understanding english linguistics - cms 솔루션...

UnderstandingEnglish LinguisticsSecond Edition

․Han, Jaehyeon ․Kim, Jong-mi․Lee, In ․Kim, Dae-Bin․Lee, Young-hern ․Choe, Jae-woong․Jeon, Byong-Man ․Ahn, Jeongkhn․Park, Jun-Eon

Hankuk Publishing Co.

Understanding English LinguisticsWritten by ․Han, Jaehyeon ․Kim, Jong-mi

․Lee, In ․Kim, Dae-Bin

․Lee, Young-hern ․Choe, Jae-woong

․Jeon, Byong-Man ․Ahn, Jeongkhn

․Park, Jun-Eon

Copyright Ⓒ 1997, 1999 by Hankuk Publishing Co.

All rights reserved

Requests for permission to make copies of any parts of the work should be mailed to: Hankuk Publishing Co.13-156 2-dong Sungsu 1-ga Sungdong-guSeoul, Republic of KoreaTel. 02-464-7708, 3409-4488Fax. 02-499-0846E-mail: [email protected]

ISBN 89-7735-436-6

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CHAPTER 2

Phonetics: The Sounds of Language

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[ɑ] is different from [ə]."A single difference of a sound can yield a different connotation."

－a Korean saying

Phonetics is the study of speech sounds of human language. A speech sound is meaningful if the speaker and hearer know the given language, but turns out to be meaningless gibberish if they do not share the knowledge of the same language. We shall study in this chapter what constitutes meaningful speech sounds in English.

Speech sounds are made of consonants and vowels. In a speech stream, a string of speech sounds may or may not be stressed, and they show various intonation patterns.

For expository purposes, we shall first explore the consonants and vowels of English, then, move on to the study of stress and intonation. Next consideration will be the acoustic aspects of consonants, vowels, stress, and intonation, and finally, on how the knowledge of phonetics can be applied for use.

2.1. What is Phonetics?

Phonetics is the study of speech sounds that are produced in all human languages to represent meaning. Phonetics focuses on the physical aspects of

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human speech sounds, whereas phonology focuses on their structural aspects. The physics of phonetics is limited to only the sounds used in the given language. Human speech uses only a subset of all possible human sounds. For example, English speech uses the dental fricative sound [θ], while Korean does not.

The science of phonetics examines how the speaker pronounces the speech sounds, how the speech sounds are transmitted in the air to the hearer, and finally how the hearer decodes the sound waves as meaningful sounds.

In this section 2.1, we shall first examine how phonetics is interwoven within a language, then explore what academic subjects phonetics deals with, and finally, study the characteristics of English phonetics.

2.1.1. Language and Phonetics

Language is a set of speech sounds that convey meaning. Speakers of a given language use a special form and combination of sounds in order to convey meaning. For example, English speakers know what [saUnd] means, but other speakers do not. Among the speech sounds of various languages, this book focuses on the sounds of English.

Although languages use different combinations of sounds to convey meanings, it is interesting to see several universal features of sounds in all the languages of the world. For instance, they contain both vowels and consonants. The fact that human beings share the same physical and mental structure relates to the universal features. Thus a language can be considered in terms of the physical as well as the abstract aspects of sounds.

Phonetics deals with the physical aspects of speech sounds such as pronunciation, sound waves, and hearing; whereas phonology deals with the structural aspects of speech sounds such as rules and representations. This


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chapter will discuss the phonetic aspects in detail, which contrast to the phonological aspects discussed in the next chapter.

2.1.2. Speech Chain

The physical aspects of speech sounds are observed in the process called "speech chain." A speech chain is the process of spoken communication in which the speaker produces an utterance, the air transmits the sound waves, and the hearer decodes the waves into meaningful sounds.

The phonetic studies concerned with each stage of this process are called articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, and auditory phonetics. Articulatory phonetics is the study of how the speech organs of the speaker produce the sounds of language. Acoustic phonetics is the study of how the sound waves in the air convey linguistically important information such as consonants, vowels, pitch, and amplitude. Auditory phonetics is the study of how the ears and nerves of the hearer interpret the sound waves as meaningful speech.

For educational purposes of English linguistics, this book will concentrate more on the articulatory phonetics of English, less on the acoustic phonetics, and the least on auditory phonetics.

2.1.3. English Phonetics

As mentioned before, phonetic observations are concerned with either the general phonetic facts across languages or the particular phonetic facts of individual languages. The general phonetic facts come from the commonality in the physical structure shared by all humans. All human bodies have the same essential structure. The phonetic facts of a particular language come from the differences in the phonetic systems of individual languages.

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Thus, the description of English phonetics would adopt the general phonetic model of consonants and vowels, stress and intonation, etc. The language specific features of English phonetics shall also be explored in terms of sound elements, combinations, and relative prominence. For example, [fraI] is a possible sound combination of English, not Korean.

At many Korean institutions of higher learning, the examination requirement is usually based rather on American pronunciation than British one. This is relevant to the fact that there is perhaps more economic and academic interaction with the United States than with Great Britain. In order to meet this need, we will focus our discussion on the American pronunciation of English.

2.1.4. Summary

Phonetics is the study of speech sounds of human language. A speech sound is spoken by the speaker, transmitted in the air, and perceived by the hearer. Each stage is represented as articulatory, acoustic, and auditory phonetics. For pedagogical reasons, this book will focus on phonetics of American English.

2.2. Consonants and Vowels of English

Consonants and vowels are the segments of speech sounds. We produce consonants by constricting the vocal tract, and vowels by relatively widening it. The combination of consonants and vowels receives the stress and intonation within the speech stream. The study of consonants and vowels is called "segmental phonology," whereas the term "prosodic phonology" covers the study of stress and intonation.

This section 2.2 will first explore the phonetic aspects of consonants and vowels, and the next section 2.3, those of stress and intonation.


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2.2.1. Speech Organs

All normal languages involve sounds produced by the upper respiratory tract. A closer look at the upper respiratory tract is helpful to understand the nature of speech sounds and how they are produced.

(1) Speech organs

ARTICULATIONPROCESS

ORO-NASALPROCESS

PHONATIONPROCESS

BREATHING PROCESS

In discussing the structure and function of the organs of speech, it is useful to distinguish four processes that have their own distinct functions. They work simultaneously as an integrated whole in the production of

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speech. These four processes are 1) breathing, 2) phonation, 3) oro-nasal, and 4) articulation.

The breathing process provides the power to produce speech sounds. It encompasses the lungs and windpipe. The lungs force a stream of air through the other processes during which the air can be altered to the sounds of speech. In English and Korean, the speech sounds are generated only from exhalation, but inhalation causes sounds in some other languages.

The phonation process comprises the voice box, which is commonly called "Adam's apple." The voice box is a box of cartilage containing two small muscular folds, i.e., the vocal cords. The space between the vocal cords is called “glottis.” The closure and subsequent release of the glottis produce a glottal stop, as in English [ʔʌʔʌ] for no. The symbol [ʔ] stands for a glottal stop, and [ʌ] for a stressed mid-central vowel. All phonetic symbols in this book follow the convention of International Phonetic Association, and are presented in Appendix. The narrowing of the glottis and subsequent vibration of the vocal folds produce a voiced sound, as in [m], [l], [v], [b], etc. The opened glottis is present in normal breathing as well as in the production of voiceless sounds, as in [sk] in sky.

The oro-nasal process includes the velum (the soft palate) which may or may not permit the airstream to pass into the nasal passage. If the velum is raised and pressed against the back of the throat, the air cannot get into the nasal passage and oral sounds will result. If the velum is lowered, the air passes through the nasal passage and nasal sounds will be produced.

The articulatory process uses the mouth. Due to the mobility of the lips and tongue, the size and shape of oral cavity can be greatly modified to produce various kinds of consonants and vowels. If the mouth passage


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is constricted, then consonant sounds are produced. If it is relatively wide open, then vowel sounds are produced. The consonants and vowels are further analyzed into the sound units called "phonemes" in the next section 2.2.2.

2.2.2. Phonemes

A phoneme is the smallest sound unit that differentiates the meanings of words in a given language. In Korean, for instance, [kam] persimmon is a different word from [pam] chestnut. The pair, [k] and [p], is termed a minimal pair, and the contrastive segments under consideration belong to different phonemes.

Even with the same phoneme, for instance, [k] in Korean, no two utterances are ever identical. Even the same speaker repeating the same phoneme in the same context makes a number of differences: the length of the phoneme or the force of exhalation. In the example [kɑm], the word may be produced, without affecting the meaning of the message, either with a slightly voiced [g] as in [gɑm] or with a voiceless [k] as in [kɑm]. These variants are called allophones, and belong to the same phoneme /k/ in Korean.

All the allophones must sound similarly to be considered as a single phoneme. For instance, the voiceless [k] and the voiced [g] in Korean, as shown above, have, in common, the phonetic quality that the closure is complete, that this closure is made at the velum, and that the velum is raised. This criterion of phonetic similarity accounts for the unacceptability of [h] and [ŋ] as the allophones of a phoneme in English.

In summation, a phoneme can be defined as a group of phonetically similar sounds that do not render meaning contrast in a given language.

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PhonemeMinimal Pair

Set IMinimal Pair

Set IIMinimal Pair

Set IIIMinimal Pair

Set IV/p/ pie pooh rip

/t/ tie two writ

/k/ coo Rick

/b/ buy boo rib

/d/ die do rid

/g/ guy rig

/ʧ/ chew rich

/ʤ/ Jew ridge

/m/ my rim

/n/ nigh gnu

/ŋ/ ring

/f/ fie riff

/θ/ thigh

/s/ sigh sue

/ʃ/ shy shoe Confucian

/v/ vie

/ð/ thy

/z/ zoo

/ʒ/ confusion

/l/ lie

/r/ rye rue

/w/ woo

/j/ you

/h/ high who

2.2.3. Consonants

The phonemes of consonants in English are categorized with the following sets of minimally different words in (2).

(2) English consonant phonemes


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In this table, we can find the minimal pair, pie and tie. This serves the reason for establishing the phonemes, /p/ and /t/. Several sets of minimal pairs are provided in order to complete the consonantal inventory of English. We can add any number of words to the list, but there cannot be any new phoneme that can be established.

Consonants can be further divided according to the manners and places of articulation. The manners of articulation mainly describe the degree of narrowing. The places of articulation refer to the places in the upper jaw. Let us first look into the manners of articulation, then the places.

The articulators may completely close off the mouth passage so that the airstream cannot escape through the mouth. The sounds made in this manner are called stops. Closure of both the mouth and nose passages produces the oral stops /p, t, k, b, d, g/. On the other hand, closure of the mouth passage directs the air to the nose, and produces the nasal stops /m, n, ŋ/.

The combination of a stop and the accompanying fricative may constitute a single phoneme. Phonemes of this type are called affricates. The affricate sounds are /ʧ, ʤ/.

The articulators may considerably narrow the oral space so that the airstream creates friction. The sounds made in this manner are called fricatives. The fricative sounds are /f, θ, s, ʃ, v, ð, z, ʒ, h/.

The articulators may be close to each other, but not to the extent that a turbulent airstream is produced. The sounds produced in this manner are called approximants. The approximant sounds are /l, r, w, j/.

Consonants are also subdivided according to the place in which they are articulated. The following figure (3) shows some of the possible places of articulation. The places of articulation are termed in accordance with the places in the upper jaw.

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(3) Places of articulation

Alveolar Palatal

Velar

Bilabial

Dental

Bilabial consonants are produced with the lips as in [p, b, m]. Labio-dental consonants are generated with the lower lip and upper front teeth as in [f, v]. Dental consonants are articulated with tongue tip and upper front teeth as in [θ,ð]. Alveolar sounds are created with the tongue tip and the alveolar ridge as in [n, t, d, s, z]. Retroflex sounds are articulated by the tip of the tongue pointing slightly backward toward the hard palate as in [r]. Alveo-palatal sounds are produced with tongue blade and the back of the alveolar ridge as in [ʃ, ʒ, ʧ, ʤ]. Palatal sounds are articulated with front of tongue and hard palate as in [j]. Velar sounds are pronounced when the back of the tongue is raised to contact the velum as in [k, g,ŋ].


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Place

MannerBilabial

Labio-dental

Dental AlveolarAlveo-palatal

Palatal Velar Glottal

Stop p b t d k g

Affricate ʧ ʤFricative f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ h

Nasal m n ŋ

Approximant (w) l r j w

In summation, English consonants are articulated with different manners in different places. The manners of articulation refer to the degree of narrowing, and the places of articulation to the places in the upper jaw.

(4) Manners and places of articulation

The table (4) outlines the manners and places of the consonantal articulation in English. The manners of articulation become progressively wider, as proceeded down in a column: 1) stops, 2) affricates, 3) fricatives, 4) nasals, and 5) approximants.

The places of articulation become progressively deeper in the mouth, as proceeded rightwards along a row: 1) bilabial, 2) labio-dental, 3) dental, 4) alveolar, 5) alveo-palatal, 6) palatal, 7) velar, and 8) glottal.

2.2.4. Vowels

The phonemes of vowels in American English are listed with the following sets of minimally different words in (5). In the table, we can find the minimal pair, beat and bit, and thereby establish the status of two phonemes /i/ and /I/. The first twelve phonemes are simple vowels called monophthongs, and the last three are complex vowels called diphthongs.

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Min. Pair

PhonemeMinimal Pair Set Ⅰ Minimal Pair Set Ⅱ Minimal Pair Set Ⅲ

i beat bead feelI bit bid fille bait bayed failɛ bet bed fellæ bat bad -ǝ but (unstressed) - -ʌ butt bud -u boot booed foolU - - fullo boat bode foalɔ bought board fallɑ bott bard -aI bite bide -aU bout bowed foulɔI - - foil

(5) English vowel phonemes

Vowels are further separated according to the parameters of height, depth, lip rounding, and diphthongization. Height of vowels refers to the distance between the tongue and the roof of the mouth: the shorter the distance is, the higher is the vowel. High vowels are /i, I, U, u/, mid-vowels are /e, ɛ, ʌ, ə, ɔ, o/, and low vowels are /æ, ɑ/.

Depth of vowels concerns the part of the tongue involved in articulation. Front vowels are articulated with the front of the tongue as the active articulator. These are /i, I, e, ɛ, æ/. Central vowels are articulated with the middle of the tongue as the active articulator. These are /ə, ʌ/. Back vowels are articulated with the back of the tongue as the active articulator. These are /u, U, o, ɔ, ɑ/.

Lip rounding refers to the rounding of lips. Round vowels are /u, U, o, ɔ/, and unround ones are /i, I, e, ɛ, æ, ə, ʌ, ɑ/.


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Height of Tongue

Depth of Tongue

Front Central Back

High i I U uMid e ɛ ǝ ʌ ɔ oLow æ ɑ

A diphthong is a segment of vowels that occurs in a single syllable, and acts as a single phoneme, but glides from the position of one vowel toward the position of another. In other words, it is a single vowel phoneme with two different vowel qualities. Diphthongs are generally expected to involve a great extent of gliding movement. Therefore, /aI, aU, ɔI/ are solely treated as diphthongs; whereas /i, e, o, u/, for example, will be treated as monophthongs.

The vowels in the American English dialect are grouped in the following table (6).

(6) English vowel inventory

a. Monophthongs

b. Diphthongs Depth of Tongue

Height of ɔI Tongue aI aU

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Vowels in (6a) are monophthongs, and those in (6b) are diphthongs. Some monophthongs appear in pairs, as they need an additional criterion for the distinction. Diphthongs have two vowel qualities gliding one to another.

2.2.5. Summary

In this section 2.2, we studied how speech organs produce speech sounds. The speech sounds that convey meaning are analyzed into phonemes, the smallest sound units. Phonemes are composed of consonants and vowels. The phoneme inventory of American English can further be characterized by various articulatory parameters such as place, manner, height, depth, and diphthongization.

2.3. Stress and Intonation of English

When consonants and vowels are put together in a speech stream, their pitch height and loudness are not always the same. When one syllable is more prominent than the rest, we refer the prominent one as the stressed syllable; and when the overall pitch height of a sentence varies, we refer the pitch variation as intonation.

2.3.1. Stress

What is stress? Stress refers to a relatively more prominent syllable in speech with greater loudness, increased duration, and higher pitch. For example, one syllable in each of the following words is generally perceived to be more prominent than the rest: BUsy, asSIGN, noVEMber, aLUminum.

English is said to be a "stress language." Every lexical word (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, etc.) has a stressed syllable. If more than one


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a. 2 syllables b. 3 syllables c. 4 syllables

BREAKfast Analyze aSPAragus

CANdle CHAracter aMErica

NEver Elephant aPOlogy

SEven HOspital chrySANthemum

LEsson PHOtograph curRIculum

PAper PArody naPOleon

STUdy VItamin paNOrama

syllable bears stress, as in some of the examples given above, only one of the syllables gets the primary stress, and the rest the secondary stress.

Stress in English words can be predicted to some extent, depending on their morphological composition (Bauer et al., 1980). If words are composed of only roots, then the stress tends to fall on the third syllable from the end.

(7) Root stress

For the words in the second and third columns in the table (7), each stress falls on the third syllable from the end. The words in the first column with two syllables have the stress on the first syllable.

If words consist of the roots and suffixes, the stress placement is determined in three ways depending on the nature of the suffixes. In the case of regular suffixes, they become the regular member of the word string to which the root stress rule applies: the stress may fall on the third syllable from the end including these suffixes. In the case of strong suffixes, they retract the primary stress, and thereby down-grade the root stress to the secondary. In the case of weak suffixes, they have no

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influence on the stress placement, and therefore the original root stress remains unchanged.

(8) Stress in suffixed forms

a. Regular suffixes-al: Origin + al = oRIginal-ia: VICtor + ia = vicTOria-ial: ADverb + ial = adVERbial-ic: TElegraph + ic = teLEgraphic-ify: SOlid + ify = soLIdify-ity: SINgular + ity = singuLArity

b. Strong suffixes-aire: MILlion + aire = millioNAIRE-ation: GEnerate + ation = geneRAtion-ee: ADdress + ee = addresSEE-ese: jaPAN + ese = japaNESE-ette: CIgar + ette = cigaRETTE-ific: HOnor + ific = honoRIfic-teen: FIVE + teen = fifTEEN

c. Weak suffixes-able: Analyze + able = Analyzable-ary: SEcrete + ary = SEcretary-er: comPUTE + er = comPUter-ism: NAtional + ism = NAtionalism-ist: piAno + ist = piAnist-ize: leGItimate + ize = leGItimatize-less: CHAracter + less = CHAracterless-ly: PERsonal + ly = PERsonally

Prefix addition generally has no effect on the placement of primary stress.


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Noun Verb Noun VerbABstract abSTRACT INterchange interCHANGEACcent acCENT OBject obJECTADdress adDRESS PERmit perMITCOMpress comPRESS PREsent preSENTCONvict conVICT PROgress proGRESSDEcrease deCREASE PROtest proTESTDIgest diGEST RAMpage ramPAGEDIScount disCOUNT REcord reCORDEXport exPORT SUBject subJECTFOREcast foreCAST SURvey surVEYIMpact imPACT TORment torMENTINcrease inCREASE TRANSfer transFER

(9) Stress in prefixed forms ab- : ab + NORmal = abNORmalcom- : com + PRESS = comPRESSdis- : dis + SENT = disSENT en- : en + DURE = enDUREex- : ex + CHANGE = exCHANGEmis- : mis + SPELL = misSPELLpre- : pre + JUDGE = preJUDGEun- : un + NAtural = unNAtural

As a rule, these words with prefixes in (9) have stress on the root. The stress shifts to the leftmost vowel only when the word is used as a noun. In the following table (10), the stress shift results in the categorical change from verbs to nouns.

(10) Noun and verb pairs of stress

The stress on the first and third columns in (10) represents the nominal feature. Compound nouns receive stress on the leftmost located nominal

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lexical item in the compound constituent. Consider the following compound nouns with special attention to their stress placement on the left.

(11) Compound nouns with the stress on the left

LADYbug ICEcream MATCHmaker PAPERweight SHARKskin BEAUTY shop DEATH penalty

The stress placement often distinguishes the meaning of words and phrases. In the following word pairs in (12), notice the different stress placement and meanings, and find out which ones are compound nouns.

(12) Stress placement for different meanings

a. WHITE house - the residence of the President of the U.S. white HOUSE - a house that is white in colorb. LIGHT house - a tall tower with a light for warning ships light HOUSE - a house that lets in a lot of light, or that is painted with a light colorc. BLACK board - a large slate used for writing with chalk black BOARD - a long piece of wood that is black in colord. DARK room - a special room used in photography dark ROOM - a room that is darke. CHEAP skates - people that are stingy cheap SKATES - inexpensive skates


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f. HOT plate - an electric cooking device hot PLATE - any plate that is hotg. HARD ball - a baseball hard BALL - any ball that is hard

In (12), the stressed words typed in capital letters in the first lines of each item are nouns, while those in the second lines are typical nouns with an adjective.

What we discussed so far in this section 2.3.1 is the stress placement within words and its relation to the morphology of roots, suffixes, prefixes, and compounds. The relative stress beyond the word level is due to the rhythmic feature of English. In English, stress comes in regular intervals. Therefore, English is called a stress-timed language. This characteristic of isochronous stress shall be discussed in the following section 2.3.2.

2.3.2. Rhythm

Every language has its own rhythm. Rhythm means the regular repetition of beat. In English, the rhythm is determined by stress; whereas in Korean, by syllables. In the previous section 2.3.1, we learned about stressed and unstressed syllables in words. The integration of stressed and unstressed syllables creates the rhythm of English. The native speakers of American English sometimes give full stress to every word when they are angry or adamant. Let us try to read the following sentence with full stress on each word.

(13) THIS IS THE WRONG NUMBER.

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Such reading with full stress will certainly give mental pressure to hearers. Due to the syllable-timed rhythmic nature of the Korean language, Korean learners of English have a tendency to stress every word and syllable in English words in a sentence. They might often sound abrupt, angry, adamant, or impatient without any intention. Consider the following figures which contrast the syllable-timed rhythm in Korean and the stress-timed rhythm in English.

(14) Rhythm of languages

a. Korean as a syllable-timed language

Time

i chaeck ɨn Jong-mi ka ssốt ta

b. English as a stress-timed language Time

THIS is the BOOK that JONG-mi WROTE

For the Korean speech in (14a), all the syllables are equally spaced and receive rhythmic beats. On the other hand, for the English speech in (14b), only stressed syllables are equally spaced and get rhythmic beats. In order to practice the English rhythm, practice the following sentences in (15) within the same length of time:


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(15) English rhythm

a. DeLIver BOOKS FRIday.b. DeLIver BOOKS by FRIday.c. DeLIver the BOOKS by FRIday.d. We'll deLIver the BOOKS by FRIday.e. We'll have deLIvered the BOOKS by FRIday.

Notice that the sentence in (15a) is like a telegram and contains only three important content words. The sentences in (15b, c, d, e) have functional words added, but nevertheless allow the same length of time to utter.

In order to maintain the stress-timed rhythm, the native speakers of English weaken functional words. Some common functional words are shown in their unstressed or reduced forms in (16).

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Example Category

FunctionalWord

UnstressedPronunciation

Example

Article a an the

/ǝ/ /ǝn/ /ðǝ/

She wants a dog. It's an emergency. It's on the table.

Auxiliary Verb

am does can have

/Im, ǝm//dǝz, z, s//kǝn, kn//ǝv, ǝ, v/

I am going there. What's (= does) he like? I can see it. He must have gone.

Conjunction

and but or on

/ǝn, n/ /bǝt/ /ǝr//ǝn, n/

bread and butter Life is but a dream. pass or fail what on earth

Preposition

at for of to

/ǝt//fǝr//ǝ, ǝv//tǝ/

at home This is for you. two of them gone to lunch

Pronoun

him her them you

/ǝm, Im//ǝr//ǝm//yǝ/

Did you tell him? introduce her warn them Are you tired?

(16) Unstressed pronunciation

Most functional words in English are supposed to be pronounced unstressed. In most cases, the vowel is altered to /ə/, schwa. This type of modified form in pronunciation is not an error or mistake. If those functional words are compressed and weakened, the speech may sound more natural and close to the target form. However, the pronunciation can be monotonous if these words are all stressed.

In order to maintain the stress-timed rhythm of English, only those important syllables are stressed with regular beats, and the rest of the syllables are weakened.


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2.3.3. Intonation

What is intonation? Intonation is the pitch contour of utterance. A typical pattern of English intonation has stress on the final content word of a tone group, as in the data in (17). A tone group is an unbroken rhythmic sequence, and in a certain degree, corresponds to the traditional sense of "a breath group."

(17) Tone groups

a. It is anNOUNced. b. A typical intonation of ENGlish / shows stress on the final content

word of a TONE group / as shown in the following DAta.

In the absence of emphatic context as in (17), the primary stress always falls on the last content word of a tone group. A tone group consists of three parts: 1) head, the beginning part, 2) tonic syllable, the syllable with the primary stress, and 3) tail, the ending part. Thus, the first tone group in (17b) has the following structure in (18).

(18) Constituents of a tone group

Head: A typical intonation ofTonic Syllable: ENG Tail: lish

In (18), the reference point is the "tonic syllable" with the primary stress, and its preceding part is called "head," and the following part, "tail."

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Let us consider the intonation patterns of these three components of a tone group.

The tonic syllable is generally in the final content word of a tone group, if no particular context is given. Given the context of emphasis or contrast, then the tonic syllable falls onto the emphasized word. Consider the following sentences in (19).

(19) Tonic syllables in emphatic context

a. Q: Who resigned?A: The Minister of eduCAtion resigned.

b. Q: How did Sumi know about the typo? A: She TYPEd the text.c. She TYPEd the text, she did not WRITE it.d. It was the Minister of eduCAtion who resigned,

and not the Minister of HEALTH.

The dialogues in (19a) and (19b) have the tonic syllables on emphasized words, and (19c) and (19d) have those on the contrastive information. The intonation of the head depends on the speaker's mood: medium head in normal mood, high head in lively mood, and low head in depressed mood. For the ease of reference, the following transcription in (20) includes the scale of relative pitch height, and the words include underlined stress and capitalized tonic syllables.


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(20) Head depends on speaker's mood

a. Medium head in normal mood

←───── head ─────→

High FO

Mid The parents were certainly in RM

Low ed.

b. High head in lively mood

←――― head ―――→

High What a beautiful new HO

Mid U

Low SE!

c. Low head in depressed mood

← head →

High

Mid LAST

Low Tom died night.

The transcription in (20) demonstrates how the pitch contour of head intonation reflects the speaker's mood: medium for normal mood in (a), high for lively mood in (b), and low for depressed mood in (c).

On the other hand, the intonation of the tail depends on the types of sentence: a rising tail for yes-no questions, a medium tail for non-final phrases, and a falling tail for all other types.

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(21) Tail depends on types of sentence

a. Rising tail (Yes/No question, Echo question)

ⅰ) Yes/No question

←tail→

SE? High

Did you report the CA Mid

Low

ⅱ) Echo question

Speaker A: You just hurt Tom.

Speaker B: I just did WHAT?

←tail→

AT? High

I just did WH Mid

Low

b. Medium tail (Non-final phrase)

ⅰ) mid-fall

←tail→

HO High

When he had finished TY ping, he went M Mid

E. Low


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ⅱ) level

←tail→

HO High

When he had finished TY ping, he went M Mid

E. Low

ⅲ) low-rise

←tail→

HO High

When he had finished TYping, he went M Mid

E. Low

c. Falling tail (Statement, Wh-question, Imperative, Exclamation)

ⅰ) Statement

←tail→

AN High

The employees were g Mid

ry. Low

ⅱ) Wh-question

←tail→

ME High

When did they E Mid

T? Low

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ⅲ) Imperative

←tail→

GAR High

Throw the ba Mid

ge. Low

ⅳ) Exclamation

←tail→

What a C High

A Mid

R! Low

In summation, intonation is the pitch contour of a tone group. A tone group consists of three parts: the tonic syllable with a primary stress, the preceding head, and the following tail. A tonic syllable is normally located on the final content word, but shifts to the emphasized word when a context is given. The pitch height of a head depends on the speaker's mood. We find a high head for lively mood, a medium head for normal mood, and a low head for depressed mood. The pitch height of a tail depends on the types of sentences. For example, we find a rising tail for yes-no questions, a medium tail for non-final phrases, and a falling tail for statements.

2.3.4. Summary

This section 2.3 investigated the prosodic variation of stress and intonation. English is a stress-timed language in which the stress is assigned in regular intervals. The stress placement is mainly determined by morphological


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information. In order to maintain the stress-timed rhythm, unstressed syllables are weakened and reduced. In a sentence level, stress normally falls on the last content word, and forms the tonic syllable of the tone group. Placement of a tonic syllable is affected by emphasis and contrast. The intonation preceding the tonic syllable, the head, depends on the mood of speakers (lively, depressed, etc.). The intonation following the tonic syllable, the tail, on the other hand, depends on such types of sentence.

2.4. Acoustic Phonetics of English

In the preceding sections in 2.2 and 2.3, we have seen various components of speech sounds: consonants, vowels, stress, and intonation. The description has been based on the movements of speech organs or the hearer's perception. The phonetic information is transmitted from the speaker to the hearer. The task of transmission is carried out by the air in the form of sound waves. In this section 2.4, we shall study the linguistically significant information concerning sound waves.

2.4.1. Sound Waves

The airstream escaping the speaker's mouth and nose compresses the molecules of air. As soon as the air escapes the mouth during the sound production, the airstream collides with neighboring air particles. This causes the particles to be pulsed on one hand and sends the original particles backwards on the other hand. After a series of collisions, each particle ends up just about where it started. The collisions give rise to a chain reaction transmitting right across the air from the speaker to the hearer. The amount of the air compression and rarefaction is diagrammed in the following graph in (22). The horizontal axis represents the time.

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(22) Simple sound wave

This graph illustrates a sound wave with each cycle of 0.1 second. The number of cycles occurring within one second is termed the frequency of a sound wave. In general, the higher the frequency is, the higher is the perceived pitch.

Another important parameter in describing a sound wave is amplitude. The amplitude of a sound wave is the maximum deviation from the normal air pressure. Perceived loudness correlates with amplitude.

The sound wave shown in (22) is a simple type called "sine wave." Such a wave corresponds to single, pure tones, as produced, for example, by a tuning fork.

Speech sounds normally involve complex sound waves, composed of a series of sine waves. The following (23) is the sound waveform for the vowel [æ].

(23) Complex sound wave


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Sounds resulted from repetitive sound waves are sonorant segments such as vowels, nasals, and liquids. An obstruent, on the other hand, shows either a non-repetitive sound wave as in a fricative, or no sound wave at all as in a stop. The following signal in (24) presents the fricative sound [s].

(24) Sound wave of a fricative

A close look at sound waves gives clues on the sonority of segments, the obstruction of consonants, loudness, and pitch. Sonorant segments characterize repetitive waves, while obstruents, non-repetitive ones. Vowels exhibit more complex repetitive waves than sonorant consonants. Among obstruents, stops contain a closed period within which no air movement is observed, whereas fricatives mark the continuant turbulent noise.

Loudness is shown by the maximum deviation from the normal air pressure, while pitch, by the number of cycles repeated in one second. These sound waveforms are transformed into the sound spectrograms that reveal differences among various consonants and vowels.

2.4.2. Sound Spectrogram

One of the most useful instruments in the acoustic analysis of speech is the sound spectrograph. A spectrograph is the instrument that analyzes speech in terms of its frequency and intensity components over time. The

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graph produced by a sound spectrograph is called a spectrogram. A spectrogram for the phrase a Korean speaker spoken by a Korean speaker is produced in (25).

(25) Spectrogram for a Korean speaker

The spectrogram has three parameters: 1) time represented by the horizontal axis, 2) frequency marked in cps (cycles per second) along the vertical axis, and 3) intensity marked by the blackish bars of the print. The greater intensity is marked by the greater degree of blackness.

The black horizontal bars shown in (25) are called formants. Vowel sounds are acoustically distinguished by distinct formants, sonorant consonants by light formants, and obstruents by no formant. The spectrograph is a very reliable tool for phoneticians because it enables them to read the utterance from its display with the knowledge and experience of what certain speech sounds typically look like.

2.4.3. Experimental Methods

Acoustic phonetics, defined as the study of physical properties of speech sound, requires physical experiments, and asks for some minimal contribution of psychological intuition. Intuition may be different from


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physical reality, and thus is unreliable for the investigation of acoustic phonetics.

For a reliable experiment, considerations should include 1) appropriate tools, 2) methods, 3) the number of speakers, and 4) the number of repetitions. Most of the methods and experiments currently employed in the field of phonetics use computer technology to measure and calculate the speed of movements of the articulators, the places of articulation, the interplay between the articulators, the duration of acoustic events, the force of the airstream, and so forth. Phoneticians collaborate with speech pathologists, electrical engineers, and artificial intelligence scientists. The examination of sound waveforms and spectrograms is, of course, not exhaustive. There are many more ways to test and investigate the physical properties of speech sounds.

In addition, more data gathered by more repetitions of more speakers would increase the reliability of phonetic experiments. This is due to the fact that two words can never be pronounced exactly same in actual utterance. In order to compensate and account for the variation in speech, more recordings from more speakers would ensure more reliable results.

2.4.4. Summary

Acoustic phonetics studies the physical properties of speech sounds in the transmitted form of sound waves. The utterance of a speaker is sent in the air to the eardrums of hearers by the way of compression and rarefaction of air. A close look at sound waves gives clues about the sonority of segments, the obstruction of consonants, loudness, and pitch.

The sound waveforms are transformed into a sound spectrogram that reveals the difference between various consonants and vowels. Obstruents are differentiated by the distribution of noise in the spectrogram, while

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vowels by the shape of the first and second formants. Sonorant consonants have faint formants.

The physical properties cannot solely be investigated on intuition, but reliably done so by experiments. Experimental tools and methods are largely based on computer technology. In addition, a number of repetitions by more speakers will increase the reliability of the investigation. The next section 2.5 will discuss the practical uses of the phonetic knowledge.

2.5. Phonetic Application

Phonetics applies to a heterogeneous area including education, medicine, and computational implementation. Applied phonetics has traditionally involved the application of phonemic theories to such practical issues as foreign language teaching and alphabet invention. More recent application of phonetics involves the medical diagnosis and treatment of speech disorders as well as the development of computational systems to deal with speech processing.

2.5.1. Foreign Language Education

The earliest application of the study of phonetics was to teaching; in particular, to foreign language learning. Identifying the phonemes of the target language is the first task of a foreign learner of a given language, if concerned on phonetic representations in a narrow sense. This kind of challenge is exemplified as the following. A Korean speaker often pronounces [sIŋk] for the English word "think" due to the fact that Korean lacks the phoneme /θ/.

The second kind of challenge may be in prosodic manipulation. A Korean learner of English grown up with the syllable-timed language tends


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to pronounce every word with equal stress, which may result in awkwardness.

2.5.2. Alphabet Invention

Different application of phonetic theories and methods has brought about the problems of learning and describing thousands of unwritten languages around the world, and devising writing systems that can be used to record them. Traditionally, this has been a particular concern of missionary societies. Closer to home, the study of phonetics has given an important influence on the practice of the phoneme inventory, which is evident both in developing new writing systems and in refashioning traditional ones so as to make the writing systems adequate to the requirements of modern society.

2.5.3. Speech Therapy

Another application of phonetics addresses the problems that arise when speech sounds are produced incorrectly. Phonetic research plays a central role in the diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of speech disorders, including speaking and hearing defects. Without the phonetic knowledge of speech function process for normal individuals, it is impossible to understand the speech function process for physiologically disrupted individuals. Phonetic information is used to remedy unintelligible or disordered utterances of children and adults. Thorough understanding of phonetics helps a speech pathologist to plan an effective therapy, to write accurate reports on the children whose speech is unintelligible, and to ensure the parents with the evaluation of their children's normal speech development.

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Speech therapy is also commonly used for those who are learning English as a foreign language. Clinical phonetics helps to improve the pronunciation of non-native speakers so as to improve the intelligibility of their speech. Texts in voice and diction serve to educate students about the speech-sound production with the goal of more effective use of the speech mechanism.

2.5.4. Speech Processing

It is only recent that phonetics has come to bear a technological importance, but is already evident that computational applications of the field will have more far-reaching consequences than any other applications to date. There are two major aspects in which linguistics and the computer science can profitably collaborate.

First, computational techniques are being used in a wide range of traditional research areas from the analysis of speech signals to the collection of data.

The second group of research areas has been created by the computer scientists who have tried to design the systems that can process human speech as naturally as possible. Phoneticians are working with those computer scientists on the programs that are capable of "speech synthesis" and "speech recognition." The synthesis programs enable computers to talk to the users. The recognition programs, which are more difficult to make, enable computers to understand the spoken input.

Although we have achieved only partial success in this respect, some of the programs have already shown valuable practical applications. Speech synthesis programs, for example, have made possible the partial automation of telephone information services. Speech recognition programs have also made it possible to use computers for a limited number of commands without using a keyboard.


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2.5.5. Summary

A wide application of phonetics occurs in foreign language education, which concerns, on one hand, the correct use of phonemes in the target language and, on the other hand, the fluent command of prosodic features of stress and intonation.

Since the colonial period of European countries, devising a writing system for lesser known languages has put importance on phonetic techniques of devising phoneme inventory. This has been a particular concern of missionary societies that are eager to make the scriptures available to the people in the third world.

As medical benefits have reached beyond life and death matters, people have concerned more for a "better" life, and have begun to attend speech therapy. Phoneticians can acoustically and articulatorily diagnose patients' problems and treat them through behavioral therapy. After testing hearing ability, providing the prescription of a hearing device also belongs to phoneticians' responsibility.

Finally, the development of computational technology has brought on the technological importance of phonetics. Speech processing techniques have resulted in the valuable application of some speech synthesis and recognition programs for public use. The immediate consequence of the appearance of these new applications is that phonetics has begun rapidly to emerge from the academy. Already, an unprecedented number of phoneticians are prevalently working in private sectors. In addition, corporations, hospitals, and institutes are underwriting research on both applied and theoretical phonetics.

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2.6. Summing up

Phonetics deals with the sounds of language. Articulatory phonetics studies the way sounds are produced by the vocal organs; acoustic phonetics is the physical properties of sounds themselves.

The articulatory concern of English phonetics is on one hand consonantal and vowel inventories of English phonemes, and on the other hand, stress and intonation of English prosody. Several phonemes in English differ from those in Korean. Also, the stress-timed nature of English contrasts to the syllable-timed Korean.

The physical properties of sounds are conveyed in the form of sound waves. Waveforms display numerous kinds of prosodic information as to loudness and pitch as well as the segmental information as to whether the given part is a stop, a fricative, a sonorant consonant, or a vowel. A sound spectrogram even makes it possible to identify various consonants and vowels. Acoustic phonetics requires the physical experiments for a scientific investigation. For this purpose, care must be taken in terms of selection of instruments, methods, number of speakers, and repetitions of recording.

Phonetic studies are applied in language education, the inventory of a writing system, speech disorder in medicine, speech processing in engineering, to name a few.


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- EXERCISES -1. Following are the pairs of some speech sounds in English and Korean.

Choose a pair that does not belong to the same phoneme. The symbol [ṉ] in the data below refers to a denti-alveolar nasal.

(1) English [ph] and [p] (2) English [n] and [ṉ](3) Korean [h] and [ŋ] (4) Korean [l] and [r]

2. Find an item whose pronunciation is correctly shown.

(1) [ʒ] (2) [ʧ]

(3) [m] (4) [ð]

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3. Consider the following sound waveforms and spectrograms, and fill in the blanks.

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

(1) The waveform (a) must be a(n) ___ consonant, since it is non-repetitive.

(2) The waveform (b) must be a(n) ___ consonant, since its sonority is bigger than an obstruent and smaller than a vowel.

(3) The spectrogram (c) must be a(n) , since it contains the formant bars.

(4) The spectrogram (d) must be a front vowel, since its second formant is a(n) ___ .


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2 syllables 3 syllables 4 syllables

BREAKfast Analyze aSPAragus

CANdle CHAracter aMErica

NEver Elephant aPOlogy

LESson PHOtograph curRIculum

PAper PArody naPOleon

STUdy VItamin paNOrama

4. Consider the following data in English stress, and state how the stress may be predicted. Your discussion may include the notions of the root, the place of stress, regular suffixes, strong suffixes, and grammatical categories.

(1)

(2)-al: Origin + al = oRIginal

-ial: ADverb + ial = adVERbial

-ic: TElegraph + ic = teLEgraphic

-ify: SOlid + ify = soLIdify

-ity: SINgular + ity = singuLArity

(3)-aire: MILlion + aire = millioNAIRE

-ation: GEnerate + ation = geneRAtion

-ee: ADdress + ee = addresSEE

-ese: jaPAN + ese = japaNESE

-ette: CIgar + ette = cigaRETTE

-teen: FIVE + teen = fifTEEN

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Noun Verb Noun Verb

ABstract abSTRACT INterchange interCHANGE

CONvict conVICT PROgress proGRESS

DIgest diGEST RAMpage ramPAGE

DIScount disCOUNT REcord reCORD

EXport exPORT SUBject subJECT

INcrease inCREASE TRANSfer transFER

(4)

5. Discuss the potential problems that a Korean learner of spoken English may have with the underlined segments of the following words: zoo, dizzy, ease; usual, vision, rouge. Your discussion must include any typical mistake and suggestion for improvement.

**** SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS ****1. (3) 2. (1) 3. (1) obstruent (2) sonorant (3) vowel (4) high 4. (1) For a word made of a root only, an anti-penultimate syllable is stressed as long as the syllable is available. (2) For regular suffixes, the suffixed form receives the stress in the third syllable from the end. (3) For strong suffixes, the suffixes take the primary stress. (4) Nouns receive the stress on the first syllables, and verbs on the final syllables. 5. The typical mistake is to contact the tongue with the upper jaw as in Korean affricate [ㅈ]. The suggestion for improvement is, therefore, not to contact tongue with the upper jaw because these sounds in question are fricatives in English.


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- RECOMMENDED FURTHER READING -Bauer, Laurie, John M. Dienhart, Hans H. Hartvigson, and Lief Kvistgaard

Jakobson (1980). American English Pronunciation. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.This is a textbook for advanced learners of English who are interested in American pronunciation rather than the British one. The book is primarily pedagogical in articulatory phonetics for non-native speakers, especially for articulating individual phoneme sounds in various environment.

Denes, Peter B. and Elliot N. Pinson (1993). The Speech Chain: The Physics and Biology of Spoken Language. New York: Freeman.This book discusses the spoken message in its progress from the brain of the speaker to the brain of the hearer: linguistic, psychological, physiological, anatomical, and acoustic aspects of speech production and perception.

Lagefoged, Peter (1982). A Course in Phonetics (2nd edition). New York: Harcourt. This is an introductory text book useful to the students in phonetics, and in particular to those who are more concerned with studying the scientific approaches of phonetics including phonetic transcription, world-wide data of phoneme contrast, and acoustic measurement.

Prator, Clifford H. Jr. and Betty Wallace Robinett (1985). Manual of American English Pronunciation (4th edition). Chicago: Holt.This manual focuses on the pronunciation aspect of American English. The book meets the needs of advanced non-native speakers

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of English that they learn new speech rhythms and intonation patterns, acquire a more natural and less bookish delivery of speech, and strengthen the habit of weakening unstressed vowels.

understanding english linguistics - cms 솔루션...

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