Text for pragmatic analysis. I always tried to get on an American-built ship

I always tried to get on an American-built ship. The food was better and so were the cabins. Finally I got on an American ship. We docked in Italy. I got a couple Days off to go to Rome because I wanted to see the Sistine Chapel. I figured if I ever wanted to get back in the painting trade, I’d better see that. I got there and I was stopped by the Swiss Guard. I asked him if there was anyone who could speak English because I’d picked that up here and there. The Swiss guard said: ‘Uno Momento’.

Then he came back with a priest. And the priest said, “What are doing here? There’s no water round here”. It was Father Adams from Baltimore. He showed me around the Sistine Chapel – it was beautiful – and I asked him if I could sketch the part with the clouds on the ceiling and he said sure. I sketched it in my notebook. By the time it was time to get back, and so I said good-bye to Father Adams thanking him for helping me around. He was a wonderful man.

Chapter Five: English speech sounds in practice

Vowels. General study items

The pronunciation of the vowel and consonant sounds depends wholly upon where they occur in the tone unit, and whether the syllable, the sound is used, is a prominent one or not.

Both vowel and consonant sounds in a prominent syllable have the following features of articulation: (1) full quality; (2) full length, (3) increased loudness, (4) higher level. In contrast, unstressed speech sounds are pronounced softly, shortly, low and with modified quality of articulation. Cf.:

(a) The street was EMpty / s t r i : t /

(ai) … where a MARket street was / s t r i t /

(b) sometimes / s m t aım z /

(bi) some time / s ə m t aı m /

If the vowel in a non-prominent syllable is pronounced with full quality of articulation, the whole meaning of the message may be changed, which invariably will lead the listener to misunderstanding the undercurrent information, or in the least to distracting his attention. Cf.:

(a) She was just closing the DOORS / d o : z /

(b) She was just CLOsing the doors / d o : z /

Version (a) is an ordinary statement; (b) either shows that there was already some information about ‘door;’ so it is not new, or it may suggest that the speaker expected ‘the doors to be opening’, thus focusing on the wrong expectations.

Not always the placement of a tonic on a preceding word is due to pragmatic implications. Study the following columns of phrases: (a) represents compound nouns with the stress on the first word, (b) contains free combinations with the stress on the last item when used in connected speech. Cf.:

(a) / ‘--- / (b) / --- ‘ /

'apple tree apple 'pie

'paper weight paper 'bag

'stone quarry stone 'wall

'pork butcher pork 'chop

'lace market lace 'curtain

'gold rush gold 'leaf

Positional length of vowels.

Though English vowels may be short or long, the length of the pronunciation actually depends upon the position of a vowel in a word. The longest vowel duration occurs in an open syllable in a vowel final position. Only traditionally ‘long’ vowels can occur in such positions. Cf.:

mi: mis

ko: kot

On the other hand, a vowel closed by a voiced consonant is pronounced longer than a vowel closed by a voiceless consonant. The difference is due to the nature of a voiceless consonant which requires a glotal stop before actual realization of a sound, which in its turn shortens the preceding vowel. In the position before a voiced consonant any vowel is relatively long. Cf.:

bi:d bi:?t

fo:d fo:?t

5.1.3. Stability of pronunciation

A slight change in the position of speech organs during the vowelpronunciation, results in the appearance of diphthongs which might close in /o/, /i/ or /u/. The second element of a diphthong (called the glide) being very weak in comparison with the nucleus of a diphthong, can elide in fluent speech even in a prominent syllable. The whole quality of a diphthong may change completely. Cf.:

(a) hairy /e ə / / ə:/

(b) tyre / aıə / /a:/

(c) poor /u ə / /o:/

At the same time monophthongs / æ / and /o:/ tend to be diphthongized as in

/b æ ^ə d/ and /bo: ^ə d/.

Vowel modification.

Weak forms of vowels in unstressed syllables are the result of vowel reduction.The original quality of a vowel may be reduced either to ‘ ə ‘ or to ‘ı’. In spelling vowels – y, i, e, ei, ey, ay, ae, and suffixes –est, -ness, -less are reduced to ‘ı’. Vowels o,u and suffixes –ment, -ant, -ance, -ent, -ence, -er, -or are reduced to‘ ə ‘.

Reduction never occurs in ‘content’ words (or lexical items) even if they aren’t given prominence. Cf.:

(a) I see attendance is not as good as Usual.

/ aı si: ətendəns ız not əz gud əz ju:zıəl/

(b) She’s leaving to take up a post in GLASgow.

/ ς,iz li:vıŋ tə teık əp ə pəυst ın glæzgəυ /

When the speaker concentrates too much on the message he is making some parts of a tone unit prominent, playing down the rest. Vowel sounds in non-prominent syllables may not be pronounced at all (they elide). Cf.:

(c) /ıts ðə 'weı/ - /ts ðə 'weı/

(d) / pə'lıtıkəl/ - /'plıtıkl/

Vowel elision very often occurs together with the other phonetic processes like assimilation, accommodation, elision of consonants. Vowel elision may lead to the appearance of ‘impossible’ initial consonant clusters, unusual for English pronunciation – kn, kt, tm. Cf.:

(e) succeed in imposing -sə'ksi:d in ım'pəυzıŋ – sk'si:dn 'mpəυzıŋ

5.1.5. Strong’ and ‘weak’ non-prominent vowel position

’Schwa’ vowel / ə / is a significant feature of English pronunciation. It replaces a full quality vowel in a function word in a speech sequence unless the word has a special prominence given to it. Cf.:

(a) it is probably her /h ə:/

(b) giving her /h ə/ a possibility to ...

Although there is a very strong tendency to reduce vowels in function words to something like / ə / or /ı/, there are cases when vowels retain their full quality in unstressed position. These cases are:

(1) Words ‘to’ and ‘the’ immediately followed by a vowel sound remain unchanged as in -

(c) we have to /tu:/ ask you (cf.; she asked him to /t ə / get out);

(d) she took the /ð i:/ exit (cf.; she used the / ð ə / car).

(2) Words like ‘so’, ‘I’, ‘they’, ‘some’, etc. in unstressed pre-tonic syllable tend to reduce their vowels, though this reduction is hardly noticeable for the listener since they have greater recurrence in speech. Used in unstressed post-tonic syllables they retain their full quality. Cf.:

(e) So /sə/ I drove to the poLICE station

(ei) She didn’t THINK so /səυ/

(f) They /ðə/ wanted the keys

(fi) ..., WON'T they /ð eı / ?

(3) Diphthongs /eı/, /eə/, /aı/tend to be reduced in semantic words in unstressed position, though this change is even less conspicuous to the speaker and the listener, and doesn’t happen very often in public speaking, only in informal conversations. Cf.:

(g) ... fairly easily ... /feəlı i:z ıl ı /

(4) Post-tonic position is a ‘strong’ position for any function word to preserve the full quality vowel, and even to make it sound longer than in pre-tonic unstressed syllable, which is a ‘weak’ position. Cf.:

(h) It’s about /əba:t / FIFty yards.

(hi) He is not very HAppy about /əbaυt/ it.

On the other hand final unstressed vowels are always lengthened when they precede another vowel sound, thus forming a hiatus. Cf.:

(i) feel happy about /'hæpı əbaυt/

(ii) … not very happy, though /’hæpı ðəυ/

(5) When function words are made prominent they have full quality vowels. Cf.:

(j) She asked where it WAS /woz/.

(k) But I haven’t seen HER /hə:/.

Hiatus

A combination of vowel letters doesn’t always form a diagraph. Vowels belonging to different syllables form the hiatus like –ious, -ia, etc., that differs from a diphthong. A stressed vowel before unstressed hiatus is read alphabetically - odious /'əυdıəs/, except a letter ‘i’ which is read as in a closed syllable – initial /i'nıςıəl/. If a letter ‘r’ precedes the hiatus the stressed vowel is realized as a diphthong – curious /'kjυərıəs/ and a letter ‘o’ in spelling is pronounced longer – historian /hıs'to:rıən/.

Поиск по сайту: