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up, the area in which they now live, if they have a speech or voice
disorder,their ethnic group, their social class, or their education.
Language is shaped into a spoken message by means of its
phonic structure/sound matter which is traditionally treated as a
combination of four components:
1) the segmental/phonemic component;
2) the syllabic structure;
3) the accentual structure/word stress/lexical stress;
4) intonation.
Word stress and intonation can be treated together under the
heading supra-segmental or prosodic component because these
effects are superimposed on the segmental chain of sounds and
carry the information which the sounds do not contain.
In discussing the pronunciation of English we can focus on
one or both of two aspects:
a) on the one hand, we may want to describe WHAT
SPEAKERS DO WHEN THEY ARE SPEAKING ENGLISH.
This is the aspect of SPEECH (мовлення), an activity carried on
by communicators who use English in communicating;
b) on the other hand, we may address the question, WHAT
ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ENGLISH WORDS AND
SENTENCES (DISCOURSE) that are realized in speech? This is
the aspect of LANGUAGE (мова).
Speech is not the same as language. Speech is an activity
which is carried on numerous events; language is knowledge, a
code which is known and shared by speakers who use their
knowledge for transmitting and interpreting verbal messages in
these events. When someone is speaking, anyone who is close
enough can hear – the air waves set up in the air by the speaker
reach the airdrums of the hearer. But only a person who knows the
language can understand what is said.
Pronunciation is a process of materializing of features
relating to the system of sounds/phonemes, the syllabic stucture,
prosody (word stress and intonation) while speech/oral verbal
message is constructed.
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