Introduction to the Study of Language 2

Introduction & Phonology/Phonetics

Evelien Keizer & Julia Skala, SS17

Todays programme

Course information
Brief recap (transcription conventions)
Suprasegmental phonetics/phonology:
Stress
Intonation
Connected speech
Assimilation
Elision
Linking

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Course books

Required:
Yule, George. 2010. The study of language. 4th edition. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Plag/Braun/Lappe/Schramm. 2009. Introduction to English linguistics.
2nd edition. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Recommended:
Longman Pronunciation Dictionary.
Ed. J. Wells

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Course programme
session date topics
1 09/03 phonetics & phonology: suprasegmentals & revision
2 16/03 morphology 1: basics
3 23/03 morphology 2: word formation
4 30/03 semantics 1: aspects of word meaning
5 06/04 semantics 2: sense relations, collocation
6 27/04 semantics 3: words in texts/corpora, sentence meaning
7 04/05 grammar and syntax 1: basics
8 11/05 grammar and syntax 2: formal approach
9 18/05 grammar and syntax 3: functional approach
10 01/05 grammar and syntax 4: cognitive approach
11 08/06 psycholinguistics
12 22/06 question time
29/06 written exam 1. Termin (but check Univis)

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Exams

Exam dates (provisional)

1. Termin: 29 June 2017
2. Termin: first week of October 2017
3. Termin: November 2017
4. Termin: last week of January 2018

Check Moodle & UNIVIS for exact dates!

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ISL2 workflow

readings slides

LECTURE

readings transcription
course

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Transcription practice

Regular individual practice:

use pronunciation dictionary & materials on Moodle ISL1 & ISL2

Classes (optional, but strongly recommended):

Tue 13:00-14:00, 9 May (Thomas Martinek)
OR:
Wed 16:00-17:00, 10 May (Iris Vukovics)
PLACE: Unterrichtsraum, English Department

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Brief recap

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IPA: quick overview of symbols

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/activities/phonemic-chart

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More conventions

Spellings in < > brackets, e.g. <why>

Pronunciation in [ ] brackets or /../ slashes
[wet] narrow transcription;
representing pronunciation closely
phonetic transcription
/wet/ broad/phonemic transcription;
representing pronunciation more broadly,
phonological level

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Suprasegmental phonology

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Suprasegmental phonology

Segmental phonology
concerned with the description of phonemes

Suprasegmental phonology
Stress:
property of syllables
Intonation:
property of a larger unit the tone unit

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Stress
Word stress (revision)

Stress:
degree of prominence/force of a syllable
two points of view:
production (force)
perception (prominence)

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Word stress (revision)

Production
for stressed syllables speaker uses more force/muscular
energy (muscles used to expel air from lungs, as well as
muscles in other parts of the speech apparatus)

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Word stress (revision)

Perception
stressed syllables are more prominent (stand out from
surrounding syllables) in one or more ways:
they are pronounced at a pitch different from that of surrounding
syllables, or with a movement of pitch
they are longer
they are louder
it differs in quality from surrounding (unstressed) syllables.
Strongest effect produced by pitch and length, but quality
can also play an important role.

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Stress and strength

Strong syllable: with a long vowel or a diphthong as their

nucleus, or a short vowel followed by coda
usually stressed (primary or secondary);
e.g. 'photo 'concert, po'lite
can also be unstressed;
e.g. 'plagiarise, 'photo, fore'warn

Weak syllable: with a schwa or a syllabic consonant as their

nucleus, or with short vowel without a coda
always unstressed;
e.g. all the unstressed syllables in 'fashionable.

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Exercise

Decide on the stress patterns of:

<potato>
<opportune>
<alive>
<larynx>

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Decide on the stress patterns

potato

opportune

alive

larynx

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Decide on the stress patterns

potato poTAto

opportune opporTUNE

alive aLIVE

larynx LArynx

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Decide on the stress patterns
Primary
stress
potato poTAto po'tato

opportune opporTUNE oppor'tune

alive aLIVE a'live secondary

stress

larynx LArynx 'larynx

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Some rules for complex words

Suffixes ("endings") that affect stress placement move

primary stress to syllable before this suffix
-eous: <advantageous>
-graphy: <photography>
-ial: <proverbial>
-ic: <climatic>
-ion: <perfection>
-ious: <injurious>
-ty: <tranquillity>
-ive: <reflexive>

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Sentence stress

One and the same sentence can be pronounced with

different intonation patterns, leading to different meanings.
Certain words are pronounced differently depending or
whether they carry stress or not (weak form vs. strong form)
Here the distinction between content words and function
words is important: on the whole only (but not all) function
words have weak forms.

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Weak forms

There are about 40 well-known words in English which have

two forms: a weak form and a strong form; for instance
/ bt - bt /
/ t - t /
/ v - v /
/ hv - v /
/ hm - m /
These are all function words i.e. words lacking lexical
content, which have a purely grammatical function; e.g.
pronouns, auxiliaries, prepositions, conjunctions.

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Strong forms

In some contexts only the strong form is acceptable:

at the end of a sentence:
What did you do that for?; and so you should
in cases of contrast:
from Berlin, not to Berlin
in cases of emphasis:
You can do it; You must come.
in cases of citation/quotation:
In this sentence must is emphasised.

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Content words function words

The lecture has been moved from C1 to C2.

The lecture has been moved from C1 to C2.
The lecture has been moved from C1 to C2.

At this time of the year many people suffer from allergies.

At this time of the year many people suffer from allergies

Weak forms are used when a function word is unstressed

Not all function words have weak forms

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The foot (1)

foot: rhythmic unit consisting of at least one stressed

syllable; may contain one or more unstressed syllables.
if a foot contains only one syllable, this syllable is longer than
the syllables in feet containing more syllables.
i.e. the more syllables a foot contains, the shorter these
syllables become; i.e. feet are of more or less equal length:
English is a stress-timed language

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The foot (1)

John / bought / four / red / roses

Johnny / bought me / fourteen / yellow / roses
Jonathan / bought her a / fourteen-foot / yellow con / vertible

What happens to the identical syllables in these sentences,

i.e. / n /, /b:t /, / f: / ?

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The foot (2)

Hierarchical relationships within utterances:

utterances tone units feet syllables phonemes
Tone units take us into the realm of intonation.

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Intonation
Intonation

Are you coming to Majorca with us this summer?

You can say this sentence in many different ways, with
stresses on different words.

Also consider:
1. Has she grown?
2. Has SHE grown!
3. Did she win?
4. Did she win!?

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What is intonation?

Difficult to define; pitch which has to do with the rate of

vibration of vocal cords plays an important role.
Pitch is usually described (rather arbitrarily) as high or low
it is relative height we are interested in.
Intonation: falls and rises in pitch over a stretch of speech.
The only aspects of pitch that interest us are those which:
carry some linguistic information
as such are under the speakers control
are perceptible (not just measurable)

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Intonation vs. tone

intonation languages pitch contour is meaning distinctive

at phrase or sentence level
tone languages pitch contour is meaning distinctive at
word level

[m] [m] [m] [m]

mum hemp horse scold

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English: Basic tones

There are 5 basic tones:

(a) level tone
(b) fall
(c) rise
(d) fall-rise
(e) rise-fall

We can distinguish 2 (or 3) levels:

(a) high
(b) low
((c)mid)

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The function of intonation

Intonation forms part of the meaning conveyed:

speaker uses it to convey his/her intentions;
hearer uses it to interpret the speakers intentions;
There is, however, no one-to-one relationship between form
and function.

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Basic tones: meaning

Typical meanings of tones:

fall: new information, finality
declaratives (but also wh-questions)
rise: 'more is to follow',
yes/no questions, lists
fall-rise: 'limited agreement'
polite & friendly requests
rise-fall: strong feelings of approval, disapproval, surprise,
indignation
level: boredom, routine

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Some further examples (1)

David Crystal descibes nine ways of saying yes, all in answer

to the same question: Will you marry me?
He distinguishes between the following tones:
low/full/mid fall
low/full/high rise
level
fall-rise
rise-fall

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Tone units (1)

The basic unit of analysis in intonation is the tone unit.

Tone units may consist of only one syllable, but typically
contains more than one syllable (or foot).
Each tone unit has one (and only one) nucleus (or tonic
syllable). This is the syllable which which carries a tone, i.e. a
fall, rise, fall-rise or rise-fall. Any other syllables are usually
pronounced with level pitch.
The tonic syllable is more prominent than the other syllables
within the tone unit.

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Tone units: structure (1)

Each simple tone unit has one and only one tonic syllable;
the tonic syllable is therefore an obligatory component of
the tone unit.
Tone units may also contain a head, a pre-head and a tail.
Thus tone units have the following structure:
(pre-head) (head) nucleus (tail)
or:
(PH) (H) NUCL (T)

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Tone units: structure (2)

nucleus: obligatory, most prominent syllable of tone unit

(tonic syllable, carrying a tone).
head: part of a tone unit that extends from the first stressed
syllable up to (but not including) the nucleus/tonic syllable.
tail: any syllables between the nucleus and the end of the
tone unit.
pre-head: any unstressed syllables preceding the first
stressed syllable.

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Tone units: examples

Its 'not my BRO- thers fault

pre-head head NUCLEUS tail

'That is MY book
head NUCLEUS tail

They ar- 'rested the 'man on the 'spot.

pre-head head NUCLEUS

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Connected speech

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Connected speech

When people pronounce strings of words rapidly, this affects

their articulation:
Some articulatory movements may be left out
Movements involved in the pronunciation of neighbouring
sounds may merge (coarticulation)
Entire sounds may be left out

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Major processes

1. Assimilation
The process whereby sounds belonging to one word change sounds
belonging to a neighbouring word

2. Elision
The process whereby under certain circumstances sounds disappear:
zero-realisation or deletion

3. Linking
linking /r/
intrusive linking /r/

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Assimilation

Regressive:
E.g. alveolars before a bilabial or velar consonant:
that person: p () that man: m ()
meat pie: mi:p (mi:) bad boy: bb
right place: rap (ra) light blue: lap (la)
ten pence: tem tin box: tm
bright colour: brak (bra)
quite good: kwak (kwa)
ten keys: te

/s/ and /z/ when followed by //, // or /j/ (optional):

this shoe:
those years:
is she:

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Assimilation (2)

Progressive:
Alveolar syllabic nasal (n) (optional):
open: pm
happen: hpm
bacon: bek
broken: brk

Coalescent assimilation:
/t/ + /j/ > /t/; /d/ + /j/ > /d/
got you: t
would you: wd

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Elision (1)

The process whereby under certain circumstances sounds disappear: zero-

realisation or deletion

Loss of weak vowel after /p, t, k/:

potato: p tet
today: t de
Loss of weak vowel before (syllabic) + /n/, /l/or /r/:
tonight: tnat
police: pi:s
Simplification of complex consonant clusters:
acts: ks
asked: :st
(George the) sixths throne: sksrn

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Elision (2)

Loss of final / v / in of before consonants:

waste of money: west mni
Alveolar plosive elision (clusters):
last night: l:s
bald man: b:
exactly: gzgi
Schwa elision:
history: hstr
travelling: trvl
federal: fedrl

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Linking

linking /r/ (BrE)

here are hr :
four eggs f:r ez
bar and pub b:r n pb
intrusive linking /r/ (after /:/, /:/, //; optional)
law and order l:r nd :d
China and Russia anr n r
Formula A f:mjlr e
draw it dr:r t

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Transcription exercise

Narrow transcription, including assimilation, linking,

elision, weak forms and stress:
John bought ten packs of star alliance stickers for her and him.
Would you mind carting this stuff outside for us?
The city was full of great cars.

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Transcription exercise

Narrow transcription, including assimilation, linking,

elision, weak forms and stress:
John bought ten packs of star alliance stickers for her and him.
Would you mind carting this stuff outside for us?
The city was full of great cars.

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Can you transcribe this?

The north wind and the sun were disputing which was
stronger. When a traveller came along wrapped in a warm
cloak, they agreed that the one who first succeeded in
making the traveller take his coat off should be considered
stronger than the other.

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Can you transcribe this? (1)

The north wind and the sun were disputing which was
stronger. When a traveller came along wrapped in a warm
cloak, they agreed that the one who first succeeded in
making the traveller take his cloak off should be considered
stronger than the other.

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Can you transcribe this? (2)

The 'north wind and the 'sun were dis'puting which was
'stronger. When a 'traveller came a'long 'wrapped in a 'warm
'cloak, they a'greed that the 'one who 'first suc'ceeded in
'making the 'traveller 'take his 'cloak off should be
con'sidered 'stronger than the 'other.

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Can you transcribe this? (3)

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