Reduction
1. Transcribe the following words, paying particular attention to the location of the stresses and to the vowels in the unstressed syllables. Underline them.
hopeless, epoch, paragraph, effective, artillery, generally, compare, staircase, solicitor, Roumanian, parallel
2. Transcribe the following sentences, concentrating on reduced form words. Practise reading the sentences at normal conversational speed.
Did you enjoy your day in Briton yesterday?
Is that man at the door of your room her father?
Strong andWeak Forms
1. Each word combination is written as one word and in actual
speech it would be pronounced as one word. Read the phrases
several times making the contrast between stressed and un
stressed syllables very strong.
tobesony, ofthebook, isabook, isthesun, tobehappy, ofthe-day, isaday, isthedoor, thisisright, intheroom, heisaworker, thisiswrong, inthebus, heisadoctor, ontheroad, thaty-ouknow, hehasleft, ontheway, thatyougo, hehasstayed. we-havestoppedit, wehavedoneit
2. Read each of the following word groups as a blended unit, just
as you did the phrases of the preceding exercise. Pay particu
lar attention to the location of the stresses and to the vowels
in the unstressed syllables.
A lot of it, I've heard of it, I think it is. I think she could. The meeting starts at five. I CQuldn't do it alone.
3. Listen how the speaker on the tape reads the following micro-
dialogues.
he John said he was coming.
Is he bringing Mary? * He only said he was coming.
him I hope Mary comes with him. I asked him to bring her. Yes, but you know him.
her I'd like to see her again.
I met her brother yesterday. Did he mention her?
his He said his sister was in London.
Have you got his address? No, I've got hers but not his.
4. Transcribe the sentences above. Mark the stresses and tunes. Practise reading the dialogues concentrating your attention on strong and weak forms of the personal and possessive pronouns and other form words. Go through each dialogue several times until you can produce that particular pattern rapidly and smoothly.
5. Listen carefully to your fellow-student reading the same dialogues. Tell him what his errors are.
6. Practise those dialogues in pairs.
7. Give your own dialogues of that type with other weak forms. Practise them in pairs.
8. Think over every sentence analytically Some form-words are used in their strong forms here. Transcribe the sentences, mark stresses and tunes. Practise reading the sentences.
We aren't late, are we? Tom hasn't finished it yet, but I have. Tomorrow is with us. Who are you waiting for?
SYLLABLE STRUCTURE
1. Transcribe the following words and define the number of syl
lables. Say what sound is syllabic. Read the words:
(a) narrate, drawer, stupid, experiment, dragon, Germany
(b) parcel, level, puzzle, ruffle, trouble, twelfth, apple
(c) lesson, reason, person, kitchen, often, even, twenty, fashion
(d) blossom, rhythm, bottom, prism, palm, spasm, sophism, warmth
2. Listen to your fellow-student reading the words above. •'
Tell him what his errors in syllable division are. .
3. Transcribe the following words. Split them up into syllables.
Define the syllable boundary and say how it is indicated. Read
the examples.
(a) repeat, engage, react, complete, machine, behave, moustache
(Û bluish, freer, chaos, diary, coward, diamond
4. Listen to your fellow-student reading the words of Ex. 3. Tell him what his errors are.
5. Transcribe the words. Split them up into syllables. Read them.
Make vowels in stressed syllables checked by passing over to the pronunciation of the following consonant as quickly as possible.
(a) people, army, certainly, starvation, defend, thirteenth
(b) city, pity, butter, bitter, goggles, mingle, squirrel
6. Listen to your fellow-student reading the words above. Tell him what his errors in the pronunciation of syllables are. Are the mistakes phonological or phonetic?
7. Read the following pairs of sentences. Concentrate your atten-
tion on correct syllable division at the junction of words. What kind of errors do you make if you shift the syllable boundary?
One must have a name. <-> One must have an aim.
They lived in a nice house. •<-> They lived in an ice house.
His black tie disagreed with his appearance. <-> His
blacked eye disagreed with his appearance.
It was just the time to support the peace talks. <-+ It was
just the time to support the pea stalks.
If you see Mable, tell me about it. <-> If you seem able, tell
me about it.
I saw the meat in the kitchen. <-» I saw them eat in the
kitchen.
WORD STRESS
1. Transcribe the words below. Arrange them in columns according to their accentual pattern. Read them according to the models.
Model: 'agitate — .agi'tation
(a) aberrate, aberration; actualize, actualization; modify, mod
ification; dominate, domination; clarify, clarification
Model: e'liminate — e.limi'nation
(b) accentuate, accentuation; accommodate, accommodation;
americanize, americanization; administrate, administration
2. Listen carefully to your fellow-student reading the exercise above. Correct his mistakes in word stress and sounds.
3. Transcribe, intone and read the following sentences. Keep in mind what you know about word stress in compound nouns--and similar word combinations.
He is in the greenhouse, (a building made largely of glass used for growing flowers and plants) — He is in the green house. We saw some blackbirds, (a kind of wild bird] — We saw some black birds. Do you need a blackboard? (a large piece of wood painted black used to write on it with chalk) — Do you need a black board? He is in the darkroom, (a special room used in photography) — He is in the dark room. He lives in the lighthouse, (a tall tower with a light for warning ships) — He lives in the light house. Does he live in the White House? (the residence of the President of the USA) — Does he live in the white house? He picked up the hotplate. (an electric cooking device) — He picked up the hotplate. Have you ever seen a horsefly? {a particular kind of fly) — Have you ever seen a horse fly? (a horse that is able to fly).
4. This exercise is meant to teach you to recognize noun com
pounds and speak them with proper accentual patterns. Tran
scribe the following sentences, mark the stresses and tunes
and read them aloud.
A man who delivers mail is a mailman.
A knife used for butter is a butterknife.
A coat you wear in the rain is a raincoat.
Water which is good lot drinking is called drinking-water.
5. Transcribe and read aloud the following sets of words. Con
centrate on the changes in accentual patterns.
family — familiar — familiarity, diplomat — diplomacy — diplomatic
6. Transcribe the following phrases. Mark the stresses and tunes.
Concentrate on the words which take end-stress as verbs and forward-stress as nouns or adjectives. Read the phrases aloud. Listen to a fellow-student reading the same phrases. Correct possible mistakes in word stress.
1. This article is for export only. This, country exports much wool. 2. Where's my gramophone record? These instruments record weather conditions. 3.1 disapprove of his conduct. He will conduct the meeting tomorrow. 4. You have made slow progress in English, I'm sorry. The work will progress gradually. 5. He speaks with a perfect accent. You are to accent the words correctly. 6. Where's the object in this sentence? I object to your last remark. 7. You need a permit to go there. Will you permit me to say a few words? 8. Rain is quite frequent here. I used to frequent the park there. 9. You could see every detail of the picture. He couldn't detail all the facts.
7. Transcribe the following sentences. Mark the stresses and tunes. Concentrate on the influence of rhythm on the accentual structure of compound adjectives. Read the phrases aloud.
1. This book belongs to our absent-minded professor. Our professor is absent-minded and often leaves his books behind. 2. The upstairs room has an outside staircase. He lives upstairs. 3. Wash it with luke-warm water. The water is lukewarm. 4. She is quite good-looking. There's a good-looking girl over there. 5. He's having afternoon tea now. We have tea nearly every afternoon. 6. We watched the changing of the Buckingham Palace guards. It's near Buckingham Palace. 7. The girl's unbelievably bad-tempered. How can you stand such a bad-tempered person? 8. He's always off-hand. He gave me an off-hand answer. 9. The Budapest climate's of a continental type. He lives in Budapest. 10. Have a piece of home-made cake. This cake's home-made.
STYLISTIC USE OF INTONATION