Giáo trình thực hành Ngữ âm học và âm vị học tiếng Anh (tái bán lần thứ 3): Phần 2

Nối tiếp nội dung phần 1, phần 2 cuốn giáo trình thực hành Ngữ âm học và âm vị học tiếng Anh giới thiệu tới người đọc các nội dung: Complex wordstress, wcak forms, problems in phonemic analysis, aspects of connected speech, functions ofintonation, intonation, further areas ofstudy in phonetics ancl phonology.

11.1 Complex words

In Chapter 10 the nature of stress was

explained and some broad general rules

were given for deciding which syllable in a

word should receive primary stress The

words that were described were called

"simple" words; "simple" in this context

means "not composed of more than one

grammatical unit", so that, for example, the

word 'care' is simple while 'careful' and

'careless' (being composed o two

grammatical units each) are complex;

'carefully' and 'carelessness' are also complex,

and are composed ofthree grammatical units

'each Unfortunately, as was suggested in the

Chapter 10, it is often difficult to decide on

whether a word should be treated as complex

or simple The majority of English words of

more than one syllable (polysyllabic words)

have come from other languages whose way

of constructing words is easily recognisable;

forexample, we can see how combining 'mit'

with the prefixes 'per-', 'sub-', 'com-' produced

'permit', 'submit', 'commit', words which have

come into English from Latin Similarly,

Greek has given us 'catalogue', 'analogue',

'dialogue', 'monologue', in which the prefixes

'cata-', 'ana-', 'dia-', 'mono-' are recognisable

But we cannot automatically treat the

separate grammatical units of other

languages as separate grammatical units of

English;If we did, we would not be able to

study English morphology without first

studying the morphology of five or six other

languages, and we would be forced into

ridiculous analyses such as that the Engiish

word 'parallelepiped' is composed of four or

five grammatical units (which is the case in

' Ancient Greek) We must accept, then, that

the distinction between "simple" and

"complex" words is difficult to draw, and is

therefore not always useful

d duo·cmieuta dLlc;ICgoi la w "don gian";

"don gian" trong n u canh nay c6 nghia

la "khong dugc cau tao t r nhieu hon mot

o chuong 10, thuong thi that kho quyet

dinh mot tu nen du c xem la tu phuc

ta hay don gian Da soca tu tien Anh

co nhieu hon mot am tiet (cac tu da am tiet) d@u bat nguon tu nh@ng ngon ng khac v6n c6 cach cau tao tu d dang

nhn biet; vi du, ta c6 the thay vi@c ket

hop 'mit' voi cac tien to 'per ', 'sub-','com-' von bit ngu6n tu tie'ng Latin da

tao ra tu 'permi ', 'submit', 'commit' nhu'

the nao Tu'dng tu, tieng Hy Lap c o ta

ca.c W 'catalogue', 'analogue', 'dialogue','monologue', trong d6 cac tien to 'cata­

', 'ana-', 'dia-', 'mono-' d dang d d

nhan biet. Nhung chung ta khong the tu d9ng xeni cac don vi ngd phap rie g cda

nhung ngon ngu khac la cac don vi ngCI

Hy Lap co Vay thi chung ta phai chap

Complex words are of two major types:

i) words made from a basic word form (which

we will call the stem), with the addition

of an affix; and

ii) compound words,which are made of two

(or occasionally more) independent

English words (e.g 'ice-cream', 'armchair')

We will look first at the words made with

affixes Affixes are of two sorts in English:

prefixes, which come before the stem (e.g.

prefix 'un-'+stem 'pleasant'-> 'unpleasant')

and suffixes, which come after the stem (e.g.

stem 'good' + suffix '-ness' 'goodness)

Affixes have one of three possible effects

on word stress:

i) The affix itself receives the primary

stress (e.g 'semi-' +'circle' sa:kl >

'semicircle' 'sem1sa:l; 'person' 'pa:s~

'personality' pa:s~ 'relati)

ii) The word is stressed just as if the affix

were not there (e.g 'pleasant' 'pleznt,

'unpleasant' An'pleznt; 'market' ma:kTt,

'marketing' ma:k1tJg)

iii) The stress remains on the stem, not the

affix, but is shifted to a different syllable

(e.g 'magnet' 'mregnat, 'magnetic'

mreg'netik).

11.2 Suffixes

There are so many suffixes that it will

only be possible here to examine a small

proportion of them; we will concentrate on

those which are common and productive

(that is, are applied to a considerable number

of stems and could be applied to more to

make new English words) In the case of the

others, foreign learners would probably be

better advised to learn the 'stem + affix'

combination as an individual item

ban (da g ma c ung ta goi la go'ctu), c: them m9t p y to'; va

ii) cac tu ghep, duoc tao ra tu' hai (d i

dung truoc goc tu (vi du ti& to 'un-' +

goc W 'pleasant' --> 'u pleasant') va h~u

'personality' pa:sfrelati).

ii) Tu duqc nhan giong nhu the' khon

c p u t6 d d6 (vi du: 'pleasant'

'pleznt, 'unpleasant' An'pleznt;

'mar et' ma:k1t, 'mar eting' ma:kTtJol.

dung vao mot s6 luqng dang ke' cac geic

tu va c6 the' dugc ap dung vao nhieu tuhon detao thanh nhangtumdi trong tieng

Anh) Trong trl/ong hqp cu nhung tu

khac, co le nhung nguoi hQc ngoc1-i ngu nen hoc each ke't hqp 'g c W + plw to''

n u mot muc rien

One of the problems that will be

encountered is that we may find words which

are obviously complex but which, when we

divide them into stem + a fix, turn out to

have a stem that is difficult to imagine as an

English word For example, the word

'audacity' seems to be a complex word

-but what is its stem? Another problem is that

it is difficult in some cases to know whether

aword has one, or more than one, suffix (e.g

should we analyse 'personality', from the

point of view of stress assignment, as pasn+

rel;,tior as p3:sn +rel +;,ti? In the study of

English word formation at a deeper level than

we can go into here, it is necessary for such

reasons to distinguish between a stem (which

is what remains when affixes are removed),

and a root, which is the smallest piece of

lexical material that a stem can be reduced

to So, in 'personality', we could say that the

suff"ix '-ity' is attached to the st em 'personal'

which contains the root 'person' We will not

spend more time here on looking at these

problems, but go on to look at some

generalisations about suffixes and stress,

using only the term 'stem' for the sake of

simplicity The suffixes are referred to in

their spelling form

Suffixes carrying primary stress

themselves

In the examples given, which seem to be

the most common, the pripiary stress is on

the first syllable of the suffix If the stem

consists of more than one syllable there will

be a secondary stress on one of the syllables

of the stem This cannot fall on the last

syllable of the stem and is, if necessary,

moved to an earlier syllable For example,

in 'Japan' d3a'pen the primary stress is on

the last syllable, but when we add the stress­

carrying suffix '-ese' the primary stress is on

the suffix and the secondary stress is placed

not on the second syllable but on the first:

'Japanese' ,d3apa'ni:z

Mqt trong nhang van de se gap lachung ta c6 the thay nhmng tu r6 rang laphuc tqp nhung, khi chung ta chia chungthanh goc tu + phu to thl h6a ra chung

co mot goc tu ma ta kh6 ttfong tL(Q'ng d6

la tu tieng Anh Vi du: tu 'audacity' c6

ve nhu la mQt tu ph c tap nhung dau lagoc tu cua n6? MQt van de khac la trongmot so trui ng hop that kh6 biet dugc mot

tu co mot hay nhieu hon mot hau to (vid1_1: tu quan diem ve cach dat trong am,chung ta co nen phan tich 'personality'

la pasn+relati hay la pa:sn+rel+ ati? ) Kh i

nghien cuu cach thanh lap tu tieng Anh

o cap do sau hon cap dQ chung ta xemxet o day, vi nhung ly do nhu the d nphai phan bi@t gil a mot goc tu (la phancon lai khi loai b phu t6) va goc (laphan nho nhat cl a tai lieu tu vung mamot goc tu c6 the gian lugc thanh Vay,trong tu 'personality', chung ta c6 th€ n6irang h u t6 '-ity' du c gan vao goc tt

'personal' chda g c 'person' O daychung ta se khong danh nhieu thoi gian

de xem xet nhung van de nay, ma setiep ti c xem mot s6 dieu tong quat vehau to va trong am, d€ don gian chi dungthuat ngd 'g6c tu'. Cac hu t6 duo;c decap o dang chinh ta cda chung

g AU 7 ,E 3

Ca hau t c6 sin trqng am chinh

Trong cac vi du du; c cho, duong nhu

ph6 bi n nhat, trong am chinh nam o

am tiet dau tien cua hau to Neu goc ttc6 hon mot am tiet thi se co mQt trQng

am phv a mQt trong so cac am ti&t cl agoc tt d6 TrQng am nay khong th€ roivao am tiet cuoi cda goc tu va neu can,

no dugc d i den am tiet phia truck Vi

du, trong tu 'Japan' d3a'pan, am tietchinh nam o am tiet cu6i, nhung khichung ta them hau to mang trong am'-ese' thi trong am chinh nam & hu to

va trong am phu duoc dat khong phai o

am tiet tht hai ma o am tiet th& nhat:'Japanese' ,d3apa'ni:z

'-ee': 'refugee' ,refju'd3:: 'evacuee' 1,vrekju'i:

'-eer': 'mountaineer' ,maunh'ma; 'vol~nteer' , vnlan'lTa

I

'-ese': 'Portuguese' ,p:,:tJa'gi:z; 'journalese' , dJ3:nl'i:z

'-ette': 'cigarette' ,s1gi;'et; 'launderette' ,b:nd~et

'-esque': 'picturesque' ,pktfr'esk

~·uffixes that do not affect stress Cac h au t o k ho ng an h h u n d e'n

'-able': 'comfort' 'kAmfat; 'comfortable' 'kAmftabi

'-age': 'anohor' 'aenka; 'anchorage' 'ankarrd3

'-al': 'refuse' (verb) n'fjuz; 'refusal' n'fju:z!

'-en': 'wide' ward; 'widen' 'wardn

'-ful': 'wonder' 'wAnda; 'wonderful' 'wAvdaft

'-ing': 'amaze' a'me1z; 'amazing' a'me1z10

'-ish': 'devil' 'devl ; 'devilish' 'devhf

(This is the rule for adjectives; verbs with

stems of more than one syllable always have

the stress on the syllable immediately

preceding 'ish', e.g 'replenish' n'plemJ,

'demolish' dr'mhf.)

'-like': 'bird' 'b3:d; 'birdlike' 'b3:dla1k

(Day la quy tac danh cho cac tinh tu;cac dong tt co cac goc tu nhieu hon

mot am tiet luon co trong am nam & amtietdung ngay truoc 'ish', vi du: 'replenish'

n'plemJ, 'demolish' d1 1

mnhJ.)

Suffixes that influence stress in the

stem

In these examples primary stress is on

the last syllable of the stem

C ac h a u t o an h h un g de n tr o ng a m

tro n g g o' c tu

Trang cac vf du nay, trong am chfnh

nam & am titcu6i cia goc tt

'-less': 'power' 'paua; 'powerless' 'paualas

'-ly': 'turried 'hAnd; 'hurriedly' 'hurdli

'-mene' (noun): 'punish' 'pAmJ; 'punishment' 'pAmJmant

1

-ness': 'yellow' 'jelau; 'yellowness' 'jelaunas

'-ous': 'poison' 'przn; 'poisonous' 'prznas

'-fy': 'glory' 'gb:ri; 'glori[y' 'gb:nfa1

'-wise': 'other' 'Ada; 'otherwise' 'A0NWa1z

'-y' (adjective or noun): 'fun' 'fAn; 'funny' 'fAni

g AUl 1, EX 3

• '-eous': 'advantage' ad'vo:ntTdJ; 'advantageous' ,redvan'te1d3as

.'-graphy': 'photo' 'fautau; 'photography' fa'tografi

'ial': 'proverb' 'prva:b; 'proverbial' pro'vs:biol

'-ion': 'climate' 'kla,mit; 'climatic' kla1'mret1k

'-ion': 'perfect' 'pa:f1kt; 'perfection' pa'fekJ'}

'·-ious': 'injure' 'md3a; 'injurious' m'd3J:rias

'-ty': 'tranquil' 'tngkwil; 'tranquillity' trreo'kwdati

'-ive': 'reflex' 'ri:leks; 'reflexive' n'fleks1v

Finally, when the suffixes '-ance', '-ant'

and '-ary' are attached to single-syllable

stems, the stress is almost always placed on

the stem When the stem has more than one

syllable, the stress is on one of the syllables

in the stem To explain this we need to use a

rule based on syllable structure, as was done

for simple words in the previous chapter If

the final syllable of the stem is strong, that

syllable receives the stress For example:

'importance' mm'p:tns; 'centenary' sen'ti:nri

Otherwise the syllable before the last one

receives the stress: 'inheritance' 1n'her1fans;

'military' 'm1htri

11.3 Prefixes

We will only deal briefly with prefixes

Their effect on stress does not have the

comparative regularity, independence and

predictability of suffixes, and there is no

prefix of one or two syllables thatalways

carries primary stress Consequently, the best

treatment seems to be to say that stress in

words with prefixes is governed by the same

rules as those for words without prefixes

,

11.4 Compound words

the words discussed so far in this chapter

have all consisted of a stem plus an affix We

now pass on to another type of word This is

, called compound, andits main characteristic

is that it can_ be analysed into two words, both

ofwhich can exist independently as English

words (Some compounds are made of more

than two words, but \ve will, not consider

these.)As with many of the distinctions being

made in connection with stress, there are

areas of uncertainty For example, it could

be argued that 'photograph' may be divided

Cu6i cmng, khi cac hau to '-ance', '-ant'

va '-ary' duoc gan vao cac g6c tu don

am tiet, trong am hau nhu luc nao cungdat len goc tu. Khi g6c tu co hon mot

am ti&t, trong am nam o mot trong socac am tiet trong g6ctudo 0€ giai thichdieu nay, chung ta can dung mot quytac dua tren cau truc am tiet, giong nhud15'i voi cac tu don gin trong chl.idngtruoc Neu am ti&t cuoi cla goc tu manhthi am ti@t do nhan trong am Vi du:'importance' 1m'pJ:tns; 'centenary'

sen'ti:nri Nguoc lai, am tie't dung truoc

am tiet cuoi nhan trong am: 'inheritance'

m'hentans; 'military' 'm1htri.

11.3 Tie t6

Chung ta se chi ban ngiln gon ve cactien to Su tac dong cla chung len trong

am co tinh quy tile tuong d6i, tfnh- dqc

lap va tfnh co the doan truoc cda cachau to, va khong co tien t6 nao cla mo thoac hai am tiet luon mang trong amchinh Do do, each giai quyet t6t nha't

co ve nhu la phai noi rang trong am trongcac tu co tien to bi chi phoi b i cac quytac giong nhu quy tac danh cho cac ttkhong co ti@n t6

co th€ t6 n ti! i doc lap nhu cac tt tie'ngAnh (Mot so tughep dugc tao ra tut nhieuhdn hai tu, 11hung chung ta se khong xemxet 11hCl11g wnay.) Cong co nhiJu su khacbi~t v~ trong am, c6 cac ITnh V I/C kh6ng

into two independent words, 'photo' and

'graph'; yetwe usually do not regard it as a

compound, but as a simple word (If,

however, someone drew a graph displaying

numerical information about photos, this

would perhaps be called a 'photo-graph' and

the word would be regarded as a compound)

Compounds are written in different ways;

s01n:etimes they are written as one word

-e.g 'armchair', 'sunflower'- sometimes with

the words separated by a hyphen - e.g 'gear­

change', 'fruit-cake', and sometimes with two

words separated by a space - e.g 'desk lamp',

'battery charger' In this last case there would,

of course, be no indication to the foreign

learner that the pair of words was to be treated

as a compound There is no clear dividing

line between two-word compounds and pairs

ofwords that simply happen to occur together

quite frequently

As far as stress is concerned, the question

is quite simple When is primary stress placed

on the first constituent word of the compound

and when on the second? Both patterns are

found A few rules can be given, although

these are not completely reliable Words

which do not receive primary stress normally

have secondary stress, although for the sake

of simplicity this is not marked here Perhaps

the most Iamiliar type of compound is the

one which combines two nouns, and

normally has the stress on the first element,

as in:

'typewriter' 'tarprarto'car-ferry' 'ko:feri'sunrise' 'sAnra1z

It is probably safest for foreign learners

to assume that stress will normally fall in this

way on other compounds; however, a variety

of compounds receive stres•, instead on the

second element For exall'ple, compounds

with an adjectival first element and the -ed

morpheme at the end have this pattern (given

d @c viet theo nhieu cach khac nhau;

d i khi chung duoc viet du i dang mot

tu - vi du: 'armchair', 'sunflower' - d6i

khi v6i cac tu dudc tach rdi ba g dau

gqch ngang - vi du: 'gear-change', 'fruit­

cake' - v d6i khi voi c c tu dudc tach rdi bang mot khoang trong - vi du: 'd s

lamp', 'battery c arger' Di nhien trllong

hqp c o'i cung khong c o ng oi hoc

ngoai ng@ thay rangca tu nay phai du;c

xem la tu ghep K ong co du ng phan

c ia ro ra g gila cac tu ghep hai tu va

cac cap tu von don gian xuat hien voi

nh u kh thllo g x ye

Ve mat trong am, cau hoi nay kha

d n gian. Khi nao trong am chinh dLiQC

dat & tu thanh phan dau tien cuatu ghep

v khi nao duoc dat o tu thanh phan tht hai? Ca hai mau d u du;c tim thay C6

the' c6 m9t vai qui tile dl.ic;Jc dl.ia ra, mac

du nhung qui tfr nay kh6ng hoan toan

dang tin cay C c tr khong nhan trong

am c inh thuong co trong am phu, mac

du de don gin no kh ng duoc da h dau

d da Co le loqi tu ghep quen thuoc

nhat la lo i kt hop hai d nh tu v thllong

c6 trong am & thanh phan dau tie n, nhu trong:

'suitcase' 'su:tke1s'tea-cup' 'ti:kAp

am vi -ed o cuoi c mau nay (chi dL(Q'C

c o o dang chinh ta):

bad-'tempered

half-'timbered

heavy-'handed

Compounds in which the first element is

a number in some form also tend to have

Finally, compounds which function as

verbs and have an adverbial first element

take final stress:

down-'grade

back-'pedal

ill-'treat

11.5 Variable stress

It would be wrong to imagine that the

stress pallern is always fixed and unchanging

in English words Stress position may vary

for one of two reasons: either as a result of

the stress on other words occurring next to

the word in question, or because not all

speakers agree on the placement of stress in

somewords The former case is an aspect of

connected speech that will be encountered

again in Chapter 14: the main effect is that

the stress on a final-stressed compound tends

to move to the preceding syllable if the

following word begins with a strongly

stressed syllable Thus (using some examples

from the previous section):

bad-'tempered

half-'timbereheavy-' handed

Cac tu ghep thuc hi@en ch c nang la

tinh tu thuong dugc nhan o tu cu6i:head-'first

North-'Eastdown'stream

11.5 Trqng am bien dfii

That sai lam khi nghT ra g mau trong

am lun codinh va kh ng tha di trong

ca tu tieng An Vi tri tro g am c6 th€

thay do'i vi mot trong hai ly do: la do

trong am trn cac tu khac xuat hien ke

ben tu d ng de cap, hoac vi khong phai

tat ca nhung ngudi noi deu chap nhan

a 'bad-tempered 'teacher

a 'half-timbered 'house

a 'heavy-handed 'sentence

The second is not a serious problem, but

is one that foreign learners should be aware

of A well-known example is 'controversy',

which is pronounced by some speakers as

'kuntrav3:si and by others as kan'truvasi; it

would be quite wrong to saythat one version

was correct and one incorrect Other

examples of different possibilities are 'ice­

cream' (either ,a1s'kri:m or 'a1skri:m)

'kilometre' ('k1lami:ta or k1'lum1ta) and

'formidable' ('fa:m,dabl or fa:'mrdabl')

11.6 Word-class pairs

One aspect ofwo: d stress is besttreated

as a separate issue There are several dozen

pairs of two-syllable words with identical

spellingwhich differ from each other in stress

placement, apparently according to word

class (noun, verb or adjective) All appear to

consistofprefix+ stem We shall treat them

as a special type of word and give them the

following rule: if a pair of prefix-plus-stem

words exists, both members of which are spelt

identically, one of which is a verb and the

other ofwhich is either a noun or an adjective,

then the stress will be placed on the second

syllable of the verb but on the first syllable

of the noun or adjective Some common

examples are given below (V = verb, A =

,ars'kri:m hoac 'arskri:m ), 'kiometre'

('krlami:ta ho~ck1'lnm1ta) va 'formidable'

('fa:mrdabf ho~c fa:'mrdabp.

nh u,mot thanh phan la dongtuva tha h

phan con lai la danh tt ho c tinh tr, thi

trong am duoc dat 8 am tiet th& hai cla

dong tu nhung o am ti&t th nhat cl

143 Notes on problems and further reading

Most of the reading recommended in the notes for the previous chapter is relevant forthis one too Looking specifically at compounds, it is worth reading Fudge (1984: Chapter5) See also Cruttenden (1994: 207-9) If you wish to go more deeply into compound-wordstress, you should first study English word formation Recommended reading for this isBauer (1983) On the distinction between st em and r oo t , see Radford e al . (1999), pp 67-8

Written exercises

Put stress marks on the following words

(try to put secondary stress marks on as

2 Write the words in phonemic

transcription, including the stress marks

2. Phi@n am cac tu na theo am vi ho ,

bao gom cac dau nha

demonstrative function /d1monstr;it1v 'fAnk.fn/

demonstrative sense /dr'mpnstratrv 'sens/

devote /dr'v;iut/ (v)

function word TfAnkfn wa:d/

imply 1Tm'pla1/ (v)

in conjunction with /in bn'd3A1Jk.fn w10/

practically /'prrekt1kh/ (adv) (all)

pre-consonantal /' pri :,kuns;i 'nrentl/ (adj)

roughly /'rAfl1/ (adv)

st suy luan chute na ng chi dinh (chi r6 nay, kia, day, d())

nghi chi dinh (chi r6 nay, kia day, dr5)

diinh clw

ht tit

n ga m chi st ton tai (mot thut gi)

ding vd i hau nh (tat ca )

d ti ng trur Jc ph c7 m khodng ( = abou t)

_v nghia m;i ng ni , trdm tr(mg

12 Weak forms

Chapter 9 discussed the difference

between strong and weak syllables in

English We have now moved on from

looking at syllables to looking at words We

will now consider certain well-known

Englishwordsthat can be pronounced in two

different ways; these are called strong forms

and weak forms As an example, the word

'that' can be pronounced ilret (strong form) or

ilat (weak form) The sentence 'I like that' is

pronounced a1 la1k oret (strong form); the

sentence 'I hope that she will' is pronounced

a1 haop ilatJi wII (weak form) There are

roughly forty such words in English It is

possible to use only strong forms in speaking,

and some foreigners do this Usually they

can still be understood by other speakers of

English, so why is it important to learn how

weak forms are used? There are two main

reasons; first, most native speakers of English

find an "all-strong-form" pronunciation

unnatural and foreign-sounding, something

that most learners would wish to avoid

Second, and more importantly, speakers who

are not familiar with the use of weak forms

are likely to have difficulty understanding

speakers who do use weak forms; since

practically all native speakers of British

English use them, learners of the language

needto learn about these weak forms to help

them to understand what they hear

We must distinguish between weak forms

and contracted forms Certain English

words are shoctcned so severely (usually to

a single phoneme) and so consistently that

they are represented differently in informal

writing e.g 'it is' - 'it's'; ·we have' - 'we've';

'donot' - 'don't' These contracted forms are

discussed in a later chapter, and are not

included here

Chlld g 9 d ban ve su khac nhau

gila cac am tiet manh va y u trong tien

An Bay gi chung ta se chuyen tu vie

xem xe t cac am tiet sang xem xet cac

manh) hoac 0at (dang yeu). Cau 'I like

that' duo phcl t am la ax lark 0at (dang

mqnh) ; cau 'I hope th t sh will' dtl(Jc

ph t am la ax haup ilatJi wrl (dang yeu)

C 6 khoa g bon muoi W nhu the trong

tien Anh Chung ta c6 the c i st'I dLJng

dang manh tron van noi v mtso nguoi nuoc ngoai lam nhu vay T uong

thl nhtng ngudi noi t ng Anh kh c van

c the' hie'u ho, vay tai sao hoc cclch

dung cac da g yeu lai quan trong? C6

hai ly do chinh; tht nhat hau het nhtn

nguc'li ban nga noi tieng Anh thay cach

ph t am "dqng tatca d u manh" la khong

tu nhien va ng e co ve ngoai lai, dieu

ma hiiu het nhung ngttoi hocmuon tran

Thu hai, va quan trong ho , ngudi n6i

khong quen dung da g yeu co the gap

kh6 khan trong viec hieu nhtng ngttc'li

noi dung da ng yeu; vi trn thuc te tat ca

tat ca nhL7ng nglloi n6i Anh ban nga deu

st du g chung, nguoi hoc ngon ng@ nay

can phi ho ve nhung dang yeu nay de

giup ho h ie'u nhung dieu ho nghe

Chu g ta phai ph n biet gida ca dang

yeu va dang rut gon. Mot so tu tieng

Anh dll(J rut gon qua mLIC (thllc'lng con

mot am vi do ) va kien dinh den n6i

c ung d oc trlnh bay khac nhau trong

van viet than mat, vi du: 'it is' - 'it's';'we have' - 'we've'; 'do not' - 'don't'

Nhung dang rut gon nay duoc thao lu n

trong cac ch ong sau va khong duo tri h bay a d y

Almost all the words which have both a

strong and weak form belong to a category

that may be called function words - words

that do not have a dictionary meaning in the

way that we normally expect nouns, verbs,

a jectives and adverbs to have These

function words are words such as auxiliary

verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, etc., all of

which are in certain circumstarices

pronounced in their strong forms but which

a e more frequently pronounced in their

weak forms It is important to remember that

there are certain contexts where only the

strong form is acceptable, and others where

the weak form is the normal pronunciation

There are some fairly simple rules; we can

say that the strong form is used in the

following cases:

i) For many weak-form words, when they

occur at the end of a sentence For

example, the word 'of has the weak form

av in the following sentence:

Hau het tat ca cac tu co ca dangmanh lan yeu deu thuoc ve mot phamtru ma c6 the goi la tu ch&c nang - tuc

la cac tr khong co nghia tu dien theocach chung ta thuong muon c ci' danh

tu, dong tu, tfnh tu v trang tu. Cac tt

chuc nang nay la nhung W nhu tre;1 dl)ng

tu, giai W, lien tu, v.v., ta't ca cac ttd6, trong m<')t so trui ng hop, duoc phat

am theo dang manh ci a chung nhungdugc phat am thuong xuyen hon dangyeu Dieu quan trong la phai nho rang

co mot so ngu canh ma o d6 chi co thechap nhan dang manh, va nhung ngdcanh khac trong do dang yeu la eachphat m blnh thuong C6 mi)t so qui tackha don gian; chung ta c6 the noi rangdang manh duoc dung trong nhung trui nghc;1p sau day:

i) D6i vdi nhiu tu c6 dang yeu, khichung xuat hien o cuoi cau; vi du: tt

'of' c6 dang yeu la av trong Call sauday:

'I'm fond of c'lips' aim 'fond av 'tJrps

However, when it comes <it the end of Tuy nhien, khi no dung o cu6i cau,the sentence, as in the following nhlltrong vi du sau, n6 co dang manh

example, it has the strong form ov: la ov:

'Chips are what I'm fond of 'tJrps a 'wot arm 'fond ovMany o the words given below

(particularly the first nine) never occur

at the end of a sentence, e.g 'the', 'your'

Some words (particularly the pronouns

numbered 10-14 below) do occur in their

weak forms in final positior

ii) When a weak-form word is being

contrasted with another word, for

example:

Nhieu tu du;c cho duoi day (dac biet

la chin tudau tien) khong bao gio xuat

hien o cuoi cau, vi du: 'the', 'your'.Mot so tu (dac biet la cac dai tu du;cdanh s6 10-14 du6'i day) xuat hien o

vi tri cuoi theo dang yeu cua chung.ii) Khi mot tu dang yeu trai ngu@c v6'imot tt khac; vi du:

'The letter's from him, not to him' i);, 'letaz 'from rm not 'tuam

Asimilar case is what we might call a co- Mot truong hop tuong tu la dieu maordinated use of prepositions: chung ta c6 the' goi la su dt_ing ktft

hop cac gioi tu:

'I travel to and from London a lot' a, 'trrev! 'tu: an 'from 'lAndan a 'lot'A work of and about literature' a 'w:l:k 'ov an a'baut 'htntJa

iii) When a weak-form word is given stress

for the purpose of emphasis, for example:

iii) Khi mot tu dang yeu duoc nhan vlmuc dich nhan manh; vi du:

'You must give me more money' ju 'mast 'grv mi 'm: 'mAniiv) When a weak-form word is being "cited"

or "quoted", for example:

iv) Khi mot tu dang yeu dang dudc trichdan; vi du:

'You shouldn't put "and" at the end of a sentence'

ju 'fodnt pot 'rend at Di 'end av a 'sentans

Another point to remember is that when

weak-form words whose spelling begins with

'h' (e.g 'her', 'have') occur at the beginning of

a sentence, the pronunciation is with initial

h, even though this is usually omitted in

other contexts

In the rest of this chapter, the most

common weak-form words will be

introduced

'the'

Weak forms: ila (before consonants)

'Shut the door' 'JAt ila 'd:>:

iii (before vowels)

'Wait for the end' 'we,tfa iii 'end

2 'a', 'an'

Weak forms: a (before consonants)

'Read a book' 'ri:d a 'buk

'Come and see' 'kAm an 'si:

'Fish and chips' 'if n 'fps

4 'but'

Weak form: bat

'It's good but expensive' ,ts 'god bat

1k'spens1v

5 'that'

This word only has a weak form when

used in arelative clause; when used with

Mot diem khac can nho la khi cac tu

dang yeu co dang viet bat dau bang 'h'

(vi du: 'her', 'have') xuat hien o dau cau,cach phat am co h o vi tri dau, mac du

no thuong bi luoc b trong nhung ng@can khac

OAU12, EX 1-2Phan con lai cla chuong nay se gioithieu cac tu dang yeu ph6 bien nhat.'the'

Dang yeu: d» (truoc phu am)'Shut the door' 'JAt il3 'd ;, :

di (truoc nguyen am)'Wait for the end' 'we,tfa iii 'end

2 'a', 'an'Dang yeu: s (truoc phu am)'Read a book' 'ri:d a 'buk

an (truoc nguyen am)'Eat an apple' 'i:t an 'repl

3 'and'Dang yeu: an (doi khi n sau t, d, s, z,J) 'Come and see' 'kam an 'si:

'Fish and chips' 'tiJ ~ 'tJ1ps

4 'but'Dang yeu: bat

'It's good but expensive' ,ts 'god bat

1k'spens1v

5 'that'

T nay chi co dang yeu khi duoc dungtrong menh de quan he; khi dugc dung

a demonstrative sense it is always

pronounced in its strong form

Weak form: oat

'The price is the thing that annoys me' d3

'praIs iz 0» '01 0at a'n;nz mi

6 'than'

Weak form: 0an

'Better than ever' beta 0an 'eva

7 'his' (when it occurs before a noun)

Weak form: rz (hrz at the beginning of a

sentence)

'Take his name' 'terk rz 'nerm

(Another sense of 'his', as in 'it was his', or

'his was late', always has the strong form.)

8 'her'

When used with possessive sense,

preceding a noun; as an object pronoun,

this can also occur at the end of a

sentence

Weak forms: a (before consonants)

'Take her home' terk a 'haom

a (before vowels)

'Take her out' 'terk r 'aot

9 'your'

Weak forms: ja (before consonants)

'Take your time' 'tc1k ja 'ta1m

jar (before vowels)

'On your own' 'nn jar 'aon

10 'she', 'he', 'we', 'you'

This group of pronouns has weak forms

pronounced with weaker vowels than the

i:and u: of their strong forms I will use

the symbol, i and u (in preference to I

ando ) to represent them There is little

difference in the pronunciation in

different places in the sentence, except

in the case of 'he'

Weak forms:

voi nghia chi dinh, no luon duoc phat

am o dang manh cla no

Dang yeu: 0at

'The price is the thing that annoys me' oa

'pra1s iz oa 'lhu oat a'nJIZ mi

6 'than'

Dang yeu: 0an

'Better than ever' beta i'lan 'eva

7 'his' (khi 116 xua't hien truck danh W)

Dang yeu: rz (hrz d dau cau)

'Take his name' 'te1k TZ 'ne1m(Moty nghia khac cua 'his', nhv trong'it was his', ho,;ic 'his was late', lu6n

co dang manh.)

8 'her'Khi duoc dung voi y nghia so hL7u,di.'tng trVoc danh W; lam da i W a vjtri tic tu, no cung c6 the xuat hi@n o

'Take your time' 'te1k ja 'ta1m

jar (truoc nguye11 aml'On your own' 'nn jar 'aon

10 'she', 'he', 'we', 'you'Nhom cac da i tu nay c6 dang ye'uduoc phat am voi cac nguyen am yeuhon i: va u: o dang manh cua chung.T6i st dung cac ky hi@u i va u (hon

la 1va u) de trinh bay chung Co it sukhac biet ve cach phat am o nhung

vi tri khac nhau trong cau, ngoai trt

a truang hc:;1p cua 'he'

Cac dang yeu:

a) 'she'Ji

'Why did she read it?' 'wa1 didJi'ri:d 1t

'Who is she?' 'hu: '1zJi

b) 'he' i (the weak form is usually pronounced

without h except at the beginning of a

sentence)

'Whichdid he choose?' 'witJ did i 'tJu:z

'He was late, wasn't he?' hi waz 'lert 'wznti

'What do you think?' 'wot da ju '1110k

'Youlike it, do you?' ju 'la1k 1t 'du: ju

11 'him'

Weak form: nn

'Leave him alone' li:vmi a'laun

'I've seen him' a1v 'si:n1m

12 'her'

Weak form: a (ha when sentence-initial)

'Ask herto come' o:sk a ta 'kAm

'I've met her' arv 'met a

13 'them'

Weak form: 0am

'Leave them here' li:v itam 'h1a

'Eat them' i:t ilam

14 'us'

Weak form: as

'Write us a letter' 'rait as a 'leta

'They invited all of us' cle1 m'va1hd 'J:l

av as

The next group of words (some

prepositions and other function words)

occur in their strong forms when they ate

a) 'she' Ji

'Whydid she read it?' 'wa1 didJi'ri:d It

'Whois she?' 'hu: '1zJi

b) 'he' i (dang yeu thuong du@ phat amkho ng c6 h ngoai tru trui ng hop o

dau cau)'Which didhe choose?' 'witJ did i 'tJu:z

'He was late, wasn't he?' hi waz 'lert 'wznt i

11 'him'Dang yeu: 1

'Leave him alone' li:vmt a'laun 'I've seen him' arv 'si:n rm

12 'her'Dang yeu: s (ha khi dung o dau cau)'Ask herto come' 'a:sk a ta 'kAm

'I'vemet her' arv 'meta

13 'them'Dang yeu: 0am'J_,eave them here' li:v dm ' hr

'Eatthem' i:t itam

14 'us'Dang yeu: as

'Write us a letter' 'rart asa 'leta

'They invited all of us' i)e1 m'va1tld 'J:l

av ;,s

Nham tu tiep theo (mot s ogioi tuva

tu ch&tc nang khac) xuat hi@n & dang

manh cda chung khi chung nam d

final in a sentence; examples of this are

given (Example 19 is a partial

exception.)

15 'at'

Weak form:at

Tll see you at lunch'all 'si:juat 'IAnJ

In final position: aet

'What's he shooting at?' wots i 'Ju:ho ret

16 'for'

Weak form: fa (before consonants)

'Tea for two' 'ti: fa 'tu:

far (before vowels)

'Thanks for asking' 'aenks fr 'a:skm

Infinal position: fa:

'What's that for?' 'wots 'iJretfa:

17 'from'

Weak form: fram

Tm home from work' amm 'haum fram

'w3:k

In final position: from

'Here'swhere it came from' 'h1az wear It

Weak forms: ta (before consonants)

'Tryto stop' 'tra, ta 'stop

tu (before vowels)

'Time to eat' 'tam tu 'i:t

In final position: tu(Itis not usual to use

the strong form tu:, and the pre­

consonantal weak form to is never used.)

cuoi cau; cac vi du ve di@u nay dadu@c cho (Vi du 19la mot phan ngoai

le.)

15 'at'Dang yeu: at

TU see you at lunch' ad 'si: jua 'Inf

d vi tri cuoi: aet'What's he shooting at?' wots i 'fu:tr aet

16 'for'Dang yeu: fa (truck phv am)'Tea for two' 'ti: fa 'tu:

far (truck nguyen am)

'Thanks for asking' 'llreoks far 'o:skm

d vi tri cu6i: f3:

'What's that for?' 'wots 'iJretfa:

17 'from'

Dang yeu: fram

Tm home from work' aJm 'haom fram

'w3:k

d vi tri cuoi: frm'Here's where it came from' 'h1az wear ,t 'keim from

18 'of'

Dang yeu: av

'Most of all' 'maost av ';i:I} vi tri cuoi: nv'SomeoneI've heard of 'sAmWAn aTV 'h3:d

DV

19 'to'Dang yeu: ta (truck phv am)'Try to stop' 'tra1 ta 'stop

tu (truoc nguyen am)'Time to eat' 'tarm tu 'i:t}vi tri cuoi:tu(Dang manhtu:thuOngkhong duoc dung, dang yeu truoc phu

am khong bao gio duoc dung.)

•

'Idon't want to' a,'daunt 'wont tu

2 'as'

Weak form: az

'As much aspossible' az 'mAlf az 'posab!

In final position: rez

'That's what it was sold as' 'ihets 'wot 1t

waz 'sauld rez

21 'some'

T isword is used in two different ways

Inone sense (typically, when it occurs

before a countable noun, meaning "an

unknown individual") it has the strong

form:

'I think someanimal broke it' a1 'lhgk sAm

'remml 'brauk rtI

It is also used before uncountable nouns

(meaning "an unspecified amount of")

and before other nouns in the plural

(meaning "an unspecified number of"),

insuch uses it has the weak form sam

'Havesome more tea' 'hrev sam 'ma: 'ti:

In final position: SAID

'I've got some' a,v ' go t SAID

22 'there'

When this word has a demonstrative

function, it always occurs in its strong

form i)ea (i)ear before vowels), e.g.

'There it is' 'i)ear ,t'iz

'Put it there' put ,t 'i)ea

Weak forms: i)a (before consonants)

'There should be a rule' 0 'fod bi a 'ru:I

i)ar(before vowels)

'There is' 0ar '1z

In finalposition the pronunciation may

be 0a o 0ea.

There isn't any, is there?' dar 'rznt eni'1z0

or 0ar 'rznt eni 'rz 0ea

'Idon't want to' a, 'daunt 'wont tu

20 'as'

Dan yeu: 9z

'As much as possible' az 'mAtf az 'posab!

0 vi tri cuo'i: rez

'That's what it was sold as' 'i)rets 'wot ,t waz 'sauld rez

'Have some more tea' 'hrev sam 'ma: 'ti:

0 vi tri cuoi: sAm 'I've got some' a,v ' got SAID

'There is' 0ar '1z

} vi tri cuoi: cach ph t am c6 the la

i) ho;'j c i)ea.

There isn't any, is there?' dar 'rznt eni'1z0a

or 0or 'rznt eni '1z 0ea

I

The remaining weak-form words are all

auxiliary verbs, which are always used in

conjunction with (or at least implying)

another ("full") verb It is important to

remember that in their negative form (i.e

combined with 'not') they never have the

weak pronunciation, and some (e.g 'don't',

'can't') have different vowels from their non­

negative strong forms

23 'can' 'could'

Weak forms: kan, kad

'They can wait' 'er kan 'wert

'He could do it' 'hi: kad 'du: It

In final position: kren, kud

'Ithtnk we can' a1 'lhok wi 'kren

'Most of them could' 'maust av 0am kud

24 'have', 'has', 'had'

Weak forms: av, az, ad (with initial h in

initial position)

'Which have you seen?' w1tJ av ju 'si:n

'Which has been best?' witJ az bi:rt 'best

'¥ost had gone home' maust ad 'gun

'haum

In final position: hrev, hrez, hred

'Yes,we have' jes wi 'hrev

'Ithink she has' a, 'lhokJi'hrez

'Ithought we had' a1'03:twi 'hred

25 'shall', 'should'

Weak forms: Jal orJ!;Jad

'We shall need to hurry'wiJl 'ni:d ta 'hAri

'I should forget it' a1 Jed fa'get It

In final position: Jrel, Jud

'Ithink we shall' m 'lhok wi 'frel

'So youshould' 'sau ju 'Jud

26'must'

T is word is sometimes used with the

sense of forming a conclusion or deduction,

Cac tu da g yeu con lai tat ca deu

la tro dong tu von luo du@c dung kethop vdi (h y it ra la n u y mot dong tu

khac vit day du) Dieu qu n trong la phai nho ra g o dang phi dinh cuachung(nghTa la ket hp voi 'not') chung khong

} vi tri cu6i: ken, kud

'Ithink we can' aI 'lhuk wi 'kren

'Mostof them could' 'maust av_kud

24 'h ve', 'h s', 'h d'

Dang yeu: av, 3z, ad (voi h dau & vi trf

dau)'Whichhave you seen?' wtf av ju 'si:n

'Which has been best?' wtf az bi:rt 'best

'Most had gone home' maust ad 'gun

'haum

o vi tri cuoi: haev, hrez, hred'Yes,we have' jes wi 'hrev

'I think she has' aI 'lhukJi 'hrez

'I thought we had' aI 'lb:t wi 'bred

25 'shall', 'should'

Dang yu: J al hocJl;fad

'Weshall need to hurry'wiJl'ni:d ta 'hAri

'I should forget it' a, Jed fa'get rt

o vi tri cu6i: fel, Jud

'Ithink we shall' a, 'lhok wi '.frel

'So youshould' 'sau ju 'Jud

26 'must'

Tl nay d6i khi duoc dung voi nghia

la d a ra ket luan hay suy luan, vi du:

e.g 'she left at 8 o'clock, so she must have

arrived by now'; when 'must' is used in this

way, it is rather less likely to occur in its

weak form than when it is being used in its

more familiar sense of "obligation"

Weak forms: mas (before consonants)

'You must try harder' ju mas 'tra, 'ha:da

mast (before vowels)

'He must eat more' hi mast 'i:t' m :

In final position: mAst

'She certainly must'Ji 'sa:tl}Ii 'mAst

27 'do', 'does'

Weak forms:

'do' da (before consonants)

'Why do they like it?' 'wa, da iJe, 'la,k ,t

d (before vowels)

'Why do all the cars stop?' 'wa1 du ;,:I iJa

'ka:z 'stop

'does' daz

· When does it arrive?' 'wen daz It a'ra,v

In final position: du:, dAz

'We don't smoke, but some people do'

'wi: daunt 'smauk bat 'sAm pi:pl 'du:

'I think John does' a1 '01pk 'dann dAz

28 'am', 'are', 'was', 'were'

'She certainly must'Ji'sa:tl}Ii 'mAst

27 'do', 'does'Dang yeu:

'do' da (trvac phu am)

'Why do they like it?' 'war do 0er 'lark rt

d (truoc nguyen am)'Why do all _the cars stop?' 'war du 3:1 02

'ka:z 'stop

'does' daz'When does it arrive?' 'wen daz It a'ra1v} vi tri cuoi: du:, dz

'We don't smoke, but some people do'

'wi: daunt 'smauk bat 'sAID pi:pl 'du:

'I think John does' a 'h1pk 'da n dAz

28 'am', 'are', 'was', 'were'Dang yeu: am

'Why am Ihere?' 'wai am a1 'hia

a (trvac phu am)'Here are the plates' hrer a 0a 'plerts

ar ( truo c nguyen am)'The coats are in there' 0a 'kauts ar mn

' d e

waz

'Hewas here a minute ago' hi waz har a

'mm1t a'9au

wa (before consonants)

'The papers were late' ifa 'pe,paz wa 'leJt

war (before vowels)

'The questions were easy' oa 'kwestJanz

war i:zi

In final position: rem, a:,woz, wa:

'She's not asold as I am' Jiz 'nt 3z ' uld 3z

'a,rem

'I know the Smiths are' a, 'nau ifa 'smilts

a:

'The last record was' ar la:st 'reko:d wz

'They weren't as cold as we were' oe,

'wa:nt az 'kauld 3z 'wi: w3:

wa (truoc phu am)'The papers were late' tla 'pe,paz wa 'leJt

war (truck nguyen am)

'The questions were easy' d3 'kwestJanz war i:zi

a vj trf cuoi: rem, a:, woz, wa:

'She'snot as old as I am' Jiz 'nt az 'auld 3z 'a,rem

'I know the Smiths are' a, 'nau ila 'smilts

a:

'The last record was' a, la:st 'rek:d w z'They weren't as coldas we were' ilc,'w3:nt az 'kauld az 'wi: w3;

Notes on problems and further reading

This chapter is almost entirely practical All books about English pronunciation devote

alot of attention to these words Some of them give a great deal of importance to using weakforms, but do not stress the importance of also knowing when to use the strong forms,somethingwhich I feel is very important See Mortimer (1984)

Written exercises

In the following sentences, the

transcription for the weak-form words is left

blank Fill in the blanks, taking care to use

the appropriate form (weak or strong)

Bai tap viet

Trong cac cau sau day, phien am cuacac tu dang y u duoc de tr6ng Hay dienvao ch tr6ng, can than d st dung dangthich hop (yeu hoac manh)

1 I want her to park that car over there

ar wDnt p :k k :r auva

2 Of all the proposals, the one that you made is the silliest

a:l papay zlz wAn merd rz s liast

3 Jane and Bill could have driven them to and from the party

4 To come to the point, what shall we do for the rest of the week?

5 Has anyone got an idea where it came from?

enrwAn gpt ardra wear rt kem

6 Pedestrians must always use the crossings provided

podestr1anz :lw1z ju:z krpsmz provardrd

7 Each one was a perfect e ample of the art that had been developed there

i:tJ wAn p3:fkt +gza:mp! a:t bi:n drvelapt

aesthetic /i:s'8et1k/ (adj)

affricate /' a:fnbt/

allophonic /,a:la'fomk/ (adj)

applied phonology / a'pla1d fa'nofad311

composition /,kmpa'z1[n/ (n)

diacritic /,darn'kntik/ (n)

dispense with /dr'spens w1M/ (v)

distinctive feature /d1'stI1Jktiv'fi:tJa/

economical /,i:ka'nom1kl, ,ek-/ (adj)

economy /1'konam1/ (n)

fricative /'fnkanv/ (n)

ingenious /m'd3i:n1as/ (adj)

intractable /m'tra:ktabl/ (adj)

intuition /,mtju( :)'1Jn/ (n)

lax /la:ks/ (adj)

minimal pair /'mm1ml 'pea/

neutralisation / ,nju:trala1'ze1Jn/ (n)

pervade / pa've1d/ (v)

preoccupation /pn,okju'pe1Jn/ (n)

property/'propan/ (n)

pure phonology / 'pjua fa'nolad31/

rhotic /'rautJk/ (adj)

dijc dilm khu bi!) t

t e't kii)m t{nh tie't kif)m

am xdt thong minh, d(ic ddo, sang tq,o kh6 gidi quye't

Li h cdm, trtfc gidc (am) loi, chng cijp ta sai bii)t q tc tilu (chi kluic nhau m(it am)

si,t trung t£nh lu 5a, ,W trung d1tnK hda

Lan tda, Ian r()ng

stam anh, quan tam qua mtc ddc diem, tinh chat

am vi hoc thuan tuy r-tinh, nhan manh r, doc r d cu6i vein

am doq,n, chilt iloq,11

am vi co am ti@t tinh/cau thanh

am tiet (am) cang

The concept of the phoneme was

introduced in Chapter 5, and a few theoretical

problems connected with phonemic analysis

have been mentioned in other chapters The

general assumption (as in most phonetics

books) has been that speech is composed of

phonemes and that usually whenever a

speech sound is produced by a speaker it is

possible to ide!ltify which phoneme that

sound belongs to While th.s is often true,

we must recognise that there are exceptions

which make us consider some quite serious

theoretical problems From the

comparatively simple point of view of

learning pronunciation, these problems are

not particularly important; however, from

the point of view of learning about the

phonology of English they are too important

to ignore

There are problem of difficulty types In

some cases, we have difficulty in deciding

on the overall phonemic system of the accent

we are studying, while in others we are

concerned about how a particular sound fits

into this system A number of such problems

are discussed below

13.1 Affricates

The affricates tJand d3 are, phonetically,

composed of a plosive followed by a

fricative, as explained in Chapter 6 It is

possible to treat each of the pair tf, d3 as a

single consonant phoneme; we will call this

the one-phoneme analysis off, ds It is also

possible to say that they are composed of

two phonemes each - t plus Jand d plus 3

respectively - all of which are already

established as independent phonemes of

English;this will be called the two-phoneme

analysis oftfand d3 If we adopted the

two-Khai niem ve am vi da dugc gidi thieu

a chlidng 5 va mot s 6 van de ly thuyet

c lien quan voi vi@c phan tich am vi

da duoc de cap trong cac chlidng khac

S u gia dinh chung (nhu trong hau het cacsach ngt am hoc) cho rang loi noi duoccau thanh tu cac am vi va thong thungba't cu khi nao mot ngudi noi tao ra ngd

am thl ta co the xac dinh am do thu(>c

ve am vi nao Mac du dieu nay thuongdung, nhung chung ta phii cong nhanrang co nhung trucrng hqp ngo,;1i I~ khie'nchung ta phai xem xet mot so van de lythuye't kha he trQng Tu quan diem hoccach phat am t lidng d6i kha don gian,nhung van de nay dac bi@t khong quantrong The nhLlng, tu quan diem hoc am

v i hQc cua tie'ng Anh, thl qua la quantrQng khong the b qua

C6 nhieu loai van de khac nhau Trong

mot so truong hc;1p, chung ta tha'y r!ingxac dinh am vi t6ng quat cua giong machung ta dang nghien cuu la dieu khokhan, rnij.c du trong nhung truong hQ'p

khac chung ta lai quan tarn den van dern(>t am dac biet phu hop vi he th6ngnay nhu the' nao Mot so' van de nhu theduoc tho luan duoi day

13 1 Cac am tac xat

Cac am tac xat tfva d3, ve mat ngu

am hoc, dugc cau thanh tu mot am battheo sau la mot am xat, nhu da giai thichtrong chlldng 6 Ta cung c6 the xern m6icap tf ,ds la mot am vi phu am don;chung

ta se goi viec nay la phan tich mot am

vj cua t.f, dJ . Ta cung co the noi rangchung duoc cau thanh tu hai am v i -

tuong ung la t congfva dcong 3- tatca

nhung am nay da duoc thi&t lap roi duoidang cac am vi doc lap trong tie'ng Anh;

viec nay duoc goi la phan tich hai am vi

phoneme analysis, the words 'church' and

'j dge' would be composed of five phonemes

each, like this:

instead of the three phonemes, resulting from

the one-phoneme analysis:

thay vl W b am vi d ke't qua phan tich

mot am vi:

t f -3: -t.f d3-4-d3 t f -: J :-t f dJ-A-dJ

and there would be no separate t.f and d3

phonemes But how can we decide which

analysis is preferable? The two-phoneme

analysis has one main advantage: if there

are no separate t f and d3 phonemes, then

our total set of English consonants is smaller

Many phonologists have claimed that one

should prefer the analysis which is the most

"economical" in the number of phonemes it

results in The argument for this might be

based on the claim that when we speak to

someone we are using a "code", and the most

efficient codes do not use unnecessary

symbols Further, it can be claimed that a

phonological analysis is a type of scientific

theory, and a scientific theory should be

stated as economically as possible However,

it is the one-phoneme analysis is generally

chosen by phonologists Why is this? There

are several arguments; no single one of them

is conclusive, but added together they are

felt to make the one-phoneme analysis seem

preferable We will look briefly at some of

these arguments

i) One argument could be called "phonetic"

or "allophonic":if it could be shown that

the phonetic quality of the t and J(or d

and 3)in t f.d3was clearly different from

realisations of t,J, d, 3 found elsewhere

in similar contexts, this would support the

analysis of tf, d3 as separate phonemes

As anexample, it might be claimed thatJ

in 'hutch' hAtfwas different (perhaps in

having shorter duration) from Jin 'hush'

or 'Welsh'hf.welf:or it might beclaimed

thatthe place of articulation of t in 'watch

apes' wt e ps is different from that oft

va se kh ng c6 cac am vi tfv d3y rien

Nhttng lam theno chung tac6 th€ quye't

dinh phan ti h nao la thich hop hdn? Pha

tich hai am vi c mot uu di€m chfnh: ne'u kh6ng co cac am vi tJ v d rieng

Hdn nu , nguoi ta con cho ra g phan tich

am vi hoc la mot loai gi thuyet khoa

ho v mt gia thuyet khoa hoc nen duoc

phat bieu cang co tinh tiet kiem ca ng

tot Tuy nhien, cach phan tich mc}t am

vi thuong duoc cac nha am vi ho chon.Tai sao lai nhu va ? C6 mot so la luan;

khong mot lap luan no c6 the thuyet

phwc dl/Q'C, nht/ng ke't hc;ip lc)i voi nhau thl c ung lam cho cach phan tich mc}t

d,3 d octim thay o mot noi khactrong

ngfl canh tL(dng ti_/ thi diu na se Ing

s u cho viec ph n tich tf, d la cac am

vi rieng Vi du, nguoi ta co th' cho rang .f trong 'hutc ' hAtf la khac (co

le co thoi kh a ng ngan hdn) VOi .f

tron 'hush' hAj ho c 'Welsh' wel.f;

hoac nguoi ta c the c o din vi tri

in 'what shapes' wnt Je1ps This argument

is a weak one: there is no clear evidence

that such phonetic differences exist, and

even if there were such evidence, it

would be easy to produce explanations

for the differences that did not depend

on phonemic analyses (e.g the position

ofthe word boundary in 'watch apes', 'what

shapes')

ii) It could be argued that the proposed

phonemes tJ and d3 (if one were arguing

for the one-phoneme analysis) have

distributions similar to other consonants,

while other combinations of plosive plus

fricative do not It can easily be shown

thattJand d3 are found initially, medially

and finally and that no other combination

(e.g pf, dz, ti!) has such a wide distribution

However, several consonants are

generally accepted as phonemes of BBC

despite not being free to occur in all

positions (e.g r, w, j, h, o, J ) so this

argument, though supporting the one­

phoneme analysis, does not actually

p rove that tJ, d3 must he classed with

other single-consonant phonemes

iii) If tJ and d3 were able to combine quite

freely with other consonants to form

consonant clusters this would support the

one-phoneme analysis Infinitial,

however, tJ and d3 never occur in clusters

with other consonants In final position

in the syllable, we find that t.f can be

followed by t (e.g 'watched' wotJt) and

d3 by d (e.g 'wedged' wed3d) Final tJ

and d3 canbe preceded by I (e.g 'squelch'

skel(f, 'bulge' bAld3); 3 is never preceded

by I, and.fis preceded by I only in a few

words and names, e.g 'Welsh' 'Walsh'

wel.f, wol.f A fairly similar situation is

found if we ask if n can precede tfand

d3; some BB C speakers have ntJ in

'lunch', 'French', etc., and never

pronounce the sequence nJ within a

syllable, while other speakers always

ca'u am cdat trong 'watch apes' wntJ e1pskhac vdi vi tri cau am clat trong'wh t sh p s' wot Je,ps. 0ay la l-1p

lu~n khong vung cha"c: khong c6

c ung co ro rang cho thay ra g co nhetng SL! khac bi@t ngu am nh the,

ii) Nguoi ta co the lap luan ra g cac am

vi du;c neu ra t f va ds (neu mot ngudi

dua ra lap luan ung ho phan tich mot

am v co cac phan b6 tuong tu cac

phu am khac, mac du nhung su ket

hop khacc a am bat va am xat khong

c . Ngttoi ta co the' d~ da g chung

minh r1ng tJv d duo tm thay o vi trf dJ , giaa va cuoi va kh6ng co SL!

sau (vi du: 'watc ed' wo(ft) va d3 co

d theo sau (vi dt1 'wedge' wed3d). t.f

ttJong tl_/ dtJ(J'c tim thy neu chung ta

hoi lieu n c6 the' dang truck tJv d

hay khng; mot so nguoi noi gion

have nJin these contexts and never ntf.

It seems, then, that no contrast between

syllable-final IJ and ItJ e ists in BBC

accent, and the same appears to be true

in relation to n and ntJand to ny and

nd3 There are no other possibilities for

final consonant clusters containing tJand

d3, except that the pre-initial I or n may

occur in combination with post-final t, d

as in 'squelched' skwelJt,'hinged' hmd3.

It could not, then, be said that tJand d3

combine freely with other consonants in

forming consonant clusters; this is

particularly noticeable in initial position

How would the two-phoneme analysis

affect the sylla hie-structure framework

that was introduced in Chapter 8? Initial

tf, d3 would have to be interpreted as

initial t, d plus post-initial J , 3 with the

result that the post-initial set of

consonants would have to contain I, r,w,

j and alsoJ , 3 - consonants which are

rather different from the other four and

which could only combine with t,d . (The

only alternative would be to put t, d with

s in the pre-initial category, again with

very limited possibilities of combining

with another consonant.)

iv) Finally, it has been suggested that if

native speakers of English who have not

been taught phonetics feel that tJand d3

are each "one sound", we should be

guided by their intuitions and prefer the

one-phoneme analysis The problem with

this is that discovering what untrained

(or "naive") speakers feel about their own

language is not as easy as it might sound

Itwould be necessary to ask questions

like this: "Would you say that the word

'chip' begins with one sound - like 'tip'

and 'sip' - or with two sounds - like 'trip'

and 'skip'?" But the results would be

distorted by the fact that two consonant

letters are used in the spelling; to do the

test properly one should use illiterate

BBC co ntftrong 'lunch', 'French',v.v va kh6ng bao gio phat am chuoi

nJ trong mQt am tit, macdu nhungngttoi n6i khac lu6n c6 nJtrong nhungngt canh nay va kh6ng bao gio c6

ntf. Vay thi duong nhu khong co SL_/trai ng udc gil a am tit cu6i If va lt J

trong giong BBC, va dieu tuong tut nayduong nhu ding dung voi n va ntf vavoi n3va nd3. Khong co cac kha nangkhac doi voi cac cum phu am cht.'ta

tJva d3, ngoa i tru I hoc)C ntruoc phandau c6 the xuat hien ket hop voi t, d

sau phJn cuoi nhu trong 'squelched'

skwel.ft, 'hinged' hrnd3. V~y thl kh6ngth€ no i rang t.f va d3 tu do kt hopvoi cac phu am khac de hinh thanhcac cum phu am; dieu nay dac biet

de nhan thay & vi tri cu6i

Thuyet phan tich hai am vi se anhhucJng nhtt the n o den khu6n kh6 ca"utruc am ti&t da duoc gioi thieu trong

c ttdng 8? tJ, d3 a vi tri dau se phiduc,c hi€u la t, t dau cong voif,3 saudau, voi kt qua la tap hop cac phu

am sau dau s phi ch@a l, r, w, j va

Cling chua.f, 3 - hai phu am nay khac

ho n toan vdi bon phu am kia va chi

c6 the ket hop voi t, d (Su lua chon

duy nha"t la dc';t t, d voi s & loai truocdau, voi cac kha nang rat han che la

kt hop voi mot phu am khac.)

iv) Cuoi cung, gia thuyet du c dua ra laneu ngudi ban ngu noi tieng Anh vonkh6ng dttqc di!Y nga am hoc camthay rang nu tf va d3 moi loai deu

la 'mot am', chung ta nen theo tn_tcgiac cua ho va thich thuyet phan tichmot am vi hon Van de la viec khampha ra dieu ma nhung ngudi noi kh6ngduoc d o tao (hay "ngo nghech") camthay ve ngon ngu cda ho thl kh6ng

de dang nhu ta tucJng Chung ta d nphai dat ra nhung cau hoi nhu the nay:

"Ban se noi rang tu 'chip' bat daubang mi)t am -nhu 'tip' va 'sip' - hayvoi hai am - nlul 'trip' va 'skip'?" Nhungketq ua se bi bop meo bdi s u that lahai mau td plw am dLl<;/C dung d di;lng

subjects, which raises many further

problems

This rather long discussion of the

phonemic status of t f and d3 shows how

difficult it can be to reach a conclusion in

phonemic analysis

For the rest of this chapter a number of

other phonological problems will be

discussed comparatively briefly I have

already mentioned (in Chapter 6) problems

of analysis in connection with the sounds

usually transcribed hw and hj The velar nasal

!J described in Chapter 7 also raises a lot of

analysis problems; some writers have

suggested that the correct analysis is cne in

which there is no o phoneme andthis sound

istreated as an allophone of the phoneme n

that occurs when it precedes the phoneme

g. It was explained in Chapter 7 that in

certain contexts no g is pronounced but it

can be clained that at an abstract level there

is a g phoneme, though in certain contexts

the g is not actually pronounced The sound

!J is therefore according to this theory, an

allophone ofn.

13.2 The English vowel system

Theanalysisof the English vowel system

presented in Chapters 2 and 3 contains a

large number of phonemes, and it is not

surprising that some phonologists (who

believed in the importance of keeping the

total number of phonemes small) proposed

different analyses which contain less than

ten vowel phonemes and treat all long

vowels and diphthongs as composed of two

phonemeseach There are different ways of

doing this: one way is to treat long vowels

and diphthongs as composed of two vowel

phonemes If we start with a set of basic or

"simple" vowel phonemes1 , e, re, A , o, u, a it

would then be possible to make up long

vowels by using vowels twice Our usual

transcription is given in brackets:

chinh ta; de thuc hien viec kiem tranay mot each thfch hqp, nguai ta nendung cac chu the khong lien quan denchet nghia, se phat sinh ra nhieu van

de hon mra

Cuc thao lun kha dai dong nay vetinh trang am vi ca t f va d3 cho tha'yrang di den ket lun trong vi@c phan tich

am vi that kh6 khan nhu the nao.Phan con lai cua chuong nay se thaoluan tuong doi ngan gon ve mot so van

de khac ca am vi hoc Toi d de capr6 i (d chuong 6) cac v,'i'n de phan tichlien quan den cac am thuong duoc phien

am la hwva h Am mui vom mem n , dadL((Jc mieu ta trong Chuong 7, cLlng phatsinh nhieu van de plan tich; nhieu tacgia da de xuat rang SL_{ phan tich dC1ng laphan tich ma trong d6 khong co am vi n

va am nay duoc xem la Iha am vi cua

am vi n von xuat hi@n khi no dung truoc

am vj g. Trong Chuong 7 gia thiet da giai

thfch rang trong mot so n gC t canh g kh6ng

duoc phat am, nhung gii thuyet c6 th&cho rang (j cap do tr(u tuong co mot aIll

vi g, mac du trong mot so ngL7 canh g

that su khong duoc phat am Do d6, am

!J theo gia thuyet nay la tha am vi cua n.

13.2H~ th 6ng nguyen am trong tie'ng

An h

Viec phan tich he thong nguyen amtieng Anh da duoc trinh bay trong chLlo'ng2va 3c6 mot s6 luc;mg lon cac am vi vakhong c6 gl dang ngac nhien khi mot sonha am vi hoc (nhetng ngLlo'i tin vao tamquan trong CLla viec giet cho t6ng so cac

am vi nh6) de xuat nhmng phan tich khacnhau co ft hon muai am vi nguyen am

va xem ta't ca cac nguyen am dai vanhi trC,ng am la mcii loai duoc cau tao

tt hai am vi C6 nhi&u cach khac nhau

de lam viec nay: mot cach la xem cacnguyen am dai va nhi tr(rng am la duoccau tao tt hai am vi nguyen am Batdau vdi mot tap hop cac am vi nguyen

am don gian hay "co ban"1, e,a, A ,D ,u,;),

ta c6 th€ t<,10 ra cac nguyen am dai bangeach dung cac nguyen am ngan hai Ian

Phan phi@n am thong thuong cl a chung

ta duoc cho trong da'u ngoijc:

n(i:) rere (o:) DD (2:) UU(u:)a0 (3:)

This can be made to look less unusual by

choosing different symbols for the basic

vowels In this approach, diphthongs are

made from a simple vowel phoneme

followed by one of1, 0 , a, and triphthongs

are made from a basic vowel plus one of1, o

followed by a, and are therefore composed

of three phonemes

Another way of doing this kind of analysis

is to treat long vowels and diphthongs as

composed of a vowel plus a consonant; this

may seem a Jess obvious way of proceeding,

but it was for many years the choice of most

American phonologists The idea is that long

vowels and diphthongs are composed of a

basic vowel phoneme followed by one of j,

w, h (w e should add r for shotic accent) Thus

the diphthongs could be made up like this

(our usual transcription is given in brackets):

P ien am nay c6 th€ ta nen trong itkhac la hon bang cach chon cac ky hieukhac danh cho nhung nguyen am co ban.Theo each nay, cac nhi trung am dLIQ'c

tao ra tu mot am vi nguyen am don giandLIQ'C theo sau boi mot trong so1, 0, a , vcac tam trung am dudc tao ra tu mot

nguyen am c o ban cong mot trong so 1, 0

dugc theo sau bdi a, va do do duoc tao

ra tuba am vi

Mot cach khac dethuc hien loai phantich nay la xem eac nguyen am dai vanhi trung am dlfc/C tao thanh tu mqt

nguyen m cong mot phu am; cach thuchien nay duong nhu it r6 rang hon, nhungtrong nhieu nam no la su lua chon cuahau het cac nha am vi hoc nguoi My.

NghTa la cac nguyen am dai va nhi trung

am dugc tao thanh tu mot am vi nguyen

am Cd ban theo sau la j, w, h (chung ta

nen them rdi voi cac giong rtinh) Vaycac nhi trung am c6 th€ du(Jc t<).O thanhnhu the nay (phien am thong thuong cuachung ta dLIQ'c cho trong da'u ngoijc):

1 j ( 1 : ) reh (a:) oh(:>:)ah (a:) ow ( u)

Diphthongs and long vowels are now of

exactly the same phonological composition

An important point about this analysis is that

j , w, hdo not otherwise occur finally in the

syllable In this analysis, the inequaiity of

distribution is corrected

In Chapter 9 we saw how, althoughtIand

i: are clearly distinct in most contexts, there

are other contextrs where we find a sound

which cannot clearly be said to belong to

one or other of these two phonemes The

Cac nhi trung am va nguyen am daibay gio co cung thanh phan cau tao am

vi Mot diem quan trong ve cach phantich nay la j, w, h mat khac khong xuathien ocuoi trong am tiet Theo cach phantich nay, su khac nhau a cach phan b6

da duoc stia d6i

Trong chuong 9 chung ta da thay duQctlnh trqng, mijc du Iva i: khac nhau mot

cach ro rang trong hau het cac ngu canh,

co nhung nga canh khac ma a d ta thy

mot am ma ta khong the noi r6 la thuoc

ve am nay hay am kia trong s6 hai am

vi Giai phap de xuat cho van de nay ladung ky hieu i, khong dai dien cho bat

cu am vi don nao; mot de xua't tuong ti/ ·

la danh cho u Chung ta dung thu~t ngCt

"trungtinh hoa"cho nhung truong hQ'p ma

a do co su trai ngugc gila cac am vikhong xua't hie n trong n hung ngu can hdac biet nhung lai ton tai 8 nhtng chokhac trong ng6n ngu C6 nhieu cachkhac de phan tich he thong nguyen amra't phLlc t,;1p cua tieng Anh, mot so each

cuc ky kheo leo Moi cach deu co LIUkhuyet diem rieng

13.3 Cac phy am co am tiet tinh

Va n de phan tich cuoi cmng ma chung

ta se xem xet la va'n de da duoc de cap

o cuoi chuong 8: cach gii quyet cacphu am co am tiet tinh Phi cong nhanrang cac phu am co am tiet tinh la motva'n d : ve mat am vi hoc chung khacvoi cac phu am phi am tiet tinh Chung

ta gii thich cac cap t6i thieu sau daynhu the nao, day la cac cap da dudccho a ch Liang 9?

Cd am tie't Khring cd c1m tie't

'coddling' kndho 'codling' kndho

'Hungary' hA!J9ri 'hungry' hA!)griMot kha nang la them cac am vi phu

am moi vao danh sach cla chung ta.Chung ta co the tao ra cac am vi l, n.

S phan bo cac phu am nay kha gioihan, nhung va'n de chfnh la lam chochung hop voi mau cau truc am tiet Voimot W nhlf 'button' bxtn hoac 'bottle'• I •

bntl, ta can phai them n va l vao taphop sau-cu6i th@ nhat; lap luan nay sedu'c/C mo rong de bao gom r trong'Hungary' NhLlng ne'u bay gio cac plu.1

am nay hinh thanh mot phan cua cumphu am cuoi am tie't th1 chung ta giaithich nhu the no nhtng ngudi noi tiengAnh nghe cac pill.I am nay la cac amtiet phu them? Cau hdi nay c6 the duocgiai dap bang cach noi rang cac am vimoi ph i dudc phan loai la nguyen arn.Mot kha ning khac la thiet lap mot am

13.3 Syllabic consonant s

A final analysis problem that we will

consider is that mentioned at the end of

Chapter 8 : how to deal with syllabic

consonants It has to be recognised that

syllabic consonants are a problem - they

are phonologically different from their non­

syllabic counterparts How do we account for

the minimal pairs, which were given in

Chapter 9?

suggested solution to this problem was to

use the symbol i whichdoes not represent

any single phoneme; a similar proposal was

made for u We use the term neutralisation

for cases where contrast between phonemes

which exist in other places in the language

disappear in particular contexts There are

many other ways of analysing the very

con1plex vowel system of English, some of

which are extremely ingenious Each has its

own advantages and disadvantages

One possibility is to add new consonant

phonemes to our list We could invent the

phonemes f, ~. 1?- etc The distribution of

these consonants would be rather limited,

but the main problem would be fitting them

into the pattern of syllable structure For a

word like 'button' b tn or 'bottle' bntl, it

would be necessary to add1?- and!to thefirst

post-final set; the argument would be

extended to include therin 'Hungary' But if

these consonants now form part of a syllable­

fi al consonant cluster, how do we account

for the factthat English speakers hear the

consonants as extra syllables? The question

might be answered by saying that the new

phonemes are to be classed as vowels

Another possibility is to set up a phoneme

that we might name syllabicity, symbolised

with the mark,· Then the word 'codling' would

consist of the following six phonemes:

k•o•d•l•••o, while the word 'coddling' would

consistof the following seven phonemes:

k•o~d (l and simultaneously ,) , ••o This is a

superficially attractive theory, but the

proposed phoneme is nothing like the other

phonemeswe have identified up to this point

- putting itsimply, it doesn't have any sound

Some phonologists maintain that a

syllabic consonant is really a case of a vowel

and a consonant that have become

combined Ler us suppose that the vowel is

a . We could then say that, for example,

'Hungary' is phonemically hApgori while

'hungry' is hAggri;it would then be necessary

to say that the vowel phoneme in the

phonemic representation is not pronounced

as a vowel, but instead causes the following

consonant to become syllabic This is an

example of the abstract view of phonology

where the way a word is represented

phonologically may be significantly

different from the actual sequence of sounds

heard, so that the phonetic and the phonemic

levels are quite widely separated

13.4 Clusters of s plus plosives

Words like 'spill', 'still', 'skill' are usually

represented with the phonemes p, t, k

following the s But, as many writers have

p inted out, it would be quite reasonable to

transcribe them with b, d, g instead For

example, b, d, g are unaspirated while p, t, k

in syllable-initial position are usually

aspirated However in sp, st, sk we find an

unaspirated plosive, and there could be a

strong argument for transcribing them as sb,

sd, sg.We do not do this, perhaps because of

the spelling, but it is important to remember

that the contrasts between p and b, between

t and d and between k and g are neutralised

in this context

13.5 Schwa (a)

It has been suggested that there is not

really a contrast between a and A, since a

vi ma chung ta co the dat ten la a m vi

co am ti&t tinh, dugc bieu dien bang k

hieu , Vay thi tu 'codling' se co sau am

vi sau day: k··d·lr·p, mac du tu

'coddling' se co bayam vi sau day: k•o•d.

(I va dong th' i c o ) ,1·n. Gia thuyet nay

c ve ly thu hon, nhung am vi da dexuat khong giong nhu cac am vi khac

ma chung ta da xac dinh cho den.thoi

diem nay - noi mot cach don gian la, nokh6ng c6 am nao

M9t so nha am vi hqc van cho rangmot phu am co am tiet ti@t that ra latruing hop ket hop mot nguyen am vamot phu am Chung ta hay gia st rangnguyen am la a . Vay thi chung ta c thnoi rang, vi du: "Hungary" ve mat am vi

hqc la hAggari trong khi 'hungry' la

hAggri; do d6 can phai noi rang am vi

nguyen am trong ph.in trlnh bay am vikhong duoc phat am la nguyen am, mathay vao do n6 lam cho phu am theo sautr& thanh phu am c6 am tiet tinh Day

la mot vi du v hinh anh trtu tuong cia

am vi hoc, <1 d6 each trinh bay mot W

ve mat am vi hoc co the khac hoan toanvoi chuoi cac am thl,fc su duoc nghe, vlthe cac cap do ngd am va am vi cach

xa nhau rat nhieu

13.4Cac cum s cong voi cac am ba t

Cac W nhv 'spill', 'still', 'skill' thuong

duoc trinh bay voi cac am vi p, t, ktheosau s Nhvng, nhu nhieu tac gia da chi

ro, se hoan ton hop ly khi phien am

ch ng voi b, d, g Vi du, b, d, g kh6ng

bat hoi trong khi p, t, k <1 vi trf d.iu amtiet thuong bat hoi Tuy nhien, trong sp,

st, sk, ta tim thay am khong bat hoi, va

c6 the c6 lap luan vIng chac phin am

chung la sb, sd, sg Chung ta khong dua

ra lap luan nay, c6 le do cach viet chinh

ta, nhvng dieu quan trong la phai nhorang su trai nguoc gila p va b, gila t va

d va giua k va g duoc trung tfnh h6a trongngu canh nay

13.5 Schwa (a)

Co gii thuyet cho rang tren thuc tekhong co s u s u trai nguoc gila a va , vi

only occurs in weak syllables and no minimal

pairs can be found to show a clear contrast

b tween A and a in unstressed syllables

(though there have been some ingenious

attempts) Thishas resulted in a proposal that

one phoneme symbol (e.g a) be used for

representing any occurrence ofaorA , so that

'cup' would be transcribed 'kap and 'upper' as

'apa This new a phoneme would have two

allophones, one being [a] andthe other [A];

the stress mark would indicate the [ A ]

allophone and in syllables not marked for

stress it would be more lokely that

unimportant whether [a] would be

pronounced

Other phonologists have suggested that

a is an allophone of several other vowels;

for example, compare the middle two

syllables in the words 'economy' 1'knnami

and 'economic' ,i:kannm1k - it appears that

when the stress moves away from the syllable

containingothe vowel becomesa. Similarly,

compare 'Germanic' d:p:'mremk with

'German' 'd33:man - when the stress is taken

away from the syllable mren, the vowel

weakens to a. Manysimilar examples could

be constructed with other vowels; some

possibilities may be suggested by the list of

words given in section 9.2 to show the

different spellings that can be pronounced

with a. The conclusion that could be drawn

from this argument isthatais not a phoneme

of English, but is an allophone of several

different vowel phonemes when those

phonemes occur in an unstressed syllable

The argument is in some ways quite an

attractive one, but since it leads to a rather

complex and abstract phonemic analysis it

isnot adopted for this course

13.6 Distinctive features

Many references have been made to

phonology in this course, with the purpose

of making use of the concepts and analytical

techniques of that subject to help explain

various facts about English pronunciation as

efficiently as possible One might call this

"applied phonology"; however, the

c i xuat hien trong cac am tiet yeu va

kh6ng c6 ca t6i thieu nao co th€ dLl<;IC

tlm thay d€ c ung minh sl/ tuong phan.r6 rang giua Ava a trong cac am.tit

khong nhan (mac du co mot s6 no luc

tai tin ) Gia thuyet nay da de xuat rang

mot ky hieu am vi (vi d{): a) dt1<;1c dungcl€ trlnh ba bat cu truong hQ'p nao xa

ra cu a ho~c A, vl th ' 'cup' se dt.JQ'C phien am la 'kap v 'u per' phien am la

'apa. Am vi moi nay se co hai th am v

mot la [a] v mot con lai la [A}; dau nhan

se chi r6 tha am vi [a] va trong cac am

tiet khong duoc da h dau nhan, r t co

the [a] se dugc ph t am.Cac nha am vi hoc dua ra gia thuyet

ra g a la tha am vi c a mot so nguyen

am khac; vi du, hay so sanh hai am tiet

giua cua cac tu 'economy' 1'knnami v'economic' ,i:kannm1k - c ve nhu khitrong am di chuy€n ra xa am tiet da g

c ua n thl nguyen am nay tr& thanh a .

Tuong tu, so sanh 'Germanic' d3a:'man1k

voi 'German' 'd33:man - khi d u nhan

dt.JQ'c lay di khi am tiet men thl nguy n

am na tr& nen yeu di tha h a . Nhieu vi

du tuong tu c the duoc dua ra v6'i cac

nguyen am khac; mc)t s6 kh nang c

th€ dL/Q'C dLla ra trong danh sach cac w

dt.JQ'C cho o mu 9.2 cho thay cac cach viet khac nh u v6n co theduo ph t am

voi a T lap luan nay c th& rut ra ketlun ra g a kh ng phai la am vi clatieng Anh, ma la tha am vi c a mot so a m vi

phonological analysis of different languages

raises a great number of difficult and

interesting theoretical problems, and for a

long time the study of phonology "for its own

sake" has beenregarded as an important area

of theoretical linguistics Within this area of

wh t could be called "pure phonology",

problems are examined with little or no

reference to their relevance to the language

learner Many different theoretical

approaches have been developed, and no

area of phonology has beenfree from critical

examination The very fundamental notion

of the phoneme, for example, has been

treated in many different ways One approach ·

that has been given a lot of importance is

distinctiv_e feature analysis, which is based

on the principle that phonemes should be

regarded not as independent and indivisible

units, but instead as combinations of different

features For example, if we consider the

English d phoneme, it is easy to show that it

differs from the plosives b and g in its place

of articulation (alveolar), from t in being

lenis, from s and z in not being fricative, from

n in not being nasal, and so on If we look at

each of the consonants just mentioned and

see which of the features each one has, we

get a table like this, where + means that a

phoneme does possess that feature and

-means that it does not:

'am vi hoc ung dung'; tuy nhien, vi@c

phan tich am vi cua cac n 6n ngu khac

Vl/C quan trong cda ngon ngu hoc gii

thuyet tinh.Trong ITnh Vl/C ma c th€ dl/(1C goi la "am vi hoc thuan tuy" ca v n d

g

+ + +

*Since there isn fortis/lenis contrastamong

nasalsthis couldteleftblank.

*Vt I • iug Co st trai ngugc manh/yeu giila

c cam m nench nay c6 the' de' tro'ng.

If you look carefully at this table, you

will see that the combination of+ and -values

foreach phoneme is different; if two sounds

were represented by exactly the same +'s

and -'s, then by definition they could not be

different phonemes In the case of the

limited set of phonemes used for this

example, not all the features are needed: if

one wished it would be possible to dispense

with, for example, the feature "velar" and

the feature "nasal" The g phoneme would

still be distinguished from b and d by being

neither alveolar nor bilabial, and n would be

distinct from plosives and fricatives simply

by being neither plosive nor fricative To

produce a complete analysis of all the

phonemes of English, other features would

be needed for representing other types of

consonant, and for vowels and diphthongs

In distinctive feature analysis the features

themselves thus become important

compone11ts of 1he phonology

Itha, been !aimed by some writers that

distinctive feature analysis is relevant to the

sudy of language learning, and that

pronunciation difficulties experienced by

learners are heller seen as due to rhe need

to learn a particular feature o; combination

of feature, than a, the absence of narticular

phonen es For example English speakers

le·1rning French or German have to learn to

produce front rounded vowels In English it

is not necessary to be able.to consider vowels

which are [+front, +round], whereas this is

necessary for French and German; it cguld

be 3i ' that rho major task for tho English­

N u bqn nhin ky bing nay, ban se

thay rang su ket hop cac gia tri + va ­

cha mcii am vi la khac nh u; neu hai am

duoc trinh bay chinh xac bdi cun cac

gia tri + va -, thl theo dinh nghia chung

c6 the la cac am vi khac nha O truing

hop cla tap hop gioi han cac am vi duocdung cho vi du nay, khong p ai tat ca

cac dac diem deu can thiet: neu muon,

ta c6 the khong can den, cha g han nhu,dac diem "vom mem" v dac diem "mti"

Am vi g se van phan biet dugc v i b v

d d khong phai la am ldi cung khong

phi la am moi, v n se phan biet voi

cac am bat va am xat don gian vi khong

phai la am bat cling khong phi la am

xat De co mot phan tich ho n chinh v

tat ca cac am vi trong ting Anh, dn

phai co cac dac diem kha de trinh ba

cac loai phu am khac, va can cho cac

nguyen am va nhi trung am Theo each phan tich dc diem khac bit ban than

cac dac diem do d6 tra thanh cac thanh

co cac am vi cu th€ Vi du, nhCtng ngtloi

noi lieng Anh dang ho t eng Phap hay

lieng 8 c phai hoc each tao cac nguyen

am tron moi o hang lrLl<Jc Trong tieng

Anh, khong nhat tiiet phi co kha narig

xem xet cacnguyn am von la [+han

t u oc , +tron moil, trong khi di@u nay lai

speakinglearner of French or German in this

case is to learn the combination of these

featu• es, not to learn the individual vowels

y, 0and (in French) re.*

*Thep oneticsymbols representthe following

sounds: y is a close fro t roundedvowel (e.g the

vowel in French tu ,GermanB hiine ) ;0 is a close­

midfront roundedvowel e.g Frenchp eu,German

schon);re is n op n-mid front roundedvowel(e.g.

French reu f) .

English,on the other hand, has to be able

to distinguish dental from labiodental and

alveolar places of articulation, for II to be

distinct from f and s and for it to be distinct

fromv and z This requires an additional

feature that most languages do not make use

of, and learning this could be seen as a

specific task for the learner of English

Distinctive featurt: phonologists have also

claimed that when children are learning their

first language, they acquire features rather

than individual phonemes

13.7 Conclusion

This chapter is intended to show that there

are many ways of analysing the English

phonemic system, each with its own

advantages and disadvantages We need to

consider the practical goal of teaching or

learning about English pronunciation, and

for this purpose a very abstract analysis

would be unsuitable This is one criterion

for judging the value of ah analysis; unless

one believes in carrying out phonological

analysis for purely aesthetic reasons, the

only other important criterion is whether the

analysis is likely to correspond to the

representation of sounds in the human brain

We do not yet know much about this, but the

brain is so powerful and complex that it is

v ry ·unlik_ely thnt any of th<:: analys·es

proposed so far bear much resemblance to

this reality; they are too heavily influenced'

by the theoretician's p_reocc;upat'ion with

economy elegance and simplicity

can thit d6i v i tieng Anh va tieng Dae;

co the noi rang nhiem v u chinh cda ngudiPhap hoac Dtc hoc n6i tie'ng Anh trongtruong hc;1p nay la phai hoc ke't hc;1p cuacac d c diem nay, cht khong phai lioccac nguyen am rieng le y, 0 va (trongtieng Phap) c:e.*

* Ckkyhiet1 ngu am tllc;Jng trllng cho cac am sau day: y la nguyen am tron mi, dong, e1 hang truac (vi du: nguyenamtrong ti€ng Phap tu,-ti€ng

fJucBhtine);0/anguyen am tron m6i hang trudc niia _dong (vi d1,1: ti€ng Phap peu, ti€ng D u e schon);

rela nguyen am tron moi, hang trUac, niia me! (vi d1,1: ti€ng Phapreuf).

Mat khac, ti@ng Anh phai co kh nangphan bietcac vi tri cu am cla am rangvoi am m6i rang va am lc;1i, II phan bietvoi fva s, 0 phan biet voi v va z. Dieunay doi hoi them mot dac diem ma hauhet cac ngon ngu st dung, vi@c hoc dacdi€m nay c6 th€ duc;1c xem la mot nhiem

vu dac bi@t d6i vdi nguoi hoc tieng Anh

Cac nha am vi hoc nghien ctu ve dac

diem phan biet cung cho ring khi tre emhoc ng6n nga dau tien cua chung, chunghoc dudc cac dac diem thay vi tiep thu

cac am vi rieng biet

13 7 Ke't,luij.n

Chudng nay nham chung minh rangc6 nhi@u cach phan tich he thong am vitieng Anh, moi cach deu co Liu khuye'tdi€m rieng Chung ta can phi xem xetmuc tieu thuc tien cla viec day va hoccach phat am ting Anh, v avi ly do naynen viec phan tich qua trtu tu@ng 'se

kh6ng pht:1 hop Day la mot tieu chuan

d€ danh gia gia tri cua mot cuoc phan ,tich; neu mot ngudi tin vao viec thucbien phan tich am vi hoc vi ly do tha'm

my, lieu chua'n duy nha't-khac la lie~1cach phan tich do c6 th€ dap ung-voi sl/trlnh bay cac am trong nao nguoi hay

khang Chung ta chua biet nhieu ve dieunay, nhung bo nao qua rilc)nh va phlfctap den noi bat ct nhung phan tich nao

da duoc de xuat cho den bay gio kh6ngth& giong voi thuc te nay; chung bi anh

huong qua nhieu boi moi quan tam quamtc cla nha ly thuyet ve tinh kinh tetao nha va ddn gi-an

168Notes on problems and further reading

The analysis oftfand d3i one of the most intractable problems The general principles

in traditional phoneme theory have been set out by Trubetzkoy (1939); the German originalhas been translated into English (1969), and the relevant section of this translation is reprinted

in Fudge (1973: 65-70) The problem is also discussed in Cruttenden (1994, 157-60) Thephonemic analysisof the velar nasal has already been discussed above (see Notes in Chapter7) The 'double vowel' interpretation of English long vowels was put forward by Maccarthy(1952) and is usedby Kreidler (1989) The 'vowel' plus-semivowel' interpretation of longvowels and diphthongs was almost universally accepted by American (and some British)writers from the 1940s to the 1960s, and still pervades contemporary descriptions It has theadvantage of being economical on phonemes and very 'neat and tidy' The analysis in thisformis presented in Trager and Smith (1951) This work was claimed to provide an analysisthatcould produce a phonologically distinct representation for all English short vowels,long vowels and diphthongs in all accents An early attack on this view was made by Sledd(1955: 316-24) In generative phonology the claim is that, at the abstract level, Englishvowels are simply tense or lax If they are lax they are realised as short vowels, ii tense asdiphthongs (this category including what I have been calling long vowels) The quality ofthe firstelement of the diphthongs/long vowels is modified by some phonological rules,while other rules supply the second element automatically This is set out in Chomsky andHalle ( 1968: 178-87) There is a valuable discussion of the interpretation of the English

v wel system with reference to several different accents in Giegerich ( 1992: Chapter 3),followed by an explanation of the distinctive feature analysis of the English vowel system(Chapter 4) and the consonant system (Chapter 5) A more wide-ranging discussion ofdistinctive features is given in Clark and Yallop (1995: Chapter 10)

On the interpretation of sp, st, sk, see Davidsen-Nielsen ( 1969) There is an interesting

discussion of the a - Acontrast in Wells ( 1970: 233-5) The idea that a is an allophone of

many English vowels is not a new one In generative phonology, a results from vowelreduction in vowels which have never received stress in the process of the application ofstress rules This is explained - in rather difficult terms - in Chomsky and Halle (1968:110-26) Aclearer treatment of the schwa problem is in Giegerich (1992: 68-9 and 285-7)

Note for teachers

Since this is a theoretical chapter it is difficult to come up with practical work I do notfeel that it is helpful for students to do exercises on using different ways of transcribingphonemes - just learning one set of conventions is difficult enough Some books onphonology give exercises on the phonemic analysis of other languages (e.g Katamba,1989; Roca and Johnson, 1999), but although these are useful, I do not feel that it would beappropriate in this book to divert attention from English The exercises given below thereforeconcentrate on bits of phonetically transcribed English which involve problems when aphonemic representation is required

Written exercises

In this exercise you must look at

phonetically transcribed material from

different English accents and decide on the

b st way to interpret and transcribe them

_phonemically Information is given where

necessary about the meaning of the phonetic

Mr»'ls.

Bai tap viet

Trong bai tap nay, ban phai xem xetnoi dung da phien am theo ngd am hoc

tut cac giong Anh khac nhau va quyet

dinh chon cach tot nhat de giai thich vaphien am chung theo am vi hoc Thongtin ve y nghia cda cac k hieu ngd amduoc cho o noi can thiet

2 It often happens in rapid speech that a

nasal consonant disappears when it

comes between a vowel and another

consonant (for example, this may happen

to the 'n' in 'front': when this happens the

preceding vowel becomes nasalised

(some of the air escapes through the

nose) We symbolise a nasalised vowel

in phonetic transcription by putting the

-diacritic above it; for example, the word

'front' may be pronounced [fri t].

Nasalised vowels are found in the words

given in phonetic transcription below

Transcribe them phonemically

2 Tl1Ltcrng trong lcri n6i nh nh, mot phu

am mui bien ma't khi n dun ·gieta

mot nguy@en am va mot phu am kh c

(vi du, di@u nay co the xa ra voi 'n'

trong 'front': khi di€u nay xay ra, nguyen am dung truo tr& nen bi mui hoa (mot it kh6ng khi thoat qua mui))

hoa duoc t m thay trong ca tut duoc

c o trong ph n p ien am theo ngu am

3 When the t phoneme occurs between

vowels it is sometimes pronounced as a

"tap" (the tongue blade- strikes the

alveolar ridge sharply, producing a very

brief voiced plosive: the phonetic

symbol is r ); this is very common in

American English, and is also found in a

number of accents in England: think of a

typical American pronunciation o

"getting better" [geng bera] Look atthe

transcriptions of a number ofwords given

below and see if you can work out (for

the accent in question) the environment

Anh M y va cung duqc tlm tha'y i'J mqt

s o giong i'J Anh (England): hay nghi

a) 'betting' [berio]

b) 'bedding' [bed19]

c) 'attend' [at"end]

4 Distinctive feature analysis looks at

different properties of segments and

classes of segments In the following

exercise you must mark the value of each

feature in the table for each segment

listedon the top row with either a '+'or'-';

you will probably find it useful to look at

the IPA chart on p xi

5 In all the following sets of segments (a­

J ), all segments in the set possess some

characteristic feature which they have in

commonandwhich may distinguish them

from other segments Can you identify

what this common feature might be for

each set?

a) English i:, ,, u:, u ; Cardinalvowels (i]

[e] [u], [o]

5 Trong tat ca cac tap hop doan sau

day (a-f), tat ca cac doa trong tap hop co chung mot dac diem ti@u bi&u

va c the p an biet chung voi cac

doan khac. Ban c6 the nhan ra dac

diem chung na danh cho mi ta hop

la gi kho ng?

a) TiengAnhi:, r, u:, o; Nguyen am chuan

[i], [el, [u], [o]

inherent /m 'h1arant, 'her-/ (adj)

internal open juncture /m't3:nl 'aupan 'd3AnktJa/

intervene /,Jta'vi:n/ (v)

intrusive r /m'tru:s1v 'a:/

juncture / 'd3Al)ktJa/ (n)

linking l'h!JkTIJI (n)

metrical grid / 'metnkl 'gnd/

open juncture / 'aupan 'd3Al)ktfa/

progressive /pra'gres1v/ (adj)

proponent /pra'paunant/ (n)

regressive /n'gres1v/ (adj)

regularity /,regju'lreratJ/ (n)

rhythm /'noam/ (n)

rhythmical / 'nom1kl/ (adj)

stress-shift /'stres,J1ft/ (n)

stress-timed rhythm /'stres,ta1md 'noam/

suprasegmental / ,su:pra'segmentl/ (adj)

syllable-timed rhythm / 's1labl,ta1md 'rroam/

u erance l'At(a)rans/ (n)

st luan phi @n khong theo nhip/ti@t tau

S ( ( drJng h6a am tiep diim khep s{! d dng ccfu am (dilng hai b(! ph(J.n ca'u am khdc anr) s{! tinh l U(f C

co the' nghe dU(lc ti@p diem md ngoai bi@n nhip

11 /)i tr;i, crf hilu ti@p d iem md noi bien ndm d giil a

am r choi, chen vao tiep dii m hinh vi (quan hf va ranh gi<ii giila hai hinh vi)

st luyen am, noi am

sodo ti@t tau tiep dii/m mil (di5ng hda) vJ phia trU(Jc, tie'n, thug n

ngri de nghi, nguhi de xuat (dong hoa) v e pha sau, li ,

nghjc:h tinh dJu di!n nhip difultie't ta'u theo nhjpltheo tiet tau st! chuyi n dich trqng elm nhjp diefultie't ufu (dinh thr'Ji gian)' theo trpng am

sieu doan tinh nhip difultie't td'u (dinh tlu)i gian) theo am ti&t/ van

phdt ng6n •

Many years ago scientists tried to

develop machines that produced speech

from a vocabulary of pre-recorded words; the

machines were designed to join these words

together to form sentences For very limited

mes_sages, such as those of a "talking clock",

this technique was usable, but for other

purposes the quality of the speech was so

unnatural that it was practically

unintelligible In recent years,

developments in computer technology have

led to big improvements in this way of

producing speech, but the inadequacy of the

original "mechanical speech" approach has

many lessons to teach us about pronunciation

teaching and learning In looking at

connected speech it is useful to bear in mind

the difference between the way humans

speak and what would be found in

"mechanical speech"

14.1 Rhythm

The notion of rhythm involves some

noticeable event happening at regular

intervals of time; one can detect the rhythm

of a qeart-beat, of a flashing light or of a piece

of music It has often been claimed that

English speech is rhythmical, and that the

rhythm is d tectable in the regular

occurrence -of stressed syllables; of course,

it isnot suggested that the timing is as regular

as a clock : the regularity of occurrence is

only relative The theory that English has

stress-timed rhythm implies that stressed

syllables will tend to occur at relatively

regular intervals whether they are separated

b unstressed syllables or nJt; this would

not be the case in "mechanical speech" An

example is given below In this sentence,

the stressed syllables are given numbers:

syllables I and 2 are not separated by any

unstressedsyllables, 2 an::l 3 are separated

Cach day nhieu nam, cac nha khoahoc da co gfog phat trien cac may m6ct<;IO ra loi noi tu tu VI/Ilg cua cac W du'c;lc

thu truoc; cac may m6c nay duoc thietke' de' noi cac tu nay lai voi nhau dethanh lap cac cau Doi v6i nhrng thongdiep rat han che, nhu thong di@p cla

"d6ng h6 bao gio", ky thuat nay c6 the

stdung duoc, nhung voi nhung muc dichkhac, chat lu<;1ng cua loi n6i kh6ng dtt<;lc

tu nhien den noi khong the hi@u duoc.Trang nhung nam gan day, su phat triencla cong nghe may tinh da dan dennhieu cai tien lon lao o cach tao loi noi,nhu'ng SI/ khong tu'ong xung cua phL/ongphap "loi n6i may mo c" day chung tanhieu bai hoc ve viec day va hoc cachphat am Khi xem xet noi am, ta thayhtu (ch khi nho su khac bi@t gida cachcon ngu'oi n6i va nhung gl du'Qc tim thaytrong "loi n6i may m6c"

h : tinh xuat hien deu dan chi E. tuongdo'i Gia thuyet nay cho rang tieng Anh

c6 "nhip di~u dinh thoi gian theo trong

am" ng1,1 y rang cac am tiet nhan se c6

khuyn h huong xuat hi@n tai cac khoa ngthoi gian tuong doi de: dan cho du chung

co bi tach rdi boi cac am tiet khongnhan hay khong; dieu nay se kh6ng dungtrong "loi n6i may rri6c" MQt vi" d1,1 dL/(1c

by one unstressed syllable, 3 and 4 by two

and 4 and 5 by three

cha duoi day Trang cau nay, cac amtiet nhan duoc danh so: cac am tiet 1

va 2 khong duq.c tach roi b&i cac amti&t khong nhan, 2 va 3 khong du@c tachroi b<'1i mot am tiet khong nha'n, 3 Va 4bdi hai am ti&t, 4 va 5 b&i ba am tiet

'Walk 'down the 'path to the 'end of the ca'nal

T e stress-timed rhythm theory states

that the times from each stressed syllable to

the n xt will tend to be the same,

irrespective of the number of intervening

unstressed syllables The theory also claims

thatwhile some languages (e.g Russian and

Arabic) have stress-timed rhythm similar to

that of English, others (such as French,

Telugu and Yoruba) have a different

rhythmical structure called syllable-timed

rhythm; in these languages, all syllables,

whether stressed or unstressed, tend to occur

at regular time-intervals and the time

between stressed syllables will be shorter or

longer in proportion to the number of

unstressed syllables Some writers have

developed theories of English rhythm in

which aunit of rhythm, the foot, is used (with

an obvious parallel in the metrical analysis

of verse}; the foot begins with a stressed

syllable and includes all following

unstressed syllables up to (but not including)

the following stressed syllable The example

sentence given above would be divided into

feet as follows:

Thuyet "nhip dieu dinh thdi gian theotrong am" phat bieu rang W m6i am tietnhan den am tit nhan ke tiep se cokhuynh huong ging nhau, bat ke' soluong am tiet khong nhan can thiep vao.Thuyet nay cing cho rang mac du mot

so ng6n ngu v i du: tieng Nga va tieng

A Rap) co nhip di@u dinh thi gian theotrong am giong voi nhip di@u cua tiengAnh, nhung nhung ngon ngu khac (nhutieng Phap, tieng Telugu va Yoruba) c6cau true theo nhlp khac goi la "nhip di~u dinh thoi gian theo a mtiet";onht ng ng6nngd nay, tat ca cac am tiet, du duocnhan hay khong duoc nhan, co khuynhhuong xuat hien tai cac khoang thoi gian

d u dan va thoi gian gila cac am tietnha'n se ngin hon hoac di hon ttldngt."lng voi so ltiQ'ng am tiet khong nhan.Mot so tac gia da phat trie'n ca c giathuyet ve nhip dieu ting Anh ma trongd6 don vi nhip di@u, foot, duoc dung (r

rang song song voi viec phan tich tlw catheo tiet tau); foot bat dau bang mot amtiet nhan va gom co ta't ca cac am tietkho ng nhan theo sau cho den (nillingkhong bao gom) cac am tiet nhan tieptheo Cau vi du o tren se dtJQ'c chia thanhcac foot nhti sau:

'end of the ca

5'nal

1 'Walk 1 'downthe 1 'pathto the

Some theories of rhythm go further than

this, and point to the fact that some feet are

stronger than others producing strong-weak

patterns in larger pieces of speech above the

level of the foot To understand how this

could be done, let's start with a s.imple

example: the word 'twenty' has one strong

and one weak syllable, forming one foot A

diagram of its rhythmical structure can be

Mot so gia thuyet ve nhip dieu conban va sau hon van de duoc ban <'1 day,

va ch1 ra ding mot s6foot ma nh hon footkhac, tao ra cac mau manh - yeu & cacphan Ion hon c a loi noi tr@n m(c foot.0e' hie'u dtiQ'c viec nay c6 the' thuc hiennhu the no, chung ta hay bat dau bangmot vi du don gian: tu 'twenty' co mot

am tiet manh va mot am tiet yeu, hinh