors) monitoring the realization of individual sounds. Auditory phonetics is not yet as popular as articulatory descriptions of sounds. Nevertheless, it appears to be 7
as important for applied purposes as articulatory phonetics because the human brain is believed to compare and control auditory images rather than isolated articulatory movements [Kochanski et al., 2005]. Auditory phonetics still has to discover how the human auditory system works, how mental representations of various phonetic units are formed in the brain and facilitate speech perception and understanding. Phoneticians admit that “even today our knowledge about some of the fundamental processes of hearing is still incomplete” [Gut, 2009: 183]. There is little agreement, for example, about the size and type of basic perceptual units that play a leading role in listening. Scientists tend to believe that although most probably different kinds of units are represented in the speaker’s mind and act as templets in speech perception, the most active part belongs to syllables and words [Gut, 2009: 199]. Acoustic phonetics studies the physical (acoustic) properties of the speech signal (fundamental frequency F0, intensity and duration) measured in Hertz, decibels, milliseconds respectively. Acoustic parameters are often resorted to in phonetic research as they enable the researcher to arrive at a more objective analysis of phonetic data [Златоустова и др., 1997; Потапова, Потапов, 2012; Gut, 2009; Johnson, 2012]. Acoustic investigations are usually carried out by trained phoneticians with the help of special equipment. However, the spread and constant upgrading of computer programs for speech analysis have made it possible for more linguists and language teachers to apply them for various purposes. One of the popular directions is to use special software for computer-assisted teaching of pronunciation [Антонова, 2018; Hirata, 2004; Lee, 2008; Gilakjani & Rahimy, 2019]. Functional (theoretical) phonetics deals with the potential meanings which can be differentiated with the help of pronunciation units. For instance, speech sounds can differentiate the meanings of words (pill — bill, pill — peal) and word forms (open — opens — opened), syllable boundaries can change the meaning of a chain of words (peace talks — pea stalks, that stuff — that’s tough), word stress can contrast verbs and nouns (to re'cord — a 'record, to su'spect — a 'suspect), intonation can express a whole range of communicative intentions and attitudes. Suffice it to say that a nuclear tone alone can turn a statement into a general question without any grammatical changes (They are \leaving. — They are /leaving?) or a general question into an excla8
mation (Isn’t the weather /wonderful? — Isn’t the weather \wonderful!) The functional aspect of pronunciation units and patterns is the subject matter of theoretical phonetics and phonology. The correlation of the communicative act components and certain sections of phonetics is reflected in the following chart. Correlation of speech act components and sections of phonetics ------------------ Physical waves (Acoustic phonetics) ----------------- Speaker Listener (Articulatory phonetics) (Auditory phonetics) ----- Functions of pronunciation units (Theoretical phonetics) ---- Phonetics may also be described as synchronic or diachronic. Synchronic phonetics studies the present state of the pronunciation system without any reference to its historical development. Diachronic phonetics is interested in the historical development of a certain language and tries to disclose different stages of this process focusing on changes in the phonetic form, especially sounds and syllables. The diachronic approach to the pronunciation system reveals its slowly developing, changing nature and interconnection with the other language aspects and extra-linguistic social processes. Diachronic phonetics is closely related to History of Language. The development of linguistics is reflected in the appearance of some new sections of phonetics, the latest of them being socio-phonetics and phonostylistics. The former investigates the influence of a speaker’s social characteristics on his/her pronunciation. It points out pronunciation variability under the influence of a speaker’s social background, education, profession, gender, age, character traits, etc. Phonostylistics views pronunciation variability in different communicative situations, for instance formal and informal, public and non-public, monologues and dialogues. To define the place of theoretical phonetics among the other branches of phonetics one should mention its theoretical (functional), particular, and synchronic character. The main task of this branch is to shift to the foreground the functional capacity of all the pronunciation units of the language in question. 9
1.2. THE OBJECTIVES OF THEORETICAL PHONETICS Theoretical phonetics is based on practical phonetics but solves a new range of problems. Its main practical destination is to enhance students’ control of their own pronunciation habits and skills through raising their awareness of the functional side of pronunciation units and patterns. The objectives of theoretical phonetics are as follows: • • to brush up the courses of general linguistics and practical phonetics which are supposed to have been studied by the students by the time they take up the course of theoretical phonetics; • • to stimulate the students’ conscious control of their English pronunciation, their avoiding phonological mistakes capable of distorting the meaning of speech units; • • to improve pronunciation skills on the basis of knowledge and additional practice in listening and imitating; • • to develop the basic scientific terminology sufficient for the students to read, speak and write on phonetic problems in the academic style in Russian and English; • • to familiarize students with the most popular phonetic theories and approaches to the problems under discussion, with outstanding scientific schools and conceptions; • • to point out some unsolved, contentious problems on which there is no unanimous point of view in phonetics; • • to bring up the areas of enhanced interest attracting researchers at the present stage of phonetics development and involve the students in phonetic research; • • to supply the students with modern methods of phonetic investigation and prepare them for writing course papers and doing further research work. These objectives characterize the discipline as a truly theoretical course, which, however, does not lose touch with speech reality and the sphere of teaching pronunciation. The main textbooks recommended for the students to use in addition to their lecture notes are: 1. Соколова М.А., Тихонова И.С., Тихонова Р.М., Фрейдина Е.Л. Теоретическая фонетика английского языка. — М.: Владос, 2006. 2. Соколова М.А., Тихонова И.С., Тихонова Р.М., Фрейдина Е.Л. Теоретическая фонетика английского языка. — Дубна: Феникс+, 2010. 10