Seminars 2-3-4 Questions for discussion

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Seminars 2-3-4 
Questions for discussion: 
1. What are the mechanisms for the production of speech sounds? 2. What are the 
articulatory differences between vowels, consonants and sonorants? 3. What are the four 
main principles of consonant classification? 4. What are different opinions on the nature of 
English affricates? 5. What are the principal differences in the articulation bases of the 
English and Russian consonants? 6. What mistakes result from the differences in the 
articulation bases of English and Russian consonants? 7. What are the principles of vowel 
classification? 8. What are different opinions on English diphthongs? 9. What are the 
principal differences in the articulation bases of the English and Russian vowels? 10. What 
mistakes result from the differences in the articulation bases of English and Russian vowels?
Test 
Answer the following questions using one-word or phrase answers: 
 
№ 
Question 
Answer 
1 What is the unit of phonetics? 
2 What is the unit of phonology? 
3 Phoneme is the smallest unit of 
…?
 
4 What methods can be used to 
discover phonemes? 
5 Who was the founder of the 
phonemic theory?
 
6 By whom was defined the 
phoneme as a “family” of sounds 
(phonetic similarity).
 
7 By whom was developed and 
perfected the phonemic theory of 
L.A. Baudouin de Courtrney 
 
8 Who was the first to define the 
phoneme as a real, independent 
distinctive unit which manifests 
itself in the form of allophones? 
 
9 Who suggested the abstractional 
conception of the phoneme?