Week 5 Slides Phonetics and phonology.pptx

Phonetics and Phonology

1. ALT8021: Language Awareness SESSION 5: Introduction to phonetics and phonology Dr Elaine Lopez 1.38 KGVI [email protected]

2. Outline Outstanding issues / work The phonemic alphabet (phonetics) Connected Speech processes (phonology)

3. But first… ..a correction Word family (a definition from Bauer and Nation, 1993): the inflections and derivations Lexeme : the collection of different forms that make up a single identifiable semantic unit (i.e. a word and its inflections) Lemma: a word without any morphological changes made to it (i.e. a root) A lexeme is a unit of meaning, and can be more than one word. A lexeme is the set of all forms that have the same meaning, while lemma refers to the particular form that is chosen by convention to represent the lexeme. Sorry for any confusion (including my own)!!

4. Expletives There is / There are / It ( It rained; It snowed) They are in subject position but are they subjects? ‘It ’ is a pronoun which doesn’t refer to anything (‘dummy subject’) One argument: if you can form a tag question then it is a subject: ‘There’s going to be a party, isn’t there?’ ‘It rained, didn’t it?’ Many syntactitions argue that both are subjects and give detailed (and complex) justifications for this argument relating to movement etc. They refer to it as ‘TP’ where T refers to ‘tense’ and say it is a type of noun (but not a full NP) See: Adger , D. (2003). Core Syntax . Oxford: OUP pp.209-210 and Carnie, A. (2007) Syntax. Malden, MA: Blackwell pp. 228-229.

5. Review Last week we talked about… Simple and complex words Affixation (the process of adding prefixes, suffixes, infixes) Free and bound morphemes The difference between a root and a base Allomorphs Inflections and derivations Now for some more fun with morphology…

6. Zero derivation This is a derivation with no affixation Quite common in English Changes the word class (e.g. between noun and verb) E.g. the play(N)/to play(V) the hammer(N)/to hammer(V) the drink(N)/to drink(V) Different inflections can then be added to the two derivations plays/played hammers/hammered drinks/drank

7. Morphological processes Stress and tone placement Like zero derivation, but with different stress patterns or tone placement to reflect the change in category E.g. a record (N) / to record (V) Affixation p refixes, suffixes, infixes

8. Morphological processes Cliticization Common in French and Spanish, also exist in English as ‘short forms / contractions’ Dependent on other words in sentence E.g. I ’m leaving now. Mary ’s going to succeed.

9. Morphological processes Compounding Combining two free morphemes into a single word Has a further meaning that is not just the sum of its parts (and this is how it differs from a phrase) E.g. Blackboard (not just any board that is black) Paperback (refers to the cover of a book) The grammatical category of a compound word is always the same as the last free morpheme N+N Adj+N N+V N+Adj Sledghammer high school water-ski fire-retardant

10. Morphological processes Internal Change A process that substitutes one base segment for another How we form some irregular past in English E.g. s i ng/s a ng f oo t/f ee t Suppletion A whole root morpheme is replaced by a phonologically unrelated form to indicate grammatical contrast E.g. be/was, am, are…. go/went Complete tasks 4 and 5, and share your answers for the post-session task from last week

11. Phonetics and phonology Beware of heard, a dreadful word, it looks like beard and sounds like bird

12. Dictation Listen to the words and write them down as I read them out How would you group these words? Why? Clue: There are 3 groups. Read through the information on pg. 2 of your handout

13. What is the problem for learners? Stop Door Boat Watch Fall Home Cough Law Low Clock Bought Though

14. The phonemic chart http://www.macmillanenglish.com/phonemic-chart / https:// elt.oup.com/student/englishfile/elementary3/c_pronunciation/pronunciation?cc=gb&selLanguage=en http://www.internationalphoneticalphabet.org/ipa-sounds/ipa-chart-with-sounds /

15. Vowels The main difficulty with single vowels is helping your learners to distinguish between Short vowels e.g. / ʊ / Long vowels e.g. / u : / In most other languages the length of these vowels falls somewhere in the middle between the long and the short vowels.

16. Diphthongs The main difficulty with diphthongs is that the spelling of these sounds is very irregular : Firstly, we have the ones ending in / i / / ei / cake, way, weight, pain, they, / ɔ i / toy, avoid, voice, enjoy, boy / ai / high, tie, buy, kite, might, cry, eye  

17. Diphthongs cont. Then we have the ones ending in / ʊ / / əʊ / go, snow, toast, hello, home, although / a ʊ / house, loud, down, how And finally, the ones ending in schwa / ə / / e ə / where, wear, chair, dare, there / ɪə / beer, beard, fear, pierce, here, / ʊə / sure, obscure, tour

18. Now do Task 1 on your handout

19. Minimal pairs Please do Task 2 on your handout What are the differences between these words? v an ban pan p ray bray sheep ship beach bitch bad bud bed then den ten zen What do we need to be aware of when teaching? Why?

20. Word stress Write down the words you hear. What do all the words have in common? Why might this cause problems for language learners? http://dictionary.cambridge.org /

21. Word Stress Vegetable Interesting Comfortable Literature Each word has stressed syllables and unstressed (or even disappearing) syllables. How would you show this when teaching a learner of English? Why might learners of English have problems with word stress?

22. Word Stress ‘rules’ English is a stress timed language, which makes it sound very syncopated (jazzy). Different words are stressed on different syllables: ‘qualify ba’nana under’stand There are some word stress ‘rules’: Everyday words are stressed on the first syllable (sister , brother, water, paper, coffee, lovely)

23. Word Stress ‘rules’ Compound words are stressed on the first syllable ( postman, newspaper, teapot, crossword) Prefixes and suffixes and not stressed ( disagree, irregular, premature, originally, careless, movement , wonderful)  

24. Connected speech So far, we have looked at phonemes more or less in isolation. But what happens in connected speech? We have to consider stress (both word stress and sentence stress) and intonation Other processes that occur in connected speech include elision, assimilation, and linking

25. Connected speech So far, we have looked at phonemes more or less in isolation. But what happens in connected speech? I thought you wanted to go out. We always go to the movies . I thought you hated westerns . I didn’t go to Hollywood because of the westerns. Now do Task 3a on your handout

26. Sentence stress (3a) Working in pairs, ask your partner these 3 questions: When did you start learning English? Why did you start learning English? If I were your English teacher, what would you want to tell me about yourself, about how you learn? What happens to the pronunciation of the questions? Which words did you stress? Did you notice anything unusual about the unstressed words?

27. Weak forms (3b) If I were y our English teach er , what w ou ld you want to tell me a bout y our self, a bout how you learn ? In connected speech, what happens to the pronunciation of words like ‘ were ’, ‘would’, ‘to’, ‘your’? Can you add some more words like this to this list?

28. Sentence Stress English is a stress-timed language, meaning the stressed syllables occur at regular intervals (approximately), and unstressed syllables shorten to fit the rhythm. Other languages (e.g. Spanish) are syllable-timed, and each syllable takes roughly the same amount of time. Japanese is mora-timed, and also has regular pacing. Some of the words in a sentence are content words, which tend to be stressed and others are function words, which are pronounced in their weak forms. E.g. He LIVES in the HOUSE on the CORner .

29. Weak forms (the schwa /ə / ) Would you like a n apple? It w a s a dark a nd stormy night. Would you like s o me cake? I saw them a t a party. I went t o th e flat afterwards. I m u st go to th e bank.

30. Intonation (3c ) Do Task 3c on the handout http://youtu.be/- 0E27Q_r0ac?t=35s

31. Intonation (c ) Now work with a partner. Practise different ways of saying ‘hi’ in the following situations: A and B are old friends who haven’t seen each other in months – they meet at a party. A and B are colleagues and friends. They meet in the lift at the start of a new working day. A and B are old friends who haven’t seen each other in months. During this time, B has heard that A said nasty things about him/her. (From Thornbury, 1997: 39-40)

32. Intonation Intonation in English is either rising or falling. There is some link between the grammar (the type of sentences) and the intonation . Wh - questions (falling intonation) What’s the time?   Yes/No-questions (rising intonation) Have you got a pen?   Statements (falling) He lives in the house on the corner.    

33. Intonation cont. Imperatives (f alling) Sit down. Put it on the table . Question-tags (asking for confirmation), falling intonation You’re French, aren’t you?   Question-tags (asking a real question), rising intonation You’re French, aren’t you?   Lists (rising, rising…falling) You need a pen, a pencil and some paper Asking for permission (falling) Do you mind if I turn the heating on?

34. So what do teachers need to need know about pronunciation? When we teach new lexis and grammar, learners may also need to know this about the pronunciation… Phonemic symbols Consonant & vowel sounds Word stress Sentence stress Intonation Links between pronunciation and spelling

35. As teachers we also need to consider… Weak forms (schwa) & strong forms Consonant clusters Connected speech processes (more on this next time) Variety of accents Learner needs How ‘learnable’ / How ‘teachable’ is pronunciation?

36. Post-session task Please complete the questionnaire on your handout alone. Arrange to meet up with your study group and complete the other 5 columns Collate your answers – what does this survey tell you about attitudes towards pronunciation?

37. Post-session reading Roach, P. (2009) English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 1 [Link to chapter now available on blackboard]   Read (it’s very short) Understand (look for more readings if you want to know more) Concentrate on your assignment