Université de Savoie UFR-LLSH LCE1 UE 103 Lecture: Phonetics & Phonology

Université de Savoie UFR-LLSHLCE1 UE 103Lecture: Phonetics & Phonology Alice Henderson ahend@univ-savoie.fr Office 812

Content of the 5 lectures 1) Introduction, Phonemes 2) Sounds in context, connected speech 3)Stress, accent & rhythm 4) Intonation 5) Conclusion

Outline, Lecture 4 • Go over homework from Previous Lecture • Why rhythm, stress, intonation? • Stress, accent, pitch, tune • Sentence emphasis & focus • Chunking & pausing • Intonation: Definition & basic tunes • Functions • Conclusion • Bibliography

Homework from Previous Lecture • Coalescence • Short review of basic word stress rules • Stress in two-word verbs

Coalescence • A form of assimilation, Involves a fusion of forms • HW: /s/+ / j/becomes /§/, /z/+ / j/ becomes /½/ • Of course you can k¿É§W • Let’s discuss your problems dösÇkÃ§W • Don’t miss your lessons mö§W • Well, use your head. juÉ½W • Well, practice your Çpr¾ktö§W • Please yourself. pliÉ½W • Just express yourself. ökÇspre§e • Revise your grammar.röÇvaö½W • You’re sure to pass your exams.p¾§W • You’ll amaze your friends.WÇmeö½W

Word Stress Rules • 2-syllable words • Nouns & adjectives: usually on 1st syll. • Verbs: often on 2nd syllable • 3+-syllable words: 3 major categories • Stress on ending: -ee, -eer, -ese, -ette, -esque, -ique • Stress 1 syll. before ending: -ic, -ion, -ity, … • Stress 2 sylls. before ending: -ate, -ize, -ary

Stress in Compounds • Stress in compound nouns • Stress in 2-word verbs • Separated: stress both • Together: one stress is lost • Stress the adverb/preposition when it is at the end of a tone unit • When a noun object follows, EITHER the verb or the adverb/preposition can be stressed, according to the rhythm

Two-word verbs Separated: stress both You’re winding me up She shut the computer down

Two-word verbs Together: one stress is lost • Stress the adverb/preposition when it is at the end of a tone unit • If you hope to break through • The plane’s about to take off! • come out (« Hide & Seek » song) • When a noun object follows, EITHER the verb or the adverb/preposition can be stressed, according to the rhythm • She’s taken up stamp collecting • We’ve run out of bread • Turn up the heat * I’ve just put away my books // I’ve put away my books

Outline, Lecture 4 • Go over homework from Pevious Lecture • Why rhythm, stress, intonation? • Stress, accent, pitch, tune • Sentence emphasis & focus • Chunking & pausing • Intonation: Definition & basic tunes • Functions • Conclusion • Bibliography

Why? • Fun? • Teachable? • Useful? • For interacting with native speakers • For interacting with non-native speakers

How phenomena are related • Stressed syllables are key to the rhythm of English • Stressed syllables are often where intonation starts to change (e.g. up or down) • Intonation signals different types of meaning on different levels (grammatical, attitudinal, etc.) • Therefore, stress is KEY

What language acquisition research shows • Each lexical item we know « exists » as an « entry » in our mental lexicon • Each entry has encoded information about the lexical item, including the stress pattern • When listening, a person must be able to retrieve that entry to understand the message • Therefore, if they do not have the correct entry (incl. word stress) retrieval will be affected …

Implications? • deviation from normal English stress patterns can cause difficulty in the correct parsing of a message (Setter, 9) • « word stress patterns are an integral part of the phonological representations of words in the mental lexicon » (Cutler, 1984, in Setter, 9)

This influences communication … • Between native speakers • Between non-native speakers • Between NS and NNS

Examples (Bansal, 1966) • ‘Atmosphere / must fear • ‘Yesterday / or study • ‘Character / di’rector • ‘Written / re’tain • Pre’fer / ‘fearful • Co’rrect / ‘carried

Importance of prosody • Prosody = how pitch, loudness, length produce accent, rhythm and intonation (Gimson, 6) • « prosody is the most critical feature in English pronunciation » (Anderson-Hsieh et al. 1994) (in Setter, 9) • evidence that prosodic features are key to intelligibility of a NNS pronunciation (Magen, 1998) (in Setter, 9)

Implications? • Given the nature of English • Given the nature of language acquisition • Given the nature of sound perception • Teachers and learners of English should focus on the importance of stress in order to avoid misunderstandings

Example of rhymes « provide a convenient framework for the perception and the production of a number of characteristic features of English pronunciation which are often found to be problematic for learners: stress/unstress (and therefore the basis for intonation), vowel length, vowel reduction, elision, compression, pause (between adjacent stresses) ». (Marks, 1999,198)

Full circle … • stress/unstress (and therefore the basis for intonation) • vowel length= distinction between live/leave, blue/book • vowel reduction= to schwa in unstressed syllables • elision= losing /t/ and /d/ • compression= hour/ « ah » • pause (between adjacent stresses)= the factor of rhythm

Stress & Pitch • Stress in English: a syllable is • Longer • Louder • On a higher pitch

Stress & Accent • Stress is not the same as accent • Accent marks the beginning of a change in tune

Regular rhythm in music: stress •••••••••••• // •••••••••••• • 4 stresses per breath group

Regular rhythm in music: accent •• • • •••••••••• // •••••••••• • 5 stresses • 2 accents

Accent, Tune & Pitch • A change in tune involves a change in pitch

Sentence emphasis … • Stress content words: nouns, main verbs, negative auxiliaries, adverbs, adjectives • Use weak forms for structure words: pronouns, prepositions, articles, ‘to be’ verbs, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs

Tune & sentence emphasis • Tune change starts on one of the last content words …. usually. • Speakers can choose which information to highlight by choosing where to start changing the tune

Focus on last content word • What’s the matter? • Where are you going? • Put some milk in it. • Could we go home? • How have you been? • Let’s have a look at it.

Broad focus • I’ve lost my keys. • My trainleaves on Monday the fourth. • She’s lost her bag. • red= stress, green= accent

Narrow focus • End: We’re not ready! • Middle: What’s happened in here?! • Beginning: Here they are!

Try it … • A: Are you from France? • B: No, I’m from Sweden. • A: How long have you been here? • B: I’ve been here for a month. • A: What are you studying? • B: Physics. • A: Do you find physics difficult? • B: Yes, a little.

Now try this one …. • A: Do you think the food here is expensive? • B: Not really. • A: Well, I think it’s expensive. • B: That’s because you eat in restaurants. • A: Where do you eat? • B: I cook at home. • A: I didn’t know you could cook?! • B: Well, I can’t, so I just eat bread and cheese. • A: That’s so unhealthy! • B: No it isn’t. And I like bread and cheese.

Answers: • A: Do you think the food here is expensive? • B: Not really. • A: Well, I think it’s expensive. • B: That’s because you // eat in restaurants. • A: Where do you eat? • B: I cook at home. • A: I didn’t know // that you could cook?! • B: Well, I can’t, so I just eat bread and cheese. • A: That’s so unhealthy! • B: Maybe, // but I like bread and cheese.

The Nucleus • Syllable where the tune begins to change (rise, fall) • Look at the « green » words (accent)

Exercises from the Web • Web Tutorials at University College of London • Focus

Chunking & Pausing • The power of silence …. • Signals « chunks » of meaning • Chunks = thought groups, meaning units • Chunks= words which go together to express one idea or thought • Pause + falling tune = end of a thought group in English

Where do we pause? • Before conjunctions & prepositions • Before relative clauses • Between grammatical units (subject, predicate) • At punctuation • UCL Web tutorials: Chunking

Try this …Insert the pauses • A: Who’s coming to the party tonight? • B: Tom. • A: Just Tom? • B: No, Tom and Matt. • A: No one else? • B: Well, Sue’s coming, too. • A: Alone? • B: No, with Anne. • A: So, that’s Tom and Matt and Sue and Anne. Is that it? • B: Oh, and Stella. On her own. • A: So, that’s Tom and Matt and Sue and Anne and Stella.

Answers: • A: Who’s coming to the party tonight? • B: Tom. • A: Just Tom? • B: No, // Tom and Matt. • A: No one else? • B: Well, // Sue’s coming, too. • A: Alone? • B: No,// with Anne. • A: So, // that’s Tom and Matt // and Sue and Anne. // Is that it? • B: Oh, // and Stella. // On her own. • A: So, // that’s Tom and Matt // and Sue and Anne // and Stella.

Try this one … • 1a)The man and the woman dressed in black came out of the cinema. • 1b) The man, and the woman dressed in black, came out of the cinema. • 2a) Alfred said, « The boss is stupid. » • 2b) « Alfred, » said the boss, « is stupid . » • 3a) If you finish, quickly leave the room. • 3b) If you finish quickly, leave the room.

1a)The man and the woman dressed in black // came out of the cinema. • 1b) The man,// and the woman dressed in black, // came out of the cinema. • 2a) Alfred said, // « The boss is stupid. » • 2b) « Alfred, » // said the boss, // « is stupid . » • 3a) If you finish, // quickly leave the room. • 3b) If you finish quickly,// leave the room.

What is it? Why do we use it? • Rise & fall in pitch • To express a range of meanings, emotions or situations • To add more meaning despite English’s fixed word order • Punctuation  pauses & pitch change

Expressing emotional range and contextual « importance » • French and other Romance languages: stress the end of a sentence, and then use word order to indicate an important change. • Other languages, such as Chinese (Cantonese), have a pitch change that indicates different vocabulary words, • and then superimpose further pitch change to change meaning or emotion.

Basic Tunes • French: predominantly  (rising) • English: predominantly  (falling) • Out of curiosity: Finnish? • English also uses: Fall-rise & rise-fall

Tunes on a single syllable • Yes, No • Speaker’s choice: vary pitch or not • How many different ways can you say them? How many different meanings can you communciate?

Université de Savoie UFR-LLSH LCE1 UE 103 Lecture: Phonetics & Phonology