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U9 (4. INTONATION, 2. STRESS, 3. RHYTHM, 5. COMPARISON WITH SPANISH, 1.…
U9
4. INTONATION
c) Functions
Even though Stress & Intonation
do not alter the individual sounds
since the way we transcribe phonemes is unchanged by either, they clearly
influence the manner & meaning of what we say
. They are used to convey different kinds of information:
Discourse
Signaling whether a part of speech is
new or given information & singling out important words
in an utterance
Accentual
Highlights the most important words in an utterance
along with stress
"John 'likes fish"
Attitudinal
the speakers’ mood, feelings or attitude
towards her subject or audience. It can convey excitement, surprise, boredom, sarcasm, politeness, etc.
Grammatical
Distinguishes btw sentence types
:
declaratives, exclamations, questions
(the type of tone is more relevant than the placement of the tone itself: nucleus)
"You're /going?"
of Intonation
b) Intonation pattern
s: ~Tone
Flat
The glide stays at mid-level pitch
Gives the impression of routine,
boredom
or lack of interest
"Tom? Here", Allan? Here"
"Back to work"
"Next"
Rising (´)
The
rising
glide starts from the lowest or mid pitch of the speaking voice & rises to the highest pitch
Continuation/Inconclusiveness
: something else is to follow, or we require some information from the listener
Yes/No questions
& Question tags requesting information, Enumerations
Yes/No Questions (/): any phrase can be made into a y/n-question exclusively by the universal rising contour
rises/gets higher in pitch (gets sharper) towards the end of a sentence
Falling (`)
The
falling
glide starts from the highest or mid pitch of the speaking voice & falls to the lowest pitch.
Completion
: gives the impression that something is
conclusive
& the end of the intervention
Statements, Exclamations, Commands,
Wh-questions & Short yes/no answers
Wh-Questions(\): contain a large amount of propositional presuppositions, which places them in the middle-ground between declaratives and interrogatives: "What time did John come?" asks a question about the time of an event whose existence is presupposed
falls/lowers in pitch (gets deeper) towards the end of a sentence
Fall-Rise (ˇ)
The glide starts at mid-level pitch & finishes at the same level having fallen & risen
Used to indicate
uncertainty, hesitation or doubt
& extremely common in English
"I'm... sorry?"
Rise-Fall (ˆ)
The glide starts at mid-level pitch & finishes at the same level having risen & fallen
Used to show
strong feelings
of approval/disapproval, surprise, challenge, complacency, criticism
Exclamatory questions
:
"It costs 100.000$"
"Who doesn't?"
The rise & fall of pitch throughout is called its
intonation contour
The rising & falling (of pitch) in the voice in speech
. It replaces punctuation & serves to convey meaning
Prominence
Tendency for speakers to make some syllables more noticeable than others by pronouncing them
louder, longer & with a different pitch
, or by articulating the vowels differently
a)│Tone Units│
Intonation patterns are realized through tone units (the
minimal unit
which can carry intonation)
A stretch of speech containing one
nucleus
& possibly other stressed syllables, normally preceding the nucleus
Structure/Elements of the Tone Unit
Nucleus
Always an
accented
syllable (stressed & pitch prominent)
Nuclear accent or Tonic syllable: The peak of greatest prominence/ most relevant
accent
as it carries the
tone
(the most important pitch movement)
Pre-nuclear elements
: head, body
Post-nuclear elements
: tail
Tail
the syllables following the nucleus
Unaccented syllables
Body
the (unaccented) syllables between the head & the nucleus
Head
the
first pre-nuclear accented syllable
(the pre-head would be the second)
its internal
structure is determined by the location of accents
Intonation Patterns
│Tone Units│
Nucleus
Tones
The type of pitch change which takes place on the nucleus
(fall, rise, fall-rise, rise-fall)
Head, Body, Tail, Unaccented
A stretch of speech containing
one nucleus
& possibly other preceding stressed syllables
2. STRESS
a) WORD STRESS
Two-syllable words
Trochaic pattern:
/1 0/
Old English origin words
: 'brother, 'wander, 'island, 'father, 'woman, 'warrior
Words with
suffixes
also take the pattern /1 0/: 'thinking, 'older, 'kindly
Native words and early French adoptions tend to have the main stress
on the root syllable
, regardless of the affixes added: 'stand, under'stand, 'joy, en'joy, en'joyable
Some
borrowings
: 'village, 'coffee, 'message, 'marriage, 'menu, 'salad, 'hotel, 'insult
Most nouns
&
adjectives
stress the 1st syllable: 'bottle, 'flower, 'happy, 'interesting, 'modern
Iambic pattern:
/0 1/
Non-native (French or Romance) loanwords: e'xam, ga'rage, po'lice, ca'nal, ma'chine, mas'sage
More recent additions to the language where the place of stress varies according to the affixation: 'transport, transpor'tation
Verbs
formed by a
prefix + stem
(compound verbs): be'gin, re'ject, under'stand, over'flow
Verbs
derived from nouns or adjectives formed by a
prefix + stem
. Here the stress determines category of the word: 'subject > sub'ject, 'record > re'cord, 'present > pre'sent, 'object, 'conduct, 'address, 'suspect, 'protest
Most
verbs
&
prepositions
stress the 2nd syllable: per'from, sug'gest, a'bove, in'stead, un'til
Stress tends to be
on the 1st syllable
, but:
Compound words
Stress normally on the 1st syllable, but:
True ~
Both parts form a whole: just one meaning
; the first part subcategorizes the second: ‘green-house, ‘sleeping-bag, ‘black-bird.
‘English
teacher: a teacher who teaches English
/1 0/
Pseudo ~
Do not form a single meaning: the first part is an adjunct or localizer (optional complement) to the second: sea'shore, sea'wall
English
‘teacher
: a teacher from England
/0 1/
One-syllable words
When pronounced
in isolation
, they receive the
primary stress
, for there is no other syllable competing with it
Affixes
on the suffix itself
on the second-to-last syllable (right before the suffix)
-ible
reSIStible, imPOSsible, TERRible, inVIsible
-ial
SOcial, fiNANcial, artiFIcial, resiDENtial
-ian
coMEdian, ciVILian, techNIcian, uTOPian
-ic
characteRIStic, dyNAmic, ecoNOmic, reaLIStic
-ia
MEdia, bacTERia, nosTALgia, cafeTERia
-ion
inforMAtion, classifiCAtion, introDUCtion, insPECtion
-ient
inGREdient, PAtient, ANcient, proFIcient
-ish
SELfish, ENglish, esTABlish, deMOLish
-able
DURable, susTAINable, resPECTable, unbeLIEVable
on the third-to-last syllable
-phy
geOGraphy
-ty
CLArity
-gy
ALlergy
-al
CRItical
-cy
deMOcracy
-eer
engiNEER, volunTEER, reinDEER
-ese
japanESE, chinESE, obESE
-ee
aGREE, guaranTEE, chimpanZEE, emploYEE
-ette
palETTE, marionETTE, cigarETTE, silhouETTE
-ade
lemoNADE, arCADE, perSUADE, upGRADE
-que
unIQUE, physIQUE, bouTIQUE
-oon
baLOON, carTOON, tyCOON
Incorrect stress placement is the major cause of comprehension problems for foreign learners. Using the wrong word stress can lead to a breakdown in communication
Three-syllable words
Stressed
on the 1st syllable
when no prefixes or suffixes are involved
b) SENTENCE STRESS
Strongly stressed syllables occur at rather regular intervals of time separated by unstressed ones. We must look for change in the unstressed ones
Each word in English with more than one syllable has a fixed stress pattern. Normally one of the syllables will be more stressed than the rest. However, when several words are put together in a sentence, they are seldom of equal importance, so
some words are given more stress than others
. Each word preserves its word-stress (its individual stress pattern), but the stressed syllable of a particular word may be relatively weak in relation to others in the sentence
Contrastive stress
Contrast between two ideas expressed or unexpressed may be shown by varying the normal stress:
to point out the difference between one thing and another
: "I don't think she will listen to him"
THINK: I could be wrong
I: I don't, but someone else may think it
SHE: someone else will
WILL: not willing to do it
LISTEN: she might talk
HIM: she will listen to someone else
DON'T: that is not true
"Give him the
book
" > "Give
him
the book"
De-stressing
When a sentence is formed by content words not all of them carry the primary stress. Two strong syllables cannot occur in English together because rhythm intervenes in every utterance
to avoid the presence of two adjacent stresses
(stress retraction: contributes to the rhythm & flow of speech)
Tonic stress
"I'm
meeting
my
friend
at
school
"
Emphatic stress
"She was extremely
happy
" > "She was
extremely
happy"
New information stress
"What do you do? I
teach
for a living"
The pronunciation of words uttered in isolation differs from that in speech chains, which also implies a variation in the phonetic symbols
Function words: WEAK
Except when we pronounce the word
alone
or when we want to
emphasize
them: "you MUST do it" which implies differences in meaning & contrast
Naturally unstressed
/weak in the sentece & pronounced with a schwa sound /ə/, making them weak and almost muted/hard to notice
Preps, Conjs, Auxs, Arts, Prons, modal Vbs
they help structure a sentence but do not have utility if you take them out of context
Content words: STRONG
Always stressed
/strong in the sentece
Ns, Adjs, Advs, main Vbs, Question words, Negative auxiliaries
Types
Secondary ~
Weaker than the primary ~ & only used in long words, but stronger than that of the unstressed syllable: notated by a
low mark (,)
Give it to
her
/hɜ:/
Did
you
give it to her? /hə/
The quantity of the vowels varies depending on the position they take within the word; vowel sounds in the stressed/prominent syllable tend to be long/
longer than those in non-prominent ones
Stress is used
to differentiate between Nouns
(stress on the first syllable)
& Verbs
(on the last one)
Unstressed
The syllables which are
not marked
stand for unstressed syllables, defined by the
absence of any prominence
, they normally have the closed
short vowels or schwa /ə/
Primary ~
the
most prominent
syllable: transcribed as a
high mark (‘)
/ ˌfəʊtəˈgræfɪk /
When we give more
emphasis
to certain syllables in a word or words in a sentence, making them stand out from the rest (pronounced
longer, louder & higher pitch
).
3. RHYTHM
b) Rhythmic groups
Rhythmic Units
A sentence or part of a sentence
spoken with a single rush of syllables
uninterrupted by a pause
(a single breath group in speech)
Since Rhythmic units have different numbers of syllables, but a similar time value between stressed ones, the unstressed syllables in-between are crushed together (
shortened
), and pronounced very rapidly (
almost muted
), in order to get them pronounced at all & fit in that time limitation. I.e. if a number of syllables has to fit within the Rhythmic Group, some syllables change both their Quality & Quantity, depending on whether they are Content or Function words
This is reponsible for:
abbreviations
(where syllables may be entirely omitted), the
obscuring
of vowels, and the shorter or longer
lenght of syllables
depending on the number of them in a Rhythmic Unit where they are found
A multi-syllable word
combining weak & strong syllables: FORtunately
A one-syllable word
: OK
A whole phrase
: you MUSTN'T do that
The minimal unit which can carry Rhythm
of speech sequences
c) Quantity & Quality in a Rhythmic Group
Content words
generally retain most of the quality & quantity of the word uttered in isolation
Function words
have 2 or more qualitative & quantitative patterns according to whether they are unstressed or stressed (
Weak
or
Strong forms
)
that
/ðæt/ > /ðət/
the
/ði:/ > /ðə/ or /ðɪ/
for
/fɔː/ > /fə/
has
/hæz/ > /həz/ or /əz/
of
/ɒv/ > /əv/
and
/ænd/ > /ənd/, /ən/ or /n/
a) Syllable-timed & Stress-timed
Spanish/French/Italian:
Syllables
occur at regular intervals, instead of the stresses (an equal length of time btw all of them). So
phrases with extra syllables take proportionately more time
, and syllables or vowels are less likely to be shortened and modified
Spoken Chant Rhythm
an equal amount of time to each syllable
, whether stressed or unstressed, so syllables/wovels are not shortened or modified
English/German/Russian:
Stresses
are separated equally although the number of syllables between each stress is not the same: it is evenly distributed so that unstressed & stressed syllables alternate in a regular, repetitive way (here,
vowels in unstressed syllables may be shortened or omitted
)
Staccato Rhythm
No matter how many US are in-between two SS, the time between the SS is the same, so they are shortened
Prominence
The SS of a RU form peaks of prominence produced by the combination of length, stress, pitch & sonority
languages/rhythm
Sense of movement (pattern) produced by the regular, repetitive
succession prominent & non-prominent syllables
in speech. It establishes
a relationship btw stress & pauses
5. COMPARISON WITH SPANISH
Syllable-timed
&
Stress-timed
languages/rhythm
English/German/Russian:
Stresses
are separated equally although the number of syllables between each stress is not the same: it is evenly distributed so that unstressed & stressed syllables alternate in a regular, repetitive way (here, vowels in unstressed syllables may be shortened or omitted)
Spanish/French/Italian:
Syllables
occur at regular intervals (an equal length of time btw them). It is the syllables, instead of the stresses, which tend to come at more-or-less evenly recurrent intervals. So phrases with extra syllables take proportionately more time, and syllables or vowels are less likely to be shortened and modified
Stress
Most English words take a Trochaic pattern /1 0/, unlike Spanish which takes an Iambic one /0 1/: ‘brother vs. a’mor
Pronunciation problems
In many languages like Spanish, spelling is closely connected to pronunciation, but not English. For example, i and o are not pronounced at all in the word station /’steɪʃn /. This is hard for foreign students to perceive and imitate. Some Spanish students would say */’steɪsion/.
Other common problems
Difficulty in distinguishing long and short vowels.
Substitution of the weak form / ə / by its spelling.
Confusion btw voiced & voiceless sounds: /b/ and /v/.
/ p, t, k / are not aspirated in the initial position.
English derivates don’t follow the stress patterns of their roots (‘nation – nationali’zation).
Spanish has a narrower pitch range than English.
1. THE ENGLISH PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEM
CLASSIFICATION
Phonetic alphabet
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
: most widely accepted alphabet, recognised worldwide
One letter per phoneme, each sound represented by a different symbol
A way of writing down the pronunciation of individual words & showing how sounds are used in connected speech accurately, without ambiguity
Consonants
Voiced/Voiceless sound where
with complete/partial obstruction
, which prevents the air from flowing freely from the mouth, producing friction
Vowels
Voiced sound where the air passes through the mouth in a continuous stream,
with no obstruction
or narrowing that would produce friction.
Segmental Features
Vowels & Consonants (individual sounds)
Suprasegmental Features
Stress, Rhythm, Intonation, Pitch & Voice (longer stretches of speech, not individual sounds)
Degrees of accentuation
Default
position of accent: on (the rhythmically stressed syllable of)
the last content word of the sentence
, but can come earlier in order to emphasize an earlier word or to contrast it with something else
Secondary (pitch prominent)
by a change of
pitch level
(higher or lower) on the accented syllable
Secondary (non pitch prominent)
by qualitative, quantitative or
rhythmic prominence
, but without pitch prominence
Primary (nuclear)
by a change of
pitch direction
(falling/ rising) initiated by the accented syllable
Unaccented syllables
unmarked
, without any kind of prominence