Mid Level

Sentence - stress is the greater prominence with which one or more words in a sentence are pronounced as compared with the other words of the same sentence. The greater prominence is achieved by a combination of the following means:

1. by uttering the stressed syllable with greater muscular tension;

2. changing the pitch level or pitch direction with which the stressed syllable is pronounced;

3. pronouncing the stressed syllables longer than they would be pronounced when unstressed;

4. pronouncing the vowel of a stressed syllable without changing its quality.

Sentence - stress serves to single out words in the sentence according to their relative semantic importance.

f. ex. But 'Andrew was 'not ↓ calm. (Andrew, not, calm are stressed because they are most important semantically).

Sentences are usually separated from each other by pauses. If necessary, the sentence is subdivided into shorter word-groups according to the sense. These word-groups are called sense-groups or syntagms.

For example: Do you ΄ really ΄ mean to tell me | you ΄ haven’t ΄ had a suit since then ||.

When we talk we do not talk in single words but in groups of words spoken continuously, with no break or pause; we may pause after a group, but not during it. These groups may be long (How did you manage to do it so neatly and tidily?) or short (Yes or No).

When one group is very closely connected grammatically to the next, there is a very slight pause, marked by (|). When two groups are not so closely connected, there is a longer pause, marked by (||), and this double bar is also used to mark the end of a complete utterance.

Rhythm is a recurrence of stressed syllables. Connected English speech comes as a series of closely-knit groups of words, each group containing only one stressed syllable. These are rhythmic groups. A rhythmic group consists of one stressed syllable and following it unstressed syllables.

f. ex. But 'Andrew was'not ↓ calm.

1 2 3

How do you decide what words or syllables go together in a rhythm unit? Here are the rules:

1. Any unstressed syllables at the beginning of a word group must go together with the following stress group:

2. If the unstressed syllable(s) is part of the same word as the stressed syllable they belong to the same rhythm group:

3. If the unstressed syllable(s) is closely connected grammatically to the stressed word, although not a part of that word, they belong to the same rhythm unit:

4. Whenever you are in doubt as to which rhythm unit unstressed syllables belong to, put them after a stress rather than before it. So in He was older than me, if you are doubtful about than, put it with older and not with me.:

 

Sound [Λ ]

Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you.

It only doubles trouble and troubles others too.

 

Graphic equivalents of the sound [Λ ]

u sun [sΛ n]

o come [kΛ m]

oo blood [blΛ d]

ou touch [tΛ t∫ ]

Sound [α: ]

The last part of the article is rather hard to grasp.

Graphic equivalents of the sound [α: ]

a staff [stα: f]

ar far [fα: r]

au aunt [α: nt]

er clerk [klα; k]

ear heart [hα: t]

 

Unit 8