Slow Food Versus Fast Food Essay Example for Free

Slow Food Versus Fast Food Essay Introduction Most hotels at Victoria Falls have for decades prided themselves on a culture of serving leisurely, gourmet meals (especially dinners) prepared using local ingredients including a variety of game meat (e. g. buffalo, kudu, impala, warthog, crocodile, guinea fowl), local mushrooms and vegetable varieties, and ? sh from the nearby Zambezi River. Arguably, a signi? cant proportion of this food quali? es to be called ‘slow food’, because it meets the four criteria for slowlness (Rothermel, 2009). First, slow food must be freshly prepared from fresh ingredients, mostly vegetables, fruit and whole grains, and meat in small portions. Second, the food must be eaten leisurely in company. Third, it must be simple but varied in taste. Finally, it must be produced in an ethical and environmentally friendly manner. However, in recent years, fast food restaurants, led by Innscor brands such as Chicken Inn, Creamy Inn, and so on, have begun penetrating the market. Indeed the expansion of fast food chains in the last decade can be observed in several African countries. In South Africa, international chains such as KFC and McDonald’s are becoming virtually ubiquitous. Rapid growth of fast food restaurant chains has become a global phenomenon (Berta, 2003; Doherty and van Warner, 1995; Emerson, 1980; King, 2004; Lan and Khan, 1995; Parsa and Khan, 1989; Soeder, 1994; Walkup, 2008; Willging, 2008). In the resort town of Victoria Falls, most tourists have traditionally opted to eat at the hotels where they lodge. However, with recent entrance of fast food chains, hoteliers, facing the threat of losing market share, have been responding to the changing competitive forces. Victoria Falls has become a ‘slow food versus fast food’ battleground. The main aim of this paper is to explore how the contemporary slow food– fast food contention is enacted in an African tourist destination setting. An important point to make is that it is not suggested here that Victoria Falls hotels serve slow food exclusively. Indeed, most hotels in the resort, in addition to what would qualify as slow food, also serve items which could be labelled as fast food, such as Corresponding author: Muchazondida Mkono, School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Southern Cross University, P. O. Box 157, Lismore, New South Wales 2480, Australia Email: [emailprotected] edu. au, [emailprotected] Downloaded from thr. sagepub. com at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University on March 14, 2013 148 burgers, fries, and so on, typically as part of their ‘still room’ menus for lunches and snacks. At the same time hotels at Victoria Falls have always accepted that the majority of their guests spend the day undertaking a range of ‘tourist activities’ away from the hotel (for example elephant riding, over-the falls helicopter ? ights, bungee jumping, game safaris, white water rafting) and will often ? nd a quick snack elsewhere, or be provided with refreshments by tour operators offering these activities. Breakfast is generally consumed at the hotel, as most hotel rates are charged on bed and breakfast basis. Thus the real contention as to the tourist’s choice of either fast food or slow food is centred around dinner. Tourism and Hospitality Research 12(3) Warner, 1995; Emerson, 1980; Lan and Khan, 1995; Parsa and Khan, 1989; Soeder, 1994; Willging, 2008). Research has mainly focused on the health impacts of this trend (Allen et al. , 2007; Bartlett and Bartlett, 1995; Blanck et al. , 2009; Bowens, 1994; Chandon and Wansink, 2007; Chaudhry, 1992; Crowley, 2002; Dundes and Swann, 2008; Fitch et al., 2009; Grazin and Olsen, 1997; Gregory et al. , 2006; Hawkes, 2003; Hodges, 2003; Parker et al. , 2006; Rubin, 1996; Schreiner, 2007; Thornton et al. , 2009; Xu et al. , 2011), with the majority of authors corroborating the view that fast food poses signi? cant health risks. As such Slow Food Movement enthusiasts advocate a return to slow food habits. At the same time, there is a growing health conscious, market (Bartlett and Bartlett, 1995; Gray, 2004; Grazin and Olsen, 1997; Jonsdottir, 1998; Hwang and Cranage, 2010). In response to this trend, many hoteliers position their menus as healthier and wholesome. A closely related debate to fast food–slow food discourse pertains to the authenticity of menus. Authenticity is a central topic in tourism sociological debates, and re? ects a search for the Authentic Other in tourists (Beer, 2008; Chhabra, 2010; Cohen, 2007; Connell, 2007; Connell and Gibson, 2004; Daniel, 1996; Johnson, 2002; Wang, 1999; Warner, 2009; Wherry, 2006; White, 2007; Xie, 2003; Yang and Wall, 2009; Yu and Littrell, 2003; Zheng, 2011). Slow food, with its use of local ingredients and traditional cooking methods, has a stronger claim to authenticity, while fast food can easily be criticised as deauthenti?cation and MacDonaldisation of cuisine cultures; as Americanisation of traditional food cultures. A noticeable gap in the literature with respect to fast food chain expansion relates to the impacts on hotel food and beverage sales and pro? ts, as well as how (slow food) hotels have reacted to the trend to protect their market share. For African tourist destinations, hotels have long been an important part of the destination’s ‘authentic’ image, and the MacDonaldisation of the food culture in these areas might destabilise the desired image. The impacts therefore are far-reaching. Literature review While the concept of slow food has been received with a lot of interest among academics (Emerson, 1980; Gardner, 2007; Hodges, 2003; Jennings, 2006; Paxson, 2005; Peace, 2008; Piggott, 2001; Sassatelli and Davolio; Schwaner-Albright, 2007; Scoffer, 2008; Vaughan, 2008; Walkup, 2008; Waterhouse, 2008; Waters, 2006; Wong, 2009; Wright, 2007; Yee, 1999; Zuber, 2002), existing research has so far not looked at how resort hotels offering what could be described as ‘slow ? ne dining’ have been impacted by the expansion of fast food chains in Africa. Further, most research on fast food and slow food has been conducted in Western and Asian countries. African case studies are noticeably lacking (Emerson, 1980; King, 2004; Lan and Khan, 1995; Parsa and Khan, 1989; Soeder, 1994; Walkup, 2008; Willging, 2008). The concept of ‘slow food’ was borne out of the Slow Food Movement, founded in Bra, Italy, in 1986 by Carlo Petrini (Jones et al. , 2003; Petrini, 2001). The movement aims at safeguarding food and agricultural heritage around the world, and educating consumers about traditional foods (Nosi and Zanni, 2004). Formed to counteract the rapid globalisation of a fast food culture, the movement has evolved from being a protest against the erection of a McDonald’s restaurant in an Italian town to a formidable international organisation that has enthusiasts all over the world (Jones et al. , 2003). Interest in slow food has grown parallel to increasing criticism of fast food, although some authors question the movement’s ef? cacy in challenging the seemingly ‘all powerful’ fast food industry (Jones et al. , 2003). Fast food, according to Rothermel (2009), typically bland, chewy, cheesy, crunchy, salty, meaty, nutty, fatty, and sometimes spicy, captivates the palette quickly, repetitiously, and obsessively. As such, fast food is consumed by a growing population, particularly in developed countries (Doherty and van Methodology The goal of this study is to provide an exploratory, inductive analysis of the slow food–fast food contention as it has unfolded in recent times at the tourist destination of Victoria Falls. As a starting point for future research, the study highlights the perspectives of hoteliers, speci?cally food and beverage managers. The philosophical approach adopted for this study was hermeneutic (interpretive) phenomenology, which is also a research method (LeVasseur, 2003; Lopez and Downloaded from thr. sagepub. com at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University on March 14, 2013 Mkono Willis, 2004; Wojnar and Swanson, 2007). The approach was adopted to make sense out of a local situation by providing a thick description (Denzin and Lincoln, 1994). The localised focus resulted in small-scale theories that are situated in speci? c personal experiences and perceptions (Riley and Love, 2000). The paper employs a highly re? exive and multivocal methodology where no single voice is priviledged (Riley and Love, 2000). Hermeneutic phenomenology is a particularly appropriate method for capturing subjective perspectives and lived experiences (Hegel, 1977; Ingram, 2002; Ironside et al. , 2003; Jonsdottir, 1998; Knibbe and Versteeg, 2008; LeVasseur, 2003; Lopez and Willis, 2004; Murphy et al. , 2009; Pernecky and Jamal, 2010; Racher and Robinson, 2003; Ross et al. , 2007; Sherrod, 2006; Simpson, 2007; Sinico, 2008; Szarycz, 2009; Wilde, 2003; Wojnar and Swanson, 2007). However, only a few hospitality researchers have adopted this methodology (Ingram, 2002). Hermeneutic phenomenology accepts that both the researcher and participants cocreate an understanding of the phenomena under study, while bringing into the research their own frames of references drawing from their different backgrounds (Wojnar and Swanson, 2007). Researchers under this orientation will therefore often attempt to acknowledge whatever biases they brought into the study, through a process of ‘bracketing’ (LeVasseur, 2003), explaining ‘where they are coming from’. As such, the researcher here acknowledges her own previous work experience in the hotel industry in Victoria Falls as signi?cantly shaping her frame of reference throughout the study. As Lopez and Willis (2004) argue, in the interpretive phenomenological approach, the researcher’s presuppositions or previous knowledge are valuable guides to the analysis, and can make the inquiry more meaningful. Wojnar and Swanson (2007) explain that hermeneutic phenomenology is most useful where the goal is to explicate contextual features of a lived experience as derived from the researcher’s and participants’ backgrounds, as well as their subjective experiences and perspectives. However, the researcher is not absolved of the responsibility to minimise, or if possible at all, eliminating personal biases from the ? ndings of the study. It is often very dif? cult for researchers to demarcate between bias and fact, as bias can be very subtle. Data were collected from 11 hotel food and beverage managers. Food and beverage managers are the hands-on food and beverage operations decision makers who are directly responsible for the day to day and longer term strategy of a hotel’s food and beverage operations. Of course, other managers in the hotel, such as restaurant managers, executive chefs,149 guest relations managers and functions managers may also input into the food and beverage operations. The researcher however felt their input was minimal and in most cases, involved more strategy implementation rather than strategy formulation. Thus food and beverage managers, as primary strategists in the food and beverage department, were identi? ed as the key informants in the hotels. Out of a judgement sample of 18 hotel managers in 18 hotels (2 to 5 star) who were contacted by phone and asked if they were available for an interview, 16 agreed and appointments were set up. However, only 11 were subsequently interviewed. The other 5 could not avail themselves giving various reasons including emergency meetings or busy schedules. The researcher used an interview guide to maintain focus in the interviews. Questions were very open ended allowing interviewees to air their views freely. The research revolved around the two major research questions: the extent of threat posed by the emerging fast food competition (if any), and hotel management reactions. All interviews were tape recorded and transcribed manually, verbatim. Data analysis was performed manually, through several stages, drawing from Benner’s (1994) hermeneutical analysis model delineated in Wojnar and Swanson (2007). The process began with reading and rereading transcripts reread to gain an intuitive feel for the data. Next, repetitious themes were identi? ed. The researcher then identi? ed exemplary quotes to illustrate themes. Findings and discussion The extent of threat The majority of managers felt that fast food companies were becoming serious competition for hotel restaurants: ‘‘It’s become a bit of a war really. We have our appeal, but fast food restaurants have ‘‘street’’ appeal. We offer ? ne dining. Both concepts have their appeal, I guess. ’’ The ‘war’ referred to above is not unique to Zimbabwe. Restaurant wars have occurred in other places where fast food restaurants have entered the markets rapidly (e. g. Watson and Caldwell, 2004). Some managers reported that some of their guests were using their shuttle buses to ‘sneak out for a burger dinner at a fast food restaurant in town’. In addition, and more worrying for the hotel industry in Victoria Falls, hotel food and beverage sales were reported to have been reduced signi?cantly due to fast food entrance. This was a great concern as managers Downloaded from thr. sagepub. com at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University on March 14, 2013 150 reported the negative bottom line impact of fast food restaurant expansion. However, others were con? dent of the competitive strengths of their hotel restaurants, perceiving no real threat from fast food. ‘‘I think tourists in our hotel prefer to taste our full service men. It’s gourmet. Fast to me is bland and ordinary. Plus unhealthy. Our food is prepared by world class chefs.’’ Tourism and Hospitality Research 12(3) white water rafting on the Zambezi River, elephant back safaris, and so on) might not be consistent with a slow destination image, or a slow tourist segment. Another interesting comment made concerned the in? uence of age in preference for fast food: ‘‘It appears to me that it is our younger guests who might be particularly interested in fast food. The older folks are put off by the noise in the fast food places’’. The health implications in relation to fast food and slow food have been widely discussed (Hodges, 2003; Hunt, 2004; Mair et al., 2008; Wong, 2009). Indeed this could be the biggest selling point for hotel food over food in this context, especially if the market is predominantly health conscious. This requires further inquiry. One of the managers felt that hotels’ competitive strength with respect to food and beverage was in the uniqueness and authenticity of their menus: ‘‘We sell cuisines that they can’t get anywhere else, our kudu and impala steak, for example. Our cuisine is authentic Zimbabweanness. We bring out the best of Zimbabwean and African food. ’’ Future research could investigate further the validity of this observation in more causal, quantitative research. However, some existing research would suggest that more younger people tend to prefer fast food compared to older people (Dave et al. , 2009). One manager drew attention to the attention paid to ambience in hotel restaurants, arguing that this is an important source of differentiation from fast food restaurants: ‘‘Our hotel restaurants have a special ambience which fast food restaurants simply cannot provide’’. Authenticity is a core concept in tourism research, and it is signi? cant that hotel managers are engaged with this discourse in their re? ection of work lived experiences. But to ascribe Zimbabweanness lends to us to the complex questions of who authenticates food as Zimbabwean or otherwise, what criterion must be used, and consequently to the questions of identity and, for a multiethnic society that Zimbabwe is, ethnicity as well. Indeed, ethnicity has been a source of socio-cultural tension with regard to representing Zimbabwean identity. However, this point constitutes a highly convoluted debate that cannot be treated in more depth in an exploratory study such as this one. One manager felt that Victoria Falls was a destination for the ‘slow’ tourist, who preferred ‘slow’ products and services, so that there was no real threat for hoteliers posed by the entrance of fast food. The slow food–fast food contention is a topical issue in contemporary hospitality management as it resonates with a nostalgic yearning for the past in modern society. ‘‘I think Victoria Falls attracts more ‘slow oriented’ tourists, I think. ’’ The role ambience in in? uencing customer satisfaction is widely recognised. However some fast food restaurants have made some strides in managing the atmosphere in their restaurants. For example, the Rainforest Cafe chain’s restaurant interiors depict a tropical rainforest with detail such as plant growth, mist, waterfalls, animatronic robots of various animals and insects (Williams, 2002). Thus hoteliers cannot become complacent about their restaurant ambience as sustainable sources of competitive advantage over their fast food restaurant competition. The researcher asked whether the cheaper prices associated with fast food was a concern for hoteliers. Some managers agreed that price was in fact the major source of competition: ‘‘The trouble is that a burger at a fast food restaurants costs little, say three of four dollars. Our dinners cost them $30 dollars thereabouts. So if the decision is an economic one, especially where it’s a big family, the fast food restaurant is an inviting option. ’’ Slowness is a contested phenomenon, and it is not clear cut what constitutes slow. Further, it is questionable whether Victoria Falls is indeed a destination for slow tourists. Indeed, the adventure oriented activities that Victoria Falls is commonly known for (bungee jumping, helicopter ? ights over Falls, cruises and However, some felt that there was no logic in comparing hotel food prices with fast food prices; that doing so would be akin to comparing ‘oranges with bread’. It is clear then that hoteliers have varying perception of who their competitors are: whether competition refers to other hoteliers, or whether it extends beyond the hotel industry. De? ning competition narrowly, however, is likely to be detrimental to a hotel’s long term competitive strength. Downloaded from thr. sagepub. com at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University on March 14, 2013 Mkono It was also highlighted by some managers that their clientele was ‘upmarket’ and therefore not very pricesensitive: ‘‘Most of our guests are internationals. . . . and price is not their primary criterion for choosing where they are gonna eat. They do not travel on a tight budget’’. 151 Victoria Falls. Hotels would need to think on a longer term basis if their strategies should shield them from the competitive threat effectively. One manager expressed apprehension about the potential ef? cacy of any potential reactive strategies, citing that tourists from countries where fast food consumption has become ingrained in lifestyle ‘‘can’t resist a cheese burger’’. Thus to some extent, in this manager’s view, the war was already lost. Since for some managers the real competition was lay in the differences in price levels, it was not surprising that hotels were expected to bring down their prices. Indeed, this had already been done in some hotels: ‘‘We have had to bring our prices down a little bit’’. Hoteliers would need to address the question whether they intend to target only the upmarket, or whether their target market can be de? ned more broadly. Considering that the government’s Look East Policy launched in the early 2000s has attracted a lower spending, more price-sensitive Eastern market, limiting the target market to af? uent high spenders might not be particularly wise as a marketing strategy. Hotels therefore ? nd themselves in a crossroads decision regarding whether it makes more business sense to bring their prices down to become more competitive in the face of fast food restaurant penetration, and accept any compromises this might bring to customers’ perceptions of their product and service quality; or to keep their price levels as they are in the hope that this lures a more high spending, perhaps elitist market. A particularly important point was the reference to health conscious tourists. It was the belief of some managers that a signi?cant proportion of tourists was becoming increasingly health conscious, and was therefore inclined to avoid eating fast food: ‘‘Our guests in general are becoming very health conscious. They ask for low fat, sugar free etc. They ask if our menu is organic. They know they can’t get healthy options at the fast food restaurant. That’s a fact. ’’ However, some managers were concerned about the effect of price cuts on their image. There was apprehension that tourists could assume that this was accompanied by a reduction in product and/ or service quality. The relationship between price and quality has been investigated in many marketing studies, suggesting that customers perceptions of quality are indeed affected by price. The theme of image for some extended beyond an individual hotel. The image of Victoria Falls as a tourist destination was seen as impacted by the expansion of fast food supply. One of the respondents asserted that this would compromise the ‘luxury resort’ brand image that Victoria Falls held internationally: ‘‘Victoria is a high end market destination. We are about luxury hotels, class. No offence to fast food restaurants. ’’ Conclusion and suggested future research Hotel reactions Most managers believed that the competitive threat posed for hotels by the expansion of the fast food industry in Victoria Falls was serious enough to warrant reformulation of competitive strategies. Among the changes that hotels needed to make was to change shuttle buses’ routes so that they would not pass through fast food restaurant locations: ‘‘We might have to change the route for our shuttle. The current pick up points are not good for us at all because fast food shops are staring at our guest right there where they get picked up. ’’ However, such a change cannot offer a permanent solutions as tourists are not necessarily restricted to the use of hotels’ shuttle buses for transport within The study sought to investigate hotel food and beverage managers’ experiences with and perspectives of emerging fast food competition. As such, the paper adds to a growing number of phenomenological studies in hospitality. Managers’ perspectives re? ect several interesting issues. Many of the responses suggest a signi? cant level of complacency, a refusal to accord fast food the status of formidable competitor. Some managers seem to think it ‘beneath them’ to even worry about fast food, and even more ‘beneath’ to engage in a ‘face-off ’ with them. The more ‘digni? ed’ option seems to be to pretend that fast food restaurants either do not exist at all, or to feign indifference. This begs the question whether this attitude is sustainable in the long term. The study also con? rms the dynamic and volatile nature of the tourist market. In an African destination Downloaded from thr. sagepub. com at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University on March 14, 2013. 152 where fast food consumption has been a once-in-awhile affair, the entrance of fast food is set to rede? ne food and eating culture. It is no longer a Western phenomenon. What is also important to realise is that fast food consumption is not restricted to the tourist market; that locals are also a part of the market. Future researchers might investigate the impacts of fast food expansion on the local population’s food culture, which will further case study knowledge on the so called MacDonalisation of society. Hotels might have to start actively targeting ‘slow tourists’. However, research on the characteristics and means of engaging this potentially growing market segment is still lacking. It is hoped that more African context-speci? c studies will be carried out on the expansion of fast food and its business and sociological impacts. An inherent limitation concomitant to phenomenology is the lack of generalisability of research ? ndings. Owing to the small sample, the perspectives represented here are not representative of any other context, although some may be ‘transferable’ to similar resort destinations where fast food chains are beginning to enter markets which have previously been dominated by hotels. Future researchers might want to engage in similar studies with a larger sample of informants, and perhaps on a wider spatial scale. Such studies could employ quantitative methods to explain causal relationships and test hypothesis, such as whether fast food entrance into a traditional hotel dominated market poses signi? cant threats to hotel food and beverage pro? ts. To complete the supply side perspective for this study, fast food managers also need to be included in data collection in future perspectives. It would be interesting to investigate why fast food restaurants have decided to expand into the Victoria Falls now, how they perceive the competition from hotels, how they have tried to gain market share, and their views on slow food–fast food debate in an environment where fast food continues to be criticised as unhealthy. How are they building their defence against this onslaught? How do they continue to thrive despite this worldwide onslaught? What will be even more interesting would be to compare the ? ndings made in an African context with those found in other, perhaps very different contexts. This research took a supply side bias, and thus fails to capture the perspectives of tourists who in fact make the choice between fast food and slow food. Thus future researchers might want to pursue either a market oriented approach, or better yet an integrative approach, which combines both supply side and consumer perspectives. In addition, future researchers who carry out similar studies in tourist destinations Tourism and Hospitality Research 12(3) could utilise the broader concept of ‘slow tourism’ as an analytical framework. Thus food choice and consumption are not viewed simply as acts in dining, but perhaps as a microcosm of a much more complex ‘slow tourism’ phenomenon. References Allen KN, Taylor JS and Kuiper R (2007) Effectiveness of nutrition education on fast food choices in adolescents. The Journal of School Nursing 23(6): 337–341. Bartlett M and Bartlett M (1995) Turning points or wrong turns? Restaurants Institutions 105: 12. Beer S (2008) Authenticity and food experience- commercial and academic perspectives. Journal of Foodservice 19(3): 153–163. Benner P (1994) Hermeneutic phenomenology: a methodology for family health and promotion study in nursing. In: Benner P (ed. ) Interpretive Phenomenology: Embodiment, Caring, and Ethics in Health and Illness. California: Sage, pp. 71–72. Berta D (2003) Arctic Circle fast food comes to hot-growth Utah suburb. Nation’s Restaurant News 37(12): 80. Blanck HM, Yaroch AL, Atienza AA, et al. (2009) Factors influencing lunchtime food choices among working Americans. Health Education Behavior 36(2): 289–301. Bowens J (1994) Fat profiles of your favorite fast-food restaurant: how do they measure up to recommended guidelines? Journal of Nutrition in Recipe Menu Development 1: 47. Chandon P and Wansink B (2007) The biasing health halos of fastfood restaurant health claims: lower calorie estimates and higher side-dish consumption intentions. Journal of Consumer Research 34: 301–314. Chaudhry R (1992) Fast-food seafood chains sell health, variety. Restaurants Institutions 102: 12. Chhabra D (2010) Back to the past: a sub-segment of Generation Y’s perceptions of authenticity. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 18(6): 793–809. ? Cohen E (2007) Authenticity’ in tourism studies: Apres la Lutte. Tourism Recreation Research 32(2): 75–82. Connell J (2007) The continuity of custom? Tourist perceptions of authenticity in Yakel Village, Tanna, Vanuatu. Journal of Tourism Cultural Change 5(2): 71–86. Connell J and Gibson C (2004) World music: deterritorializing place and identity. Progress in Human Geography 28(3): 342–361. Crowley D (2002) A promise is a promise. Club Industry (07478283) 18(8): 12 . Daniel YP (1996) Tourism dance performances: authenticity and creativity. Annals of Tourism Research 23: 780. Dave JM, An LC, Jeffery RW, et al. (2009) Relationships of attitudes toward fast-food intake in adults. Obesity 17(6): 1164–1170. Doherty J and van Warner R (1995) Casual themers beware: fast food has regained its competitive edge. Nation’s Restaurant News, p. 19. Available at: http://ezproxy. scu. edu. au/login? url? http:// search. ebscohost. com/login. aspx? direct? truedb? hjhAN? 9502064211sit? ehost-live. Dundes L and Swann T (2008) Food safety in fast food restaurants. Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality Tourism 7(2): 153–161. Emerson RL (1980) Expansion abroad: a solution to fast food’s slow growth? Cornell Hotel Restaurant Administration Quarterly 21(3): 24. Fitch RC, Harnack LJ, Neumark-Sztainer DR, et al. (2009) Providing calorie information on fast-food restaurant menu boards: consumer views. American Journal of Health Promotion 24: 129–132. Downloaded from thr. sagepub. com at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University on March 14, 2013 Mkono Gardner S (2007) Slow changes in fast food. Foodservice Hospitality 39(12): 33–36. Gray MT (2004) Philosophical inquiry in nursing: an argument for radical empiricism as a philosophical framework for the phenomenology of addiction. Qualitative Health Research 14(8): 1151–1164. Grazin KL and Olsen JE (1997) Market segmentation for fast-food restaurants in an era of health consciousness. Journal of Restaurant Foodservice Marketing 2: 1. Gregory S, McTyre C and DiPietro RB (2006) Fast food to healthy food: a paradigm shift. International Journal of Hospitality Tourism Administration 7(4): 43–64. Hawkes C (2003) Heavy issue: food industry weighs down Americans with freedom of choice. Nation’s Restaurant News 37(6): 44. Hegel G (1977) Phenomenology of Spirit. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Hodges T (2003) Brandwatch: in praise of slow food. Locum Destination Review. p. 26. Hunt G (2004) Rough ride slow food. Food Manufacture 79(9): 139–139. Ingram G (2002) Motivations for farm tourism hosts and guests in the South West Tapestry Region, Western Australia: a phenomenological study. Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology 2(1): 1–12. Ironside PM, Scheckel M, Wessels C, et al. (2003) Experiencing chronic illness: cocreating new understandings. Qualitative Health Research 13(2): 171–183. Jennings L (2006) Andre Guerrero slows down fast food at newest restaurant. Nation’s Restaurant News 40: 32–32. Johnson J (2002) Liberalism and the politics of cultural authenticity. Politics, Philosophy Economics 1(2): 213–236. Jonsdottir H (1998) Life patterns of people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: isolation and being closed in. Nursing Science Quarterly 11(4): 160–166. Hwang JJ and Cranage D (2010) Customer health perceptions of selected fast-food restaurants according to their nutritional knowledge and health consciousness. Journal of Foodservice Business Research 13(2): 68–84. King P (2004) Orion food systems: fast food, quick growth–globally. Nation’s Restaurant News 38(42): 34–34. Knibbe K and Versteeg P (2008) Assessing phenomenology in anthropology. Critique of Anthropology 28(1): 47–62. Lan L and Khan MA (1995) Hong Kong’s fast-food industry. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36(3): 34–41. LeVasseur JJ (2003) The problem of bracketing in phenomenology. Qualitative Health Research 13(3): 408–420. Lopez KA and Willis DG (2004) Descriptive versus interpretive phenomenology: their contributions to nursing knowledge. Qualitative Health Research 14(5): 726–735. Mair H, Sumner J and Rotteau L (2008) The politics of eating: food practices as critically reflexive leisure. Leisure/Loisir: Journal of the Canadian Association for Leisure Studies 32(2): 379–405. Murphy SB, Moynihan MM and Banyard VL (2009) Moving within the spiral. Affilia 24(2): 152–164. Parker RS, Schaefer AD and Hermans CM (2006) An investigation into teens’ attitudes towards fast-food brands in general: a crosscultural analysis. Journal of Foodservice Business Research 9(4): 25–40. Parsa HG and Khan MA (1989) Analysis of menu trends in fast food industry. Journal of Hospitality Tourism Research 13(3): 545. Paxson H (2005) Slow food in a fat society. Gastronomica 5(1): 14–18. Peace A (2008) Terra Madre 2006. Gastronomica 8(2): 31–39. 153 Pernecky T and Jamal T (2010) (Hermeneutic) Phenomenology in tourism studies. Annals of Tourism Research 37(4): 1055–1075. Piggott S (2001) Go slow.

Effect of Currency Exchange Rate on Aggregate Demand Shocks

Effect of Currency Exchange Rate on Aggregate Demand Shocks The exchange rate helps insulate the economy from aggregate demand shocks but it may need unsettlingly large changes to do so. This paper will examine the extent to which the exchange rate of a currency can be used to insulate an economy from aggregate demand shocks. First, it will define aggregate demand. Second, it will look at the monetary implications of the aggregate demand curve. Thirdly it will look define aggregate demand shocks and their effect on the aggregate demand curve. Fourthly, it will examine the ways in which the exchange rate can be used to reduce the impact of an aggregate demand shock. Finally, the question of whether using the exchange rate as a means of reducing the impact of an aggregate demand shock will be examined to determine whether it is a feasible strategy and whether the amounts required would be unsettling or not. Aggregate Demand (AD) refers to the total demand (d) in the economy (Y) for goods and services at a certain price level and at a certain time. AD in an economy is the sum of all consumption (C), investment (I), government spending (G) and net exports (NX), where NX is equal to total exports (X) minus total imports (M). This can be represented mathematically as: [1] Aggregate demand is represented by the AD curve, which will show the relationship between price levels and the quantity that producers are willing to provide at that price. The relationship between AD and price is normally negative, showing that the less people are willing to pay, the less firms will produce or, from the other point of view, the less firms charge, the more people will buy. Below is a simple AD ‘curve’: In the chart above, the AD ‘curve’ is represented by a negatively sloped line. If prices (P) are lower, demand (Y) is greater. This negative relationship between price and demand has a number of important monetary consequences. It is necessary to briefly examine these prior to examining the relationship between exchange rates and aggregate demand.[2] Firstly, price levels (P) have a direct relationship to the real value of money. This is because as price levels (P) decrease, the purchasing power of consumers increases, meaning that the real value of the money they hold increases. Likewise, if P increases, consumers get less for the same money, or the real value of their money has decreased. Therefore, P and the real value of money are inversely related to each other.[3] Secondly, decreases in P cause an increase in the real interest rate. Interest rates, the price a borrower pays to borrow, or the return a lender receives for lending, can be expressed as a nominal or real rate. The nominal rate is the amount that must be paid for borrowing, expressed solely in money terms. The real interest rate is the nominal rate adjusted to take account of inflation (p). Thus real interest rates are expressed by the following formula: Thus, the higher p, the lower the real interest rate. Therefore, any increase in inflation will generally lead to pressure on the nominal interest rate to increase, to offset the deduction that will result from inflation. However, as we have seen above, price level decreases add to the real value of money, this is the same as saying that they decrease inflation. A decrease in inflation will mean that real interest rates are now higher than they were before the decrease in inflation. Therefore, price level decreases raise real interest rates and cause pressure for interest rates to be reduced.[4] Thirdly, lower prices increase the international competitiveness of the economy, and this should be reflected in increased international demand for the economy’s exports, causing a rise in net exports and thus in the aggregate demand. Now we will look at aggregate demand shocks. A demand shock is an event that is sudden and unexpected, and has the effect of measurably affecting the demand for goods and services in the economy, either positively or negatively, for a temporary period of time.[5] That is to say, the event shifts the AD curve, either to the right or to the left. A positive demand shock increases demand and shifts the curve to the right, resulting in higher prices. A negative demand shock decreases demand, shifts the curve to the left, and thus leads to a decrease in prices. Any number of events could constitute a demand shock, from an unexpected tax cut that increases consumer spending, to a dip in consumer confidence that decreases consumer spending. Likewise, an economic boom in for example China could result in higher exports to China, increasing demand. The danger of an aggregate demand shock is that they are a cause of uncertainty in the economy. Uncertainty makes it difficult for firms, government and consumers to budget properly and make the most effective investment and saving decisions. Both positive and negative demand shocks can be harmful, however, negative shocks are generally more feared. A negative demand shock, such as a drop in consumer spending, will lead to price decreases and the 2008 global financial crisis has been traced to such a demand shock in the US, which led to a fall in house prices, causing problems in the US subprime mortgage sector that then extended to the rest of the financial sector and wider economy. However, positive demand shocks, such as China’s increased demand for raw materials to fuel its economic growth have led to price increases in a number of important commodities that have also caused economic difficulties around the globe. Therefore, the consensus is that demand shocks of either ty pe are dangerous and any means of dampening them available to governments are desirable.[6] So could exchange rates be used to dampen a demand shock? A brief look at the relationship between monetary factors and the demand curve will demonstrate that exchange rates can be used to affect the demand curve. Therefore, in a positive demand shock, exchange rates could be used to decrease demand and in a negative demand shock, exchange rates could be used to increase demand. The relationship between two currencies may be nominal (e), or it may be real (RER). The real exchange rate takes into account variances in price levels in the two economies. P represents price in the domestic economy and P* the price in the foreign economy. [7] The exchange rate can be used to increase or decrease the price of goods in the economy relative to other economies. This will in turn impact on the international demand for a country’s products. This will impact on the net export figure (NX). A higher exchange rate will decrease international demand and thus will pressure a demand curve towards the left. This could be used to temper a positive demand shock that had increased demand for goods and pressured the curve towards the right. Likewise, a lower exchange rate will increase international demand, increasing exports and shifting the demand curve to the left. This could be used in the event of a negative demand shock to reduce the impact of the shock.[8] Basically, if any sector of demand changes rapidly, the government can seek to push exports in the opposite direction by making them more or less expensive. It is a simple idea and manipulating exports may be more desirable than manipulating other elements of demand, such as government spending, and may be easier to manipulate than, for example, consumer spending. Finally, the question must be asked, is the approach feasible? A central bank can quite easily impact on exchange rates by trading in its own currency. Buying will increase the exchange rate and selling will decrease the exchange rate. However, in order to move a currency value significantly, a central bank would be required to buy or sell a ‘significant’ amount of a currency. So what constitutes a ‘significant amount’ in the foreign exchange market? The global currency market is the largest and most liquid asset class in the world. The accepted size of this market in 2007 was generally put at about two trillion dollars a day. That would make it ten to fifteen times the size of the bond market and fifty times the size of the equities market. That means on a normal trading day, two trillion dollars passes hands. It would take an enormous amount of selling or buying by a central bank to make a dent in this market. A central bank that stepped in to buy or sell a couple of billion dollars worth of their currency would barely be noticed on the market, especially for the major currencies. And the question arises, how would a government fund such an intervention? It is also estimated that about 85 to 90 percent of the forex market is made up of speculators, meaning that attempts to manipulate exchange rates would be vulnerable to massive speculator bets which would have the power to undo any effect a government had on price movements.[9] Also, given the side effects of exchange rate changes, such as the relationship of the exchange rate to inflation, it is likely that the cost of moving the exchange rate, just to get the indirect benefit of altering net exports, would outweigh the benefit.[10] Therefore, it is concluded here that while exchange rates could be manipulated to insulate the economy from aggregate demand shocks, it amount of intervention required would be too large to justify the measure. Bibliography Dutt Ros, Aggregate demand shocks and economic growth, Struct.C.Ec.Dy 18 (2007) 75-99 Hargreaves-Heap, S.P., 1980. Choosing the wrong natural rate: accelerating inà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ation or decelerating employment and growth? Economic Journal 90, 239–253 Krugman Obstfeld, (2005) International Economics: Theory and Policy, 6th ed., Pearson: London Krugman, (1987) The narrowing band, the Dutch disease and the competitiveness consequences of Mrs. Thatcher, Notes of Trade in the Presence of Dynamic Scale Economies, Journal of Development Economics (Oct) 1987 p. 321 Krugman, (1998) The Age of Diminishing Expectation, MIT Press: Cambridge MA. Li, X.M., 2000. The Great leap Forward, economic reforms, and the unit root hypothesis: testing for breaking trend functions in China’s GDP data. Journal of Comparative Economics 28 (4), 814–827 Perron, P., 1989. The Great Crash, the Oil Price Shock, and the Unit Root Hypothesis. Econometrica 57, 1361–1401 Romer, D., 1996. Advanced Macroeconomics. McGraw Hill: New York. Romer, D., 2000. Keynesian macroeconomics without the LM curve. Journal of Economic Perspectives 14 (Spring (2)), 149–169 Tobin, (1975) Keynesian Models of Recession and Depression, Am. Ec. Rev. 65, 195-202 Footnotes [1] Krugman Obstfeld, (2005) International Economics: Theory and Policy, 6th ed., Pearson: London [2] Krugman, (1998) The Age of Diminishing Expectation, MIT Press: Cambridge MA. [3] Dutt Ros, Aggregate demand shocks and economic growth, Struct.C.Ec.Dy 18 (2007) 75-99 [4] Krugman, (1987) The narrowing band, the Dutch disease and the competitiveness consequences of Mrs. Thatcher, Notes of Trade in the Presence of Dynamic Scale Economies, Journal of Development Economics (Oct) 1987 p. 321 [5] Tobin, (1975) Keynesian Models of Recession and Depression, Am. Ec. Rev. 65, 195-202 [6] Perron, P., 1989. The Great Crash, the Oil Price Shock, and the Unit Root Hypothesis. Econometrica 57, 1361–1401 [7] Romer, D., 1996. Advanced Macroeconomics. McGraw Hill: New York. [8] Romer, D., 2000. Keynesian macroeconomics without the LM curve. Journal of Economic Perspectives 14 (Spring (2)), 149–169 [9] Li, X.M., 2000. The Great leap Forward, economic reforms, and the unit root hypothesis: testing for breaking trend functions in China’s GDP data. Journal of Comparative Economics 28 (4), 814–827 [10] Hargreaves-Heap, S.P., 1980. Choosing the wrong natural rate: accelerating inà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ation or decelerating employment and growth? Economic Journal 90, 239–253

Oscar De La Hoya :: essays research papers

Oscar De La Hoya is a famous professional boxer. He is known all over the world for his looks, talent in the ring and his great sportsmanship. He is one of the best fighters in the field of boxing and a good role model for young children in the world today. PERSONAL Oscar De La Hoya lives and was born in East Los Angeles, California on February 4, 1973. His parents names are Joel, a former professional boxer from Durango, Mexico, and Dona Cecilia De La Hoya. His mother, Cecilia, passed away in her late thirties when breast cancer attacked her body. Oscar is the youngest boy in the family. He has an older brother name Joel, Jr., and a little sister name Maria. As a boy, Oscar never did like fighting or any physical sports. (Oscar, 1) He never looked like a type of person that would like those kind of things. Everytime he got into a fight with another kid, he always ran immediately to his house and cried. Don Joel, his father did not think much of it. For the fifth or sixth time, however, Don Joel started to believe that his son had a problem because, not fighting back when attacked was hardly a Mexican custom. So he decided that the best medicine for his disgrace, within the family, was to bring Oscar to visit a boxing gym. After all, Don Joel himself got the same medicine from his father, who had boxed in Mexico in the amateur ranks in the 1930's. (Kawakami, 18) BOXING CAREER Oscar first saw boxing gloves when he was five years old. From then on he was a boxer all his life. He started winning awards and trophies when he was eleven years old. Oscar De La Hoya never went to college, he finished high school and focused all his energy on his boxing. As an amateur, De La Hoya spent the early mornings running through the streets of East Los Angeles to train. Oscar De La Hoya, also known as " Golden Boy", first captured America's hearts by becoming the only American boxer to win an Olympic Gold Medal at the 1992 summer games. Oscar got his nickname by publicist John Beyrooty introducing him with the name "Golden Boy" at a press conference. After a few months Oscar won America's only gold medal. Oscar's professional career hit the stratosphere in June 11, 1994. (Hoffer, 56) He sky-rocketed through the professional ranks becoming the undisputed, undefeated lightweight champion of the world in just his twenty fights. De La Hoya, earned $9 million dollars for the bout and preserved his position as boxing non--heavy weight superstar. Oscar De La Hoya :: essays research papers Oscar De La Hoya is a famous professional boxer. He is known all over the world for his looks, talent in the ring and his great sportsmanship. He is one of the best fighters in the field of boxing and a good role model for young children in the world today. PERSONAL Oscar De La Hoya lives and was born in East Los Angeles, California on February 4, 1973. His parents names are Joel, a former professional boxer from Durango, Mexico, and Dona Cecilia De La Hoya. His mother, Cecilia, passed away in her late thirties when breast cancer attacked her body. Oscar is the youngest boy in the family. He has an older brother name Joel, Jr., and a little sister name Maria. As a boy, Oscar never did like fighting or any physical sports. (Oscar, 1) He never looked like a type of person that would like those kind of things. Everytime he got into a fight with another kid, he always ran immediately to his house and cried. Don Joel, his father did not think much of it. For the fifth or sixth time, however, Don Joel started to believe that his son had a problem because, not fighting back when attacked was hardly a Mexican custom. So he decided that the best medicine for his disgrace, within the family, was to bring Oscar to visit a boxing gym. After all, Don Joel himself got the same medicine from his father, who had boxed in Mexico in the amateur ranks in the 1930's. (Kawakami, 18) BOXING CAREER Oscar first saw boxing gloves when he was five years old. From then on he was a boxer all his life. He started winning awards and trophies when he was eleven years old. Oscar De La Hoya never went to college, he finished high school and focused all his energy on his boxing. As an amateur, De La Hoya spent the early mornings running through the streets of East Los Angeles to train. Oscar De La Hoya, also known as " Golden Boy", first captured America's hearts by becoming the only American boxer to win an Olympic Gold Medal at the 1992 summer games. Oscar got his nickname by publicist John Beyrooty introducing him with the name "Golden Boy" at a press conference. After a few months Oscar won America's only gold medal. Oscar's professional career hit the stratosphere in June 11, 1994. (Hoffer, 56) He sky-rocketed through the professional ranks becoming the undisputed, undefeated lightweight champion of the world in just his twenty fights. De La Hoya, earned $9 million dollars for the bout and preserved his position as boxing non--heavy weight superstar.

Graduation Speech -- Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

When they were trying to find someone to give this speech they first asked the most intelligent, smart person they could find. But she turned them down. So then they asked the most beautiful, lovely, attractive person they could find. She also turned them down. Next they asked the nicest, sweetest, kindest, most sincere person they could find. Then I decided it would be rude to turn them down three times in a row, so here I am. How many people here like tomato soup? Come on, raise your hand if you like tomato soup. OK, thank you. That was a really simple question, you either like it or you don't. I wish high school had been that easy. However, as we all know, it wasn't. As the National Honor Society speaker, you probably expect me to speak about something very scholarly, but I'm not....

The Relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth :: Free Macbeth Essays

The Relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth Throughout the play of "Macbeth" written by William Shakespeare there is an on-going relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. This relationship is one of the functions of the play that creates most of the actions, reactions, moods, feelings and attitudes. Macbeth's relationship with his wife was not always great. This is shown in one of there conversations; MACBETH: "We will proceed no further in this business: He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people, Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, Not cast aside so soon."(Macbeth,I,vii, ) LADY MACBETH. "Was the hope drunk Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since? And wakes it now, to look so green and pale At what it did so freely? From this time Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valor As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, And live a coward in thine own esteem; Letting "I dare not" wait upon "I would," Like the poor cat i' the adage?"(Macbeth,I,vii, ) In these two quotes we see that there is a disagreement that continues through the entire scene. Macbeth decides that he does not want to murder Duncan and that is final and that the discussion is over. Lady Macbeth on the other hand feels that Macbeth is being a coward and that he should think about what he is doing before he makes up his mind. Slowly throughout the scene Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth that he should kill Duncan and he finally agrees. This goes to show that the relationship produces a sense of trust and openness. This is due to the fact that Macbeth listens to his wife and finally takes what she has to say into thought and carries through with it. The function of this is to create a sense of hostility amongst the audience. Everyone can't believe that Lady Macbeth is encouraging her husband to kill someone and it really makes them uncomfortable and shifts there mood of love towards Lady Macbeth to hate. This mood of the audience is highened in Act 2 Scene 2 when once again Macbeth has decided that he is going to stop what he is doing although he had already killed Duncan;

Phonetics as a Branch of Linguistics

GLOSSARY Academic style – also scientific style, a style of speech used in lectures, scientific discussions, conferences, etc Accent – 1) type of pronunciation, that is the way sounds, stress, rhythm and intonation are used in the given language community. 2) see stress. Accommodation – modifications of consonants under the influence of the neighbouring vowels and vice versa. Acoustic Phonetics – science which deals with the physical property of sounds.Affricates – noise consonants produced with a complete obstruction which is slowly released and the air stream escapes from the mouth with some friction. Allophones – variants of a phoneme, usually occur in different positions in the word, cannot contrast with each other and are not used to differentiate the meaning. Alveolar – sounds produced with the tip of the tongue against the upper teeth (alveolar) ridge. American English – the national variant of the English language spoke n in the USA.Amplitude – the distance to which the air particles are displaced from their position of rest by the application of some external force. Apical – sounds articulated with the tip of the tongue. Applied Phonetics – a branch of phonetics used for practical purposes in speech therapy and logopedia. Articulatory Phonetics – also Physiological Phonetics, a branch of phonetics which is concerned with the study of speech sounds as regards their production by the human speech organs. Ascending head – a type of head in which syllables form an ascending sequence.Assimilation – The modification of a consonant by a neighbouring consonant in the speech chain. Auditory Phonetics – a branch of phonetics which is concerned with the way our auditory mechanism works to process speech information, also Perceptual Phonetics. Back vowels – vowels formed with the tongue in the back part of the mouth. Back-advanced vowels – vowels formed with the tongue in the back-advanced position in the mouth. Back-lingual – see velar. BBC English – the accent used on BBC radio and TV channels, is considered a standard English spoken in Great Britain, also Received Pronunciation.Bilabial – sounds produced when both lips are active. Bilingualism – the command of 2 different languages by a person. British English – the national variant of the English language spoken in Great Britain. Broad transcription – also phonemic transcription, provides special symbols for all the phonemes of a language. Broad variations – a subclass of the vertical positions of the tongue which in this case is placed slightly lower in the mouth cavity. Cacuminal – sounds articulated with the tip of the tongue curled back.Central vowels – sounds articulated when the front part of the tongue is raised towards the back part of the hard palate. Checked vowels – short stressed vowels fol lowed by strong voiceless consonants. Checkness – a vowel property which depends on the character of articulatory transition from a vowel to a consonant Close vowels – sounds articulated when the tongue is raised high towards the hard palate. Closed syllable – a syllable which ends in a consonant. Coda – one or more phonemes that follow the syllabic phoneme.Communicative centre – a word or a group of words which conveys the most important point of communication in the sentence or the utterance. Commutation test – the procedure of substituting a sound for another sound in the same phonetic environment with the aim of establishing the phonemic system of a language Comparative Phonetics – a branch of phonetics which studies the correlation between the phonetic systems of two or more languages Consonant – a sound made with air stream that meets an obstruction in the mouth or nasal cavities.Conversational style – also convers ational style, a style of speech used in everyday communication. Declamatory style – a style of speech used in stage speech, recitations, etc. Delimitation – segmentation of speech into phrases and intonation groups. Dental – sounds produced with the blade of the tongue against the upper teeth Descending head – a type of head in which syllables form an descending sequence Descriptive Phonetics – a branch of phonetics that studies the phonetic structure of one language only in its static form, synchronically.Devoicing – a process that results in a voiced consonant being pronounced as voiceless. Dialect – a variety of language which differs from others in vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. Diglossia – a phenomenon when an individual may speak RP in one situation a native local accent in other situations. Dynamic stress – force accent based mainly on the expiratory effect. Diphthong – a vowel which consists of tw o elements, strong (a nucleus) and weak – (a glide).Diphthongoid – a vowel articulated when the change in the tongue position is fairly weak, in this case the articulated vowel is not pure, but it still consists of one element. Direct methods – methods of phonetic investigation which consist in observing the movements and positions of one's own or other people's organs of speech in pronouncing various speech sounds, as well as in analysing one's own kinaesthetic sensations during the articulation of speech sounds and in comparing them with the resultant auditory impressions. Discourse – a larger context in which sentences occur.Dorsal – sounds produced when the blade of the tongue is active. Duration – the quantity of time during which the same vibratory motion, the same patterns of vibration are maintained. Elision – complete loss of sounds, both vowels and consonants, often observed in spoken English. Enclitic – unstressed wo rds or syllables which refer to the preceding stressed word or syllable. Estuary English – a variety of modified regional speech, a mixture of non-regional and local south-eastern English pronunciation and intonation. Estuary English speakers place themselves â€Å"between Cockney and the Queen†.Experimental Phonetics – a branch of phonetics which deals with research work carried out with the help of different technical devices for measurements and for instrumental analysis Extra-linguistic factors – non-linguistic factors, such as the purpose of utterance, participants and setting or scene of speaking, which result in phonostylistic varieties. Familiar style – see conversational style. Forelingual – sounds articulated with the front part of the tongue Fortis consonants – voiceless consonants pronounced with strong muscular tension and strong expiratory effect.Free variants – variants of a single phoneme which occur in a langua ge but the speakers are inconsistent in the way they use them, as for example in the case of the Russian words â€Å"/ †. Free vowel – a weak vowel followed by a weak (lenis) voiced consonant or by no consonant at all. Frequency – a number of vibrations per second. Fricative – constrictive noise consonants articulated when the air escapes with friction through the narrowing formed by speech organs. Front vowels – vowels in the production of which the body of the tongue is in the front part of the mouth cavity and the front of the tongue is raised.Front-retracted vowels – vowels produced with the body of the tongue in the front but retracted position in the mouth cavity. Functional Phonetics – see phonology. General American – the national standard of the English language spoken in the USA. General Phonetics – a branch of phonetics that studies all the sound-producing possibilities of the human speech apparatus and the wa ys they are used for purposes of human communication by means of language. Glide – the second weak element of English diphthongs. Glottal – sounds articulated in the glottis.Glottal stop – a sound heard when the glottis opens suddenly and produces an explosion resembling a short cough. Glottis – the opening between the vocal cords, through which the air passes. Hard palate – the roof of the mouth. Head – part of the intonation group, contains stressed syllables preceding the nucleus with the intervening unstressed syllables. Hesitation pause – silent or filled pause mainly used in spontaneous speech to gain time to think over what to say next. Historical Phonetics – a branch of phonetics that studies the phonetic structure of a language in its historical development, diachronically.Idiolect – individual speech of members of the same language community Informational style – a style of speech used by radio and telev ision announcers conveying information or in various official situations. Instrumental methods – methods of phonetic investigation based upon registering or computing machines and technical devices Intensity – a property of a sound produced by the amplitude of vibrations. Interdental – sounds articulated with the tip of the tongue projected between the teeth. International Phonetic Alphabet – a set of symbols adopted by theInternational Phonetic Association as a universal system for the transcription of speech sounds. Intonation – pitch (or melody) variations used to convey meaning. See also prosody Intonation group – an actualized syntagm. Intonation pattern – pitch movements together with loudness and the tempo of speech extending over an intonation group. Intonation style – a complex of interrelated intonational means which is used in a social situation and serves a definite aim of communication. Intonogramme – the pi cture of the sound wave of a syllable, word or an utterance received with the help of intonograph.Intonograph – a technical device which gives pictures of sound waves of syllables, words and utterances. Kinetic – relating to motion. Labial – sounds articulated by the lips. Labiodental – sounds articulated with the lower lip against the edge of the upper teeth Laryngoscope – a special device which helps to observe the vocal cords, epiglottis and the glottis. Larynx – part of the vocal tract containing the vocal cords. Lateral – sounds produced when the sides of the tongue are active. Lateral plosion – sudden release of air which escapes along the sides of the tongue.Lax – historically short vowels in the articulation of which muscular tension of speech organs is weak. Lenis consonants – voiced consonants pronounced with weak muscular tension. Lip rounding – a position of the lips when their corners are broug ht toward one another so that the mouth opening is reduced. Loudness – the intensity of sound is produced by the amplitude of vibrations. Manner of articulation – one of the principles of consonant classifications which is connected with the type of obstruction to the air stream.Maximum onsets principle – Medio-lingual – sounds produced with the front part of the tongue raised high to the hard palate Minimal pair – a pair of words or morphemes which are differentiated by one sound only in the same position. Modifications of sounds – positional and combinatory changes of sounds in connected speech. Monophthong – a vowel articulated when the tongue position is stable, in this case the articulated vowel is pure, it consists of one element. Mouth cavity – the cavity between the teeth and the pharynx. Narrow transcription also phonetic transcription, provides special symbols for all the allophones of the same phoneme Narrow variatio ns – a subclass of the vertical positions of the tongue which in this case is raised slightly higher in the mouth cavity Nasal consonants – sounds articulated when the soft palate is lowered and the air stream goes out through the nose. Nasal Cavity – the cavity inside the nose which is separated from the mouth cavity with the soft palate and the uvula. Nasal plosion – sudden release of air by lowering the soft palate so that the air escapes through the nose.National variants – the language of a nation, the standard of its form, the language of its nation’s literature. Neutral vowel – a mid central vowel, also schwa. Neutralisation – the loss of qualitative and quantitative characteristics of vowels in unstressed positions. Noise consonants – consonants in the production of which noise prevails over voice, the air stream passes through a narrowing and produces audible friction (compare with sonorants). Normative Phonetic s – see Practical Phonetics. Notation – another term for transcription.Nuclear tone – a significant change of pitch direction on the last strongly accented syllable in an intonation pattern. In general nuclear tones may be falling, rising and level or a combination of these movements. Nucleus – 1) the last strongly accented syllable in an intonation pattern; 2) the most prominent part of a diphthong; 3) the centre of a syllable, usually a vowel. Obstructer mechanism – a group of speech organs which form obstructions during articulation of consonants, it includes tongue, lips, hard and soft palate and teeth.Occlusive – sounds produced when a complete obstruction to the air stream is formed. Onset – sounds that precede the nucleus of a syllable. Open syllable – a syllable which ends in a vowel. Open vowels – vowels produced when the tongue is in the low part of the mouth cavity. Opposition – see phonetic oppositions . Oral consonants – sounds articulated when the soft palate is raised and the air stream goes out through the mouth. Organs of speech – the human organs which together with biological functions take part in sound production.Palatal – sounds produced with the front part of the tongue raised high to the hard palate. Palatalisation – softening of consonants due to the raised position of the middle part of the tongue towards the hard palate. Palato-alveolar – sounds made with the tip or the blade of the tongue against the teeth ridge and the front part of the tongue raised towards the hard palate, thus having two places of articulation (two foci). Paralinguistics – a branch of linguistics which is concerned with non-verbal means of communication. Perceptual Phonetics – see Auditory Phonetics.Pharynx – the part of the throat which connects the larynx to the upper part of the vocal tract. Phonation – voicing, the vibration of the vocal cords. Phone – a sound realised in speech and which bears some individual, stylistic and social characteristics of the speaker. Phoneme – the smallest further indivisible language unit that exists in the speech of all the members of a given language community as such speech sounds which are capable of distinguishing one word of the same language or one grammatical form of a word from another grammatical form of the same word.Phonemic transcription – see broad transcription. Phonetic mistakes – pronunciation mistakes made when an allophone of some phoneme is replaced by an allophone of a different phoneme. Phonetic oppositions – comparison of sounds, words and morphemes in order to single out their minimal distinctive features. Phonetic transcription – see narrow transcription. Phonetics – a branch of linguistics which is concerned with the human noises by which the thought is actualized. Phonetics analyses the nature of thes e sounds, their combinations and their functions in relation to the meaning.Phonological analysis – analysis whose aim is to determine which differences of sounds are phonemic/non-phonemic and to find the inventory of the phonemes of this or that language Phonological mistakes – pronunciation mistakes made when an allophone of the phoneme is replaced by another allophone of the same phoneme; in this case the meaning of the word is affected. Phonology – also Functional Phonetics, a branch of phonetics that is concerned with the social functions of different phonetic phenomena.Phonosemantics – a branch of psycholinguistics that studies the relations between the sound structure of a word and its meaning. Phonostylistics – a branch of phonetics that studies the way phonetic means of the language function in various oral realizations of the language. Phonotactics – the study of the possible phoneme combinations of a language. Physiological Phonet ics – see Articulatory Phonetics. Pitch – the auditory characteristic of a sound, it corresponds to the fundamental frequency (the rate of vibrations of the vocal cords). Pitch level – a particular height of pitch.Pitch range – the interval between two pitch levels or two differently pitched syllables or parts of a syllable. Place of articulation – the place in the vocal tract where the air stream is obstructed. Plosives – consonants produced when the air stream is completely stopped for a short time, also stops. Post-alveolar – sounds articulated with the tip or the blade of the tongue against the back part of the teeth ridge Power mechanism – a group of speech organs which supplies energy for sound production, it includes lungs, diaphragm, windpipe, bronchi.Practical Phonetics – a branch of phonetics which teaches how to pronounce sounds correctly and what intonation to use to convey this or that meaning or emotion. It is called Normative Phonetics because teaches the â€Å"norm† of English pronunciation. Pragmalinguistics – a branch of linguistics that studies what linguistic means and ways of influence on a hearer to choose in order to bring about certain effects in the process of communication. Pragmaphonetics – a branch of Pragmalinguistics whose domain is to analyse the functioning and speech effects of the sound system of a language.Pre-head – the unstressed syllables which precede the first stressed syllable of the head. Primary stress – the strongest stress compared with the other stresses in a word. Principal allophone – allophones which do not undergo any significant changes in the chain of speech. Proclitic – unstressed words or syllables which refer to the following stressed word or syllable Prosody – a complex unity formed by significant variations of pitch, tempo, loudness and timbre. Psycholinguistics – a branch of ling uistics which covers an extremely broad rea, from acoustic phonetics to language pathology, and includes such problems as acquisition of language by children, memory, attention, speech perception, second-language acquisition and so on. Publicistic style – a style of speech used in public discussions on political, judicial or economic topics, sermons, parliamentary debates Qualitative – connected with the spectral characteristics of a sound. Quantitative – referring to the length of a sound. Received Pronunciation (RP) – the national standard of the English language spoken in Great Britain. Reduced vowel – a weakened vowel.Reduction – weakening (either qualitative or quantitative) of vowels in unstressed positions. Resonator mechanism – a group of speech organs which can change their shape and volume, thus forming the spectral component of the sound, it includes nasal and mouth cavities. Rhyme Rhythm – recurrence of stressed syl lables at more or less equal intervals of time in speech. Rhythmic group – a speech segment which contains a stressed syllable and a number of unstressed ones. The most frequent type of an English rhythmic group includes 2-4 syllables, one of which is stressed.Rounded – a sound articulated with added lip rounding. Schwa – see neutral vowel. Scientific style – see academic style. Secondary allophones – allophones which undergo some predictable changes in different phonetic context. Secondary stress – a less strong stress than the primary one, usually precedes the primary stress in a word. Segmental Phonetics – a division of phonetics which is concerned with individual sounds (â€Å"segments† of speech) Segmentation – division of speech into phrases and intonation groups. Semantic centre – see communicative centre.Sentence stress – the greater degree of prominence given to certain words in an utterance. Socio linguistics – a branch of linguistics that studies the way the language interacts with society. Soft palate – the back, soft part of the hard palate. Sonorants – consonants in the production of which noise prevails over voice, the air stream passes through a narrowing and produces audible friction (compare with sonorants). Sonority – a degree of loudness relative to that of other sounds with the same length, stress and pitch.Special Phonetics – a branch of phonetics which is concerned with the study of the phonetic structure of one language only. Spectrogram – a picture of the spectrum of sounds, their frequency, intensity and time. Spectrograph – a device which carries out the spectral analysis of speech. Stops – see plosives Stress – a greater degree of prominence which is caused by loudness, pitch, the length of a syllable and the vowel quality. Stress-timed languages – in these languages stressed syllables ten d to occur at relatively regular intervals irrespectively of the number of unstressed syllables separating them.Strong vowel – the full form of a vowel in the stressed position. Stylistic modifications – sound changes which happen under the influence of extra-linguistics factors. Subsidiary allophone – see secondary allophone. Suprasegmental Phonetics – a division of phonetics whose domain is larger units of connected speech: syllables, words, phrases and texts Syllable – a sound sequence, consisting of a centre which has little or no obstruction to airflow and which sounds comparatively loud; before and after this centre there will be greater obstruction to airflow and less loud sound.Syllable-timed languages – in these languages all syllables, whether stressed or unstressed, tend to occur at regular time-intervals and the time between stressed syllables will be shorter or longer depending on the number of unstressed syllables separating th em. Syntagm – a group of words which is semantically and syntactically complete. Tail – any syllables between the nucleus and the end of the utterance. Tamber – the same as timbre. Tempo – the rate of the utterance and pausation. Tense – historically long vowels in the articulation of which muscular tension of speech organs is great.Terminal tone – the nucleus and the tail of the utterance. Tertiary stress – a less strong stress than the primary one, usually follows the primary stress in a word. Theoretical Phonetics – a branch of phonetics which is mainly concerned with the functioning of phonetic units in the language. It discusses the problems of phonetics in academic terms and gives a scientific approach to the phonetic theory. Timbre – voice quality. Tone languages – the meaning of words in these languages depends on the variations of voice pitch in relation to neighbouring syllables.Tongue – the most movable and flexible speech organ. Transcription – the system of symbols to represent speech in written form. Unstressed – bearing no stress. Utterance – a spoken sentence or a phrase. Uvula – the end of the soft palate. Velar – consonants produced with the back part of the tongue raised towards the soft palate Vibrator mechanism – a group of speech organs which vibrate while the air passes through, thus producing voice, it includes larynx, vocal cords, glottis. Vocal cords – two soft folds in the larynx which can be brought together and apart, thus producing voice.Voice quality – timbre. Voiced consonants – sounds produced when the vocal cords are brought together and vibrate. Voiceless consonants – sounds produced when the vocal cords are brought together and vibrate. Vowel – a sound in the production of which no obstructions are made. Weak form – the unstressed form of a sound or a word. Windpipe – trachea or air passage. Word stress – a greater degree of prominence on one of the syllables in a word. I. PHONETICS AS A BRANCH OF LINGUISTICS. BRANCHES OF PHONETICS. METHODS OF INVESTIGATION 1. 1 IntroductionKnowledge of the structure of sound system and its articulatory and acoustic characteristics is very important in teaching and learning foreign languages. The teacher has to know the starting point from which to begin teaching; he must be able to point out the differences between the pupil’s mother tongue and the language to be learnt. He should be able to choose adequate training exercises. That’s why it is vital to know, at least, the basic principles of this science. The term â€Å"phonetics† comes from the Greek words meaning â€Å"sound or matters pertaining to voice†. What does phonetics study?It is concerned with the human noises by which the thought is actualized (that is the oral aspect of speech communication). However phon etics takes the content level into consideration too. Only meaningful sound sequences are regarded as speech and phonetics is concerned only with such sounds which are carriers of organized information of a language. Phonetics analyses the nature of these sounds, their combinations and their functions in relation to the meaning. No kind of linguistic study can be carried out without constant consideration of the material on the expression level.Consequently, phonetics is important in the study of a language. An understanding of it is a basis for any adequate understanding of the structure or functioning of a language. It follows from this that phonetics is a basic branch – many would say the most fundamental branch of linguistics, because it gives a language a definite form. The vocabulary and grammar of a language can function only when the language has a phonetic form. So grammar and vocabulary depend on phonetics, they cannot exist outside of phonetics, because all lexical and grammar phenomena are expressed phonetically.Neither linguistic theory nor linguistic description can do without phonetics and is complete without it. Phonetics, being a branch of linguistics, occupies a peculiar position. On the one hand it serves as a means of expressing grammatical and lexical phenomena. On the other hand it has laws of its own which are independent of grammar and vocabulary. Besides it is closely connected with a number of other sciences, such as physics, biology, physiology, psychology etc. The more phonetics develops the more various branches of science become involved in the field of phonetic investigation.Phonetics is not a new science. It was known to the ancient Greeks and to the ancient Hindus. The scientists of that time were concerned with speech sounds only. It may be said that the orthography of all written languages which use alphabets developed in the course of a very detailed phonetic analysis. Nevertheless, phonetics as an independent science began to develop only in the 19th century, before that it used to be a part of grammar. There has been considerable progress and growth in the 20th century. New concepts, methods of investigation, new theories and schools have been developed.Not only has the sphere of investigation in phonetics become wider, but several new branches of phonetics have also arisen. So our further point will be made on the branches and divisions of phonetics. 1. 2 Branches and Divisions of Phonetics Everyone who starts learning a foreign language first of all is introduced into practical or normative phonetics. It studies the material form of phonetic phenomena in relation to meaning. It teaches how to pronounce sounds correctly and what intonation to use to convey this or that meaning or emotion. It is called normative because we are to teach the â€Å"norm† of English pronunciation.Theoretical phonetics is mainly concerned with the functioning of phonetic units in the language. It discusses t he problems of phonetics in academic terms and gives a scientific approach to the phonetic theory. Other two important branches of phonetics are special and general phonetics. Special phonetics may be subdivided into descriptive and historical. Special descriptive phonetics is concerned with the study of the phonetic structure of one language only in its static form, synchronically and the domain of special historical phonetics is the phonetic structure of a language in its historical development, diachronically.Historical phonetics is part of the history of a language. Its aim is to trace and establish the successive changes in the phonetic system of a given language at different stages of its historical development. It is very important for the study of the modern phonetic system because without a historical approach it is impossible to understand how this modern phonetic system has developed and what further changes it is likely to undergo.General phonetics studies all the sound- producing possibilities of the human speech apparatus and the ways they are used for purposes of human communication by means of language, it finds out what types of speech sounds exist in various languages of the world, how they are produced and what role they play in forming and expressing thoughts; it also determines the nature, types and role of other phonetic means, such as word stress and intonation.General phonetics is based on the material which the special phonetics of a great number of languages provides; it also uses data of other sciences: physics, biology, psychology, speech pathology, etc. So it makes a number of general conclusions concerning the complex nature of speech sounds, analyses phonetic phenomena from different points of view and formulates phonetic theories. On the one hand general phonetics is based on the data of special phonetics; on the other hand it provides valuable theoretical material which enables us to understand and to interpret correctly differe nt phonetic phenomena of concrete languages.Another important division is into phonology and phonetics. According to the conception of the Prague Linguistic School phonetics and phonology are two independent branches of science, phonetics is a biological science which is concerned with the physical and physiological characteristics of speech sounds, and phonology is a linguistic science which is concerned with the social functions of different phonetic phenomena. Another term for this branch is functional phonetics. The father of Phonology is Prince Nicholas Trubetskoi.His work â€Å"Fundementals of Phonology† separates phonetics and phonology, saying that they are not related and that phonetics is not part of linguistics, but a biological science that deals only with the physiological aspect of speech sounds. Nevertheless it doesn't seem logical to separate function from phonetic forms, thus excluding phonetics from the linguistic sciences. So nowadays most phoneticians cons ider both phonetics and phonology part of linguistics. Phonetics itself is subdivided into 3 sub branches, each dealing with special aspects of sounds, their production by a speaker and perception by a listener.Phonetic processing starts on a neurophonetic level, in the brain of a speaker, where the formation of the concept takes place. The human brain controls the behaviour of the articulatory (or speech) organs and makes them move in a particular way. The branch of phonetics which is concerned with the study of speech sounds as regards their production by the human speech organs is called articulatory (physiological) phonetics. In other words it deals with the way human organs join to produce sounds.Articulatory basis of a language is a set of articulation tendencies characteristic for a particular language community, so articulatory gesturing is culturally specific and not universal. Different articulations produce different acoustic effects, or different speech sounds. Consequen tly, speech sounds have a second aspect, a physical or, more exactly, an acoustic one, which constitutes the domain of acoustic phonetics. Acoustic phonetics involves knowledge of physics as it deals with the physical property of sounds. Any sound is a pressure disturbance transmitted through an elastic medium.When articulatory gesturing starts it causes disturbance (a sound wave) in the medium, which is transmitted from one particle of the medium to another and is reproduced as a sound wave travels from the source to the listener. Perceptual or auditory phonetics is concerned with the way our auditory mechanism works to process speech information. There is a boundary line between reception (which doesn't involve understanding) and perception (which involves decoding and understanding). Phonetic perception is a product of sensation and interpretation of speech elements which take place in a human brain.Phonetics is also divided into two major components: segmental phonetics, which i s concerned with individual sounds (â€Å"segments† of speech) and suprasegmental phonetics whose domain is larger units of connected speech: syllables, words, phrases and texts. There are a number of other divisions of phonetics. We may speak about comparative phonetics whose aims are to study the correlation between the phonetic systems of two or more languages and find out the correspondences between speech sounds and intonation structures.Its data are extremely useful in teaching and learning a foreign language as they show differences and similarities of the phonetic systems of two or more languages and predict possible difficulties for the learners. It should be mentioned that the most difficult phonetic phenomena are those absent in the mother tongue. For example, the sounds [? -? ] cause a lot of difficulties for the Russian students of English, as there are no sounds with similar articulations in the Russian language.On the other hand the most stable and persistent p ronunciation mistakes are made in those phenomena which are similar in the two languages but not exactly the same. For example, falling intonation. In English it goes to the very bottom of the voice, while in Russian it is not so steep and it does not reach the same low note as in English. The data of applied phonetics are essential for practical purposes in speech therapy and logopedia. It helps to correct speech defects and to teach deaf-mutes (or people who do not speak as a result of an accident or some disease) to speak.Experimental phonetics deals with research work which is carried out with the help of different technical devices, machines for measurements and for instrumental analysis. Phonetics as a whole and all of its branches have not come into being all at once: they developed gradually, and their development was closely connected with and determined by the development of other branches of linguistics and other sciences. 1. 3. Phonetics and Social Sciences So our furthe r point should be made in connection with the relationship between phonetics and social sciences. Language is not an isolated phenomenon; it is a part of society.No branch of linguistics can be studied without taking into consideration at least the study of other aspects of society. In the past two decades we have seen the development of quite distinct interdisciplinary subjects, such as sociolinguistics (and sociophonetics correspondingly), psycholinguistics, mathematical linguistics and others. As their titles suggest, they are studied from two points of view and thus require knowledge of both. Sociophonetics studies the ways in which pronunciation functions in society. It is interested in the ways in which phonetic structures vary in response to different social functions.Society here is used in its broadest sense, it includes such phenomena as nationality, regional and social groups, age, gender, different situations of speaking – talking to equals, superiors, on the â₠¬Å"job†, when we are trying to persuade, inform, agree and so on. The aim of sociophonetics is to correlate phonetic variations with situational factors. It’s obvious that these data are vital for language learners who are to observe social norms and to accommodate to different situations they find themselves in. One more example of interdisciplinary overlap is the relation of linguistics to psychology.Psycholinguistics covers an extremely broad area, from acoustic phonetics to language pathology, and includes such problems as acquisition of language by children, memory, attention, speech perception, second-language acquisition and so on. Phonosemantics studies the relations between the sound structure of a word and its meaning. There is some data proving that the sounds that constitute a word have their own â€Å"inner† meaning, which causes certain associations in the listener’s mind. For example, close vowels produce the effect of â€Å"smallness†, and voiceless consonants sound more â€Å"unpleasant† and â€Å"rude† than their voiced counterparts, etc.Some sounds are associated with certain colours. These data may be helpful in teaching, for example, â€Å"tying† together the sound structure of a word and its meaning, thus facilitating the process of memorising new words. Scientists have always been interested how children acquire their own language without being taught. They hope that these data might be useful in teaching grown-up people a foreign language, too. Pragmalinguistics is a comparatively new science, which studies what linguistic means and ways of influence on a hearer to choose in order to bring about certain effects in the process of communication.Correspondently the domain of pragmaphonetics is to analyse the functioning and speech effects of the sound system of a language. Phonetics is closely connected with a number of other sciences such as physics (or rather acoustics), mathematics, biology, physiology and others. The more phonetics develops the more various branches of science become involved in the field of phonetic investigation. Phonetics has become important in a number of technological fields connected with communication.Phoneticians work alongside the communication engineers in devising and perfecting machines that can understand, that is respond to human speech, or machines for reading aloud the printed page and vice versa, converting speech directly into printed words on paper. Although scientists are still dissatisfied with the quality of synthesized speech, these data are applied in security systems, answering machines and for other technical purposes. 1. 4. Methods of Phonetic Investigation Methods applied in investigating the sound matter of the language have changed greatly with the development of technology and computer science.From the beginning of phonetics the phonetician has relied mainly on what he could feel of his own speech and on what h e could hear both of his own and the informant’s speech. Such methods are called direct and consist in observing the movements and positions of one's own or other people's organs of speech in pronouncing various speech sounds, as well as in analysing one's own kinaesthetic sensations (muscle tense) during the articulation of speech sounds and in comparing them with the resultant auditory impressions.Investigation by means of this method can be effective only if the persons employing it have been specially trained and have acquired considerable skills in associating the qualities of the perceived sound with the nature of the articulations producing it. Instrumental methods were introduced into phonetics in the last century to supplement the impressions deriving from the human senses. These methods are based upon registering or computing machines and technical devices, such as spectrograph, intonograph, x-ray photography and cinematography, laryngoscope and some others.The intr oduction of machines for measurements and for instrumental analysis into phonetics has resulted in their use for detailed study of many of the phenomena which are present in the sound wave or in the articulatory process at any given moment. These techniques can be very useful both for discovering in detail how English speakers produce their speech sounds, and for demonstrating to learners of English their pronunciation. Computers can provide additional pronunciation training, displaying useful information on the screen and being a powerful visual aid for effective phonetic practice.One more advantage of the modern experimental study of speech is the enormous amount of varied spoken speech data stored on computers. It facilitates the process of looking for cross-language differences and similarities. The data obtained from instrumental analysis supplement and verify those obtained by means of direct observation, thus making the research results more detailed and precise. II. THE ARTI CULATORY CHARACTERISTIC OF THE ENGLISH SPEECH SOUNDS 2. 1. The Anatomo-mechanical Aspect of Sound Production Speech is impossible without the speech mechanism.So now our attention will be focused on the articulatory aspect of speech sounds. Speech sounds are acoustic effects of the articulatory movements and positions of the human speech organs. The immediate source of speech sounds is the human speech mechanism developed and perfected in the process of the historical development of man. The organs of speech are the object of linguistic investigation mainly from the point of view of the functions they perform in speech production. So before analysing the linguistic function of phonetic units we need to know how the speech mechanism acts in producing oral speech.According to their main sound-producing functions the speech organs can be roughly divided into the following four groups: the power mechanism (lungs, diaphragm, windpipe, bronchi), the vibrator mechanism (larynx, vocal cords , glottis), the resonator mechanism (nasal and mouth cavities) and the obstructer mechanism (tongue, lips, hard and soft palate, teeth). From the lungs through the wind-pipe the air-stream passes to the larynx, containing the vocal cords. The opening between the vocal cords, through which the air passes, is called the glottis. The linguistic function of the vocal cords onsists in providing the source of energy necessary for speech production. When the vocal cords are kept wide apart (i. e. the glottis is open) the air passes between the cords and the result is non-phonic breath. Then the vocal cords may be drawn together tightly, so that air cannot pass between them. The sudden opening of the glottis produces an explosion resembling a short cough; this sound is called the glottal stop. It often occurs in English when it reinforces or even replaces the sounds [p], [t], [k] or even when it precedes the energetic articulation of vowel sounds.The most important role of the vocal cords i s their participation in the production of voice. The effect of voice is achieved when the vocal cords are brought loosely together, creating an obstacle to the air stream; when the air pressure becomes very strong the air forces its way between the vocal cords thus making the, vibrate. When, as is usual, these vibrations are regular, they produce vocal tone, or voice, whose pitch depends on the frequency of vibrations. We are able to vary the speed of vibration of our vocal cords and thus to change the pitch.Conscious variations of pitch are responsible for intonation. We are also able to modify the size of the puff of the air which escapes at each vibration, thus changing the amplitude of the vibration, which corresponds to the loudness of the sound heard by a listener. The air-stream, having passed through the vocal cords, is now subject to further modification, according to the shape of the pharynx, mouth and nasal cavities. The direction in which the air-stream will follow from the pharynx depends on the position of the soft palate.When it is lowered, the pharynx opens into the nasal cavity. When it is risen, the air-stream comes to the mouth cavity. As in the mouth cavity a lot of movable speech organs are situated it can easily change its shape, thus forming the majority of speech sounds. The movable (or active) speech organs, situated in the mouth cavity are: the tongue, the soft palate with the uvula, the lips and the lower jaw. Of all the movable organs within the mouth cavity the tongue is the most flexible and active.For convenience, the surface of the tongue or divided into several parts: the most flexible part of the tongue, which normally lies opposite the teeth ridge, is called the blade, the tip of the tongue being its extreme point. The part of the tongue next to the blade is called the front of the tongue. Then come the back and the root of the tongue. The tongue being the most active speech organ in the mouth cavity, the main principles of the majority of articulatory classifications of vowels are based on the movements and positions of the tongue. 2. 2. The system of English VowelsThe movements of the body of the tongue provide a convenient articulatory basis for classifying vowels according to two principles: 1) horizontal and 2) vertical movements of the tongue. According to the horizontal movement five classes of English vowels are distinguished. They are: 1) front [i:], [e], [e? ], [ ], [? ] 2) front-retracted [? ], [ ] 3) central [? ], [? :], [? ], [ ], [a? ], [a? ] 4) back [? ], [? :], [u:], [a:], [ ] 5) back-advanced [? ], [ ] Not all phoneticians single out the classes of front-retracted and back-advanced vowels. So both [i:] and [? vowels are classed as front, and both [u:] and [? ] – as back. The point is that the vowels in these two pairs differ in quality which is partially due to the raised part of the tongue. So in this case a more detailed classification seems to be a more precise one, since it adequately reflects the articulatory distinctions actually present in the language. Now let's view another articulatory characteristic of vowels, which is based on the vertical movement of the tongue. The way phoneticians of different schools approach this aspect is also slightly different.Some scholars distinguish three classes of vowels: high (or close), mid and low (or open) vowels. But to mark all significant changes in vowel quality it is not enough to single out these three groups of vowels. For instance, both English vowels [i:] and [? ] belong to the group of close vowels, but when the vowel [? ] is articulated the front of the tongue is not so high in the mouth as it is in the case of the vowel [i:]. Russian phoneticians made the classification more detailed distinguishing two subclasses in each class: broad and narrow variations of the 3 vertical positions of the tongue.Thus the following 6 groups of vowels are distinguished: 1) close a) narrow [i:], [u:] b) broad [? ], [? ], [ ], [ ] 2) mid a) narrow [e], [? :], [? ], [e? ], [ ] b) broad [? ], [? ] 3) open a) narrow [ ], [? :], [ ] b) broad [? ], [a? ], [a? ], [? ], [a:]. In addition to the above-mentioned principle of the classification of vowels phoneticians suggest five other criteria: 1) stability of articulation 2) lip position 3) character of the vowel end 4) length 5) tenseness The stability of articulation specifies the actual position of the articulating organ in the process of the articulation.There are two possible variants: a) the tongue position is stable, in this case the articulated vowel is pure, it consists of one element and is called a monophthong; and b) the tongue position changes, in this case a vowel consists of two elements, the first one is strong, it is a nucleus, the second element is very weak – it is a glide. There exists a third variety, when the change in the tongue position is fairly weak, in this case the articulated vowel is not pure, but it still consists of one element, such vowels are called diphthongoids.So according to this principle the English vowels are subdivided into: a) monophthongs [? ], [? ], [e], [? :], [? ], [? ], [? :], [? ], [? ], [a:] b) diphthongs [ ], [ ], [e? ], [ ], [ ], [a? ], [a? ], [ ] c) diphthongoids [i:], [u:] Some phoneticians, however, do not share this way of thinking and do not distinguish diphthongoids. But for the learners of English it is important to know this differentiation as it is useful for teaching purposes. Besides in modern English the tendency for diphthongization is becoming gradually stronger. Another feature of English vowels is lip rounding.Traditionally three lip positions are distinguished: spread, neutral and rounded. In English lip rounding is not relevant phonologically (it means that no two words can be distinguished on its basis). Our next point should be made about another characteristic of English vowels. It's checkness. The quality of all English monophthongs in the stressed pos ition is strongly affected by the following consonant. If a stressed vowel is followed by a strong (fortis) voiceless consonant it is cut off by it. In this case the end of the vowel is strong and the vowel is called checked.If a vowel is followed by a weak (lenis) voiced consonant or by no consonant at all the end of it is weak. In this case the vowel is called free. Now it should be useful to consider another articulatory characteristic of English vowels, that is their length or quantity. The English monophthongs are traditionally divided into short [? ], [e], [? ], [? ], [? ], [? ], [? ] and long ones [i:], [a:], [? :], [? :], [u:]. It should be noted that vowel length or quantity has for a long time been the point of disagreement among phoneticians. The problem is whether variations in quantity are meaningful (relevant) or not.Let's look at the pairs of words: [b? d – bi:d], [s? t – si:t]. Are they distinguished from one another by the opposition of different lengt h (that's the approach of D. Jones, an outstanding British phonetician) or is the difference in quality (or in other words the position of the active organ of speech) decisive here? Most Russian phoneticians are in favour of the second conception. They state that a feature can be systemic if it does not depend on the context. As to the length of English vowels, it varies and depends on a lot of factors, the first being phonetic context.The shortest are vowels followed by voiceless consonants and the longest are in free position. For example in â€Å"meat† [i:] is half as long as the [i:] in â€Å"me†, but may approximately have the same duration as the [? ] in â€Å"mid†. But still these words â€Å"mid† and â€Å"meat† are perceived as different words because the vowels are different in quality. So no matter what time is required for the articulation of these vowels, the main distinctive feature is quality, not quantity. As for tenseness we shall only mention that special instrumental analysis shows that historically long vowels are tense, and historically short ones are lax.To sum it up we may conclude that among all the articulatory features of English vowels only two are relevant: the stability of articulation and tongue position. 2. 3. The System of English Consonants Before passing on to the classification of English consonants the difference between consonants and vowels should be considered. Acoustically consonants are noises, not musical tones like vowels. From the articulatory point of view the difference is due to the work of speech organs. In case of consonants various obstructions are made. As to the classification of English consonants there are few ways of seeing the situation.One of them is the classification according to the type of obstacle. On this ground two large classes of consonants are distinguished: 1) occlusive, which are produced when a complete obstruction is formed: [t, d, p, b, k, g], [m, n, ? ]; 2) constrictive, which are produced when an incomplete obstruction is formed: [s, z, f, v, O, ? , ? , ? , h], [w, r, l, j]. Each of the 2 classes is subdivided into noise consonants (these are those in the production of which noise prevails over tone) and sonorants (in the production of which tone component prevails).Noise occlusive consonants are called stops because the air stream is completely stopped at some point of articulation and then released with an explosion, that is why they are also called plosives: [t, d, p, b, k, g]. Constrictive noise consonants are called fricatives, because the air escapes through the narrowing with friction: [s, z, f, v, O, ? , ? , ? , h]. Occlusive-constrictive consonants or affricates are noise consonants produced with a complete obstruction which is slowly released and the air stream escapes from the mouth with some friction. There are only two affricates in English: [? ,? . Other phoneticians suggest that the first and basic principle of clas sification should be the degree of noise. So consonants are divided first into noise consonants and sonorants and then each group is divided into smaller groups. Another very important principle is the place of articulation. According to this principle English consonants are classed into labial, lingual and glottal. I. Labial consonants in their turn are subdivided into a) bilabial (produced when both lips are active) [w, m, p, b]; b) labio-dental (articulated with the lower lip against the edge of the upper teeth) [f, v]. II.Among the class of lingual consonants three subclasses are distinguished: a) forelingual; b) medio-lingual; c) back-lingual. Forelingual consonants are also of three kinds: 1) apical (articulated with the tip of the tongue) [t, d, s, z, O, ? , ? , ? , ? , ? , n, l]. 2) dorsal (produced when the blade of the tongue is active). There are no dorsal consonants in English. In Russian these are the sounds [?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?]. 3) cacuminal (articulated with the t ip of the tongue curled back). There is only one cacuminal consonant in English – [r]. According to the place of obstruction forelingual consonants may be: – interdental, rticulated with the tip of the tongue projected between the teeth: [O, ? ]; – dental, produced with the blade of the tongue against the upper teeth: the Russian [?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?]; – alveolar, produced with the tip of the tongue against the upper teeth ridge: [t, d, s, z, n, l]; – post-alveolar, articulated with the tip or the blade of the tongue against the back part of the teeth ridge: [r]; – palato-alveolar, made with the tip or the blade of the tongue against the teeth ridge and the front part of the tongue raised towards the hard palate, thus having two places of articulation (two foci): [? ? , ? , ? ]. b) mediolingual consonants are produced with the front part of the tongue raised high to the hard palate, so they are always palatal: [j]. c) backlingual consonants are also called velar, because they are produced with the back part of the tongue raised towards the soft palate: [k, g, ? ]. III. The glottal consonant [h] is articulated in the glottis. There are no glottal consonants in Russian. One more articulatory characteristic which should be mentioned is the position of the soft palate.According to this principle consonants may be oral and nasal. There are only three nasal consonants in English, which require the lowered position of the soft palate: [m, n, ]. The rest of the consonants are oral because in their production the soft palate is raised and the air escapes through the mouth. Our next point will be made in connection with another sound property, that is voice-voiceless characteristic. When the vocal cords are brought together and vibrate we hear voice and the consonants are voiced: [b, d, g, v, z, ? , ? , ? . When the vocal cords are apart and do not vibrate we hear only noise and the consonants are voiceless: [p, t, k, f, s, O, ? , ? ]. It should be noted that the difference between such pairs as [p, b], [t, d] and so on is based not only on the absence or presence of the voice component, as voiced consonants are not fully voiced in all word positions, in word final position, for example, they are partially devoiced. There's also energy difference. All voiced consonants are weak or lenis and all voiceless consonants are strong or fortis.Summing it up, it should be mentioned that the most important articulatory features, which could serve as a criterion for grouping consonants into functionally similar classes, are: type of obstruction; place of articulation and the active organ of speech; force of articulation. The rest of the characteristics are considered to be irrelevant, as they are of no importance from the phonological point of view, but they provide necessary and useful information for teaching purposes. It is for this reason that they are normally included into the classification. III.THE ACOUSTIC AND AUDITORY ASPECTS OF THE ENGLISH SPEECH SOUNDS The auditory aspect of any sound is inseparable from its acoustic aspect and acoustic phonetics is closely connected with auditory phonetics and both may, therefore, be considered together. Objectively sound is a physical phenomenon, a kind of moving energy generated by some vibrating body. Subjectively sound is our perception of the vibrations of the air next to our ear-drum. People can perceive not all vibrations of the air but only when they occur at the rate of sixteen to twenty thousand times per second.Sounds may be periodical and non-periodical. If the vibrations of a physical body (vocal cords in our case) are rhythmical, the sound waves are periodical. The auditory impression of such periodical waves is a musical tone or a speech tone. If the wave is non-periodical, it is perceived as noise. Sound has a number of physical properties which all exist and manifest themselves simultaneously. They can be singled out from the others o nly for purposes of analysis. The first of these properties is frequency which is a number of vibrations per second.Our perception of the frequency is the pitch of the sound. The greater the frequency, the higher the pitch and vice versa. The frequency depends on certain physical properties of the vibrator, such as its mass, length and tension. The greater the mass of the vibrator, the slower its vibrations and the lower the pitch. The longer the vibrator, the slower the vibrations and the lower the frequency and the pitch. Here the difference between men and women and adults and children voices lies. Men's and adults' voices are lower than women's and children's are, because their vocal cords are thicker and longer.Tension depends on the elasticity of the vocal cords. The vocal cords of elderly people are not as elastic as the vocal cords of younger people, children especially, so their voices sound rather low. As the tension increases – the frequency increases and the pitch rises. The second physical property of sound is intensity, changes in which are perceived as variations in the loudness of sound. The intensity of sound is produced by the amplitude of vibrations (that is by the distance to which the air particles are displaced from their position of rest by the application of some external force).Intensity is measured in decibels. The intensity and frequency of sound are closely interdependent. The same amount of energy will produce either greater amplitude with a lower frequency or a higher frequency with smaller amplitude. Therefore if you increase the frequency without increasing the amount of energy you will shorten the amplitude and therefore reduce the intensity, that is produce a less loud sound. People are able to produce vowel sounds of various qualities or timbres. This is achieved through the action of the resonator mechanism.So the production and differentiation of vowels is based on the acoustic phenomenon that is called resonance. So unds coming from different resonators travel different lengths (distances) or have different carrying power. The distance is proportional to the volume of the resonator and the size of its orifice. Any sound has a certain duration or length. In other words it can exist and move only in time. The duration or length of a sound is the quantity of time during which the same vibratory motion, the same patterns of vibration are maintained. For this reason, the duration of a sound is often referred to as is quantity.The duration is measured in millisecond. We perceive the variations in duration as tempo or speed of utterance. In speech there are not definite boundaries between different speech sounds. So it’s very difficult to measure the length of separate sounds. In addition it should be mentioned that along with various articulatory classifications of speech sounds, there exist acoustic descriptions and classifications. The chief drawback of articulatory classifications is that t hey don’t describe and define all shades of typologically identical speech sounds, especially vowels.Besides, one and the same speech sound can be pronounced by different people with slightly different positions and movements of their speech organs. Acoustic classifications seem to overcome these difficulties as they are more detailed and accurate. The first acoustic classification was based on spectrographic analysis. It was worked out by Roman Jakobson, C. G. M. Fant and M. Halle. However, acoustic classification, though more precise, are not practically applied in teaching. The acoustic features of speech sounds can not be seen directly or felt.But there are some other fields of the application of acoustic phonetics: speech synthesis, health service, security systems, etc. IV. THE FUNCTIONAL ASPECT OF SPEECH SOUNDS 4. 1 Phoneme and Allophones Phoneticians not only describe and classify the material form of phonetic units. They are also interested in the way in which sound phenomena function in a particular language and what part they play in communication. The branch of phonetics that studies the linguistic function of consonant and vowel sounds, syllabic structures, word accent and prosodic features is called phonology.Unlike phonetics itself, whose domain is articulatory and acoustic features, phono