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Paper 13
Paper 13
Subject: English
Principal Investigator: Prof. Tutun Mukherjee, University of Hyderabad
English is called a horrible mix of languages and dialects. Twenty nine percent (29%)
of modern English words have a Latin root; the same percentage applies for French
influence and close is Germanic with 26%. The other 16% includes Spanish, Italian,
Celtic, Indian, Arabic and Greek. I used the word “horrible” because you can imagine
that with all these languages combined; there is no pronunciation rule that works
100% of the time.
The reason, it seems, is that speech is a continuous stream of sounds, without clear-
cut borderlines between each word. In spoken discourse, we adapt our pronunciation
to our audience and articulate with maximal
economy of movement rather than maximal clarity. Thus, certain words are lost, and
certain phonemes linked together as we attempt to get our message across.
10.5 Assimilation
This is when the sound at the end of one word changes to make it easier to say the
next word. For example:
‘ten boys’ sounds like ‘ tem boys’ (the /n/ sound changes to the bilabial /m/ to make it
easier to transition to the also bilabial /b/)
10.6 Elision
Elision means that you evade a sound in the middle of a consonant cluster, sometimes
from the middle of a word. E.g. ‘sandwich’ becomes ‘sanwich’.Or from the end of a
word. For example:‘fish and chips’ ‘fishnchips’.
In other words ‘Elision is the loss of a phoneme, most commonly the last phoneme of
a word, and most commonly the /t/ and /d/ sounds’. Have a look at these examples:
left back
stand by
looked back
I must go
In each case the last phoneme of the first word is elided (lost). In the simplest terms,
the reason is that the time and effort required to change the mouth position from
the /t/ to the /b/ sound (as in the first example) or the /t/ to the /g/ sound (as in the last
example) is too great.
10.7 Catenation
Catenation is when the last consonant of the first word is joined to the first vowel of
the next word. This is extremely common in English, and can be very confusing for
students. For example:
‘an apple’ sounds like ‘a napple’ (Teacher, what is a napple?)
pick it up – (learners will hear something like pi ki tup)
what is it – (learners will hear something like wo ti zit)
10.9 Intrusion
This is when an extra sound ‘intrudes’. There are three sounds that often do this /r/ /j/
and /w/
E.g. ‘go on’ sounds like ‘gowon’
I agree sounds like ‘aiyagree’
Law and order sounds like ‘lawrunorder’
10.10. Connected speech activities
Pronunciation in the classroom may include certain other activities dealing with it
discretely. Students should be taught the basics of connected speech right from the
start to show them how words link together and what happens to sounds in the stream
of speech.
If students struggle with longer phrases, they can try the technique of back-chaining,
starting from the last sound and working up to the whole sound bit by bit. For
example with ‘Where do you come from?’ you drill ‘frum’ ‘kumfrum’ ‘dz-kumfrum’
‘where-dz-kumfrum’.
A good activity to start learners thinking about connected speech and weak forms is to
dictate just part of some phrases. For example: ‘uvbin’(you have been).
After doing a listening activity, try doing a dictation where you handout the recording
script, with chunks of 2-3 words missing. These should include some aspects of
connected speech. Students have to complete the gaps, which will help to develop
their decoding skills.
Mark Hancock has some great activities in Pronunciation Games and on
the HancockMacDonald website. I particularly like The Word Blender, a game for
A2/B1 students which starts to help students identify some of the features of
connected speech.
Avery and Erlich (1992) and Kenworthy (1987) agreed that all second language
learners will need practice in English word stress. This is unlike many other languages
that indicate the prominence of a syllable through pitch only. Stress in English is
marked by length, greater loudness, a rise in pitch, and usually vowel clarity. Bai
(1994) proposed four different functions of English stress: distinctive function;
highlight function; rhythmic function; and communicative functions. Stress must be
considered from the perspective of both the speaker and the listener (Taylor, 1996). If
the speaker does not use stress in an appropriate way, the native speakers might find it
difficult to understand words. It also would make the listener misunderstand what the
speaker is trying to say. The listener will not get cues about what words are important
and when the speaker’s thought is finished. The situation could result in either the
speaker or the listener feeling frustrated or embarrassed when the misunderstanding is
cleared up, or the speaker might just express the opposite meaning and unconsciously
offend the listener. Therefore, stress is not an optional extra, but rather a core part of
the language. However, it is easy for some English teachers to neglect or forget this
aspect of teaching. Some teachers might lack proper training in stress teaching and
confidence in providing correct models. Much of the research indicates that native
speakers organize English by stress patterns in their brains; they process the sounds
and listen for the stress patterns rather than individual sounds (Brown, 1991; Celce-
Murcia, Briton, & Goodwin, 1996; Kenworthy, 1987). Yan (1987) also pointed out
that the mastery of stress could help students to enhance their listening
comprehension. If non-native speakers make a stress mistake within a word or
sentence, native speakers might not be able to understand the word or sentence.
Therefore, manipulating the stress patterns of English improves not only
pronunciation, but also the comprehension of spoken English.
Most spoken languages will stress a syllable in each word. That is, rather than using a
monotone to deliver all syllables, one syllable in each word is emphasized.
Unfortunately, unlike a language like Spanish, which uses a handful of predictable
rules to determine the stressed syllable in each word, English is chaotic. Here is a link
to a web page that discusses the stress "rules" for
English: http://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/word-stress-rules.htm
It must be understood that these are not really rules, but generalizations. For each
"rule", there are many, many exceptions. The stress pattern is not always fixed in
English words. Stress position may vary either as a result of the stress on other words
occurring next to the word in question, or because not all speakers agree on the
placement of stress in some words. The former case is an aspect of connected speech.
According to Peter Roach ( English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course, 4th
ed. Cambridge University Press, 2009)The main effect is that the stress on a final-
stressed compound tends to move to a preceding syllable and change to secondary
stress if the following word begins with a strongly stressed syllable. For Example:
bad-'tempered but a bad-tempered 'teacher.
In real-life interaction, phonetically ambiguous pairs like " a new display" / " a
nudist play", are rarely a problem as we are actively making predictions about which
syntactic forms and lexical items are likely to occur in a given situation.
Learners must use the weak forms themselves when speaking English. Otherwise their
language will sound unnatural and over formalized, with too many stressed forms
making it difficult for the listener to identify the points of focus.
All language, like speech, is connected, and students will benefit from learning the
weak forms and stress patterns of new words from the start.
Word Stress
How about students who say hotel instead of hotel?
Placing stress on the wrong syllable is a pretty common pronunciation mistake. We
can have a chart, which should have three columns in case of three-syllable words. At
the top of each, write the numbers 1, 2, and 3 to represent each syllable, but in each
column one of the numbers should be underlined to show the syllable that is stressed.
Give your class a list of three-syllable words (telephone, magazine, religion, etc…)
and ask them to place each in the corresponding column.
1–2–3 1–2–3 1–2–3
telephone religion
magazine
10.15 Examples for Stress: Content words (key words) are always stressed; function
words are not stressed. Usually stressed words: nouns, main verbs, adjectives,
adverbs; contracted negative forms of auxiliary and modal verbs; question words.
Usually unstressed words: auxiliary and modal verbs; personal pronouns;
prepositions, conjunctions and articles.
It is said ‘‘the stressed syllables are louder and longer. Stressed syllables tend to occur
in content words such as nouns and verbs; structure words such
as articles and prepositions are usually unstressed.’’
Nouns: Terry, car, dinner
Verbs: eat, study, drive
Adjectives: blue, large, oval
Adverbs: quietly, smoothly, equally
Pronouns: that, theirs, himself, what
Function words are those words that are weaker and shorter. They include auxiliary
verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, determiners, and possessive adjectives. These
words are less important in expressing the meaning of the sentence.
Auxiliary verbs: may, do, have (if not the main verb)
Prepositions: under, around, near
Conjunctions: but, not,
Determiners: the, some, each
Possessive adjectives: my, your, our
There are some rules about which syllable to stress. But...the rules are rather
complicated! Probably the best way to learn is from experience. When you learn a
new word, you should also learn its stress pattern. If you keep a vocabulary book,
make a note to show which syllable is stressed. If you do not know, you can look in a
dictionary. All dictionaries give the phonetic spelling of a word. This is where they
show which syllable is stressed, usually with an apostrophe (') just before or just after
the stressed syllable. (The notes at the front of the dictionary will explain the system
used.) Look at this example for the word plastic. There are 2 syllables. Syllable #1 is
stressed.
10.16: Schwa
The schwa sound is one of those little mysteries that ESL students often hear about
but never truly grasp. The schwa, whose phonemic symbol looks like an upside down
“e” ([ə]), is an unstressed, weak sound that occurs in many English words. In the
phrase “a story about a girl” the three “a”s are schwa sounds. The same happens with
the “e” in the or the “o” in to. ESL students who master the schwa are well on their
way to improved pronunciation.
Explain that most unstressed syllables in English are reduced and pronounced as a
“schwa.” Teach the schwa sound (the “uh” sound as is the second syllable of
“station”). Modeling the expressions “Uh-huh” (for “yes”) and “huh-uh” (for “no”) is
a humorous way to teach this sound. The American English greeting “How are you
doing?” for example is really pronounced /how’r yuh doin’/ --the structure words
“are” and “you” get reduced to schwa.
10.17 Rhythm
The literal meaning of rhythm is ‘ a strong regular repeated pattern of sounds or
movements ‘ ( New Oxford Advance Learners’ Dictionary 7th edition , 2005) .
Spoken English words with two or more syllables have different stress and length
patterns. Some syllables are stressed more than others and some syllables are
pronounced longer than others. The same is true of phrases and sentences. Different
words in a sentence have stronger stress and are pronounced longer and other words
are weaker and shorter. This pattern of strong and weak stress and short and long
pronunciation gives English its rhythm.
10.18 Intonation
‘‘In linguistics, intonation is variation of spoken pitch that is not used to distinguish
words; instead it is used for a range of functions such as indicating the attitudes and
emotions of the speaker, signaling the difference between statements and questions,
and between different types of questions, focusing attention on important elements of
the spoken message and also helping to regulate conversational interaction. It
contrasts with tone, in which pitch variation in some languages distinguishes words,
either lexically or grammatically. (The term tone is used by some British writers in
their descriptions of intonation but to refer to the pitch movement found on the
nucleus or tonic syllable in an intonation unit.)’’
David Crystal for example says that "intonation is not a single system of contours and
levels, but the product of the interaction of features from different prosodic systems –
tone, pitch-range, loudness, rhythmically and tempo in particular."[1]
Here, as is common with wh- questions, there is a rising intonation on the question
word, and a falling intonation at the end of the question.
Intonation describes how the voice rises and falls in speech. The three main patterns
of intonation in English are: falling intonation, rising intonation and fall-rise
intonation.
Falling intonation
Falling intonation describes how the voice falls on the final stressed syllable of a
phrase or a group of words. A falling intonation is very common in wh-questions.
Where’s the nearest p↘ost-office?
What time does the film f↘inish?
We also use falling intonation when we say something definite, or when we want to
be very clear about something:
I think we are completely l↘ost.
OK, here’s the magaz↘ine you wanted.
See also:
Questions: wh-questions
Rising intonation
Rising intonation describes how the voice rises at the end of a sentence. Rising
intonation is common in yes-no questions:
I hear the Health Centre is expanding. So, is that the new d↗octor?
Are you th↗irsty?
Fall-rise intonation
Fall-rise intonation describes how the voice falls and then rises. We use fall-rise
intonation at the end of statements when we want to say that we are not sure, or when
we may have more to add:
I do↘n’t support any football team at the m↘om↗ent. (but I may change my mind in
future).
It rained every day in the firs↘t w↗eek. (but things improved after that).
We use fall-rise intonation with questions, especially when we request information or
invite somebody to do or to have something. The intonation pattern makes the
questions sound more polite:
Is this your cam↘er↗a?
Would you like another co↘ff↗ee?
For students to convey the right intonation, they must first understand it. Try an
exercise in which students can see that the intonation, not the words, is what conveys
real meaning. Make this a multiple choice exercise. For each question, write a short
sentence or phrase. Below it write several options students may choose from.
I have something to tell you.
How does the speaker feel?
Happy and excited
Sad and worried
Nervous and worried
Practicing intonation will help students not only communicate more effectively; it will
also help them understand situations better.
10.25 SUMMARY
We change the direction, pressure, and volume of air in our vocal tracts to make letter
and word sounds. Stress is the amount of energy or effort that we use to make these
changes. American English is a stress language. More stress, or more energy, is used
to pronounce words that are more important in a sentence. Spoken language also has
rhythm like music or dance. The rhythm of spoken words and sentences change as the
amount of energy used to pronounce them changes. Then, we change the pitch, or
music, of our voice, to put emotion and meaning into our words and sentences. The
intonation or pitch of our voice can go up or down or stay flat. Often, we change the
intonation of our voice before (intonation goes up) and after (intonation goes down)
we pronounce stressed words. More pronunciation energy is used when intonation is
going up and less is used when intonation is going down. We can add a pause, or a
moment of silence, between words to add meaning and emotion to what we say.
Pause=No pronunciation energy.
There is a relationship; there is a connection, between stress, rhythm, intonation, and
pause. Basic prosody is the study of these relationships and how they are used to add
emotion and meaning to words and sentences.
10.26-Books Consulted
Arnold, G. F. and O. M. Tooley. Say It with Rhythm. 2 vols. London: Longman, 1971-
72.
Brown, G. Listening to Spoken English. London: Longman, 1977.
Bolinger, D. L. Intonation and Grammar. Language Learning 8 (1958): 31-117.
Classe, A. The Rhythm of English Prose. Oxford: Blackwell, 1939.