Units and components of phonetic system

1. UNITS AND COMPONENTS OF THE PHONETIC SYSTEM

2. The Phonetic System of a Language

• a set of units arranged in an orderly way
to replace each other
• two sub-systems: segmental phonetics
(concerned with minimal segments of
speech) and suprasegmental phonetics
(deals with larger speech units)

3. The Phonetic System of a Language

• segmental units of phonetics –
phonemes and their allophones as the
representation of individual sounds
• suprasegmental units – syllables, wordstress, and prosodic phenomena (pitch,
stress, tempo, rhythm, pauses)

4. The Phonetic System of a Language

The phonetic system of any language
comprises 4 components:
• phonemic
• syllabic
• accentual
• intonational

5. The Phonemic Component

—the system of phonemes as discrete
isolated units
—the distribution of allophones of
different phonemes
—the methods of joining speech sounds

6. The Syllabic Structure

• syllable formation
• syllable division

7. The Accentual Structure

—the acoustic nature of word stress
—the stress position in disyllabic and
polysyllabic words
—the degrees of word stress

8. The Intonational Structure

—the prosodic components of
intonation
—the structure of intonation patterns
—the representation of patterns in
intonation groups

9. Phoneme: Definition

is a minimal abstract linguistic unit
realized in speech in the form of speech
sounds opposable to other phonemes of
the same language in order to distinguish
the meaning of morphemes and words

10. Phoneme: Definition

• the materialistic view of the phoneme
– L.V. Shcherba, V.A. Vassilyev and
other phoneticians
• is viewed as a functional, material and
abstract unit, which performs 3
functions: distinctive, constitutive and
recognitive

11. Phoneme: Functions

as a functional unit – the distinctive
function distinguishes different sounds in
a contrastive sense and serves as the
smallest language unit that discriminates
between larger language units

12. Phoneme: Functions

as a material, real and objective unit –
the constitutive function – is realized in
speech in the form of its variants or
allophones and serve to constitute the
material form of morphemes

13. Phoneme: Functions

as an abstract and generalized unit –
the recognitive function – serves to
distinguish and understand the
meaning

14. Phonemes, Allophones, Phones

• the phoneme is a minimal abstract
linguistic unit opposed to other phonemes
in order to distinguish the meaning of
morphemes and words
• possesses a bundle of distinctive features
(the invariant of the phoneme)

15. Phonemes, Allophones, Phones

• the articulatory features characteristic of
the invariant – distinctive (relevant)
• can be extracted when opposing to each
other in the same phonetic context
• phonemes with a difference in one
articulatory feature bring changes in
meaning

16. Phonemes, Allophones, Phones

• articulatory features which do not serve to
distinguish meaning – non-distinctive
(irrelevant)
• are observed within the allophones of a
certain phoneme
• 2 types: incidental (redundant) and
indispensable (concomitant)

17. Phonemes, Allophones, Phones

• allophones – possible variants of the
same phoneme, which never occur in
similar phonetic contexts
• aren't used to differentiate meaning,
depend on the phonetic context
• 2 types: principal and subsidiary

18. Phonemes, Allophones, Phones

• a principal allophone - retains the typical
articulatory characteristics of the
phoneme
• a subsidiary allophone - changes in the
articulation of an allophone under the
influence of the phonetic environment

19. Phonemes, Allophones, Phones

• the actual realization of allophones in the
speech chain is exercised through phones
• are not predicted by phonetic context but
modified by phonostylistic, dialectal and
individual variations

20. Phonemes, Allophones, Phones