Prepare good reading of the dialogue. Reproduce it in indirect speech.
A: We tried to fry oysters.
B: To fry oysters? Are you kidding?
A: No! We put moist oysters in the oil and added spices. But still the oysters were spoilt.
B: You should have boiled them.
A: Now we know.
Theoretical Section module 1 reduction
Theoretical Material
Reduction is a positional phonetic process which results in weakening, shortening or disappearance of vowel sounds in an unstressed position. Reduction is closely connected with word-stress, rhythm and sentence-stress. So, reduction is realized:
in unstressed syllables within words
e.g. combine /kqm'baIn/;
in unstressed words within intonation groups
e
.g.
Where do you live? / wFq
dV
jV
lIv/.
There are three types of reduction:
quantitative reduction;
qualitative reduction;
zero reduction (elision).
Quantitative reduction results in shortening of a long vowel sound, as a result, the allophone of one and the same phoneme appears.
e.g. /ju:/ /ju./ /ju/
/hi:/ /hi./ /hi/
Qualitative reduction results in weakening of a vowel sound in an unstressed position. As a result a new phoneme appears. As a rule, quantitative reduction results in the neutral vowel /ə/.
e.g. /wVd/ /wəd/
/wPz/ /wqz/
Long vowels /i:/ and /u:/ are usually reduced to /I/ and /V/ respectively.
e.g. /ju:/ /jV/
/hi:/ /hI/
Zero reduction (elision) results in omission of a vowel sound in an unstressed position.
e.g. /ænd/ /nd/
/frPm/ /frm/
/aI æm/ /aIm/
There are notional words and form-words in English. Unlike notional words, form-words express grammatical relations of words in a sentence.
-
Notional words (not reduced, stressed)
Form-words (reduced, unstressed)
- nouns;
- notional verbs;
- adjectives;
- adverbs;
- numerals;
- demonstrative pronouns;
- interrogative pronouns;
- negative pronouns;
- emphasising pronouns;
- possessive pronouns (absolute form).
- articles;
- particles;
- conjunctions;
- prepositions;
- modal verbs;
- auxiliary verbs;
- link verbs;
- personal pronouns;
- possessive pronouns;
- relative pronouns;
- reflexive pronouns;
- indefinite pronouns.
There exist special (traditional) weak forms for the unstressed words. These forms must be born in mind, as well as the exceptions to the general rules.
Articles
|
strong forms |
weak forms |
||
|
quantitative reduction |
qualitative reduction |
zero reduction |
|
the |
/DJ/ |
/Di., Di/ + V |
/DI/ + V /Dq/ + C |
|
a |
/eI/ |
|
/q/ + C |
|
an |
/xn/ |
|
/qn/ + V |
|
NOTE:
All the words that are usually unstressed (articles included) are used in their full forms when they are logically stressed.
e .g. It was the apple! /It wqz DJ xpl/