The subject of theoretical phonetics.

Phonetics is concerned with the human noises by which the thought is actualized or given audible shape: the nature of these noises, their combinations, and their functions in relation to the meaning. Phonetics is subdivided into practical and theoretical. Practical or normative phonetics studies the substance, the material form of phonetic phenomena in relation to meaning. Theoretical phonetics is mainly concerned with the functioning of phonetic units in the language. Theoretical phonetics regards phonetic phenomena synchronically without any special attention paid to the historical development of English. Phonetics is itself divided into two major components: segmental phonetics, which is concerned with individual sounds (i.e. " segments" of speech) and suprasegmental phonetics whose domain is the larger units of connected speech: syllables, words, phrases and texts.

Only meaningful sound sequences are regarded as speech, and the science of phonetics, in principle at least, is concerned only with such sounds produced by a human vocal apparatus as are, or may be, carriers of organized information of language. Consequently, phonetics is important in the study of language. An understanding of it is a prerequisite to any adequate understanding of the structure or working of language. No kind of linguistic study can be made without constant consideration of the material on the expression level. Three traditional branches of the subject are generally recognized:

1. articulatory phonetics is the study of the way speech

sounds are made ('articulated') by the vocal organs, i.e. it studies the way in which

the air is set in motion, the movements of the speech organs and the coordination

of these movements in the production of single sounds and trains of sounds;

2. acoustic phonetics studies the physical properties of speech

sound, as transmitted between the speaker’s mouth and the listener’s ear;

3. auditory phonetics studies the perceptual response to

speech sounds, as mediated by ear, auditory nerve and brain, i.e. its interests lie

more in the sensation of hearing, which is brain activity, than in the psychological

working of the ear or the nervous activity between the ear and the brain. The means

by which we discriminate sounds – quality, sensations of pitch, loudness, length,

are relevant here.

The fourth branch – 'functional phonetics' – is concerned with the range and function of sounds in specific languages. It is typically referred to as phonology. What is the main distinction between phonetics and phonology? Phonetics is the study of how speech sounds are made, transmitted, and received, i.e. phonetics is the stud o all possible speech sounds. The human vocal apparatus can produce a wide range of sounds; but only a small number o them are used in a language to construct all of its words and utterances. Phonology is the study of those segmental (speech sound types) and prosodic (intonation) features which have a differential value in the language. It studies the wa in which speakers systematically use a selection of units – phonemes or intonemes – in order to express meaning. It investigates the phonetic phenomena from the point of view of their use. Within phonology, two branches of study are usually recognized: SEGMENTAL and SUPRA-SEGMENTAL. Segmental phonology analyses speech into discrete segments, such as phonemes; supra-segmental or non-segmental phonology analyses those features which extend over more than one segment, such as intonation contours. The primary aim of phonology is to discover the principles that govern the way that sounds are organized in languages, to determine which phonemes are used and how they pattern – th phonological structure of a language. The properties of different sound systems are then compared, and hypotheses developed about the rules underlying the use of sounds in particular groups of languages, and in all the languages

-phonological universals. Phonology also solves:

1. the problem of the identification of the phonemes of a language;

2. the problem of the identification of the phoneme in a particular word, utterance.

It establishes the system of phonemes and determines the frequency of occurrence in syllables, words, utterances. The distribution and grouping of phonemes and syllables in words are dealt with an area of phonology which is called phonotactics. People engaged in the study of phonetics are known as phoneticians (фонетисти).People engaged in the study of phonology are known as phonologists (фонологи). Phonology was originated in the 30s of the 20th century by a group of linguists belongingto the Prague school of linguistics – Vilem Matesius, Nickolai Trubetskoy, Roman Jakobson. The theoretical background of phonology is the phoneme theory whose foundations were first laid down by I.O. Baudouin de Courtenay (1845-1929) in the last quarter of the 19th century (between the years of 1868-1881). The most important work in phonology is THE GROUNDWORK OF PHONOLOGY [1939] by Nickolai Trubetskoy. He claimed that phonology should be separated from phonetics as it studies the functional aspect of phonic components of language. Phonetics is a biological science which investigates the sound-production aspect. Contemporary phoneticians hold the view that form and function cannot be separated and treat phonology as a linguistic branch of phonetics.