PHONETIC REDUNDANCY AND ECONOMY IN CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH: A FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE

This article examines the phenomena of phonetic redundancy and phonetic economy in Contemporary English from a functional linguistic perspective. Phonetic redundancy refers to the existence of additional phonetic elements that do not change lеxical meaning but enhance clarity, intelligibility, and communicative reliability. In contrast, phonetic economy reflects the tendency of language users to reduce articulatory effort while maintaining communicative effectiveness. The study analyzes how these two opposing yet complementary principles operate in modern English speech, including connected speech, assimilation, elision, reduction, and weak forms. Special attention is paid to the functional role of redundancy and economy in spoken discourse, sociolinguistic difference, and language evolution. The findings demonstrate that phonetic redundancy and economy are not contradictory but function together to balance clarity and efficiency in communication.