Received Pronunciation in the English Language - Coursework Example

Survey Article Due: Introduction English is a highly popular language, with it being used as a first language in over 50 countries and spoken by over 300 million people (Crystal, 1998). English, often used as a teaching foreign language, has two variations: American and British. There are differences in the two variations in terms of accent, spelling, tonal variation, and associated slang. One of the common accents in British English is Received Pronunciation (RP), mainly associated with BBC newsreaders and foreign learners (Crystal, 2009: 68). The percentages of people who speak RP in Britain are less than 5% (Bradford, 1988: 56), suggesting proposals of extending the definition to cover “educated Southern English” speakers. As such the definition of RP does not include the Southern Britain natives, and assumptions that RP is common to all natives are a false approach. In the discussion of intonations in phonological English, it is the RP English that will be the basis of discussion. Considering the above claim, considerably more research has to be conducted prior to making the claim that the discussion of phonetics and intonations covered in the research is British native English. Palmer (1992: ix) supports the need for more research in the linguistic profile of Britain, in the definition of the British intonation system. It is necessary to first define as well as describe the context of this article. Defining the meaning of intonations within the context of phonology is essential to the structuring of the article as well as the context that is to be covered. Intonations are the variations in pitch during speech. The concept of phonological analysis of the language incorporates different parts of speech, but it is basically the study by which accents can be evaluated. The intonations of British English, as with any other language, have a history in the origin of the speaker, such that elements such as consonants, vowels, lexical stress, and phono-tactics affect the manner in which a speaker communicates. General Prosodic Characters There is much literature on the stressing of words in English and how the word stressing relates to the segmental organization of the word. Literature from several decades past, the 1940s, did not emphasize on the impact of word stressing and intonations. Such work claimed that the intonation of words was unpredictable. However, general English rules and lexical idiosyncrasies suggest that word stressing can be accounted for and reduced towards making the end syllables of a word inherently stressed or unstressed (extrametrical) (Bradford, 1988: 72). This aspect of the English language is similar to other languages, as intonations are common with popular and unpopular languages. English is said to have two modes of word stressing (hybrid). The system has stress on the word level where the patterns of word stressing are like those found in romance languages. In the context of word level stressing the pattern, it usually follows the right edge resulting in penultimate and antepenultimate syllable stressing. Secondly, the stressing in the English language may also be Germanic oriented such that the stress is imposed on the initial elements. In such a case suffixes such as –ing and –ly have no stress on the word. Stressing different syllables in words may not have a geographical factor to the language, as different groups may formulate a means by which to connote the English language to have a unique form of communication, which acts as the basis for slang in the language. Literature indicates the presence of more than two accents of RP English. Stressing on the words may thus be considered as either primary or tertiary. Where a word is considered to carry primary stress, which is considered as the prominent pitch of the intonation unit in a word, whereas tertiary stress on a word is a scenario where the syllable contained in a word, is full as opposed to reduced. This concept introduces the concept of degree of accentuation, which is defined by the degree of loudness and/or duration in which a word is stressed, pitch also contributes to the accentuation. Binary distinction of the word stress can be founded on the accentuation (accented or unaccented) of the syllables having phonetically implication on the communication. Lexical representation is the other level of a binary stress distinction. This is emphasized by the stressed and/or unstressed syllables. Considering the two variations in the stressing in the English language, there are unlimited arguments that characterize word stressing among umpteen variations in speech. The two examples of stress and word variation follow the argument that the English language paradigm is adherent to the RP approach. Intonation Patterns Focalization and Contextual Effect Phrasing and Textual Organization Stylized Patterns Basic Non-Emphatic pattern a. Rhythmic structuring Some linguists believe that intonation patterns are best captured in a hierarchical structure organized to group prosodies. Hieratically organizing the prosodic constituents in a singularly accented syllable is a method in which higher orders can be derived. This approach is referred to as the Foot as suggested in an article by Abercrombie (1964) (Bradford, 1988: 72), in the description of sequences of syllables having one syllable stressed, and followed by a number of unstressed syllables. This proposition further claims that the presence or use of the foot in word stressing is not restricted by ant word boundaries, thus can be applicable to any statement. The foot is one of the many suggested models of rhythmic structure in English. The Narrow Rhythm Unit is a proposal that was done by Jassem (1952) (O’Connor & Arnold, 1961: 132), as part of a two unit kinds of stressing the English language that consisted of a stressed syllable that was followed by unstressed syllables. The Anacrusis was the other part to Jassem’s claim (O’Connor & Arnold, 1961: 132). Under the Anacrusis approach, the sequence of syllables did not feature any stressed syllables since the constituents were all unstressed. The combination of the Anacrusis and the Narrow Rhythm Unit resulted in the Total Rhythm Unit. Considering the claims of Jassem, the anacrusis characteristics are pronounced syllables that are rapidly pronounced. The Narrow Rhythm Unit, on the other hand, creates an isochronism impression where the duration of the syllables in a sequence of syllables tends to be inversely proportional to the total number of syllables in that word. Further in the Total Rhythm Unit, Jassem introduces the concept of Tonal units, resulting in a melodic structure, where the sequence of syllables now has a rhythmic and melodic structure. The tonal units in the syllables contribute to the accentual pitch movements in speech giving the Total Rhythm Unit a structure in which syllables are either an Anacrusis or a Narrow Rhythmic Unit. b. Stress and accent The nucleus (Palmer, 1922: 112) is the final accent to an intonation unit and is considered unique in the English language. It can be utilized in instances where it is preceded by a least stress-able syllable, and not have any implication of contrast or emphasis. Interestingly, the nucleus can also be used in constructs that have intransitive verbs that may take up a single accent on the subject or have accents on the subject as well as a verb. By considering the example of the nucleus, it is evident that accenting and dis-accenting is a linguistically complex process that is not fully comprehended, yet it cannot be reduced to a simple question of enlightenment or predictability. Stressing words is common in Brutish English, as well as other languages, but it is governed by several factors such as origin of the speaker, schooling, social and environmental triggers. In any given group, there is a tendency towards converging to one concept, in thought, acts, beliefs, as well as speech, and such a contributor easily dictates how an individual speaks. The sense of belonging is a major contributor to this copying behaviour and is witnessed across all age groups as well as cultures. Coincidentally, culture is derived from the commonness or agreement towards a behaviour or principle, thereby developing a history as well as trend that others follow. c. Tonal structure Armstrong and Ward (1926) are referred to as having introduced analysis of the English language on a “tune” approach (Roach, 2009: 142). The proposal was founded on the use of two tunes to analyse the intonation of syllable sequences. The tunes are used or different scenarios, since the tonal variation for the speaker is also different. The first tune is suggested in a scenario where the makes use of every day, certain, and decided statements. Contrary to the first tune, the second tune is used in a sequence of syllables where the speaker intends to make a request or ask questions and is characterized by incomplete groupings. The tonal structure theory suggested that for the first tune, the stressing on the syllable sequence results in a descending scale. The second tune which integrates statements that have implications, questions (yes or no), requests and incomplete utterances, begin with a low note and every syllable that follows is higher than the preceding syllable. Distinctiveness in the phonetics of the syllables is emm9nent in the approach of tonal structure, such that the difference between one syllable, and another is fair, at least. Under tonal structure, there are variations in speech that may exist which do not adhere to the suggested gradual phonetic disposition, and the intermediary syllables may assume a curve, but still fall under the first and second tunes. Overlapping of phonetics in speech tend to integrate both tunes, as the speaker may be swayed by other aspects, such as a lack of concentration by the correspondents, but the tonal structure form still remains as considered by the Relevance Theory (Wells, 2006: 63). Considering the theory, the speaker and listener have to be in a “mutual cognitive environment” for the tonal array to be evaluated and determined by linguists. Focalization is derived from the term focus, which in the context of the paper is a narrow focus, which in the context of speech is relatively similar to the emphasis. The difference that exists between the two words is that emphasis is to be considered pragmatic notion (Celce-Murcia, Brinton & Goodwin, 1996: 21), such that a concept may be regarded as either emphatic or non-emphatic. Focus in the context of speech may be considered syntagmatic as it concentrates on a single element of a sequence, which can be considered as part of a network. In the two contexts, it is possible to derive emphasis from a single syllable, or word, but where focus is considered, a singular word denies the listener the ability to determine the focus of the utterance. The lack of differentiation between focus and emphasis in British English in considering a single word dignifies reference to the emphasis as opposed to focusing in British English. In the context of classical English intonations, emphasis is categorized as being either contractual or intense. Contrast emphasis is a general concept that can be applied to any word, yet intensity emphasis as a concept is only applicable to construct where expressed qualities can be measured. In definition, intensity emphasis simply is the equivalent of adding an intensifying adverb to a word, since even the addition of the adverb has little significance to the outcome, as well as the notational pitch. Contrary to intensity emphasis, contrast emphasis follows the rise and fall in the tone of the syllable sequence. Emphasis interacts with the syllable to develop a tune by which inference can be drawn. In such analysis, the nuclear rise and fall is considered in the tonal modification of expressed statements. The rise and fall of the syllabic nucleus consider among other contributors to the tonal variations, but there is always a secondary agent founded in intensity and emphasis. Suggestions from Gusshoven (1984) implicitly describe the presence of three primary tones in focalization, which are rising, falling and falling-rising. Although his argument is that the three are the major tones, he further states that there exist modifications, which are secondary to the tones. Halliday (1967) on the other hand considers the existence of five basic nuclear tones (Cruttenden, 1997: 127), which are falling, high rising, low rising, falling-rising, and rising-falling, which are not to be considered as variants to each other, yet also have secondary variations. In such a position, the internal criteria theory is an approach by which the conundrum can be discussed, towards resolving the variations. There is an eminent lack of correspondence amid the syntactic and phonological constituents in some syllable sequences. The boundaries of syntactic and phonological constraints in speech lack an ultimate criterion through which boundaries may be set. There are often interferences between syntactic and prosodic components of language, mainly because prosodic boundaries interject the start of the internal syntactic constituent, on the condition that a prosodic boundary is input at the ending of the constituent. Grouping of intonation units into higher-order “paratone-groups” or “major paratone” engages the introduction of key or the range of pitch in the communicated message (Grabe & Post, 2002: 344). Often, the beginning of a paratone is indicated by the presence of an extra-high pitch on the first accent while the end is marked by an extra-low pitch. In the event that a paratone ends on the extra-low tone, but does not begin with a high tone, it is referred to as a minor paratone. In considering this argument, the major and minor paratones in the syllable sequence may be considered as one of the four alternatives: paratone-initial, paratone-final, both, or neither. The beginning of the intonation units is the paratone-initial, while the end of the sequence is paratone-final. Other suggestions of the concept of paratone evaluate the essence of prosodic structure, and factors in taking turns and management of interpretations. Considering these elements, there is a lot of improvement that is associated with speech in the development of language. Studies of language phonology have suggested various characteristics of language that may not necessarily contribute to the phonological description of the English language. Intonations of the English language encompass numerous sociological aspects such that the study seems continuous as changes will occur as expected since language is dynamic and is dependent on the community. Patterns in the English language, or any other language for that matter, are often unique to the speaker and often take the form of a composition that is between a song and a speech, as analysed by the listener. The prosodic characteristic of stylized patterns in speech does not follow the continuity in movement from one point to another as it would be expected in a normal speech. The pattern that is developed takes up a contour based movement that is based on the establishment of static level tones. Such a tonal variation in speech can be as a result of several aspects, among which is the environment, habit and social pressures (Jones, 1964: 78). A common example in speech is that of children where the patterns are frequent in jeer like styles. The adaptation of such tonal levels in speech is considered stylized as well as semantic effect that is conventional or ritualistic in behaviour. In adults, the stylized effect is usually realized where the vocatives involved are usually repeated. Common words, statements and phrases associated with a style are factors that affect the speech of the subject. Considering the degree to which a tonal aspect is adopted, development and growth factors into the tone that is assumed by an individual in speech. The adoption may be unique to a large or small group, provided it has a sense of belonging and uniqueness. Conditional factors such as training and education also influence the nature of an individual’s speak, ergo speech trainers. The stylized concept can be argued as being natural as well as manufactured. The speaker may have a point to persuade choosing specific styles such as pleasing the listener and may opt for a stylized approach to communicating an attitude or emotion. Manipulation of the speech style is consequently a result that may be obtained in speech. Conclusion Phonological representations in the English language, as well as the intonation structures, attract several questions, especially with the intention of representing a concept. Interpreting the intonations phonetically is an important contribution to the structuring of language. Patterns in British English have had several linguists analyse the phonetic representation of language with respect to background data from the origin of the people to their educational and professional background. Language is acquired, and so can the intonations and phonological structuring of speech. Considering patterns of speech that often take up a tonal based approach and the theoretical analysis of speech, common to specific groups, the scope of intonations in language is wide and is difficult to conclude effectively. The best research conducted with regards to the phonology and intonations of the British English focused on a very small number of inhabitants and thus the small degree of the study’s scope and the consequent questions regarding the diversity and efficiency of the results. Bibliography BRADFORD, B. (1988). Intonation in context Students book. Students book. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. CELCE-MURCIA, M., BRINTON, D., & GOODWIN, J. (1996). Teaching Pronunciation. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. CRUTTENDEN, A. (1997). Intonation (Second Edition). Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. CRYSTAL, D. (2009). Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. Chicester, Wiley. GRABE, E. & POST, B. (2002). Intonational Variation in the British Isles, SP-2002, pp. 343-346. JONES, D. (1964). An Outline of English Phonetics. Cambridge, Heffer. OCONNOR, J. D., & ARNOLD, G. F. (1961). Intonation of colloquial English a practical handbook. London, Longmans. http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/3054795.html. ROACH, P. (2009). English phonetics and phonology a practical course. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. WELLS, J.C. (2006). English Intonation: An Introduction. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. PALMER, H.E. (1922). English Intonation with Systematic Exercises. Cambridge, Heffer. Read More