Some features of pronunciation, accent and rhythm in narrative sentences in English



Stress and rhythm are basic for intelligibility, adequacy and fluency in speech and that they should be consistently practiced by foreign learners if possible in the early stages. The concentration is on the production side of English pronunciation, stress and rhythm, which will contribute to more intelligible speech.

The object of study is stress and rhythm in English. The subject of study is stress and rhythm in narrative sentences. The purpose of this research is to show the importance of stress and rhythm in determining the realization of segments. The objectives of the research are the following: to analyze literature references concerning stress and rhythm in English, to indicate the morphemic and syntactic function of elements, to structure information in the sentence.

Theoretical basis: theoretical analyses of a literature showed that this issue was cowered on the works of Reydout R., Mider W., Tailor A., Sviridov L.

Sentence stress

Sentence stress is the governing stress in connected speech. All words have their individual stress in isolation. The most important words in the sentence receive stronger stress. The last stressed word in the sentence receives the strongest stress with the help of a fall or a rise. Sentence stress is not just a phonetic peculiarity of English. Sentence stress has a very important function of marking the words that are necessary for understanding.

Sentence rhythm

Rhythm is the musicality of English–the ups and downs and the connected speech and the linking of words, which together, change how we say sentences. Speaking with correct rhythm (musicality) is essential to being understood when you speak!

Rhythm comes from the combination of the two types of stress in English:

1) Syllable stress in words (as discussed above)

2) Word stress in sentences

Sentence stress is the main means of providing rhythm in speech. Rhythm is the key to fluent English speech.

PLEASE, look at this sentence: Kevin sent a letter.,

Let's mark the stressed syllables: KEVin SENT a \LETter.

The pattern of stress in this sentence is stressed — unstressed — stressed — unstressed — stressed — unstressed.

Let's make this sentence a little longer: Kevin decided to send a letter to his relatives in the village.

Let us mark the stressed syllables and the fall:

KEVin deCIDed to SEND a LETter to his RELatives in the \VILlage.

Let's sum up the functions of sentence stress:

– Sentence stress organizes separate words into sentences by making content words stressed and function words unstressed.

– Sentence stress makes the utterance understandable to the listener by making the important words in the sentence stressed, clear, and higher in pitch and by shortening and obscuring the unstressed words.

– Sentence stress organizes the words in the sentence rhythmically, making the stressed syllables occur at regular intervals and jamming together the unstressed syllables between the stressed syllables.

Word stress

Most sentences have two basic types of words:

1) content words. Content words are the key words of asentence. They are the important words that carry the meaning or sense—the real content.

2) structure words. Structure words are not very important words. They give the sentence its correct form—its structure.

British stress words in sentences are important to the meaning of the sentence. They carry the content of the sentence.

Content Words are: main verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, negatives, wh-words, interjections.

Examples: IHAVE to GO to SCHOOL. I WANT my BROTHER to WIN. It’s NOT the BEST IDEA.

In English we de-stress the non-essential, non-content words in a sentence, called the function words.

Function words are articles, conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns, auxiliary verbs.

Investigation. Sentence stress in English is the way a speaker highlights certain words in each sentence. It helps the listener focus on important parts and understand the speaker’s meaning.

50 pupils took part in the investigation. I presented the results of 7 students from each form.

×- it means no mistakes.

٧- it means a mistake.

The word	Student 1	Student 2	Student 3	Student 4	Student 5	Student 6	Student 7
Muscles	٧	٧	×	٧	٧	×	×
Shiver	٧	٧	٧	×	٧	×	٧
Cannot	×	٧	٧	×	×	×	×
Getting, holding	×	×	٧	٧	٧	×	×
Especially	٧	٧	٧	٧	×	٧	×
Enough	٧	٧	×	×	٧	٧	×
To the heat	×	×	×	٧	٧	×	×
Worst, birds	٧	×	٧	٧	×	×	×

In the 8-th form the easiest words were: cannot, to the heat, worst and birds. Pupils made mistakes in the words: especially, enough, muscles and shiver.I think they made these mistakes, because many pupils have problems with sounds and pronunciation:

– Replacement [f] by [θ]

– Replacement of a full form cannot by a short can’t

– Replacement monophthong [з:] by monophthong [e] or [ɒ]

– Replacement sound [ŋ] by [n] or emergence of a sound [g] at the end of the word

In the 9-th form the easiest words were: tighten, to the heat, cannot. Pupils made mistakes in the words: active, enough, muscles. I think they made these mistakes because many pupils are confused in sounds and an accent:

– Replacement [f] by [θ]

– Replacement [ӕ] in an unaccented syllable on [ә]

– Pronunciation of unpronounceable sounds

In the10-th form the easiest words were: tighten, heat, active. Pupils made mistakes in the words: area, especially. I think they made these mistakes because some pupils are confused in sounds and an accent.

In the 11-th form the easiest word was cannot.

Pupils made a mistake in the word area.

Final results

The word	Form 8	Form 9	Form 10	Form 11	General
Heat	-	3	2	-	5
Active	-	3	2	-	5
Muscles	4	5	3	1	13
Shiver	5	2	3	1	11
Area	-	-	4	2	6
Tighten	-	1	3	1	5
Especially	5	2	4	1	12
Worst, birds	3	-	-	-	3
Enough	4	3	-	1	8
To the heat	2	-	-	-	2
Cannot	2	1	-	-	3
Getting, holding	3	-	-	-	3

Conclusion:

50 pupils took part in the investigation Special complexity was presented by the words: muscles, shiver, especially, enough. Students made these mistakes because they are confused in sounds and an accent. Some pupils have problems with pronunciation.

When a speaker says a sentence, there is usually one focus of meaning which the speaker stresses. Sentence stress is where the focus is on. When the sentence is simple, there is only one sentence stress. But if the sentence is a compound or complex sentence, which may carry more than one clause, there will be more than one sentence stress. Stress and rhythm are basic for intelligibility, adequacy and fluency in speech and that they should be consistently practiced by foreign learners if possible in the early stages. We have concentrated on the production side of English stress and rhythm, which will contribute to more intelligible speech.

References:

1. Arnold, G. F. and O. M. Tooley. Say It with Rhythm. 2 vols. London: Longman, 1971–72.
2. http://usefulenglish.ru/phonetics/sentence-stress-and-rhythm
3. http://www.avspeechtherapy.com/2013/06/24/english-rhythm-stress-and-intonation/