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مستند PDF

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Mariam Ahmed
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14 views25 pages

مستند PDF

Uploaded by

Mariam Ahmed
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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ASPECTS OF

CONNECTED SPEECH
● Scientists tried to develop a machine that
would produce speech from a vocabulary
of pre-recorded words
● Result: negative (limited, at best)
● Reason: ?
-differences between human speech
and “mechanical speech”
RHYTHM
● Noticeable event happening at regular
intervals of time (heart-beat, flashing light,
piece of music)
● Rhythm in speech: regular occurrence of
stressed syllables (still, regularity is relative)
● English speech is rhythmical
● Stress-timed rhythm: stressed syllables tend
to occur at relatively regular intervals
whether they are separated by unstressed
syllables or not (not characteristic for
“mechanical speech”)
Stress-timed rhythm theory
● The time from each stressed syllable to
the next will tend to be the same,
irrespective of the number of intervening
unstressed syllables
Syllable-timed rhythm theory
● All syllables, whether stressed or
unstressed, tend to occur at regular
intervals and the time between stressed
syllables will be shorter or longer in
proportion to the number of unstressed
syllables
● Japanese, Hungarian, Spanish are
examples of such languages
Foot
● A unit of rhythm
● Begins with a stressed syllable and
includes all following unstressed syllables
up to, but not including the following
stressed syllable
Tree diagram

s w s w
twen ty pla ces

w s

s w s w
twen ty pla ces
Longer phrase

w s

w s w s

s w s w s w s
twent ty pla ces fur ther back
How strong is a syllable?
● Strength of a syllable can be measured by
counting up the number of times the
symbol “s” occurs above it
● “metrical grids” are correct for very slow
speech (“right-hand foot rule” is applied)
● English tends towards a regular alteration
of strong and weak syllables and tends to
adjust stress levels to make this possible
(“stress-shift”): e.g. compact /kəm'pækt/
BUT compact disc /'k‫פּ‬mpækt 'dısk/
How rhythmically do we speak?
● Very rhythmically – styles of public speech
● Arhythmically – if hesitant or nervous
● One always speaks with some degree of
rhythmicality, but the difference is in
degree
● In a stress-timed language all the feet are
supposed to be of roughly the same
duration
Assimilation
● A feature of natural connected speech
only
● Sounds belonging to one word can cause
changes in sounds (phonemes) belonging
to neighbouring words
● More likely to be found in rapid, casual
speech
● The cases most often described are
assimilations affecting consonants
Assimilation at word boundary

- - - Cf Ci - - -
word
boundary

● Assimilation can be either regressive or

progressive
3 types of assimilation:
● 1) assimilation of place of articulation

● 2) assimilation of manner of articulation

● 3) assimilation of voicing
Assimilation of place
● The most common form involves the movement of
place of articulation of the alveolar stops /t/, /d/ and
/n/ to a position closer to that of the following sound.
● For instance, in the phrase ten cars, the /n/ will
usually be articulated in a velar position, so that the
tongue will be ready to produce the following velar
sound /k/.
● Similarly, in ten boys the /n/ will be produced in a
bilabial position, /tem b/ to prepare for the
articulation of the bilabial /b/.

● This phenomenon is easy to find also in Italian:


think of the different pronunciations of the ‘n’ in Gian
Paolo, Gian Franco and Gian Carlo.
BEFORE A VELAR (/k/, /g/)
/n/ /ŋ/

e.g. ten cars


/d/ /g/

e.g. good girl //


/t/ /k/

e.g. that kid


BEFORE A BILABIAL (/m/, /b/, /p/)
/n/ /m/

e.g. ten men /tem men/


/d/ /b/

e.g. bad boys


/t/ /p/

e.g. hot mushrooms / that person/


meat pie/ light blue
t + bilabial = p
t + dental = dental plosive (e.g. that thing / get those / cut through)
t + velar = k (e.g. that case / bright colour / quite good)
d + similar contexts = b, d, g
n + similar contexts = m, n, ŋ
s and z + ∫ , j become ∫ and ζ (e.g. this shoe, those years)
Assimilation of manner
● The change is most likely to be towards an
easier consonant – one that makes less
obstruction to the airflow
● Final plosive becomes a fricative or nasal
(that side, good night)
● A plosive / nasal + word-initial /ð/ : in the,
get them, read these (consonant ð
becomes identical in manner to the cons.
final, but with dental place of articulation)
Assimilation of voicing
The vibration of the vocal folds is not something
that can be switched on and off very swiftly, as a
result groups of consonants tend to be either all
voiced or all voiceless. Consider the different
endings of ‘dogs’ /d‫כּ‬gz/ and ‘cats’ /kæts/, of the
past forms of the regular verbs such as ‘kissed’
/kıst/ and ‘sneezed’ /sni:zd/.
Only regressive assim. of voicing is found:
cons.final voiced + cons.initial voiceless devoices
cons.final: e.g. get them /get təm/
Progressive assim. of voicing with suffixes s/z
Elision is very simply the omission of certain sounds in
certain contexts. The most important occurrences of this
phenomenon regard:

1 Alveolar consonants /t/ and /d/ when ‘sandwiched’


between two consonants (CONS – t/d – CONS), e.g.

The next day….

The last car…

Hold the dog!

Send Frank a card.


Cases of elision
1) Loss of weak vowel after p/t/k: potato, tomato,
perhaps, etc.
2) Weak vowel + n/l/r = syllabic n / l / r : tonight,
police, correct, etc.
3) Avoidance of complex cons. clusters:
“George the Sixth´s throne”
4) 2/3 plosives + a fricative : the middle plosive
disappears: acts, looked back, scripts, etc.
5) Loss of final /v/ in of before consonants: lots of
them, waste of money, etc.
Elision = disappearance of sounds
● This can also take place within
affricates /t∫/ and /dζ/ when preceded by
a consonant, e.g.
● lunchtime
● strange days

A phoneme may have zero realisation or


be deleted.
Are contractions a case of elision?
● Had, would : “´d”
● Is, has : “´s”
● Will : “´ll”
● Have : “´ve”
● Not : “n´t”
● Are : “´re”
Linking (Liaison)
● Words in English can be linked in special
ways: “linking r” and “intrusive r”
● Linking r: “here are” vs. “here”
“four eggs” vs. “four”
“law and order” vs. “law”
● Intrusive r: “Formula A”
“media event”
These are special cases of juncture.
Juncture
● Refers to the relationship between one sound
and the sound/s that immediately precede it or
follow it
● E.g. “my turn” vs. “might earn”
● Example of close juncture: m + ai
● External open juncture: m, n are in such posit.
● Internal open juncture: how are the two above
mentioned examples differentiated?
● Answer: due to aspiration or non-aspir. of /t/
thanks to its position at word boundary

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