LECTURES ON

ENGLISH PHONETICS AND

PHONOLOGY

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English phonemes chart

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Lecture 1: The introduction of phonetics and the productions
of speech sound: consonants and vowels.

1. What is Phonetics? Phonetics vs. Phonology.

1.1. What is Phonetics?

Phonetics is the linguistic science that studies speech sounds: the way in which
they are produced (uttered, articulated), the way in which they are perceived, their
physical characteristics, etc.
The process by which we use our linguistic knowledge to produce a meaningful
utterance is a very complicated one. It can be viewed as chain of events starting
with an “idea” or massage in the brain of the speaker and ending with a similar
message in the brain of the hearer. During the process of describing the speech
sounds occurring at any stage of this chain, Phonetics give answers to the
following questions:
- What sounds occur in human language?
- How these speech sounds are made?
- What physical properties do they have?
- In what way can speech sound be similar to or different from other speech
sounds?
1.2. Branches of Phonetics
1.2.1 Articulatory phonetics

Describing how sounds are made is the business of articulatory phonetics which
informs theories of speech production. It describes in detail how the speech
organs, also called vocal organs or articulators in the vocal tract are used in order
to produce, or articulate, speech sounds.

Articulatory phonetics is the most widespread type of phonetics taught,

underpinning both other types (acoustic and auditory), and is studied not only by
linguistics students but also by students of speech and language therapy, many
language students as well as some medical students, voice students, drama
students, and students of singing, to name but a few.

1.2.2 Acoustic Phonetics

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Acoustic phonetics studies the physical properties of speech sounds, i.e. the way
in which the air vibrates as sounds pass from speaker to listener. A spectrograph is
a machine that measures the sound- waves and depicts them as images, called
spectrograms or sonograms, showing the duration, frequency, intensity, and
quality of the sounds.

1.2.3. Auditory Phonetics:

Auditory Phonetics which is also considered a branch of physiology, is the study
of how speech signal is sensed in the auditory canal and interpreted by the relevant
parts of the brain? In other words, it deals with how speech sounds are perceived
by the listener.
1.3. What is Phonology
Phonology is the study or description of the distinctive sound units (phonemes) of
a language and their relationship to one another. It involves studying a language to
determine its distinctive sounds and to establish a set of rules that describe the set
of changes that take place in these sounds when they occur in different
relationships with other sounds. The subject of phonology includes the following
areas:
- Study of the phonemic system
- Phoneme sequences and syllable structure
- Supra-segmental phonology (stress, intonation).
Phonology can be divided into two branches: (1) segmental phonology and (2)
suprasegmental phonology. (1) Segmental phonology is based on the
segmentation of language into individual speech sounds provided by phonetics.
Unlike phonetics, however, segmental phonology is not interested in the
production, the physical properties, or the perception of these sounds, but in the
function and possible combinations of sounds within the sound system. (2)
Suprasegmental phonology, also called prosody, is concerned with those features
of pronunciation that cannot be segmented because they extend over more than
one segment, or sound. Such features include stress, rhythm, and intonation (also
called pitch contour or pitch movement).

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1.4 Received Pronunciation: An accent

A standard variety has a fixed grammar and vocabulary, but its pronunciation may
vary according to the regional origin, social group, or ethnicity of the speaker. We
use the term accent to refer to the way a variety is pronounced. It is quite possible,
then, that a standard variety is spoken in different accents. One of these accents
usually carries the most prestige, and is used as a model in the teaching of
pronunciation. The most prestigious accent of Standard British English, for
example, was first called Public School Pronunciation and renamed Received
Pronunciation, or simply RP, in the 1920s. There is no widely used term for the
most prestigious accent of General American, but it is sometimes referred to as
Network Standard or Network English.

Received Pronunciation is associated with the dialect spoken in the south-east of

England. The word received may seem awkward in this construction, but it is used
here in the sense 'generally accepted as proper'. RP was initially described by the
British phonetician Daniel Jones (1881-1967) in the first edition of his English
Pronouncing Dictionary in 1917. And although RP is probably the most discussed
accent around the world, it is important to note that it is a minority pronunciation
unlikely ever to have been used by more than 3 to 4 per cent of the British
population. Most educated speakers of British English speak a modified RP or
near RP.

In this book, we use RP, or near RP, as our model to illustrate English phonetics
and phonology. RP is also the accent used in practically all British dictionaries and
introductory textbooks.

2. The production of sounds.

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 Vocal tract articulators

Speech sounds are acoustic effects of the articulatory movements and positions of
the human speech organs. The immediate source of speech sounds is the human
speech mechanism developed and perfected in the process of the historical
development of man. The organs of speech are the object of linguistic
investigation mainly from the point of view of the functions they perform in
speech production. So before analyzing the linguistic function of phonetic units we
need to know how the speech mechanism acts in producing oral speech.
According to their main sound-producing functions the speech organs can be
roughly divided into the following four groups: the power mechanism (lungs,
diaphragm, windpipe, bronchi), the vibrator mechanism (larynx, vocal cords,
glottis), the resonator mechanism (nasal and mouth cavities) and the obstructer
mechanism (tongue, lips, hard and soft palate, teeth).
From the lungs through the wind-pipe the air-stream passes to the larynx,
containing the vocal cords. The opening between the vocal cords, through which
the air passes, is called the glottis. The linguistic function of the vocal cords
consists in providing the source of energy necessary for speech production. When

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the vocal cords are kept wide apart (i.e. the glottis is open) the air passes between
the cords and the result is non-phonic breath. Then the vocal cords may be drawn
together tightly, so that air cannot pass between them. The sudden opening of the
glottis produces an explosion resembling a short cough; this sound is called the
glottal stop. It often occurs in English when it reinforces or even replaces the
sounds [p], [t], [k] or even when it precedes the energetic articulation of vowel
sounds.
The most important role of the vocal cords is their participation in the production
of voice. The effect of voice is achieved when the vocal cords are brought loosely
together, creating an obstacle to the air stream; when the air pressure becomes
very strong the air forces its way between the vocal cords thus making the, vibrate.
When, as is usual, these vibrations are regular, they produce vocal tone, or voice,
whose pitch depends on the frequency of vibrations. We are able to vary the speed
of vibration of our vocal cords and thus to change the pitch. Conscious variations
of pitch are responsible for intonation. We are also able to modify the size of the
puff of the air which escapes at each vibration, thus changing the amplitude of the
vibration, which corresponds to the loudness of the sound heard by a listener.
The air-stream, having passed through the vocal cords, is now subject to further
modification, according to the shape of the pharynx, mouth and nasal cavities.
The direction in which the air-stream will follow from the pharynx depends on the
position of the soft palate. When it is lowered, the pharynx opens into the nasal
cavity. When it is risen, the air-stream comes to the mouth cavity. As in the mouth
cavity a lot of movable speech organs are situated it can easily change its shape,
thus forming the majority of speech sounds.
The movable (or active) speech organs, situated in the mouth cavity are: the
tongue, the soft palate with the uvula, the lips and the lower jaw. Of all the
movable organs within the mouth cavity the tongue is the most flexible and active.
For convenience, the surface of the tongue or divided into several parts: the most
flexible part of the tongue, which normally lies opposite the teeth ridge, is called
the blade, the tip of the tongue being its extreme point. The part of the tongue next
to the blade is called the front of the tongue. Then come the back and the root of
the tongue.
The tongue being the most active speech organ in the mouth cavity, the main
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principles of the majority of articulatory classifications of vowels are based on the
movements and positions of the tongue.
3. Classification of English speech sounds.

3.1. Voiced vs. voiceless sounds.

The air- stream from the lungs moves up through the trachea (windpipe) and
arrives first at the LARYNX. The larynx contains two small bands of elastic
tissue, which can be thought of as two flat strips of rubber, lying opposite to each
other across the air passage.
The inner edge of the vocal cords can be moved towards each other so that they
meet and completely cover the top of the windpipe, or they can be drawn apart so
that there is a gap between them (known as the glottis) through which the air can
pass freely: this is their usual position when we breathe quietly in and out.
When the vocal cords are brought together tightly, no air can pass through them
and if the lungs are pushing air from below, this air is compressed. If the vocal
cords are then opened suddenly the compressed air bursts out with sort of
coughing noise.
If the vocal cords are brought together quite gently, the air from the lungs will be
able to force them apart for a moment, but then they will fall back together into the
closed position; then the air will force them apart again, and they will close again
and so on. The rapid opening and closing of the vocal cords is a kind of vibration.
The sounds which are made with vibration of the vocal cords are voiced and there
is no vibration are voiceless.

3.2. Nasal vs. oral sounds.

Nasal articulation Oral articulation

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In the figure, you notice that the roof of the mouth is divided into the hard palate
and the soft palate or velum. The hard palate is the bonny structure at the front of
the mouth. You can feel the hard palate with your finger.
As you move your finger back you can feel the section of the palate where flesh
become softer and is moveable. This soft, moveable part is called the velum.
Hanging down from the end of the soft palate or velum, is he uvular which you
can see in the mirror if you open your mouth wide and say ahhhhhhhh.
The soft palate can be raised so that it makes a firm contact with the back wall of
the pharynx, and this stops the breath from going up into the nasal cavity and
forces it to go into the mouth only.
The sounds in whose making process, at the uvular the soft palate is raised,
blocking off the nasal tract, the air- stream can only go into the oral tract and go
out of the mouth are called “oral sounds”. E.g. /g/, /s/, /p/
In the process of making sounds, the air- stream is blocked somewhere in the oral
cavity but the soft palate is lowered so that the air- stream can get into the nasal
tract and get out through the nostrils, the we have nasal cavity. E.g. /m/, /n/, /ŋ/

3.3. Consonant vs. vowel.

When we are making sounds, if the two articulators come together, obstructing the
air- stream and the air- stream cannot get out freely, we have consonants sounds.
E.g. /k/, /f/, /b/
When we re making sounds if there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes
from the larynx to the lips and the air can get out freely, then we have vowel
sounds.
e.g. /a: /, /e/. /I/

3.4. Voices vs. voiceless sounds.

When we are producing sounds, the air- stream goes through the vocal cords, if the
vocal cords come together, obstructing the air- stream, the air- stream cannot get
out freely and it makes the vocal cords vibrate, then we have voiced sounds.
e.g. /d/, /v/, /m/
If the air- stream goes through the vocal cords and they come apart, they are open,
the air- stream can gout out through hem freely and it does not make them vibrate,
and we have voiceless sounds. e.g. /s/, /t/, /∫/.
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 Lecture 2: English consonants
As we know in the first lecture, consonant is defined as the sounds in the
production of which one articulator move towards another or two articulators
come together, obstructing the air- stream and the air- stream cannot get out freely.
In English there are 24 consonants.
In order to form consonants, the air- stream through the vocal cords must be
obstructed in some way. Therefore, consonants can be classified according to the
place where the air- stream is obstructed (the place of articulation) and the way in
which the air- stream is obstructed (manner of articulation)

1. Place of articulation.

The place of articulation is the location of the obstruction of the air- stream in the
articulation of consonants. Ii describe the point at which the articulators actually
touch or are at their closet. The most important for places for the production of
English consonants are listed in the table below
Note that the terms used to describe the sounds are those which denote the place of
articulation of the sounds.

Places Articulators Examples

Bilabial Upper- lips +lower lip /p, b, m, w/

Labio- dental Lower lip+ upper teeth /f, v/
Dental Teeth+ tongue /ð, θ/
Alveolar Alveolar ridge + tongue /t, d, s, z, l, n/
Retroflex Back of alveolar ridge _ /r/
tongue
Palato- alveolar Join of hard palate and /∫, 3, t∫, ʤ/
alveolar ridge + tongue
Palatal Hard palate + tongue /j/
Velar Soft palate + tongue /k, g, ŋ/
Glottal Vocal cords. /h/

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1.1. Bilabials:
Bilabials are consonants for which the flow of air is stopped or restricted by the
two lips, then released with a slight explosion. Bilabials may be voiced (vocal
cords vibrating during the articulation of the consonant) or voiceless (vocal cords
not vibrating during the articulation of the consonant). Here is a list of the bilabials
in Present-Day English.
1. /p/ (the phoneme spelled p in pat): voiceless bilabial stop.
2. /b/ (the phoneme spelled b in bat): voiced bilabial stop.
3. /m/ (the phoneme spelled m in mail): (voiced) bilabial nasal.
4. /w/ (the phoneme spelled w in wet): (voiced) bilabial semivowel

/p/ and /b/

1.2. Labio- dentals:

Labio- dental /f/, /v/
They are the sounds which are produced with the lower lip touching the upper
front teeth.
e.g. /f/, /v/

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1.3. Dentals

/θ/, /ð/
Dentals are sounds which are produced with the tip or blade of the tongue
touching the upper front teeth.
e.g. /θ/, /ð/
1.4. Alveolars

/s/, /z/ /n/

Alveolars are the sound made with the tip or blade of the tongue touching or
approaching the alveolar ridge.

1.5. Retroflex.
A retroflex is a consonant formed when the tongue rises toward the back of the
alveolar ridge and then retracts toward the back of the oral cavity. Present-Day
English has one retroflex, which is voiced. /r/ (the phoneme spelled r in root):
(voiced) alveolar retroflex.

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1.6. Palato- alveolar

Palato- alveolar
Palato- alveolar are the sounds which are produced with the tongue tip or blade
coming close to the area between the back of the alveolar ridge and the front of the
hard palate.
e.g. /∫/ , /3∫/, /t∫/, /

1.7. Palatal:

They are sound in the production of which the front of the tongue comes close to
the hard palate. /j/

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1.8. Velars.

/k/, /g/ /ŋ/

Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum)
against the soft palate (known also as the velum).

1.9. Glottals:
They are the sounds which are produced without the active use of the tongue and
other parts of the mouth.
e.g. /h/

2. Manner of articulation.

Another important feature for the description of speech sounds is the type or
degree o f closure of the speech organs involved. Thus the manner of articulation
refers mainly to the degree to which the air-stream is obstructed at the place of
articulation of consonants.

In other word, manner of articulation is the way in which the air- stream is
obstructed or altered in the production of speech sounds. It describes the type of
obstruction caused by the narrowing or closure of the articulation.

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 Movement of articulators Examples
Oral Complete closure

Nasal Complete closure in the

mouth, air escape through
nose
Fricative Narrowing, resulting in
audible friction
Affricate Closure, then slow
separation
Lateral Closure in the centre of
mouth, air escapes down
sides
Approximant Slight narrowing, not
enough to cause friction.

2.1. Stops
In stop consonants, the breath is completely stopped some point in the mouth, by
the lips or tongue- tip or tongue- back, and then released with a slight explosion.
There are four pairs of phonemes containing stops: /p, b/, /t, d/, /k, g/ and /t∫, ʤ/,
one of each pair is strong and the other weak.

2.2. Nasals.
There are three phonemes in English which are represented by nasal consonants,
/m, n, ŋ/. In all nasal consonants, the soft palate is lowered and at the same time
the mouth passage is blocked at some point, so that all the air is pushed out of the
nose.

2.3. Fricatives.
There are nine consonant phonemes whose main sounds all have friction as their
most important feature. They are /f, v, ð, θ, s, z, ∫, Ʒ, h/.In the production of these
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sounds, air escapes through a small passage and makes a hissing sound sometimes
called “friction”
Fricatives are continuant sounds, which means that you can continue making them
without interruption as long as you have enough air in your lungs.

2.4. Affricates.
The term “affricate” denotes a concept which is primarily of phonetic importance.
Any plosive, whose release stage is performed in such a way that considerable
friction occurs approximately at the point where the plosive stop is made, may be
called “affricate”. (We can say that an affricate begins as plosive but ends as
fricative.) The friction present in an affricate is of shorter duration than that which
characterizes the fricatives proper.

2.5. Lateral.
One English consonant /l/ is formed laterally, that is instead of the breath passing
down the centre of the mouth, and it passes round the sides of an obstruction set
up in the centre.

2.6. Approximant.
They are the sounds in the production of which two articulators come close
together but without the vocal cords being narrowed to such an extent that a
friction noise is produced.
Approximants are called frictionless continuants and they are also “gliding
sounds”. The latter name is because of their consisting of a quick, smooth, non-
friction glide towards a vowel sound.
/j/ is a quick glide from the position of the vowel /I; / or /i/ to any other vowel. We
usually transcribe the word “yes’’ as /jes/ but we might easily transcribe it /ie:s/ or
/ies/ on the understanding that /i:/ or /I / is very short and that we move smoothly
and quickly to the following /e/.
Similarly, /w/ consists of a quick glide from the vowel /u: / or /Ʊ/ to whatever
vowel follows.

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3. Voicing.

3.1. Voiced consonants vs Voiceless consonants

All sounds that are produced by an egressive pulmonic air-stream mechanism, and
therefore all English sounds, pass through the glottis, which we have defined as
the space between the vocal folds, located behind the Adam's apple in the voice
box, or larynx.

If the glottis is narrow, i.e. if the vocal folds are together, the air-stream forces its
way through and causes the vocal folds to vibrate. Sounds produced in this way
are called voiced. You can check whether a sound is voiced either by placing a
finger on either side of the larynx or by closing your ears with your fingers while
you speak. When you say the word zeal, for example, you should be able to sense
the vibration of the vocal folds for the entire time that you take to pronounce the
word because all three sounds are voiced.

If the glottis is open, i.e. if the vocal folds are apart, the air passes through without
causing the vocal folds to vibrate. Sounds produced in this way are called
voiceless When you use the two tests to check which sounds in the word seal are
voiced and which are voiceless, you will find that you do not sense any vibration
of the vocal folds on the first sound, and that the vibration sets in on the second
sound. This means that the first sound in seal is voiceless, and the other two are
voiced. When we whisper, we are making all speech sounds voiceless, even the
sounds in zeal and the final two in seal.

3.2. Fortis and lenis

A voiced/ voiceless consonant pair such as /s/ and /z/ are distinguished not only by
the presence or absence of voice but also by the degree of breath and muscular
effort involved in the articulation. It is generally said that those English
consonants which are usually voiced tend to be articulated with relatively weak
energy, whereas those which are always voiceless are relatively strong. Thus, the
voiceless consonants are sometimes called “fortis” meaning ‘strong’ and the
voiced consonants in opposition are then called ‘lenis’ meaning ‘weak’.

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Fortis consonants have the effect of shortening a preceding vowel. The effect is
most noticeable in the case of long vowels and diphthongs though it does also
affect short vowels.

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Lecture 3: Vowels.
Vowels are made by voiced air passing through different mouth- shapes; the
differences in the shape of the mouth are cause by different positions of the tongue
and of the lips. The quality of the sounds is determined by the particular
configuration of the vocal tract. Different parts of the tongue may be raised or
lowered. The lips may be spread or pursed. The passage, through which the air
travels, however is never so narrow as to obstruct free flow of the air- stream.
Thus, vowels have been traditionally classified according to the three questions:
1. How high is the tongue?
2. What part of the tongue is involved, that is, what part of the tongue is
raised? What part is lowered?
3. How long or short are the vowels?

Vowel space
Vowels are normally voiced.

1. Mono-thongs or single vowels.

Mono-thongs are simple or pure vowel sound in which the speech organs remain
in the same position throughout the duration of the vowel’s articulation (Oxford,
advanced learners’ encyclopedic dictionary, 1992.)
Vowels can be classified according to three variables:

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- Tongue height
- Part of the tongue which is raised
- Degree of lip rounding

English single vowels

1.1. According to tongue height

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1.1.1. High vowels: are those in the production of which the tongue is high in the
mouth. It is raised above its rest position. In other word, High vowels have the
tongue raised most towards the roof of the mouth

High vowels:

BE GA

kit ɪ ɪ
i: i:
fleece
ʊ ʊ
foot
u: u:
goose

1.1.2. Low vowels: Low vowels are those where the tongue is not raised at all, but
rather lowered from its resting position: when you produce a low vowel, you will
be able to feel your mouth opening and your jaw dropping

Low vowels:
BE GA

trap a æ
o
lot o
a: a:
palm

1.1.3. Mid vowels: there is a further class intermediate between high and low,
namely the mid vowels. These can if necessary be further sub-classified as high
mid (like the face and goat vowels) or low mid (like the dress, thought, strut
vowels) depending on whether they are nearer the high end of the scale, or nearer
the low end.

Mid vowels

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 BE GA

about ə ə

nurse ɜ: ɜr

strut ʌ ʌ

1.2. According to the part of the tongue raised.

1.2.1. Front vowels: Front vowels are produced with the front of the tongue raised
towards the hard palate (although not raised enough, remember, to obstruct the
airflow and cause local friction; vowels are approximants)

Front vowels:

BE GA

kit ɪ ɪ

dress e e

trap a æ

fleece i: i:

1.2.2. Back vowels: Conversely, back vowels have the back of the tongue raised,
towards the soft palate or velum.

BE GA

lot ɒ o

foot ʊ ʊ

palm a: a:

thought ɔ: ɔ:

goose u: u:

1.2.3. Central vowels; here is also a class of vowels between front and back: these

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are known as central vowels, and involve a raising of the body of the tongue
towards the area where the hard and soft palate join.

1.3. According to degree of lip rounding.

1.3.1. Rounded vowels: the corners of the lips are brought towards each other and
the lips are pushed forwards when making these sounds.
1.3.2. Unrounded vowels: those sounds are made with the lips spread. The corners
of the lips are moved away from each other as for a smile.
1.3.3. Neutral vowels: are those produced with the lips neither rounded nor spread.

1.4. According to the length of the sounds

Short vowels Long vowels

ɪ i:
ʌ ɑ:
ɒ ɔː
ʊ u:
ə 3:
e
æ

Long vowels tend to be longer than short vowels in similar contexts. The symbols
consist of one single vowel plus a length mark made of two dots. They are
different from short vowels not only in length but also in quality, resulting from
differences in tongue shapes and lips position.

2. Diphthongs

English also has 8 diphthongs, which are vowels that change character during their
pronunciation, that is, they begin at one place and move towards another place.
Compare for example the monophthong in car with the diphthong in cow, or the
monophthong in girl with the diphthong in goal. The vowels of cow and goal both
begin at a given place and glide towards another one. In goal the vowel begins as
if it was [ ∂], but then it moves towards [ʊ]. Therefore, it is written [∂ʊ], as in
[g∂ʊl] goal, with two symbols, one for how it starts and one for how it ends.

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 English diphthongs

In terms of length, diphthongs are like long vowels. The most important thing to
remember about all the diphthongs is that the first part is much longer and stronger
than the second part. As a result, the second part is shorter and quieter.
The number of diphthongs is eight and they are divided into three groups: the
closing group ending in /ɪ/, the closing group ending in /ʊ/; the centring group
ending in /ə/

2.1. Closing diphthongs

2.1.1. Ending in / ɪ /: eɪ, əɪ, ɔɪ

2.1.2. Ending in / ʊ /: əʊ, aʊ

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2.2. Centring diphthongs

3.Tripthongs.

A trip-thong is a glide from one vowel to another and then to the third, all
produced rapidly without interruption.
There are five diphthongs in English. They are composed of the five closing
diphthongs with /ə/ added at the end.
We have: aʊ̯ə, aɪ̯ ə, eɪ̯ ə, ɔɪ̯ ə, əʊ̯ə

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 Lecture 4: Phonemes
1. Phonemes.
Mark and Mary Brown are both doctors in the same hospital. One of them is a
physician, the other is a biologist. When an invitation addressed to Dr M. Brown
arrives , the secretary of the hospital wants to know which Dr Brown is invited.
She asks a colleague: “Who’s the physician?”. The answer is :”She is”. Hence it is
Mary who’s invited. Had the answer been “He is”, it would have been Mark. This
important information is conveyed by a single segment of the utterance. If we
transcribe the two possible answers in phonetic symbols, we get:

1) a. [ʃi: ɪz]
b. [hi: ɪz]
These two answers refer respectively to Mary and Mark

(2) a. [ʃi: ɪz] she is = Mary

b. [hi: ɪ z] he is = Mark


If we permute [ʃ] and [h] we change the meaning of the sentence and hence we
aren’t speaking about the same person. Consider the following sentence:

(3) [ðə kæt ɪz ɒn ðə mæt]

the cat is on the mat
If we change the first consonant of the noun cat and insert [ h] instead we get the
sentence

(4) [ðə hæt ɪz ɒn ðə mæt]

the hat is on the mat

which does not have the same meaning.

Again, if in (3) we substitute [b] for [k], we get

(5) [ðə bæt ɪz ɒn ðə mæt]

the bat is on the mat

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The three strings of sound [kæt], [hæt] and [bæt] differ only because of their initial
sound and thus are potentially three different words.

As in the case of Mark and Mary the substitution of one sound for another one
changes the meaning completely.

Now if we say:

(6) a. the cat is on the mat

b. the mat is on the cat

What is the difference in sounds?

What is the difference in meaning?

Obviously the set of sounds uttered in (6a) and (6b) is identical. So the difference
lies in the order in which these sounds appear: [k]and [m] permute in (6b). We see
that the order of appearance can alter meaning. In (6a) and (6b) the relationship
between the cat and the mat is inverted.

In our examples we produce a change in meaning through a substitution of

segments in a string of sounds. These segments are called phonemes.

Now imagine you’re in London and you want to go to Bond Street. You ask a
couple: “Excuse me, could you tell me where Bond Street is?”. They both answer
in chorus: “Second left and then right”, which can be transcribed as

(7) a. [sekənd left ən ðen raɪt]

b. [sekənd left ən ðen Raɪt]
Both have given you the same information although you perceive a difference in
the sounds used, that is, the woman has used [r], the regular English / r / sound,
whereas the man used the rolled lingual [R] instead. They are transcribed
phonetically respectively as

[raɪt] and [Raɪt]


This difference in the pronunciation, which allows you to deduce that the wife is

27
English and the husband Scottish, doesn’t entail a change in meaning.

The two segments [r] and [R] can be used indifferently since there is no change of
meaning: the difference between the two is said to be phonetic. This was not the
case for the substitution of [h] for [ʃ] in [ʃi: ɪz] - [hi: ɪz], which brings about a
change in meaning and is said to be phonological (or phonemic).

A phoneme is the smallest segment of sounds which can distinguish two words
and any smaller subdivision would be impossible.
There are 44 phonemes in English. They can be divided into two types: consonants
(24) and vowels (20). Each phoneme is meaningless in isolation. It becomes
meaningful only when it is combined with other phonemes.
Phonemes form a set of abstract unit that can be used for writing down a language
systematically and unambiguously because of the following reasons:
-different letters may represent a single sound, as shown in: to, too, two; or
through, threw, clue, shoe.
- a single letter may represent different sounds like in: dame, dad, father, call,
village, many or pin/ spin, kin/ skin, tick/ stick.
- A combination of letters may represent a single sound:
Shoot Thomas Physics
Character deal plain
Either rough nation
- Some letters have no sound at all in certain words in which they occur:
Mnemonic whole resign
Pterodactyl write hole
Psychology sword debt
- Some sounds are not represented in the spelling
Cute Futile Utility
- One letter may represent two sounds; the final x in Xerox

2. Minimal pairs.

Generally, when we wish to decide whether two segments belong to the same
phoneme or, on the contrary, are realizations of two different phonemes, we put
them in an identical context, that is the same string of sounds. When there is a

28
difference between two otherwise identical strings of sound and this difference
results in a change of meaning, these two strings are said to constitute a minimal
pair. Examples of minimal pairs were given in (1a) and (1b), and in (3), (4) and
(5) above.

If we substitute one segment for another and this results in a change in meaning
the two segments belong to two different phonemes. Thus [k] and [m] are
realizations of two different phonemes /k/ and /m/ because substituting one for the
other as first element of the string [-æt] gives two different words: /kæt/ (cat) and
/mæt/ (mat).

A first rule of thumb one can use to determine the phonemes of any language is to
see if substituting one sound for another result in a change of meaning. If it does,
the two sounds represent different phonemes. When two different forms are
identical in every way except for one sound segment that occurs in the same place
in the string, the two words are called minimal pairs.
Sink and zinc are minimal pairs, as fine and vine, and chunk and junk. Note that
seed [sɪd] and soup [sƱp] are not minimal pairs because they differ in two sounds,
the vowels and the final consonants.
3. Transcription
3.1. Phonetic transcription

If we want to write down speech sounds as accurately as possible, we cannot

depend on traditional spelling. We need a method that relates sounds to letters or
symbols more systematically: Each sound must be represented consistently by the
same symbol, and, conversely, there must be a separate symbol for each
distinctive sound. Such a one-to- one correspondence between speech and writing
is referred to as a phonographic relationship. The symbols that we use to represent
speech sounds in this manner are phonetic symbols. A whole set of them form a
phonetic alphabet. Marks that we can add to indicate slight alterations to the usual
value of a phonetic symbol are called diacritics. The term phonetic transcription
refers to the process of writing down spoken language in phonetic symbols as well
as to the resultant written text.

3.2. Phonemic transcription.

29
A transcription in the broadest sense, on the other hand, aims to represent abstract
speech sounds, i.e. idealized utterances conforming to a speech community's
shared knowledge of the sound system of a language. It does so with a moderate
degree of accuracy, showing only those articulatory details that can distinguish
meaning, i.e. only the distinctive features. This type of transcription is also called
broad transcription. Here, the transcriber does not write down what he hears, but
what he expects he would hear. It is best referred to as a phonological
transcription or phonemic transcription because it represents spoken language
at the level of phonology, through "phonetic" symbols that are taken to represent
phonemes, and are thus better regarded as phonemic symbols. The transcribed text
is therefore enclosed in slashes, //. Allophonic variation is ignored entirely, and the
only mark attached to phonemic symbols is the length mark (which is not regarded
as a diacritic in IPA terminology) after the symbols for the five long vowel
phonemes.

4. Allophones.

4.1. Allophones.

A phoneme can be realized differently in different phonetic environments. For

example we find that the realization of /t/ in the word “tea” is aspirated, whereas
the first /t/ in “eat two” is unaspirated. The aspirated and unaspirated realization is
both recognized as /t/ by English speakers despite their differences. These
different realizations of phonemes are called allophones.
In other words, allophones are the variants of phonemes that occur in speech
because the way a phoneme is pronounced is conditioned by the sounds around it
or by its position in the word. For example:
/t/: [th] tea [thi:]
[to] stay [st◌۪ eɪ]
[ t̠ ] get there
Usually when we indicate different allophones we write phonetic transcription
(narrow transcription). However, we normally just use symbols (phonemic
symbols) to represent phonemes. When we use phonemic symbol we say that we
are writing phonemic transcription (broad transcription). Normally, the phonetic

30
transcription is written in square brackets ([]) and the phonemic transcription
between the slanting lines (//)

4.2. Allophonic rules.

1. Voiceless stops (i.e., / p, t, k / are aspirated when they are syllable initial, as in
words such as “pip, test, kick” [ pʰɪp, tʰest, kʰɪk ].

voiceless when syllable initial

stop aspirated
/p. k. t/

E.g. piped [phIpot]

testy [thestI]
key [khi:]
2. Voiceless stops / p, t, k / are unaspirated after / s / in words

voiceless after /s/ at the beginning

stop of a syllable unaspirated
/p. k. t/

E.g. spew [spoju: ]

stay [stoei]
sky [skoai]
3. Obstruents ‒ stops and fricatives ‒ classified as voiced (that is, / b, d, g, v, ð, z,
ʒ /) are voiced through only a small part of the articulation when they occur at the
end of an utterance or before a voiceless sound.

31
 Obstruents = plosives + fricatives

when syllable- final

voiced devoiced
obstruents
Except when followed by a voiced
sound.

E.g. ‘try to improve ’ [ traɪ tuː ɪmˈpruːvo]

but ‘bad girl’ [bæd gɜːl]
4. Stops are unexploded when they occur before another stop in words

plosives before another stop

(stops) unexploded
/p, b, t, d, k,
g/

E.g. apt [æpºt]

act [ækºt ]

looked [lʊkºt]
5. The approximants / w, r, j, l / are at least partially voiceless when they occur
after initial / p, t, k /

after initial /p, k, t/

approximants devoiced
/r, w, j/ and
lateral /l/

E.g. twin [twoɪn]

queue [kjouː]
play [ploeɪ]
6. In many accents of English, syllable final / p, t, k / are accompanied by a
glottal stop, as in pronunciations of tip, pit, kick as [tɪˀp, pɪˀt, kɪˀk ]. (This is
another case where transcription cannot fully describe what is going on.)
32
 voiceless after vowel and at glottal
stops plosive +
/p. k. t/ voiceless
the end of syllable stops

7. Nasals are syllabic at the end of a word when immediately after an obstruent

at the end of a word and

nasal after obstruents syllabic
/n, m, ŋ/
/b, d, g, v, ð, 3, z/

E.g. garden [ˈgɑːdnı]

chasm [kæzmı]
but fill [fɪl ]
8. The lateral / l / is syllabic at the end of a word when immediately after a
consonant

at the end of word

lateral /l/ syllabic
and after another consonant

E.g. paddle [pædlı]

channel [ˈʧænlı ] but file [faɪl ]
9. Alveolar consonants become dentals before dental consonants. Note that this
statement applies to all alveolar consonants, not just stops, and it often applies
across word boundaries, as in at this [ æt̪ ðɪs ]. This is a statement that in English
the gestures for these two consonant overlap so much that the place of articulation
for the first consonant is changed.

33
 before dental /ð, θ/
alveolar /d, t, s, detalized
z, n, l/

E.g. sixth [sɪksθ]

wealth [wɛlθ] but well [wɛl]
10. Velar stops become more front before more front vowels.

before more front vowel

velar stops /k, more front
g/

E.g. cat vs get

cook vs good
11. The lateral / l / is velarized when after a vowel or before a consonant at the end
of a word

after vowel
velarised
lateral /l/
Or before a consonant at the end
of a word

E.g. well [weɫ]

dealt [deɫt]
12. Vowels are nasalized in syllables closed by a nasal consonant

before nasal /n. m, ŋ/

vowel nasalized

34
E.g. song [sɒ˜ŋ]
ban [bæ˜n]

35
 Lecture 5: Stress

1. Stress.

In English, we do not say each syllable with the same force or strength. In one
word, we accentuate ONE syllable. We say one syllable very loudly (big, strong,
important) and all the other syllables very quietly.

Stress is an extra force on a particular syllable or a particular word in spoken

language. The stressed syllable or word is said with greater energy and stands out
in a word, phrase or sentence.

There are two types of stress: Word stress and sentence one. In word level, stress
is an extra force put on a particular syllable of a word and it is usually fixed,
whereas stress of a sentence is an extra force put on a particular word in a
sentence. The sentence stress is not fixed. It depends on the speaker’s feelings and
attitudes and the message that he wants to convey to the listener.

2. Nature of stress.

We can study stress from the point of view of production and of perception; the
two obviously closely related, but are not identical.
From the production point of view, the production of stress is generally believed to
depend on the speaker using more muscular energy than is used for unstressed
syllables. Measuring muscular effort is difficult, but it seems possible, according
to experimental studies, that when we produce stressed syllables, the muscular that
we use to expel air from the lungs are more active, producing higher sub-glottal
pressure.
From the point of view of perception of stress, all stressed syllables have one
characteristic in common that is prominence; stressed syllables are recognized as
stressed because they are more prominent than unstressed syllables.
At least for factors makes stressed syllables prominent:

2.1. Loudness.
Most people seem to feel that stressed syllables are louder than unstressed
syllables; in other words, loudness is a component of prominence. In a sequence of

36
identical syllables, if one syllable is made louder than the others, it will be heard
as stressed.

2.2. Length
The length of syllables has an important part to play in prominence. If one of the
syllables is made longer than the others, there is quite a strong tendency for that
syllable to be heard as stress.

2.3. Pitch

Every syllable is said on some pitch; pitch is closely related to the frequency of
vibration of the vocal cords and to the musical notion of low- and high- pitched
notes.
It is essentially a perceptual characteristic of speech. If one syllable is said with a
pitch that is noticeable different from that of the others, this will have a strong
tendency to produce the effect of prominence. For example, if all syllables are said
with low pitch except for one said with high pitch, then the syllable will be heard
as stressed and the others as unstressed.

2.4. Vowel quality.

A syllable tends to be prominent if it contains a vowel that is different in quality
from neighboring vowels. If we change one of the vowels in our nonsense word
(e.g. balibaba) the odd syllable ‘bi’ will usually be heard as stressed.
Generally, these factors work together in combination, though syllables may
sometimes be made prominent by means only one or two of them.
There is no simple way of knowing which syllable or syllables in an English word
must be stressed, but every time you learn another word you must be sure to learn
how it is stressed: any good dictionary of English will give you this information. If
you stress the wrong syllable it spoiled the shape of the word for an English hearer
and he may have difficulty in recognized the word.
What sorts of words are stressed, then, and what sorts are unstressed.
First, all words of more than one syllable are stressed. In some circumstances,
English speakers do not stress such words, but it is always possible to stress them
and you should do so.

37
Next, words of one syllables are generally not stressed if they are purely
grammatical words like pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.), prepositions (to, for, at
from, by, etc.), articles (the, a, an) the first has /ə/.
But it is not true that /ə/ is the only vowel occurs in unstressed syllables; all the
others vowels can occur there too and /I/ is commonly found there, the remaining
vowels less commonly so.
Examples:
Plenty /’plentɪ/ window /’wɪndəu/
Thank you /’θæŋkju:/ maintain /meɪn’teɪn/
Translate /træns’leɪt/ garage /’gæra: 3/
Decide /dɪsaid/ åanything. /’enɪθɪŋ/
Syllables which are not stressed often contain the vowel /ə/ and this vowel only
occurs in unstressed syllables, never in stressed ones. For instance, in the word
contain /kən’teɪn/, the second syllable is stressed.
Other words are stressed, for example, full verbs (eat, love, take, try, etc.), nouns
(head, chair, book, pen, etc.), adjectives (good, blue, long, cold, etc.), adverbs
(well, just, quite, not, etc. ) and the like. In general, the words which give us the
picture or provide most of the information are stressed.
The prominence characteristics of stressed and unstressed syllables

(adapted from Roach 2009: 74)

Loudness Vowel length Vowel quality Pitch

Stressed Loud Long Strong High

syllables

Unstressed Quiet Short Weak Long

syllables

3. Level of stress.

In this section`, we will deal with `stress within the word. This means that we are
looking at words as they are isolation, which is rather artificial situation- we do
not normally says words in isolation. But looking at words in isolation does help
38
us to see stress placement and stress levels more clearly than studying them in the
context of continuous speech.
Normally, three levels of stress are distinguished, namely: Primary (tonic or
nuclear), secondary and unstressed.

3.1. Primary stress.

This is the strongest type of stress. In this level, the pitch moves from higher to
lower pitch. It is marked by a small vertical line high up just before the syllable it
relates to.
Example:
Around /ə’raund/
Disaster /dI’za:stə/

3.2. Secondary stress (non- tonic).

It is weaker than primary stress, but stronger than unstressed syllables. It is usually
found in word of four or five syllables. It is represented in transcription with low
mark. For example: photographic /,fəutə’græfɪk/
Anthropology /,ænθə’pɒləd3ɪ/
Economical /,i: kə’nɒmɪkl/
3.3. Unstressed.
Unstressed syllable can be regarded as being the absence of any recognizable
amount of prominence.

4. Stress placement

The placement of word stress in English can hardly be reduced to a set of strict
rules. Although some rules do exist, they tell us what is true most of the time, not
always. There is a large number of exceptions to almost any rule, so the following
sections should be regarded as descriptions of tendencies rather than absolute
rules.

Although English is a free stress language, it is possible to predict the stress

placement according to the following information as indicated in Roach (2009: 76)

For an analysis of stress it is needful to categorise the word morphologically ( to

say whether it is a simple or complex word containing one or more prefixes and
39
suffixes, or a compound word consisting of two independent English words),
according to the grammatical category (noun, adjective, verb, adverb, etc.),
number of syllables and phonological structure. The last aspect implies the
division of syllables between strong and weak ones. Strong syllables have either a
long vowel or diphthong, or a vowel followed by a coda (that is one or more
consonants after syllable peak). Weak syllables compared with strong ones tend to
have a shorter vowel of lower intensity, are different in quality, have a short vowel
without coda unless the syllable peak is the schwa vowel [ə] or less often [ı].
(Koštáková 2005:15) Only strong syllables can be stressed, weak syllables are
always unstressed.

4.1. Stress within words.

Simple word- stress.

If the word is monosyllabic, there is no choice of place for stress. If the word has
more than one syllable.

• Two syllable words.

- Verbs: the basic rule is that if the second syllable of the verb contains a
long vowel or diphthong, or it ends with more than one consonant, that second
syllable is stress. Thus:
Apply /ə’plaɪ/ arrive /ə‘raɪv/
Attract /ə’trækt/ assist /ə‘sɪst/
If the final syllable contains a short vowel and one (or no) final consonant, the first
syllable is stressed. Thus:
Enter /’entə / envy /’envɪ/
Open /‘əupən/ equal /’i:kwəl/
The final syllable is also unstressed if it contains əu (e.g. ‘follow’ /’fɒləu/).
two- syllable simple adjectives and other words such as adverbs and prepositions
seem to be stressed according to the same rules.
- Nouns.
Nouns require a different rule: If the second syllable contains a short vowel, the
stress will usually come on the first syllable. Otherwise it will be on the second
syllable.

40
 Money /’mʌnɪ/ estate /ɪ’steIt/
Product /’prɒdʌkt/ balloon /bə’lu:n/
• Three syllable words
Here we find a more complex picture.
- Verbs: if the last syllable contains a short vowel and ends with not more
than one consonant, that syllable will be unstressed, and stress will be placed on
the preceding syllable. Thus:
Encounter /ɪŋ’cautə/
Determine /dɪ’tз:mIn/
If the final syllable contains a long vowel or diphthong, or ends with more than
one consonant, that final syllable will be stressed. Thus:
Entertain /entə’teɪn/
Resurrect /rezə’rekt/
- Nouns: Requires different rules. Here, if the final syllable contains a short
vowel or əu, it is unstressed; if the syllable preceding this final syllable contains a
long vowel or diphthong, or if it ends with more than one consonant, that middle
syllable will be stressed.
Mimosa /mɪ’məuzə/
Potato /pə’teɪtəu/
Disaster /dɪ’za:stə/
Synopsis /sɪ’nɒpsɪs/
If the final syllable contain a short vowel and the middle syllable contains a short
vowel and ends with not more than one consonant, both final and middle syllables
are unstressed and the first syllable is stressed.
Quality /kwɒnlɪti/ emperor /’empərə/
Cinema /’sɪnəmə/ custody /’k^stədi/
If the final syllable contains a long vowel or a diphthong or it ends with
more than one consonant, the stress will be usually placed on the first syllable.
Paradise /’pær ədaɪs/
Architect /’a:kɪtekt/
Photograph /fəutəgra:f/
- Adjectives: seems to need the same rules as Nouns to produce stress pattern
such as:
41
 Opportune /ɒpə’tju:n/
Derelict /’der əlɪkt/
Insolent /’Inslənt/
The above rules do not cover all English words. They apply only to major
categories of lexical words (nouns, verbs and adjectives), not to function words
such as articles and prepositions. There is not enough space in this course to deal
with simple words of more than three syllables, nor with special cases of loan
words and exceptions of these rules. However, it seems better in many ways to
attempt to produce some stress rules (even if they are rather crude and inaccurate)
than to claim that there is no rule or regularity in English word stress.

Complex word
Complex words are of two types: words made from basic stem word with the
addition of an affix (derived words), and compound words, which are made of two
(or occasionally more) independent English words (e.g. ice- cream, armchair)

• In derived words.
Affixes are made of two sorts in English: prefixes and suffixes. Affixes will have
one of three possible effects on the word stress:
When certain suffixes are attached to the root, they leave the stress-pattern
unchanged. Such suffixes are called stress-neutral. The primary stress in the
complex word falls on the same syllable as in the root e.g. 'shy, 'shyness. Other
suffixes regularly attract the stress onto themselves and are therefore called stress-
attracting or autostressed (e.g. ‘pleasant’/’pleznt/, unpleasant /^n’pleznt/; market
/’ma:kɪt/, marketing /’ma:kɪtɪŋ/). Yet others have the effect of fixing the stress on a
particular syllable of the root. These suffixes are known as stress-fixing or pre-
stressed
Suffixes.
There are so many suffixes that it will only be possible here to examine a small
proportion of them; we will concentrate on those which are common and
productive (that is, are applied to a considerable number of stems and could be
applied to more to make a new English words.)
• Suffixes carrying primary stress themselves.
‘-ain’: entertain /’entəteɪn/
42
 ‘-ee’: refugee /refju’d3i:/
‘-eer’: mountaineer /mautɪ’nɪə/
‘-ese’: Portuguese /pO: t∫ə’gi:z/
‘--ette’: cigarette /sɪ’gret/
‘-esque’, ‘-ique’: picturesque /pɪkt∫ə’resk/, unique /ju:’ni:k/
• Suffixes that do not affect stress placement.
‘-able’: comfort /’k^mfət/, comfortable /’k^mftəbl/
‘-age’: anchor /’æŋkə/, anchorage /æŋkrId3/
‘-al’: refuse /rɪ’fju:z/, refusal /rɪ’fju:zl/
‘-en’: wide /’waɪd/, widen /’waɪdn/
‘-ful’: wonder /’w^ndə/, wonderful /’w^dəfl/
‘-ing’: amaze /ə’meɪz/, amazing /ə’meɪzɪŋ/
‘-ish’: devil /’devl/, devilish /’devlI∫/
(This is the rule for adjectives: verb with stems of more than one syllable always
have the stress on the syllable immediately preceding ‘ish’, eg, ‘replenish’
/rɪ’plenɪ∫/)
‘-like’: bird /bз:d /, birdlike /’bз:dlaɪk/
‘-less’: power /pauə/, powerless /’pau ələs/
‘-ly’: hurried /’h^rɪd/, hurriedly /’h^rIdli/
‘-ment’: punish /’p^nɪ∫/, punishment /’p^nɪ∫mənt/
‘-ness’: yellow /’jeləu/, yellowness /’jel əunəs/
‘-ous’: poison /’pɒɪzn/, poisonous /’pɒɪznəs/
‘-fy’: glory /’glo:ri/, glorify /’glo:rɪfaI/
‘-wise’: other /’^ðə/, otherwise /’^ðəwaɪz/
‘-y’(adjective or noun): fun /f^n/, funny /’f^ni/
• Suffixes that influence stress in the stem.
‘-eous’: advantageous //
• The suffixes ‘-ance’, ‘-ant’ and ‘-ary’

Prefixes.
We will only deal briefly with prefixes. Their effect on stress does not have the
comparative regularity, independence and predictability of suffixes and there is no
prefix on one or two syllables that always carries primary stress. Consequently, the

43
best treatment seems to be said that stress in words with prefixes is governed by
the same rules as those for words without prefixes.
• Compound words.
Compound words can be analyzed into two words, both of which can exists
independently as English words (Some compounds are made of more than two
words, but we will not consider these.) Compounds are written in different ways;
sometimes they are written as one word, e.g. ‘armchair’, ‘sunflower’, sometimes
with the words separated by a hyphen, e.g. gear- change, fruit- cake,; and
sometimes two words separated by space, e.g. desk lamp, battery charger. There is
no clear dividing line between two- word compounds and pairs of words that
simply happen to occur together quite frequently.
When dealing with compounds, the question often arises whether they are one
word or two. The answer should be that they are both one word and two. (Fudge
1984:134). Compounds are combinations of words that may occur independently
elsewhere, so in such case they are definitely two words, but at the same time, they
are combined in such a way that they form a single unit with a number of
characteristics that indicate rather clearly that they are one word. One of the
characteristics is that they have many of the accentual and rhythmic features of
single words. (Fudge 1984:134)
As far as stress is concerned, the question is quite simple. A simple rule can be
used though it is not completely reliable: If the first part of the compound is
adjectival, the stress goes on the second element, with a secondary stress on the
first. For example: ‘loudspeaker’, ‘bad- tempered’.
For example ‘greenhouse’ is derived from ‘green’ and ‘house’, but a green house
is not green and is not really a house. Other examples are ‘gentlemen’ ‘bluebell’,
‘background’, ‘broadcast’- all of these are of the form “adj + N”
If however, the first element is (in broad sense) a noun, the stress goes on the first
element. For example ‘typewriter’ /’taɪpraɪtə/, suitcase /sju:keɪs/, ‘car- ferry’,
‘sunrise’, ‘tea- cup’.
4.2. Sentence stress
Some words in connected speech are made to stand out from their environment in
the same way as certain syllables of a polysyllabic word are more prominent than
their neighbours. The position of the stress is determined largely by the meaning
44
which the utterance is intended to convey. (Plavka 2003:38) In other words,
sentence stress simply indicates which words in the sentence are crucial and which
are less significant.
The basic fact is that certain classes of words are normally stressed in a sentence,
while other classes are not stressed. To put it concisely, words that carry lexical
meaning (the so-called content words) are normally stressed, and carriers of
grammatical meaning (the so-called function words) are usually unstressed.
(Reszkiewicz 1981:112)
The first group consists of: nouns, adjectives, numerals, adverbs, verbs (except
auxiliaries) in all forms, negative forms, interrogative pronouns and question
words, demonstrative pronouns, possessive pronouns, emphatic pronouns,
indefinite pronouns (with the exception of any, some), and interjections. Articles,
personal pronouns, possessive adjectives, auxiliary verbs, prepositions,
conjunctions, relative and reflexive pronouns belong to the latter group.
(Reszkiewicz 1981:112)
The following deviations from this fundamental rule are to be noted:
A. Omission of stress (lexical words unstressed)
Friederich in his English Pronunciation states following tendencies:
1. Emphasis and contrast
If special attention has to be called to a particular word, the preceding and the
following words lose their stress. Despite loss of stress, such words still preserve
full pronunciation.
I 'never 'told you 'that 'story. X I 'never told 'you that 'story.
2. Repetition
If a word in a sentence (or in a reply) is repeated, it is not stressed the second time.
This is a 'pen. It is a 'red ,pen.
3. Inversion
When the verb takes the position before the subject of the sentence, it is usually
unstressed.
After a 'storm comes a 'calm.
4. ‘What’ and ‘Such’ in exclamations
In exclamations and emphatic assertions, it is not ‘what’ and ‘such’ which are
stressed but the word which follows them.
45
 What a 'beautiful 'picture!
Other tendencies can be found in Plavka`s Aspects of English Pronunciation:
5. Adverbs of degree, especially ‘about, so, enough, such’ often lose their stress.
It is about a 'mile from here. And so 'on and so 'forth. I have 'got enough
'money. I have 'never 'heard such 'nonsense in 'all my 'life.
6. Pronominal adverbs
Pronominal adverbs such as ‘there, then, so, yet’ are usually unstressed when they
stand at the end of the utterance:
'What did you 'see then? Do you 'think so? Is he 'up yet?
B. Insertion of stress (grammatical words stressed)
“Such classes of function words as prepositions and relative pronouns, normally
unstressed, may receive stress under favourable conditions, i.e. when preceded or
followed only by unstressed words” (Reszkiewicz 1981:133).
This can be seen on prepositions from the following examples:
We 'live round the 'corner. We were 'round the 'corner.
It`s 'on the 'desk. 'Put the 'book on the 'desk.
She`s 'with her 'sister. She`s 'working with her 'sister.
According to Reszkiewicz, polysyllabic prepositions are stressed even more often.
He 'left the 'room with'out a 'word. He a'ppeared from be'hind the 'wall.
Plavka describes mainly auxiliary and modal verbs stressed for specific purposes,
e.g. in imperative sentences ('Don`t 'do it!), when followed by n`t ( It 'wasn`t
'very ex'pensive.), when the lexical verb is suppressed ('Yes, I 'have.), when in
final position in a sentence ( I 'asked him how he 'was.) or for the sake of
emphasis ( I 'do believe you.)
For more details, consult Aspects of English pronunciation by Rudolf Plavka.
5. Word class pairs.
In English, there are several dozens pairs of two syllable words with identical
spelling which differ from each other n stress placement, apparently according to
word class (noun, verb or adjective). We shall treat them as special type of word
and give them the following rule: The stress will be placed on the second syllable
if the word is a Verb, but on the first syllable of the Noun or Adjective.
Examples:

46
 Noun Verb
Abstract /’æstrækt/ Abstract /’æstrækt/
Conduct /’kɒnd^kt/ Conduct /kən’d^kt/
Contrast /’k ɒntra:st/ Contrast /kən’tra:st/
Desert /’dez ət/ Desert /dɪ’zз:t/

5. Weak forms and strong forms.

5.1 Content Words and Function Words

Stress operates at the word level and at the sentence level. In natural connected
speech, however, not all words are stressed. Traditionally, the main meaningful
words (those that carry the main semantic content) are stressed, while the other
words that convey minor information in sentences are not stressed. The
meaningful words, i.e. those that have an independent meaning and refer to a
thing, an event, a property, etc. are called content words, and they include nouns,
verbs, adjectives and adverbs. As opposed to content words are function words
that have no or very little lexical meaning and are usually not stressed. They
convey only grammatical information and express various grammatical relations.
Depending on whether they are stressed or unstressed, the function words have
several pronunciations. There are approximately 50 function words in English,
including auxiliary verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, particles, etc.

5.2. Strong form and weak form.

In English, there are certain function words that can be pronounced in two
different ways, which are called strong forms and weak forms. As an example, the
word ‘that’ can be pronounced /ðæt/ (strong form) in ‘I like that’ or /ðət/ (weak
form) in ‘I hope that she will.’.
It is possible to use only strong forms in speaking, and some foreigners do this.
Usually, they can still be understood by other speakers of English, so why is it
important to learn how weak forms are used?
Most native speakers of English find “all- strong- form” pronunciation unnatural
and foreign sounding, something that most learners would wish to avoid.

47
More importantly, speakers who are not familiar with the use of weak forms are
likely to have difficulty understanding speakers who do use weak forms. Since
practically all native speakers of English use them, learners of the language need
to learn about these weak forms to help them understand what they hear.
Almost all the words which have both a strong and weak form belong to a
category that may be called grammatical words such as auxiliary verbs,
prepositions, conjunctions.
It is very important to remember that there are certain contexts in which only the
strong form is acceptable and others where the weak form pronunciation is the
normal:
When the word occurs at the end of a sentence:
What are you looking at?
Where are you form?
But ‘I’m from Vietnam’
When a weak form word is being contrasted with another word
The letter is from him, not to him.
He likes her, but does she like him?
*A similar case is that we might call a coordinated use of prepositions.
I travel to and from London a lot
A work of and on literature.
When a weak form word is given stress for the purpose of emphasis.
You must love me
I have to go
When a weak form word is being cited or quoted
You should put ‘and’ at the end of a sentence.

48
Lecture 6: Aspects of connected speech.

1. Rhythm.

In general rhythm involves some event happening at regular intervals of time.

Properties of speech rhythm are common with and conditioned by our biological
rhythms, such as heartbeat and breathing. Speech rhythm is traditionally defined
as recurrence of stressed syllables at more or less equal intervals of time in speech.
English as well as Russian, German, Arabic and other languages is considered to
be a stress-timed language. It means that stressed syllables tend to occur at
relatively regular intervals irrespectively of the number of unstressed syllables
separating them. Though the amount of time given on each syllable varies, the
total time of uttering each rhythmical unit is practically unchanged.
An example is given below:
1 2 3
Walk | down | the path | to the
4 5
end | of the ca nal

In this sentence, the stressed syllables are given numbers: syllable 1 and 2 are not
separated by any unstressed syllables, 2 and 3 are separated by one unstressed
syllable, 3 and 4 by two and 4 and 5 by three.
French, Spanish, Japanese and some other languages have syllable-timed rhythm.
In these languages all syllables, whether stressed or unstressed, tend to occur at
regular time-intervals and the time between stressed syllables will be shorter or
longer depending on the number of unstressed syllables separating them.
The basic rhythmic unit in both groups of languages is a speech segment which
contains a stressed syllable and a number of unstressed ones. The most frequent
type of an English rhythmic group includes 2-4 syllables, one of which is stressed.
The division into rhythmic groups greatly depends on the language group. In most
Germanic languages (English, German, Danish, etc.) the enclitic tendency
prevails: in a stress group unstressed syllables are grouped with a preceding

49
stressed syllable, so the rhythmic group starts with a stressed syllable and includes
all following unstressed syllables up to (but not including) the following stressed
syllable:
ˈTake me to the ┊ˈ seaside re┊ˈsort|
In slow formal speech the semantic tendency may prevail. The unstressed syllables
are drawn to the stressed syllable of the same word or the lexical unit according to
their semantic connection:
ˈTake me┊ to the ˈ seaside ┊reˈsort|
In Roman languages (French, Italian, Spanish, etc.) the proclitic tendency is more
obvious: unstressed syllables are grouped with a following stressed syllable.
It has long been believed that the basic rhythmic unit is a rhythmic group, a
speech segment which contains a stressed syllable with preceding or/and following
unstressed syllables attached to it. Another point of view is that a rhythmic group
is one or more words closely connected by sense and grammar, but containing
only strongly stressed syllable and being pronounced in one breath, e.g. ↘Thank

you→ The stressed syllable is the prosodic nucleus of the rhythmic group. The
initial unstressed syllables preceding the nucleus are called proclitics, those
following the nucleus are called enclitics, e.g.:

The 'doctor 'says it’s not quite ↘serious = 1 intonation group [4 rhythmic groups]

ðə 'dɔktə 'sez its 'nɔt kwait ↘siə.ri. əs

1st rhythmic group 2nd rhythmic 3rd rhythmic group 4th rhythmic group
proclitics group proclitics proclitics proclitics

In qualifying the unstressed syllables located between the stressed ones there are
two main alternative views among the phoneticians. According to the so-called
semantic viewpoint the unstressed syllables tend to be drawn towards the stressed
syllable of the same word or to the lexical unit according to their semantic
connection, concord with other words, e.g.

50
Negro Harlem | became | the largest | colony | of coloured people.

According to the other viewpoint the unstressed syllables in between the stressed
ones tend to join the preceding stressed syllable. It is the so-called enclitic
tendency. Then the above-mentioned phrase will be divided into rhythmical
groups as follows, e.g.

Negro Harlem | became the | largest | colony of | coloured people.

The rhythm-unit break is often indeterminate. It may well be said that the speech
tempo and style often regulate the division into rhythmic groups. The enclitic
tendency is more typical for informal speech whereas the semantic tendency
prevails in accurate, more explicit speech.

2. Assimilation.

Assimilation is the process which takes place when one sound adapts itself to
become similar to a neighboring sound in one ore more aspects. In other words,
assimilation is the influence of one phoneme upon another neighboring phoneme,
so that they become more alike.
Assimilation is something which varies in extent according to speaking rate and
style; it is more likely to be found in rapid, casual speech and less likely in low,
careful speech.
Considering a case where two words are combined, the first of which ends with a
single final consonant (which we call Cf) and the second of which starts with a
single initial consonant (which we call Ci); we can construct a diagram like this:
----------Cf│Ci-----------
Word
Boundary
If Cf changes to become like Ci in some way, the assimilation are called
regressive (the phoneme that comes first is affected by the one that comes after it);
if Ci changes to become like Cf in some way, the assimilation is called
progressive. We have seen that the main differences between consonants are of
three types:
• Differences in place of articulation

51
• Differences in manner of articulation
• Differences in voicing.
Direction of change


Phoneme 1 Phoneme 2
Progressive

Regressive


Regressive assimilation: the sounds assimilated are influenced by the succeeding

sounds

/nju:z/ news → /nju:speipə/ (newspaper)

/gu:s/ (goose) → /gu:zbəri/ (gooseberry)

/faiv/ (five) → /faifpəns/ (five pence)

/hæv/ (have) → /hæf tu/ (have to)

/ju:zd/ (used) → /ju:st tu/ (used to)

Regressive assimilation can also be found in some words like:

describe → description

receive → reception, receipt

twelve → twelfth


five → fifth, fifteen, fifty

Progressive assimilation: the sounds assimilated are affected by the

pronunciation of the preceding sounds. This is often see n in the inflectional
endings -s and –ed. If preceded by a voiced sound, they become voiced; if
preceded by a voiceless one, they become voiceless. For example:

52
 Voiceless Voiced

Plural: students /-s/; books /-s/ girls /-z/; pictures /-z/

Possessive: students’ books /-s/ girls’ pictures /-z/

rd He writes /-s/; She reads /-z/;

3 person singular:
He speaks /-s/ She plays /-z/

Pas Past tense and past worked /-t/; laughed /t/ learned /-d/; played
participle: /d/

2.1. Assimilation of place of articulation.

The most common phonemic changes at word boundaries concern changes
of place of articulation, particularly involving de-alveolarization. A well-known
case is that of English word-final alveolar consonants such as /t, d, n/: if a word
ending in one of these consonants is followed by a word whose initial consonant
begins with a bilabial, a velar or a dental, the word-final alveolar consonant is
likely to change its place of articulation to match that at the beginning of the
second word. Thus the word ‘that’ /ðat/ may be followed by ‘boy’ /bɔɪ/ and
become /ðap/, or it may be followed by ‘girl’ and become /ðak/, namely:

53
 Bilabial
/m, p, m, w/ Dental /ð, θ/ Velar /k, g/

/p/
 /t̻ / /k/

/t/
that person [ðæp pз:sən] that thing
 [ðæt θɪŋ] that case [ðæk keɪs]

/b/
 /d̻ / /g/

/d/
good boy [ g ʊ b b ɔ ɪ̯ ] bad thing [bæd θɪŋ] bad cold [bæg kəƱld]

/m/ n̻ / ŋ/
/n/
gone past [gɒm pα:st] main thing [meɪnθɪŋ] one cup [wʌŋ kʌp]

Another change of place of articulation involves the change of alveolar fricatives

/s, z/ into postalveolar fricatives. Any sequence of two words where the first ends
with /s, z/ and the second begins with /ʃ/ or /j/, that /s/ becomes /ʃ/, and /z/
becomes /ʒ/. Thus this shoe /ðɪs ʃuː/ becomes /ðɪʃ ʃuː/; those years /ðəʊz jɪəz/
becomes /ðəʊʒ jɪəz/. (Roach, 2000: 140)

/ʃ/ /j/

/s/ /ʃ/: nice shoe [naɪʃ ʃu:] /ʃ/ this year [ðɪʃ jɪə]

/z/ /Ʒ/: those shop[ðəƷ ʃɒp] /Ʒ/: where’s yours [weəƷ jɔ:z]

/t/ /ʧ/: want you [wɒnʧu]

/d/ /ʤ/: did you [dɪʤu]

Assimilation of place is noticeable in the regressive assimilation of alveolar

consonants. Progressive assimilation is relatively uncommon. It may occur when a
plosive is followed by a syllabic nasal and the nasal undergoes assimilation to the
54
same place of articulation as the preceding plosive,

e.g. /n/ → /m/ after /p, b/, happen, urban /hæpm, ɜːbm/; and

/n/ → /ŋ/ after /k, g/ in second chance, organ, bacon as /sekŋ tʃɑːns, ɔːgŋ,
beɪkŋ/ (Cruttenden, 2001: 286)

Regressive assimilation is commonly seen in some prefixes, such as in- (before /t,
d, s, n/), im- (before /p, b, m/); il- (before /l/); ir- (before /r/).

For example: in- → indirect, insane,
im- → impolite, imbalance, immoral il- →

illegal
ir- → irregular

2.2. Assimilation of manner of articulation.

Assimilation of manner is typical of the most rapid and casual speech, in which
case one sound changes the manner of its articulation to become similar in manner
to a neighboring sound. An example can be a rapid pronunciation of “Get some of
that soup”, where instead of the expected /get sʌm əv ðat suːp/ an English speaker
says /ges sʌm v ðas suːp/, with /s/ replacing /t/ in two words. It is thus possible to
find cases where a final plosive becomes a fricative or nasal (e.g. ‘good night’
/gʊn naɪt/), but most unlikely that a final fricative or nasal would become a plosive
(Roach, 2000: 140).

/s/ /z/ /n/

/t/ /s/ /z/ /n/

that side that zoo that night
[ðæssaɪd] [ðæzzu:] [ðænnaɪt]

/d/ /s/ /z/ /n/

good song bad zone good night
[gƱssɒŋ]/ [bæzzəƱn] [gƱnnaɪt]

2.3. Assimilation of voicing

This may refer to assimilation involving the feature [+/-] voice. In a certain

55
environment we can consequently observe the voicing or devoicing of a segment.
If we examine the pronunciation of the voiced labiodental fricative in the sequence
give books /gɪv bʊks/, and we compare it with the sequence give peace /gɪf piːs/.
We will easily notice that while in the first case /v/ is fully voiced, in the second it
is rather pronounced as some kind of /f/. However, word boundary final voiceless
consonants in English do not show tendencies to assimilate to their voiced
counterparts; thus the pronunciation of nice boy /naɪz bɔɪ/ will sound foreign to
English ears (Cruttenden, 2001: 284).

E.g. Have to [hæftu:]

Bad tongue [bættʌŋ]

Big car [bɪkkɑ:]

3. Elision.

The nature of elision may be stated quite simply: under certain circumstances
sounds disappear. In other words, in certain circumstances a phoneme may be
realized as zero or have zero realization or be deleted. As with assimilation, elision
is typical of rapid, casual speech. Producing elision is something which foreign
learners do not need to learn to do, but it is important for them to be aware that
when native speakers of English talk to each other, quite a number of phonemes
that foreigners might expect to hear are not actually pronounced. Following are
some types of elision:

3.1. Vowel elision.

• Weak vowel /ə/ disappears before syllabic consonants /n/, l, r/

canal [ņæl/]
correct [krekt]
connect [knekt]
• Weak vowel /ə/ disappear when following aspirated stops /p, k, t/
today [thdeɪ]
potatoes [phteɪtəƱ]

56
3.2. Consonant elision.

• The loss of middle stops in

o STOP + STOP + STOP
looked back [lƱktobækt]
stopped killing [stɒptokɪlɪŋ]
o STOP + STOP + FRICATIVE
acts [æktos]
scripts [skrɪptos]
o FRICATIVE + STOP + FRICATIVE
desks [deskos]
guests [gestos]
crisps [krɪspos]
• The loss of /t/ in final clusters /-ft/ and /-st/ when followed by a STAO/
NASAL/ FRICATIVE
left door [lefdɔ:] last time [lɑ:staɪm]
left knee [lefni:] last man [lɑ:smæn]
left shoe [lefʃu:] last song /lɑ:ssɒŋ/

• The loss of /d/ in final clusters /-nd/ and /-md/ when followed by LENIS
STOP/ NASAL.
kind nurse [kaɪnnɜ:s] skimmed milk [skɪmmɪlk]
canned bacon [kænbeɪkn] seemed good [si:mgƱd]

• The loss of final /v/ in OF + CONSONANT.

lots of them [lɒtsəðəm]
waste of money [weɪsəmʌni]

4. Linking (liaison)
4.1. Liaison
Different authors use the term liaison [ or 'link'] in different ways, but all agree
that it refers to a transition or link between sounds or words. More narrowly,
liaison has been defined as a link between words through the articulation of a
normally unarticulated word-final consonant, which is articulated only when
57
preceded by a vowel in the same word, and followed by an initial vowel in the
next word. In other words, liaison here refers to a process whereby a word that
ends in a vowel when pronounced in isolation acquires a final consonant when
followed by a word beginning with a vowel

Linking r and intrusive r: Two cases of liaison

Linking r refers to a link between words through the articulation of a normally

unarticulated word-final /r/, which is articulated only when preceded by a vowel in
the same word, and followed by an initial vowel in the next word. In the words
jar, four, and czar, for example, the r-sounds suggested by the spelling are not
normally pronounced, so that the words usually end in vowels: [fa:], [fo:], [za:].
The r-sounds are pronounced only when followed by words beginning with a
vowel, as in the sequences far away [fa:r ə wei], four eggs [fɔ:r egz], and czar of
Russia [za:r əv rʌ ∫∂]. As the transcriptions show, a symbol representing a linking
r usually appears in normal size and position, contrary to the common transcription
practice for other linking sounds.

We speak of a linking r only when the r-sound in question occurs in the
spelling in the form of the letter 'r'. Yet many English speakers use an r-sound in
a similar way even when that sound does not occur in the spelling in the form of
the letter 'r'. Such an r-sound is called an intrusive r. Some speakers and teachers
still regard this as incorrect or sub- standard pronunciation, but it is undoubtedly
widespread.

Another case of this phenomenon is the linking of final consonant and initial
vowel. It states that if a final consonant precedes the following word which begins
with a vowel, the word- final consonant acts as the initial in the following word.
E.g. not at all /nɒt ət ɔ:l/
In English, when a word ending in /i: ɪ, aɪ, eɪ, ɔɪ/ is followed by a word beginning
with a vowel, there is a slight link /j/ between two vowels. It is called intrusive j
E.g. my ears /maɪjɪəz/
my years /maɪjɪəz/
A similar case is with linking /w/, the intrusive /w/. When a word ending in /u: , Ʊ,
əƱ, aƱ/ is followed by a word beginning with a vowel.
58
go in /gəwƱɪ/
two others /tu: w ʌðəz/

59
 Lecture 7: Tones

1. Tone and tone languages.

Take two common one- syllable utterance ‘yes’ and ‘no’ as an example for this
part.
The first thing to notice is that we have choice of saying these with different level
of pitch. We can say these with the pitch remaining at a constant level or with the
pitch changing from one level to another. The word we use for the overall
behavior of the pitch in these examples is tone.
A one-syllable word can be said with either a level tone or a moving tone. If you
try saying ‘yes’ ‘no’ with a level tone you may find the result does not sound
natural, and indeed English speakers do not use level tones on one- syllable
utterance very frequently.
Moving tones are more common. If English speakers want to say ‘yes’ ’no’ in a
definite, final manner they will probably use a falling tone- one which descends
from a higher to a lower pitch. If they want to say ‘Yes’ ‘No’ in questioning
manner, they may say it with a rising tone - a movement from a lower pitch to a
higher one. And it will be often necessary to use symbols to represent tones, and
for this we will use marks placed before the syllable in the following way:
Level: _yes _ no
Falling: \ Yes \ No
Rising: /Yes /No
Although in English we do on occasions say _ yes or _ no, no speaker of English
would say that the meaning of the words ‘yes’ and ‘no’ was different with the
different tones. But there are many languages in which the tone can determine the
meaning of a word, and changing from one tone to another can completely change
the meaning. For example, if you say ba with a high pitch in Nupe (a language
spoken in Nigeria), it will mean ‘to be sour’, whereas if you say ba with a low
pitch, it will mean ‘to count’. Languages that use the pitch of individual syllables
to contrast meanings are called tone languages. Languages that use pitch
syntactically (for example, to change a sentence from a statement to a question) or

60
which the changing pitch of a whole sentence is otherwise important to the
meaning are called intonation languages.
In English other complex tones are also used. One that is quite frequently used is
the fall- rise tone, where the pitch descends and then rises again; another complex
tone, much less frequently used, is the rise- fall in which the pitch follows the
opposite movement.

TONES

Simple tones Complex tones

Fall- Rise-
Level tone Moving Rise fall
(_) tones (V) tone
(ʌ)

Falling Rising
tone (\) tone (/)

2. Some functions of English tones.

In this part only a very small part of English intonation has been introduced. We
will now see if it is possible to state in what circumstances the different tones are
used within the very limited context of the words ‘yes’ and ‘no’ sad in isolation.

2.1. The level tone.

This tone is certainly used in English, but in rather restricted context. It almost
always conveys a feeling of saying something routine, uninteresting or boring. A
teacher’s calling the names, and the pupils would be likely to response with _yes
when their name was called.

61
Similarly, if one is being asked a series of routine questions as a series like “Have
you ever been in prison?” “Do you suffer from any serious illness?” “Is your
eyesight defective?”, etc. _ No

2.2. The falling tone.

This tone is usually regarded as more or less ‘neutral’. If someone is asked and
replies ‘\yes or ‘\no’ it will be understood that the question is now answered that
that there is nothing more to be said. The fall could be said to give an impression
of ‘finality’.
• How many dogs have you got? \Two
• What was the weather like? \Wet
• Have you finished/ \Yes

2.3. The rising tone.

In a variety of ways, this tone conveys an impression that something more is to
follow or an invitation to continue. Look at the following example:
A: excuse me.
B: /Yes (This reply is equivalent to ‘what do you want?’)
A: Do you know John Smith?
If B replies with a rising tone /yes, B invites A to continue with what she intends
to say about John Smith after establishing that B knows him. We can see similar
‘invitation to continue’ in someone’s response to a series of instructions or
directions. For example:
A: you start off the erring road…
B: /Yes
A: turn left at the first roundabout…
B: /Yes
A: and ours is the third house on the left.
With ‘no’, a similar function can be seen:
A: Have you seen Ann?
If B replies \No, he implies quite clearly that he has no interest in continuing with
that topic of the conversation, but a reply of /No would be an invitation to A to
explain why she is looking for Ann, or why she does not know where she is.

62
Similarly, someone may ask a question that implies readiness to present some new
information. For example:
A: Do you know what the longest balloon flight was?
If b replies / No he was inviting A to tell him, while a response of \No could be
taken to mean that he does not know and is not expecting to be told. This is, in
fact, a common cause of misunderstanding in English conversation, when a
question such as A’s above might be a request for information or an offer to
provide some.

2.4. The fall- rise.

The fall- rise is used a lot in English and has some special functions. One simple
one is to convey ‘limited agreement’ or a ‘response with reservations’ as
communicated in the following conversation:
A: it’s not really an expensive record, is it?
B: ʌYes.
The fall - rise used in this context would be taken to mean that B would not
completely agree with what A said, and A would probably expect B to go on to
explain why he was reluctant to agree.
Fall- rise in such contexts almost always indicates both something ‘given’ or
‘conceded’ and at the same time some ‘reservation’ or ‘hesitation’.
Some other examples:
Isn’t he handsome?
ʌYes (but he is not very manly)
She looks very beautiful.
ʌYes (Thanks to her make- up)
It is not very difficult, isn’t it?
ʌNo (but remember that I’m just a beginner).

2.5. The rise- fall.

This is used to convey rather strong feelings of approval, disapproval or surprise.
It is not usually considered to be a important tone for foreign learners to acquire,
though it is still useful practice to learn to distinguish it from other tones. Here are
some examples:

63
 A: You wouldn’t do an awful thing like that, would you?
B: ʌ No
A: Isn’t the view lovely!
B : ʌYes.

3. Tone unit.

Some of the world’s languages are ‘tone languages’, in which substituting one
distinctive tone for another on a particular word or morpheme can cause a change
in the lexical meaning that word or morpheme, or in some aspect of grammatical
categorization. English is not one of the languages that do not use tone in this way
though tones or pitch differences are used for other purposes; such languages are
called intonation languages.
In tone languages the main supra-segmental contrastive unit is the tone, which is
usually linked to the phonological unit that we call the syllable. Thus someone
who analyzes tones in tone languages would mainly look at each syllable as an
independently variable item.
In the last part five tones found on English one- syllable utterances were
introduced, and if English was spoken in isolated monosyllables, the job of the
tonal analysis would be rather similar one to that described for tone languages.
However, when we look at continuous speech in English utterances we find that
these tones can only be identified on a small number of particularly prominent
syllables. For the purpose of analyzing intonation, a unit generally greater in size
than the syllable is needed, and this unit is called tone- unit.
In the smallest form of the tone- unit, it consists of only one syllable.
E.g.
James?
Four?
Now consider the three syllable utterance:
Is it /you?
The third syllable is more prominent than the other two and carries a rising tone.
The other two syllables will normally be much less prominent, and be said on a
level pitch.

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So, we can say that “Is it you” is an utterance of three syllables, consisting of one
tone unit. The only syllable that carries a tone is ‘you’.
From the above example, the syllable that carries a tone will be called a tonic
syllable
3.1. The structure of the tone- unit.
Tone unit

Head Pre- head Tonic syllable Tail

As you can see from the chart, tone unit has a fairy clear internal structure. Each
simple tone unit has one and only one tonic syllable; this means that the tonic
syllable is an obligatory component of the tone unit. We will now see what the
other components may be:

3.2 The tonic syllable (the nucleus)

But how do we decide where the nucleus should go?

3.2.1. On the stressed syllable

First, we know that the nucleus must go on a stressed syllable. By ‘stressed

syllable’ we mean the syllable that has lexical stress. Lexical stress is part of the
basic pattern of a word’s pronunciation, as shown in dictionaries.

To make a word the nucleus of an IP, we put a nuclear tone on (or starting on) its
lexically stressed syllable. To produce an English intonation pattern correctly it is
essential, therefore, to know which syllable in each word bears the stress.

To accent the word never we accent the first syllable. For the word annoyed we
65
accent the last syllable. For tomorrow it is the second syllable. To accent the
word fine, we accent its only syllable.

Have you been to Canada? Never.


How did he look? Annoyed.

When’s the test?
 Tomorrow.

How are you feeling? Fine.

What was the trip like Indescribable.

These IPs could be said with any tone – fall, rise, or fall–rise. The location of the
nucleus (the tonicity) is a separate choice from the choice of nuclear tone:

To\ morrow. To /morrow. To∨morrow.

In each case the syllable -mor- is the nucleus and bears a nuclear tone. Where the
choice of tone is irrelevant, it is equally valid to write just Tomorrow.

3.2.2. On or near the last word.

The nucleus is usually located on or near the last word of the intonation phrase.
By definition, the nuclear accent is the last accent in the IP. So clearly the general
tendency is for the nucleus to be towards the end of the IP. Provided that the last
word in an IP is important for the meaning, it will be accented and thus bear the
nucleus:

I want to buy a lemon.


The bridge is about to collapse.

She’s just started a new relationship.

Could you tell me the time?

It is only if the words towards the end of the IP are for some reason not accented

66
that the nucleus will go on an earlier word.

Initials, names of letters and numerals are treated like separate words. In a string
of several letters or numerals, the nucleus generally goes on the last one:

In the e'xam | she got a 'C.


My 'room number is 50'6. (= five oh six)

'Switch over to IT'V. (= eye tee vee)

3.2.3. Content words and function words.

Words can be divided into two broad categories, content words and function
words.

Content words are nouns, adjectives, most verbs and most adverbs- words that
have meanings that can be defined in a dictionary and probably have straight-
forward translation equivalents in other languages. For example: table, head,
remember, yellow, suddenly.

Function words, on the other hand, are pronouns, prepositions, articles, auxiliary
verbs, modal verbs- words whose meaning may need to be explained in a grammar
rather than a dictionary, and which may not have exact equivalents in other
languages. For example: me, at, the, are, would.

Generally speaking, we accent content words but not function words. Hence the
nucleus (which is one kind of accent) is typically placed on the last content word
in the IP:

I 'can’t 'hear you.

I’m 'very an'noyed with her.

'Ask her what that 'noise is.

In particular, the nucleus does not usually go on a personal pronoun, a

preposition, an auxiliary verb or a modal verb. These words bear the nucleus only
if special circumstances apply. If an IP ends with a personal pronoun or a

67
preposition, the nucleus normally goes earlier.

personal pronouns: I, me, you, he, him, she, her, it, we, us, they, them, one

prepositions, such as at, by, from, of, to, with, about, etc.


auxiliary verbs: be, have, do and their forms am, was


So – to decide where it is appropriate for the nucleus to go, start at the end of the
IP. Work back towards the beginning, ignoring any function word. Unless special
circumstances apply, the nucleus should probably go on the first content word
you encounter as you move backwards. 


3.2.4. Compound
When identifying the ‘last content word’ we have to bear in mind the existence of
compounds. Most compounds in English are single-stressed, that is, the main
lexical stress goes on the first element. (Alternative terms for ‘single-stressed’ are
‘front-stressed ‘and ‘early-stressed’.)

'bedtime, 'grassland, 'wheelbarrow, 'newsgroup, 'keyboard, 'highlight

If a compound is to bear the nucleus, then – just as with simple words – the accent
is located on the lexically stressed syllable:

It’s 'well past your 'bedtime.


'Put the grass in the 'wheelbarrow.

'Don’t look at the 'keyboard!

'Where’s your 'grandmother?

'Here’s another 'highlight.

Many English compounds are written as two separate words, even though the
main stress is still on the first element of the compound. These are called open
compounds (or two-word compounds). (Example: library book, credit card, bus

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ticket, running shoe, slag heap, high school) . It does not matter whether a single-
stressed compound is written as one word, or hyphenated, or as two words. As far
as intonation is concerned, it makes no difference: all single-stressed compounds
behave as if they were single words. If we place the nucleus on one, it goes on the
stressed syllable of the first element:

Is 'that my 'library book? 


I’ve 'lost my 'credit cards. 


They were 'playing 'video games.

I 'need some new running shoes.

Are you 'still at high school?


At 'ten we have a physics class. 


Compounds can be nested: that is, one of the elements of the compound may itself
consist of more than one element. If the outer compound is single-stressed, the
nucleus will still go on the first element:

'credit card bill = bill for using a credit card, [ [ credit card] bill] 


To refine our tonicity rule so as to allow for compounds, we need to change ‘on
the last content word’ to an expression covering both simple words and compound
words. Accordingly, from here on we shall refer to lexical items rather than to
content words. A ‘lexical item’ is either a single word or a compound. Unless
there is some reason for it to go elsewhere, the nucleus goes on the last lexical
item in the IP. 


3.2.5. Double- stressed compound

Confusingly, some English compounds are double-stressed (also called ‘late-

stressed’ or ‘end-stressed’). Their main lexical stress is on their second element.
They are usually shown in dictionaries with a secondary stress mark followed by a
primary stress mark:


69
 ,Christmas 'Eve, ,Town 'Hall, ,gold r'ing, ,ham 'sandwich.

However, the lexical stress pattern of a double-stressed compound is just like that
of a phrase. Both the lexically stressed syllables are accentable.

If a double-stressed compound bears the nuclear tone, the nucleus goes on the
second element. But the first element may also be accented, e.g. as the onset:

It was 'Christmas 'Eve.


There are some 'ham 'sandwiches.

In order to locate the nucleus correctly it is important to identify which

compounds are, exceptionally, double-stressed. Here are some guidelines. The
following types of compound tend to be double-stressed:

o Proper names of people : ,James Mc'Gregor, De,nise 'Harris

o Proper names of roads and public places: Vic,toria 'Road, Oxford 'Avenue
(except those ending in street: 'Oxford Street)

o Names of institutions such as hotels and schools : ,Jury’s 'Inn, the

,Marlborough Ho'tel, ,Goldsmith’s 'College, ,Bailey’s 'Restaurant, the ,Festival
'Hall (but high school, secondary school, Pizza Hut)

o Compounds in which the first element names the place or time : ,Town
'Hall, ,kitchen 'window, ,summer va'cation, ,evening 'meal
(but 'Boxing Day,
'Christmas ,present, 'Christmas card, 'birthday card; compare ,Christmas ,Eve,
,Christmas 'Day,,Christmas 'pudding)

o Compounds in which the first element names the material or ingredient:

,leather j'acket, ,cheese 'sandwich, ,pork 'chop (except those ending in juice or
cake: 'orange juice, 'carrot cake)

3.2.6. Old and new information

In English, the location of the nucleus is strongly affected by whether the words in
the utterance contain old or new information. The general rule is that we accent

70
new information, but not old information. That is, we deaccent (= remove
potential accents from) old information.

If all the information in the utterance is new, then we can accent all the lexical
items. So the nucleus is placed (as expected) on the last lexical item:

Yes madam? I’d 'like a 'gin and 'tonic.


As long as the last lexical item contains new information, that lexical item is
accented, and thus bears the nucleus. However, if the last lexical item contains old
information (= something already mentioned), then it is not accented. Rather, it is
deaccented. So the nucleus goes earlier, namely on the last item that does contain
new information:

How about a gin and tonic? Oh I’d pre'fer a 'vodka and tonic.

In this example, tonic has already been mentioned, and is therefore old infor-
mation. As a result, it gets deaccented. Thus the place of the nucleus normally
signals the end of the new information in an intonation phrase.

We generally avoid placing a nucleus on an item which repeats something that has
been said earlier: we do not accent a repeated item (a ‘given’ item, old
information). So we say, for example:

D’you object to dogs? No I a'dore dogs.


Who doesn’t want to dance? Bill doesn’t want to dance.

3.2.7. Synonyms

Old information is not necessarily a matter of repeated words. We can also repeat
old information using synonyms, in which we express with different words a
concept already mentioned. Such synonyms, too, are usually deaccented

Shall we wash the clothes? Oh I hate doing the laundry.

Shall we walk there? Yes I like going on foot.

To do the laundry has the same meaning as wash the clothes. To go on foot is the
71
same as to walk.

If a word or phrase is a hypernym of a word or phrase already mentioned (= has a

broader meaning), then it counts as given, and the nucleus goes elsewhere. We
usually do not say:

(?) ma'laria | and other tropical di'seases

but rather:

ma'laria | and o'ther tropical diseases

This is because the idea of ‘tropical disease’ was already present in the word
malaria, just mentioned.

D’you like whist? Oh I like most card games.

Card games is a hypernym of whist.
But if a word or phrase is a hyponym of a

word or phrase already mentioned (= has a narrower meaning), then it counts as
new. In consequence, it is accented and attracts the nucleus:

D’you like ball games? Well I’m quite fond of ∨football.

Here, football is one of various ball games. But by mentioning it explicitly the
speaker adds new information, making the notion more specific: not basketball or
baseball, but football.

New information merits accenting. This principle applies even in many cases
where the ‘new’ information may be highly predictable:

What’s the time? It’s five o’ clock.


The semantic content of the word o’clock is so small that we could omit it without
any loss of meaning (It’s five.). Yet, if present, o’clock receives the nucleus.

How long did the concert last? Three hours.

What’s the price? Fifty dollars.

It may be obvious from the context that the concert could not have lasted three
72
minutes or three days. It may be clear that the price could not be fifty cents or fifty
euros. Yet the nucleus still goes on hours and dollars respectively.

3.2.8. Prospective and implied giveness.

It is not only repeated words that tend not to be accented, but also words that are
about to be repeated. Compare (ii) with the unmarked pattern in (i):

(i) a red triangle | and a blue square. 


(ii) a red triangle | and a blue triangle. 


In (ii) the word triangle is deaccented on each occasion: the second time because it
is a repeated word, and the first time because it is going to be repeated.

Accentuation and tonicity depend on the speaker’s mental planning. The tonicity
in (ii) implies that this sequence of two IPs was planned as a complete unit in
advance. If, on the other hand, the speaker utters the first IP while he has still not
yet planned the second IP, then for the same words we get an alternative pattern,
(iii):

(iii) a red triangle | . . . oh and a blue triangle.


If these words were uttered as a single IP rather than being spread over two, we
would still have the difference between (i) and (ii):

(i) a red triangle and a blue square. 


(ii) a red triangle and a blue triangle. 


Here is another example. A taxi-driver was picking up two passengers who had a
lot of luggage. The driver loaded most of the cases into the boot (trunk) of the car,
but could not find room for the last one. So he finally placed it on the back seat.
One passenger said to the other:

We’ve solved ∨that problem.

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The placement of the nucleus on that, leaving problem to go in the tail, can be
interpreted as implying that life is a succession of problems. The speaker treats the
notion of problem as given

In this way the speaker can use nucleus placement to indicate what part of the
information is to be taken as old, given, mutually agreed, and what part can be
taken as new, fresh, additional. The speaker’s decisions may not always agree with
objective reality. This can be used for comic effect:

The ∨Queen | said how de lighted she was | to be in Scunthorpe, ∥ and

then the Duke made a joke.

With deaccenting made a joke, the speaker implies that the Queen, too, was joking
when she said how delighted she was to be in Scunthorpe. The further implicature
is that Scunthorpe is agreed to be such a dull place that no one could truthfully
claim to be delighted at being there. Compare the following, with neutral tonicity,
where there is no such implicature:

The ∨Queen | said how de lighted she was | to be in Scunthorpe, ∥ and

then the Duke made a joke.

3.3 The head (H)

The head is all that part of the tone unit that extends from the first stressed
syllables up to but no including the tonic syllables. It follows that if there is no
stressed syllable before the tonic syllable, there cannot be a head.
Consider the following example:
Give me \those.
If those is the word that conveys the most important information in the utterance,
it is the tonic syllable. And, of course, the head will be ‘Give me’.
However, in the case of 'In an \hour', neither of the two first syllables preceding
the tonic syllable is stressed. The syllable, so this tonic unit does not have a head.

3.4. Pre- head.

The pre- head is composed of all the unstressed syllables in a tone unit preceding
the first stressed syllable. Thus, pre- head are found in two environments:

74
 • When there is no head, like in ‘in an \hour’
• When there is a head. ‘In a little less then an \hour.’
In this example, the pre-head consists of ‘in a’, the head consists of ‘little less than
an ’and the tonic syllable is ‘hour’.

3.5. The tail.

Any syllables between the tonic syllable and the end of the tone unit are called the
tail
\LookI| at this
TS Tail
\What | did you say?
TS Tail

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 Lecture 8: Intonation.

1. What is intonation?

Intonation is the melody of speech. In studying intonation, we study how the pitch
of the voice rises and falls, and how speakers use this pitch variation to convey
linguistic and pragmatic meaning. Its also involves the study of the rhythm of
speech and the study of how the interplay of accented, stressed and unstressed
syllables functions as a framework onto which the intonation patterns are attached.
If we had no intonation, our speech would be- in the literal sense of the word-
monotonous. Either it would all remain on one pitch throughout, or every
utterance would employ exactly the same stereotyped tune at all times. But
speakers do neither of those things; they make the pitch of their voice rise, fall,
jump and swoop in all sorts of different ways. Even the most boring speaker has
access to a considerable repertoire of tunes (intonation patterns)- though maybe
some speakers are better than others at exploiting this. Lively speakers typically
make good use of the wild repertoire of possible intonation patterns that English
offers.
Intonation is different among languages and you must learn the shapes of the
English tunes, the meanings of the English tunes, too because they are important.

2. Tune shapes.

The shape of a tune is decided partly by the number of important words in the
group, and partly by the exact attitude you wish to express.
What do we mean ‘important word’? These are the words which carry most of the
meaning in a word group. For example, supposed that in the answer to the
question: ‘how was John?’ you say ‘He was in an appallingly bad temper’. The
first four words are no especially helpful to the meaning because they do not give
the new information to the listener, but the last three words are important, each of
them adds quite a lot to the picture you are giving of John. Let’s see how it may be
said.
Case 1: the question is ‘How was John? ’

76
This diagram shows the approximate height of the voice on each syllable. The first
five syllables have low pitch, then there is a jump to the stressed syllable of
appallingly and the next two syllables are on the same rather high pitch, then bad
is a little lower and temper glides downwards from the stressed to the unstressed
syllables.
Notice that there are three changes of pitch connected with three stressed syllables.
This shows that these words are important. An important word always has a
stressed syllables and usually has a change of pitch connected to it.
Case 2: The question is ‘Was John in a good temper?’

In this case, temper occurs in the question so that in the answer it is not especially
important, it does not add anything to the picture, it gives little information.
There are two changes of pitch, connected with the stressed syllables of
appallingly and bad, so these two words are marked important, but temper is not
although it still has the first syllable stressed, and there is no change of pitch
shows that the speaker is not treating it as important.
Case 3: The question is ‘Was John in a bad temper?’

Both bad and temper are not important in the answer because both are already in
the questioner’s mind. They are still stressed but they have no change of pitch.
77
You should remember that stressed words may not be important, though important
words must be stressed. Any word may be important if the situation makes it
important.

3. Functions of intonation.

Intonation is a powerful means of human intercommunication. One of the aims of

communication is the exchange of information between people. The meaning of an
English utterance derives not only from the grammatical structure, the lexical
composition and the sound pattern. It also derives from variations of intonation or
its prosodic parameters. We can see that intonation makes it easier for a listener to
understand what a speaker is trying to convey. The ways in which intonation does
this are very complex, and there exist various points of view on the number and
aims of intonation functions in a language.
P. Roach, for example, singles out the following intonation functions:

• Attitudinal function
• Accentual function
• Grammatical function
• Discourse function.

3.1. The attitudinal function.

Intonation enables us to express emotions and attitudes as we speak, and this adds
a special kind of ‘meaning’ to spoken language. This is often called the attitudinal
function of intonation.
For example, with the phrase ‘thank you’ you may say in two ways. In the first,
the voice starts high and ends low, and this shows real gratitude. In the second, the
voice starts low and ends high and this shows a rather casual acknowledgment of
something not very important. A bus collector will say thank you in this second
way when he collects your money and this is quite reasonable since he does not
feel great gratitude. But if an English friend invites you to spend a weekend at his
home and you reply with the second thank you instead of the first your friend will
be offended because you do not sound really grateful.
3.2. The accentual function

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The term ‘accentual’ is derived from ‘accent’ which has been used by some
writers to mean stress.
Intonation helps to produce the effect of prominence on syllables that need to be
perceived as stressed, and in particular the placing of the tonic stress on a
particular syllable marks out the word to which it belongs as the most important in
the tone- unit. This has been called the accentual function of intonation.
The location of the tonic syllable is of considerable linguistic importance. The
most common position for this is on the last lexical word (e.g. noun, adjective,
verb, adverb) of the tone unit. For contrastive purpose, however, any word may
become the tonic syllable. In the following pairs of examples, (a) represents
normal placement and (b) contrastive:
a) I want to know where he is traveling to
b) I don’t want to know where he is traveling from (I want to know
where he is traveling to)
Similarly, for the purpose of emphasis we may place the tonic stress in other
positions; in this example, (a) is non- emphatic and (b) is emphatic.
a) It was very \boring
b) It was \very boring.
In this example, the stress is logical
a) I’m ˈgoing to ˈleave soon| (normal)
b) I’m ˈgoing to leave soon| (contrastive, meaning I’m going not to stay)
c) I am going to leave soon| (emphatic)
The position of the nucleus can also differentiate the actual meaning of the
sentences, as in the example:
a) I have ˈplans to leave| (=I’m planning to leave)
b) I have plans to leave| (=I have some plans that I have to leave)
By putting the stress on one particular word, the speaker shows that he is treating
the word as the carrier of new information, and that the information of the other
words is not new and can be easily understood from the situation.
3.3. The grammatical function
Intonation serves to mark boundaries between phrases, clauses or sentences to
indicate the grammatical subordination and to show the difference between
questions, statements, commands, etc., so this function is called grammatical. The
79
placement of the intonation-group boundary is important for differentiating the
meaning of some ambiguous sentences, as in the example:
Those who sold ┊ˌquickly ˌmade a profit|
ˈThose who ˈsold quickly ┊ˌmade a profit|
The difference caused by the placement of the tone- unit boundary is seen to be
equivalent to giving two different paraphrases of the sentences, as in :
a) A profit was made by those who sold quickly
b) A profit was quickly made by those who sold
The intonation-group boundary can occur not only between words, but other
grammatical units such as phrases and clauses, thus showing what is subordinate
to what, as in the example:
The boys ┊ who weren’t punished ┊ were happy|
The boys who weren’t punished ┊ were happy| (only some boys)
Some skilful speakers use this ability of intonation as a special rhetorical device to
attract the listeners’ attention or to hold the floor a bit longer.
The choice of nuclear tones also has grammatical significance, as it makes clear
whether the person is telling something, asking or commanding. Basic tones are
generally associated with certain communicative types of sentences. The falling
tone is most common in statements, special questions, commands and
exclamations. The rising tone is characteristic of non-final parts of statements,
general questions, requests and warnings. The grammatical function here seems to
overlap with the pragmatic function and depends on the speaker’s pragmatic aim.
The choice of the nuclear tone can turn the command into a polite request:
ˈClose the door ┊will you|
ˈClose the door ┊will you|
a question into an exclamation:
Isn’t she beautiful|
ˈIsn’t she beautiful|
an apology into a request to repeat:
I’m sorry|
I’m sorry|
a statement into a question (mostly in colloquial speech):

80
 You did it|
You did it|
3.4. The discourse function
Looking at the act of speaking in a broader way, we can see that intonation can
signal to the listener what is to be taken as ‘new’ information and what is already
“given” can suggest when the speaker is indicating some sort of contrast or link
with material in another tone- unit and, in conversation, can convey to the listener
what kind of response is expected. Such functions are examples of intonation’s
discourse function.
Consider the following examples:
A: Have you got any free time this morning?
B: I might have later on if that meeting’s off.
A: They were talking about putting it latter.
B: You can’t be sure.
Each sentence could be studied in isolation and analyzed in terms of grammatical
construction, lexical content and so on. But it is obvious that the sentences form
part of some larger act of conversational interaction between two speakers: Then
sentences contain several references that presuppose shares knowledge (e.g. ‘that
meeting’ implies that both speakers know which meeting is being spoken about)
and in some cases the meaning of a sentence can only be correctly interpreted in
the light of knowledge of what has preceded it in the conversation (e.g. ‘You can’t
be sure’)

In fact, intonation may be related to discourse in two ways. First, it is used to

focus the listener’s attention on the most important information. Second, it
regulates conversational behavior. In the case of ‘attention focusing’, the most
obvious use is the placing of tonic stress on the appropriate syllable of one
particular word in the tone unit. In many cases it is easy to demonstrate that the
tonic stress is placed on the word that is ‘most important’ as in:
She went to \Scotland.
but sometimes it seems more appropriate to describe tonic stress placement in
terms of ‘information content’: the more predictable a word’s occurrence is in

81
given context, the lower is information content is. The tonic stress will tend to be
placed on words with high information content.
The intonation can assist in focusing attention in two ways. The tone chosen can
indicate whether the tone- unit in which it occurs is being used to present new
information or to refer to information which is felt to be already possessed by
speaker and hearer. For example, in the sentence Since the Vlast time we met| when
we had that huge Vdinner|, I’ve been on a \diet|, the first two tone- unit present
information which is relevant to what the speaker is saying, but which is not
something new and unknown to the listener. The final tone- unit, however, does
present new information. Writers on discourse intonation have proposed that the
falling tone indicates new information while rising (including falling- rising) tones
indicate ‘shared’ or ‘given’ information.
Another use of intonation connected with the focusing of attention is intonational
subordination. We can signal that a particular tone- unit is of comparatively low
importance and as a result give correspondingly greater importance to adjacent
tone- unit. For example:
a) As I expect you’ve heard|, they’re only admitting emergency cases|.
b) The Japanese for| some reasons or other| drive on the left like us|
The first tone- unit of (a) and the second and the fourth tone- unit of (b) might be
treated as intonationally subordinate with the pitch being lowered, speech
increased, voice lowered, etc.
As a result, the subordinate tone- units are less easy to hear. Native speakers
usually still understand what is said by guessing at inaudible or unrecognizable
words on the basis of their knowledge of what the speaker is talking about.
Foreigners, on the other hand, often find that these subordinate tone- units cause
serious difficulties in understanding.

We now turn to the second main area of intonational discourse function, the
regulation of conversational behavior. It can be seen that speakers use various
prosodic components to indicate to others that they have finished speaking, a
particular response is required or what they are actually doing in speaking:
questioning challenging, advising, encouraging, disapproving, etc.

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In conclusion, it seems clear that studying intonation in relation to discourse
makes it possible to explain much more comprehensively the uses that speakers
make of intonation. Practically all the separate function traditionally attributed to
intonation (attitudinal, accentual and grammatical) could be seen as different
aspects of discourse function.

4. The basic English tunes.

In this section, the term ‘tune’ is used to mean ‘tone’ that has been used in chapter
seven. English intonation is determined by the shapes of the English tunes and
they may be quite different from the normal tunes of your own language. In
English, different tunes are used to convey different meanings. According to
O’Connor (1977) there are four basic tunes in English, namely the falling tune
(the glide down), the first rising tune (the glide up), the second rising tune (the
take off), and the falling- rising tune (the dive)
4.1. The falling tune (the glide down)

4.1.1. How the voice falls?

In the shortest word- group, where we use jus one important word, the falling tune
consists of a fall in the voice from a fairly high pitch to a very low one. The fall is
on the stresses syllable or from the stressed syllable to a following one.

Notice:
a) On a single syllable, the voice falls within the syllable
b) On more than one syllable, the voice either falls within the stressed syllable
or it jumps down from that syllable to the next.
c) Unstressed syllable at the end are all very low.
If there are other words following the fall, they may still have stress but they are
still said on that very low pitch, just like unstressed syllables.

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When there is more than one important word in the group, the last one has the fall
but the others are treated differently:
a) The stressed syllable of the first important word is high and any unstressed
syllables following it are on the same pitch.
b) The unstressed syllable of the second important word is a little lower and
any unstressed syllables following it are on the same pitch
c) The fall starts at the same pitch as the syllable just before it.

Notes:
If there are any unstressed syllables before the stressed syllable of the first
important word, these are said on a rather low pitch.

Also, any stressed syllable near the beginning which belongs to a word which is
not important is said on that same rather low pitch.

4.1.2. Symbols.
We have a way of showing the Glide Down which is simpler and quicker than the
dots and lines used up to now.
Before the stressed syllable where the voice falls we put (\). Notice that no other
mark is needed to show the very low unstressed syllables at the end- any
unstressed syllables after the fall are always low.
\Two \No

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 Before the stressed syllable of each other important word, we put (ˡ). Each of these
marks shows a step, beginning with a high one and gradually coming lower until
the fall is reached.
ˡHow can I ˡpossibly ˡpay him ˡtwo ˡhundred \pounds.
Unstressed syllables at the beginning have no mark before them.
I was \glad
I was ˡvery \glad
If there is a low- pitched stress near the beginning, it is marked by (╷). And the
same mark is used for stressed syllables which come after the fall.
He was in an ap\pallingly ╷bad ╷temper.

4.1.3. How to use the tune?

The tune can be used in the following contexts:
i. When the statement are complete and definite
I ˡlike it ˡvery \much.
I ˡwouldn’t ˡmind ˡseeing it a‵gain.
ii. When Wh- questions sound more business- like and the speaker is only
interested in the subject, not the person spoken to:
ˡWhy did you ˡchange your \mind?
ˡWho on ˡearth was \that?
iii. Short questions used as responses:
John’s on holiday? \Is he?
I went to the theatre last night. \Did you?
iv. Strong exclamation:
ˡGood \heavens!
What a ˡvery ˡpretty \dress!
\Nonsense!
4.2. The first rising tune- the glide up.
4.2.1. How the voice rise.
The Glide- Up is just like the Glide- Down except that it ends with a rise in the
voice instead of a fall. Both important and unimportant words before the rise are
treated exactly the same as in the Glide- Down.

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At the stressed syllable of the last important word, the voice rises from a low pitch
to one just above the middle of the voice.

The last important word is job and here the voice rises from a low pitch to one just
above the middle of the voice. Apart from this, the tune is the same as in the Glide
– Down: the unstressed syllable at the beginning is low, and there is a step at the
stressed syllable of each important word.
All the syllables (stressed as well as unstressed) after the stresses syllables of the
last important word are on the rise:

If the sentence consists of only one unimportant word, the voice stars at a very low
pitch.
(There are forty people there? ) *Forty of them were *there.

4.2.2. Symbols.
In the simpler intonation marking, we use (/) before the stressed syllable of the last
important word to show where the rise starts and (•) before any stressed syllable
within the rise.
The other marks are the same as for the Glide- Down. (We put (ˡ) before the
stressed syllable of each important word.)
Have you been at /work to·day with ˡJohn?

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 4.2.3. How to use the tune?
i. When the statement is intended as soothing or encouraging:
'John’ll be 'here /soon.
I 'won’t 'drive 'too /fast. (so don’t worry.)
ii. This tune can be used with the Wh- question if you want to show as much
interest in the other person as in the subject:
'How’s your /daughter?
'When are you 'ˡcoming to /see us?
iii. For Yes- No questions:
'Did 'John 'post that /letter?
'Can I /see it?
iv. For greeting as saying goodbye.
'Good /morning!
'Good /night!
'Good͵bye!
v. For exclamations which refer to something not very exciting or unexpected.
Thank you!
Good!
All right!
vi. If the statement is intended as question:
You are / single?
4.3. The second rising tune- The Take Off
After the Glide Down and the Glide up. we have the Take Off, this also end with a
rise in the voice , like the Glide up but any words and syllables before the rise are
low. We call it the Take Off because, like an aeroplane taking off, it starts by
running along at a low level and finally rises into the air.
4.3.1 How the voice rises
The rise, as in the Glide Up, either takes place on one syllable, or it is spread over
several syllables:

87
Before the rise any stressed word is felt to be important, even though there is no
change of pitch. All the syllables before the rise are said on the same low pitch as
the beginning of the the rise; they must not be higher than this.
4.3.2. Symbols.
• In the simpler intonation marking the rise has the same mark as before ///,
any stressed syllables after this has (•) and any stressed syllables before it have (')

4.3.3. How to use the tune

We use the Take Off in the following situations:
i. For repetition questions, when you are repeating someone else's question or
when you want the other person to repeat some information.
/Where did I go? (Or where?)
/Why? (because I wanted to)
(I arrived at ten o'clock) /When?
(It took me two hours). /How •long?
(John told me to do it) /Who •told you to •do it?
Notice that in examples like the last three, where the other person is being asked to
repeat information, the rise begins at the wh- word.
ii. For tag questions after commands, use the Take Off:
'Come over here, /will you?
'Let's have some music, /shall we
'Hold this for me, /would you
iii. If neither the statement nor the tag-question have the word not in them, use
the Take Off
You like it, /did you?
They'd like some more, /would you?
iv. When you don't want the other person to agree with you, but to give his
opinion.
You're coming to tea with us, /arent's you
You weren't here in Wednesday, /were you?
He didn't look ill, /did he?
v. If the exclamation is questioning

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 /Oh?
/Really?
/Well?

4.4. The Falling- Rising tune – The Dive

4.2.1. How the voice falls and rises?
In its shortest form this consists of a fall from rather high to low and then rises to
about the middle of the voice.

The fall- rise is also connected with the stressed syllable of the last important
word, like the fall and the rise of the other tunes. But it is only completed on one
syllable if that syllable is final in the group. if there is one or several syllables
following, the fall and the rise are separated:

The fall is on the stressed syllable of the last important word and the rise of the
other syllable on the last syllable of all
If there are stressed (but not important) words following the fall, in that case the
rise at the end is from the last of the stressed syllable.
Words or syllables before the fall are said in the same way as for the Gide Down
and Glide Up.

Notice that the fall of the fall- rise is always form a fairy high note.

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4.2.2 Symbols.
If the stressed syllable of the last important word is final in the group, or it is
followed only by unstressed syllables, we put (v) before it in the simpler
intonation marking, so

But if the fall is followed by one ore more stressed syllables we mark the fall with
(\) and we put (/) before the last stressed syllable of all; any other stressed
syllables have (|) before them, so the other intonation marks are the same as for the
Glide- Down and Glide Up.

Notice that when the first syllable has a short vowel there may be a jump down to
the next syllable rather than a fall.

4.2.3. How to use the tune.

i. If the statement is not complete but leading to a following word- group, use
the Dive
I vlooked at him (and recognized him at once)
She took the vcar (and drove to London)
When ever he comes to vvisit us (he tries to borrow money)
ii. For statements which show resevation on the part of the speaker and which
might be followed by but............. or by you must admit or I must admit, use the
Dive
He's vgenerous
He's vhandsome
I could 'take you there tovmorrow
I 'like your vhat
It wasn't a 'very nice 'thing to vdo.
iii. If the statement is the correction of what someone else has said, use the
Dive
(He's forty- five). 'Forty vsix
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 (I like him a lot). You \ used to /like him
(I can't do it). You can't do it \that /way.

iv. If the statement is a warning

You'll be vlate
I 'shan't tell you avgain
You' mustn’t \shake it too /much

v. If the statement has two parts of which the first is more important than the
second, use the Dive with the fall at the end of the first part and the rise at the end
of the second:
I 'went to \London on /Monday
You can't \keep it if you really /want it
He was 'very \well when I last /saw him
I'm 'very \comfortable, /thank you/
vi. If you want the command to sound pleading, more a request than an order,
use the Dive, with the fall on Do or Don't if they occur, or on the main verb if not,
and the rise at the end
\Shut the /window
\Do have some |more /tea
\Send it as |soon as you /can
/Don't |make me /angry

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Gimson A.C. Jones and Standards of English Pronunciation // English Studies. –

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Gussenhoven, C., 2004. The Phonology of tone and intonation. Cambridge:

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Jones, D. 1993. An Outline of English Phonetics. Cambridge: Cambridge

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O'Connor , J.D. 1980. Better English pronunciation. 2nd edition. Cambridge:

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