Introduction to English pronunciation and phonetics Lecture 5

Introduction to English pronunciation and phonetics Lecture 5

Sentence stress • one or several words in a sentence pronounced with more emphasis than the other words Rule of thumb • lexical words are stressed • function words are unstressed (=weak form) • new information is stressed • this is a general rule

Sentence stress Compare stress and interpretation Did Erik say that?

Which words are stressed? • When a lexical word doesn’t add new information, it is often unstressed Example: French is a difficult language. French verbs are particularly difficult.

Which words are stressed? • function words can be stressed if adding new info, e. g. for emphasis or contrast. He bought a car and a house. NB! Common Swedish emphasis mistake: *My English is quite good, and I do use it everyday.

Sentence stress vs. strong and weak forms • most function words have strong and weak forms • when the word is unstressed, the weak form is used Examples: We can meet at ten. /kn/ I can do it but I won’t. /kæn/

Sentence stress • ARRIVING HEATHROW SATURDAY NOON. PLEASE MEET. LOVE MARK. • I will be arriving at Heathrow on Saturday at noon. Please can you meet me. With love from Mark.

American English • has its roots in English as it was spoken in Britain, Scotland Ireland in the 17 th and 18 th centuries • changes in North America as well as in the British Isles have resulted in today’s American English • relatively few regional dialects

Br and Am Englishtwo dialects • Vocabulary (e. g. pavement - sidewalk) • Grammar (e. g. Have you eaten already? – Did you eat already? ) • Semantics (e. g. first floor, public school) • Spelling (e. g. colour - color) • Pronunciation

General American • an umbrella term used for neutral and commonly used US English • spoken by a majority of Americans in the Western and Middle states • comparatively few regional accents in US English • Canadian English have many phonological similarities with GA, but is considered a separate variety

Different vowel sounds • RP /ʌ/ — GA /ɜ/ ‘worry, courage, hurry’ • RP /ɒ/ — GA /ɑ: / ; /ɔ: / ‘holiday, want, bomb ; gone, coffee’ • RP /ɑ: / — GA /æ/ ‘dance, laugh, bath, answer’ • Weak/lacking diphthongs in GA ‘hair, here, my’

Different consonant sounds In GA, but not in RP • /r/ is pronounced in all positions • /l/ is more or less dark in all positions • /t/ is a voiced flap /D/ before unstressed syllable E. g. ‘better, writer, metal’ (but not ‘contain’) • ‘wh’ is often pronounced /hw/

Different pronunciations • many individual pronunciation differences RP GA ate /et || eıt / /eıt/ pasta /'pæstə/ /'pɑ: stə/ vitamin /'vıtəmın/ /'vaıtəmın/ tomato /tə'mɑ: təʊ/ /tə'meıtoʊ/ progress /'prəʊgres/ /'prɑ: grəs/ either/neither /'aıðə/ /'i: ðər/

Different word stress • primary stress earlier in GA than in RP in some words RP address donate research GA address donate research

Different word stress • primary stress later in GA than in RP in some French loanwords RP garage café ballet brochure GA garage café ballet brochure

Vowel reduction differences • in some words with suffixes, the vowel in the suffix is less reduced in GA than in RP Examples: February cemetery category ceremony dictionary

and now over to. . .

Written exam: A 1, HS 1/T 1 • part of the A 1/HS 1/T 1 language structure exam • 20 multiple choice questions • roughly proportioned according to the time given to the subject areas in the lectures • example exam in the language structure compendium

• Lecture notes • Language structure compendium • Study questions in Rönnerdal and Johansson (pp. 129 -134)