Phonology - Connected Speech

Question 0

What is assimilation?

Answer 0

Assimilation is the changing of sounds. Phonemes alter their quality due to the influence of a neighbouring sound.

It is the natural result of various speech organs cutting corners as they perform their complex sequence of movements, and this occurs mainly at word boundaries and mainly affects consonant sounds.

Question 1

What are the three branches of practical phonology?

Answer 1

Sounds

Stress

Intonation

Question 2

What is elision?

Answer 2

Elision is the omission of sounds that would be present in words spoken in isolation.

Question 3

What does ‘stress’ cover?

Answer 3

Accent - word level

Prominence - sentence level

Question 4

What happens in assimilation?

Answer 4

Assimilation occurs when a phoneme changes it’s quality due to the influence of a neighbouring sound.

Question 5

Which consonants are frequently affected by assimilation?

Answer 5

Alveolar consonants /t/ /d /n/ especially before /p/ /b/ /m/ - they become bilabial.

/d/ changes to /g/

/s/ changes to /ʃ/ and /z/ changes to /ʒ/ when /ʃ/ stas the next syllable.

/v/ becomes an unvoiced /f/ because of a following /t/.

/d/ and /j/ coalesce to make /d͡ʒ/, as to /t/ and /j/ to make /t͡ʃ/.

Question 6

Which consonants are mainly affected by elision?

Answer 6

/t/ and /d/, especially when between other consonants.

Question 7

What does awareness of assimilation do for learners?

Answer 7

They gain an insight into why listening is difficult.

Question 8

What is vowel reduction?

Answer 8

Unstressed vowels tend to reduce and change toward a more central schwa sound.

Question 9

What happens in contractions?

Answer 9

Two syllables become one.

Elision occurs.

This is the only time elision in spoken form is also marked in written form .

Question 10

What is liaison?

Answer 10

Liaison refers to the smooth linking of sounds. It is concerned with the way sounds are fused together at word boundaries. Without it, speech sounds jerky and hesitant.

Question 11

What are the systematic RP forms of liaison?

Answer 11

Linking /r/

Intrusive /r/

Intrusive /w/ and /j/

Question 12

What is juncture?

Answer 12

Any one of a number of features which occur at word boundaries, despite which, the boundary remains unambiguous.

Question 13

How can we make word boundaries clear despite the effects of juncture.

Answer 13

Vowel length either side

Delayed or advanced articulation of consonants

Syllable stress

Question 14

Which words can be given prominence (i.e. sentence level stress)?

Answer 14

Prominence can be given to any word, lexical or not.

Question 15

What happens to accents not given prominence?

Answer 15

They may still be given some emphasis, but with less force.

Question 16

How is prominence articulated?

Answer 16

Using any of the four variables: volume; pitch; length; quality.

Question 17

What makes stress timing work?

Answer 17

Unstressed syllables must be weakly and rapidly articulated.

Question 18

What are the benefits of practising stress timing?

Answer 18

Learners can become more comprehensible.

There is an improvement in both receptive and productive skills.

Question 19

How can adjusting equipment alter perceptions of stress timing?

Answer 19

Adjustments to treble and bass can both increase awareness of stressed syllables.

Question 20

What is needed for intonation to work?

Answer 20

Common ground.

Question 21

What problems do teachers face when teaching the rules of intonation?

Answer 21

Finding adequate and learnable descriptions of the rules.

The lack of a practical system through which we can make the rules of intonation clear to learners.

Question 22

How can intonation be defined?

Answer 22

It refers to the patterns found within a pitch variation. The overall pitch pattern and the relative heights within it are the most important features. Prominence and rhythm are key features, too.

Question 23

What are the different components of pitch variation?

Answer 23

Tone units (aka tone groups)

Tonic syllables

Tails

Heads

Onsets

Pre-heads

Question 24

Where is the tonic syllable often found?

Answer 24

Usually it is the last lexical item in a tone unit.

Question 25

When is the tonic likely to be a non-lexical word?

Answer 25

When contrasting or emphasising contradiction.

Question 26

How can we identify tone units?

Answer 26

Think of tone units as information units. We use tone units to package our messages into bite sized chunks.

Question 27

What is significant about the pitch of the onset?

Answer 27

It provides a standard against which the tonic syllable can be relatively higher, lower, or about the same.

This helps shape the key of the utterance, which helps shape into intonational meaning.

Question 28

What is the problem with labelling intonation as an attitudinal marker?

Answer 28

Attitudinal values ascribed to intonation cannot be presented in a way that allows learners a set of rules.

Question 29

What is the problem with using intonation as a grammatical indicator?

Answer 29

By keeping the sequence of words the same and changing the intonation, a range of meaning can be given to the same words. This shows that form and function do not mesh, and once again, that classification of intonational meaning by sentence type is a generalisation that does not provide rules by which learners can choose one pattern over another.

Question 30

What is ‘common ground’?

Answer 30

It can be used for effect, both positively and negatively. The speaker’s intonation choices mark a choice governed by his assessment of the state of the common ground between himself and the listener.

Question 31

What makes stress timing work?

Answer 31

Unstressed syllables must be weakly and rapidly articulated.

Question 32

What are the benefits of practising stress timing?

Answer 32

Learners can become more comprehensible.

There is an improvement in both receptive and productive skills.

Question 33

How can adjusting equipment alter perceptions of stress timing?

Answer 33

Adjustments to treble and bass can both increase awareness of stressed syllables.

Question 34

What is needed for intonation to work?

Answer 34

Common ground.

Question 35

What problems do teachers face when teaching the rules of intonation?

Answer 35

Finding adequate and learnable descriptions of the rules.

The lack of a practical system through which we can make the rules of intonation clear to learners.

Question 36

How can intonation be defined?

Answer 36

It refers to the patterns found within a pitch variation. The overall pitch pattern and the relative heights within it are the most important features. Prominence and rhythm are key features, too.

Question 37

What are the different components of pitch variation?

Answer 37

Tone units (aka tone groups)

Tonic syllables

Tails

Heads

Onsets

Pre-heads

Question 38

Where is the tonic syllable often found?

Answer 38

Usually it is the last lexical item in a tone unit.

Question 39

When is the tonic likely to be a non-lexical word?

Answer 39

When contrasting or emphasising contradiction.

Question 40

How can we identify tone units?

Answer 40

???

Question 41

What is significant about the pitch of the onset?

Answer 41

It provides a standard against which the tonic syllable can be relatively higher, lower, or about the same.

This helps shape the key of the utterance, which helps shape into intonational meaning.

Question 42

What is the problem with labelling intonation as an attitudinal marker?

Answer 42

Attitudinal values ascribed to intonation cannot be presented in a way that allows learners a set of rules.

Question 43

What is the problem with using intonation as a grammatical indicator?

Answer 43

By keeping the sequence of words the same and changing the intonation, a range of meaning can be given to the same words. This shows that form and function do not mesh, and once again, that classification of intonational meaning by sentence type is a generalisation that does not provide rules by which learners can choose one pattern over another.

Question 44

What is ‘common ground’?

Answer 44

It can be used for effect, both positively and negatively. The speaker’s intonation choices mark a choice governed by his assessment of the state of the common ground between himself and the listener.

Question 45

What rules are there for anticipatory assimilation?

Answer 45

/t/, /d/ and /n/ become bilabial before the bilabial consonants /p/, /b/ and /m/.

/t/ assimilates to /k/ before /k/ and /g/.

/d/ assimilates to /g/ before /k/ and /g/.

/n/ assimilates to /ng/ before /g/ or /k/.

/s/ assimilates to /sh/ before /sh/.