Assimilation results in:
Loss of plosion. In the sequence of two plosive consonants the former loses its plosion: great tour, old clock (partial regressive assimilation).
Nasal plosion. In the sequence of a plosive followed by a nasal sonorant the soft palate takes part in the articulation of the plosive sound: kitten, sudden, not now, at night (partial regressive assimilation).
Lateral plosion. In the sequence of a plosive followed by the lateral sonorant /l/ the plosive stop is changed into the lateral stop: kettle, table, at last (partial regressive assimilation).
6.1.2. DISSIMILATION is the influence exercised by one sound segment upon another, similar in pronunciation, so that the sounds become less alike. The effects are often seen in the history of a language,
E.g. the change from /r/ to /l/ in the derivation of English pilgrim from Latin peregrinus.
6.1.3. ACCOMODATION is caused by interacting of the neighbouring vowel and consonant. As a result, either a vowel or a consonant becomes similar to the adjacent sound. There appears an allophone of one and the same phoneme.
E.g. /ti:/ – a consonant becomes palatalized before a front vowel;
/tu:/ – a consonant becomes rounded before a rounded vowel;
/'stju:dent/ – a fully back vowel becomes slightly advanced after the medio-lingual consonant /j/.
6.1.4. NASALIZATION – the result of prolongation of the lowered soft palate position. It is characteristic of very rapid speech.
E.g. good morning /gυm 'mo:nIŋ/, good news /gυn 'nju:z/,
to win the race /tə 'wIn nə 'reIs/.
6.1.5. ELISION is the omission of one of the similar adjacent sounds in connected speech. It is minimal in slow careful speech and maximal in rapid relaxed colloquial forms of speech.
E.g. next day /neks 'deI/, let him /'let Im/,
as a matter of fact /əz ə 'mætrəv 'fækt/.
Historical elision: e.g. the loss of the initial consonants write, know, knight, gnat; the medial consonant /t/ in fasten, listen, whistle, castle.
6.1.6. INSERTION (liaison) is the addition of sounds in connected speech; contrasts with elision. E.g. the use of so-called linking /r/ between vowels in Received Pronunciation when there is no r in spelling:
E.g. Africa and Asia /'æfrIkə rənd 'eIə/, idea of /aI'dIərəv/,
area of agreement /'eərIər əv ə'gri:mənt/
6.2. Positional phonetic changes result from the weak position of a phoneme. Reduction is the typical case of positional phonetic changes.
6.2.1. QUANTITATIVE REDUCTION is the shortening of the vowel length:
1. in unstressed position:
e.g. blackboard /o:/ – /o·/;
he is here /hi:/ – /hi·/.
2. its position in the word:
e.g. knee – need – neat the vowel /i:/
is the longest in the final position.
6.2.2. QUALITATIVE REDUCTION is the loss of the vowel quality:
1. in unstressed syllables: e.g. man /mæn/ – batman /'bætmən/;
2. slight degree of nasalization marks vowels preceded or followed by the nasal consonants /m/, /n/. E.g. never, no, then.
. PROSODY vs. INTONATION. Єрш+Квартальова
The terms prosody and intonation relate to each other. Though intonation is sometimes restricted to the pitch level only.
Prosody conveys information that words don’t consist and is concerned with three matters:
the ways in which an utterance is broken into tone units,
e.g. the phrase ‘We don’t want those’ may be pronounced
in a single breath or in 4 separate breaths (if someone is irritated)
‘We | don’t | want | those ||’.
The verbal content is the same. The number of tone units differ.
the position of the stress that makes one syllable more prominent than the other. Note how the meaning changes when the stress is moved:
a) We don’t want those. c) We don’t want those.
b) We don’t want those. d) We don’t want those.
The utterances differ in the focus of the meaning.
3) melody – the way in which the pitch of the voice changes in the utterance. Compare the two sentences:
a) You don’t know. The voices falls – the speaker is telling.
b) You don’t know? The voice rises – the speaker is asking.
INTONATION is a complex unity of speech melody, sentence stress, and tempo of speech (the rate of speech plus pauses).
Intonation is a language universal. There are no languages spoken monotonously.
SPEECH MELODY is the variations of voice pitch produced in connected speech. It makes the PITCH COMPONENT of intonation which is the core of intonation system.
The FORCE COMPONENT of intonation is made by the sentence stress. It is the greater prominence of one or more words among other words in the sentence.
There is the TEMPORAL COMPONENT of intonation which comprises 1) pauses; 2) duration (tempo in speech); 3) rhythm.
3. INTONATION: MAIN FUNCTIONS
3.1. The ATTITUDINAL FUNCTION: intonation is used to convey our feelings and attitudes, e.g. the same sentence can be pronounced in different ways, which might be labelled "angry", "happy", "grateful", "bored", and so on.
Besides, the form of intonation is not the same in different languages, e.g. the intonation of Swedish, Italian or Hindi is different from that of English. Not surprisingly, foreign learners of English need to learn English intonation to express gratitude or affection or other feelings correctly.
To understand this pronounce a sentence 'I want to buy a new car' in a number of different ways: "pleading", "angry", "sad", "happy", "proud". To represent that you will use variations in loudness, speed, different voice qualities to express different attitudes.
3.2. The ACCENTUAL FUNCTION: ("accent" is used by some linguists to refer to "stress"). Normally the word stress is independent of intonation.
However, for contrastive purposes any word may become the tonic syllable, e.g.:
a) I 'want to 'know 'where he's travelling to; typical location
b) I 'don't 'want to 'know 'where he' s travelling from. contrastive
Placement of tonic stress is, therefore, important and is closely linked to intonation.
3.3. The GRAMMATICAL FUNCTION: in sentences which when written are ambiguous. Only intonation can remove this ambiguity. The sentence "Those who sold quickly made a profit" can be said in at least two different ways:
a) | 'Those who 'sold quickly |, made a profit ||
b) | 'Those who 'sold |‚ quickly made a profit ||
The difference is equivalent to two different meanings:
a) A profit was made by those who sold quickly;
b) A profit was quickly made by those who sold.
In sentences with a more complex structure, tone-unit boundaries are often found at phrase and clause boundaries:
| In France | where 'farms 'tend to be smaller | the 'subsidies are 'more important ||
It would sound odd to have a tone-unit boundary between an article and the following noun, or between auxiliary and main verbs if they are adjacent (though some people who do a lot of arguing, notably politicians and philosophers, develop the skill of pausing for breath in such places because they are less likely to be interrupted than if they pause at the end of a sentence).
A a rising tone is always used for general questions in English, e.g.:
| 'Did you 'park the car ||
A falling tone is used with special questions in English, e.g.:
| 'Where did you 'park the car ||
However, the fall is not compulsory, and a rise is quite often heard in such a question.
The intonation of question-tags leads to difference in meaning (the difference between falling and rising tone), e.g.:
a) | They 'are 'coming on Tuesday | aren't they ||
b) | They 'are 'coming on Tuesday | aren't they ||
in (a), the speaker is comparatively certain that the information is correct, and simply expects the listener to provide confirmation,
in (b), the rising tone indicates a lesser degree of certainty, so that the question-tag functions more like a request for information
The difference illustrated here could be also considered as attitudinal. There is overlap between these two types of function.
3.4. The DISCOURCE FUNCTION: intonation focuses the listener's attention on aspects of the message that are most important. The study of discourse analyzes larger contexts in which sentences occur.
Consider the following four sentences:
A: Have you got any free time this morning?
B: I might have later on if that meeting's off.
A: They were talking about putting it later.
B: You can't be sure.
Each sentence could be studied in isolation; however, it is obvious that the sentences form the part of some larger act of conversational interaction between two speakers:
the sentences contain several references to shared knowledge (e.g. 'that meeting' implies that both speakers know which meeting is being spoken about);
in some cases the meaning of a sentence can only be correctly interpreted with the knowledge of what has preceded it in the conversation (e.g. 'You can't be sure').
There are numerous examples in non-linguistic behaviour of the use of signals to regulate turn-taking: e.g. footballers can indicate that they are looking for someone to pass the ball to, or that they are ready to receive the ball; doubles partners in tennis can indicate to each other who is to play a shot. Intonation, in conjunction with "body language" such as eye-contact, facial expression, gestures and head-turning, is used for similar purposes in speech, as well as for establishing or confirming the status of the participants in a conversation.
Speakers use various prosodic components to indicate that they have finished speaking, that another person is expected to speak, that a particular type of response is required, and so on.
There are numerous examples in non-linguistic behaviour of the use of signals to regulate turn-taking: e.g. footballers can indicate that they are looking for someone to pass the ball to, or that they are ready to receive the ball; doubles partners in tennis can indicate to each other who is to play a shot. Intonation, in conjunction with "body language" such as eye-contact, facial expression, gestures and head-turning, is used for similar purposes in speech, as well as for establishing or confirming the status of the participants in a conversation.
. THE PITCH COMPONENT OF INTONATION – Коломійчук Оля
The core component of the intonation structure is the pitch. The PITCH COMPONENT or SPEECH MELODY is the variations in the pitch of the voice in the connected speech. Pitch parameters include - the direction of the pitch (напрям мелодики);
- the pitch level (мелодійний рівень);
- the pitch range (мелодійний діапазон).
THE PITCH DIRECTION
Not all stressed syllables are equal. One syllable has a greater prominence. It forms the nucleus (the focal point) of an intonation pattern. The NUCLEUS is a strongly stressed syllable which is generally the last stressed syllable of an intonation pattern. It is the most important part of the intonation pattern. Phoneticians single out from 4 till 12 nuclear tones.
There are the following types:
the Low Fall, the High Fall, the Low Rise, the High Rise,
the Fall-Rise, the Rise-Fall, the Mid-Level.
There are also distinguished STATIC TONES (статичні тони), in which the voice remains steady on a given pitch throughout the duration of the tone: the High Level Tone, the Low Level Tone.
There are three PITCH LEVELS: high, medium, and low.