The subject-matter of theoretical phonetics

Phonetics is the study of speech sounds in 4 aspects.

1) from every point of view.

The articulatory aspect studies speech sounds from the point of view of kinesthetic and kinetic movements of the speech organs, necessary to produce a single sound or a chain of sounds, as every speech sound is a complex of definite finally coordinated and differentiated movements of the various speech organs.

The acoustic aspect studies speech sounds as sound waves and as such their physical properties.

The functional (phonological) aspect studies most significant features of speech sounds and the way phonemes differentiate meanings.

Auditory phonetics is concerned with how speech sounds are received by the ear.

2) studies meachnisms of vowel and consonant production:
Vibrator mechanism - vocal cords
Resonator mechanism - oral cavity, nasal cavity
Obstructor mechanism - tongue, VC, teeth
Power mechanism - lungs, diaphragm
3) sounds are studied not only separately but in clusters and in speech. Thus we've come to kinetics and kinesthetic factors.
4) the matter of analysis:
- description - setting down as many as possible features which are present in sounds.
- classification - mentioning those features by which sounds utter.
One of the main subjects is intonation. Theoretical phonetics views it from the point of view of different schools and approaches:
Russian - intonation is many thing + speech melody, tones, change in pitch.
British - intonation is a contour, that is a unit of intonation consisting of pre-head, head, nucleus and tail.
American - intonation is pitch. Differences in pitch cause differences in meaning.

Speaking about sounds we usually view them in words, that consist of syllables. This is another subject of theoretical phonetics - syllable division and different approaches to it.

15. THE INTERCONNECTION BETWEEN RHYTHM AND SPEECH MELODY IN AN UTTERANCE.

Melody - changes in the voice pitch in the process of speech. Speech melody is closely connected with sentence stress, which is connected with rhythm.
Speech melody is also called pitch of the voice. Successive contours of intonation singled out of the speech flow may be defined differently:
Sense group (semantic approach)
Breath group (extra linguistic approach)
Tone groups (phonological definition)
Intonation group
Tone (tonetic units)
Pitch and stress patterns.
Each tone unit has one peak of prominence in the form of a nuclear pitch movement and a slight pause after the nucleus that ends the tone unit and is usually shorter than the term 'pause' in
pausation system.
The tone unit is one of the most important units of intonational theory. It contains one nucleus, which is often referred to as nuclear tone or peak of prominence. The interval bewteen the highest and the lowest pitched syllables is called the range of a sense group. The Pange usually depends on the pitch level - the higher the pitch, the wider the Range. The Range of pitch within the last stressed syllable of the tone group is called a nuclear tone. It may occur not only in the nucleus but extend to the tail terminal tone. The inventory of the tonal types given by different scholars is different:
Sweet distinguishes 8 tones:
- level?low falling
? high rising \/ compound rising
? low rising /\ compound falling
? high falling? rise-fall-rise

Palmer: 4 basic tones - falling, high rising, falling-rising, low-rise.
Vasiljev: 10 tone-groups. He stated that tones can be moveing and level. Moving tones can be simple, complex and compound. Low fall, high wide fall, high narrow fall, low rise, high narrow rise, high wide rise, rise-fall, rise-fall-rise.
The most common compound tones are - high fall + high fall, high fall + low-rise.
Level tones can be pitched at High, Mid, Low level.

The falling tones convey coplexion and finality, they are categorics in character. The rising tones are incomplete and non-categoric. Mid tone is used most frequnlty. The level tone expresses hesitation.

The phenomenon of rhythm is closely connected with the phonetic nature of stress. So, rhythm is the regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. The units of the rhythmical structure of an utterance are stressed groups of rhythmic groups. The perception of boundaies between the rhythmic groups is assiated with the stressed syllables or peaks of prominence.
In English, stressed syllables tend to occure at regular intervals of time. Each sense-group of the sentence is pronounced at approximately the same period of time, unstressed syllables are pronounced more rapidly: the greater the number of unstressed syllables, the quicker they are pronounced.
Rhythm is connected with the 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.
/'piccad'illi/ - /'piccadilly 'circus/ - close to the picca'dilly
/'princess' - a 'royal prin'cess/

Дефиниции из Леонтьевой, intonation Russian approach. Rhythm can influebce melody, or not, or sometimes.

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