Lecture 1
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Phonetics as the science has a long history. It came into being in India and Greece before our era. The term came from the Greek phone sound. The scientists of that time investigated speech sounds. For a long time Phonetics remained a science, which treated of the production of sounds, their representation dealing only with articulatory aspects. Phonetics followed the views and concepts that ruled in linguistics at that time: the investigation of the history of languages (history of sound changes).
Considerable progress of science caused a revolution in the treatment of many problems and radically changed the direction of investigation in linguistics. In the present day linguistics makes its task to investigate the language as the system and the system at the given period of its historic development.
Respectively phonetics also confronts new tasks, in other words the investigation of the sound system of the language. Today the sphere of phonetics is wider and deeper. New concepts have come into existence, new methods have been developed, new branches have arisen. Phonetics like Lexicology, Grammar is a branch of linguistics, which deals with the investigation and description of all sound means of the language from the point of view of their own in the speech, their articulation and acoustic qualities.
Respectively there are 3 aspects in the study of the sound means:
- Articulatory or physiological aspec t. It makes the task of physiological phonetics to investigate the work of the organs of speech in pronouncing sounds; from the articulatory point of view any speech sound is a complex of definite movements and position of organs. And experimental methods are widely used (the artificial palate, X-ray photography; recording, reproducing machines).
- Acoustic aspect investigates speech sounds as physical phenomena since speech sounds like any other are the form of sound waves and they have their pitch, intensity, timbre, length. Acoustic phonetics is often termed experimental since it makes wide use of special operators and instruments, such as: kymograph, an oscilograph, slow motion films etc. Experimental phonetics is connected with physics and mathematics.
- Linguistic or social aspect. That section of phonetics, which makes a study of all Phonetic phenomena from the point of view of social function is phonology.
It must be noted that many scientists abroad propagate it as a new. According to them phonetics and phonology are 2 independent branches of science.
Phonetics is a biological science, which is concerned with physical and physiological characteristics of speech sounds.
Phonology is a linguistic science and is concerned only with the social functions of different phonetic phenomena ignoring their real historically formed social qualities.
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However it doesnt seem logical to contrast and separate function from phonetic form. So we see that this division of Phonetics into 3 sections is highly relative and is determined by the methods of investigation.
All the 3 sections are closely linked and are considered only as aspects of one and the same linguistic science, which deals with the investigation of all sound means of the language in connection with their social significance.
This study of the sound system is very important. One cant master the language without mastering its sound system, because the language can perform its function of communication between people mainly as a language of sounds, in other words by means of the system of signals carrying some information.
In fact spoken language consists of succession of sound, which constitute the material form of words. The speech sounds have no lexical meaning in isolation, but they have tremendous force in the combination with other sounds thus forming words and the word meaning is connected with its sound forms, in other words all lexical and grammar phenomena are expressed phonetically. And here we again refer to the materialistic theory that language performs its function mainly as sound language.
We communicate ideas by means of words, which get their proper grammatical and intonational framing in sentences. But in order to make oneself easily understood, while expressing thoughts orally and understand others one should pronounce words and sentences correctly, in other words one should have a good pronunciation. It means to master the phonetic structure of the language.
The main components are:
- Phonemic system, in other words the system of its segmental phonemes;
- Stress or accentual structure;
- Intonation.
To have a good pronunciation means to master the following things:
- To articulate correctly all the speech sounds;
- To pronounce sentences with correct stress, melody, rhythm, pauses.
Wrong pronunciation causes difficulties in the process of communication. It leads to misunderstanding and misinterpretation. Before the learner of spoken language has acquired a good pronunciation, he must overcome a number of difficulties. They are:
- Must recognize various speech sounds occurring in the language when he hears them pronounced;
- Remember the acoustic qualities of the sounds;
- Learn to make the language sounds with his own organs of speech.
methods of teaching the pronunciation.
1. Imitating somebodys pronunciation
2. Analytical way, which is based on the detailed analysis and description of organs.
