Acoustic aspect of English phoneme

Размещено на http://www.allbest.ru/

Kazakh Abylai Khan University of International Relations and World Language

Report

The theme: Acoustic aspect of English phoneme

Done by: Habibullina A.T. ,

PFFL,201 group

Checked by: Alibaeva G.K.

Almaty,2016

Plan

Introduction

1. Frequency of the main tone

2. Intensity

3. Spectrum

Conclusion

Used literature

All speech sounds have 4 aspects (mechanisms):

Articulatoty - it is the way when the sound-producing mechanism is investigated, that is the way the speech sounds are pronounced.

Acoustic - speech sound is a physical phenomenon. It exists in the form of sound waves, which are pronounced by vibrations of the vocal cords. Thus, each sound is characterized by frequency, certain duration. All these items represent acoustic aspect.

Auditory - sound perception aspect. The listener hears the sound, percepts its acoustic features and the hearing mechanism selects from the acoustic information only what is linguistically important.

Functional - every language unit performs a certain function in actual speech. Functional aspect deals with these functions.

1. Like any other sounds, speech sounds are communicated to the air in the form of sound waves. Speech sounds have pitch, intensity, timber. Musical tones and noises may be distinguished among them. Speech sounds can be investigated by the same methods as any other sounds and are subject to the same acoustic laws.

2. Speech sounds may also be considered from the biological point of view as phenomena resulting from the activities of "the speech organs". We now consider them to be a complex system of conditioned reflexes governed by and dependent upon the cortex of the cerebral hemispheres. The ability of man to respond by means of speech is what differentiates him from and makes him superior to any other animal. This sphere of human activity was termed the "second signal system" by Prof. I. P. Pavlov.

3. One should be able to determine in what way or ways speech sound can function as significant sound units or phonemes. In like manner, it is not enough to ascertain the exact acoustic value of intonation or any other phonetic phenomenon; it is also necessary to determine its significant role in the language.

As we know, the vocal tract may be described as an apparatus for the conversion of muscular energy into acoustic energy. Sound is a physical or acoustic phenomenon generated by the activity of the vocal organs. A sound consists of waves which travel through the air at aspeed about 1100 feet per second.

Like any other sound of nature speech sounds exist in the form of sound waves and have the same physical properties-frequency, intensity, duration and spectrum.

Frequency is the number of vibrations per second generated by the vocal cords. Frequency produced by the vibration of the vocal cords over their whole length is the fundamental frequency. It determines the musical pitch of the tone and forms an acoustic basis of speech melody.

Frequency is measured in hers or cycles per second (cps).

Intensity of speech sounds depends on the amplitude of vibrations. Changes in intensity are associated with stress in those languages which have force stress, or dynamic stress.

Intensity is measured in decibels (dbs).

Like any other form of matter, sound exists and moves in time. Any sound has a certain duration. The duration of a sound is the quantity of time during which the same pattern of vibration is maintained. For this reason the duration of a sound is often referred to as its quantity. The duration of speech sounds is usually measured in milliseconds (msec.).

It has already been mentioned that the vocal tone is the result of complex vibrations. The whole length of the vocal cords vibrates to produce the fundamental tone (see Fig.1). In addition, each part of the vocal cords vibrates simultaneously to produce partial tones (overtones or harmonics, see Fig.2).

Fig.1. Vibration of entire cord.

Fig.2. Vibration of its parts.

The frequency of the overtones is higher than that of the fundamental tone. Complex vibrations resulting from the superposition of the fundamental and partial vibrations can be presented in the following way.

The complex tone is modified in the resonance chambers (the pharyngeal, oral and nasal cavities). These chambers can assume an infinite number of shapes, each of which has a characteristic vibrating resonance of its own. Those overtones of the complex tone which coincide with the chamber's own vibrating resonance are considerably intensified. Thus, certain bands of strongly intensified overtones are characteristic of a particular shape, size and volume of the resonator which produces a certain vowel sound. These bands of frequencies are intensified whatever the fundamental frequency. The vowel /?:/, for instance, has one such characteristic band of energy in the region of 800 cps and another at about 1,100 cps; the vowel /i:/ has bands of energy at about 280 cps and 2,500 cps, irrespective of the pitch of the voice. speech sound tone vowel

The complex range of frequencies of varying intensity which form the quality of a sound is known as the acoustic spectrum. The bands of energy in the spectrum which are characteristic of a particular sound are known as the sounds formants. Thus formants of /?:/ occur in the region 800 and 1,100cps; the formants of /i:/ occur in the region of 280 and 2500 cps. It is known that vowel sounds have at least two formats -F₁ and F₂, which are responsible for the particular quality (timbre) of each vowel type. F₁ is characterized by lower frequencies than F₂. The format of the fundamental tone (marked by F₀) is irrelevant to vowel differentiation. F₀ is present in the spectra of vowels, sonants and voiced consonants because these sounds are formed with voice. It is absent in the spectra of voiceless consonants.

The spectra of consonants have no sharply defined formant structure. There are concentrations of energy at high frequencies or no energy, at a low, fundamental frequency.

In conclusion, we find that acoustic phonetics is concerned with the acoustic aspect of speech sounds. It studies speech sounds with the help of experimental (instrumental) methods. Various kinds of apparatus are applied for analyzing sounds, stress, intonation and other phonetic phenomena. For example, we use spectrographs to analyze the acoustic spectra of sound, oscillographs and intonographs to analyze frequency, intensity and duration. With the help of an electro-acoustic synthesizer synthetic speech is produced which is a good means of testing the results of the electro-acoustic analysis.

Because of the methods used acoustic phonetics is often called experimental phonetics.

Besides these objective methods physiological phonetics uses its oldest subjective method-the method of direct observation. This method involves observation of the movements of speech organs when pronouncing sounds and analysis of one's muscular sensations during the articulation of speech sounds.

The used literature

1. Jones D. An Outline of English Phonetics. Cambridge, 1960.

2. Leontyeva S.F. A Theoretical Course of English Phonetics. M., 2002

3. Sokolova M.A. and others. Theoretical Phonetics of English. M., 1994.

4. Vassilyev V.A. English Phonetics. A Theoretical Course, M., 1970.

5. http://studentguide.ru/shpargalki-po-anglijskomu-yazyku/bilet-15-acoustic-aspect-of-speech-sounds.html

Размещено на Allbest.ru