Chapter INTRODUCTION 1.1 Phonetics and phonology They are branches of linguistics that study speech sounds Phonetics studies physical aspects of speech sounds (the production and perception of speech sounds, differences in sound quality, clear / l / vs dark / l /, / u: / vs / ʊ /, / p / vs / ph /, etc.) Three main areas of phonetics: - Articulatory phonetics: dealing with the way in which speech sounds are produced (sounds classified according to the position of the lips and the tongue, how far open the mouth is, whether or not the vocal cords are vibrating…) - Acoustic phonetics: dealing with the transmission of speech sounds through the air - Auditory phonetics: dealing with how speech sounds are perceived by the listener (clear / l / vs dark / l /, / t/ vs / p / with or without aspiration…) Phonology/ Phonemics studies the functional aspects of sounds and their relationships to one another (/ i: /, /1 / => different meanings, / h, r, j, w / never in final position…) Speech sounds: sounds produced by the vocal tract (Tract: a system of organs and tissues that together perform a specialized function) 1.2 Vowels and consonants Vowels: sounds produced without an obstruction to the air flow/ air stream as it passes from the larynx to the lips Ex: / ɑ: , i: , u: , O , ɜ: , , ʊ , ɒ , ʌ , e , æ , ǝ / => 20 vowels = 12 pure vowels + diphthongs Consonants: sounds produced with an obstruction to the airflow or with audible friction Ex: / d b f g h j k l m n p r s ʃ t v w z ʒ ŋ θ ð/ => 24 consonants ʤ ʧ 1.3 Voiced and voiceless sounds Voiced sounds: sounds produced with the vibration of the vocal cords => 36 voiced sounds = 20 vowels + 16 voiced consonants Voiceless sounds: sounds produced without the vibration of the vocal cords => voiceless sounds, all of which are consonants: / f k p t θ ʧ s ʃ/ Notes: 1- It is important to distinguish between letters and sounds In phonetics and phonology, only sounds are paid attention to 2- Letters not have sounds but they can represent sounds in words 3- A letter in isolation possesses no sound 4- A letter can represent more than one sound, and a sound can be represented by more than one letter Ex: “a”: / $ / ancient, / æ / can, / ǝ / ago, / O / call 1.4 Accents and dialects Accents: different pronunciation by people from different geographical places, from different social classes, of different ages and different education backgrounds Dialects: varieties of a language, different from each other in pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, word order 1.5 Received pronunciation (RP) British standard English pronunciation regarded as the prestige variety and showing no regional variation It has often been referred to as “BBC English” because it is used by most BBC newsreaders Chapter THE PRODUCTION OF SPEECH SOUNDS 2.1 ARTICULATORS ABOVE THE LARYNX Speech sounds are produced by the airstream starting at the lung, passing through the larynx and then going into the vocal tract which ends at the mouth and nostrils There are muscles affect speech sounds: The muscles in the chest used for breathing produce the airstream for speech sounds The muscles in the larynx make modifications in the air from the chest to the mouth The muscles in the vocal tract change the shape of the vocal tract The different parts in the vocal tract are called articulators and the study of them is called articulatory phonetics There are seven articulators above the larynx: The pharynx is a tube above the larynx Its top end is divided into two: one part is the back of the mouth and the other is the beginning of the way through the nasal cavity The velum or soft palate allows air to pass through the nose and the mouth In speech the velum is raised so that air cannot escape through the nose When the sounds / k / and / g / are pronounced, the tongue is contact with the lower side of the velum and they are velar consonants The hard palate or the roof of the mouth is a smooth curved surface The alveolar ridge is between the top front teeth and the hard palate Sounds made with the tongue touching here (such as / t / and / d / are called alveolar The tongue is a very important articulator that can be moved into many different places and different shapes It is divided into different parts: tip, blade, front, back and root tip blade front back root The teeth (upper and lower) are at the front of the mouth, immediately behind the lips Sounds made with the tongue touching the front teeth are called dental The lips are important in speech They are pressed together to produce the sounds / p / and / b /, brought into contact with the teeth as in / f / and / v /, or rounded to produce the lip-shape for vowels like / u: / Sounds with the lips in contact with each other are called bilabial, while those with lip-to-teeth contact are called labiodental Beside the seven articulators above, there are three other organs to remember: The larynx could also be described as an articulator The jaws are sometimes called articulators; certainly they are moved lower a lot in a speech However, they cannot make contact with other articulators The nose and the nasal cavity are a very important part for making nasal sounds such as / m /, / n / and / ŋ / 2.2 VOWEL AND CONSONANT There can be two ways to distinguish a vowel from a consonant As for phonetics, vowels such as / i: / or / u: / are sounds in which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips Meanwhile, consonants such as / s / or / d / are sounds in which there is obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips However, because in some consonants such as / h / or / w / there is no obstruction of the airstream, so the most important difference between vowel and consonant is not the way that they are produced, but their different distribution As for distribution, there is no other vowel before or after a vowel, so there is no vowel cluster in English But before and after a consonant can be another consonant, so there is a consonant cluster For example, the word black / blæk / has a consonant cluster / bl / 2.3 ENGLISH SHORT VOWELS A English vowels differ from each other in five ways: The position of the tongue refers to the vertical distance between the upper surface of the tongue and the palate  When the vowel / i: / is produced, the tongue is close to the roof of the mouth So / i: / is a close vowel  When the vowel / æ / is produced, the distance between the surface of the tongue and the roof of the mouth is much greater So / æ / is an open vowel  When the vowel / e / is pronounced, the tongue is neither close to the roof of the mouth nor far from the roof of the mouth So / e / is a mid vowel As a result, / i: /, / e / and / æ / differ in the position of the tongue The shape of the tongue refers to the part of the tongue, between front and back, which is raised the highest  When / i: / is produced, the front of the tongue is raised So / i: / is a front vowel  When /u: / is produced, the back of the tongue is raised So /u: / is a back vowel  When / ə / is produced, the central of the tongue is raised So / ə / is a central vowel As a result, / i: /, / u: / and / ə / differ in the shape of the tongue The lip-rounding refers to rounding the lip  Rounded: back vowels are produced when the corners of the lips are brought towards each other and the lips pushed forwards So they are rounded vowels  Spread: front vowels are produced with the corners of the lips moved away from each other So they are spread vowels  Neutral: central vowels are produced when the lips are not noticeably rounded or spread So they are neutral vowels The length refers to the duration in the pronunciation The sound /i: / is produced longer than the sound /1 / So /i:/ is a long vowel and /1/ is a short vowel The length mark is made of two dots : The tense refers to the tense of the muscle of the face Long vowels are produced with a little stretch of the muscle of the face, so they are tense vowels Meanwhile, short vowels are produced without any stretch of the muscle of the face, so they are lax vowels B Classifying vowels: tongue part - tongue height – length - lip shape – tenseness Front Central i: Back Close/High ɪ ʊ Mid e ə ɜ: ɔ: Open/Low ` ʌ ɒ ɑ: There are seven short vowels in English The front-close-short-spread-lax vowel / / The front-mid-short-spread-lax vowel / e / The front-open-short-spread-lax vowel / æ / The central-mid-short-neutral-lax vowel / ə / The central-open-short-neutral-lax vowel / ʌ / The back-close-short-rounded-lax vowel / ℧ / The back-open-short-rounded-lax vowel /ɒ / u: Chapter LONG VOWELS, DIPHTHONGS AND TRIPHTHONGS 3.1 LONG AND SHORT VOWELS Besides the seven short vowels there are five long vowels in English These vowels tend to be longer than the short vowels in similar contexts The front-close-long-spread-tense vowel / i: / The central-mid-long-neutral-tense vowel / з: / 10 The back-open-long-neutral-tense vowel / ɑ: / 11 The back-mid-long-rounded-tense vowel / ɔ: / 12.The back-close-long-rounded-tense vowel / u: / 3.2 DIPHTHONGS Diphthongs are long vowel consisting of a movement or gliding from one vowel to another A vowel which remains constant and does not glide is called a pure vowel In diphthongs the first part is much longer and stronger than the second part; for example, most of the diphthong /# / consists of the vowel / a /, and only in about the last quarter of the diphthong the glide to /1 / becomes noticeable As the glide to / / happens, the loudness of the sound decrease English diphthongs can be divided into centring diphthongs and closing diphthongs  The centring diphthongs glide towards the central vowel / ə /:  /^ /: the starting point is a little closer than /1 /  / eə /: it begins with the vowel / e /  / ə℧ /: it has a starting point slightly closer than / ℧ /  The closing diphthongs end with a glide towards a closer vowel  Three of the diphthongs glide towards the vowel /1 /: o / $/: the starting point is the same as the vowel / e / o / #/: it begins with the vowel similar to / ʌ / o / %/: the first part has same quality as / ɔ: /  Two diphthongs glide towards the vowel / ℧ /, so that as the tongue moves closer to the roof of the mouth, there is at the same time a rounding movement of the lips o / ! /: it begins with the vowel schwa / ə / o / a℧ /: the starting point is a vowel similar to the vowel / ɑ: / 3 TRIPHTHONGS A triphthong is a glide from one vowel to another and then to a third, all produced rapidly and without interruption There are five triphthongs which can be looked on as being composed of the five closing diphthongs with the vowel / ə / added on the end  /$/ + /ə/ / $ə /  /#/ + / #ə / /ə/  /%/ + /ə/ / %ə /  /!/ + /ə/ / !ə /  / a℧ / + /ə/ / a℧ə / Chapter VOICING AND CONSONANTS 4.1 THE LARYNX The larynx is made of two large cartilages attached to the top of the trachea; when we breathe, the air passes through the trachea and the larynx The front of larynx comes to a point called the Adam’s Apple Inside the box made by these two cartilages are the two thick flaps of muscle called the vocal folds:  At the front they’re joined together and fixed to the thyroid cartilage  At the back they are attached to a pair of the small arytenoid cartilages These cartilages are attached to the top of the cricoid cartilage and can move to move the vocal folds apart or together Glottis is the opening between the vocal folds If the vocal folds are apart the glottis is open, and if they are pressed together the glottis is closed There are four positions for glottis to study the speech sounds Wide apart: This is for normal breathing and voiceless sounds / p /, / f /, / s / Narrow glottis: This is for voiceless glottal fricative / h / Position for vocal fold vibration: This is for voiced sounds Because when vocal cords press together, the air stream put them open, and then they press together again so they open and close continuously to make the vocal cords vibrate Vocal folds tightly closed: This position prevents the air stream from going into and out of the larynx 4.2 RESPIRATION AND VOICING When a speech sound is produced the airstream is often made to move out of the lungs, this is an egressive pulmonic airstream The pressure of the egressive pulmonic air below the vocal folds can be varied Three main differences are found: Variations in intensity make voicing with high intensity for shouting and low intensity for speaking quietly Variations in frequency make high and low frequency Variations in quality make differences voice qualities, for example harsh, breathy, and creaky Voicing / Phonation: sounds heard when the vocal folds vibrate 4.3 PLOSSIVES A plosive is a consonant with the following characteristics: Articulators move against each other to make a total obstruction to stop air The stricture is released for the airstream escaping The airstream escaping under a pressure makes a plosion There may be voicing during part or all of the plosive articulation There are four phases in producing plosives: The closing phase is one with articulators moving to make a total stricture The compression phase is one in which the compressed air is stopped from escaping The release phase occurs when articulators move apart from each other to let air to escape The post-release phase is what happens immediately after the release phase Manner of articulation is the way how to release the air stream Plosives are called so because a plosion is made during their production 4.4 ENGLISH PLOSSIVES Places of articulation are places where the airstream is stopped partially or totally When plosive sounds are produced, the airstream is stopped totally somewhere in the oral capacity There are six English plosives with the different places of articulation: / p / and / b / are bilabial because two lips are pressed together / t / and / d / are alveolar since the tongue blade is pressed against the alveolar ridge / k / and / g / are velar because the back of the tongue is pressed against the velum Voicing refers to the vibration of the vocal cords When a sound is produced with the vibration of the vocal cords it is called the voiced sound When a sound is produced without vibration of the vocal cords it is called voiceless sound So / p /, / t /, and / k / are voiceless; and / b /, / d /, and / g / are partly or fully voiced or voiceless All of the English plosives occur at the beginning of the word (initial position), between other sounds (medial position) and at the end of the word (final position) In initial position: a In the closing phase / p /, / t /, / k / and / b /, / d /, / g / takes place silently b In compression phase there is no voicing in p, t, k; in b, d, g there is normally very little voicing c In the release phase / p /, / t /, and / k / are followed by audible plosion In the post release phase there is a period during which the air escapes through the vocal folds, making a sound like /h / This is called aspiration The release of /b/, / d /, and / g / are followed by weak plosion The most important difference between initial /p /, /t /, / k / and / b /, / d /, / g / is the aspiration of the voiceless plosives / p /, / t /, and / k / In initial position / b /, / d /, and / g / cannot be preceded by any consonant, but / p /, / t /, and / k / may be preceded by / s / When one of them is preceded by / s /, it is unaspirated In medial position: The pronunciation of / p /, / t /, / k / and / b /, / d /, / g / depends on whether the syllable preceding and following the plosive are stressed In final position: / b /, / d /, and / g / have little voicing / p /, / t /, / k / and / b /, / d /, / g / is very weak and often not audible There difference between / p /, / t /, / k / and / b /, / d /, / g / is that vowels preceding / p /, / t /, and / k / are much shorter 4.5 FORTIS AND LENIS The voiceless plosive / p /, / t /, and / k / are sometimes called fortis (meaning “strong”) and / b /, / d /, and / g / are then called lenis (meaning “weak”) It is probably true that / p /, / t /, and / k / are produced with more force Naming of consonants: voicing property + adjective (indicating place of art.) + noun (indicating manner of art.) Ex: / k /: a voiceless velar plosive Chapter THE PHONEME 5.1 THE PHONEME When an utterance is produced, a continuous stream of sounds is produced The stream of sounds can be divided into small pieces which are called segments For example, the word “man” is produced with a first segment / m /, a second segment / æ / and a third segment / n / If we put one segment in the place of one of other segments, we can change the meaning of the word For example, if we substitute / æ / for / e / in the word “bed” we get a different word “bad” Such a segment is called a phoneme There is an abstract set of phonemes as the basic of our speech, and the complete set of these phonemes is called the phonemic system of the language The phonemes themselves are abstract, but there are mainly slightly different ways in which we made the sounds that represent these phonemes For example, the phoneme /b / in the word “bad” can be pronounced in two ways: with full voicing and with no voicing The two different ways of making / b / are two different realizations of the phoneme / b / One can be substituted for the other without changing the meaning When we talk about different realizations of phonemes, we sometimes call these realizations allophones Some of the realizations of a phoneme cannot occur in the same place For example, the realization of the phoneme / t / in the word “tea” is aspirated But in the word “eat” the realization of the phoneme / t / is unaspirated The aspirated realization will never be found in the place where the unaspirated realization is appropriate, and vice versa When we find this strict separation of places where particular realizations can occur, we say that the realizations are in complementary distribution 5.2 SYMBOLS AND TRANSCRIPTION Basically, the symbols are for one of two purposes: either they are symbols for phonemes (phonemic or phoneme symbols) or they are phonetic symbols As for phonemic symbols, the number of phonemic symbols must be exactly the same as the number of phonemes we decide exists in the language One of the traditional exercise in pronunciation teaching by phonetic methods is that of phonemic transcription, where every speech sound must be identified as one of the phonemes and written with the appropriate symbol In a phonemic transcription, then, only the phonemic symbols may be used The phonemic system described here for the BBC accent contains forty-four phonemes We can display the complete set of these phonemes by the usual classificatory methods used by most phoneticians; the vowels and diphthongs can be located in the vowel quadrilateral and the consonants can be placed in the chart of table according to the place of articulation, the manner of articulation and voicing The best known set of symbols is that of the international Phonetic Association’s alphabet (the letter IPA used to refer to the Association and also to its alphabet) The vowel symbols of the cardinal vowel system (plus a few others) are usually included on the chart of this alphabet, which is produced of the beginning of the book it is important to note that in addition to the many symbols on the chart there a lot of diacritics, marks which modify the symbol in some ways Such a transcription would be called a phonetic transcription; a phonetic transcription containing a lot of information about the exact quality of the sounds would be called a narrow phonetic transcription, while one which only included a little more information than a phonetic transcription would be called a broad phonetic transcription 10 Here the aspiration of the initial plosive takes up the center of the weak syllable and the first syllable may disappear, resulting in these pronunciations potato [ ph=te1tə3 ] canary [ kh=neər1 ] perhaps [ ph=hæps] 14.3.2 A weak vowel + / l, r, n / becomes a syllabic consonant tonight [ t=na1t ] police [ p=li:s ] correct [ k=rekt ] 14.3.3 A voidance of complex consonant clusters In clusters of three plosives or two plosives plus a fricative, the middle plosive may be omitted acts [æks ] looked back [=l3k bæk ] scripts [ skr1ps ] 14.3.4 Loss of final / v / in “of” before consonants lots of them [=lɒts ə ðəm ] waste of money [=we1st ə =mʌni] Constructions of grammatical words may be regarded as examples of elision The best-known cases are:  “had”, “would”: spelt ‘d, pronounced / d / after vowels and / əd / after consonants  “is”, “has”: spelt ‘s, pronounced / s / after voiceless consonants, / z / after voiced consonants except after / s, z, ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ “is” is pronounced / 1z / and “has” is pronounced / əz / in contracted form  “will” spelt ‘ll, pronounced / l / after vowels and / l / after consonants  “have” spelt ‘ve, pronounced / v / after vowels, / əv / after consonants  “not” spelt n’t, pronounced / nt / after vowels, / nt / after consonants There are also changes associated with n’t such as “can” / kæn / “can’t” / kɑ:nt / “do” / du: / “don’t” / də3nt / “shall” / ʃæl / “shan’t” / ʃɑ:nt /  “are” spelt ‘re, pronounced / ə / after vowels, with some change in the preceding vowel such as “you” / ju: / “you’re” / j3ə / or / jɔ: / “we” / wi: / “we’re” / w1ə / “they” / ðe1 / “they’re” / ðeə / Contracted “are” is also pronounced as / ə / or / ər / when following a consonant 14.4 LINKING An essential part of acquiring fluency in English is learning to produce connected speech without gaps, and this is the importance of linking In connected speech we link words together; the most familiar case of linking is linking / r / 14.4.1 Linking /r/ 35 In RP words in isolation never end in / r / Nevertheless in connected speech an / r / may be pronounced if the next word begins with a vowel sound This / r / is present in spelling and corresponds to a historical / r / which is now lost before a consonant or at the end of words “here” / h1ə / but “here are” / h1ər ɑ: / “four” / fɔ: / but “for eggs” / fɔ:r =egz / 14.4.2 Intrusive /r/ In RP, the insertion of / r / is frequently made even if there is no /r/ in the spelling This intrusive / r / does not correspond to a historical /r/ In spite of the fact that many native speakers use it, it is still disapproved of by some, therefore it is better not to imitate this type of / r / Intrusive /r/ is not always possible, it depends on the vowel the word ends with media event / =mi:d1ər 1=vent / law and order / =lɔ:r ən =ɔ:də / drawing / =drɔ:r1ŋ / Linking and intrusive /r/ are special cases of juncture This term refers to the relationship between one sound and the sounds that immediately precede and follow it my turn [ma1 =t+n] The relationship between / m / and / a1 /, between / t / and / + / and between / + / and / n / is one of close juncture / m/ is preceded by silence and / n / is followed by silence, and so /m/ and / n / are said to be in a position of external open juncture English speakers will usually hear the difference between ‘my turn’ and ‘might earn’ In both pairs what is different is the relationship between / a1 / and / t / In quick speech, there is no silence (or external open juncture) to indicate where we can split up the sequence of sounds into two words How can we hear the difference between / ma1 t+n / and / ma1t +n / The answer is that in ‘turn’ the / t / is aspirated, whereas in ‘might’ it is not Also / a1 / is shorter in ‘might’ than ‘my’ Many minimal pairs show the significance of juncture: a might rain / ma1t =re1n / (/ a1 / is shortened, /r/ is voiced when initial in ‘rain’) b my train / ma1 =tre1n / (/ r / is voiceless following / t / in ‘train’) a all that I’m after today final in ‘that’) b all the time after today initial position in ‘time) / =ɔ:l ðət a1m =ɑ:ftə tə=de1 / (/ t / unaspirated when / =ɔ:l ðə =ta1m =ɑ:ftə tə=de1 / (/ t / aspirated when in a he lies / hi: la1z / (clear / l / in ‘lies’) b heal eyes / =hi:l a1z] (dark / l / in ‘heal’/ a keep sticking / =ki:p =st1k1ŋ / (/ t / unaspirated after / s /, / i: / short) b keeps ticking / =ki:ps =t1k1ŋ / (/ t / aspirated in ‘ticking’) 36 14.4.3 Intrusive j i: e1 a1 % + vowel —> j + vowel The story is very interesting enjoy a lovely icescream stay at home for a day or two 14.4.4 Intrusive w u: ǝʊ aʊ + vowel —> w + vowel I couldn’t anything go into you always say that so exciting 37 Chapter 15 INTONATION Pitch of the voice referring to the vibration of vocal cords plays the most important part in the intonation In normal speech, the pitch of voice is constantly changing Pitch is described in terms of high and low Utterance is a continuous piece of speech beginning and ending with a clear pause Tone is the overall behavior of the pitch 15.1 SIMPLE TONES 15.1.1 FORM A one-syllable word can be said with either a level tone or a moving tone The two common onesyllable utterances are ‘yes’ and ‘no’ There are three simple possibilities for the intonation used in producing the one-word utterances “yes” and “no” with their symbols like following They are called three simple English tones Level _ yes _ no Falling yes \ \ no Raising / yes / no However, English speakers only use moving tones (falling and raising tones) on these onesyllable utterances We use falling tone descending from a higher to a lower pitch to say “yes” or “no” in a definite, final manner; and rising stone, a movement from a lower pitch to a higher one in a questioning manner Each speaker has his or her own normal pitch range: a top level which is the highest pitch normally used by the speaker, and a bottom level that the speaker’s pitch normally does not go below In ordinary speech, the intonation tends to take place within the lower part of the speaker’s pitch range, but when he express strong feelings, he or she use extra pitch height _ _ _ a normal unemphatic “yes” _ a strong emphatic “yes” We use a symbol (a vertical arrow) to indicate extra pitch height, so that we can distinguish between \ yes and \ yes 15.1.2 FUNCTION Falling tone \yes or \no If someone is asked a question and replies with a falling tone \ yes or \ no it will be understood that the question is now answered and that there is nothing more to be said The fall could be said to give an impression of “finality” Raising tone /yes /no 38 Unlike the falling tone with an impression of finality, this tone conveys an impression that something more is to follow A (wishing to attract B’s attention): Excuse me B : / yes B’s reply is, perhaps, equivalent to “What you want?” Level tone _ yes _ no This tone almost always conveys a feeling of saying something routine, uninteresting or boring A teacher calling the names of pupils from a register will often so using a level tone on each name, and the pupils are likely to respond with _ yes when their name is called 15.2 COMPLEX TONES AND PITCH HEIGHT 15.2.1 FORM Complex tones usually used on one-syllable words are fall-rise tone, where the pitch descends and then rises again, and rise-fall one in which the pitch follows the opposite movement They are represented by symbols as following Fall-rise tone: ◡ yes Rise-fall tone: ⌢ ◡ yes no ⌢ no 15.2.2 FUNCTION Fall-rise tone ◡ yes ◡ no One of the meanings of this tone is described as “limited agreement” or “response with reservation” A: It’s not really an expensive book, is it? B: ◡ no The fall-rise in B’s reply again indicates that he would not completely agree with A Rise-fall tone: ⌢ yes ⌢ no This tone is used to convey rather strong feelings of approval, disapproval or surprise A: You wouldn’t an awful thing like that, would you? B: ⌢ no 39 Chapter 16 INTONATION 16.1 THE TONE-UNIT 16.1.1 DEFINITION OF TONE-UNIT A unit generally greater in size than the syllable is called tone unit In its smallest form, the toneunit may consist of only one syllable A: is it / you? B: ⌢ yes A’s question is a tone-unit with three syllables and B’s reply is a tone-unit with one syllable The tone-unit has a place in a range of phonological units that are in a hierarchical relationship: speech consists of a number of utterances; each utterance consists of one or more tone-units; each tone-unit consists of one or more feet; each foot consists of one or more syllables; each syllable consists of one or more phonemes 16.1.2 DEFINITION OF TONIC SYLLABLE A tonic syllable is one which carries a tone A tonic syllable has a high degree of prominence and it not only carries a tone but also a type of stress that will be called tonic stress ◡ John is it / you This speech would normally be regarded as divided into two tone-units: “◡ John” and the “is it / you” in which “◡ John” and “/ you” are tonic syllables carrying not only a tone but also a tonic stress 16.2 THE STRUCTURE OF THE TONE-UNIT Tone-units can be simple or compound Each simple tone unit has one and only one tonic syllable which is its obligatory component 16.2.1 THE HEAD A head is a part of a tone-unit that extends from the first stressed syllable up to (but not including) the tonic syllable So if there is no stressed syllable before the tonic syllable, there cannot be a head 40 | give me \ those In this speech, “ | give me” is a head which extends from the first stress syllable “ | give” to the is the tone unit “ \ those” in an \ hour In this speech, there is no head because there is no stress syllable before the tone unit “\ hour” 16.2.2 THE PRE-HEAD The pre-head is composed of all the unstressed syllables in a tone-unit preceding the first stressed syllable Thus they are found in two main environments: When there is no head (i.e no stressed syllable preceding the tonic syllable) in an \ hour Pre-head Tonic syllable When there is a head in a little less than an Pre-head \ Head hour Tonic syllable 16.2.3 THE TAIL The tail is all syllables between the tonic syllable and the end of the tone-unit When it is necessary to mark stress in the tail, we will use a raise dot “· “ did you · say / What Tonic syllable tail 16.3 PITCH POSSIBILITIES IN THE SIMPLE TONE-UNIT 16.3.1 INTONATION IN ONE-SYLLABLE TONE-UNITS Intonation is carried by the tone-unit In a one-syllable utterance, the simple syllable must have one of the five tones as following Level _ yes _ no Falling yes \ \ no Rising / yes / no Fall-rise tone: ◡ yes ◡ no Rise-fall tone: ⌢ yes ⌢ no 41 16.3.2 INTONATION IN TONIC SYLLABLES OF MORE THAN ONE SYLLABLE Tone-units without the tail In a tone-unit of more than one syllable, the tonic syllable must have one of the tones above If the tonic syllable is the final syllable, the tone will not sound much different from that of a corresponding one-syllable tone-unit One-syllable tonic-unit / here Four-syllable tonic-unit shall we sit / here Tone-units with the tail If there a tail following the tonic syllable, the pitch movement of the tone is not completed on the tonic syllable  Rising tone If a tail follows a tonic syllable, that has a rising tone, the syllables or syllables of the tail will continue to move upwards from the pitch of the tonic syllable If the word “what” is said on a rising tone, / what, it might have a pitch movement that could be diagrammed like this: _ _ The four syllables in “/ what did you say ” might said like this: _ _ 42 If, in rising progressively higher, the pitch reaches the highest part of the speaker’s normal pitch range, subsequent syllables will continue at the top level  Falling tone We find a similar situation with the falling tone On a single syllable “\ why “, the pitch movement might be of this sort: _ _ If there are syllables following, the fall may not be completed on the tonic syllable: \ why did you go If the speaker’s lowest pitch is reached before the end of the tail, the pitch continues at the bottom level In the case of a level tone, syllables following in the tail will continue at the same level 43 Chapter 17 INTONATION 17.1 FALL-RISE AND RISE-FALL TONES FOLLOWED BY A TAIL 17.1.1 FALL-RISE TONES Fall-rise and rise-fall tones can be difficult to recognize when they are extended over tails, since their characteristic pitch movements are often broken up or distorted by the syllables they occur on The pitch movement on ◡ some is: _ _  If we add a syllable, the “fall” part of the fall-rise is carried by the first syllable and the rise part by the second The pitch movement is continuous, if there are no voiceless medial consonants to cause a break in the voicing ◡ some ‘ men If the continuity of the voicing is broken because there is a voiceless medial consonant, the pitch pattern might be more like this some ‘ chair ◡ _  If a tail has two or more syllables, the normal pitch movement is for the pitch to fall on the tonic syllable and to remain low until the last stress in the tail The pitch then rises from that point up to the end of the tone-unit I ◡ might ‘buy it I 44 ◡ might have ‘thought of ‘ buying it _ _ _ 17.1.2 RISE-FALL TONES If the tonic syllable is followed by a single syllable in the tail, the “rise” part of the tone takes place on the first tonic syllable and the “fail” part is on the second ⌢ no _ ⌢ no one _ _ ⌢ no sir _ _  When there are two or more syllables in the tail,the syllable immediately following the tonic syllable is alsway higher and any following syllables are low i ful ⌢ beaut of them went ⌢ all 17.2 HIGH AND LOW HEADS There are two different pitch possibilities in the head which are called high head and law head 17.2.1 HIGH HEAD In the case of high head, the stressed syllable which begins the head is higher in pitch than the beginning pitch of the tone on the tonic syllable The | bus was \ late Is |that the / end _ _ 17.2.2 LOW HEAD 45 In the low head the stressed syllable which begins the head is lower in pitch than the beginning pitch of the tone on the tonic syllable The stressed syllable in the low head is marked as “ “ The |bus was \ late Is the / end |that NOTE: It is usual for unstressed syllables to continue the pitch of the stressed syllable that precedes them like examples above In the following example, the three unstressed syllables “if it had” continue at the same pitch as the stressed syllable “asked” With high head We | asked if it had With low head \ come We | asked if it had \ come _ 17.2.3 THE HEAD WITH TWO OR MORE STRESSED SYLLABLES When there is more than one stressed syllable in the head there is usually a slight change in pitch from the level of one stressed syllable to that of the next 17.2.3.1 HIGH HEAD  The stressed syllables in the high head step downward progressively to approach the beginning of the tone The | rain was | com ing | down | fair ly \ hard 46  When a high head is followed by a rise, the stressed syllables tend to move downwards towards the beginning of the tones and then the pitch rises | EXAMPLE: Will there be a| nother | train / later _ 17.2.3.2 LOW HEAD  In the low head, since the tone also starts low, being a rise, there is no upward movement in the head |That’s not the |sto ry you |told in / court  When there is a low head followed by a falling tone, successive stressed syllables in the head tend to move upwards towards the beginning pitch of the tone |I could have |bought it for |less than a \ pound 47 Chapters 18-19 FUNCTIONS OF INTONATION I Some definitions Pitch: highness or loudness of the voice; controlled by the vocal folds: the faster the vocal folds, the higher the pitch Pitch range: variations in pitch height that are used by a speaker or a group of speakers in a community top/highest level medium level bottom/lowest level Tone: a = pitch; affecting the meaning of a word (as in Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, some African languages) b The movement of the pitch, usually accompanied by a change in loudness and rhythm, which affects the meaning of utterances (= continuous pieces of speech) Tone languages: languages in which tone does affect the meaning of words (Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese…) II The five basic English tones and their functions (attitudinal, accentual, grammatical, discourse functions) Level, _Yes, _No: (usually with one-syllabled words) uninterested, bored, not caring (for something routine, uninteresting, boring) When calling the roll, answering a series of routine questions for some purpose (checking in a hotel, applying for an insurance policy…) Fall, \ Yes, \ No: finality, definiteness Do you know Mr Brown? \Yes \No That’s the end of the \news I know he \did Rise, /Yes, /No - Grammatical function: Can I help /you? Is it /yours? - The speaker wanting and waiting for more information; listing things; encouraging /Sunday, /Monday… and \Saturday Excuse /me? /Yes? It won’t /hurt Fall-rise, ◡Yes ◡No: -Limited agreement or responding with reservations, uncertainty, doubt 48 She’s beautiful - ◡Yes (but she’s affected, conceited…) It’s ◡possible He ◡may be suitable for the post You ◡may be right - Requesting Could you ◡do me a favor? Rise-fall, ⌢Yes being impressed You were ⌢first ⌢All of them ⌢No: rather strong feelings of approval, disapproval, surprise, 49 ... different subject that we call phonology One by studying both the phonetics and the phonology of English is it possible to acquire a full understanding of the use of sounds in English speech Study of... is called voiceless sound So / p /, / t /, and / k / are voiceless; and / b /, / d /, and / g / are partly or fully voiced or voiceless All of the English plosives occur at the beginning of the... / and / b /, / d /, / g / depends on whether the syllable preceding and following the plosive are stressed In final position: / b /, / d /, and / g / have little voicing / p /, / t /, / k / and