LA COMPETENCIA FONÉTICA Y FONOLÓGICA.

LOS SONIDOS EL ACENTO, EL RITMO Y LA

ENTONACIÓN EN LA LE. ENSEÑANZA Y APRENDIZAJE DE LA PRONUNCIACIÓN EN EL AULA DE
IDIOMAS. ACTIVIDADES Y RECURSOS.

SUPRASEGMENTAL FEATURES

We may talk about phonetic features as they apply to single phonetic segments, or
phones. Phonetic features can also apply to a string of several sounds, such as a syllable, or an
entire word or utterance. The study of phonological features which apply to groups larger than
the single segment, such as the syllable or the word, are known as suprasegmental features.
The study of these features is known as prosody.

suprasegmental features: Main ones: length, pitch, tone, stress

Other ones: Pause; voice quality

The most obvious prosodic feature in language is the syllable. Let's briefly discuss the notion of
syllables.

Length

Length is a phonological term while “duration” is a phonetic term used to describe the time
parameter in speech

Stress

Stress is a property of syllables: an increase in the respiratory muscles and in the activity of the
laryngeal muscles . Word Stress and Sentence

contraDICtion/Update/examiNAtion/Export/exPort

I THOUGHT you would eat it (you have eaten it)

I thought you would EAT it (you have not eaten it)

Functions

to indicate the categorial information

noun verb distinction

Ex) an insult vs. to insult, an overflow vs. to overflow, a record vs. to record, etc.

b. noun adjective distinction

Ex) blackboard vs. black board, white house vs. White House

3.1 WORD STRESS: WEAK VERSUS STRONG VOWELS

English words can be stressed on any syllable. The short and long vowels and diphthongs we
have revised so far are called STRONG vowels, occurring in stressed syllables. In unstressed
syllables we usually (not always) find weak vowels. The process of stress/unstressed syllables
within a word and the process of sentence stress and sentence unstressed is called
GRADATION.

3.2 SENTENCE STRESS: WEAK FORMS

In English stresses occur at fairly regular intervals, no matter how many unstressed syllables
there are between them. We say that stress in English is ISCOCHRONIC. So that to occur we
need to divide isolated utterances (words) between those ones which have a strong and a wek
form and those one which only possess a strong form. The process of stress/unstressed
syllables within a word and the process of sentence stress and sentence unstressed is called
GRADATION. Within a sentence level of production students need to determine which ones –
taking into account the context and the semantics of the word, are going to be stressed and
which ones not.

Words that change their strong vowel to schwa and therefore become WEAK FORMS

Prepositions: at, for, from, of ,to

Aux verbs: am: are;can;do; does; had,has,must,shall,should,was,were,will,would

Adverbs; conjunctions; articles: a,an,the,as,but,that,that

Pronouns: her, them,us,you,your

Words which change to /i/

He,be,him,she,we

H-dropping: had;have,her,him,he,his. Except at the beginning of utterance

Words that do not change into a weak form: Lexical words (active verbs, adverbs, adjectives,
nouns)

How to assign sentence stress

Lexical words: nominal clause: nouns, adjective –depending on the nominal clause-

Adjective clause: adjectives

Adverbial clause: adverbs

Predicate: (lexical verbs: of action, thought, feeling..etc)

3.3 RHYTHM:

Languages with an ISOCHRONIC sentence stress are said to be Stressed-timed. In contrast

Spanish is syllable timed. The more syllables in a word, the longer time they take to
pronounce. We also say that in English the stressed syllables all have strong vowels, while the
weak syllables are likely to have weak vowels

We have seen that the vowels in unstressed syllables can suffer reduction usually to /schwa);
then to /i/ and rarely to /u/. But in connected speech because of English rhythm –time
stressed rhythm- short structural words are often completely unstressed:

1,2,3,4,5

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5

1 and then 2 and then 3 and then 4....

1 and then a 2 and then a 3.......

WE CALL THIS WEAK FORMS

Structural words which do not have weak forms:

Negatives are always strong /not/

How,if,in,on,off,then,they,up,what,when,where

3.4 PITCH /INTONATION

Pitch changes because of variations in laryngeal activity (the tension of the vocal cords): if the
vocal cords are stretched, the pitch of the sound will go up. In English, we call it “Intonation”

Intonation

If pitch varies over an entire phrase or sentence, we call the different pitch curves by the term
intonation. Intonation conveys the speaker's attitude or feelings. In other words, intonation
has a deictic function in discourse: questions; or a connotative function: anger, sarcasm, or
various emotions. Intonation can also convey purely syntactic information, as when it marks
where a sentence ends.

Intonation types

Falling

Rising

Rising/falling:

Intonation describes how the voice rises and falls in speech.

Introduction to Stress and Intonation - English with Jennifer - YouTube

Falling intonation (➘)

Falling Intonation - English Pronunciation with JenniferESL - YouTube

The pitch of the voice falls at the end of the sentence, on the final stressed syllable. It is
commonly found in statements, commands, wh-questions (information questions),
confirmatory question tags and exclamations.

Where’s the nearest p↘ost-office?

What time does the film f↘inish?

 Statements

o Nice to meet ↘you.

o I’ll be back in a ↘minute.

o She doesn’t live here ↘anymore.

o Here is the weather ↘forecast.

o Cloudy weather is expected at the end of the ↘week.

o We should work together more ↘often

o I'm going for a walk in the ↘park.

 Commands

o Write your name ↘here.

o Show me what you’ve ↘written.

o Leave it on the ↘desk.

o Take that picture ↘ down.

o Throw that ↘out.

o Put your books on the ↘table.

 Wh- questions (requesting information.)

(questions beginning with what, when, where, who, whom, which, whose, why and
how; the answer cannot be yes or no):
 o What country do you come ↘from?

o Where do you ↘work?

o Which of them do you ↘prefer?

o When does the shop ↘open?

o How many books have you ↘bought?

o Which coat is ↘yours?

o Whose bag is ↘this?

When do you finish college?

Next year.

Who is your favourite actor?

George Clooney for sure!

 Questions Tags that are statements requesting confirmation rather than questions.

Not all tag questions are really questions.

Some of them merely ask for confirmation or invite agreement, in which case we use a falling
tone at the end.

o He thinks he’s so clever, doesn’t ↘he?

o She's such a nuisance, isn't ↘she?

o I failed the test because I didn't revise, did ↘ I?

o It doesn't seem to bother him much, does ↘ it?

 Exclamations

o How nice of ↘ you!

o That's just what I ↘need!

o What a beautiful ↘ voice!

Rising intonation (➚)

Rising Intonation - English Pronunciation with JenniferESL - YouTube

The pitch of the voice rises at the end of a sentence.

It is normally used with yes/no questions, and question tags that are real questions.

Are you th↗irsty?

 Yes/no Questions
(Questions that can be answered by 'yes' or 'no'.)

o May I borrow your ➚dictionary?

o Do you have any ➚magazines?

o Do you sell ➚stamps?

 Questions tags that show uncertainty and require an answer (real questions).

o We've met already, ➚haven't we?

o You're a new student, ➚aren't you?

*Wh questions – rising intonation:

- We didn’t get the answer (need to repeat it)

- We didn’t believe the answer (need to confirm the answer)

WHO said that?

Fall-rise intonation (➘➚)

Fall-Rise Intonation: English Pronunciation with JenniferESL - YouTube… FALL-RISE

INTONATION

Fall-rise intonation describes how the voice falls and then rises.

The main function of fall-rise intonation is to show that the speaker is not certain of the
answer they are giving to a question, or is reluctant to reply (as opposed to a falling tone used
when there is no hesitation). It is also used in polite requests or suggestions. Thus, we use fall-
rise intonation in the following cases:
 - At the end of statements when we want to say that we are not
sure, or when we may have more to add:

I don’t support any football team at the m↘om↗ent. (but I may change my mind in the
future).

It rained every day in the firs↘t w↗eek. (but things improved after that).

-With questions, when we request information or invite somebody to do or to have something.

The intonation pattern makes the questions sound more polite:

Is this your cam↘er↗a?

Would you like another co↘ff↗ee?

-To express hesitation or reluctance. The speaker is not certain of the answer s/he is giving to a
question, or is reluctant to reply (as opposed to a falling tone used, when there is no
hesitation)

o So you'd be willing to confirm that? ...Well ... I ➘sup➚pose so ...

o You didn't see him on Monday? I don't quite ➘re➚member ...

-To express politeness/doubt/uncertainty (we are not sure what the answer might be):

o Perhaps we could ➘vis➚it the place?

o Should we ➘cop➚y the list?

Rise-Fall Intonation (➚➘)

The intonation rises and then falls. We use rise-fall intonation for choices, lists, unfinished
thoughts and conditional sentences.

 Choices (alternative questions.)

o Are you having ➚soup or ➘salad?

o Is John leaving on ➚Thursday or ➘Friday?

o Does he speak ➚German or ➘French?

o Is your name ➚Ava or ➘Eva?

  Lists (rising, rising, rising, falling)
Intonation falls on the last item to show that the list is finished.

o We've got ➚apples, pears, bananas and ➘oranges

o The sweater comes in ➚blue, white pink and ➘black

o I like ➚football, tennis, basketball and ➘volleyball.

o I bought ➚a tee-shirt, a skirt and a ➘handbag.

 Unfinished thoughts (partial statements)

In the responses to the following questions, the rise-fall intonation indicates
reservation.
The speaker hesitates to fully express his/her thoughts.

o Do you like my new handbag? Well the ➚leather is ➘nice... (but I don't like it.)

o What was the meal like? Hmm, the ➚soup was ➘good... (but the rest wasn't
great).

o So you both live in Los Angeles? Well ➚Alex ➘does ... (but I don't).

 Conditional sentences
(The tone rises in the first clause and falls gradually in the second clause.)

o If he ➚calls, ask him to leave a ➘message.

o Unless he ➚insists, I'm not going to ➘go.

o If you have any ➚problems, just ➘contact us.

 To express strong emotions

Intonation for Strong Emotions - English Pronunciation with JenniferESL - YouTube

Pause

Presence or absence of pause can provide grammatical information which can help listeners
decode meaning: Two types: breathing pause and syntactic pause.
Breathing pause: Any pause that comes after a meaningful clause –nominal/verbal -. It differs
from speaker to speaker depending on its fluency.

Syntactic pause: it is marked by syntactic marks: pause, comma, parenthesis.....

Syllable juncture: Segments which could be attached to one of two syllables: linkages

Ex. Look out/ I got it – Direct objects related to transitive verbs; prepositions to verbs; articles
related nouns/ adjectives and nouns/ adverbials and verbs....