Очерки по теоретической фонетике английского языка
## Acoustic Characteristics
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EnglishPhoneticsEssays
Sometimes the acoustic characteristics are called objective and the auditory characteristics are called subjective which mean that the former are physical properties independent of the auditory apparatus of the hearer and the latter are, to certain extent, individual depending on the perception of hearing apparatus and nervous system of a particular person (what is “loud” for one person can be “muffled” or “not so loud” for another person). As frequencies of different cavities of a human speech apparatus overlap each other in oscillograms it is difficult to read them to discern waves of different frequencies. To overcome the difficulty in reading the spectrum of a speech sound the method of spectrography is used. The spectrograph is an apparatus that divides the spectrum of a speech sound (comprised of sound waves of different frequencies) into its components (i.e. into particular frequencies) by adjusting a special filter to a special frequency. Pic. 3. The Oscillogram (a schematic drawing). Pic. 4. The Sound Spectrum (a schematic drawing). (Note: formants, including the zero-formant, can be seen in Pic. 4 as high peaks continuously stepping down. Both pictures are only principle schematic drawings. The spectrum of a real sound, for example, a vowel, pronounced by a particular person has a unique “formant picture” – the distance between the formants, their height and number differ considerably from vowel to vowel, and significantly enough from speaker to speaker, the latter fact makes it possible to identify the speaker by the formant picture of his/her voice) As spectrography and oscillography are based on strict physical phenomena and processes they can be definitely and precisely described by mathematics and imitated by an automatic processor. This is why modern oscillography and spectrography of speech sounds are effectively processed by computers, which makes the two instrumental techniques very convenient and handy. The most well-known software products, specially utilized for the purposes of instrumental analysis of speech, are Praat (by Paul Boersma and D. Weenink from Institute of Phonetic Sciences, University of Amsterdam), Speech Analyser (by SIL International), Speech Filing System (from the University College London), Signalyze (by LinguistList Plus Inc.), Sona (from the University of Bonn), SpeechStudio (by Laryngograph Ltd.) and Computerized Speech Lab (by Kay Elemetrics). Fourth. The method(s) of phonological analysis (sometimes called proper linguistic method or functional method of phonetics) includes the distributional method, the statistical method, the method of minimal pairs (semantic method, commutation test, method of substitution). All the methods are interconnected (that is why it is possible to speak about the phonological method or the functional method as it is) and are aimed at establishing the inventory of the phonemes of the given language. The phoneme has several functions and can be viewed from different aspects. That is why there are many definitions of the phoneme in linguistics depending on what aspects or functions of the phoneme are emphasized by a researcher or schools of researchers. It needs to be mentioned here that a phonemic (phonological) system of any language is far from being stable; instead the units of phonological systems tend to change their status and relation to other units constantly. Certainly, it is no easier to identify in general what a phoneme is when every special substance of such a generalization results from one change and aims at another (for evolution and changes of phonological systems see for instance: Plotkin, 1982). The definition of the phoneme by V.A. Vassilyev is as follows: “the segmental phoneme is the smallest (i.e. further indivisible into smaller consecutive segments) language unit (sound type) that exists in the speech of all the members of a given language community as such speech sounds which are capable of distinguishing one word from another word of the same language or one grammatical form of a word from another grammatical form of the same word” (Vassilyev, 1970 : 136). The distributional method is the analysis “…establishing the distribution of speech sounds, i.e. all the positions or combinations in which each speech sound of a given language occurs (or does not occur) in the words of that language” (Vassilyiev, 1970 : 24). The statistical method is very close to the distributional method and can be defined as the analysis “establishing the frequency, probability, and predictability of occurrence of phonemes and their allophones in different positions in words” (Vassilyiev, 1970 : 25). Though the methods resemble each other, which can be seen from the definitions, the results of their applications, so to say, are different, which should be mentioned here: 1) the initial data and the material of the statistical analysis are mostly phonemes and their allophones, already identified as such, whereas the material of the distributional analysis is the non-segmented speech flow which is to be segmented into speech sounds; 2) the statistical method shows in what positions phonemes occur, whereas the distributional method also shows in what positions the sounds in question can never occur; 3) the statistical analysis provides numerical data of occurrence of phonemes and their allophones in certain positions and predicts the occurrence of a certain phoneme in a particular linear succession of phonemes, the distributional analysis investigates the interrelation of speech sounds between each other and substantiates whether they are allophones of the same phoneme or of different phonemes. The distributional method states that: 1) allophones of different phonemes occur in the same phonetic context, e.g.: том – дом, pit – bit, i.e. that they are in contrastive distribution; or 2) allophones of the same phoneme never occur in the same phonetic context, e.g. call – keep. They are here in complementary distribution. Yet there are cases when two sounds are in complimentary distribution but are not referred to the same phoneme. Consider English sounds [h] & [ŋ] for example: [h] – occurs only initially or before a vowel while [ŋ] occurs only medially or finally and never occurs initially. Here the method of distribution is modified by addition of the criterion of phonetic similarity/dissimilarity. Articulatory features are taken into account in this case also (Sokolova & others, 2004 : 55). The semantic method is the analysis establishing the ability of sound segments to differentiate the meaning. It consists in finding minimal pairs (also called quasi-homonyms) of words and their grammatical forms in a language. For this the sound segments distinguished as a result of the distributional analysis are substituted one by one in a certain phonetic environment to see if different substitutions lead to different semantic meanings. This procedure is also called commutation test, e.g.: pin – bin, win, sin, wins. Here allophones [p, b, w, s] represent different phonemes, because the meaning is different in all words, though the phonetic context is the same. The semantic method of identifying the phonemes of a language attaches great significance to meaning. This method is based on a phonemic rule that phonemes can distinguish words and morphemes when opposed to one another. If two or more linguistic units of a level higher than the phonemic one (i.e. words or morphemes) differ solely in one of their segments occurred in the same position whereas the rest of phonetic environment is the same – the linguistic units are called a minimal phonological pair and the segments in question are regarded as different phonemes or, better say, representatives of different phonemes. Consider one more example of the commutation test in English words: pen, den, ten, then, and etc. In phonology (using the method(s) of phonological analysis) we must also establish the system of oppositions. There are three kinds of oppositions. If members of the opposition differ in one feature the opposition is said to be single, e.g.: pen – ben. Common features: occlusive – occlusive, labial – labial. Differentiating feature: fortis – lenis. A double opposition takes place if two features are marked (i.e. different), e.g.: pen – den. Common features: occlusive – occlusive. Differentiating features: labial – lingual, fortis – lenis. If 3 distinctive features are marked the opposition is triple, e.g.: pen – then. Differentiating features: occlusive – constrictive, labial – dental, fortis – lenis. Consider the above mentioned oppositions represented in Table 2 below. Table 2. Three Kinds of Oppositions in Phonology.
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