PHONETICS II

GENERAL REVISION
A COURSE IN ENGLISH PHONETICS FOR EFL STUDENTS
UNITS 8 &9

JULIETA NIEVAS
7-8-20
PHONOLOGICALLY,
THE SYLLABLE IS
“A UNIT OF PHONOLOGICAL ORGANISATION
WHOSE CENTRAL COMPONENT IS A NUCLEUS,
WHICH IS NORMALLY A VOWEL,
AND WHICH MAY BE PRECEDED OR
FOLLOWED BY CONSONANTS”
(CARR 2008: 171).
IN ENGLISH,
A MINIMUM SYLLABLE IS FORMED
BY A SINGLE VOWEL, e.g. are /ɑː/, or /ɔː/.

SOME SYLLABLES HAVE SYLLABIC

SONORANTS AS THEIR NUCLEUS: /l/ and /n/
(/r/, /m/, and /ŋ/) e.g.
sadden /sædn̩/ – (no syllable: sand /sænd/)
doesn’t /dʌzn̩t/ - (no syllable: don’t /dəʊnt/)
THE DIVISION OF WORDS INTO SYLLABLES
IS REFERRED TO AS
SYLLABIFICATION OR SYLLABICATION,
WHICH HELPS TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN
MONOSYLLABIC, DISYLLABIC,
TRISYLLABIC AND POLYSYLLABIC WORDS
ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF SYLLABLES
THEY POSSESS.
SYLLABLES ARE OFTEN DEFINED AS
STRONG OR WEAK .

STRONG: RELATIVELY LONGER, MORE INTENSE,

AND DIFFERENT IN QUALITY AS THEY APPEAR IN
STRESSED POSITIONS OF A WORD.

WEAK: /ə/, /i/ or /u/, NEVER STRESSED.

SYLLABIC SONORANTS = ALSO WEAK SYLLABLES.
SYLLABIFICATION IS CLOSELY CONNECTED
WITH THE ACCENTUAL STRUCTURE OF WORDS,
WHICH IS KNOWN AS THE
WORD STRESS OR LEXICAL STRESS.

STRESS IS USUALLY EQUATED WITH THE

NOTIONS OF EMPHASIS AND STRENGTH.
PLACEMENT OF STRESS:
LANGUAGES WITH FIXED STRESS: WORD STRESS IS
FAIRLY PREDICTABLE
LANGUAGES WITH FREE STRESS: WORD STRESS IS
DIFFICULT TO PREDICT.
ENGLISH = A FREE STRESS LANGUAGE
HOWEVER, POSSIBLE TO PREDICT THE STRESS
PLACEMENT ACCORDING TO:
- THE SYLLABLE NUMBER IN THE WORD,
- THE PHONOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF THE SYLLABLE,
-THE GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF THE WORD,
- AND THE MORPHOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF THE WORD.
LEVELS OF STRESS:
PRIMARY STRESS: THE LOUDEST SYLLABLE IN A WORD [ˈ]
SECONDARY STRESS: A WEAKER STRESSED SYLLABLE AS
CONTRASTED TO THE SYLLABLE HOLDING THE PRIMARY
STRESS [ˌ]
UNSTRESSED: WEAK PROMINENCE,
IF CONTAINING WEAK VOWELS /ə/, /i/, /u/ OR A SYLLABIC
SONORANT IS EVEN LESS PROMINENT THEN THE
UNSTRESSED SYLLABLE WITH ANY OTHER VOWEL.
MOST COMPOUNDS WORDS HAVE TWO STRESSES:
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY.
COMPOUND NOUNS: GENERAL RULE:
PRIMARY STRESS ON THE FIRST ELEMENT,
SECONDARY STRESS ON THE SECOND ELEMENT
COMPOUND ADJECTIVES: GENERAL RULE:
PRIMARY STRESS ON THE SECOND ELEMENT, SECONDARY
STRESS ON THE FIRST ELEMENT
COMPOUND VERBS
PRIMARY STRESS ON THE SECOND ELEMENT,
SECONDARY STRESS ON THE FIRST ELEMENT
STRESS IN WORD CLASS PAIRS
WORDS WITH IDENTICAL SPELLING BUT DIFFERENT
PARTS OF SPEECH: DIFFERENTIATED BY MEANS OF
SHIFTING OF THE STRESS.
A FEW WORDS WITH STRESS SHIFT WITHOUT A CHANGE
IN SOUND QUALITY.
A FEW WORDS WITH STRESS SHIFT WITH OR WITHOUT
A CHANGE IN SOUND QUALITY.
MANY WORDS WITH STRESS SHIFT CHANGE
SOUND QUALITY.
CONTENT WORDS: THE MAIN MEANINGFUL WORDS
(THOSE THAT CARRY THE MAIN SEMANTIC CONTENT)
ARE STRESSED. THEYHAVE AN INDEPENDENT MEANING
AND REFER TO A THING, AN EVENT, A PROPERTY, ETC.
THEY INCLUDE NOUNS, VERBS, ADJECTIVES AND
ADVERBS.
FUNCTION WORDS: THEY HAVE NO OR VERY LITTLE
LEXICAL MEANING AND ARE USUALLY NOT STRESSED.
THEY CONVEY ONLY GRAMMATICAL INFORMATION
AND EXPRESS VARIOUS GRAMMATICAL RELATIONS.
THEY INCLUDE AUXILIARY VERBS, PREPOSITIONS,
CONJUNCTIONS, PARTICLES, ETC.
TYPICALLY, WHEN THEY ARE UNSTRESSED, THEY ARE
PRONOUNCED IN THEIR WEAK FORM. HOWEVER, IN
SOME RARE CONTEXTS, THEY CAN BE STRESSED AND
APPEAR IN THEIR STRONG FORM.
THE WEAK FORM IS ALSO OFTEN REFERRED TO AS THE
REDUCED FORM BECAUSE IT IS GENERALLY
DISTINGUISHED FROM THE STRONG FORM OF THE
WORD AND UNDERGOES THE PROCESS OF REDUCTION.
REDUCTION IS THE PROCESS THAT AFFECTS THE
QUALITY AND QUANTITY OF THE SOUND.
STRONG FORMS OF FUNCTION WORDS ARE RARE.
THEY MAY APPEAR IF THE SPEAKER INTENTIONALLY EMPHASISES THEM:

- WHEN IN ISOLATION, AS IN: WHO? /hu:/;

- WHEN BEING QUOTED, AS IN: HE SAID “OF”, NOT “OFF” /ov/;
- AT THE END OF A PHRASE OR SENTENCE, AS IN: WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING
FOR? /fɔː/;
- AS THE FIRST OF TWO CONSECUTIVE AUXILIARY VERBS WITHOUT A FULL
VERB, AS IN: WOULD HAVE LIKED /wʊd/;
- IN COORDINATIONS, AS IN: HE TRAVELS TO AND FROM LONDON /tuː/, /frɒm/;
- IN CONTRASTS, AS IN: A MESSAGE FROM JOHN, NOT FOR JOHN /frɒm/, /fɔː/;
- WHEN USED TO EMPHASISE A PARTICULAR ASPECT OF THE MESSAGE, AS
IN: PARIS IS THE LOVE CITY /ði:/