Supra Segment

SUPRASEGMENTAL FEATURE

Presented by:Samar ManzoorPhonetics and phonologySUPRASEGMENTAL FEATURE

2IntroductionDefinition of Suprasegmental featureSuprasegmental is also called ParsodyParsody Main Features of SuprasegmentalStressIntonationPitchToneConclusion

Outline

DEFINATION The term suprasegmental feature refers to properties of an utterance that apply to the groups of segments rather than to an individual sound, for example stress is generally assigned to a syllable rather than to an individual sound.

Suprasesegmental is the style of communication, that in which style you are to communicate with the other people, it shows your interest, disinterest, tone, sadness, happiness, or your expressions.

IntroductionSuprasegmental feature is also called PARSODY means song sung to music; pronunciation of syllabus, is the rhythm, stress and intonation of speech.Parsody may reflect the various feature of the speaker or the utterance, The emotional state of utterance , the form of utterance; (statement, question, command); the presence of irony or sarcasm, emphasis, contras & focuses.ParsodyParsody is typically absent in writing, but Orthographic have the opines about parsody which is presented in written form like punctuations marks, commas, ellipses, question mark, explanatory mark, italic, bold, and underlined.

There are four suprasegmental featuresStressIntonationPitchToneMain Suprasegmental features

Definition and role of stress in English language. Nature of stress, presentation of stressed syllables, production and perception of stressed syllables. What makes a syllable prominent 1-loudness2-length3-pitch4-quality

Stress and its roleWhich words are stressed and which are not Levels of stress Placement of stress levels with in the word Strong and weak syllables Stress in two syllable words Stress in three syllable words conclusion

Types of stressIntroduction Stress is an important feature of English pronunciation and to become a powerful communicator of English one needs proficiency while using different stress patterns in his communication. In the field of trade and commerce, travel and tourism, banking, administration, aviation and above all education, English has become necessary for everyday affairs of modern world ,

Stress in English language Why stress is crucial in English pronunciation. It can be called a grammatical device in English. A part of the meanings of a word depends on stress. It serves to mark the function of words in spoken English.

Why stress is important in English pronunciationThe desire to learn English is not very new and it is constantly growing by the day. It is so because the spoken English has assumed a far greater role than it did ever before.

TV and telephone has become an important means of business and non business transaction. Many more people go on international tours and participate in international seminars and conferences. Telephone interviews for selection of lucrative posts also need listening and spoken proficiency.

Word stress is not used in all languages. Some languages, Japanese or French for example, pronounce each syllable with equal em-pha-sis.

Other languages, English for example, use word stress.

Word stress is not an optional extra that you can add to the English language if you want. It is part of the language! English speakers use word stress to communicate rapidly and accurately, even in difficult conditions. If, for example, you do not hear a word clearly, you can still understand the word because of the position of the stress.

WHY STRESS IS IMPORTANT1-primary level, 2-secondary level, 3-tertiary level (unnecessary degree of complexity) Primary stress is represented with a high mark and secondary stress with a low mark. However this is worth noting that unstressed syllables containing schaw,i,u,or a syllabic consonant will sound less prominent.

Levels of stressWhich words are stressed and which are not; adverbs, Helping verbs, Adjectives, Conjunctions, Main verbs, Prepositions, Demonstrative + interrogative, pronouns, Nouns Unstressed words Stressed words.

stressed and unstressed wordsFunctional stress There are a number of two syllable words which function both as noun or adjective and verbs. For example conduct, convict etc. These words have stress on first syllable when they are used as noun or adjective. and stress occurs on the second syllable when they are used as verbs.

Noun and verb Various stress patterns Stress in English words varies from word to word. In some words stress falls on first syllable, while in other words it falls on the second third or fourth syllable.

Stress pattern varies

Intonation is the variation of pitch in language when speaking. It is the melody of phrase or whole utterance. Intonation conveys differences of expressive meaning (e.g.,surprise, anger, wariness).

Intonation

Intonation is the rise and fall of the voice. Intonation can make the difference of meaning. For example if you say he is coming with falling voice at the end, you are making a statement. If you say it with a rising voice, you are asking a question.

StatementQuestion

Hes ,coming.Hes coming?

1.Declarative intonation2.Question intonation

Types of intonation

In an affirmative or negative sentences, most sentences begin on level 2, rise to level 3, and then go down to pitch 1. If we say a sentence such as john is my brother. We can show the rise and fall of the voice by musical notes.4________________________3___________________&_____2___&_______&________broth______1_john____is____my_________er______

Declarative intonation:

In question intonation, we begin with pitch level 2, the voice goes to pitch 3 and then continues to guide a little higher.4_____________________&____3_______________&________er__2__is__&____&______broth________1_____he___your_______________

Question intonation:

Intonation can both change the grammar of an utterance and give us valuable insights into how a speaker feels about things. The most often proposed functions are following:1.Attitudinal function2.Grammatical function3.Accentual function4.Discourse function

Functions of intonation

Intonation can show a speakers attitude or mood. It is used to convey our feelings and emotions. Here is an example of a request and two different responses came in this result.Sara: Id like some help.Sana:a) you wouldb) you wouldResponse a:is declarative.Response b:is question.

Attitudinal function

It is usual to illustrate the grammatical function by inventing sentences which when written are ambiguous, and whose ambiguity can only be removed by using differences of intonation.For exampleThose who sold quickly, made a profit.Those who sold, quickly made a profit.

Grammatical function

It helps to prominent syllables that are used to be perceived as stress. The placing of tonic stress is called accentual function.For examplea.I have plans to leave.b.I have ,plans to leave.

Accentual function

Intonation can signal to the listener what is to be taken as new information and what is already given, can suggest when the speaker is indicating some sort of contrast or link with material in another tone-unit and, in conversation, can convey to the listener what kind of response is expected.For exampleA:have you got free time this morning?B:I might have latter on if that meetings off.Discourse function What is pitch? 1.Degree of highness or lowness (of sound) 2.Up and down movement 3.Move up and down with the waves. In speech, it means the highness or lowness of a tone as perceived by the ear, which depends on the number of vibrations per second produced by the vocal chords (voice producing) part of the throat).PITCHEach syllable of a spoken word receives a specific tone or pitch, that can be high or low. For example we can see following table: UPPER CASE , HIGH TONE AND LOWER CASE ,LOW TONE high level = Mother Low = horse high (rising)= hemp Low = to eat high (falling)=scold (extra)Low = time high = to know Low = city high = poem

The pitch of the voice is determined by several factors. The most important is the tension of the vocal folds. If the vocal folds are stretched, the pitch of the sound will go up. An increase in the flow of air out of the lungs will also cause an increase in pitch ,so that stressed sounds will usually have a higher pitch. Variations in pitch occur with the variation in the position of vocal folds.Thus creaky voice usually has a low pitch.Many different kinds of information can be conveyed by variation in pitch, some of this information simply shows the personal characteristics of the speaker. The pitch of voice usually indicates whether the speaker is male or female and his/her age. In addition, it conveys information about the speaker's emotional state. Whether the person is calm or angry, happy or sad. Difference in pitch can be used to change the meaning of a word:FOR EXAMPLE: In Chinese, the consonant vowel sequence (ma) pronounced with a high level pitch means mother', but the same sequence pronounced with a high falling pitch means 'scold'.

To summarize, variations in pitch are used in a number of different ways such as:In first place, they convey information about the speaker's emotional state and personal physiological characteristics.Second, in all languages, differences in pitch convey one or more kinds of linguistic information as well as information about the syntactic components which convey information about the meaning of the word and the grammatical function of the word.Third, a voiceless consonant can not be said on a low pitch only voiced sounds can have a high or a low pitch etc.TONETone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaningthat is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called intonation, but not all languages use tones to distinguish words or their inflections, analogously to consonants and vowels.Tone definition To the linguist [or speech therapist] tone means the quality of sound produced by the voice in uttering words. In a general sense, tone is the attitude of the speaker or writer as revealed in the choice of vocabulary or theintonation of speech. This attitude might be immediately apparent in tone of voice, for instance. Written or spoken communication might be described as having a tone which is, for instance:ironicseriousflippantthreateninglight-heartedpessimistic

Tone is used to convey an attitude. This may be done consciously or unconsciously. It could be said that there is no such thing as a text or verbal utterance without a tone. In most cases, tone is either taken for granted, or perceived unconsciously. Intonation is the term by which we refer to the patterns of sound which are evident in every utterance. We sometimes use the term monotone to imply an absence of intonation. This usually suggests some negative state of mind on the part of the speaker.

Use

We can, perhaps, appreciate these difficulties if we take the single word hello and consider the variations possible in expressing it to imply an attitude. Even a non-verbal utterance such as a cough or a clearing of the throat can be eloquent by means of its tone. An example of this is the cough which says Be careful! People are listening in to what youre saying. A slightly different cough acts as a warning not to go any further with an action or an utterance. just see..Oh Jeremy! she exclaimed in a shocked tone.Jeremy! she screamed, as she saw him leap from the parapet.

English and almost all other European languages are not tone languages at all.Many East Asian languages are tone languages, such as all the Chinese languages, Vietnamese, a small number of Korean dialects

Hello, hello, hello.stereotype policemanHello?Is anyone there?Hello!At last Ive found it!Hello!Here we go again!Hello!Fancy meeting you.and of course

Hello!Greeting a friend

English pronunciation depends on stress to a great deal. In order to become a powerful communicator of English we must learn all the rules of stress mentioned earlier. English is a language that borrowed words from 8000 languages of the world. All rules regarding the stress patterns of these languages are impossible to learn however if we learn some basic rules we can improve a lot. So learning of stress leads us to better communication.

conclusionIn conclusion we can say that Suprasesegmental is the style of communication, that in which style you are to communicate with the other people, it shows your interest, disinterest, tone, sadness, happiness, or your expressions, high and low pattern of voice through different features of suprasegmental; which are stress, intonation, pitch, and tone.