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NHA TRANG UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT OF TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION
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ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY
Compiled by LE CAO HOANG HA M.A. HOANG CONG BINH M.A
Updated January 2012
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY
3
1. Phonetics and its Main Branches
3
2. Phonetics and Phonology
4
Assignment 1
4
THE PRODUCTION OF SPEECH
7
1. The Speech Chain
7
2. The Speech Mechanism
7
Assignment 2
10
THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE ENGLISH SOUNDS
12
1. Speech sounds
12
2. Vowels
12
3. Consonants
15
Assignment 3
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PHONOLOGY: THE SOUND PATTERNS OF LANGUAGE
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1. The Phoneme
23
2. Types of Pronunciation
23
3. Phonetic Alphabet
28
4. Principles of Transcription
29
Assignment 4
30
THE SYLLABLE
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1. Definition
32
2. Syllable Formation
32
3. Closed and Opened syllables
34
4. Strong and Weak Syllables
34
Assignment 5
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WORD - STRESS
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1. The Nature of Stress
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2. Levels of Stress
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3. Placement of Stress within the Word
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Assignment 6
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ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH
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CHAPTER VIII
1. Sentence Stress
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2. Rhythm
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3. Assimilation and Accommodation
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4. Elision
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5. Weak Forms
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6. Linking
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Assignment 7
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INTONATION
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1. Intonation
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2. Basic Tones
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3. Tone Unit
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4. Pitch Possibilities in Simple Tone Units
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5. Pitch Possibilities in Complex Tone Units
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6. High and low heads
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7. Functions of Intonation
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Assignment 8
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ENGLISH - VIETNAMESE TERMINOLOGY
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REFERENCES
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CHAPTER I - PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY 1. Phonetics and its Main Branches 1.1. Definition of Phonetics Phonetics is the study of human speech sounds. It is a branch of linguistics studying the production, the physical nature, and the perception of speech sounds. A speech sound is a physical event with three aspects: a - physiological (the production of speech sounds by the organs of articulation), b - acoustic (the transmission of speech sounds), and c - auditory (the perception of speech sounds). Phonetics is the study of how speech sounds are produced, transmitted and perceived. There are different areas of phonetics, three main areas of which are articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, and auditory phonetics. 1.2. Articulatory phonetics Articulatory phonetics deals with the way in which the speech sounds are produced. It describes speech sounds genetically - that is, with respect to the ways by which the organs of speech modify the air stream in the throat, the mouth, and the nose in order to produce a sound. The production of different speech sounds through the use of the organs of speech is known as articulation. In describing articulation, it is important to know which articulators are involved in sound production. An articulator is a part of the mouth, nose, or throat which is used in producing speech. It is usual for the learners to distinguish between those parts that are immobile (passive articulators) and those that can move under the control of the speaker (active articulators). According to David Crystal (1994: 130), the passive articulators are a- the upper teeth, b- the teeth ridge (the alveolar ridge), and c- the hard palate. The active articulators are a- pharynx, b- soft palate or velum, c- lips, d- jaws, e- the tongue, and f- the vocal cords. In addition, sounds produced within the larynx or vocal tract are influenced by the shape of the pharyngeal, oral (mouth) and nasal cavities in the vocal tract through which the air stream passes. These cavities give sounds the resonance. Several kinds of resonance can be produced because the vocal tract is able to adopt many different shapes. The vocal tract is the air passages which are above the vocal cords and which are involved in the production of speech sounds. The vocal tract can be divided into the nasal cavity, which is the air passage within and behind the nose, and the oral cavity, which is the air passage within the mouth and the throat. The shape of the vocal tract can be changed, e.g. by changing the position of the tongue or the lips. Changes in the shape of the vocal tract cause differences in speech sounds. 1.3. Acoustic phonetics Acoustic phonetics deals with the transmission of speech sounds through the air. It is the study of speech waves as the output of a resonator. A spectrograph may be used to record significant characteristics of speech waves and to determine the effect of articulatory activities. Parts of this record of speech waves can be cut out experimentally and the rest can be played back as sound in order to determine which features suffice to identify the sounds of a language. 1.4. Auditory phonetics Auditory phonetics deals with how speech sounds are perceived by the listeners. 3
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2. Phonetics and Phonology As seen above, phonetics is the study of pronunciation, that is, the study of human speech sounds. Besides having the physical properties, the speech sounds also have the distinctive function when they are used as distinctive units of sounds in a language. According to I. J. Ohala (in R. E. Asher, 1994:3053), other designations for this field of inquiry include “speech science” or “the phonetic sciences” and “phonology”. Some apply the term “phonetics” to the physical, including physiological, aspects of speech; others prefer to reserve the term “phonology” for the study of the more abstract, the more functional, or the more psychological aspects of the underpinnings of speech. Phonetics, as used in this course of study, is the study of all speech sounds and the ways in which they are produced. The main aims of phonetics are to describe and to classify human speech sounds. Phonology is the study and identification of the distinctive units of sound in a language. This course of English phonetics and phonology is written for Vietnamese students of Nha Trang University studying English phonetics. The type of the English pronunciation described in the present textbook is known as Received Pronunciation (Standard British accent). Since RP is easily understood in all English speaking countries, it is adapted as the teaching norm in the schools and higher educational institutions. This course of English phonetics and phonology will focus on the following theoretical aspects: the production of speech, the classification of the English sounds, phonology: the sound patterns of English, the syllable, English word stress, aspects of connected speech, weak forms and intonation. Students completing this course will be able to have the basic theoretical knowledge of English phonetics and phonology and will be able to improve their pronunciation, which will help them teach English effectively after their graduation. The present course of study has been given the title: English Phonetics and Phonology following Peter Roach (1987) because at the comparatively advanced level, it is used to present the information of English pronunciation in the context of a general theory about speech sounds and how they are used in language. The theoretical context is called phonetics and phonology. Recommended Reading: Crystal ( 1994 : 124 - 131); Fromkin ( 1986 : 37 -41 ); Laderfoged (1982 : 1-5 ); Roach ( 1987 : 8 - 10 ). ASSIGNMENT 1 I-Questions for Discussion 1- What is phonetics? 2- What are the three aspects of the speech sound as a physical event? 3- What is articulatory phonetics? What are the passive and active articulators? 4- What is the use of the shapes of the cavities in sound production? 5- What does acoustic phonetics study? 6- What is / are the main differences between phonetics and phonology? 7- What type of pronunciation is described in the present text book? What are the other types of pronunciation we should pay attention to? 4
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8- What theoretical aspects of phonetics should we pay attention to? II- True /False: Decide whether the following statements are true or false: 1- Phonetics is the study of human speech sounds. 2- Three aspects of a speech sound as a physical event are: a-structure, b-arranging and c- auditory. 3- Articulatory phonetics studies the ways in which speech sounds are produced. 4- In describing articulation, we should know which articulators are involved in sound production. 5- The tongue is a passive articulator. 6- Sounds produced are influenced by the shapes of the cavities. 7- Acoustic phonetics deals with how the speech sounds are produced by the listener. 8- Auditory phonetics studies the speech waves. 9- The main aim of phonetics is the study and identification of the distinctive sound unit. 10- RP is the standard New Zealand accent. It is the only accent studied. Other accents are not important and, therefore, should not be taken into consideration. III - Multiple choice: Choose the best answer 1-………………deals with how speech sounds are produced, transmitted, and perceived. A- Grammar
B- Phonotactics
C- Phonetics
D- Text linguistics
2- .................. phonetics deals with how speech sounds are perceived by the listener. A - Articulatory
B- Acoustic
C- Experimental
D- Auditory
3- .......... phonetics deals with the transmission of speech sounds through the air. A- Articulatory
B- Acoustic
C- Experimental
D- Auditory
4- Which of the following is not considered as (an) articulator(s)? A- the tongue
B- the lips
C- the velum
D- the ears
5- ... ....is the study or description of the distinctive sound units of a language and their relationship to one another. A- Phonetics
B- Phonology
C-Semantics
D- Pragmatics
6-The production of different speech sounds through the use of the organs of speech is known as . . ...... A- assimilation
B- dissimilation
C- articulation
D- syllabification
7- Which of the following is not an aspect of the speech sounds as a physical event? A- Physiological
B- Acoustic
C- Articulatory
D- Comprehensive
8- Besides having the physical properties, the speech sound also have… when they are used as distinctive units of sounds in a language. A- thematic function
B- stylistic function
C- affective function
D- distinctive function 5
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9- The term… is applied for the study of the more abstract, the more functional, or the more psychological aspects of speech. A- phonetics
B- phonology
C- grammar
D-semantics
10- Since …. is easily understood in all English speaking countries, it is adapted as the teaching norm in the schools and higher educational institutions. A- Received Pronunciation
B- Broad Australian
C- Narrow American
D- New Zealand
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CHAPTER II - THE PRODUCTION OF SPEECH 1. The Speech Chain Any manifestation of language by means of speech is a result of highly complicated series of events as shown in the process of communication. For example a man looks out of the window and see the rain coming down, he would say, "It’s raining". Thus, such simple sentences as It's raining involves a number of activities on the part of the speaker. In the first place, the linguistic formulation of the sentence will take place in the brain. The first stage may, therefore, be said to be psychological. The nervous system transmits this message to the so - called "organs of speech" and they in turn produce a particular pattern of sound, the second important stage may thus be said to be articulatory or physiological. The movement of our organs of speech will create disturbances in the air. These sound waves constitute the third stage in the speech chain, the physical or acoustic. Since communication generally requires a listener as well as a speaker, these stages will be reversed at the listening end: the reception of the sound waves by the ears and the transmission of the information along the nervous system to the brain where the linguistic interpretation of the message takes place. 2. The Speech Mechanism
Figure 1. The articulators
Figure 2. Inside larynx seen from above
2.1. The lungs The immediate source of speech sounds in the human speech mechanism has developed and perfected in the process of the historical development of man. The most usual source of energy for our vocal activities is provided by an air stream expelled from the lungs. Our utterances are, therefore, largely shaped by the physical limitations imposed by the capacity of our lungs and the muscles which control the action. We are obliged to pause in articulation in order to refill our lungs with the air. 2.2. The larynx The air stream provided by the lungs undergoes important modifications before it acquires the quality of a speech sound. First of all, in the windpipe, it passes through the larynx containing the so - called vocal cords. The larynx is situated in the upper part of the wind - pipe. Its forward position is prominent in the neck below the chin and is commonly called the "Adam's apple". 7
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2.2.1. Vocal cords Housed from back to front are the vocal cords: two thick flaps of muscle rather like a pair of lips. The action of the vocal cords consists in their role as a vibrator set in motion by lung air the production of voice (or phonotation). We are able by means of vibrations in pressure from the lungs to modify the size of the puff of air which escapes at each vibration of the vocal cords; in other words, we can alter the amplitude of the vibration, with the corresponding change of loudness of the sound heard by a listener. The normal human being soon learns to manipulate his speech mechanism so that most delicate changes of pitch and loudness are achieved. Control of his mechanism is, however, very largely exercised by the air. 2.2.2. Glottis We use the word glottis to refer to the opening between the vocal cords. If the vocal cords are apart we say that the glottis is open; if they are pressed together we say that the glottis is closed. According to Peter Roach, there would be four easily recognizable states of the vocal cords:
Figure 3. Four different states of the glottis (adapted from Peter Roach) a- Wide apart The vocal cords are wide apart for normal breathing and usually during voiceless consonants like /p/, /f/, /t/, /s/, /k/, etc. b- Narrow glottis If air is passed through the glottis when it is narrowed, the result is a fricative sound for which the symbol is /h/. The sound is not very different from a whispered vowel. It is called a voiceless glottal fricative. c- Position for vocal cord vibration When the edges of the vocal cords are touching or nearly touching, air passing through the glottis will usually cause vibration which results in voiced sound, for example: /b/, /d/, /g/, etc. The movement is not at all like the vibration of the string of a musical instrument; what usually happens is that air is pressed up from the lungs and this air pushes the vocal cords apart so that a little air escapes. As the air flows quickly past the edges of the vocal cords, the cords are brought 8
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together again by two forces acting together: firstly, the vocal cords are trying to return to the shape and position they were in before they were pushed apart, and secondly, the rapid movement of the air through the narrow glottis causes the edges of the vocal cords to be drawn together. This opening and closing happens very rapidly and is repeated regularly - around one or two hundred times per second in a man’s voice and more in women’s and children’s voices. d- Vocal cords tightly closed. The vocal cords can be firmly pressed so that air can not pass between them. When this happens in speech we call it a glottal stop or glottal plosive. The air - stream, having passed through the larynx, is now subjected to further modifications according to the shape assumed by the upper cavities of the pharynx and mouth, and according to whether the nasal cavity is brought into. Use or not. These cavities function as the principal resonators of the note produced in the larynx. 2.3. The pharyngeal cavity The pharyngeal cavity extends from the top of the larynx, past the epiglottis and the root of the tongue to the rear of the soft palate. 2.4. Oral cavity 2.4.1. Roof of the mouth It is convenient for our purposes to divide the roof of the mouth into three parts: moving backwards from the upper teeth, first, the alveolar or teeth - ridge which can be clearly felt behind the teeth; secondly, the bony ridge which forms the hard palate and finally, the soft palate (which is capable of being raised or lowered), and at extremity of which is the uvula. All these parts can be easily observed by means of a mirror. The main divisions will be referred to as: dental, alveolar, hard palate, and soft palate. 2.4.2. Tongue The tongue has no physical divisions like the palate. It is, however, convenient for the purposes of phonetics to imagine the surface of the tongue to be divided into the parts (the tip, the blade, the front, the middle and the back) corresponding to the roof of the mouth. The front is opposite the hard palate. The back is opposite the soft palate.
Figure 4: Parts of the tongue 2.4.3. Lips The lips constitute the final part of the mouth cavity. The shape which they assume will affect very considerably the shape of the total cavity. They may form a complete obstruction to the air 9
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stream, which may be momentarily prevented from escaping at all or may be directed through the nose by lowering of the soft palate. They may be rounded or unrounded. Recommended Reading: Asher (1994 : 3051 -3053 ); Crystal (1994 : 124 -132); Lederfoged (1982 : 113 -133 ); Nesterov (1976 : 17 - 19 ). ASSIGNMENT 2 I- Questions for Discussion 1- How many stages are there in the speech chain? 2- Where does the most usual source of energy for our vocal activities come from? 3- What role do the cavities play in the production of sounds? 4- How important are the vocal cords? What is the shape of the vocal cords like when we produce voiced sounds? 5- What kind of sound is produced when the soft palate is raised? Lowered? 6- What are the important parts of the roof of the mouth? 7- What are the important parts of the tongue? 8- How are the lips important in sound production? II- True /False: Decide whether the following are true or false: 1 - It is said that there are four stages in the speech chain: a - psychological, b- articulatory, acoustic, and d- interpretive.
c-
2 - The larynx, which is situated in the upper part of the windpipe, contains the so-called vocal cords. 3 - The action of the vocal cords consists in their role as a vibrator set in motion by lung air. 4 - When the edges of the vocal cords are touching or nearly touching, the air passing through the glottis will usually cause vibration, which produces voiced sounds. 5 - When the vocal cords are wide apart, the sounds produced are voiced sounds. 6 - A vowel is a sound in the production of which there is a complete closure in the vocal tract. 7 - The most important parts of the tongue for producing vowel sounds are front, central and back. 8 - Nasal, oral and pharyngeal cavities function as the principal resonators. 9 - The lip shape is important in producing either rounded or unrounded vowels. 10 - The main division of the roof of the mouth are dental, alveolar, hard palate, and soft palate. III- Multiple Choice: Choose the best answer 1-Which of the following is not a stage of the speech chain? A- psychological
B- articulatory
C- acoustic
D- synthetic
2-The . . . . . . . . . . . . . provide the most usual source of energy. 10
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A- lungs
B- ears
C- eyes
D- lips
3-The larynx is situated in the upper part of the . . . . . . . . . A- mouth
B- windpipe
C- eye
D- ear
4- When the vocal cords are touching or nearly touching, the sounds they produced might be: A- /p, t and k/
B- /s, k and t/
C- /p, s and k/
D- /a:, ɪ and i:/
5-The oral, nasal and laryngeal cavities function as………….of the note produced in the larynx. A-vibrators
B- resonators
C- joiner
D- filler
6- Which of the following is/ are………the articulators above the larynx? A- The lungs
B- The stomach
C- The tongue
D- The eyes
7- The… is between the teeth ridge and the soft palate. A- hard palate
B- tongue
C- nose
D- lungs
8- We use the word glottis to refer to the opening between . . . . . . . . . A- the eyes
B- the ears
C- the vocal cords
D- the mouth
C- joiners
D- fillers
9- The ….. can be rounded or unrounded. A- vibrators
B- resonators
10- Which of the following states of the vocal cords is important in the production of vibration? A- wide apart
B- touching or nearly touching each other
C- narrow glottis
D- half apart
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CHAPTER III - THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE ENGLISH SPEECH SOUNDS 1. Speech sounds According to David Crystal (1994: 152), the description and classification of speech sounds is the main aim of phonetic science, or phonetic sounds may be identified with reference to their production (or articulation) in the vocal tract, their acoustic transmission, or their auditory reception. The most widely used descriptions are articulatory because the vocal tract provides a convenient and well - understood reference point. An articulatory description generally makes reference to seven main factors: a- air stream, b- vocal folds, c- soft palate, d- place of articulation, e- manner of articulation and f- tongue and g- lips. The following parts will present the description and classification of the sounds in the English language. Speech sounds are divided into vowels and consonants. Vowels and consonants differ in distribution and production. In terms of distribution, the vowel is in the center of the syllable and the consonant either precedes or follows the vowel. The following table shows major differences between vowels and consonants in terms of production. Vowels
Consonants
Produced with relatively little obstruction in the vocal tract
Produced with a narrow or complete closure in the vocal tract
More sonorous
Less sonorous
Voiced
Voiced or voiceless
Syllabic
Generally not syllabic Table 1: Major Differences between Vowels and Consonants
2. Vowels A vowel is a sound in the production of which the air passage through the mouth is free. All vowels are voiced sounds. In the English language, vowels can be classified into Pure Vowels (Monophthong) and Diphthongs (and possibly triphthongs). 2.1. Pure vowels A pure vowel (monophthong) is an unchanging sound in the pronunciation of which the organs of speech do not perceptibly change the position throughout the duration of the vowel in a syllable. The first widely used system for classifying vowels was devised by the British phonetician, Daniel Jones. The Cardinal Vowel Diagram is a set of standard reference points based on a combination of articulatory and auditory judgments. The front, centre, and back of the tongue are distinguished, as are four levels of tongue height. Once the cardinal vowel values have been learned, it is possible to place the vowels of a speaker of any language on to the chart in a fairly precise way.
Figure 3: The primary cardinal vowels (Peter Roach, 1987) 12
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Close Mid-close Mid-open Open Spread
Rounded Neutral
Figure 4: The Cardinal Vowel Diagram In the production of the English sounds the tongue may move forward or backward or it may be raised or lowered. Pure vowel sounds may be classified according to the following principles: 2.1.1. The raised part of the tongue According to which part of the tongue is raised (i.e. according to whether the back, the front or the middle of the tongue is raised towards the roof of the mouth), vowels can be front, central and back. a. Front vowels There are four front vowels in the English language in the production of which the front of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate. The front vowels are: /i:/ (as in sea, teeth), /ɪ/ (as in sit, lip), /e/ (as in head, met) and /æ/ (as in man, sand). b. Back vowels There are five back vowels in the production of which the back of the tongue is raised in the direction of the soft palate. The back vowels are: /u:/ (as in shoe, fool), /ʊ/ (as in full, pull), /ɑ:/ (as in heart, hard), /ɒ/ (as in hot, shock), and /ɔ:/ (as in short, fork). c. Central / Mid vowels Then there are vowels intermediate between front and back. We call them central vowel sounds. In the articulation of these sounds, the center (or middle) of the tongue is raised toward the palate. The central vowels are /з:/ (as in bird, shirt), /ə/ (as in again, along) and /ʌ/ (as in sun, run). 2.1.2. The height of the raised part of the tongue According to the height to which the part of the tongue is raised, vowels can be close (or high), mid-open/ mid-close, open (or low). a. Close (or high) vowels: There are 4 close (or high) vowels in the production of which one part of the tongue comes close to the palate without touching it and the air passage is narrow, but not so much as to form a consonant. The close vowels are /i:/, /ɪ/, /ʊ/ and /u:/. b. Open (or low) vowels: There are 4 open (or low) vowels in the production of which one part of the tongue is very low and the air passage is very wide, e.g. /æ/, /ɑ:/, /ɒ/ and /ʌ/. 13
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F T ra n sf o
A B B Y Y.c
bu to re he C
lic
k
he k lic C w.
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w
w
w
w
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ABB
PD
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2.0
2.0
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F T ra n sf o
ABB
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A B B Y Y.c
c. Mid - open/ mid -close vowels There are mid-open /mid - close vowels in the production of which the tongue is half-way between it’s high and low position, e.g. /e/, /ə/, /з:/ and /ɔ:/. 2.1.3. The lip shape According to the lip shape, vowels can be rounded, neutral or unrounded (spread); a. Rounded vowels There are rounded vowels in the production of which the lips are drawn together so that the opening between them is more or less round, e.g. /ʊ/, /u:/, /ɒ/, /ɔ:/, and /ɑ:/. b. Neutral vowels There are neutral vowels in the production of which the lips are not noticeably rounded or spread, e.g. /ə/, /ʌ/, /з:/. c. Spread vowels There are spread vowels in the production of which the lips may be spread out so as to leave a long narrow opening between them, e.g. /i:/, /ɪ/, /e/ and /æ/. 2.1.4. The vowel length According to the length vowels may be long or short. The colon (:) is used with the phonetic symbols for the vowels which are long, e.g. /i:/, /u:/. Position of tongue Height of tongue CLOSE (high) MID – OPEN (mind) OPEN (low)
FRONT
CENTRAL
BACK
/i:/
/u:/
/ɪ/
/ʊ /
/e/
/з:/
/ɔ:/
/ə/ /æ/
/ʌ /
/ɑ:/ /ɒ /
2.2. Diphthongs A diphthong is a vowel in the production of which there is a change in quality during a single syllable. According to Peter Roach (1987), a diphthong is a combination of two vowels pronounced within one syllable. The first element of a diphthong is called the nucleus; the second element is called the glide. In the English language, the nucleus is a strong, clear and distinct vowel sound. The glide is weak in the articulation of a diphthong. The organs of speech start from the position necessary for the first vowels and glide in the direction of the second vowels. The first element in all the diphthongs is stressed and is stronger than the second. In some other languages, the second element is louder, stronger and more distinct than the first.
14
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A B B Y Y.c
bu to re he C
lic
k
he k lic C w.
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w
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ABB
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2.0
2.0
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F T ra n sf o
ABB
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Figure 4: Chart of English diphthongs Diphthongs can be classified into a- retracting (ending in /ʊ/, e.g. now, town, go, show), bfronting (ending in /ɪ/, e.g. eye, why, say, day, boy, destroy), and c- centering (ending in /ə/, e.g. hear, near). Diphthongs can also be classified into a- closing (ending in either /ɪ/ or /ʊ/, e.g. life, like, say, waiter, phone, know) or b- centering (ending in /ə/, e.g. here, near, hair, sure). The following diagram shows the classification of the diphthongs in English according to the ending elements. Figure 5: DIPHTHONGS Centering Ending in /ə/
ɪə
eə
ʊə
Closing Ending in /ɪ/
eɪ aɪ
ɔɪ
Ending in /ʊ/
əʊ
aʊ
3. Consonants 3.1. Definition A consonant is a sound in the production of which an obstruction to the airstream is formed in the mouth by the active articulators /organs of speech. The organs of speech are tense at the place of obstruction. In the articulation of voiceless consonants the air stream is strong whereas in voiced consonants it is weaker. The particular quality of a consonant depends on the work of the vocal cords, the position of the soft palate and the kind of noise that results when the tongue or the lips obstruct the air-passage. 3.2. Classification There are two types of articulatory obstruction: complete and incomplete. A complete obstruction is formed when two organs of speech come in contact with each other and the air-passage through the mouth is blocked. An incomplete obstruction is formed when an articulating organ is held so close to a point of articulation as to narrow, or constrict, the air-passage without blocking it. According to David Crystal (1994: 155), consonants are normally described with reference to six criteria: 15
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a- the source of the air stream - whether from the lungs (pulmonic) or from some other source (non - pulmonic), b- the direction of the air stream - whether moving outwards (egressive) or inwards (ingressive), c- the state of vibration of the vocal cords - whether vibrating (voiced) or not (voiceless), d- the position of the soft palate - whether raised (oral) or lowered (nasal); e- the place of articulation in the vocal tract, and f- the manner of articulation. In the following part, the traditional classification of consonants will be presented based on the two last criteria, viz. a- according to the organs of articulation; and b- according to the manner of articulation. A. The organs of articulation According to the organs of articulation, we can distinguish seven main classes of consonants: a. Labial or lip sounds, which may be subdivided into: -Bi-labial, namely sounds articulated by the two lips, e.g. /p/ (as in pen, put), /b/ (as in best, bill), /w/ (as in well). -Labio-dental, namely sounds articulated by the lower lip against the upper teeth, /f/ (as in fine, five), /v/ (as in very, van). b. Dental, namely sounds articulated by the tip of the tongue against the upper teeth, e.g. /ð/ (as in this, those); /θ/ (as in thick, thin). c. Alveolar, namely sounds articulated by the tip or blade of the tongue against the teeth ridge, e.g. /t / (as in ten, top); /d/ (as in did, do); /n/ (as in nose, not); /l / (as in letter, little); /r/ (as in run, rest); /s/ (as in six, seen); and /z/ (as in zero, zoom). d. Palato alveolar, namely sounds which have alveolar articulation together with a simultaneous raising of the main body of the tongue towards the roof of the mouth, e.g. /t∫/ (as in chair, choice), /dʒ/ (as in bridge, just); /∫/ (as in shall, she ). e. Palatal, namely sounds articulated by the tongue against the hard palate, e.g. /j/ (as in yes, you). f. Velar (soft palate), namely sounds articulated by the back of the tongue against the soft palate, e.g. /k/ as in cut, kiss), /g/ (as in good, give), /ŋ/ (as in song, sing). g. Glottal, namely sounds articulated in the glottis (the opening between the vocal cords is known as glottis), e.g. /h/ (as in he, head). B. The manner of articulation According to the manner of articulation, we distinguish seven main classes, too: a. Plosives (stop sounds/ explosive sounds) It is so-called because the air stream is completely stopped for a moment, after which it is allowed to rush out of the mouth with an explosive sound, e.g. /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/. 16
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A B B Y Y.c
bu to re he C
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k
he k lic C w.
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w
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ABB
F T ra n sf o
re
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2.0
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F T ra n sf o
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A B B Y Y.c
All plosives can occur at the beginning of a word (in initial position), between other sounds (in medial position) and at the end of the word (in final position). b. Nasal A nasal is the sound in the production of which all the air from the lungs escapes down the nose and not through the mouth at all, e.g. /m/, /n/ and /ŋ/. /m/ and /n/ can occur initially, medially and finally. /ŋ/ can occur only medially and finally (-ng). A
B
Finger /'fɪŋgə/
Singer /'sɪŋə/
Anger /'æŋgə/
Hanger /'hæŋə/
Within a word containing the letters “ng”, /ŋ/ occurs without a following /g/ if it occurs at the end of a morpheme, if it occurs in the middle of a morpheme it has a following /g/. c. Lateral A lateral is the sound formed by the tip of the tongue firmly pressed against the teeth ridge or the teeth so that the air can escape at one or both sides of the tongue, e.g. /l/. This sound occurs initially, medially and finally. Initial /l/ (as in like) is called clear /l/. Final /l/ (as in little) is called dark /ł/. d. Rolled A rolled is the sound in the production of which the tip of the tongue vibrates in the stream of air, e.g. /r/. /r/ only occurs before a vowel. In the words such as car, ever, hard, verse, there is no /r/ in the pronunciation. However, most Americans and Scots pronounce /r/ in final position. Accents which have /r/ in final position and before a consonant are called rhotic accents, while accents in which /r/ only occurs before vowels are called non - rhotic. e. Fricative A fricative is the sound formed by a narrowing of the air passage at some point so that the air in escaping makes a kind of hissing e.g. /f/, /s/ or buzzing e.g. /z/ sound. The fricatives in the English language are /f/, /v/, /θ/, / ð/, /s/, /z/, /∫/, /ʒ/ and /h /. /f /, /v/, /θ/, /ð/, /s/, /z/ can be found in initial, medial and final position. /ʒ/can occur only medially. /h /occurs initially and medially. f. Affricative An affricative is a combination of a plosive consonant with an immediately following fricative /∫/ or /ʒ/ sound, e.g. /t∫/ (as in chair, church), /dʒ/ (as in judge, just). Affricatives can occur initially, medially and finally. g. Semi-vowel A semi-vowel is a gliding sound in which the speech organs start at or near a "close" vowel and immediately move away to some other vowels. 3.2.3. Other Terms: a. Obstruent: Because stops, fricatives, and affricates share the phonetic property of impeding the air flow by constricting the vocal passage, these three sets of sounds are together referred to as obstruents.
17
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b. Approximant: English has four sounds that are known as approximants because they are produced by two articulators approaching one another as for fricatives but not coming close enough to produce audible friction. They are /j/, /r/, /l/ and /w/. c. Continuants: sounds which are not stops are continuants because the stream of air continues without interruption through the mouth opening. Table 5: The English Consonants Place Voiced
Bilabial Labiodental -
+ -
p
b
Dental Alveolar Palato - Palatal Velar alveolar
+ -
+ -
+ -
+ -
+
-
+
k
g
Glottal -
+
Manner Plosive
t
d
Affricative Nasal
t∫ m
n
Lateral
l
Rolled
r
Fricative Semivowel
dʒ
f
v
θ
ð
s
z
ŋ
∫
h
ʒ
w
j
Recommended Reading: Crystal (1994: 123 - 159); Fromkin (1986: 35 - 71); Nesterov (1976-27); Roach (1987: 10 - 71); Vassiliev (1980: 19 - 24). ASSIGNMENT 3 I. Questions for Discussion 1- What are the differences between vowels and consonants? 2- What is a vowel? How can we classify the vowels in the English language? 3- What is a diphthong? Give 5 examples of the centering diphthongs and five examples of the closing diphthong in English. 4- What is a consonant? How can we describe the consonants? What are the types of consonants classified according to the manner of articulation/ organs of articulation in English? 5- What is the Cardinal Vowel Diagram used for? II. True - False: Decide if the following statements are true or false: 1 - Speech sounds are divided into pure vowels and diphthongs. 2 - All vowels are voiced. 3 - A pure vowel is an unchanging sound in the pronunciation of which the organs of speech do not perceptibly change the position throughout the duration of the vowel. 4 - The front vowel is the one in the production of which the front of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate. 18
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A B B Y Y.c
bu to re he C
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w
w
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2.0
2.0
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F T ra n sf o
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w.
5 - According to the height to which a part of the tongue is raised, vowels can be classified into close and open vowels. 6 - A close vowel is the one in the production of which the tongue is as low as possible. 7 - A rounded vowel is the one in the production of which the tongue is as low as possible. 8 - Vowels can be long or short. 9 - /i:/ is a long vowel. 10 - /e/ is a long vowel. 11- A diphthong is a pure vowel. 12 - Diphthongs can be divided into centering and closing diphthongs according to the second element of the diphthong. 13 - The word learn contains a diphthong. 14 - A consonant is a sound in the production of which no obstruction is formed in the mouth by the active organs of speech. 15 - Consonants may be classified according to a -the organs of speech, and b - the manner of articulation. 16 - If we classify the consonants according to the state of vibration of the vocal cords, they can be voiced or voiceless. 17 - Labials are bi-labials and labio-dentals. 18 - Palatals are sounds articulated in the glottis. 19 - A plosive is a stop sound. 20 - A nasal is a sound formed by the tip of the tongue firmly pressed against the teethridge or the teeth so that the air can escape at one or both sides of the tongue. III. Multiple Choice: Choose the best answer 1- Speech sounds are divided into vowels and ………. A- phonemes
B- syllables
C- words
D- consonants
2- Which of the following is incorrect? A- All vowels are voiced.
B- Vowels are less sonorous than consonants.
C- All vowels are syllabic.
D- Consonants are either voiced or voiceless.
3- ....... is an unchanging sound in the pronunciation of which the organs of speech do not perceptibly change the position throughout the duration of the vowel. A- A diphthong
B- A pure vowel
C- A consonant
D- A trithong
4- In the articulation of the ………..sound, the central of the tongue is raised toward the palate. A- front
B- back
C- central
D- open
5- A/ An……….vowel is the one in the production of which one part of the tongue comes close to the palate without touching it and the air passage is narrow, but not so much as to form a consonant. 19
A B B Y Y.c
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A B B Y Y.c
bu to re he C
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k
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A- open
B- mid-open
C- mid-close
w.
D- close
6-Which of the following words contains a close vowel? A- sand
B- hard
C- sit
D- hot
7- Which of the following words does not contain an open vowel? A- seen
B- hat
C- hot
D- not
8- According to the ..............., vowels can be rounded or unrounded. A- height of the raised part of the tongue
B- raised part of the tongue
C- length of the vowels
D- shape of the lip
9- .………… vowels are the ones in the production of which the lips are drawn together so that the opening between them is more or less round. A- Rounded
B- Unrounded
C- Long
D-Short
10- ………vowels are the ones in the production of which the lips may be spread out so as to leave a long narrow opening between them. A- long
B- spread
C- rounded
D- short
11- ............ is a combination of two vowels pronounced within one syllable. A- A diphthong
B- A consonant
C- A front vowel
D- An open vowel
12- Which of the following words contains a closing diphthong? A- hear
B- sure
C-day
D- very
13- Which of the following criteria can not be used as a classifying criterion for consonant classification? A- The position of the soft palate
B- The manner of articulation
C- The place of articulation
D- The shape of the lips
14- /ɑ:/ is a/ an ……………. vowel. A- open front short
B- open central long C- close front long
D- open back long
B- consonant
C- pure vowel
D- syllable
C- pure vowel
D- syllable
15- /ɪs /is a .…… A- diphthong
16- /aɪ/ is a . . . . . . . . . A- diphthong
B- consonant
17- Which of the following is true? A- Vowels are produced with complete closure in the vocal tract. B- Consonants are produced with no obstruction in the vocal tract. C- Consonants are more sonorous than the vowel. D- All vowels are syllabic. 18- Which of the following is not used as a criterion in vowel classification? 20
A B B Y Y.c
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F T ra n sf o
A B B Y Y.c
bu to re he C
lic
k
he k lic C w.
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w
w
w
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ABB
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2.0
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F T ra n sf o
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A- The height to which the tongue is raised B- The part of the tongue which is raised C- The windpipe
D- The vowel length
19- . .. . . . ..are sounds articulated, by the lower lip against the upper teeth. A- Labio-dentals
B- Alveolars
C- Velars
D- Glottals
20- The cardinal vowel diagramme is a …………..based on a combination of articulatory and auditory judgements. A- a system of guessing
B- a system of stress patterns
C- system of letters
D- a set of standard reference points
IV- Gap- filling : Fill in the blanks with appropriate words: 1 - We can describe vowels by referring to the part of the tongue which is at the highest point in the mouth. If the front of the tongue is at the highest point near the hard palate, we have a ______________ vowel. 2 - If the back of the tongue is at the highest point near the soft palate, we have a______________ vowel. 3--Vowels which are produced between the positions for a front and back vowel are called ______________ vowels. 4- One element in the description of vowels is the part of the tongue which is at the highest point in the mouth. A second element is the ______________ to which that part is raised. 5- If the tongue is placed as low as possible in the mouth, the vowel which results is an______________ vowel. 6- If the tongue is raised as high as possible in the mouth, without touching the roof of the mouth, the vowel which results is a______________ vowel. 7- The vowel /i: /in /fi:d / and /u: /in /fu:d / are both ______________ and the vowel / a: /in /fa: /-far is an______________ vowel. 8- The position of the lips also has an effect on vowel quality. If the lips are drawn together so that the opening between them is round, we have a______________ vowel. And if the lips are not drawn together the vowel is ______________ vowel. 9- According to the length vowels may be______________ or ______________. 10- A combination of vowels pronounced within one syllable is called a_____________. 11- If the organs of speech start in the position for one vowel and then immediately glide to the position of another, the result is a______________. 12-Diphthongs are represented by two symbols in phonemic transcription, the first shows the position of the organs of speech at the ______________ of the glide, and the second shows their approximate position at the ______________ of the glide. 13-Labio-dental consonants are articulated by______________ lip against the ______________. 14-Alveolar consonants are articulated by the tip of the tongue against the ___________. 15-Consonants that have alveolar articulation together with a simultaneous raising of the main body of the tongue towards the roof of the mouth are called ______________ consonants. 21
A B B Y Y.c
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F T ra n sf o
A B B Y Y.c
bu to re he C
lic
k
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w
w
w
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ABB
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2.0
2.0
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F T ra n sf o
ABB
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16- Affricative is a combination of a______________ consonant with an immediately following ______________ sound. 17- Semi-vowels are_______ sounds in the production of which the organs of speech start at or near a______________ and immediately move away to some other ______________ sound. 18- ______________ are the sounds produced when the air stream is completely stopped for a moment, after which it is allowed to rush out of the mouth with an explosive sound. 19-______________ are sounds articulated in the glottis. 20-______________ are the sounds formed by the tip of the tongue firmly pressed against the teeth-ridge or the teeth so that the air can escape at one or both sides of the tongue.
22
w.
A B B Y Y.c
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A B B Y Y.c
bu to re he C
lic
k
he k lic C w.
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w
w
w
rm
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ABB
F T ra n sf o
re
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2.0
2.0
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F T ra n sf o
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A B B Y Y.c
CHAPTER IV - PHONOLOGY: THE SOUND PATTERNS OF LANGUAGE Part of one’s knowledge of a language is the knowledge of the sound system - the phonology of that language. The phonology of the language includes the inventory of phones, the phonetic segments that occur in the language, and the ways in which they pattern. It is this patterning that determines the inventory of the more abstract phonological units, the phonemes of the language. Phonemes are the segments used to differentiate between the meanings of words. These are distinguished by distinctive features. Phonetics, as discussed in the previous chapter, provides the means for describing speech sounds. Phonology studies the ways in which speech sounds form systems and patterns in human language. The phonology of a language is then the system and patterns in human language. Phonology is thus used in two ways, either as the study of sound patterns in a language and the sound patterns of a language. In the following parts, we will look at the notion of the phoneme and related concepts. 1. The Phoneme According to E.C. Fudge (in John Lyons, 1970: 79 -81), there have been many attempts and approaches in the study of the phoneme. The French linguist, Dufriche - Degenettes, is said to have been the first to use the term phoneme (phonēme) in 1873, simply to refer to a speech sound. Earliest theories of the phoneme have been formulated by Baudouin de Courtenay, J. Winteler, Henry Sweet, Scerba, F.D. Sausure, Daniel Jones, Nikolai Trubetzkoy and Roman Jakobson. The study of the phoneme was later carried out by the American structuralist phonologists such as Edward Sapir, Leonard Bloomfield, Morrish Swadesh, W. Freeman Twaddel and Kenneth Pike. The approaches to the phoneme have seen it as a psychological entity (Boudouin de Courteney, Edward Sapir), as a family of physical sounds (with its principal and other subsidiary variants) (Scerba & Daniel Jones) and as a functional unit to be identified by the oppositions obtaining between it and other phonemes of the language in question (N. S. Trubetzkoy and R. Jakobson). 1.1. The phoneme theories Views of the phoneme fall into four main classes: 1.1.1. The “mentalist” or “psychological” view The “mentalist” or “psychological” view regards the phoneme as an ideal sound at which the speaker aims (originated by the Polish linguist Jan Baudouin de Courtenay (1845-1929). 1.1.2. The “physical” view The physical view regards the phoneme as family of sounds satisfying certain conditions, notably: a-The various members of the “family” must show phonetic similarity to one another, in other words be “related in character”. b-No member of the “family” may occur in the same phonetic context as any other, this condition is often referred to as the requirement of complementary distribution (propounded by Daniel Jones in 1950). e.g. The phoneme /l/ has the following phonetic properties: +consonantal
+alveolar
+voiced
+lateral 23
om
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F T ra n sf o
A B B Y Y.c
bu to re he C
lic
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ABB
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When the phoneme /l/ is used in speech, its pronunciation may slightly change. It may have the following variants as its realizations: [ l ] devoiced variant after voiceless /p / as in play [ l ] clear variant when used initially o
[ ł ] dark variant when used finally, as in little. Although these variants are slightly different, they still share the above phonetic properties as the original phoneme. They occur in different phonetic contexts. They are variants of the phoneme /l/. e.g. 2: The phoneme /t /has the following features: +consonantal -voiced +plosive +alveolar When used in communication, /t /may have the following variants: [th] (aspirated) (before a short vowel in stressed position, e.g. till [th]. [t] unaspirated (after a voiceless fricative ), e.g. still [stɪl]. These two variants still have the same phonetic properties. However, they occur in different phonetic contexts. They are variants of the same phoneme /t/. 1.1.3. The functional view The functional view regards the phoneme as the minimal sound unit by which meanings may be differentiated (originated by N. S. Trubetzkoy and R. Jakobson). e.g.
beat - bought sea - she three - free
According to this view, the phoneme is defined as the minimal distinctive unit of sound in a language. Its main function is to distinguish between the meaning of two morphemes or two words. 1.1.4. The “abstract” view The abstract view regards phonemes as essentially independent of the phonetic properties associated with them. 1.2. Phoneme, phone, and allophone: Let us look at the use of three terms: phoneme, phone, and allophone. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language which can distinguish 2 words. For example, in English, the words “tear” and “near” differ only in their initial sounds /t/ and /n/; “hot” and “hat” differ only in their vowels /ɒ/ and /æ/. Therefore, /t/, /n/, /ɒ/ and /æ/ are phonemes in English. The number of phonemes varies from one language to another. English has a maximum of 44 phonemes in its phonological system. 24
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Phones are individual sounds as they occur in speech. Phones are groups into distinctive sound units (phonemes) of a language. For example, in English, the different ways of pronouncing the vowel in the word can, e.g. long [æ:], shorter [æ], with nasalization [æ̃] are all phones of the phoneme /æ/. (Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics) Allophones are phonemes derived from the same phoneme in different distribution or relation. An allophone can be defined as a predictable phonetic variant of a phoneme. An actually pronounced speech sound is always a variant (allophone) of a phoneme. Different allophones of one and the same phonemes are speech sounds which have one or more articulatory and, therefore, acoustic features in common and at the same time differ from each other in some ( usually slight) degree because of the influence of their position, of the neighbouring speech sounds and of other purely phonetic factors upon them. The allophones of one and the same phoneme are, therefore, incapable of differentiating words or the grammatical forms of a word. The sound pronounced by a native speaker of the language if he were asked to say the sound in isolation is called the principal variant of the phoneme. All the other variants of the same phoneme are called its subsidiary variants. The allophones of a phoneme form a set of sounds that (a) do not change the meaning of a word, b- are all very similar to one another, and c- occur in phonetic contexts different from one another and d- have non -distinctive differences. Thus, in addition to the principal variant, the phoneme /l/ has at least other 3 allophones [l], [l] and [ł], /r/ has at least other four. All vowels may have a shortened variant (before a voiceless sound, e.g. /i:/ in beat ) and a non - shortened variant (before a voiced sound, e.g. /i:/ as in bead) The allophones of the same phoneme have phonetic differences which do not give rise to corresponding phonemic differences. These phonetic differences between the variants of the same phoneme are non-distinctive. We noted that in some words two phonemes may occur interchangeably without changing the meaning of a word, as in the initial sound of economics which people pronounce with an /i:/ and others pronounce with an /e/. We said that these two phonemes were in free variation in that particular word. 1.3. Distinctive features As we have seen, where a particular phonetic difference does not give rise to a corresponding phonemic difference, linguists say that this phonetic difference is non-distinctive. However, differences which can give rise to a change of meaning are referred to as distinctive differences. In English we have many pairs of distinctive words called minimal pairs. These are pairs of words which are identical in every way except for one sound segment that occurs in the same place in the sound sequence. Examples are: Beat - bought Bit - boot Bat - bite But - bot Thin - tin In the definition, the phoneme is defined as the minimal distinctive unit of sound in a language. However, according to Trubetzkoy and his followers, the phoneme can be further analyzable into 25
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distinctive features, which are particular characteristics distinguishing one distinctive sound of a language from another or one group of sounds from another group. Consider, for example, the differences between /p / and /b /: /p/
/b/
+ bilabial
+ bilabial
- voiced
+ voiced
+ stop
+ stop
+ consonantal
+ consonantal
These two phonemes differ in only one respect: voice. This difference is significant or is of functional value. Hence voice is a distinctive feature. Other examples are /p-g/ which differ in two aspects (voiceless – voiced; bi-labial – velar). The following table will present further examples of distinctive features of English stop consonants: Table 1: Distinctive features of some English consonants /k/
/g/
/ ŋ/
Labial Velar
+
+
/p/
/b/
/m/
+
+
+
/t/
/d/
+
+
/n/
+
Dental Voiced
-
+
+
-
+
+
-
+
+
Nasal
-
-
+
-
-
+
-
-
+
(From John Lyons, 1968) Typically, distinctive differences recur in different parts of the inventory of phonemes of a language. Voicing, for example, is a significant part of English /b/, /d/, /g/, /m/, /ŋ/; and labiality, a significant part of /p/, /b/, /f/, /v/, and /m/. All phonemes can be regarded as being made up of a number of these simultaneous properties, which are known as “distinctive features”. 1.4. Segmental and suprasegmental phonemes In the study of the phonemic system in a language, a distinction is made between the vowels and consonants of a particular language, which are referred to as segmental phonemes, and such phenomena as stress, pitch and intonation, which stretch over more than one segment as suprasegmental phonemes. Suprasegmentals make use of such parameters as loudness, pitch, and duration. From the phonological point of view categories and phonetic parameters is not one-to-one. e.g. 20 vowels and 24 consonants are segmental phonemes. Record /'rekɔ:d/ (n) and /rɪ'kɔ:d/ (v) are suprasegmental phonemes (stress). The phonological categories to be dealt with the scopes of suprasegmentals are a- Word-stress b- Tone c- Sentence – stress 26
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d- Intonation e- Quantity (e.g. /i:/ in beat is somewhat different from /i:/ in bead) 1.5. Units larger than the phoneme The phoneme has been defined as the smallest distinctive unit of sound in a language. There are other units larger than the phonemes. These include: a- Syllable b- Word c- Stress-group d- Foot e- Tone-group Units a, b, c, and e form a hierarchy: a tone group consists of an integral number of stress-group, a stress-group of an integral number of words, a word of an integral number of syllables, and a syllable of an integral number of segments. These units have particularly important role to play in connection with suprasegmentals. 2. Types of Pronunciation English is spoken as the mother tongue in many countries such as Great Britain, America, Australia, and New Zealand. Within each country a national standard is employed, which is associated with a particular way of pronunciation or accent. Pronunciation distinguishes one national standard from another most immediately and completely, and links in a most obvious way the national standards to the regional varieties. In British English, one type of pronunciation comes close to enjoying the status of “Standard”: “Received Pronunciation” or “RP” RP is the type of British standard pronunciation which has been regarded as the prestige variety and which shows no regional variation. A class dialect rather than a regional dialect, it is based on the type of speech cultivated at such schools as Eton and Harrow and as such of the older universities as Oxford and Cambridge. It is the British pronunciation that is “received” (accepted as “proper”) at the royal court. RP has been popularly referred to as BBC English because it was until recently the standard pronunciation used by most British Broadcasting Corporation news readers. Nowadays, RP no longer has the unique authority it had in the first half of the 20th century. According to Peter Roach (1987), in talking about accents of English, the foreigners should be careful about the difference between England and Britain; there are many different accents in England, but the range becomes very much wider if the accents of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are taken into account. Within the accents of England, the distinction that is most frequently made by the majority of English people is between Northern and Southern. This is a very rough division, and there can be endless argument over the boundaries lie, but most people on hearing a pronunciation typical of someone from Lancashire, Yorkshire or other countries further north would identify it a “Northern”. In American English, Network English has been the standard type of pronunciation. Standard American English differs from RP in various ways. Celce – Murcia et al in Teaching Pronunciation: A Course for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (1996) present the following differences between British English and American English: a- differences in phonemic inventory, b- differences in allophonic variation, c- differences in pronunciation of 27
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common words, d- differences in word stress and e- differences in sentence stress and fdifferences in overall sound and voice quality. Some examples of the difference between British English and American English: a- Pronunciation British
American
tune
[tju:n]
[tu:n]
dance
[dɑ:ns]
[dæns]
SECretary
secreTARY
b- Word stress dicTATE
DICtate
c- Intonation Variations in neutral and unemotional British & American English intonation are marked enough such that speakers of both varieties seem to develop stereotype perceptions of the other group. Americans tend to perceive British speakers as pretentious and mannered while British speakers tend to perceive Americans as monotonous and mannered. Australian English is one of the many languages spoken in Australia. There are, of course, differences between British English and Australian English in many areas, pronunciation included. One would be surprised when greeting [gu:daɪ maɪt] = (Good day mate) by Australians. According to Fromkin, one pervasive characteristic of pronunciation of Australian English which differentiates it from other English accents is the strong tendency to use the indeterminate vowel /∂ /in weakly stressed syllables. Thus in the following pairs of alternate pronunciations, most Australians would use the latter British (RP)
Australian
emotive
[ɪ'məʊtɪv]
[ə'məʊtɪv]
horses
['hɔ:sɪz ]
['hɔ:səz ]
One consequence of this tendency is that Australian English has a considerable number of homophones which do not occur in other English accents. Compare: British (RP)
Australian
Standard- American
tended/ tendered
['tendɪd]/ ['tendəd]
['tendəd]/ ['tendəd]
['tendɪd]/ ['tendərd]
races/ racers
['reɪsɪz]/ ['reɪsəz]
['reɪsəz]/ ['reɪsəz]
['reɪsɪz]/ ['reɪsərz]
3. Phonetic Alphabets In discussing the sounds of human language from the point of view of their articulation, phoneticians have developed descriptive techniques to allow comparison across languages and to avoid the difficulties inherent in describing sounds in terms of standard spelling practices. You know that it is not possible to use customary orthographic representations to analyze sound structure. Even within one language, some sounds correspond to more than one letter while some letters correspond to more than one sound. In the case of English, the discrepancies between 28
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spelling and sounds do exist. Different letters may represent a single sound (e.g. to, too, two, through…); a single letter may represent different sounds (e.g. dame, dad, father…). A combination of letters may represent a single sound (e.g. Shoot, character, Thomas, physics…); some letters have no sounds at all; and some sounds are not represented in the spelling. As a result, a completely separate system of alphabet to present the actual sounds of human language was created. In scientific discussion, the requisite characteristics of symbols to represent sounds are clarity and consistency. The best tool is a phonetic alphabet, and the one most widely used is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) developed by the International Phonetic Association in 1888. IPA is a system of symbols for representing the pronunciation of words in many languages according to the principles of the International Phonetic Association. Symbols consist of letters and diacritics. Some letters are taken from the Roman alphabet. Others are special languages of the world, one that is independent of the orthographies of particular languages. Linguists mix, match and modify from different systems to suit specific purposes in sound description. 4. Principles of Transcription Transcription is the use of symbols in IPA to show sounds or sound sequences in a written form. A distinction is made between two types of transcription: a- phonemic transcription and b- allophonic or (phonetic) transcription.
4.1. Phonemic Transcription Phonemic transcription (or linguistically broad transcription) is used to show only the distinctive sounds of a language. It is based on the principles “one symbol per phoneme”. It does not show the finer points of pronunciation. Phonemic transcription is written within two parallel slanting lines. For example, the English word foot may appear in phonemic transcription as /fu:t/. /f/, /u:/ and /t/ are phonemes of English. Phonemic transcription may be used, for example: 29
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a- For languages which have no writing system of their own. b- For teaching purposes, to show differences in pronunciation 4.2. Allophonic Transcription Allophonic Transcription (also phonetic /linguistically narrow transcription) used allophonic symbols for various sounds, including symbols to show in detail how a particular sound pronounced. An allophonic, or linguistically narrow transcription is based on the principle “one symbol per allophone” It is to show finer points of pronunciation. Phonetic transcription is written in square brackets [ ]. For example, the English word pin may appear in phonetic transcription as [pʰin] with the raised h showing the aspiration of the [p]. In phonemic transcription, pin would be transcribed as /pɪn/. Phonetic transcription maybe used, for example: a- to show the different pronunciation of closely related dialects b- to show the pronunciation of individual speakers or groups of speakers. Recommended Reading: Fromkin (1986: 72-113) ASSIGNMENT 4 I.
Questions for discussion:
1. What is a phoneme? An allophone? 2. Discuss the functional view and the physical view of the phoneme. 3. What is a distinctive feature? Does an allophone have both distinctive and non-distinctive features? 4. How do you understand the two terms: segmental and suprasegmental phoneme? 5. What is the phonemic transcription? The allophonic transcription? What kind of transcription should be used in the teaching of English at secondary school? II. T /F: Decide whether the following statements are true or false” 1- Phonology studies the phonemic system of a language. 2- The approaches to phoneme have seen it as a psychological entity, as a family of sounds and a functional unit. 3- The functional view regards the phoneme as a family of sounds. 4- The phoneme is a distinctive unit of sounds in a language. 5- The allophones of a phoneme are concrete realizations of that phoneme. The phoneme is an abstract unit. 6- Al phonemes can be regarded as being made up of a number of distinctive features. 7- All allophones are made up of only non-distinctive features. 8- The allophones of a phoneme are predictable phonetic variants of that phoneme. 9- RP is the type of pronunciation employed in America. 10- Phonemic transcription is based on the principle “One symbol per phoneme” 30
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III- Multiple Choice: Choose the best answer 1- Which of the following is not true? A- The phoneme is the smallest distinctive unit of sound in a language. B- The phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language which can distinguish two morphemes or two words. C- The allophones of the same phoneme must show phonetic similarity to one another. D- The allophones of the same phoneme must occur in the same phonetic context. 2-……………. regards the phoneme as the minimal sound unit by which meanings may be differentiated. A- The mentalist view
B- The physical view
C- The functional view
D- The abstract view
3- Allophones are known as ………………….. A- the predictable syllabic
B- the predictable phonetic
C- the predictable morphological
D- the predictable textual
4. Which of the following is not a segmental phoneme? A- the vowel
B- the stress
C- the consonant
D- the diphthong
5- Which of the following words form a minimal pair? A- bat-bite
B- thin-free
C- bat-she
D- ship-three
6- Which of the following pairs of phoneme differs in two distinctive features? A- /p – b/
B- /t – d/
C- /k – g/
D- /p – z/
7- How many phonemes are there in the word teaching? A- 2
B- 3
C- 4
D- 5
8- The initial vowel of economics could be either /i:/ or /e/ according to the variation in the pronunciation of different speakers. These sounds are said to be …………… in that particular word. A- free variation
B- positional variation
C- distinctive variation
D- significant variation
9- A/ An ………………transcription is based on the principle “one symbol per phoneme”. A- allophone
B- phonemic
C- narrow
D- non – distinctive
10- When the word meat is transcribed as [mĩ:t], ……………… transcription is used. A- allophonic
B- phonemic
C- narrow
D- morphophonemic
IV. Trancribe the following words: 1. bake
4. bought
7. bored
2. goat
5. tick
8. guard
3. doubt
6. bough
9. pea 31
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CHAPTER V - THE SYLLABLE Native speakers tend to recognize a unit intermediate between the segment and the word, that is, the syllable. The functions of the syllable appear to be threefold: a-to carry the phonetic manifestations of the suprasegmentals, b-to be the chief domain of patterns of arrangement of phonemes, or phonotatics, and c- and to act as a unit of organization in the process of speech production. Perhaps the most likely theory is that the syllable arises from the alternating opening and closing of the vocal tract during speech, resulting in an alternation of vowel-like and consonant-like articulations. The consonantal articulations, especially plosives, are often signaled phonetically as modifications to the vowel-like ones, and this results in the typical structure of the syllableconsonants grouped around a vowel. All languages have syllables of the form CV, in addition, many languages have patterns of greater complexity, with CVC being the most frequent. The central position of the syllable, occupied by the V(owel) element, is normally referred to as the “peak” (sometimes the “nucleus”). Most of consonants are marginal. The sound which forms the peak or the center of a syllable is called syllabic sound. All vowels and some of the consonants are syllabic. Most of the consonants are non-syllabic. 1. Definition: The syllable may be defined as one or more speech sounds forming a word or part of a word, containing one vowel sound, with or without a consonant or consonants, and uttered at a single effort, e.g. man, mor-ning. 2. Syllable Formation. 2.1. The internal structure of a syllable e.g. spring /sprɪŋ/ S Onset (O)
Rhyme (R)
Nucleus (N) /spr/
/ɪ/
Coda (C) /ŋ/
A complete description of a syllable requires four sub-syllabic units. The nucleus (N) is the syllable’s only obligatory member. It is a vocalic segment that forms the core of a syllable. The coda (C) consists of those segments that follow the nucleus in the same syllable. The rhyme (R) is made up of the nucleus and coda. The onset (O) is made up of those segments that precede the rhyme in the same syllable. 2.1.1. Onset: 4 cases a. Zero onset: Any vowel may occur at the final position, though /ʊ/ is rare. b. One consonant: Any consonant may occur, except /ŋ/, and /ʒ/ is rare. c. Two consonants (called consonant cluster): 32
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Pre-Initial
Initial
s
p, t, k, f, m, n, l, w, j
e.g. spin /spɪn/, stand /stænd/, skin /skɪn/, sphere /sfɪə/, smell /smel/, snake /sneɪk/, slow /sləʊ/, sweat /swet/, suit /sju:t/. Initial
Post-Initial
p, t, k, b, d, g, f, v, ∫, θ, h, m, n
l, r, w, j
- /p, b, f/ + /l, r, j/: play /pleɪ/, pray /preɪ/, pure /pjʊə/, black /blæk/, bring /brɪŋ/, beauty /'bju:ti/, fly /flaɪ/, fry / fraɪ /, few /fju:/ - /t, d/ + /r, w, j/: tray /treɪ/, twin /twɪn/, tune /tju:n/, drip /drɪp/, dwell /dwel/, dew /dju:/ - /k/ + /l, r, w, j/: clay /kleɪ/, cry /kraɪ/, quick /kwɪk/, cue /kju:/ - /g/ + /l, r/:
glue /glu:/, green /gri:n/
- /θ/ + /r, w/:
through /θru:/, thwart /θwɔ:t/
- /∫/ + /r/:
shrewd /∫ru:d/, shriek /∫ri:k/
- /h, v, m, n/ + /j/: huge /hju:dʒ/, view /vju:/, music /'mju:zɪk/, new /nju:/ d. Three consonants: Pre-Initial
s
Initial
Post-Initial l
r
w
j
p
splay
spray
*
spew
t
*
string
*
stew
k
sclerosis
screen
squeak
skewer
2.1.2 Coda: 3 cases a. Zero: no consonant at the end of a syllable. b. One consonant: any consonant may be a final consonant, except /h, r, w, j/. c. Consonant cluster: where two, three or four consonants at the end of a syllable. ·
- pre-final /m, n, ŋ, l, s/ + final: bump, bent, bank, belt, ask, etc. - final + post-final /s, z, t, d, θ/: bets, beds, backed, bagged, eighth, etc.
·
- pre-final + final + post-final: helped, banks, bonds, twelfth, etc. - final + post-final 1 + post-final 2: fifths, next, lapsed, etc.
·
- pre-final + final + post-final 1 + post-final 2: twelfths, prompts, etc. - final + post-final 1 + post-final 2 + post-final 3: sixths, texts, etc. 33
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To sum up, we may describe the English syllable as having the following maximum phonological structure: PreInitial
Initial
PostInitial
Prefinal
VOWEL
Final
Postfinal 1
Postfinal 2
Postfinal 3
e.g. blouse, spring, texts blouse /blaʊz/
Syllable Onset
Initial
Rhyme
Post-Initial Nucleus
/b/
/l/
/aʊ/
Coda
/z/
2.2. Syllable formation The sequences of sounds that can make up a syllable differ from language to language and are strictly limited within each language. In the case of the English language there is a wide variety of syllable types, the two main types of which are C + V + C and C + syllabic C. In the first type there must be a vowel as the center of the syllable, it is the syllabic sound. In the second, there is a syllabic consonant as the syllabic sound. Thus, in English, the syllable is can be formed by: a- any vowel (V), e.g. or, are, I. b- one vowel proceeded by one consonant (CV), e.g. core, car. c- one vowel followed by one consonant (VC), e.g. ought, art. d- one vowel sound both preceded and followed by one consonant (CVC),e.g. hit, man. e- a word-final syllabic lateral /l/ or nasal /m, n/ immediately preceded by a consonant, e.g. /pl/ in people, /dn/ in garden. Not every language allows so wide a variety of syllable types as English does. In fact, the preferred syllable type among the world’s languages is CV, then CVC and V. Different languages have different preferred structures of the syllable. The rules that characterize permissible syllable structures in a language are called phonotactic constraints, and they determine what constitutes a possible syllable. 3. Closed and Open Syllables A syllable which ends in a vowel is called an open syllable, e.g. he, writer. A syllable which ends in a consonant is called a closed syllable, e.g. it, man. 4. Strong and Weak Syllables What do we mean by strong and weak syllables? In the present context, we are using these terms to refer to phonetic characteristics of syllables. The most important thing to note at present is that any strong syllable will have as its center one of the vowel phonemes (or possibly a trithong), but not /ə/. Weak syllables, on the other hand, as they are being defined here, can only have four types of center: a - the vowel /ə/ (schwa) 34
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w
w
w
w
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y
ABB
PD
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to
Y
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b - /i/ (or /ɪ/) (a close front unrounded vowel in the general area of /i:/ and /ɪ/) c - /u/ (or /ʊ/) (a close back rounded vowel in the general area of /u:/ and /ʊ/) d - a syllabic consonant. When we compare weak syllables containing vowels with strong syllables, we find the vowel in a weak syllable tends to be shorter, of lower intensity and different in quality. For example, in the word father /'fɑ:ðə/, the second syllable is shorter than the first, less loud, and has a vowel that can not occur in strong syllables. 4.1. The /ə/ vowel (“schwa”) The most frequently occurring vowel in English is /ə/, which is always associated with weak syllables. Following are some spellings that are pronounced /ə/ in weak syllables: - Spelt with “a”
: attend /ə'tend/, character /'kærəktə/
- Spelt with “ar”
: particular /pə'tɪkjʊlə/, molar /'məʊlə/, monarchy /'mɒnəki/
- Adjectival endings spelt “ate” : intimate /'ɪntɪmət/, accurate /'ækjərət/ (though there are some exceptions: private /'praɪvɪt/) - Spelt with “o”
: tomorrow /tə'mɒrəʊ/, potato /pə'teɪtəʊ/
- Spelt with “or”
: forget /fə'get/, ambassador /æm'bæsədə/
- Spelt with “e”
: violet /'vaɪələt/, postmen /'pəʊstmən/
- Spelt with “er”
: perhaps /pə'hæps/, stronger /'strɒŋgə/
- Spelt with “u”
: autumn /'ɔ:təm/, support /sə'pɔ:t/
- Spelt with “ough”
: thorough /'θʌrə/, borough /'bʌrə/
- Spelt with “ous”
: gracious /'greɪ∫əs/, callous /'kæləs/
4.2. Close front vowel i/ɪ We find i/ɪ occurring in the following cases: - Spelt with “y” or “ey” at the end of a word or a morpheme”: happy /'hæpi/, valley /'væli/, hurrying /'hʌriɪŋ/, etc. - In prefixes such as “re”, “pre”, “de” which precede a vowel and are unstressed: react /ri'ækt/, preoccupied /pri'ɒkjʊpaɪd/, deactivate /di'æktɪveɪt/, etc. - In suffixes spelt “iate”, “ious” when they have 2 syllables: appreciate /ə'pri:∫ieɪt/, hilarious /hɪ'leəriəs/, etc. - In the following words when unstressed: “he”, “she”, “we”, “me”, “be”, and “the” when it precedes a vowel. It can be seen that this vowel is most often represented in spelling by the letters “i” and “e”. 4.3. Close back vowel u/ʊ We find u/ʊ in the following cases: 35
A B B Y Y.c
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A B B Y Y.c
bu to re he C
lic
k
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w
w
w
w
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y
ABB
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to
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2.0
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- In the words “you”, “to”, “into”, “do”, when they are unstressed and not immediately preceding a consonant. - In the words “through” and “who” in all positions when they are unstressed. - Usually u/ʊ is found with a preceding /j/, as in “computation” /kɒmpjʊ'teɪ∫n/, and often with another vowel following, for example, “evacuation” /ɪvækjʊ'eɪ∫n/. An example of such vowel without a preceding /j/ is “influenza” /ɪnflʊ'enzə/. 4.4. Syllabic consonants: Most English syllables contain one vowel. However, there are syllables in which no vowel is found. In these cases, a consonant, either /l/, /r/ or a nasal, stands as the center of the syllable instead of the vowel. It is usual to indicate that a consonant is syllabic by means of a small vertical mark (,) put under the consonant, for example: cattle ['kætl]. Words containing syllabic consonants are bottle, muddle, garden, happen, thicken, history ... The syllabic consonants are l, m, n, ŋ, r. Recommended Reading: Roach (1987: 53 -71); Vassilyev ( 1980 : 86 - 88) ASSIGNMENT 5 Questions for discussions: 1- How is the syllable defined? 2- What is the internal structure of an English syllable? 3- What is an English syllable formed by? 4- What syllable is called phonetically open syllable? Closed syllable? 5- What is the difference between weak and strong syllables? II-T /F: Decide whether the following statements are true or false: 1- The syllable may be defined as one or more speech sounds, forming a word or part of a word, containing one vowel sound, with or without a consonant or consonants, and uttered at a single effort. 2- The full internal structure of a phoneme consists of onset and coda. 3- In the word spring, /i:/ is the nucleus. 4- Sun is a word of two syllables. 5- The syllable structure of learn is CVC. 6- Voiceless is a word with the point of syllable division after the sound /s /. 7- A weak syllable is the one which might end in a syllabic consonant. 8- Or is a syllable made up of one phoneme. 9- A syllable which ends in a vowel is called a closed syllable. 10- Correct syllable division is very important in communication. III- Multiple Choice: Choose the best answer 36
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1- … may be defined as one or more speech sounds forming a word or part of a word, containing one vowel sound, with or without a consonant (or consonants), and uttered at a single effort. A- The syllable
B- The phoneme
C- The intonation
D- The morpheme
C- or
D- hit
2- Which syllable is formed by a vowel? A- sky
B- seem
3- Which syllable is formed by a vowel + a consonant? A- she
B- eat
C- sit
D- or
4- Which syllable is formed by a consonant + a vowel? A- she
B- eat
C- it
D- eye
5- Which syllable is formed by a consonant + a vowel + a consonant? A- he
B- eat
C- sit
D- eye
6- Which word contains a syllabic consonant? A- meat
B- seat
C- run
D- little
7- In English, a syllable is generally not formed by ..... A- a vowel
B- one consonant + one vowel
C- one vowel + one consonant
D- two stops
8- How many syllables are there in the word garden? A- 1
B- 2
C- 3
D- 4
9- Which of the following syllable is an open syllable? A- she
B- it
C- at
D- eat
10- Which of the following syllable has the structure of V? A- talk
B- learn
C- or
D- at
11- Which of the following syllable has the structure of CV? A- learn
B- sea
C- sit
D- at
12- Which of the following syllable has the full structure of onset-nucleus-coda? A- sit
B- are
C- or
D- I
13- Which consonant cluster is the coda in the word streets? A- /sr/
B- /tr/
C- /str/
D- /ts/
14- How many syllables are there in the word ordinarily? A- 2
B- 3
C- 4
D- 5
15- Which of the following words contains a syllable of the type C + syllabic C? A- little
B- read
C- can
D- eye
16- Which of the following syllables is an open syllable? A- meet
B- reach
C- do
D- sit 37
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17- Which of the following syllables is a closed syllable? A- me
B- hear
C- oh
D- sit
IV- Analyze the structure of the following one-syllable English words 1. squealed
2. eighths
3. splash
4. texts
38
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CHAPTER VI – WORD - STRESS 1. The Nature of Stress Stress is the pronunciation of a word or syllable with more force than the surrounding words or syllables. Word - stress is defined as the prominence given to certain syllable(s) in a word by the use of greater breath force. The prominence can be produced by four main factors: loudness, length, pitch and quality. Generally, these four factors work together in combination, though syllables may sometimes be made prominent by means of only one or two of them. 2. Levels of Stress Three levels of word - stress may be identified: a- tonic strong (or primary) indicated by the sign (') put before the stressed syllable, b- non-tonic strong (or secondary) indicated by (,), and cunstressed. One example is representation /,reprɪzen'teɪòn /. 3. Placement of Stress within the Word English is not one of those languages where word - stress can be decided simply in relation to the syllables of the words, as can be done in French ( where the last syllable is usually stressed), Polish (where the syllable before the last - the penultimate syllable - is stressed) or Czech ( where the first syllable is stressed). Many writers have said that stress is difficult to predict and the best approach is to treat stress placement as a property of the individual word. According to Peter Roach, in order to decide on stress placement, it is necessary to make use of some or all of the following information: a- Whether the word is morphologically simple, or whether it is complex as a result of containing one or more affixes or of being compound words. b- The grammatical category to which the word belongs (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) c- The number of syllables in the word. d- The phonological structure of those syllables (whether those syllables consist of long or short vowels, consonants or diphthongs). 3.1. Single-syllable words: if they are pronounced in isolation they are said with tonic-strong stress (or primary stress). 3.2. Two-syllable words 3.2.1. Verbs and adjectives - If the second syllable contains a long vowel or diphthong, or if it ends with more than one consonant, it is stressed, e.g. support /sə'pɔ:t/ attract /ə'trækt/
divine /dɪ'vaɪn/ assist /ə'sɪst/
apply /ə'plaɪ/ direct /dɪ'rekt /
arrive /ə'raɪv/ correct /kə'rekt/
- If the second syllable contains a short vowel and one (or no) final consonant, or if it contains /əʊ/, the first syllable is stressed: e.g. enter /'entə/
open /'əʊpən/
lovely /'lʌvli/
equal /'i:kwəl/ 39
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follow/'fɒləʊ/
borrow /'bɒrəʊ/
narrow /'nærəʊ/
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hollow /'hɒləʊ/
- Exceptions: + Verbs whose structure is morphologically complex: e.g. permit /pə'mɪt/ = “per”+ “mit” submit /səb'mɪt/ = “sub”+ “mit” commit /kə'mɪt/ = “com”+ “mit” + Adjectives: e.g. honest /'ɒnɪst/
perfect /'pз:fɪkt/
Note: Other two-syllable words such as adverbs and prepositions seem to behave like verbs and adjectives. 3.2.2. Nouns - If the second syllable contains a short vowel, the stress will usually come on the first syllable. Otherwise it will be on the second syllable. e.g. money /'mʌni/ balloon /bə'lu:n/
larynx /'lærɪŋks/
product /'prɒdʌkt/
estate /ɪ'steɪt/
design /dɪ'zaɪn/
3.3. Three-syllable words 3.3.1. Verbs - If the 3rd syllable contains a long vowel or diphthong, or ends with more than one consonant, it is stressed, e.g. entertain /entə'teɪn/, resurrect /rezə'rekt/. Exception: calculate /'kælkjuleɪt/, concentrate, testify, - If the 3rd syllable contains a short vowel and ends with no more than one consonant, the 2nd syllable will be stressed. e.g. encounter /ɪŋ'kaʊntə/, determine /dɪ'tз:mɪn/. 3.3.2. Nouns - If the 3rd syllable contains a long vowel or diphthong and/ or ending with more than one consonant, the 1st syllable receives primary stress and in some cases the 3rd receives secondary stresss. e.g. intellect /'ɪntɪlekt/ marigold /'mærɪgəʊld/ alkali /'ælkəlaɪ/
stalactite /'stæləktaɪt/.
- If the 3rd syllable contains a short vowel or /əʊ/: + and if the 2nd syllable contains a long vowel or diphthong, or if it ends with more than one consonant, the 2nd syllable is stressed: e.g.
disaster /dɪ'za:stə/
mimosa /mɪ'məʊzə/
potato /pə'teɪtəʊ/
synopsis /sɪ'nɒpsɪs/
+ and if the 2nd syllable contains a short vowel and ends with not more one consonant, the 1 syllable is stressed: st
e.g.
quantity /'kwɒntɪti/
cinema /'sɪnəmə/ 40
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custody /'kʌstədi/
emperor /'emprə/ 3.3.3. Adjectives: seem to follow the same rule. opportune /'ɒpətju:n/
insolent /'ɪnslənt/
derelict /'derɪlɪkt/
anthropoid /'ænθrəpɔɪd/
3.4. Complex words According to Roach (P, 1987) complex words are of two major types: words made from a basic stem word with the addition of an affix, and compound words, which are made of two (or occasionally more) independent English words (e.g. ice - cream, arm - chair). 3.4.1. Affixes Affixes will have one of the three possible effects on word - stress: i. The affix itself receives the primary stress e.g. semicircle /'semɪsз:kl/
personality /pз:sn'ælɪti/
ii. The word is stressed just as if the affix is not there e.g. pleasant /'pleznt/ market /'ma:kɪt/
--
unpleasant /ʌn'pleznt/
--
marketing /'ma:kɪtɪŋ/
iii. The stress remains on the stem, not the affix, but is shifted to a different syllable e.g. magnet /'mægnət/
--
magnetic /mæg'netik/
3.4.1.1. Suffixes 1. Suffixes carrying the primary stress themselves: -ain
e.g. entertain /,entə'teɪn/
-ee
e.g. refugee
-eer
e.g. volunteer /,vɒlən'tɪə/
mountaineer /,maʊntə'nɪə/
-ese
e.g. Japanese /,dʒæpə'ni:z/
journalese
/,dʒз:nl'i:z/
-ette
e.g. cigarette /,sɪgr'et/
launderette
/,lɔ:ndr'et/
picturesque
/,pɪkt∫ə'resk/
-ique, -esque, e.g. unique
/,refjʊ'dʒi:/
/ju:'ni:k/
ascertain
/,æsə'teɪn/
evacuee
/ɪ,vækju'i:/
2. Suffixes that do not affect stress placement: -able
e.g. comfort
/'kʌmfət/
comfortable
/'kʌmftəbl/
-age
e.g. anchor
/'æŋkə/
anchorage
/'æŋkrɪdʒ/
-al
e.g. refuse (v) /rɪ'fju:z/
refusal
/rɪ'fju:zəl/
-en
e.g. wide
/waɪd/
widen
/'waɪdn/
-ful
e.g. beauty
/'bju:ti/
beautiful
/'bju:tɪfl/
-ing
e.g. amaze
/ə'meɪz/
amazing
/ə'meɪzɪŋ/ 41
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-ish
e.g. devil
/'devl/
devilish
/'devlɪ∫/
-like
e.g. bird
/bз:d/
birdlike
/'bз:dlaɪk/
-less
e.g. power
/'paʊə/
powerless
/'paʊələs/
-ly
e.g. hurried
/'hʌrɪd/
hurriedly
/'hʌrɪdli/
-ment
e.g. punish
/'pʌnɪ∫/
punishment
/'pʌnɪ∫mənt/
-ness
e.g. yellow
/'jeləʊ/
yellowness
/'jeləʊnəs/
-ous
e.g. poison
/'pɔɪzn/
poisonous
/'pɔɪznəs/
-fy
e.g. glory
/'glɔ:ri/
glorify
/'glɔ:rifaɪ/
-wise
e.g. other
/'ʌðə/
otherwise
/'ʌðəwaɪz/
-y
e.g. fun
/fʌn/
funny
/'fʌni/
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3. Suffixes that influence stress on the stem The primary stress is shifted to the last syllable of the stem: -eous
e.g. advantage /əd'vɑ:ntɪdʒ/ advantageous /,ædvən'teɪdʒəs/
-graphy
e.g. photo
/'fəʊtəʊ/
photography /fə'tɒgrəfi/
-ial
e.g. proverb
/'prɒvз:b/
proverbial
/prə'vз:biəl/
-ic
e.g. climate /'klaɪmɪt/
climatic
/klaɪ'mætɪk/
-ion
e.g. perfect
/'pз:fɪkt/
perfection
/pə'fekt∫n/
-ious
e.g. injure
/'ɪndʒə/
injurious
/ɪn'dʒʊəriəs/
-ity
e.g. tranquil /'træŋkwɪl/
traquility
/træŋ'kwɪlɪti/
-ive
e.g. reflex
reflexive
/rɪ'fleksɪv/
/'ri:fleks/
3.4.1.2. Prefixes Stress in words with prefixes is governed by the same rules as those for words without prefixes: friendly
/'frendli/
unfriendly
/ʌn'frendli/
happy
/'hæpi/
unhappy
/ʌn'hæpi/
possible
/'pɒsib(ə)l/
impossible
/ɪm'pɒsib(ə)l/
3.4.2. Compound words When is primary stress placed on the first word of the compound and when on the second? Both patterns are found. According to P. Roach (pp. 83 - 84) a simple rule can be used, though not completely reliable. - If the first part of the compound is (in a broad sense) adjectival, the stress goes on the second element, with a secondary stress on the first element. For example: loudspeaker
/,laʊd'spi: kə/
bad - tempered
/,bæd 'tempəd/ 42
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second-class /,sekən 'klɑ:s/
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three-wheeler /,θri:'wi:lə/
There are many exceptions to this rule. The majority of these exceptions have in common the fact that they have become more like simple words and less like compounds with the passage of time, and their meaning is no longer easily derived from their constituent parts. For example, greenhouse /'gri:nhaʊs/ is derived from green and house, but a greenhouse is not green and is not really a house. Other examples are: gentleman
/'dʒentlmən/
background
/'bækgraʊnd/
broadcast
/'brɔ:dkɑ:st/
bluebell
/'blu:bel/
- If, however, the first element is (in a broad sense) a noun, the stress goes on the first element. For example: typewriter
/'taɪpwraɪtə/
car – ferry
/'kɑ:feri/
suitcase
/'sju:tkeɪs/
tea – cup
/'ti:kʌp/
sunrise
/'sʌnraɪz/
3.5. Varied Stress It would be wrong to imagine that the stress pattern is always fixed and unchanging in English words. Stress position may vary for one or two reasons: either as a result of the stress on other words occurring next to the words in question, or because not all speakers of RP agree on the placement of stress in some words. For example, controversy may be pronounced as /'kɒntrəvз:si/ or as /kən'trɒvз:si/. Other examples are ice-cream, kilometre, formidable. 3.6. Word - class pair There are several dozen pairs of two -syllable words with identical spelling which differ from each other in stress placement, apparently according to word class (noun, verb or adjective). All appear to consist of prefix + stem. In pairs of words as discussed above, the stress will be placed on the second syllable of the verb but on the first syllable of the noun or adjective, e.g. abstract /'æbstrækt/ (adj), /æb'strækt/ (v).
Recommended Reading: Roach (1987 : 72 - 85 ); Vassyliev (89 - 94). ASSIGNMENT 6 I. Questions for discussion: 1 - How is word - stress defined? 2 - Why is it difficult to trace any strict system of stress in English? 3 - What is the strong tendency in the English language concerning word-stress? 4 - What effects do affixes have on the placement of stress in a word? 5 -On what element does the stress fall on in the compound nouns? 6 - On what syllable do the two-syllable words have the main stress when (a) a noun, (b) a verb? 43
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II-T /F: Decide whether the following statements are true or false: 1- Word-stress can be defined as the tendency to pronounce the stressed syllables at more or less regular intervals of time. 2- The prominence in the word stress can be produced by the following factors: a-loudness, b-length, c- pitch and d- quality. 3- There is a strong tendency in the English language to stress the initial syllable in a word. 4- English is a language which has fixed stress in the sense that the stress always falls on the last syllable in a word. 5- If the second syllable of a two-syllable verb contains a long vowel or diphthong, or if it ends in more than one consonant, that second syllable is stressed. 6- Three syllable simple nouns usually have the stress placed on the first syllable. 7- In three-syllable verbs, if the last syllable contains a short vowel and ends in not more than one consonant, stress will be placed on the preceding syllable. 8- Suffixes such as -able, -age, -al, -en ....... change the place of stress in a word. 9- The difference between a compound and a phrase is that a compound usually has the single-stress pattern 10- The stress falls on the initial syllable in the word family. III-Multiple Choice: Choose the best answer: 1- ..... is defined as the prominence given to certain syllables) in a word by the use of greater breath force. A- Rhythm
B- Word-stress
C- Timbre
D- Assimilation
2-Which of the following factors can not be used to produce word-stress? A- Loudness
B- Length
C- Pitch
D- Meaning
3- Which of the following is not true? A- In English, the stress always falls on the last syllable of any word. B- French is the language where the last syllable is usually stressed. C- Polish is the language where the penultimate syllable is usually stressed. D- Czech is the language where the first syllable is stressed. 4- Where does the stress fall on the words family, cinema? A- on the first syllable
B- on the last syllable
C- on the second syllable
D- on the last but one.
5- Which of the following words has the stress not fallen on the first syllable from the beginning? A- family
B- cinema
C- intellect
D- advantage
6- Which of the following words has the stress on the suffix added to the word? A- readable
B- photography
C- mountaineer
D- speaking 44
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7- Which of the following words has the place of stress unchanged when a suffix is added to the word? A- entertainment
B- evacuee
C- proverbial
D- expensive
8- Which of the following words has the shifted stress when a suffix is added? A- advantage - advantageous
B- read - readable
C- govern - government
D- wide - widen
9- Which of the words has the stress on the last syllable? A- Mountaineer
B- Teaching
C- Photography
D- Perfection
10- Which of the following word has the case of varied stress? A- Widely
B- Looking
C- Ice-cream
D- Climate
IV-Find 5 word pairs which are spelt identically but differ from each other in stress placement (one is verb, another is noun or adjective). Transcribe those pairs.
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CHAPTER VII - ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH 1. Sentence Stress 1.1. In connected speech, words are not treated as separate units. When a word becomes a member of a sentence, word - stress may be either preserved or lost, weakened or strengthened, but it does not remain unchanged as compared with the stress the word has when used in isolation. The degree of prominence that a word has in a sentence is different. We can assume that there are three distinct levels of stress in the sentence: a- primary (main) stress, b- secondary stress, and c- non stress (or unstressed). E.g.:
He will 'come in a`'day.
He, will, in, a: unstressed Come
: secondary stress
Day
: primary/ main stress
Sentence stress is a prominence with which one or more words in a sentence are pronounced (as compared with the other words of the same sentence). Actually, any word in the sentence can receive the primary or secondary stress. However, as a rule, words with a certain lexical meaning have an important semantic function in the sentence and are, therefore, usually stressed. To such words belong nouns, adjectives, numerals, notional verbs, adverbs, demonstrative, interrogative and absolute form of the possessive pronouns. Words which serve to express certain grammatical relations or categories in the sentence are either stressed or unstressed. These include auxiliaries, modals, prepositions, conjunctions, articles particles, pronouns. The normal tendency in English speech is for the primary stress to occur on the last stressed syllable of the tone group, which corresponds to the principle of end - focus in communication. 1.2. Contrastive Stress We can interfere with normal accentuation to highlight any word we please by means of contrastive stress. It is not limited to sequences longer than the word : the normal accentuation within the word can also be distorted at the speaker's will if he wants to make a contrastive point. The sentence He reads the newspaper every evening. E.g. He 'reads the newspaper every evening answers the question What does he do every evening? He reads the 'newspaper every evening answers the question What does he read every evening? He reads the newspaper every 'evening answers the question When does he read the newspaper? 1.3. The stress-group In many languages, not all words in an utterance receive a stress. English is a case in point: in uttering the sentence Bill was at a conference, a speaker is very likely to leave the words was, at, and a unstressed. There will thus be two stresses in the sentence: on Bill and on the first syllable of conference. The unstressed words can in this instance be associated with the stressed word next to them to form a further phonologically relevant unit, a unit often referred to as a ‘stress-group.’ In this example, there are two stress-groups: Bill and was at a conference.
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2. Rhythm The notion of rhythm involves some noticeable event happening at regular intervals of time; one can detect the rhythm of a heart - beat, of a flashing light or of a piece of music. It has often been claimed that English speech is rhythmical, and that the rhythm is detectable in the regular occurrence of stressed syllables; of course, it is not suggested that the timing is as regular as a clock - the regularity of occurrence is only relative. The theory that English has stress - timed rhythm implies that stressed syllables will tend to occur at relatively regular intervals of time whether they are separated by unstressed syllables or not. In the following sentence the stressed syllables are given numbers : syllables 1 and 2 are not separated by any unstressed syllables, 2 and 3 are separated by one unstressed syllable, 3 and 4 by two, 4 and 5 by three. 1
2
3
4
5
'Walk 'down the 'path to the 'end of the ca'nal. The stress-timed rhythm theory states that the time from each stressed syllable to the next will tend to be the same, irrespective of the number of intervening unstressed syllables. Another example is: Twinkle, twinkle, little star How I wonder what you are Up above the world so high Like a diamond in the sky. Some writers have developed theories of English rhythm in which a unit of rhythm, the foot, is used; the foot begins with a stressed syllable and includes all following unstressed syllable. The sentence given above would be divided into feet as follows: ‘Walk 'down the 'path to the 'end of the ca 'nal. It follows from what was said above that in a stress - timed language all the feet are supposed to be of roughly the same duration. The theory also claims that while some languages (e.g. Russian and Arabic) have stress-timed rhythm similar to that of English, others (such as French) have a different rhythmical structure called syllable-timed rhythm. 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 in proportion to the number of unstressed syllables. 3. Assimilation and Accommodation 3.1. Assimilation 3.1.1. Definition e.g.
(alveolar) gʊd
(bilabial) mɔ:nɪŋ
(alveolar) gʊd
assimilating sound b similar (bilabial)
(bilabial) bɔɪ assimilating sound
b identical (bilabial) 47
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Two adjacent consonants within a word or at word boundaries often influence each other in such a way that the articulation of one sound becomes similar to or even identical with the articulation of the other one. This phenomenon is called assimilation. It is more likely to be found in rapid, casual speech and less likely in slow, careful speech. We can construct a diagram like this: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Cf
Ci_ _ _ _ _ _ _ (Cf: final consonant, Ci: initial consonant)
word boundary 3.1.2. Types of assimilation Assimilation may be of two types as far as the direction is concerned: regressive and progressive. e.g.
good morning gʊ d
would you
mɔ:nɪŋ
wʊd
ju
b
dʒ
Assimilation is regressive when the following sound assimilates the preceding sound and the direction of assimilation is backward. e.g. different forms IL, IM, IR of the same phoneme meaning not in illegal, impossible, irregular. Assimilation is progressive when the preceding sound assimilates the following sound and the direction of assimilation is forward. e.g. plural form –s can be pronounced /s/, /z/, or /ɪz/ (in books /bʊks/, pens /penz/, roses /rəʊzɪz/). 3.1.3. Degrees of assimilation: Assimilation may be of three degrees: complete, partial and intermediate. 3.1.3.1. Complete: Assimilation is said to be complete when the articulation of the assimilated consonant fully coincides with that of the assimilating one. e.g.
good boy gʊd
bɔɪ /gʊb bɔɪ/
horse shoe hɔ:s
identical b
∫u: /hɔ:∫ ∫u/ identical
∫
3.1.3.2. Partial: Assimilation is said to be partial when the assimilated consonant retains its main phonemic features and becomes only partly similar in some features of articulation to the assimilating sound. e.g. good morning alveolar, voiced
bilabial, voiced
gʊd
mɔ:nɪŋ /gʊb 'mɔ:nɪŋ/
five pence labio-dental,voiced faɪv
similar b bilabial
voiceless pens /faɪf pens/ similar
f
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3.1.3.3. Intermediate: The degree of assimilation is said to be intermediate when the assimilated consonant changes into a different sound, but does not coincide with the assimilating consonant. e.g.
this year
gooseberry
alveolar
palatal
ðɪs
alveolar, voiceless
jɪə /ðɪ∫ jɪə/
voiced
gʊs
bəri /'gʊzbəri/
intermediate ∫
intermediate
palato-alveolar
z
alveolar,voiced
. Congress alveolar, nasal kɒn
velar, stop gres /'kɒŋgres/
intermediate ŋ velar, nasal 3.1.4. Rules of assimilation 3.1.4.1. Place of articulation p + bilabial consonant: light blue [laɪp blu:], that person [ðæp pз:sn] t
t + dental consonant: that thing [ðæt θɪŋ], get those [get ðəʊz] k + velar consonant: that case [ðæk keɪz], quite good [kwaɪk gʊd] b + bilabial consonant: hard path [hɑ:b pɑ:θ], good boy [gʊb bɔɪ]
d
d + dental consonant: rude thief [ru:d θi:f], rode there [rəʊd ðeə] g + velar consonant: bad cold [bæg kəʊld], red gate [reg geɪt]
m + bilabial consonant: gone back [gɒm bæk], gone past [gɒm pɑ:st], ten men [tem men] n
n + dental consonant: ran themselves [ræn θəmselvz], none theories [nʌn θɪərɪz] ŋ + velar consonant: one cup [wʌŋ kʌp], main gate [meɪŋ geɪt]
s
∫+ ∫/ j: this year [ðɪ∫ jɪə], this shoe [ðɪ∫∫u:]
z
ʒ + ∫/ j: those years [ðəʊʒ jɪəz], those shops [ðəʊʒ ∫ɒps]
3.1.4.2. Manner of articulation:
Cf: stop
Ci: fricative/ nasal
fricative/ nasal e.g. that side [ðæs saɪd/ , good night [gʊn naɪt] 49
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3.1.4.3.Voicing
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voiceless e.g. five pence /faɪf pens/ 3.2. Accommodation The modification in the articulation of a vowel under the influence of an adjacent consonant, or, vice versa, the modification in the articulation of a consonant under the influence of an adjacent vowel is called adaptation, or accommodation. In accommodation the accommodated sound does not change its main phonemic features and is pronounced as a variant of the same phoneme slightly modified under the influence of a neighbouring sound. In modern English there are three main types of accommodation: 3.2.1. An unrounded variant of a consonant phoneme is replaced by its rounded variant under the influence of a following rounded vowel phoneme, as the beginning of the following words: Unrounded variants of consonant phonemes
Rounded variants of consonant phonemes
/ti:/ tea
/tu:/ too
/les/ less
/lu:s/ loose
3.2.2. A fully back variant of a back vowel phoneme is replaced by its slightly advanced (fronted) variant under the influence of the phoneme /j /e.g. Fully back variant of /u:/
Front variant of /u:/
/'bu:ti/ booty
/'bju:ti/ beauty
/mu:n/ moon
/'mju:zɪk/ music
3.2.3. bell, tell more open than bed, ten because of /l/ after /e/. 4. Elision Under certain circumstances sounds disappear. Phonologically speaking, in certain circumstances a phoneme may be realized as zero, have zero realization or be deleted. Elision is typical of rapid, casual speech. We will look at some examples of elision. 4.1. Loss of weak vowel after /p/, /t/, /k/. In words like potato, tomato, canary, perhaps, today, the vowel in the first syllable may disappear; the aspiration of the initial plosive takes up the whole of the middle portion of the syllable, resulting in these pronunciation: /p'teɪtəʊ/, t'mɑ:təʊ/. 4.2. Weak vowel + /n/; /l/ or /r/ becoming syllabic consonant e.g. tonight /t'naɪt/, police /p'lɪs/, correct /k'rekt/ 4.3. Avoidance of complex consonant clusters e.g. acts → /æk(t)s/, looked back /lʊk(t) bæk/ 4.4. Loss of final /v/ in “of” before consonants e.g. lots of them /lɒts ə(v) ðəm/, waste of money /weɪst ə(v) mʌni/ 50
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4.5. Contraction of grammatical words e.g.
Had → ‘d Is → ‘s
5. Weak forms In English speech, there are certain words which have two forms of pronunciation: a- strong or full form and b- weak, or reduced form. As an example, the word can can be pronounced as /kæn/ (strong form) or /kən/, /kn/ (weak form). The words which have both strong forms and weak forms belong to a category which might be called grammatical words. It is important to remember that there are certain contexts where only the strong form is acceptable and others where the weak form is the normal pronunciation. There are three degrees of the reduction of strong forms: 5.1. The reduction of the length of a vowel without changing its quality Strong form
weak form with qualitative reduction
You [ju:]
[ju] [jʊ]
He [hi:]
[hi] [hɪ]
Your [jɔ:]
[jɔ] [jɒ]
5.2. The second degree of reduction consists in changing the quality of the vowel Strong form
weak form with qualitative reduction
For [fɔ:]
[fə]
Her [hз:]
[hə]
5.3. The third degree involves the omission of a vowel or consonant at sound Strong form
weak form
Am [æm]
[m]
Of [əv]
[v]
Can [kæn]
[kn] [kη]
There are the following groups of grammatical words which can be pronounced in their strong forms and in their weak forms. Articles (the, a, an), Prepositions (at, for, from, of, into, to, through), verbs (can, must, will, shall, do, does, could, would, should, have, has, had, be, been, am, is, was, were), pronouns (you, he, she, we, ,me, her, him, us, them, your, his, some, that, who), conjunctions (and, but, than, as, or, that), particles (there, to), negatives (not, nor) The strong forms are used in the following cases 1. When they occur at the end of a sentence: e.g. I’m fond of chips. Chips are what I’m fond of. /aɪm 'fɒnd əv 't∫ɪps. 't∫ɪps ə 'wɒt aɪm 'fɒnd ɒv/ Note: Pronouns such as she, he, we, you, him, her (object), them, us do occur in their weak forms in final position. 51
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2. When they are being contrasted with another word: e.g. The letter’s from him, not to him. /ðə 'letəz 'frɒm im nɒt 'tu: im/ Or co-ordinated use of preposition: e.g. I travel to and from London a lot. /aɪ 'trævl 'tu: ən 'frɒm lʌndən ə 'lɒt/ 3. When they are stressed for the purpose of emphasis: e.g. You must give me more money. /ju 'mʌst 'gɪv mi 'mɔ: 'mʌni/ I do like it. /aɪ 'du: 'laɪk ɪt/ 4. When they are being cited or quoted: e.g. You shouldn’t put “and” at the end of a sentence. /ju '∫ʊdnt
pʊt 'ænd ət ði 'end əv ə 'sentəns/
6. Linking In natural communication, we sometimes link words together. The most familiar case is the use of linking /r/. Final /r/ can only occur before a word beginning with a vowel, linking with that vowel. For example: here are /hɪər ə/, four eggs /fɔ:r egz/, etc. Many RP speakers use /r/ in a similar way to link words ending with a vowel even when there is no “justification” from the spelling, which is called intrusive /r/ as in: formula A /'fɔ:mjələr eɪ/ Australia all out /ɒ'streɪlɪər ɔ:l aʊt/ media event /'mi:diər ɪ'vent/ Sometimes we should be careful when we link words together. For example, /maɪtreɪn /can be my train or might rain. Recommended Reading: Roach (1987: 102 – 111); vassilyev (1980: 70 – 74; 95-99) ASSIGNMENT 7 I. Questions for discussion: 1- What is sentence stress? What kinds of words are normally stressed in communication? What kinds of words are not normally stressed in communication? 2- What is rhythm? What is the difference between syllable-timed rhythm and stress-timed rhythm? 3- What is assimilation? Give examples of different types of assimilation in English. 52
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4- What is accommodation? 5- What is elision? Give examples of different types of elision in English. II – T /F: Decide whether the following statements are true or false: 1. Lexical words are not normally stressed in communication. 2. Words which serve to express certain grammatical relations or categories in the sentence are either stressed or unstressed. 3. The normal tendency in English speech is for the primary stress to occur on the last syllable of the tone group. 4. English speech has the tendency of syllable-timed rhythm. 5. When horse – shoe is pronounced as /hɔ:∫∫u:/, assimilation takes place. 6. Assimilation is said to be complete when the articulation of the assimilated consonant fully coincides with that of the assimilating consonant. 7. Assimilation is said to be regressive when the preceding consonant influences the articulation of the following consonant. 8. In accommodation, the pronunciation of two consonants influences each other. 9. Elision is the case of a sound realized as zero in casual, rapid speech. 10. Grammatical words can have either strong forms or weak forms in speech. III- Matching: Match A with B: A
B
1- Sentence stress is…………..
a- either strong forms or weak forms
2- Stress – timed rhythm is ……………
b- a sound realized as zero
3- By assimilation ……………….
c- when the articulation of the assimilated consonant fully coincides with that of the assimilating one
4- When putting words together ………..
d- accommodation takes place
5- Assimilation may be of three degrees …. e- a prominence with which one or more words in a sentence are pronounced 6- Assimilation is said to be complete……
f- complete, partial and intermediate
7- Assimilation is of three types as far as g- we mean a modification in the the direction is concerned ………. articulation of a consonant under the influence of a neighbouring consonant. 8- Elision is a case when………..
h- the tendency for the stressed syllables to occur at relatively interval of time.
9- When potato is pronounced as
i- contextual assimilation takes place.
[p'teɪtəʊ],……… 10- Grammatical words can have ……
j- progressive, regressive and double 53
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CHAPTER VIII - INTONATION 1. Intonation When speaking, people generally raise and lower the pitch of their voice, forming pitch patterns. They also give some syllables in their utterances a greater degree of loudness and change their speech rhythm. They can use special colouring of their voice (timbre or voice quality) to show their emotions and attitudes. These phenomena are called intonation. Intonation can, thus, be said to be the combination of a- speech melody, b- sentence stress, c- tempo (rhythm and pausation), and d- timbre (voice quality, or special colouring of the voice to show your feelings, attitudes and emotions). 1.1. Speech melody Speech melody, or the pitch component of intonation is the variation in the pitch of the voice which takes place when voiced sounds are pronounced in connected speech. The relative height of speech sounds as perceived by a listener is called pitch. The pitch of speech sounds is produced by the variations of the vocal cords. Pitch produced depends on how fast the vocal cords vibrate; the faster they vibrate, the higher the pitch. The way pitch is used linguistically differs from language to language. Pitch variation or pitch movement is called tone. 1.2. Tone language and intonation language Tone can be considered to be the height of the pitch and change of the pitch which is associated with the pronunciation of syllables of words and which affects the meaning of the word. For example, in Vietnamese when you say ga, it means railway station, when you say gà, it means chicken. Languages that use the pitch of individual syllables to contrast meanings are called tone languages. Tone (pitch movement) can also be understood as a change in pitch which affects the meaning and function of utterances in discourse. Languages that use pitch syntactically (for example, to change a sentence from a statement to a question) or in which the changing pitch of a whole sentence is otherwise important to the meaning are called intonation languages. Intonation does not happen at random but has definite system patterns. 2. Basic Tones In this section we will consider the use of the five basic tones within the limited context of the words Yes and No. The symbol \ is used to denote a fall; / is used to denote a rise; V to denote a fall - rise; and ʌ to denote a rise fall. 2.1. Fall \Yes \No This tone consists of a fall of the pitch of the voice from a fairly high note to a very low note. The fall is used for: a. Completeness, finality, and definiteness: + I’m from \Canada. 54
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+A: Are you /John Smith? B: \No. + That’s the end of the \news. b. Most WH- questions: + What are you \reading? c. A repeated question: + A: Are you a /foreigner? B: Pardon? A: Are you a \foreigner? d. Calling an agreement for a tag question: + You are a \student, \aren’t you? e. A strong command: + \Shut up! f. Strong exclamation and greeting: + What a nice sur\prise! g. Correcting other people’s information: + A: Her birthday is on the tenth of December. B: \No, it’s on the \fifth of December. (The voice falls on the correct word to emphasize it.) or B: Her birthday isn’t the Útenth of December. It’s the \fifth. (The voice falls and rises on the incorrect information, then falls on the correct information to emphasize it.) 2.2. Rise /Yes /No This tone consists of a rise from a very low note to a fairly high note. The rise is used for: a. Indicating more to follow: + A: (wishing to attract B's attention) Excuse me. B: /Yes? (B's reply is perhaps equivalent to what do you want?) + A: Have you seen Ann? B: /No. (Why are you looking for Ann?) + You must do it a/gain (and this time get it right). b. A soothing and encouraging statement: + You’ll be OK /later. + It won’t /hurt. + /Try it. c. Yes-No questions: + Are you a /teacher? 55
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d. Question tags: uncertainty, request for more information: + You are a \student, /aren’t you? e. Casual and formal greetings: + Good /morning. f. The interest in both the listener and the subject of conversation: + What’s your /name? + Is she your /daughter? g. Echo questions: The speaker repeats something said by another person: + to show surprise: A: I was late for the examination. B: /Late + while he/she thinks what to reply: A: Have you 'got any /postcards? B: /Postcards? \Yes, they are in the \drawer with the envelopes. + to ask for further information: A: 'Every 'cook should 'have a computer. B: Com/puter? A: Yes, to 'keep a 'record of /menus and \recipes. + because he/she did not hear, understand or believe what was said: A: The 'new /manager is 'coming to\morrow. His 'name is \Sport. B: What’s his /name? 2.3. Fall-Rise Ú Yes Ú No This tone consists of a fall from a fairly high note to a very low note and after that from the low note to a higher one again. The fall-rise is used a lot in English and has some rather special functions. a. Disagreement to the other speaker’s opinion: + A: You are on holiday, aren’t you? B: ÚNo, I’m not. b. Hesitation: + A: Shall we be late? B: We Úmight be. + You Úmay be right. c. Correction of what has been said: + He is going to London to\day. To/morrow. 56
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2.4. Rise-fall ÙYes ÙNo This tone consists of a rise from very low note to a fairly high note and then a fall from the high note to a very low one. It is used for: a. Strong feelings of approval, disapproval or surprise: + A: You wouldn’t do an awful thing like that, would you? B: ÙNo. + A: Isn’t the view lovely? B: ÙYes. b. Statement or question with “OR” + Do you want /milk or \coffee? + She’s going to study either /math or \physics. c. Making a list: + He bought a cup and a pen. + Effective 'study re'quires not only /effort but \skill. + We 'have to 'pay for tu/ition and 'also for \books. d. Complex sentences: + When he /came, I 'asked him to \wait. + If Fred /laughs, he looks \funny. e. Non-final phrase and a main clause: + One /day, our teacher asked us to write a \story. 2.5. Level - Yes - No a. Something routine, uninteresting or boring: + A: Helen Wilson? B: -Yes. + A: I’ll have to pay a 50-dollar member fee per month. B: -Practically. 3. Tone-Unit We have introduced 5 tones found on English one-syllable utterances. However, in continuous speech we find that these tones can only be identified on a small number of particularly prominent syllables. Therefore, a unit generally greater in size than the syllable is needed, and this unit is called the tone-unit. Tone-unit is the basic unit of intonation in a language. e.g. One-syllable tone-unit: /you More than one syllable tone-unit: is it /you A tone-unit is usually divided into several parts. The ways in which linguists have divided the tone unit into different parts and the terms they have used for these parts are not always the same. The 57
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simplified diagramme below shows the main parts of a tone unit together with different divisions and terms which have been used. Table 6: The structure of the tone unit Tonic syllable where Unstressed Onset major pitch syllables First stressed movement begins syllable(s) Crystal 1969 prehead head nucleus Halliday 1967, 1970 pretonic tonic Brazil et al 1980 proclitic tonic segment segment Roach 1983 prehead head tonic syllable e.g. It's a VERy STO INteresting
Continuation and completion of pitch movement tail enclitic segment tail ry
According to Roach (1983), the most important part containing the syllable on which a change of pitch begins is the tonic syllable. A tonic syllable is a syllable which carries a tone. Each simple tone-unit has one and only one tonic syllable; this means that the tonic syllable is an obligatory component of the tone-unit. In a tone-unit, the head is all part of a tone-unit that extends from the first stressed syllable up to (but not including) the tonic syllable; the pre-head is composed of all the unstressed syllables in a tone unit preceding the first stressed syllable; the tail is all the syllables that follow the tonic syllable. For example: and then 'nearer to the Úfront on the /left there’s a 'bit of PH
H
\ wa
terside
TS
T
TS
PH
and then a 'bit of a PH
TS
PH
H
\fo
rest
'coming 'down to the
TS
T
H
/bay
H
TS
In communication, the speaker has to make choice of the place in an utterance where the movement in pitch begins (choice of tonic syllable). The choice depends on what the speaker wishes to emphasize. For example, in she came last Saturday the change in pitch would often be placed on the SAT of Saturday but in a dialogue such as: A: She never comes on Saturdays. B: But she came LAST Saturday. A change in pitch would start on LAST. 4. Pitch Possibilities in Simple Tone Units It has been stated that tone is carried by the tonic syllable but intonation is carried by the tone unit. It means that not only the tonic syllable but also other parts in a tone-unit carry intonation. - In one syllable utterance, the single syllable must have one of the five tones described above. e.g.
/you
\yes
ÚJohn
Ùno
-yes
- In a tone-unit of more than one syllable, the tonic syllable must have one of those tones. + If the tonic syllable is the final syllable, the tone will not sound much different from that of a corresponding one syllable tone unit. e.g.
/here
shall we sit /here 58
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+ If there are other syllable following the tonic syllable (i.e. a tail), we find that the pitch movement of the tone is not completed on the tonic syllable, and the syllable(s) of the tail will continue the pitch of the tonic syllable. For example: /What
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\Why
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5. Pitch Possibilities in Complex Tone Units - If the tail consists of only 1 syllable: + Fall-Rise: the fall part is usually carried by the first syllable and the rise part by the second.
Ú Some men
Ú Some chairs
+ Rise-fall: the rise part is on the ^ no one
^ No, sir.
- If the tail consists of two or more syllables: + Fall-Rise: The pitch falls on the tonic syllable and remains low until the last stressed syllable in the tail (or until the last if there is no stressed syllable in the tail). For example: I Úmight have thought of buying it.
Úmost of it was for them
+ Rise-fall: The syllable immediately following the tonic syllable is always higher and any following syllables are low.
Ùall of them went
Ùthat’s a nice way to speak to your mother
6. High and low heads - In the case of the high head, the stressed syllable which begin the head is high in pitch; usually it is higher than the beginning pitch of the tone on the tonic syllable. The 'bus was \late.
Is 'that the /end
- In the low head, the stressed syllable which begins the head is low in pitch. It is lower than the beginning pitch of the tone on the tonic syllable. For example, The ,bus was \late.
Is ,that the /end
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- It is usual for unstressed syllables to continue the pitch of the stressed syllable that precedes them We 'asked if it has \come.
We ,asked if it has \come.
- When there is more than one stressed syllable in the head + For a falling tone, the stressed syllable in a high head step downwards progressively to approach the beginning of the tone while successive stressed syllables in a low head will tend to move upwards: The 'rain was 'coming 'down 'fairly \hard.
,I
could have ,bought it for ,less than a ,pound.
+ For a falling tone, the stressed syllable in a high head step downwards progressively to approach the beginning of the tone while successive stressed syllables in a low head will tend to move upwards: 'Will there be a'nother 'train /later
,That’s ,not
the ,story you ,told in /court
7. The Functions of Intonations 7.1. David Crystal David Crystal (1994:171) assumes that intonation perform the following functions : (a) emotional, (b) grammatical, (c) information structure, (d) textual, (e) psychological and (f) indexical. 7.1.1. Emotional The most obvious function of intonation is to express a wide range of attitudinal meanings excitement, boredom, surprise, friendliness, reserve, and many hundreds more. Here, intonation works along with other prosodic and paralinguistic features to provide the basis of all kinds of vocal emotional expression. 7.1.2. Information structure Intonation conveys a great deal about what is new and what is already known in the meaning of an utterance - what is referred to as the “information structure” of utterance. If someone says I saw a BLUE car, with maximum intonational prominence on blue, this pronunciation means that s /he saw a blue car not a red or yellow car and it is an answer to the question Which car did you see? 7.1.3. Textual Intonation is not only used to mark the structure of sentences; it is also an important element in the construction of larger stretches of discourse. Prosodic coherence is well illustrated in the way paragraphs of information are given distinctive melodic shape in radio news reading. As the newsreader moves from one item of news to the next, the pitch level jumps up, then gradually descends, until by the end of the item the voice reaches a relatively low level. 7.1.4. Psychological
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Intonation can help to organize language into units that are more easily perceived and memorized. Learning a long sequence of numbers, for example, proves easier if the sequence is divided into rhythmical “chunk”. The ability to organized speech into intonational units is also an important features that is often absent in cases of language disorder. 7.1.5. Indexical Suprasegmental features also have a significant function as markers of personal identity - an indexical function. In particular, they help to identify people as belonging to different social groups and occupations. 7.2. Peter Roach Peter Roach (1987: 136-139) assumes that intonation has the following functions: 7.2.1. Attitudinal function Intonation enables us to express emotions and attitudes as we speak, and this adds a special kind of “meaning” to spoken language. This is often called the attitudinal function of intonation. 7.2.2. Accentual function Intonation helps to produce the effect of prominence on syllables that need to be perceived as stressed, and in particular the placing of tonic stress on a particular syllable marks out the world to which it belongs as the most important in the tone - unit. This has been called the accentual function of intonation. 7.2.3. Grammatical function The listener is better able to recognize the grammar and syntactic structure of what is being said by using the information contained in the intonation: for example, such things as the placement of boundaries between phrases, clauses and sentences, the difference between questions and statements and the use of grammatical subordination may be indicated. This has been called the grammatical function of intonation. 7.2.4. Discourse function Looking at the act of speaking in a broader way, we can see that intonation can signal to the listener what is to be taken as “new” information and what is already “given”, can suggest when the speaker is indicating some sort of contrast or link with material in another tone - unit and, in conversation, can convey to the listener what kind of response is expected. Such functions are examples of intonation’s discourse function. Recommended Reading: Roach (1987: 112 - 150; 126 - 165); Vassilyeve (1980) ASSIGNMENT 8 I- Questions for discussion: 1 - How do you understand the term intonation? What is a tone language? An intonation language? 2 - What are the uses of the five basic tones (Fall, Rise, Fall - rise, Rise - fall, Level) in English? 3 - What is a tone unit? 4- What are the functions of the English intonation? 61
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1- Find examples of the functions of intonation from Peter Roach (1987:136 -139) and David Crystal (1994 :171). II- T /F: Decide whether the following are true or false: 1- When speaking, people generally raise and lower the pitch of their voice, forming pitch patterns. This phenomenon is called intonation. 2- Intonation is a combination of speech melody, sentence stress, tempo, and timbre. 3- The sentence “It is a very interesting book” has the structure of Prehead - head -tonic syllable tail. 4- Speech melody is the loudness of the voice. 5- The Fall is usually used to denote finality. 6- The Rise is used in general questions, requests, greetings, a series of special questions in an interview. 7- The Fall-rise can be used for limited agreement, politeness, apology, concern, uncertainty… 8- The Level is used when saying something that is strong in emotion. 9- A tone unit is the basic unit of intonation in a language. It always has many tonic syllables. 10- According to Peter Roach, intonation has the following functions: a-attitudinal, b-accentual, cgrammatical, and d- discourse. III- Multiple Choice: Choose the best answer 1- Speech melody, a component of intonation, is the variation in… A- tempo of speech
B- sentence stress
C- the pitch of the voice
D-special colouring of the voice.
2- Vietnamese is a………..language. A-tone
B-intonation
C-inflectional
D-agglutinating
3-………..consists of a fall of the pitch of the voice from a fairly high note to a very low note. A- The Fall
B-The Rise
C- The Fall -Rise
D-The Rise-Fall
4- W/H questions are usually spoken with………. A- The Fall
B-The Rise
C- The Fall -Rise
D-The Rise-Fall
5- …….is said to give an impression of finality. A- The Fall
B-The Rise
C- The Fall -Rise
D-The Rise-Fall
6-….is used in simple statements of fact, special questions, commands, exclamation, or offers to do something. A- The Fall
B-The Rise
C- The Fall -Rise
D-The Rise-Fall
7- …. expresses politeness, apology, concern, uncertainty, disagreement. A- The Fall
B-The Rise
C- The Fall -Rise
D-The Rise-Fall
8- …. might be used to express attitudes both pleasant and unpleasant, ranging from irony to admiration. 62
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A- The Fall
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9- A tonic syllable is a syllable where major change in ….occurs. A- rhythm
B- pitch
C-assimilation
D-pronunciation
10- Which of the following is not a function of intonation? A- Emotional
B-Grammatical
C- Textual
D- None of the above.
REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY 1- What is phonetics? 2- How can we classify the vowels? Diphthongs? Consonants? 3- How is the phoneme defined according to the functional view? What is an allophone? 4- What are the supra-segmental phonemes in the English language? 5- What is a syllable? How can syllables be formed? 6- What factors contribute to the production of word-stress? 7- What kinds of words in the sentence are normally stressed? 8- What is assimilation? What are the types of assimilation? 9- What is intonation? What are its functions?
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ENGLISH - VIETNAMESE TERMINOLOGY 1
Accommodation
§ång hãa (Nguyªn ©m/ Phô ©m)
45
Pharynx
Häng
2
Acoustic phonetics
Ng÷ ©m häc ©m häc
46
Phone
¢m tè lêi nãi
3
Acoustics
¢m häc
47
Phoneme
¢m vÞ
4
Affricative / affricate
¢m t¾c x¸t
48
Phonemic transcription
Phiªn ©m theo ©m vÞ
5
Allophone
BiÕn thÓ h×nh vÞ, h×nh vÞ nh¸nh
49
Phonemics
¢m vÞ häc
6
Allophonic transcription
Phiªn ©m theo biÕn thÓ h×nh vÞ
50
Phonetic Alphabet
B¶ng ch÷ c¸i ng÷ ©m
7
Alveolar
¢m lîi
51
Phonetic Context
Ng÷ c¶nh ng÷ ©m
8
Approximant
¢m tiÖm cËn
52
Phonetic Transcription
Phiªn ©m ng÷ ©m
9
Articulator
C¬ quan cÊu ©m
53
Phonetics
Ng÷ ©m häc
10
Articulatory phonetics
Ng÷ ©m häc cÊu ©m
54
Phonology
¢m vÞ häc
11
Assimilation
HiÖn tưîng ®ång 55 hãa
Physical event
Sù kiÖn vËt lý
12
Assimilation rule
Quy t¾c ®ång hãa
56
Physiological
Thuéc sinh lý häc
13
Bi-labial
¢m m«i - m«i (¢m hai m«i)
57
Pitch
Sù lªn xuèng giäng
14
Cardinal vowel system
HÖ thèng nguyªn ©m chÝnh
58
Progressive assimilation
§ång hãa xu«i
15
Closed syllable
¢m tiÕt ®ãng
59
Prominence
Sù nhÊn ©m
16
Complementary distribution
ThÕ ph©n bè bæ sung
60
Pure vowel
Nguyªn ©m thuÇn tóy, nguyªn ©m ®¬n
17
Complete assimilation
§ång hãa hoµn toµn
61
Regressive assimilation
§ång hãa ngược
62
Tone language
Ngôn ngữ thanh điệu
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References Asher, R. E., (1994). The Encyclopedia Of Language And Linguistics, Pergamon Press. Dang Chan Lieu, (n.d.). English Phonetic Drills (Unpublished Coursebook), Hanoi Foreign Language Teacher’s College. Crystal, D., (1994). The Cambridge Encyclopedia Of Language, Cambridge University Press. Fromkin, V. et al, (1988). An Introduction to Language. Australian ed, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York. Gimson, A.C., (1980). An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English, The English Language Book Society and Edward Arnold, London. Jones, D., (1956). An Outline of English Phonetics, ( 8th ed. ), Heffer, Cambridge, England. Laderfoged, P., (1982). A Course in Phonetics, (2nd Ed.), Toronto: Harcourt Brace, Jovanovich. Lyons, J., (1968). Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics, Cambridge at the University Press. Lyons, J., (1970). New Horisons In Linguistics, Hazell Watson & Viney Ltd., Aylesbury, Bucks, Great Britain. Ly Thi Ngoc Thoa & Nguyen Thi Thuy Nga, (1996). Giao Trinh Ngu Am Hoc Tieng Anh, HoChiMinh City Junior Teachers’ College. Nesterov, (1976). English Phonetics, Hanoi Foreign Language Teachers’ College. Nguyen Thu Suong, (2002). English Phonetics and Phonology. Quy Nhon University. O’Grady, W. et al., (1993). Contemporary Linguistics, (2nd ed.), St. Martin’s Press. Richards, J. et al., (1985). Longman Dictionary Of Applied Linguistics. The Chaucer Press, Bunay, Suffolk, Great Britain. Roach, P., (1987). English Phonetics and Phonology, Cambridge University Press. Roach, P. (2001). English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course. Cambridge University Press. Vassilyev. V.A., (1980). English Phonetics, Moscow.
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