LECTURE 1

INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE OF THEORETICAL PHONETICS

Plan:

1. Phonetics as a branch of linguistics

1. Phonetics as a branch of linguistics

We begin our study of language by examining the inventory, structure and functions of the speech
sounds. This branch of linguistics is called phonetics.
Phonetics is an independent branch of linguistics like lexicology or grammar. These linguistic
sciences study language from three different points of view. Lexicology deals with the vocabulary of
language, with the origin and development of words, with their meaning and word building. Grammar
defines the rules governing the modification of words and the combination of words into sentences.
Phonetics studies the outer form of language; its sound matter. The phonetician investigates the phonemes
and their allophones, the syllabic structure the distribution of stress, and intonation. He is interested in the
sounds that are produced by the human speech-organs insofar as these sounds have a role in language. Let
us refer to this limited range of sounds as the phonic medium and to individual sounds within that range
as speech-sounds. We may now define phonetics as the study of the phonic medium. Phonetics is the
study of the way humans make, transmit, and receive speech sounds. 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.
Phonetics is a basic branch of linguistics. Neither linguistic theory nor linguistic practice can do
without phonetics. No kind of linguistic study can be made without constant consideration of the material
on the expression level.

2. Aspects and units of phonetics

Transmission of Listener's
Speaker's brain Speaker's vocal tract Listener's ear
sounds brain
through air
1 2 3 4 5
linguistic articulatory acoustic auditory linguistic

The formation of the concept takes place in the brain of a speaker. This stage may be called
psychological. The message formed within the brain is transmitted along the nervous system to the speech
organs. Therefore, we may say that the human brain controls the behaviour of the articulating organs
which effects in producing a particular pattern of speech sounds. This second stage may be called
physiological. The movements of the speech apparatus disturb the air stream thus producing sound waves.
Consequently, the third stage may be called physical or acoustic. Further, any communication requires a
listener, as well as a speaker. So the last stages are the reception of the sound waves by the listener's
hearing physiological apparatus, the transmission of the spoken message through the nervous system to
the brain and the linguistic interpretation of the information conveyed. .
The sound phenomena have different aspects:
(a) the articulatory aspect;
(b) the acoustic aspect;
(c) the auditory (perceptive) aspect;
(d) the functional (linguistic) aspect.
 Now it is possible to show the correlation between the stages of the speech chain and the aspects of
the sound matter.
Articulation comprises all the movements and positions of the speech organs necessary to
pronounce a speech sound. According to their main sound-producing functions, the speech organs can be
divided into the following four groups:
(1) the power mechanism;
(2) the vibration mechanism;
(3) the resonator mechanism;
(4) the obstruction mechanism.
The functions of the power mechanism consist in the supply of the energy in the form of the air
pressure and in regulating the force of the air stream. The power mechanism includes: (1) the diaphragm,
(2) the lungs, (3) the bronchi, (4) the windpipe, or trachea. The glottis and the supra-glottal cavities enter
into the power mechanism as parts of the respiratory tract. The vibration mechanism consists of the
larynx, or voice box, containing the vocal cords. The most important function of the vocal cords is their
role in the production of voice. The pharynx, the mouth, and the nasal cavity function as the principal
resonators thus constituting the resonator mechanism. The obstruction mechanism (the tongue, the lips,
the teeth, and the palate) forms the different types of obstructions.
The acoustic aspect studies sound waves. The basic vibrations of the vocal cords over their whole
length produce the fundamental tone of voice. The simultaneous vibrations of each part of the vocal cords
produce partial tones (overtones and harmonics). The number of vibrations per second is called
frequency. Frequency of basic vibrations of the vocal cords is the fundamental frequency. Fundamental
frequency determines the pitch of the voice and forms an acoustic basis of speech melody. Intensity of
speech sounds depends on the amplitude of vibration.
The auditory (sound-perception) aspect, on the one hand, is a physiological mechanism. We can
perceive sound waves within a range of 16 Hz-20.000 Hz with a difference in 3 Hz. The human ear
transforms mechanical vibrations of the air into nervous and transmits them to brain. The listener hears
the acoustic features of the fundamental frequency, formant frequency, intensity and duration in terms of
perceptible categories of pitch, quality, loudness and length. On the other hand, it is also a psychological
mechanism. The point is that repetitions of what might be heard as the same utterance are only
coincidentally, if ever, acoustically identical. Phonetic identity is a. theoretical ideal. Phonetic similarity,
not phonetic identity, is the criterion with which we operate in the linguistic analysis.
Functional aspect. Phonemes, syllables, stress, and intonation are linguistic phenomena. They
constitute meaningful units (morphemes, words, word-forms, utterances). Sounds of speech perform
different linguistic functions.
Let's have a look at the correlation of some phonetic terms discussed above.

auditory(perceptible
articulatory characteristics acoustic properties linguistic phenomena
) qualities
fundamental
vibration of the vocal cords melody pitch
frequency
different positions and movements
formant frequency quality (timbre) phoneme
of speech organs
the amplitude of vibrations intensity loudness stress
the quantity of time during which
duration length tempo, rhythm, pauses
the sound is pronounced

The phonetic system of language is a set of phonetic units arranged in an orderly way to replace
each other in a given framework. Phonetics is divided into two major components (or systems): segmental
phonetics, which is concerned with individual sounds (i.e. "segments" of speech) and suprasegmental
phonetics dealing with the larger units of connected speech: syllables, words, phrases and texts.
1. Segmental units are sounds of speech (vowels and consonants) which form the vocalic and
consonantal systems;
2. Suprasegmental, or prosodic, units are syllables, accentual (rhythmic) units, intonation groups,
utterances, which form the subsystem of pitch, stress, rhythm, tempo, pauses.
 Now we may define phonetics as a branch of linguistics that studies speech sounds in the broad
sense, comprising segmental sounds, suprasegmental units and prosodic phenomena (pith, stress, tempo,
rhythm, pauses).
Let us consider the four components of the phonetic system of language.
The first and the basic component of the phonetic structure of language is the system of its
segmental phonemes existing in the material form of their allophones. The phonemic component has 3
aspects, or manifestations:
1. the system of its phonemes as discrete isolated units;
2. the distribution of the allophones of the phonemes;
3. the methods of joining speech sounds together in words and at their junction, or the methods
of effecting VC, CV, CC, and VV transitions.
The second component is the syllabic structure of words. The syllabic structure has two aspects,
which are inseparable from each other: syllable formation and syllable division.
The third component is the accentual structure of words as items of vocabulary (i.e. as pronounced
in isolation). The accentual structure of words has three aspects: the physical (acoustic) nature of word
accent; the position of the accent in disyllabic and polysyllabic words; the degrees of word accent.
The fourth component of the phonetic system is the intonational structure of utterances. The four
components of the phonetic system of language (phonemic, syllabic, accentual and intonational) all
constitute its pronunciation (in the broad sense of the term).
3. Branches of phonetics
We know that the phonic medium can be studied from four points of view: the articulatory, the
acoustic, the auditory, and the functional.
We may consider the branches of phonetics according to these aspects. Articulatory phonetics is
the study of the way the vocal organs are used to produce speech sounds. Acoustic phonetics is the study
of the physical properties of speech sounds. Auditory phonetics is the study of the way people perceive
speech sounds. Of these three branches of phonetics, the longest established, and until recently the most
highly developed, is articulatory phonetics. For this reason, most of terms used by linguists to refer to
speech-sounds are articulatory in origin.
Phoneticians are also interested in the way in which sound phenomena function in a particular
language. In other words, they study the abstract side of the sounds of language. The branch of phonetics
concerned with the study of the functional (linguistic) aspect of speech sounds is called phonology. By
contrast with phonetics, which studies all possible sounds that the human vocal apparatus can make,
phonology studies only those contrasts in sound which make differences of meaning within language.
Besides the four branches of phonetics described above, there are other divisions of the science.
We may speak of general phonetics and the phonetics of a particular language (special or descriptive
phonetics). General phonetics studies all the sound-producing possibilities of the human speech apparatus
and the ways they are used for purpose of communication. The phonetics of a particular language studies
the contemporary phonetic system of the 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.
Linguists distinguish also 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
development. Historical phonetics is a part of the history of language.
Closely connected with historical phonetics is comparative phonetics whose aims are to study the
correlation between the phonetic systems of two or more languages and find out the correspondences
between the speech sounds of kindred languages.
Phonetics can also be theoretical and practical. At the faculties of Foreign Languages in this
country, two courses are introduced:
1. Practical, or normative, phonetics that studies the substance, the material form of phonetic
phenomena in relation to meaning.
2. Theoretical phonetics, which is mainly concerned with the functioning of phonetic units in
language.
This dichotomy is that which holds between theoretical and applied linguists. Briefly, theoretical
linguistics studies language with a view to constructing theory of its structure and functions and without
regard to any practical applications that the investigation of language might have. Applied linguistics has
as its concerns the application of the concepts and findings of linguistics to a variety of practical tasks,
including language teaching.
 All the branches of phonetics are closely connected not only with one another but also with other
branches of linguistics. This connection is determined by the fact that language is a system whose
components are inseparably connected with one another.
Phonetics is also connected with many other sciences. Acoustic phonetics is connected with
physics and mathematics. Articulatory phonetics is connected with physiology, anatomy, and
anthropology. Historical phonetics is connected with general history of the people whose language is
studied; it is also connected with archaeology. Phonology is connected with communication (information)
theory, mathematics, and statistics.
4. Methods of phonetic analysis
We distinguish between subjective, introspective methods of phonetic investigation and objective
methods.
The oldest, simplest and most readily available method is the method of direct observation. This
method consists in observing the movements and positions of one's own or other people's organs of
speech in pronouncing various speech sounds, as well as in analyzing one's own kinaesthetic sensations
during the articulation of speech sound in comparing them with auditory impressions.
Objective methods involve the use of various instrumental techniques (palatography, laryngoscopy,
photography, cinematography, X-ray photography and cinematography and electromyography). This type
of investigation together with direct observation is widely used in experimental phonetics. The objective
methods and the subjective ones are complementary and not opposite to one another. Nowadays we may
use the up-to-date complex set to fix the articulatory parameters of speech - so called articulograph.
Acoustic phonetics comes close to studying physics and the tools used in this field enable the
investigator to measure and analyze the movement of the air in the terms of acoustics. This generally
means introducing a microphone into the speech chain, converting the air movement into corresponding
electrical activity and analyzing (Ксень, это слово у Красы через «s», но, по-моему, тут «z») the result
in terms of frequency of vibration and the amplitude of vibration in relation to time. The spectra of speech
sounds are investigated by means of the apparatus called the sound spectrograph. Pitch as a component of
intonation can be investigated by intonograph. The acoustic aspect of speech sounds is investigated not
only with the help of sound-analyzing techniques, but also by means of speech-synthesizing devices.