1 Phonetics as a branch of linguistics

(Intonation performs several important functions in English. The first function is uniting separate words into sentences in oral speech. The second function of intonation is distinguishing between types of sentences (i.e., statements, questions, commands, requests, exclamatory sentences). Also, intonation allows us to express various emotions, for example, finality, confidence, interest, surprise, doubt, joy, pain, irony, etc.)

Intonation may be defined as the variations which take place in the pitch of the voice in connected speech, i.e. variations in the pitch of the musical note produced by the variations of the vocal cords

The pitch level of the whole utterance (or intonation group) is determined by the pitch of its highest—pitched syllable. It shows the degree of semantic importance the speaker attaches to the utterance (or intonation group) in comparison with any other utterance (or intonation group), and also the speaker's attitude and emotions. Parenthetical phrases and other semantically less important intonation groups of an utterance are characterized by a lower pitch level than the neighboring intonation groups, as, for example, in This „castle| as far as I remember, was build in the'l5thvcentury, or' Where did the' charitable, gentleman {who had a ,first—class (ticket for this, seaside resort (find you?

The number of linguistically relevant pitch levels in English has not been definitely established yet: in the works of different phoneticians it varies from three to seven. In unemphatic speech most phoneticians distinguish 3 pitch levels: low, mid and high. These levels are relative and are produced on different registers depending on the individual peculiarities of the voice. Besides low, mid and high levels some phoneticians distinguish the emphatic (higher and lower) and the emotional (higher and lower) pitch levels [88]. American linguists K.Pike, J.Trager, G.Smith, R.Wells and others distinguish 4 relevant pitch levels (low, mid, high, extra-high), which they term "pitch phonemes". The sequence of pitch phonemes in pronouncing an intonation group are called intonation contours

Pitch range categories are normal, wide, narrow. (upper and lower limits of human voice) In general, linguists distinguish several types of English intonation. Falling intonation and rising intonation are the two basic types used in different types of sentences. Falling intonation is formed by pitch changes from high to low, and rising intonation is formed by pitch changes from low to high. As to the direction of the nucleus, there is a system of simple (fall, rise, level), complex (fall rise, rise fall) and compound tones in English. They can have emphatic variations – rise fall, fall rise, rise-fall0rise. Also there are level tones. High-level tone is typical for emotional speech. Low-level tone shows grumbling. Mid level is used when the speaker gains time forming idea. The falling tone expresses finality. It’s definite and categorical. It is used categorical statements, orders, commands, in urgent requests, in special question in the corresponding parts of alternative and disjunctive questions, exclamations. The rising tone expresses non-finality, hesitation, doubt. It is used in general questions, polite respects and in the corresponding parts of alternative and disjunctive questions. The fall-rise expresses various implications such as doubts, hesitation, contradiction, friendliness. If you want to sound fluently you can pronounce it in special questions. The rise fall sounds more categorical. It expresses surprise, disagreement, protest.

Intonation performs several important functions in English. The first function is uniting separate words into sentences in oral speech. The second function of intonation is distinguishing between types of sentences (i.e., statements, questions, commands, requests, exclamations).(syntactical) Also, intonation allows us to express various emotions: finality, confidence, interest, surprise, doubt, joy, pain, irony, etc.(emphatic)

25. sentence stress as a component of intonation

Sentence stress is the governing stress in connected speech. All words have their individual stress in isolation. When words are connected into sense groups (also called thought groups, i.e., logically connected groups of words), and sense groups are connected into sentences, content words keep their stress, and function words lose their stress. The most important words in the sentence receive stronger stress. The last stressed word in the sentence receives the strongest stress with the help of a fall or a rise.

ANN is READing a NEW \BOOK.

Анна читает новую книгу.

WHAT BOOK is she \READing?

Какую книгу она читает?

Does she LIKE the /BOOK?

Stress in some words or word combinations may be shifted or weakened in a certain way to keep the rhythm of speech. For example: New YORK – NEW York CITy; in the afterNOON – AFternoon SLEEP.

Sentence stress is not just a phonetic peculiarity of English. Sentence stress has a very important function of marking the words that are necessary for understanding an utterance. When native speakers of English listen to their conversation partners, they listen for stressed words, because stressed words provide important information. It is often difficult to understand the meaning of the sentence in which even one content word is missing. It is also difficult to understand the sentence in which an important word is not stressed or a function word is stressed.

For example, a message from your friend says, "Missed train back Sunday." You will understand that it means "I missed my train. I will be back on Sunday", right? Only content words are written in the message, but the meaning is clear. In the same way you should listen for stressed content words in speech to understand the meaning of the whole utterance. And you should stress content words in your speech so that other people could understand you.

Sentence stress is the key component of English intonation. Intonation organizes words into sentences, distinguishes different types of sentences, and adds emotional coloring to utterances. English intonation is quite difficult for Russian students. Developing the ability to hear, understand, and reproduce sentence stress in speech is the main prerequisite to mastering English intonation.

26. Rhythm is the regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. It is so typical of an English phrase that the incorrect rhythm betrays the non-English origin of the speaker.
The units of the rhythmical structure of an utterance are stress groups or rhythmic groups. The perception of boundaries between rhythmic groups is associated with the stressed syllables or peaks of prominence.
Unstressed syllables have a tendency to cling to the preceding stressed syllables — enclitics, or to the following stressed syllables — proclitics. In English, as a rule, only initial unstressed syllables cling to the follow­ing stressed syllable, non-initial unstressed syllables are usually enclitics.
Each sense-group of the sentence is pronounced at approximately the same period of time, unstressed syllables are pronounced more rapidly. Proclitics (`unstressed syllables) are pronounced faster than enclitics (stressed syllables).
Rhythm is connected with sentence stress. Under the influence of rhythm words which are normally pronounced with two equally strong stresses may lose one of them, or may have their word stress realized differently, e. g. ,Picca'dilly — ,Piccadilly 'Circus — 'close to ,Picca'dilly

27. Phonostylistics

From the point of view of the purpose of communication we may distinguish the following main international styles: informational, academic, publicistic, declamatory, conversational. In oral speech we realize different types of information (intellectual, emotional, volitional) which may be rendered by different prosodic means. In every stylistic register there must exist a certain invariant - an ideal norm of speech behaviour in a certain situation.