Lý thuyết tiếng tổng hợp (for internal use only)

THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HA NOI OPEN UNIVERSITY
*****

LÝ THUYẾT TIẾNG TỔNG HỢP

(Integrated Theories of English Language)
(For Internal Use Only)

Edited by Võ Thành Trung, MA.
Hồ Ngọc Trung, Dr.
Hoàng Tuyết Minh, Dr.
Lê Thị Vy, MA.
Nguyễn Thế Hóa, MA.

HANOI – 2021


CONTENTS
CONTENTS ...............................................................................................................1
ABBREVIATION .....................................................................................................5
PREFACE ..................................................................................................................6
CHAPTER I ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY .............................7
UNIT 1: ENGLISH PHONEMES ...........................................................................7
1. Phone, Phoneme, and Allophone ......................................................................7
2.Sound Classes: Vowels, Consonants .....................................................................8
2.1 Vowels...................................................................................................................8
2.2 Consonants ..........................................................................................................11
UNIT 2: ENGLISH SYLLABLE AND STRESS .................................................14
I. The English syllable .............................................................................................14
1. The nature of syllable ............................................................................................14

2. The structure of the English syllable .....................................................................14
3. Strong and weak syllables .....................................................................................15
4. English stress .........................................................................................................16
UNIT 3: ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH ...............................................21
I. Rhythm .................................................................................................................21
II. Assimilation ........................................................................................................21
1. Kinds of assimilation across word boundaries ......................................................22
2. Rules ......................................................................................................................22
3. Assimilation of manner of articulation .................................................................23
4. Assimilation of voicing .........................................................................................23
III. Elision ................................................................................................................23
IV. Linking ...............................................................................................................24
UNIT4: ENGLISH INTONATION .......................................................................25
I. Definition ..............................................................................................................25
II. Functions of intonation ......................................................................................25
1. Attitudinal function. ..............................................................................................25
2. Accentual function ................................................................................................26
3. Grammatical function............................................................................................26
4. Discourse function ................................................................................................26
III. The basic English tunes ....................................................................................26
1. The falling tune - The glide down .........................................................................26
2. The first rising tune - The glide up .......................................................................27
3. The second rising tune - The take off ...................................................................28
4. The falling-rising tune - The dive .........................................................................28

1


REFERENCES ........................................................................................................30
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION ........................................................................31

PRACTICE ..............................................................................................................35
CHAPTER 2: LEXICOLOGY-SEMANTICS .....................................................51
Overview ..................................................................................................................51
UNIT 1: WORD STRUCTURE AND FORMATION .........................................53
I. The morpheme .....................................................................................................53
I. Word formation ...................................................................................................54
UNIT 2: LEXICAL MEANING ............................................................................58
I. Classification of meaning ......................................................................................58
II. The motivation of English words .........................................................................58
III. Homonymy and polysemy ..................................................................................59
1. Homonyms ...........................................................................................................58
2. Polysemy ..............................................................................................................58
3. Synonymy .............................................................................................................60
4. Lexical variants and paronyms..............................................................................61
5. Antonymy ..............................................................................................................62
6. Full and empty words ............................................................................................62
7. The change and development of meaning.............................................................62
UNIT 3: SENTENCE MEANING AND UTTERANCE MEANING ................67
I. Sentence meaning ................................................................................................67
1. Structural meaning ................................................................................................67
2. Representational meaning: ....................................................................................67
3. Interpersonal meaning: ..........................................................................................67
II. Textual function: ................................................................................................68
Proposition ................................................................................................................68
III. Utterance meaning............................................................................................68
1. Performative utterance and constative utterance ..................................................68
2. Components of a speech act ..................................................................................69
3. Indirect speech acts ...............................................................................................69
4. Presupposition .......................................................................................................69
5. Implicature ............................................................................................................70

LECTURE IV: PHRASEOLOGY ........................................................................71
1. Structural features of set expressions ....................................................................71
2. Semantic features of set expressions .....................................................................71
3. Proverbs and idioms ..............................................................................................72
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................73

2


QUESTION FOR DISCUSSION ...........................................................................74
PRACTICE ..............................................................................................................78
CHAPTER 3 GRAMMAR .....................................................................................93
Overview ..................................................................................................................93
UNIT 1: PARTS OF SPEECH ...........................................................................95
I. Parts of speech – the classification .....................................................................97
1. The Noun:..............................................................................................................97
2. The Verb: ............................................................................................................95
3. The Adjective: .......................................................................................................97
4. The Adverb: ..........................................................................................................97
II. Parts of speech – the grammatical categories..................................................97
1 The Noun:...............................................................................................................97
2. The Verb ................................................................................................................98
3. The Adjective & Adverb:......................................................................................98
UNIT 2: PHRASES- STRUCTURES AND SYNTACTIC FUNCTIONS .........99
I. Noun phrase: ......................................................................................................100
1. Structure ..............................................................................................................100
2. Syntactic functions ..............................................................................................101
II. Verb phrase: .....................................................................................................101
1. Structure ..............................................................................................................101
2. Syntactic functions ..............................................................................................102

III. Adjective phases: ...........................................................................................101
IV. Adverb phrases ...............................................................................................103
1. Structure .............................................................................................................103
2. Syntactic functions .............................................................................................103
V. Prepositional phrase: .......................................................................................103
1. Structure ..............................................................................................................103
2. Syntactic functions ..............................................................................................103
UNIT 3: CLAUSES ..............................................................................................104
I. Classification ......................................................................................................104
1. Based on usage ....................................................................................................104
2. Based on structure ...............................................................................................103
UNIT 4: SENTENCES .........................................................................................108
I. Sentence/clause elements ...................................................................................112
II. Classification.....................................................................................................114
III. Applications of the basic structures ..............................................................116
REFERENCES ......................................................................................................118

3


QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION ......................................................................119
PRACTICE ............................................................................................................123
SAMPLE TEST No1...............................................................................................163
SAMPLE TEST No. 2.............................................................................................166
SAMPLE TEST No. 3.............................................................................................170

4


ABBREVIATION

A: Adverbial
Adj: Adjective
Adv: adverb
Attr: Attributive
C: Complement
C: Consonant
Cadj: Adjective complement
Co: Object complement
Cprep: Prepositional complement
Cs: Subject complement
Det: Determiner
FCL: Finite clause
N: Noun
NFCL: Non-finite clause
NP: Noun phrase
O: Object
Post-mod: Post-modifier
Pre-mod: Pre-modifier
Prep: Preposition
Prep: Preposition(al)
S: Subject
Stat: Stative
Sub-Cl: Subordinate clause
V: Verb
V: Verb phrase
V: Vowel

5

PREFACE
As a system, language is sub-divided into three basic sub-systems, each of
which is a system in its own turn. They are the phonological, lexical and
grammatical systems. The phonological system includes the material units of which
language is made up: sounds, phonemes, different intonation models, and accent
models. The phonological system of language is studied by a separate branch of
linguistics called phonology. The lexical system includes all the nominative
(naming) means of language – words and stable word-combinations. The lexical
system is studied by lexicology. The grammatical system includes the rules and
regularities of using lingual units in the construction of utterances in the process of
human communication. The grammatical system is described by grammar as a
branch of linguistics. Each sub-system distinguishes not only its own set of
elements, but its own structural organization.
The textbook, An Integrated Language Theories Course Book, is compiled basing
on the syllabus and the curriculum of the Faculty of English approved by Hanoi Open
University in accordance with the educational regulations of the Ministry of Education
and Training. This material is designed mainly from theoretical and practical perspective,
and it comprises 3 parts, Phonetics and Phonology, Lexi-Semantics and Grammar, each
with several lectures, which are expected to correspond to 3 credits (45 classroom hours)
assigned in the curriculum. Each lecture is made up of objectives, main contents,
questions for discussion and exercises. All the information on the theory and in practice
is presented and arranged logically from the general concepts to the specific features.
This textbook is just for internal use only.
The textbook can be considered as a guidebook which summarizes,
highlights and emphasizes the essential matters that students of English should
firmly grasp and thoroughly understand so that they can make use of the English
language in a precise and expert way.
The textbook is edited mostly by lecturer Vo Thanh Trung and it cannot be
completed without the help from other lecturers, Associate Professors Ho Ngoc Trung
and Hoang Tuyet Minh who are in charge of parts of Chapter II and III, Lê Thị Vy,

Nguyen The Hoa who are in charge of parts in chapter I and II.
Many sincerely grateful thanks go to colleagues at the Faculty of English of Hanoi
Open University, who assisted and made valuable suggestions.
Hopefully, students will find this textbook helpful and benefit from it.

6


CHAPTER I ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY
UNIT 1: ENGLISH PHONEMES
Objectives
The objective of the lecture is to help the learners review some basic concepts of
Lecture I: ENGLISH PHONEMES
phonetics and phonology as well as English phonemes: vowels and consonants.

Over-view: The Object of Phonetics and Phonology
Phonetics and phonology are the branches of linguistics concerned with sounds,
thus the main object of investigation in this course is a sound. The English alphabet
is comprised of 26 letters, while the sound system of English contains 44 sounds as
phonemes. Both branches investigate the sounds from different perspectives:
■ Phonetics is concerned with the physical manifestation of language in sound
waves and how they are produced, transmitted, and perceived, and also
―provides methods for their description, classification, and transcription‖
(Crystal 2008: 363).
■ Phonology ―studies the sound systems of languages‖ and how sounds function
in relation to each other in a language.
1. Phone, Phoneme, and Allophone
The term sound is often regarded as not being a precise one in the fields of
phonetics and phonology and is thus replaced by the term phone. Sound could
mean any noise or sound, while phone is restricted to the human voice (‗Phone‘

comes from a Greek word ‗phone‘ [human voice] and is regarded as a speech sound
which can be cut out from the speech stream. Crystal (2008) defines phone as ―the
smallest perceptible discrete segment of sound in a stream of speech‖ (2008: 361).
A phoneme includes all the phonetic specifications of phones and is the smallest
independent unit that can bring about a change in meaning. Roach (2009) calls
phonemes ―abstract sounds‖ as there may be slightly different ways to realise the
same phoneme. An example of a phoneme is the sound /t/ in the words team and
steam. The slight difference in the realisation of this phoneme is that the /t/ in team
is aspirated [th], while the /t/ in steam is not [t]. Phones that belong to the same
phoneme, such as [t] and [th] for English /t/, are called allophones. Allophones do
not affect the semantic meaning of the word, while a substituted phoneme could
bring a semantic change. For example, team pronounced with any allophone of the
phoneme /t/ maintains its meaning, but if it is substituted with the phoneme /b/, then
it brings about a semantic change. These two words then (team /ti:m/ and beam
7


/bi:m/) form a minimal pair, which is an opposition of two words showing the
existence of these two phonemes. For a set of words to form a minimal pair, they
may differ in one phoneme only. Phonemes cannot, in fact, be pronounced - in
actual speech, they are realised through allophones.
2.Sound Classes: Vowels, Consonants
Speech sounds are generally divided into two classes: vowels and consonants.
Vowels are produced with a comparatively open vocal tract for the airflow to pass
unimpeded. As a result, vowels are considered to be open sounds, whereas
consonants are produced with a certain constriction in the vocal tract. Roach (2009)
gives the following characterisation of the sounds:
■ Vowels are the class of sounds that are associated with the least obstruction to
the flow of air during their production.
■ Consonants are the class of sounds that are associated with obstructed airflow

through the vocal tract during their production.
Vowels can also be distinguished from consonants as they display a different
acoustic energy: vowels are highly resonant and intense and have greater sonority
than do consonants. Vowels also have the function to be syllabic (a syllable can
contain a minimum of one vowel), while consonants are units that function at the
margins of syllables, either singly or in clusters, and are optional. Vowels typically
involve the vibration of vocal folds, so they are voiced, while consonants split into
voiced and voiceless forms.
2.1 Vowels
The characterisation and classification of vowels is challenging. Clark and
Yallop (1992) state that the quality of vowels depends on the size and shape of the
tract, which can be modified using the tongue and the lips. The major challenge is to
define the position of the tongue as it moves without forming any significant
obstruction in the oral cavity. As a result, vowels are produced without any specific
point of blockage. The other fundamental articulatory feature of vowels is determined
by the shape and degree of protrusion of the lips.
The Height of the Tongue
■ high or close vowels articulated with the tongue located as high as possible in
the oral cavity, thus narrowing the passage for the airflow: / ɪ /, / i:/, /u/, /u:/;
■ mid or mid-open vowels with the tongue lowered to the mid position in the oral
cavity: /ɒ/, / ʌ /, / ə:/ / ɜ:/
■ low or open vowels produced with the tongue positioned as low as possible in
order to leave a lot of space for the airflow: /e/, / ɔ:/, /æ/, / ɑ:/.
The Advancement of the Tongue

8


■ front vowels articulated with the tongue far forward in the oral cavity toward the
hard palate: / i:/, / i /, /e/, /æ/;

■ central or mixed vowels produced with the tongue retracted to the middle
position in the oral cavity: / ʌ /, / ɜ:/, /ə/;
■ back vowels produced with the tongue retracted as far as possible to shape the
space in the front part of the oral cavity: /ɒ/, /ɔ:/, /ʊ/, /u:/, / ɑ:/.
The Shape of the Lips
Vowels may also be different from each other with respect to the rounding and
shaping of the lips necessary to enlarge or diminish the space within the mouth. The
following sets of vowels are identified:
■ rounded vowels, as the lips shape into a circle or a tube: /ɒ/, /ɔ:/, /ʊ/, /u:/;
■ spread vowels, as the corners of the lips are moved away from each other:
/ɜ:/,/e/, /i:/, /I/,/ æ/
■ neutral vowels, as the position of the lips is not noticeably rounded or spread: /ʌ/, /ə/, / ɑ:/.
Tenseness and Length
According to the tenseness of the organs of speech, vowels are classified into
one of two groups: tense and lax. Tense vowels are relatively higher and more
marginal, while lax are shorter, lower, and slightly more centralised. Of 12 English
pure vowels, five are termed as long in duration and the remaining seven are termed
as short in duration. The symbols for long vowels are followed by a length mark of
two vertical dots.
Diphthongs and Trip-thongs
So far, the discussion has characterised pure vowels with a single perceived
auditory quality, which are known as monophthongs. Such vowels remain constant
in their articulation process and do not glide. There are 12 monophthongs in
English: /eɪ, aɪ, ɔɪ, əʊ, aʊ, ɪə, eə, ʊə/ Diphthongs are vowels in which two vowel
qualities can be perceived, and the articulators move from the production of one vowel
to the other. The first part of the diphthong is longer and stronger than the second and is
often referred as to the nucleus of the diphthong. The second part is just a glide whose
full formation is generally not accomplished. The quality of the phoneme reduces to
quite short and decreases in loudness.
There are also trip-thongs - the most complex type of vowels. These are sounds

in which three vowel qualities can be perceived as they glide from one vowel to
another and then to a third. Roach (2009) describes trip-thongs as ―composed of the
five closing diphthongs with a schwa added on the end‖.
Received Pronunciation (RP) is a form of pronunciation of the English language
which has traditionally been the prestige British accent. RP is a form of English

9


English (English English is a term that has been applied to the English language as
spoken in England.), sometimes defined as the "educated spoken English of south
eastern England." It is often taught to non-native speakers; used as the standard for
English in most books on general phonology and phonetics; and represented in the
pronunciation schemes of most British dictionaries.
Full vowels:
Full vowels are those that appear in stressed syllables.
Monophthongs
Close
Mid
Open
 / /: bid
 / /: good
 / /: bed (sometimes
transcribed /e/)
 / /: bud
 / /: bat (sometimes
transcribed /a/)
 / /: pot
Diphthongs
Diphthongs

Short
front
back
i
u
e
/ /
/ /
/ /






back
u:
/ /

/ /
/ /: bead
/ /: booed
/ /: bird (sometimes
transcribed / /)
/ /: bought, board
/ /: father, bard

Centring
to /u/

/ / / /
/ /

/ei/ / /
/ai/
/: bay
/: boy
/: toe
/: buy
/: cow

/ /

Closing
to /i/

Starting close
Starting mid
Starting open
 /
 /
 /
 /
 /

front
i:

Long
central






/ /
/au/
/ /: beer
/ /: boor (falling out of use in
British English; often replaced by
/ɔː/)
/ /: bear (sometimes transcribed
/ɛː/)

Reduced vowels:
Reduced vowels occur in unstressed syllables.
 / /: roses
 / /: Rosa‘s, runner
 /l/: bottle
 /n/: button
 /m/: rhythm

10


2.2 Consonants
All consonants have certain properties in common that identify them from
vowels. There are 24 consonants in English. Consonants can be described in terms
of the location of the constriction, the manner of the constriction, and the type of

phonation it supports. In short, consonants are classified by place, manner, and
voicing as detailed below.
The Place of Obstruction
In the classification system for consonants, ―place‖ denotes the location or place
of obstruction and the active organ of speech involved in the articulation stage of
the production of the consonants. Clark and Yallop (1992: 79) list the following
groups of consonants in which various tongue positions are combined with various
locations:
■ bilabial sounds are produced with the upper and lower lips pushed together: /p/,
/b/, /m/, /w/;
■ labio-dental sounds are articulated with contact between the lower lip and the
upper teeth: /f/, /v/;
■ dental sounds are generated with the tip of the tongue protruded between the
lower and the upper teeth: /θ/, /ð/
■ alveolar sounds are made by advancing the tip of the tongue toward the alveolar
ridge: /t/, /d/, /n/, /l/, /s/, /z/;
■ post-alveolar sounds are produced by raising the blade of the tongue toward the
alveolar region: /tʃ/, /dʒ/ /ʃ/, /ʒ /, /r/;
■ palatal sounds are pronounced by advancing the blade of the tongue toward the
highest part of the hard palate: /j/;
■ velar sounds are made as the tongue body makes contact with the soft palate:
/k/, /g/, /ŋ/;
■ glottal sound is produced by the narrowing of the glottis as the wall of the
pharynx makes contact with the root of the tongue: /h/.
The Manner of Obstruction
The manner of obstruction is concerned with the degree or extent of the
obstruction and the way in which it is formed in the vocal tract. The variables range
from total closure of the vocal tract to nearly open. When the obstruction totally
blocks the airflow, it is called a complete obstruction.
■ plosive: /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/;

■ nasal: /m/, /n/, /ŋ/.
In the production of the plosive, the air is obstructed and then released with a
small burst of noise (plosion). They are also defined as stops because they cannot be

11


prolonged. The following organs of speech form the full closure: lips pressed
together for /p/, /b/; the tip of the tongue pressed against the alveolar ridge for /t/,
/d/; and the body of the tongue pressed against the velum for /k/and /g/. Nasals have
a stoppage at some point in the oral cavity, and the velum is lowered for the air to
escape through the nasal cavity.
When the closure is not quite complete, it is called constrictive. The air either
escapes through a narrow passage and makes a hissing sound for obstruent, or it
penetrates through the sides of the obstruction and escapes rather freely through the
nasal or oral cavity. The following sounds are produced with constriction:
■ fricative: /f/, /v/, /s/, /z/, /θ/, /ð/, /ʃ/, /ʒ /, /h/;
■ approximants: /r/, /j/, /w/.
■ lateral: /l/
Fricatives are all continuant consonants: they can be continued for a long time.
Approximants have an articulation in which the constriction is not great enough to
cause turbulence, so the airflow penetrates in higher volume.
A few sounds are generated with a double-sided obstruction, which may be
defined as occlusive-constrictive. Affricates are the two sounds that are produced in
this manner: /tʃ/, /dʒ/. The initial complete closure of the plosive sounds /t/ and /d/
is released through a constriction for the fricative sounds /ʃ/, /ʒ/. In addition, the two
affricates are homorganic, which means that the place of articulation of the plosive
is the same or nearly the same as that of the paired fricative.
Voicing
All the consonants are sub-classified as either voiced or voiceless. According to

the force of articulation or energy with which they are articulated and perceived,
consonants are subdivided into relatively strong (fortis) or relatively weak (lenis;
2009: 28). English voiced consonants are lenis, whereas English voiceless
consonants are fortis. The latter seem to be pronounced with a stronger muscular
tension and breath force. For example, compare pow
/paʊ/ and bough /baʊ /. The force of articulation is not easy to define and
measure, however some phoneticians prefer to use the terms fortis and lenis rather
than the terms voiceless and voiced.
The symbols used for consonants are shown in the following table. Where symbols
appear in pairs, the one to the left is voiceless, the one to the right is voiced.

12


Stop

Bilabial Labiodental Dental

Alveolar

p

t

b

Palatoalveolar

PalaVelar
tal

d

k

Glottal
g

Affricate
Nasal

m

Fricative

n
f

Approximant

v

s

w















h
R

Lateral
approximant


z
j

l
/p/: pit
/b/: bit
/t/: tin
/d/: din
/k/: cut
/g/: gut
/ /: cheap
/ /: jeep
/m/: map
/n/: nap

/ /: bang
/f/: fat
/v/: vat















/ /: thin
/ /: then
/s/: sap
/z/: zap
/ /: she
/ /: measure
/k/: loch, Christmas
/h/: ham
/w/: whine
/w/: we
/r/: run (often written /r/ in broad transcription)
/j/: yes

/l/: left

13


UNIT 2: ENGLISH SYLLABLE AND STRESS
Objectives
The objective of the lecture is to help the learners with English syllable and
different patterns of English stress.

I. The English syllable
The syllable is a very important unit. Most people seem to believe that, even
if they cannot define what a syllable is, they can count how many syllables there are
in a given word or sentence. Phonetically (i.e. in relation to the way we produce
them and the way they sound), syllables are usually described as consisting of a
centre which has little or no obstruction to airflow and which sounds comparatively
loud; before and after this centre (i.e. at the beginning and end of the syllable), there
will be greater obstruction to airflow and/or less loud sound.
1. The nature of syllable
a. What we will call a minimum syllable is a single vowel in isolation (e.g. the
words ‗are‘
/ɑ:/ ‗or‘ /ɔ:/, ‗err‘/ɜ/). These are preceded and followed by silence. Isolated sounds
such as /m/, which we sometimes produce to indicate agreement, or / ʃ /, to ask for
silence, must also be regarded as syllables.
b. Some syllables have an onset - that is, instead of silence, they have one or more
consonants preceding the centre of the syllable:
- ‗bar‘ /bɑ:/ ‗key‘ /ki:/ ‗more‘ /m ɔ:/
c. Syllables may have no onset but have a coda - that is, they end with one or more
consonants:
- ‗am‘ /æm/ ‗ought‘ / ɔ:t/ ‗ease‘ /i:z/

iv) Some syllables have both onset and coda:
‗ran‘ /ræn/ ‗sat‘ /sæt/
‗fill‘ /fil/
2. The structure of the English syllable
Onset can be realized by:
+ Zero (no onset): eight, aim
+ Initial consonant:
+ Initial cluster
- Two-consonant initial cluster
- Three-consonant initial cluster
Coda (termination) can be realized by:

14


+ Zero coda
+ Final consonant
+ Final consonant cluster:
- Two-consonant final cluster
- Three-consonant final cluster
- Four-consonant final cluster
3. Strong and weak syllables
a, the vowel / ə/ (―schwa‖);
The most frequently occurring vowel in English is /ə/, which is always
associated with weak syllables. In quality it is mid (i.e. halfway between close and
open) and central (i.e. halfway between front and back). It is generally described as
lax - that is, not articulated with much energy. Of course, the quality of this vowel is
not always the same, but the variation is not important
b, a close front unrounded vowel in the general area of /i:/, symbolised /i:/
In word-final position in words spelt with final ‗y‘ or ‗ey‘ after one or more

consonant letters (e.g. ‗happy‘, ‗valley‘) and in morpheme-final position when such
words have suffixes beginning with vowels (e.g. ‗happier‘, ‗easiest‘, ‗hurrying‘).
In a prefix such as those spelt ‗re‘, ‗pre‘, ‗de‘ if it precedes a vowel and is
unstressed (e.g. in ‗react‘, ‗create‘, ‗deodorant‘). In the suffixes spelt ‗ate‘, ‗ous‘
when they have two syllables (e.g. in ‗appreciate‘, ‗hilarious‘). In the following
words when unstressed: ‗he‘, ‗she‘, ‗we‘, me‘, ‗be‘ and the word ‗the‘ when it
precedes a vowel. In most other cases of syllables containing a short close front
unrounded vowel we can assign the vowel to the i phoneme, as in the first syllable
of ‗resist‘, ‗inane‘, ‗enough‘, the middle syllable of ‗incident‘, ‗orchestra‘,
‗artichoke‘, and the final syllable of ‗swimming‘), ‗liquid‘, ‗optic‘. It can be seen
that this vowel is most often represented in spelling by the letters ‗i‘ and ‗e‘.
c, a close back rounded vowel in the general area of /u:/, symbolised /u/.
Weak syllables with close back rounded vowels are not so commonly found.
We find u most frequently in the words ‗you‘, ‗to‘, ‗into‘, ‗do‘, when they are
unstressed and are not immediately preceding a consonant, and ‗through‘, ‗who‘ in
all positions when they are unstressed. This vowel is also found before another
vowel within a word, as in ‗evacuation‘, ‗influenza‘.
d, syllabic consonants
A syllabic consonant stands as the peak of the syllable instead of a vowel.
Phonetic symbols: /n/, /l/, /m/, /g/, /ŋ/.

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4. English stress
4.1 Definition
Stress is an extra force exerted on a particular syllable or a particular word in
spoken language. The stressed syllable or word is said with greater energy, and stands
out in a word, phrase or sentence. Examples:
father /'fa: ðə/ information /|infə'meiʃn/

John bought a new car yesterday
Word stress: is an extra force put on a particular syllable of the word. It is usually fixed.
For example:
in'vite
enter'tain
Sentence stress: is an extra force put on a particular word in a sentence. Sentence
stress is not fixed. It depends on the speaker‘s feelings and attitudes and the
message that he wants to get across to the listener. For example:
John bought a new car yesterday.
4.2 The nature of stress
We can study stress from the point of view of production and perception.
From the production point of view, the production of stress is generally believed
to depend on the speaker‘s using more muscular energy than for unstressed
syllables.
From the perception point of view: all stressed syllables have one characteristic
in common, and that is prominence. At least four factors make a stressed syllable
prominent: loudness, length, pitch and vowel quality. Generally, these four factors
work together in combination though syllables may sometimes be made prominent
by means of only one or two of them.
4.3 Levels of stress
Primary stress (tonic/nuclear): is the strongest type of stress. It is marked by a
small vertical line high up just before the syllable it relates to.
Secondary stress (non-tonic): it is weaker than primary stress, but stronger than
unstressed syllables. It is usually found in words of four or five syllables. It is
represented in transcription with a low mark.
Unstressed: can be regarded as being the absence of any recognizable amount of
prominence.
4.4 Placement of stress within words
In order to decide on the stress placement, it is necessary to make use of some or
all of the following information.

a. Whether the word is morphologically simple or complex. (whether the word
is a simple, derived or compound word).
b. The grammatical category to which the word belongs.
c. The number of syllables in the word.
d. The phonological structure of the word.

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4.5 Stress patterns of words
+ Types of stress
1. The main stress of a word may occur on any syllable in English
Eg:
table
/'teibl/
tomato
/tə'meitəu /
understand
/‚⋀ ndə'stænd /
organisation
/‚Ɔ:gənai'zeiʃn/
identification
/ai‚dentifi'keiʃn/
+ Tonic
Tonic: the syllable marked with the main stress (the stressed syllable with the
greatest pitch prominence) is the tonic syllable.
E.g. invent /in'vent/
+. Primary, secondary stress
Primary stress (') – a potential tonic
Secondary stress (‚) – the stressed syllable which will never have the major pitch

prominence
E.g.: investigation /in ‚vesti 'geiʃn /
4.6 Various word patterns
A great variety of stress patterns may occur in polysyllabic words
2 syllable words:
/'- -/
under
table
cotton
/- '-/
alone
machine
collect
/‚ - '-/
upstairs
henceforth
archduke
3 syllable word:
/'- - -/
quality
hospital
article
/- '- -/
important
eleven
banana
/‚- '- -/
undaunted
autdistance
archbishop

/‚- - '-/
understand
afternoon
referee
4 syllable word:
/'- - - -/
caterpillar
television
educated
helicopter
/- '- - -/
Impossible
asparagus
accumulate
acclimatize
/‚- '- - -/
unorthodox
non-combatant
/‚- - '- -/
universal
circulation
/‚- - - '-/
superimpose
hullabaloo
/- ‚- - '-/
officialese

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/'- - - - -/
cannibalism
/- '- - - -/
administrative
5 syllable word:
/- - '- - -/
aristocracy
/- ‚- - '- -/
consideration
/‚- - - '- -/
organization
/‚- '- - - -/
uncharitable
/- - - '- - -/
impossibility
/‚- - - '- - -/ variability
6 syllable word:
/‚- - '- - - -/ indistinguishable
/‚- - ‚- - '- -/ autobiographic
/- ‚- - - '- -/ identification
4.7 Weak and strong forms of grammatical words
Grammatical or functional words in English often take weak form in daily
conversations, however, in some cases, they will take strong form in the following cases:
a. They are at the end of utterances
b. They are quoted/cited
c. They are contrasted
d. They are stressed to emphasize
Words
A
An

The

Strong forms
/ ei / before C
/ æn / before V
/ ði:/ Stressed

Some

Weak forms
/ ə / before C
/ ən / before V
/ ðə / > C
/ ði: / > V
/ səm /

And

/ n / < tdfvðszʃʒ

/ ænd /

As
But

/ əz /
/ bət /

/ æz /
/b⋀t /

Than
That

/ ðən /
/ ðət / relative pronoun

At
For

/ ət /
/ fə / > C
/ fər / > V
/frəm/ unstressed
/ əv /
/ tə /

/ ðæn /
/ ðæt / demonstrative adj &
pronoun
/ æt /
/ fƆ: / > C
/ fƆ:r / > V
/ frƆm / final/stressed
/ Ɔv /
/ tu: /

From
Of
To

/ s⋀m / stressed/final

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He
Them
Us
Am
Are
Can
Do
Does
have

Has

Had

Is

Must
Shall
Was
Were
Will
Would

/ tu: / > V

/ hi: / initial unstressed
/ i: / medial unstressed
/ ðəm /
/ əs /

/ hi: / stressed
/ ðem /
/⋀s /
/ æm /

/m// əm /
/ə/>C
/ ər / > V
/ kən /
/ d / > you
/ də /
/ dəz /

/ a: / > C
/ a:r / > V
/ kæn /
/ du: /
/ d⋀z /
/ hæv /

/ həv / initial unstressed
/ əv / medial
/ v / < pronouns
/ həz / initial unstressed

/ əz / medial
/ s / < voiceless
/ z / < voiced
/ d / < pronouns
/ həd / initial unstressed
/ əd / medial
/ s / < voiceless
/ z / < voiced
/ iz /
/ məst /

/ hæz /

/ hæd /

/ iz /

/ m⋀st /

/ ʃl / < I, we
/ wəz /
/ wə / > C
/ wər / > V
/ l / < pronouns
/ əl / < N
/ d / < pronouns
/ əd / < N

/ʃæl/
/ wƆz /

/ wə: / > C
/ wə:r / > V
/ wil /
/ wud /

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Contracted forms
Isn’t / iznt /
Aren’t / a:nt /
Wasn’t/ wəznt /
Weren’t/ wə:nt /
Won’t / wəunt /
Shan’t / ʃa:nt /
Can’t / ka:nt /
Couldn’t/ kudnt /

haven’t/ hævnt /
hasn’t / hæznt /
hadn’t / hædnt/
don’t / dəunt /
doesn’t/ d⋀znt /
didn’t / didnt /
mustn’t/ m⋀snt/
wouldn’t/ wudnt /

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UNIT 3: ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH
Objectives
The objective of the lecture is to help the learners with aspects of connected speech:
rhythm, assimilation, elision and linking
I. Rhythm
Rhythm is the relatively equal beat between stressed syllables. It has often been
claimed that English speech is rhythmical and that rhythm is detectable in the
regular occurrence of stressed syllables. The theory that English has stress-timed
rhythm implies that stressed syllables will tend to occur at relatively regular
intervals whether they are separated by unstressed syllables or not.
Walk /down/ the path/ to the end /of the canal.
The stress-timed rhythm theory states that the time from each stressed syllable
to the next will tend to be the same, irrespective of the number of intervening
unstressed syllables.
How did you manage to be there in time?
In languages which have syllable-timed rhythm, all syllables, whether stressed
or unstressed tend to occur at regular intervals of time, and the time between
stressed syllables will be shorter or longer in proportion to the number of unstressed
syllables. A stressed syllable, together with any unstressed syllables which may
follow it form a stress group. The fundamental rule of English rhythm is that each
stress group within a word group is given the same amount of time.
My teacher‘s in London this Friday for a conference in Phonetics
When did you hear the story about John and the girl upstairs?
A unit with a stressed syllable as its centre and any unstressed syllables
which may come before and after it is called a rhythm unit. Any unstressed syllable at
the beginning of a word group must go together with the following stress group. If the
unstressed syllable is part of the same word as the stressed syllable, they belong to the
same foot. If the unstressed syllable is closely connected grammatically to other
stressed word, although not a part of that word, they belong to the same rhythm unit.
Whenever you are in doubt as to which rhythm unit unstressed syllables belong to, put

them after a stressed syllable, rather than before it.
II. Assimilation
Assimilation is the process which takes place when one sound adapts itself to
become similar to a neighbouring sound in one or more aspects. In other words,
assimilation is the influence

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boundaries or within a morpheme or a word. E.g. of one phoneme upon another
neighbouring phoneme, so that they become more alike. Assimilation may occur
across word boundaries or between words, across morpheme
light blue
good girl
1. Kinds of assimilation across word boundaries
a. In terms of the direction of change
Regressive assimilation: Cf - Ci
Progressive assimilation: Ci- Cf
b. In terms of the way in which phonemes change
• Assimilation of place:
• Assimilation of manner:
• Assimilation of voice:
2. Rules
Assimilation of place of articulation
2.1 Alveolar + bilabial→ bilabial
a. /t / becomes /p/ before bilabials
right place
might put
b. /d/ becomes /b/ before bilabials
hard path

should put
c. /n/ becomes [m] before bilabials.
gone past
seen Peter
2.2 Alveolar + velar → velar
a. /t/ becomes [ k] before / k / and / g /
white coat
might come
b. /d/ becomes [ g] before / k / and / g /
bad cold
should come
c. /n/ becomes [ŋ] before / k / and / g /
one cup
seen Karen
2.3 Alveolar + dental →dentalized
get there
tenth
bad thing
2.4 Alveolar + palato-alveolar or palatal → palato- alveolar
a. /s / becomes [ʃ] before / ʃ / or / j /
nice shoes this shop
this year
b. /z/ becomes [ʒ] before / / ʃ / or / j /
those shops these sheep where‘s yours?
c. Alveolar stops and a following / j / may merge to form an affricate.
want you
individual
did you?
education

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3. Assimilation of manner of articulation
3.1 Plosive + fricative →fricative
• / t / + / s / → / s / : that side
• / t / + / z / → / z / : that zoo
• / d / + / s / → / s / : good song
• /d / + /z / /z/ : bad zone
3.2 Plosive + nasal → nasal
• / t / + /n / → / n /: that night
• /d / + /n / → / n /: good night
4. Assimilation of voicing
Cf (Lenis) + Ci (Fortis) → Cf becomes devoiced
have to
bad tongue big car
III. Elision
Elision is the disappearance of sounds in speech. Under certain circumstances,
sounds
disappear. A phoneme may be realized as zero or have zero realization.
Rules for elision
a. Aspirated stops + weak vowel /ə / → aspirated stops
today [thdei]
potatoes [phteitau]
b. Weak vowel / ə / disappears before syllabic consonants / n, l, r /
canal [knæl]
correct [krekt]
connect [knekt]
c. Stop + (stop) + stop
looked back [lukt bæk] stopped killing [stopt° kiliŋ]

d. Stop + (stop) + fricative
acts [ækts]
scripts [skript°s]
e. Fricative + (stop) + fricative
Desks [desk° s]
guests [gest° s]
f. / -st / + stop, nasal, fricative → / -s /
last time [la:staim]
last man [la:smæn]
g. / -ft / + stop, nasal, fricative → / -f /
left door [lefdɔ:]
left knee [lefni:]
h./ -md / + lenis stop, nasal, → / -m /
skimmed milk [skimmilk] seemed good [si:mgud]
j. Loss of final / v / in OF + consonant
lots of them [lɒtsəðəm] waste of money [weistəmʌni]

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IV. Linking
1. Linking final consonant to initial vowel
drink a cup of tea
put it on
2. Liking identical consonants
bad dog
stop pushing
big girl
3. Linking /r/ and intrusive / r /
Four eggs

your eys
for ever
Media events [mi:diarivents]
Australia and Africa
4. Intrusive /j/: when a word ending in /i i: eɪ aɪ ɔɪ / is followed by a word
beginning with a vowel
the other my aunt [maija:nt]
see us
5. Intrusive / w /: when a word ending in /u:, u, əʊ, aʊ / is followed by a word
beginning with a vowel
go in [gauwin]
two others

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