Homographs can be differentiated only due to pronunciation, because they are identical in spelling, e.g.
Pausation may also perform a differentiatory function. If we compare two similar sentences pronounced with different places of the pause, we shall see that their meaning will be different.
V sound interchange helps to distinguish the singular and plural forms of such nouns as a goose-geese, man-men, a mouse-mice. V sound interchange helps to understand the formation of irregular verbs.
II. Another connection of phonetics with grammar is sound interchange. Through sound interchange phonetics helps to observe the category of number of some nouns. Sound interchange may be consonants and vowels.
I. Phonetics is closely connected with grammar through the system of rules of reading and helps to pronounce correctly singular and plural forms of nouns, the past tense forms and past participles of English regular verbs.
The connection of Grammar, Lexicology and Stylistics.
One letter may give the different sounds.
Commas, full stops, inverted commas, hyphens, etc. should be excluded since they can be confused with intonation or stress markings.
If necessary question marks and exclamation marks may be used to give an indication of intonation.
It is necessary to show any punctuation.
Slant brackets are used to mark off phonemic transcription, square brackets are used for allophones.
9. Abbreviations and numbers should be transcribed in their full spoken form, e.g. USA /‘ju: ‘es ‘ei/.
10. Syllabic consonants are indicated by [‘] before the stressed syllable, e.g. father /’fa:ðə/. Secondary stress is shown by [,] before the syllable, e.g. examination /ig,zæmi’neiʃən/.
The basic principle of transcription is called «phonemic». It means that a set of symbols is used to represent the sounds that can be distinctive. Replacing one phoneme by another in a minimal pair can change the meaning of the word, e.g. /kil - mil/. /k/ and /m/ are different phonemes.
1) As phonetics studies the sound system of the language that is formulates the rules of pronunciation the separate sounds and sound combinations, word stress, syllabic structure and intonation.
The rules of reading are based on the relation of sounds to orthography and that presents certain difficulties. Thus vowels are pronounced not only as we name the letters corresponding to them. For example, let’s take the letter «a». It is maybe pronounced as [ei] in brain, as [æ] in cat, [a:] in car, [eə] in care, [ɔ:] in wall, etc.
(1) Now it’s necessary to speak about Grammar because only with the rules of grammar we can explain the pronunciation of different sounds of one letter. It means phonetics is closely connected with grammar.
According to the rule the plural form of nouns is formed by adding the ending -s or -es to the singular form of the noun. This ending may be pronounced in three ways:
- [s]
- [z]
- [iz]
For example, cat-cats, dog-dogs, box-boxes.
We will pronounce these words correctly only if we know that the letter «s» is pronounced as [s] after voiceless consonants. It’s pronounced as [z] after voice consonants and [iz] after sibilants.
The ending -ed of the past form of English regular verbs and participles is pronounced as [d], [t] and [id].
As [d] after voice consonants and after vowels;
As [t] after voiceless consonants;
As [id] after -t and -d.
For example, to skate - skated.
C sound interchange of [f -> v], [s -> z], etc. helps to differentiate the singular and plural forms of such nouns as wolf-wolves, house-houses, etc.
For example, sing-sang-sung, write-wrote-written [стр.16-19 до слов crash, bang].
Vowel interchange can help to distinguish between:
a) nouns and verbs, e.g. bath - bathe,
b) adjectives and nouns, e.g. hot - heet,
c) verbs and adjectives, e.g. moderate - moderate,
d) nouns and nouns, e.g. shade - shadow,
e) nouns and adjectives, e.g. type - typical.
Vowel interchange can be observed in onomatopoeic compounds:
jiggle - joggle [толчок, покачивание]
flip - flop [легкий удар, шлепок]
Consonants can interchange in different parts of speech for example in nouns and verbs:
extent - extend /t - d/,
relief - relieve /f - v/
III. Phonetics is also connected with grammar through its intonation component. Sometimes intonation alone can serve to single out predication in the sentence. For example:
‘He came home. [Not Mary or John.]
He ‘came home. [So you can see him now.]
He came ‘home. [Ye is at home.]
In affirmative sentences the rising nuclear tone may serve to show that it is a question. For example:
He ‘came \home.
He ‘came /home?
‘What ‘writing ‘poet is doing is \interesting.
If we make a pause after the word what, we are interested in what the poet is doing in general. If the pause made after the word writing we want to know, what book or article the poet is writing.
(2) Phonetic is also connected with Lexicology. It is only due to the presence of stress, or accent, in the right place, that we can distinguish certain from verbs, e.g.
‘abstract [реферат] - to ab’stract [извлекать]
bow /bəu/ [лук] - bow /bau/ [поклон]
tear /teə/ [разрыв] - tear /tiə/ [слеза]