REDUCTION

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 538.

THE USE OF THE RISING TONE (Glide Up)

The rising tone in unemphatic speech is uncategoric and expresses incompleteness, indetermination and doubt. It is used:

1) in general questions

e.g. ¢Are you & tired? çç

2) in statements which are grammatically finished but the sense of which is not complete

e.g. She was &there.çç

3) in requests

e.g. ¢Let me &go.çç

4) in the first part of alternative questions

e.g. ¢Shall we ¢go ¢home by & busçor by ( train?çç

5) in the second part of disjunctive questions

e.g. You are a ¢first-year ( studentç & aren't you?çç

6) in sentences with enumeration (except for the last enumerated word)

e.g. ¢This is my ( family:ç my & wife, çmy & son, çmy & daughter,ç and ( I.

7) in non-final sense-groups when they are closely connected in meaning with the following sense-groups

e.g. ¢When & angryç¢count a ( hundred.çç

8) on saying good-bye (parting)

e.g. ¢Good & bye.çç¢Good &afternoon.çç

Sounds in connected speech can change their quality, quantity or even fall out when unstressed. This phenomenon is called reduction. We distinguish three degrees (types) of reduction:

1) Quantitative reduction is a change of the length of a vowel in an unstressed position,

e.g. [¢òı:]-[òI¢]-[òı]

2) Qualitative reduction is the change of the quality of a vowel in unstressed position,

e.g. [¢fo:]-[fə], [¢kæn]-[kən]

These two types represent partial reduction.

3) Zero (complete) reduction is the falling out of an unstressed vowel,

e.g. [¢kæn]-[kn], [æm]-[m]

In English there are certain words which have two forms of pronunciation:

1) Strong (full) form, when they are stressed.

2) Weak (reduced) form, when they are unstressed.

These words include articles, prepositions, auxiliary, and modal verbs, some pronouns, conjunctions, particles,

e.g. He will be back at five

[hi wil bi: ¢bæk ət ( faiv çç]

Answer the following questions:

1. What is reduction?

2. What degrees of reduction do you know?

3. When are the form words used in their strong (weak) form?

4. Which words can be used either in their strong or weak form?