More on intonation!

A couple of things should be stated which were left unsaid on our post of November 16. In this course, we conventionally mark a level tone above the tonic syllable. However, due to typographical constraints (font styles), in this blog, I’m placing the tone before the syllable. Also (and this is something you should have mastered by now), we shouldn’t forget to start producing the tone on the tonic and finish it only when we’ve reached the last syllable in the tone unit. For instance, the fall on leadership qualities above, should start on lead- and end with –ties. Finally, it should be noted that, though I have marked the tone unit boundaries with double slashes (as is done in some books), we won’t ask you to do this in transcription (e.g. in final exams).

To continue working a little more on intonation choices and the corresponding marking, let’s analyze some of the examples in the text above, published in Saslow and Ascher (2006). The solutions offered here, as usual, will only be possible choices. Other alternatives may be equally acceptable.

…I’m Agnes Lukins = I have noticed over these years that students can pronounce two-item people’s names correctly, that is, normally each item with a prominent syllable. However, when it comes to marking that on paper, students often leave one of the items unmarked. If students tried to pronounce this, they could see their mistake pretty clearly. Common modifications to this pattern, however, do occur when names are repeated. For example, if the speaker had said “I’m Lukins. Agnes Lukins”, the last name wouldn’t have been made prominent the second time because it would have been shared info. Regarding the fall, it can obviously be interpreted as new information.   

…and my last two jobs have been in management = We can make sense of the falling-rising on “jobs” by thinking that Agnes is talking with an interviewer about the possibility of getting a new job. She has already introduced in the ongoing conversation the fact that she had previous jobs where she dealt with people. Therefore, the idea of “previous jobs” is no longer new. Another way around this may be following Wells’s (2006) explanation. He says that the fall-rise can sometimes be used as a dependent fall-rise, which “indicates that there is more material still to come, and is thus an indication of non-finality” (p. 69). As to the falling tone, again, it’s clearly giving new info.

...maybe in Mexico? = A non-falling (in this case, rising) tone may be understood as just a possibility the speaker suggests, nothing definitive. Even though this is not the final tone unit the current speaker produces, it gives the impression that she is prompting her interlocutor to give an opinion or make a decision. In other words, Agnes may be sounding as if she were yielding the floor (=giving the right to speak) to the interviewer in an unconventional way. In this latter respect, and assuming that Agnes is a non-powerful speaker in this conversation, we can consider it risky of her to have used a typically “dominant” tone, and thus adopt the position of a floor-giver, in the context of an interview. But these things are not altogether wrong. On the contrary, they are acceptable and quite frequent these days. If you are not fully convinced and want to feel totally at ease, I conclude by saying that a falling rising would be perfectly OK.    

I do want to hear more explanations! Can you contribute?  

References

Saslow, J. & Ascher, A. (2006). Top notch 3. Teacher’s edition and lesson planner. New York: Pearson Longman.

Wells, J. (2006). English Intonation: An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Up or down or both at the same time!

In the text above*, intonation has been marked for you. This is what we normally do in class and what we ask you to do in tests. There is a little difference in the marking of falling-rising. Exceptionally in this blog, I'm going to mark it with two arrows (one falling and the other rising). But remember you are supposed to make only one broken arrow. 

In order to practice for the final exam and to make sense of the marking, we can explain why we've chosen certain tonics and tones. Below you will see explanations for some of the choices. Can you explain the other choices? I'm looking forward to your comments. 

• ...anything this evening? = The rising tone indicates a desire on the part of the speaker to make sure something he assumes may be the case. It may also indicate some kind of dominance, as Oliver is going to invite Holly to come along. Also, a tonic was not selected for "this" or "evening" because they represent the typical case in which a final adverbial of time and place doesn't take any prominent syllables.
• I'll call for you at 7.30 = The most important words of this tone unit contain prominent syllables. The last prominent syllable is the tonic. The falling tone indicates that the speaker is adding information assumed to be new to the hearer.
• I'm afraid not = A falling-rising is used. This may indicate that the speaker wants to 'cushion the blow', that is, to soften the impact of negation and converge into some common world with the hearer. Eventually, other tones may be used.

* This text was adapted from 

McGowen, B. & Richardson, V. (2000). Clockwise. Pre-intermediate. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

To mark or not to mark, that is the question

Students normally find it difficult to choose which syllables should be made prominent in a conversation. There may be several reasons for the difficulty. One motive could be the relationship between new and shared information in the unfolding of conversation. That is, one word may be made prominent by virtue of being informationally relevant in one instance of the conversation and may be made non-prominent the following time it is mentioned precisely because it has become known to the speakers. This is not necessarily the case in Spanish, as it has been proved that old information can be re-accented when re-presented in this language. Another reason may be the fact that the force of contrast-making can make speakers break the default stress pattern of a given word in favor of what needs to be contrasted. This, again, does not normally occur in Spanish.

Let's consider a few examples from the next conversation and gloss them.

Amy: My sister’s soon gonna be nineteen.

Mike: Sorry, did you say eighteen?

Amy: No. She’s gonna be nineteen. Next month. Early next month.

Mike: Oh. And have you thought of a present?

Amy: Well….I guess she would be delighted with a blackboard.

Mike: A blackbird?

Amy: No, a blackboard. She’s studying to become a teacher and she loves practising standing up, as though she were in a classroom.

Mike: So that would be an ideal gift. What about a bookshelf? Is she tidy? That way she can always have all her books in the shelf.

Amy: No. She’s absolutely untidy.

1) Next month. Early next month. The second time the speaker mentions "next month", this adverbial is no longer prominent as it has become shared in the context of this conversation.

2) No, a blackboard. The obvious prominent syllable in this compound is "board" because it is in stark contrast to "bird" and thus clarifies a misunderstanding.

You are invited to check out a proposed marking of prominent syllables for this conversation on this blog's page Intonation in English. This is an exercise which can prepare us for marking both prominence and tone (= intonation) for classwork, homework and tests.

Dictionaries Galore! Pronunciation info

There is little, if any, doubt that dictionaries constitute invaluable reference material and can be a rich source of input for us, learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). There are a number of different dictionaries we can use, depending on our purposes. If we are looking up a word such as work up in It is necessary to work up a schedule for 2011, a general dictionary would serve our purpose. However, as you may know, if we are reading a text dealing with the construction of pipe cutters, and we need to pin down the meaning of saddle cuts, such a dictionary will probably not be of any use. We'll have to refer to a specialized dictionary.

Also, it is critical to decode the signs and information packed in a dictionary, such as pronunciation reference, for example, BrE / AmE for varieties of English or grammatical data, like [C] or [U] for countable and uncountable nouns. Pronouncing – as well as general-purpose – dictionaries usually contain a set of pages specifying and explaining the terms and symbols used. Phonemic symbols are a must to handle when it comes to using pronunciation dictionaries, but that may not be enough. Word stress patterns are part of the identity of words. One-, and possibly, two-syllable words may pose no problems. But from three syllables on, words may have patterns EFL learners may not be able to predict. For this reason, one important thing to do when looking up a word’s pronunciation is to locate where stress(es) go(es). Some dictionaries use a mark above the syllable ( ˈ ) to show primary stress and a mark below ( ˌ ) to indicate secondary stress. An equally important but a bit harder thing to do would be to identify the accentuation (= also called prominence) pattern of so-called idioms and set phrases. Apart from knowing what a particular expression means, it is normally as relevant to find where the last prominent syllable (= tonic) should be placed. By way of example, the phrase

Phil didn’t want to get his hands dirty with it.

may be pronounced with perfect-sounding consonants and vowels, yet with the meaning  wrongly expressed if care were not taken with accentuation. We might feel tempted to put the tonic on dirty. That might be OK if the meaning intended were literal. This phrase, however, often has the idiomatic meaning of “doing physical work”. Therefore, the tonic is normally on hands. Unfortunately, there aren’t many dictionaries informing us of these patterns. One source I know could be consulted to this end is the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. The book and CD-ROM versions do bring tonicity information about these phrases but the online one apparently doesn’t. Just check it out!

Talking about some events

Around two months ago, I attended a workshop conducted by a native American English speaker. At a point in her presentation, on seeing a piece of clothing on the floor, she addressed one of the attendees and said to her "Your jacket fell". You might think that this detail might be as inconsequential as not to be written about in a blog post. However, as some of you may remember, I'm mad keen on phonetics and am all the time paying attention to this aspect of (the English and Spanish) languages. An this is what I did. I paid particular attention to where the tonic was in that chunk of speech (=tone unit) she pronounced.

These types of utterances have been described as event sentences, in which the verb is normally intransitive. The tonic syllable is typically placed on the noun and not on the verb, even though the verb is a content word. As J. C. Wells states in English Intonation: An introduction on p. 175, "One possible explanation [for this pattern] is that the verb (or adjective) in an event sentence is predictable from the context, so does not need to be in focus". So the right pattern (and the one the presenter used) is

//Your ˈjacket fell//

In class, we've given some other examples, such as

//The ˈphone's ringing//
//The ˈbaby's crying//
//The ˈwindow's open//
//I have a ˈwedding coming up//
//The ˈzip's broken//

Have you heard any other such utterances to share with us?


Below are the examples you have mentioned in your comments

//The ˈsystem's crashed//
//The aˈlarm went off//
//The ˈpaper came off//
//The ˈair comes out//
//The ˈdinner's ready//

Fixed tonicity

We've often made the difference between stress and prominence in that the former is system-bound, as the language system tells you what should be done. By way of example, you cannot choose how to stress convict; if you mean the verb, it should be conˈvict. However, if you mean 'a person who has been sent to jail' you have no other choice but to say ˈconvict. Prominent syllables, on the other hand, are those syllables which are made to stand out in connected speech by virtue of being important for the meaning we want to make. We can say that prominence is context-bound and it is up to speakers to decide that one syllable will be made prominent instead of another one.

It's also been said that the last prominent syllable in a tone unit is the tonic syllable (= that on which the major pitch movement is initiated). Along these lines, we can say that in a tone unit such as //I want that//, any of the syllables can be the tonic, depending on the meanings speakers want to make. Nevertheless, there are a great number of ready-made phrases and expressions of current use in English in which the tonic is not the choice of the speakers but a feature which is dictated by the language itself. We may say these cases are instances of fixed tonicity. Below are some expressions bearing this type of tonicity. The meaning in each case has not been added. With the help of a dictionary, would you contribute the meanings absent?

By ˈall means
ˈKeep your ˈnose clean.
There's ˈnothing ˈto it really.
ˈGet your ˈact together.
ˈSet/put your (own) ˈhouse in order.
I've had my ˈhands full.
(She) of ˈall people
They ˈget on like a ˈhouse on fire

Whatchamacallit

There are a number of words in English used to refer to things or people when you don't know or remember their names. From the point of view of stress, it may be useful to remember that these lexical items are always stressed on the first syllable and they are single stressed. Their origin may be clear as some of these words have sprung from questions, such as What is it? or What is her name? and have become single lexical units: whatsit and whatshername. It may be difficult, however, to trace the origin of whatchamacallit, as its present spelling reflects its phonological identity. It derives from the interrogative What you may call it? In some dictionaries, the way it is spelt represents a more straightforward orthographic-phonological relationship. For example, in the Cambridge Pronouncing Dictionary, you will find it as what-d'you-ma-call-it and in the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, apart from whatchamacallit, you will see what-you-may-call-it. Different spellings may have arisen due to the fact that this word is normally used in spoken English. Below you will find some of these......whatchamacallit?.......expressions.

ˈso-and-so
ˈdoodah
ˈwhatchamacallit
ˈwhatsisname
ˈwhatsit
ˈthingy
ˈthingamajig
ˈthingamabob
ˈthingammy

Singular or plural?

When studying nouns and their singular and plural forms, you must have seen the difference between British English (BrE) and American English (AmE) with respect to number. One such difference is reference to group nouns, in particular, in connection with teams. You may remember that whereas in one variety you use a singular form of the verb (and also a personal pronoun in the singular to refer to the group) in the other variety you use a plural form of the verb (and the corresponding plural pronoun). So, newspaper headlines announcing a team win could read Argentina wins the match or Argentina win the match depending on the variety in question. Do you remember which is which? Check out in the two news reports below published today. This is also important from the point of view of pronunciation in that, as you already know, the way the suffixes -s and -es are pronounced differs on the basis of the final sound of the root word. After reading the reports, can you say which nouns and verbs from them have a voiced or voiceless ending, and which are pronounced with an extra syllable at the end?

Holland vs. Brazil in Los Angeles Times (AmE)
Holland vs. Brazil in The Independent (BrE)

Make that sound right!

A continuous, annoying sound has been with soccer fans throughout June 2010. That's the vuvuzela from the World Cup stadiums. This sound has been so powerful that almost all broadcasters around the world have been unable to silence them. You may wonder how this relates to our class - not necessarily by how it sounds but by how the word itself does. You may recall that as a kind of golden rule of word stress, if a word's primary stress falls on the third syllable, there will be a secondary stress on the first one. So this is how this Tswana word should be pronounced in English: 'vuvu'zela. However, if you don't feel confident enough to pronounce this non-English-sounding word, you can opt for stadium horn, which is the English equivalent, only that you will need to remember its stress pattern. If we go by the rule we mentioned in class for a combination of noun + noun compound (namely, what type of thing is the N2?), we'll obtain a single-stressed 'stadium horn. Can you think of other World-Cup-related terms and their stress patterns? I'm eager to listen to you on this post!

Think time

Every now and then, posts will be published for the purpose of making you think about issues connected with English pronunciation in particular and linguistic and cultural things in general. I hope you enjoy this section.
One of the tools we can make use of when learning a foreign language is a pronouncing dictionary. In the latest edition of the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (LPD), authored by J. C. Wells, we can find a number of relevant facts about the (changing) pronunciation of English. Below is a link to a video where Prof. Wells explains how a number of words are pronounced. After watching the video, comment on what you've found most interesting. Do you think it is worth learning about these things?
Dr. Wells about preference polls in LPD

Phonetic fonts

In the first part of the Phonetics and Phonology course, you'll have to use the special phonetic fonts which represent the phonemes used in broad (= phonemic) transcription. These fonts do not normally come with word processors. Below is a link to the UCL page you can visit to download them into your own hard disk so that you can make and visualize your transcriptions on your Word documents. On the page you will see the headings DOULOS, SOPHIA or MANUSCRIPT and the phonetic fonts offered. You can download one, some or all of them. You have to save the files on your C or D disks (depending on how your computer has been configured) in a folder called FONTS within the WINDOWS folder. After this easy step, open a Word document and select the fonts you want from the font box. As is stated on the page following the link below, most sounds are mapped onto the qwerty keyboard symbol configuration. Under each set of fonts, you will see the symbols you can get if you press SHIFT and the regular keys. For example, to obtain the ɒ symbol , you need to press SHIFT + Q.
IPA fonts