Pronouncing English: A Stress-Based Approach, With Cd-Rom

by Teschner, Richard V.; Whitley, Melvin Stanley

• ISBN13: 9781589010024
• ISBN10: 1589010027
• Edition: CD
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-04-01
• Publisher: Georgetown Univ Pr

Summary

analysis of all the lexical entries of an entire dictionary, Pronouncing English is complemented by a list of symbols and a glossary. Richard Teschner and M. Stanley Whitley present an improved description of English pronunciation and conclude each chapter with suggestions on how to do a better job of teaching it. An appendix with a brief introduction to acoustic phonetics -- the basis for the perception vs. the production of sounds -- is also included. Revolutionary in its field, Pronouncing English declares that virtually all aspects of English pronunciation -- from the vowel system to the articulation of syllables, words, and sentences -- are determined by the presence or absence of stress. The accompanying CD-ROM carries audio recordings of many of the volume's exercises, more than 100 text and sound files, and data files on which the statistical observations were based.

Author Biography

M. Stanley Whitley is professor of Spanish and linguistics in the Department of Romance Languages at Wake Forest University.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
List of Symbols	xiii
The Metric Foot	1	(26)
The notion of stress: Present stress and absent/null stress	1	(2)
Metricalism	3	(2)
The five major metric feet: Spondees, trochees, iambs, dactyls, and anapests	5	(7)
Weak stress, null stress, and vowels	12	(7)
The English drive toward monosyllabicity	19	(2)
Teaching the topics of chapter 1 to students of ESOL	21	(6)
Notes	23	(1)
Wrap-Up Exercises	24	(3)
Strong Stresses and Weak: How to Know Where They Go	27	(34)
Strong stress moves leftward, but only so far	27	(4)
Three main factors in strong-stress position	31	(2)
Syllable structure	31	(1)
Part of speech	32	(1)
Affixation	32	(1)
Strong-stress retention on the same base vowel	33	(1)
Word families with shifting stress	33	(3)
The effect of suffixation on strong-stress position	36	(4)
The shiftless, stress-free life of the prefix	40	(2)
Applying strong-stress rules to bisyllabic words	42	(2)
Applying strong-stress rules to trisyllabic words	44	(1)
Strong-stressing words of four, five, and more syllables	45	(2)
Weak stress: Placing the strong, locating the weak	47	(1)
Weak stress on bisyllabic words	47	(2)
Bisyllabics that strong-stress the ult	47	(1)
Bisyllabics that strong-stress the pen	48	(1)
Weak-stressing trisyllabic words	49	(1)
Weak-stressing ``four-plus'' words	50	(5)
Ult stress patterns	50	(1)
Pen stress patterns	50	(1)
Ant(epenultimate) stress patterns	51	(2)
Pre(antepenultimate) stress patterns	53	(1)
Qui stress patterns	54	(1)
Vowel reduction: The price we pay for shifting stress	55	(2)
Teaching the topics of chapter 2 to students of ESOL	57	(4)
Notes	58	(3)
Intonation---The Melodic Line	61	(34)
``Peak'' stress for contrast and emphasis	61	(3)
Some analogies with music	64	(2)
Stressing compound words and phrases	66	(9)
Two-word compounds and phrases	66	(5)
Multiple-word compounds and phrases	71	(2)
Pitch adjustment in compounds' post-peak words	73	(2)
Peak stresses and info units	75	(4)
Melodic lines long and short, falling and rising, and so on	79	(5)
Falls and rises, statements and questions	79	(3)
Fall-rise and rise-fall	82	(1)
Some other melodies	82	(2)
Melodic lines and compound melodies	84	(4)
Enumeration	84	(1)
Selection questions	84	(1)
Tags	85	(1)
Complex sentences	86	(2)
Approaches to intonation	88	(2)
Teaching the topics of chapter 3 to students of ESOL	90	(5)
Notes	91	(1)
Wrap-Up Exercises	92	(3)
From Orthography to Pronunciation	95	(40)
Even English spelling can be reduced to rules	95	(5)
Consonants: The (somewhat) easy part	100	(17)
The fairly easy equivalencies: Phonemes /t ∫ h n θ o w j/	104	(4)
The tough equivalencies: Phonemes /k s z ∫3 d3/	108	(3)
Grapheme `i' and the consonants that precede it	111	(2)
When is `s(s)' /s/ and when is it /z/, /∫/, or even /3/?	113	(1)
Grapheme `s' and /s/, /z/, and /3/	114	(2)
Grapheme `x' and the five things it renders	116	(1)
Vowels: Which are easy and which are tough to spell	117	(10)
Vowels that are fairly easy to spell	121	(2)
Vowels that are tough to spell	123	(1)
The four tense vowels /i e o u/	123	(2)
Diphthong /ai/	125	(1)
The mid lax vowels /c/ and /Λ/	125	(1)
Vowel phonemes and graphemes: An encapsulated review	126	(1)
Vowel reduction redux	127	(3)
General guidelines for spelling the schwa	128	(1)
How to spell unstressed final /∂r/	128	(1)
The three ways to spell stressed /∂r/	129	(1)
Teaching the topics of chapter 4 to students of ESOL	130	(5)
Notes	131	(1)
Wrap-Up Exercises	132	(3)
Vowels	135	(34)
Vowels, broadly and narrowly	135	(1)
How to make vowels: Tongue and lip position	136	(1)
Other vowels, other languages	137	(2)
Stressed vowels	139	(11)
Low /α/ and /æ/	140	(1)
Mid and high vowels: Tense /i e o u/ versus lax /I ε u c/	141	(4)
Full diphthongs: /ai oi au/	145	(2)
Uh, er...: The lax vowels /Λ/ and /∂r/	147	(3)
Unstressed vowels: The schwa zone	150	(2)
Shifting vowels make the dialect	152	(4)
Low back problems	152	(1)
Vowel breaking	153	(1)
Diphthongs on the move	154	(1)
Smoothed diphthongs	154	(1)
Lexical incidence: ``You say tomayto and I say tomahto...''	155	(1)
Rules and regularities	156	(3)
Other analyses of English vowels	159	(2)
Teaching pronunciation: Vowels and consonants	161	(8)
Notes	163	(1)
Wrap-Up Exercises	164	(5)
Consonants	169	(42)
Consonants and syllable position	169	(2)
Types of consonants	171	(6)
Voicing	171	(1)
Place of articulation	172	(3)
Manner of articulation	175	(1)
Secondary modifications	176	(1)
English consonant phonemes	177	(1)
Consonants that can behave like vowels	178	(7)
Liquids: Is and rs	178	(4)
Nasals	182	(2)
Goin' s'llabic	184	(1)
Stops	185	(6)
Stops and VOT	186	(3)
Stops that flap	189	(2)
All those sibilants	191	(3)
Slits up front	194	(2)
/h/: A sound that can get lost	196	(1)
Glides /j/ and /w/	197	(4)
Syllable reprise: How to build an English word	201	(4)
Teaching pronunciation: Error analysis	205	(6)
Notes	208	(1)
Wrap-Up Exercises	208	(3)
Sounds and Forms That Change and Merge	211	(40)
English phonemes in (con)text	211	(1)
When words change their pronunciation	212	(1)
Changes due to word linkage	213	(2)
Changes due to stress	215	(6)
Speaking metrically	215	(2)
Crushed words: Weak forms and contractions	217	(4)
Changes due to grammar: Morphemes and allomorphs	221	(2)
Phonology in grammar	223	(6)
Inflectional morphology	223	(1)
A case study: English plural formation	224	(5)
The phoneme exchange	229	(11)
Vowel alternations	230	(2)
Consonant alternations	232	(4)
Rules, constraints, alternations: How deep does phonology go?	236	(4)
English spelling revisited	240	(1)
Teaching pronunciation: Sounds in context	241	(10)
Notes	243	(1)
Wrap-Up Exercises	244	(7)
Appendix	251	(12)
Acoustic phonetics	251	(6)
The International Phonetic Alphabet	257	(2)
PEASBA's CD: Recordings and Corpus	259	(4)
Notes	261	(2)
Glossary	263	(10)
References	273	(4)
Index	277