Теоретическая фонетика английского языка

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 
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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 
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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 
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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