Connected Speech Features And Prosody

Question 1

What is connected speech

Answer 1

a phrase

Question 2

What is the citation form

Answer 2

When a word is said on its own

Question 3

What is a strong form of pronunciation and give an example

Answer 3

Occur when the word is stressed
Eg i bought cheese AND crackers

Question 4

What is a weak form of pronunciation and give an example

Answer 4

Occur when the word is unstressed
I bought CHEESE and crackers

Question 5

What is vowel reduction

Answer 5

-occurs in connected speech with the use of ‘weak forms’
-most unstressed vowels reduce to a schwa

Question 6

When vowel reduction occurs what does the sound /i/ often become reduced to

Answer 6

/ɪ/

Question 7

When vowel reduction occurs what does the /u/ sound often become reduced to

Answer 7

/ʊ/

Question 8

What is elision

Answer 8

Elision involves dropping or suppressing a segment or syllable, under certain circumstances, some sounds disappear

Question 9

What does elision include

Answer 9

-vowel deletion
-omission/non release of adjacent consonants
-h dropping

Question 10

What is assimilation

Answer 10

When one sound is changed to another because of a neighbouring sound (different to phonological process of assimilation)

Question 11

What is anticipatory assimilation

Answer 11

The articulation of one sound is influenced by the articulation of the next sound.

Question 12

What is progressive assimilation

Answer 12

When the preceding sound is the influential sound

Question 13

What is liaison

Answer 13

-this is the process often referred to as linking /r/ to move between two vowels
-when a word which historically ended in /r/ precedes a vowel initial word the /r/ is realised

Question 14

What is how we talk affected by

Answer 14

Gender, age, region, social and cultural background, race, employment and group loyalty

Question 15

Why is there pitch differences in gender

Answer 15

• anatomical/ hormonal reasons
  -speed of vibrations is determined by size, mass and length of vocal cords
  -men tend to have larger vocal cords which therefore vibrate more slowly
  -slow vibrations sound lower in pitch.
  -therefore men tend to have lower pitch than women

Question 16

Difference in language use between genders

Answer 16

Women are more likely to :
- use standard grammar and milder accent
-apologise more frequently
-interrupt less and be interrupted more by both male and female
-speak less when outnumbered by men

Question 17

What is presbyphonia

Answer 17

Age related changes to the voice

Question 18

How does age change our speech

Answer 18

Anatomical ageing and weakness in breath support lead to changes in voices, breath patterns and power or articulation.

Question 19

How do people of an older age react to language changes

Answer 19

As people age they may be threatened by the new variants: forget language is always evolving and try to preserve its form.

Question 20

What does MLE stand for

Answer 20

Multicultural London English

Question 21

What is MLE

Answer 21

• ‘youth dialect’
• emerging since the 1980s in parts of London that have a relatively high level of immigration (wind rush generation)

Question 22

Features of MLE

Answer 22

• dental fricatives replaced with labiovelar fricatives in medial position eg “are you bovvered?”
• Dental fricatives replaced with bilabial plosives in initial position eg them = /dem/
• Use of rising intonation and the end of sentences
• Reduction of “isn’t it?” To “init”
• Use of glottle stops in water and bottle

Question 23

Accent definition

Answer 23

the phonetic/ phonological characteristics of speech that may reveal in what country or party of the country the speaker grew up.

Question 24

Definition of dialect

Answer 24

features of grammar and vocabulary in addition to aspects of pronunciation

Question 25

What is Received Pronunciation (RP)

Answer 25

• RP is a social accent rather than a regional accent
• Although it is the standard, its not spoken by most people.

Question 26

What are the 3 kinds of Received Pronunciation

Answer 26

Conservative
Mainstream
Contemporary

Question 27

Received Pronunciation conservative

Answer 27

Now ‘marked’ ie sounds old fashioned

Question 28

Received Pronunciation
Mainstream

Answer 28

Relatively neutral

Question 29

Received Pronunciation contemporary

Answer 29

Younger speakers, some distinct features

Question 30

Rhotic accent

Answer 30

• A rhotic speaker pronounces a rhotic consonant in words like hard and butter, a non rhotic speaker does not.
• The rhotic vertigo a of English include the dialects of south wales, canada, Scotland, Ireland and most of the United States.

Question 31

Non rhotic accent

Answer 31

• Non rhotic accents are said to exclude the sound [ɺ] before a consonant or a pause- this is referred to as “post vocalic R”
• Non rhotic speakers pronounce a /ɹ/ in red, where the letter r is followed by a vowel but not in hard or car or water

Question 32

In coupland and bishops survey on reactions to 34 accents. What were the highest and lowest rated

Answer 32

ounger informants less likely to attribute prestige to standard accent.
- High rated: RP, Irish and Scottish accents
- Lowe rated: Glasgow, Birmingham, Liverpool, Asian or German
- Most people liked their own accent and expressed pride in their own regional accent.

Question 33

What does standard English refer to

Answer 33

• Standard English refers to both accent and dialect.
• This is the variety taught in schools, found in newspapers and books and associated with public broadcasting.
• It is the variety most usually taught to those who want to learn English as a second language.

Question 34

Natural personal variation
Accommodation

Answer 34

• Accomodation- process by which participants in a conversation adjust their accent, dialect or other aspects of language according to the speech style of the other participant.

Question 35

Implications for language assessment

Answer 35

Implications for language assessment
- For a child or adult speaking non standard accent/ dialect:
- Consider which phonological, lexical and grammatical characteristics constitute accent/ dialect differences.
- These are not errors that need correcting.

Question 36

After the age of 5 how does children’s language change

Answer 36

Phonological awareness
Vocabulary growth
Derviational morphology
Lower frequency syntactic constructions
Use of connectives
Conversational and narrative skills

Question 37

Children’s negative sentences forms in order of development:

Answer 37

1) sentences with external negative marker
Eg no the sun shining
2)constructions with internal negative marker but no auxiliaries
I no want envelope
3)constructions with auxiliaries
I didn’t did it