PE3011 English Language Studies and Teaching 1

Phonetics Lecture 7 - Weak Forms and Intonation

(Reading : Roach, Chs. 12, 15 - 19)

How would you say the following line in a natural

conversation?

‘Can I have a cup of coffee, please?’

Which words are key words here? What makes them key
words?

Stress: Content words and function words

Content Words

• Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are content words

• Can be used alone without losing the core meaning of an
utterance or a sentence.
• Have dictionary meanings
• Those words you need to keep in telegraph messages.

Function Words (Grammatical Words)

• Words which do not have a dictionary meaning in the way that

we normally expect nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs to
have
• Usually those show grammatical relationships in and between
sentences.
• e.g., Conjunctions, prepositions, articles, auxiliary verbs,
pronouns, etc.
• Those words which are likely to be removed in telegraphic
messages.

Ex.
Turn the following into telegraphic messages, i.e., cross out the
less important words.

This is to confirm the arrival order No.235/SA.

This is an urgent message. Please contact Jane.
I regret the delay which is due to the ferry strike.

Read the sentences by saying stressing the words you keep, i.e.
more clearly, with a higher pitch.

Function words are usually pronounced in their weak forms than

in their strong forms unless they have a marked meaning.

Strong Forms of Function Words

• stressed when in isolation or when emphasized for a particular

• e.g. the strong form of the word "can" is /kæn/, and the strong
form of the word "and" is /ænd/.

e.g.,

• I CAN /kæn/ come (stressed; don’t mistake that I

can’t)

• Can you come? Yes, I CAN /kæn/ (stressed; certainly

and happily)
 • He will call both you AND /ænd/ me. (stressed; not
you alone nor me myself alone).

A function word is spoken in its strong form :

1. when it occurs at the end of a sentence.

e.g. Chips are what I'm fond of.
/v/
2. when it is being contrasted with another word.
e.g. The letter is from him, not to him.
/frm/ /tu:/

3. when it is emphasized, or when it is being quoted.

e.g. You must give me more money.
/mÃst/
e.g. You shouldn't put "and" at the end of a sentence.
/ænd/

Weak Forms of Function Words

• unstressed in natural, connected speech

• the weak form is used. e.g. the weak form of the word "can"
is /k«n/, and the weak form of the word "and" is /«n/.

How would you say the line again?

‘Can I have a cup of coffee, please?’

Mark the unstressed syllables with /«/.

Native speakers of English find an "all-strong-form"
pronunciation unnatural and foreign sounding, and most native
speakers use the weak forms of function words in speech, so
learners of English need to learn about these weak forms.

The most common weak-form words :

H-dropping in general

• As a general principle that /h/ is pronounced only at the

beginning of a stressed syllable

• Function words beginning with /h/ have weak-forms

without /h/, especially when they do NOT occur at the
beginning of a sentence.

• e.g., have, has, had, he, him, his, her etc.

The weak vowels involved in

"The"
Strong Form : /Di:/

Weak Forms : /D«/ before consonants and /DI/ before

vowels

"A", "An"
Strong Forms : /eI/ and /æn/ respectively

Weak Forms : /«/ before consonants and /«n/ before

vowels
"And"
Strong Form : /ænd/

Weak Form : /«n/

"But"
Strong Form : /bÃt/

Weak Form : /b«t/

Pronouns: "She", "He", "We", "You"

Strong Forms : / Si:/, /hi:/, /wi:/, /ju:/ respectively

Weak Forms : /SI/, /hI/ (or simply /I/), /wI/, /jU/

respectively

Pronouns: "Him", "Her"

Strong Forms : /hIm/ and /hÎ:/ respectively

Weak Forms : /Im/ and /«/ respectively

One point to note about the words "there" and "that" :

The words "there" and "that" are pronounced in their weak

forms only when they do NOT have a demonstrative function.

e.g. "There it is." cf "There should be a rule."

/De«/ /D«/

"Take that away.". cf "I think that he is right."

 /Dæt/ /D«t/

• / « /, / I /, and / U / are the most common vowels found in

the weak forms of function words (as found in weak syllables of
other words).

• / « / is used most often.

Some tips : If the strong form of a certain word contains /i:/ as the
vowel, the weak form is usually / I /; otherwise, the weak form is
very likely to be / « /. (N.B. This is just a guideline; there are
always exceptions.)

(Please refer to the textbook for details.)

Do Unit 12.1 (Roach’s)

Intonation

Say the lines in the following dialogue.

Waiter: What can I do for you?

Customer: Can I have a cup of coffee, please? No, I think

I’ll have a tea instead.

Waiter: Sure. Anything else?

What do you notice?

Now hum out the lines, i.e., without saying the actual sounds and
what do you notice?

• When speaking, people generally raise and lower the pitch of

their voice, give some syllables a greater degree of loudness
and change their rhythm (variation in speed and length of
sounds). These phenomena are called intonation.

Tone Unit (Tone Group)

• The stretch of conversation which begins after a pause and

ends with another pause is said to be an utterance

• E.g., What can I do for you? (an utterance)

• Each utterance can be broken down into some innotation

groups called tone units.

• A tone unit is a stretch of an utterance over which a particular

combination of intonation patterns extends (remaining constang
, rising ↑, or falling ↓)

• In its smallest form the tone unit may consist of only one
syllable, but usually a tone unit is larger than a syllable. There
may be one or more tone units in an English utterance. In this
course, we will just look at tone units which consist of one
syllable only.

Tone (patterns of intonation)

Possibilities of intonation patterns:

Say the following responses to the child’s question.

Child: Mom, can I go out?

Mom:

Yes, love.

Yes, but you need to be careful.

Yeeesss, or no, you can’t. You have some homework to

finish.

No, honey. It’s wet outside.

What do you notice about the ways you said the word ‘yes’ and
its following part?

• Pitch remaining at a constant level (level)  a level tone

• Pitch changing from one level to another (moving)  a
moving tone

Do Ex.15.1- 3 (Roach’s)

Some Functions of English moving tones

Fall ( yes no) : This tone is regarded as more or less neutral,

and gives an impression of finality.

Rise (yes no) : This tone conveys an impression that

something more is to follow.
Fall-Rise (yes no) : This tone can be described as showing
"limited agreement" or "response with reservations".

Rise-Fall (yes no) : This tone is used to convey rather strong

feelings of approval, disapproval or surprise.

Level (yes no) : This tone conveys a feeling of saying

something routine, uninteresting or boring.

It should be noted that the above functions of tones are just

general descriptions. This does not mean that only a certain tone
would be appropriate for a certain situation. In fact, it is almost
impossible to find a context where one could not substitute a
different tone for a certain one.

Functions of Intonation

• Intonation enables us to express emotions and attitudes as we

speak. (attitudinal function)

• Intonation helps to produce the effect of prominence on

syllables that need to be perceived as stressed. (accentual
function)

Say this:

What you need to say is a categorical NO.

• Intonation helps the listener to recognize the grammar and

syntactic structure of what is being said. (grammatical
function)

• Intonation signals to the listener what is to be taken as "new"

information and what is already "given. (discourse function).
Attitudinal Function of Intonation

• Intonation can help to convey the speaker's feelings and

attitudes; for example, the same sentence can be said in
different ways, which might be labelled "angry", "happy",
"grateful", and "bored", using different loudness and speed, and
different voice qualities.

Say the following responses to the child’s question.

Child: Mom, can I go out?

Mom:

Yes, love. (certainly)

Yes, but you need to be careful. (reservation)

Yeeesss, or no, you can’t. You have some homework to finish.

(uncertainly)

No, honey. It’s wet outside. (certainly)

Accentual Function of Intonation

• The placement of the tonic-stress within the tone unit

constitutes the accentual function of intonation. The most
common position for the tonic syllable is on the last lexical
word of the tone unit.

Say these:
I want to know where he's travelling to.
I want to know where he’s traveling to.
 She was wearing a red dress.
She was wearing a red dress.

• For contrastive purposes, however, any word may become the

tonic syllable.

Say these:
I don't want to know where he's travelling from.
I want to know where he's travelling to.
She wasn't wearing a green dress. She was wearing a red
dress.

• There are some situations where it is normal for the tonic

syllable to come earlier in the tone unit.

Say these:
e.g. I have plans to leave. (I am planning to leave.)
I have plans to leave. (I have some plans that I have to
leave.)

Grammatical Function of Intonation

• The difference in the placement of the tone unit boundary can

help to disambiguate an ambiguous sentence.

Say these:

e.g.

Those who sold quickly | made a profit.

Those who sold | quickly made a profit.

• The placement of the tone unit boundary can also help to make
clear the difference between restrictive and non-restrictive
relative clauses.

Say these:

e.g.
The Conservatives who like the proposal | are pleased.

The Con servatives | who like the proposal | are pleased.

• The choice of tone on the tonic syllable can help to determine

the function of an utterance, such as changing a statement into
a question.

Say these:
e.g.
The price is going up.

The price is going up?

Discourse Function of Intonation

The tonic stress will tend to be placed on words with high

information content. (The more predictable a word's occurrence is
in a given context, the lower its information content is.)

Say these:
e.g.

I've go to take the dog for a walk.

I've got to take the dog to the vet.

• The word "vet" is less predictable than "walk" and has a higher
information content. It is therefore normal to place the tonic
stress on the word "vet" but not the word "walk".

Do Ex.15.4 (Roach’s)
Do Ex. 16.1-4 (Roach’s)