Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Aspects of connected speech

Download 181.41 Kb.

Page	3/6
Date	31.07.2017
Size	181.41 Kb.
	#25618

1 2 3 4 5 6

2.2 Aspects of connected speech

2.2.1Elision and liaison

Both English and French tend to smoothen difficult transitions between two phonemes that are articulated in very different places in the mouth cavity; these juxtapositions of sounds would require large amount of articulatory effort. This phenomenon can happen either within word boundaries; it leads to assimilation of the sounds, to liaison, or elision.

Elision happens, according to Grévisse (1961), when a word with a final vowel precedes a word with an initial vowel; one of those vowels is muted (p. 61). However, in English, elided words lose some sounds even in the medial positions. As Gimson and Cruttenden (1997) point out, it is important to distinguish words whose elision has been established, and words which may sound colloquial and even vulgar when elided (p. 213). Roach’s (1983) approach is much simpler, he asserts that “under certain circumstances sounds disappear” (p. 127). Sometimes a final consonant which is not pronounced in an isolated word is pronounced in connected speech; this is called liaison (Grévisse, 1961, p. 61).

2.2.1.1Elision and liaison in English

Elision. In English, there is an enormous amount of words that are elided. The vowels are lost when they occur under weak accent; this can happen in initial (typically after /p, t, k/), medial (words like marriage, Salisbury, forecastle) and final positions. (Cruttenden, 1997, pp. 214–5; Roach, 1983, p. 127). As for the consonants, some of them have been lost in earlier stages of the development of English through vocalization (walk [wɔ:k]) or when certain allophones disappeared (brought [brɔ:t]). In addition, speakers tend to avoid difficult consonant clusters and therefore some of them are elided. It is not uncommon for the dark [ɫ] to be elided after /o:/, as in although [ɔ:ðəʊ]. In connected speech, it is the case of closing diphthongs in final positions and schwa in initial positions that are usually elided. Difficult consonant clusters, such as in George the Sixth’s throne are also smoothened as follows: [d͡ʒɔ:d͡ʒðsɪksθrəʊn] (Roach, 1983, p. 127; Cruttenden, 1997, p. 215, 261).

Liaison. There are fewer instances of liaison in English than in French. The most common linking elements in English are linking and intrusive r. Linking r occurs when the phoneme is spelled in the final position of a word, and a following word begins with a vowel, like in four eggs [fɔ:regz]. When there is no suggestion of in the spelling in the word boundary, it is the case of the intrusive r, such as in Miranda and Michael [mɪ'rændərn'maɪkəl]. Roach also discusses the loss of glottal stop as an instance of liaison, for example in heal eyes [hi:laɪz] (Roach, 1983, pp. 128–9). Gimson (1997) adds that intrusive r can happen even in medial positions within a word, e.g. strawy [strɔ:rɪ]. He also considers linking /j/ and /w/ in vocalic junctions, like in he ought [hi:ʲɔ:t], window open [wɪndəʊʷəʊpən] (pp. 263–4).

2.2.1.2Elision and liaison in French

Elision. In French, when two vowels meet on the transition of two words, they are pronounced without a glottal stop between them (Dohalská, 1991, p. 156). In some cases, one of the vowels disappears completely from the pronunciation, and the consonant that preceded these two vowels becomes an initial of the new syllable, for example: fidèle ami [fi|dɛ|la|mi]. The elision may or may not be marked in written form by an apostrophe; it appears in short words like articles, pronouns, conjunctions and invariable words.¹¹ It is mostly the “/ə/ caduc” (represented by grapheme in the written form) that is omitted in the pronunciation and replaced by an apostrophe. However, there are words and phrases that can never be elided: for instance, when the second words starts with “h-aspiré”, a glottal stop is made compulsorily as well as before the number “un” (Grévisse, 1961, pp. 66–70). When two vowels meet within one word, both of them are pronounced distinctly with no glottal stop or hiatus, i.e. no elision is made, e.g. kaolin [kaɔlɛ̃], réaction [ʁeaksjɔ̃].

Liaison occurs when a word’s final consonant, which is merely a grapheme in written form, is pronounced when a word that starts with a vowel follows. The most common consonants that are linked, are t (petit-homme [pətitom]), and s and x (which become /z/ when linked: pas à pas [pazapa], deux amis [døzami]). Less often, p (trop aimable [tropɛma:bl]), f (realized as both /f/ or /v/: neuf heures [nœvœ:r]), g (realized as /k/: long oubli [lɔ̃kubli]), and d (realized as /t/: quand on [kɑ̃tɔ̃]) can be linked as well (Grévisse, 1961, pp. 61–63; Dohalská, 1991, pp. 157–158). In some cases, the liaison can be the only distinction between a singular and plural, e.g. il apporte [ilapɔrt], ils apportent [ilzapɔrt]. Liaison is never made before words that start with “h aspiré”¹², before un, after et, and after a noun in singular (Grevisse, 1961, pp. 64–65).

2.2.1.3Presumed difficulties for French speakers

The French speakers might experience problems with the pronunciation of words, the elision of which seems unusual in medial positions (such as Gloucester). They also might ignore the fact that /l/ is elided in some words where a long vowel precedes, and they may also pronounce difficult consonant cluster sounds incomprehensibly, as there are no such clusters in French.

They might also pay less attention to linking or intrusive r sounds. However, these mistakes are not serious; Roach (1983) even claims that some English speakers consider intrusive r to be sub-standard (p. 128).

2.2.2Stress and rhythm

2.2.2.1Stress and rhythm in English

In English, the stress in connected speech is not as strictly given as in separate words; it is mostly determined by the meaning of the utterance. Lexical words are more likely to be accented than function/grammar words; vowels of those can be even neutralized, e.g. can (Cruttenden, 1997, pp. 225–6). Stresses are, however, also altered by the meaning of the words and according to context, e.g com’pact, but ‘compact ‘disc (Roach, 1983, p. 122).

Roach (1983) presents the theory of stress-timed rhythm. It “implies that stressed syllables will tend to occur at relatively regular intervals [and] that the times from each stressed syllable to the next will tend to be the same, irrespective of the number of [...] unstressed syllables” (p. 120). However, this theory seems to be overthrown. Gimson and Cruttenden (1997) suggest that it is the full vowels that influence the rhythm of English rather than any form of stress and introduces the Borrowing Rule of English rhythm. By this rule, a long-vowelled syllable is shortened when followed by a reduced syllable (a syllable containing /ɪ/, /ʊ/, or /ə/) (p. 227). Nevertheless, we must bear in mind that rhythm is also influenced by our moods and feelings; we can even speak arhythmically when we are nervous or hesitant (Roach, 1983, p. 123).

2.2.2.2Stress and rhythm in French

The French language tend to connect words to a groupe rytmique or groupe accentuel¹³, which represent a unit of thought, but also of stress: each of these groups carries a single stress at the final syllable. This syllabic prominence is realized by both accentuation and prolongation of the syllable. Sometimes, the exhalation becomes an important part of the groupe rythmique as well (Dohalská, 1991, pp. 163–5). English has not such rules and the stresses need to be learnt as a part of the vocabulary.

The French language features the syllable-timed rhythm; which means that all syllables occur at regular intervals of time (Roach, 1983, p. 121). The quicker the tempo of the speech, the longer the groupes rytmiques tend to be (Dohalská, 1991, p. 169).

2.2.2.3Presumed difficulties for French speakers

It is common that foreign language learners tend to apply stress and rhythmical patterns of their native language on the foreign one. However, these mistakes can be very serious and can lead to frequent misunderstandings. Also, French speakers might subconsciously search for some regular rhythmical groups in English and therefore stress syllables that are supposed to be reduced (usually the last syllable of the words/sentence/hypothetical stress group) and vice versa.

2.2.3Intonation

2.2.3.1Intonation in English

Intonation is one of the most important suprasegmental features in English. The pitch of the human voice plays a significant role in intonation. The overall behaviour of the pitch is described as tone; it can be either level, rising, falling, rising-falling, or falling-rising. Even though intonation can determine the meaning of an utterance, it never changes the meaning of a single word (unlike, for instance, in Chinese); English is therefore not a tone language, it is rather an intonation language (Roach 1983, pp. 133–6, 144; Cruttenden, 1997, pp. 232–7).

In order to be able to analyse intonation in language, a unit larger than a syllable is needed. Such unit is called tone-unit. Both Roach and Cruttenden introduce the following structure of a tone unit: the pre-head (or pre-nuclear), the head (or the nuclear) and the tail (or the post-nuclear). Generally speaking, the intonation of an affirmative sentence is falling; the most common pattern is as follows: unaccented pre-nuclear syllables are low in pitch, the head is of relatively high pitch and its intonation falls, and the syllables of the tail stay in low pitch.¹⁴ Consider the following sentence: It’ll rain in a minute. It is not uncommon for a nuclear to have level tone, if it doesn’t stand at the end of a sentence: on my way to work. As for interrogatives, typically, the rising intonation indicates a yes/no question, whereas wh-interrogatives bear falling intonations (Cruttenden, 1997, pp. 233–7).

However, there are many different functions that intonation helps to convey to an addressee. Besides offering the distinction of an affirmative or a interrogative sentence, it can also express our attitude, it can help us accentuate an important piece of information in an utterance or determine new information in a sentence. The complete list of functions and the corresponding intonations is proposed by Cruttenden (1997, pp. 240–247).

2.2.3.2Intonation in French

In French, the intonation models are more strictly set than in English. When the intonation is falling, it usually corresponds to a termination of some kind, whereas rising intonation expresses either a non-complete utterance or an end of a question, exclamation, or doubt. In an affirmative sentence, the groupe rytmique, which is the last one in a sentence, bears a falling intonation; each syllable is lower than the preceding one. Consider the following sentence: Il parle russe, il parle français, il parle anglais, il parle espagnol, il parle toutes leslangues. Every preceding groupe rytmique in a sentence features a rising intonation (Dohalská, 1991, p. 178).¹⁵

In questions, the intonation is set according to the grammatical structure. When an interrogative sentence has the same structure as an affirmative sentence, the intonation is rising (in order to distinguish the two). If the speaker decides to form a question by inversion of the verb and subject, the intonation change to rising-falling. The same intonation applies to questions formed with a pronoun or with the phrase (qu’)est-ce que. Imperatives are expressed with falling intonation, whereas the invitation or request features the rising one. Exclamations can be expressed by using both (Dohalská, 1991, pp. 178–181).

Similarly to English, the French intonation can undergo various changes according to speaker’s emotions, attitudes. Due to many possible misinterpretations, it is much more important to precisely distinguish the units of intonation in French. If the intonation is used incorrectly, it may lead to a formation of new, often nonsensical phrases. Consider following sentences: Ils on informé le conseil| de l’accord passé avec le gouvernement. Ils on informé le conseil de l’accord| passé avec le gouvernement (Dohalská, 1991, 174–5).

2.2.3.3Presumed difficulties for French speakers

The use of intonation in both respective languages is very different. In English, it is much more variable and very sensitive on conveying extra-linguistic realities. Many misunderstandings might emerge by an incorrect usage of intonation.

Generally speaking, not much attention is paid to suprasegmental features in French primary/secondary/language schools, therefore, these features may cause many problems. French speakers may tend to search for strict rules of intonation in English, or even apply the rules of French intonation on English. This might be very well visible on longer affirmative sentences: the French might use raising intonation in the middle of the sentence, where an intended groupe rytmique would be.

Download 181.41 Kb.

Share with your friends:

1 2 3 4 5 6