Linguistics - Suprasegmental Features

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICSTSL 3101

Introduction to Suprasegmental features.

What is suprasegmental features?

Suprasegmental (also called Prosodic Feature in phonetics) – is a speech feature – stress, rhythm and tone (intonation).

Stress

There are three types of stress- primary stress- secondary stress- zero stress (unstressed)

Primary stress- describes the strong, emphasis a

speaker puts on the most important syllable of

a particular word.

Secondary stress- refers to a less strong emphasis on the next most important syllable

Zero stress - refers to any syllable that receives no stress (also referred as an unstressed syllable)

Word stressrefers to the process whereby

particular syllables (or parts of words) are stressed within an overall word.

Example:(i) riddle (vi) pretend(ii) button (vii) contain(iii) manage (viii) remind(iv) person(v) zebra

Sentence stressrefers to the process whereby particular words are stressed within an overall sentence.

Certain words in a sentence will usually receive emphasis or stress depending on:- the level of importance of that word in the sentence (i.e., content vs. function words)

:: content words - carry the content of the sentence.

:: function words - help the sentence “function”-according to the grammatical arrangement of words in a sentence (syntactically).

- the speaker’s intent of the message being conveyed

Example:(i) I like his “style.(ii) Bill and Jane went “home.(iii) If I get “caught, I will get in

“trouble.

Sentences with a different stress.Example:

(i) I want two return tickets to London.

(ii) I want two return tickets to London.

(iii) I want two return tickets to London.

Primary and secondary sentence stress

Example:(i) The “boys ‘jumped into the ‘pool.(ii) The ‘boys “jumped into the ‘pool.(iii) The ‘boys ‘jumped into the “pool.

Content words (usually stressed)- nouns- verbs (excluding be, have, do)- adjectives- adverbs (including not)- demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, those)- interrogative pronouns (who, when, why, etc.)

Function words (usually unstressed)- articles (a, an, the)- simple prepositions (to, of, in, etc.)- personal pronouns (I, me, he, him, it, etc.)- possessive pronouns (my, his, your, etc.)- relative pronouns (who, that, which, etc.)- conjunctions (and, but, that, as, if, etc.)- the verbs be, have- auxiliary verbs (will, would, shall, should, can, could, may, might, must, etc.)

RhythmThe occurrence of stressed

syllable at regular intervals of time.

Example:(i) The ‘boy is ‘interested in ‘enlarging his “vocabulary.(ii) ‘Great ‘progress is ‘made “daily.

English is a stressed-time language. This means that the time between stressed syllables remain fairly steady – the unstressed syllables have to crowd between them.

PronunciAtion is FAScinating.

Tone (intonation)

Intonation consists of pitch contour speaking on the stressed syllable of the last content word in each phrases.

Pitch contour – related to the height or lowness of a tone in comparison to the surrounding tones.

Example:“Really?!”

Transcription of intonation/ rise\ fall/\ rise – fall \/ fall – rise /\/ rise – fall – rise \/\ fall – rise – fall

Example:(i) Have you seen Ann?

Yes. ( \ )

(ii) Do I have to clean my room? Yes! ( /\)

(iii) Ann and Peter were on good terms at the party.

Oh yes? ( \/)

Strong and weak form in connected speech.

Strong form of a word - used when the word is said in isolation, or in connected speech in which the word should be stressed.

Weak form - used only in unstressed positions.

Strong formUsed when the word is stressed.Example:

They don’t believe, do they?

You must choose us or them.

When the word is at the end of a sense group or sentence, even when they are unstressed.

Example:Who is on duty today?I am.

What are you looking at?

Weak formEnglish is a stressed timed

language - in trying to make the intervals between stressed syllables equal, to give the phrase rhythm, we tend to swallow non-essential words.

Thus, conjunctions, pronouns, prepositions, auxiliaries and articles are often lost.

Example:(i) and fish and chip (fish ‘n chip) a chair and a table (a chair

‘n a table)

(ii) She can speak Spanish better than I

can. (first “can” – weak form.) (second “can” – strong

form.)