itllllllilM!
ж
m
■ iiilStlllilll
^ ffi ^ Ш Ш
Section I ENGLISH RHYTHM
i m
м
Unit 1. Peculiarities of English Rhythm
Explanation
An essential feature of connected speech is that the peaks of prominence - the stressed syllables - are closely connected with non-prominent syllables. The latter are attached to the stressed syllables, they never exist by themselves: a monosyllabic utterance, e.g.: xYes. 4No. 4Here., is always an utterance formed by a stressed syllable.
The simplest example of a close relationship between the stressed and unstressed syllables is a polysyllabic word-utterance which is a phonetic and semantic entity incapable of division, e.g.:
excellent. To-morrow. NCertainly.
Thus an utterance is split into groups of syllables unified by a stressed syllable, i.e. stress-groups, each of which is a semantic unit - generally a word, often more than a word, because stress does not fall on every word in an utterance, and occasionally it is less than a word, considering the possibility of words with two stresses. Within a stress-group composed of one polysyllabic word the unstressed syllables may join the stressed one as either proclitics (preceding it) or enclitics (following it). However, the status of the unstressed syllables in an utterance is not always clear, particularly, when notional words are interspersed with unstressed function words:
'Peter was 'ready to 'go with us Чоо.
It is natural that the unstressed function words should be attached to the notional (content) word with which they are connected semantically and grammatically, and the difference between proclitics and enclitics, then, is predetermined by these criteria. Consequently, unless we assume that the semantic and grammatical links between words are manifested phonetically and, namely, prosodically, the discrimination of proclitics and enclitics would be unnecessary. The given assumption has been supported by experimental evidence, particularly, concerning the speed of utterance: proclitics appear to be considerably faster in pronunciation than enclitics. This difference can easily be observed by comparing the speed of utterance in the prehead and in the tail of the intonation-group, which are the most obvious and doubtless examples of proclitics and enclitics, respectively:
We could 'go from 4Manchester. Now 'here's the 'weather forecast. You're \Silly then.
An important feature of English pronunciation is that the prominent syllables in an utterance occur at approximately equal periods of time. When an utterance consists
ENGLISH RHYTHM
of stressed syllables only, this peculiarity implies more or less -the same length of each stressed syllable in an utterance:
'Don't 'go xnow.
'Come 'right Miere.
'Two 'days Mong.
When there are unstressed syllables between the stressed ones it means equal time for each of the stressed groups:
I'd 'like to 'give you a 'piece of adVice.
I sup'pose the best thing is to 'try Mater.
It must be understood that this isochrony is relative, not absolute: the actual physical duration of adjacent stress-groups in an utterance is but rarely equal; however, on the perceptible level stresses appear to occur more or less regularly This impression is largely based on the instability of syllable duration in speech: when the number of syllables in adjacent stress-groups is not equal, the speed of utterance will be the highest in the group having the largest number of syllables and, vice versa, the tempo is noticeably slower in a group having fewer syllables. Thus the perceptible isochrony of stress-groups is based on the speakers tending to minimize the differences in the length of stressed groups in an utterance. In other words, the peculiar feature of English speech - regularity of stresses - is rather an underlying tendency than an actual characteristic.
The above-mentioned compression of syllable duration, on the one hand, and its lengthening, on the other, are manifested in speech in different ways: the former is more typical of unstressed syllables, while the latter is more frequently realized on the stressed ones: unstressed syllables are normally shorter than the stressed ones and this normal relationship would be destroyed if unstressed syllables were made to sound noticeably longer and the stressed syllables noticeably shorter than usual, whereas lengthening of stressed syllables and shortening of the unstressed ones only emphasizes the existing kind of relationship between them.
Thus it has been shown that stress in English performs, besides semantic, an important function of 'organizing'' an utterance, providing the basis for its r h у t h m i с structure which is the realization of rhythm as a prosodic feature of speech.
Rhythm is defined in different languages in largely the same terms. The notion of rhythm implies, first of all, a certain periodicity of phonological events. For an English utterance these events, as has been made clear, are the stressed syllables.
Periodicity does not necessarily mean equality of time intervals between certain phenomena. However, such an equality, relative as it may be, is a peculiarity of English. English speech is therefore often described as more 'rhythmic' than, for example, Russian (the term 'rhythmic' here is used in the sense of 'isochronous').
NON-SEGMENTAL PHONETICS
It follows from the above discussion that the units of the rhythmic organization of an utterance are stress-groups which, for that matter, may be just as well called rhythmic groups.
Since the effect of isochrony is based primarily on the perception of peaks of prominence as more or less regular beats, the boundaries between rhythmic groups are often associated with the stressed syllables. Such a 'formal' approach has proved rather convenient for practical purposes, as it helps to keep regular time intervals between the stressed syllables. Yet, this kind of rhythmic division has some weak points. The main drawback is that all unstressed syllables are treated as enclitics. And this may in some cases lead to semantic distortions because the prosodic junctures between different meaningful units within an utterance are displaced:
He was 'laughing at ] everything. He was 'laughed at | everywhere.
As is seen from the first example, the formal rhythmic boundary is in conflict with the meaning of the utterance, according to which it should be divided into the following rhythmic groups:
He was 'laughing | at everything.
There seem to be two principles operating in speech simultaneously: keeping more or less regular time intervals between stresses, on the one hand, and marking the semantic links between unstressed and stressed syllables, on the other. The learner's acquisition of correct English rhythmic patterns depends on his ability to control both these factors in connected speech.
Ear-Training
I. Listen to the following utterances. Note that the number of stresses in them corresponds to the number of rhythmic groups. Note also that the time period for each rhythmic group is 'programmed' by the duration of the first utterance in each set.
1. A Nstreet. A busy 4street. A 'busy 'straight xstreet. A busy 'straight 'central Nstreet.
3. A 4chair.
A 'wooden Nchair. 'Granny's 'wooden 4chair. 'Granny's 'favourite 'wooden 4chair.
5. A ^square. 'Red ^Square. 'Red 'Square in xMoscow. 'Red 'Square in the 'centre of ^Moscow.
2. A 4iat. A 'straw xhat. A 'dirty 'straw 4hat. A 'very 'dirty 'straw Miat.
4. A telephone.
A 'public Helephone. 'Two 'public ^telephones. 'Two 'new 'public ^telephones.
6. traffic. 'Street Hraffic. Some 'heavy 'street Hraffic. Some 'very 'heavy 'street Hraffic.
ENGLISH RHYTHM
* Щ SS if s p Ш
105
U
i
nit 2. The Influence of Rhythm
On Word-Stress and Utterance-Stress Explanation
Regularity of occurrence of stressed syllables in English is closely related to another important feature of English rhythm: alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables /This tendency may be accounted for by several reasons and, first of all, by a high frequency of monosyllabic notional words (disposed to be stressed in an utterance) and intervening function-words (usually unstressed). A sequence of disyllabic words which typically have one stress presents a similar pattern of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables even though there may be a number of form-words between the notional ones. It must be understood that the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables is but rarely of an 'ideal' pattern, such as in the following utterances, e.g.:
I 'can't be'lieve my xeyes.
He 'never 'comes aMone. _
The ratio of stressed and unstressed syllables may be one to two, one to three, or even more, e.g.:
They are 'leaving to'morrow by Nair. —
The bus is more convenient than the 4ram.
Moreover, in the majority of cases the number of unstressed syllables between the stressed ones varies within an utterance, i.e. the rhythmic groups have uneven numbers of syllables, e.g.:
Will 'someone 'meet you at the .station?
The tendency to alternate stressed and unstressed syllables thus appears to merely reflect the peculiarity of the composition of an English utterance and its utterance-stress. However, this tendency becomes active, i.e. capable of introducing certain modifications in the accentual structure, when an utterance consists exclusively of monosyllabic notional words, e.g.:
'Come next xweek. "Now turn Meft.
In such cases stressing all the consecutive words is generally avoided, although there may be instances of juxtaposed stress if the meaning requires it, e.g.:
'Most toys 'like xdogs.
The same tendency to avoid stressing adjacent words is observed even when these words are not monosyllables. We may conclude, therefore, that the above-mentioned peculiarity is not restricted to the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables but involves alternating stressed and unstressed (prominent and non-prominent) words as
114
NON-SEGMENTAL PHONETICS
. As a result, the 'normal' stressing of words in an utterance can be modified: entitled to become prominent due to the their content nature are 'deprived' of inence in an utterance if both the immediately following and immediately eJing words are stressed, e.g.:
She is a 'very good ^actress, but -
She is a 'good 4actress.
phenomenon is known as the influence of rhythm on utterance-stress. It must be sized, however, that such modifications as those illustrated in the above examples Id not interfere with the communicative meaning of an utterance; in other words, decisive factor for utterance-stress is the semantic weight of a word in the given text.
The tendency to alternate strong and weak syllables accounts for making two ables prominent in many English polysyllabic words, e.g.:
examination / 'absoMutely / con'sideVation
[ nected speech, however, such words may lose one of the stresses or, at any \ one of the stresses is somewhat suppressed, i.e. made partial, e.g.:
The 'girl looked 'absolutely Movely.
They've been 'talking about the e*xami4nations.
omission of one of the stresses is more typical of double-stressed words with a nd stress having a semantic function, e.g. weekend, unknown, well-known, etc., reas polysyllabic derivative words, like examination, conversation are more stable their accentual pattern, particularly, because initially the double-stressed pattern of h words is already the result of the rhyhmic tendency.
Ear-Training
Practise the following double-stressed words. Pronounce them after the speaker observing full or partial stress in prenuclear position.
) 'downstairs 'light-Nheaded 'afterxnoon bright-veyed Wfair 'sixHeen 'in4side
b) ^nfhienza epidemic ^ntroMuce !underNstand rcigaVette stimulation ,terri4orial
О
get \ip stand 4ip go xup stay 4ip make Hip look Nforward turn 4over
Practise the same words in extended utterances. Compare the number of stressed syllables in them.
1. But 'when I 'came downvstairs, he was pressed. 2. I 'thought per'haps he was a 'little light-4headed. 3."You could 'spend a "couple of /hours there !> vcom-
RHYIHM
наш ж ж itiiitiasiitiiiiiiiiiistiiiia
.w THE PITCH COMPONENT OF INTONATION 1У (PROSODY)
Unit 1. General Analysis of the Pitch Component
Explanation
component of intonation, or speech melody, is commonly referred to nations in the height of the voice during speech, and is generally described in of pitch-changes and levels. , pitch-level is a certain height within the speaker's voice-range. The notion of a 1 may be applied to the whole stretch of an utterance, and then it means the ge height of the voice during the pronunciation of the given utterance. In a wer sense a pitch-level is associated with some particular point in an utterance, rally the boundary points of pronunciation units: syllables, rhythmic groups, nation-groups. The starting, mid and ending points of a unit, particularly, those of -.able may coincide in their height and then the syllable is pronounced on a :.. unchanged pitch. In such cases the most significant perceptible characteristic the actual height of the unit in relation to the speaker's voice-range. If the voice at beginning of a unit is higher (or lower) than at its end, there is an effect of a ing or a rising pitch change. The height of the voice within a unit may change in directions: upward and then downward, or vice versa - a Rise-Fall or a Fall-. respectively; sometimes there may be even three changes - Rise-Fall-Rise.
eptible variations in the height of the voice may be based on actual changes of fundamental frequency of voice within vowels (and sonorants) as in the examples or result from a contrast between the pitch-levels of the adjacent syllables, as the examples below.
pitch-change (whether a real glide or the result of a pitch contrast) is a feature eived more easily than a pitch-level. Priority in identification is usually given to direction of the pitch movement rather than to the height of the beginning and :ng points of the pitch movement. However, variations within pitch-changes of same directional type can be captured and summed up only by introducing dations according to their initial and final levels.
Pitch-levels can be conveniently described in terms of three relevant zones within speaker's voice-range:
■
ЙТСН COMPONENT OF INTONATION (PROSODY) • *■*■■«*»* 123:
■
ж
high
mid
> the speaker's voice-range
low
Any height within the voice-range is determined by the zone it belongs to: it is identified as a low pitch-level within the low zone; as a mid level within the median zone and as a high pitch-level in the high zone. Each of the pitch zones can be further subdivided, and the number of pitch levels thereby increased: fairly high and very high, rather low and very low, mid high and mid low:
very high fairly high
mid high mid low
* the speaker's voice-range
f
airly low very low
In reality, of course, there are many more gradations of pitch-height than is shown in the above scheme, but they are not all of them significant for perception and can therefore be regarded as irrelevant for linguistic purposes.
From the functional point of view the pitch-level plays an important role in marking the degree of semantic prominence attached by the speaker to this or that word or phrase in an utterance. E.g.:
As I exipect you've \heard | they are 'only admitting e\mergency ,cases. The Conservatives, | who llike the proposal, | are ^pleased.
Pitch level is also significant for conveying various shades of modal-attitudional meanings and emotional colouring.
'Thank you for the Compliment, (normal)
,Thank you for the ^compliment, (grim, cool, surly)
It was 'very Coring, (categoric, protesting) It was ,very 4boring. (calm, phlegmatic)
Unit 2. Static and Kinetic Tones. Anatomy of a Tune