Riassunti saggi dizionario "English Pronouncing Dictionary", Schemi e mappe concettuali di Lingua Inglese

Scarica Riassunti saggi dizionario "English Pronouncing Dictionary" e più Schemi e mappe concettuali in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity! SUMMARIES ESSAYS (DICTIONARY) 1) The world of pronunciation – Pronunciation in spontaneous speech (Richard Cauldwell) This dictionary provides guidance for optimally clear pronunciation by using the “citation form” (CF). The clarity of the CF is however rare in spontaneous speech because in speech worlds are joined together into “speech units” (syllables may be dropped, primary and secondary stress may become imperceptible etc.) Language learners believe they know everything about a word’s pronunciation, but when a familiar word is used into a sentence, they can’t catch it. Learners have to master the range of soundshapes that words can have. The soundshape of a word varies with its position in a speech unit. Let’s demonstrate this by using the word ‘collaboration’ first on its own, and then in combination with other words: kə læb 0 25 9 0 2 C 8r eɪ 0 2 8 3 0 2 5 9n 0 2 5 9 0 2 C Ca) /k læb 0 2 5 9 0 2 C 8r 0 2 6 A 0 2 8 3 0 2 5 9e n/ Yellow cells stressed syllables b) The words ‘in’ and ‘teachers’ are added: in col LAB oration with TEACH ers Yellow cells prominence at the level of speech unit In spontaneous speech, the main shapers of the rhythm are not the primary and secondary stress, but it’s the speaker’s choice of which syllables to make prominent and which to make non-prominent. What we have seen is that spontaneous speech can result in words having soundshapes which are dramatically different from the CF. 2) Pronunciation for English as a Lingua Franca (Jennifer Jenkins) “English as a Lingua Franca” (ELF) or “English as an International Language” (EIL) is a means of intercultural communication among speakers who come from different first languages. The majority of the world’s English speakers are non-native (up to two billion). To communicate successfully in ELF settings, people use linguistic forms which are often different from “standard British”. For example, ELF users, even if they know the grammar rule, generally prefer not to put an -s on the 3rd person singular in the present tense. They also tend to regularize uncountable nouns according to the principles of pluralization. However the most widespread impact of ELF has been in the field of pronunciation. Research conducted has revealed three interesting findings: 1. Certain pronunciation features of Received Pronunciation (RP) and General American (GA) seem to be necessary to make a speech intelligible. These features are referred to as the “Lingua Franca Core”. 1 They consist in: a) the distinction between short and long vowel and b) the placement of the strongest syllable stress in a sentence on the most important syllable for the speaker’s meaning. 2. Many other features that ELF speakers use instead of native English features that don’t cause intelligibility problems. These can be considered “Non-Core” and they are: • The consonant sounds /θ/ and /ð/ substitute with /t/ and /d/ • Not using elisions, assimilations and weak forms • 0 28 CNot understanding the difference between /æ/ and / / such as in ‘cat’ and ‘cut’ • Using a syllable-timed pronunciation instead of the stress-timed one 3. Accommodation is a key ELF pronunciation skill. It refers to the speaker’s ability to adjust speed, pronunciation etc. to make it more like that of their addressee. ELF speakers need to become familiar with a range of non-native English accents rather than just a range of native English accents. However ELF pronunciation goals are not intended as a replacement for RP and GA, but to complement them. 3) The Daniel Jones legacy (Jack Windsor Lewis) The “English Pronouncing Dictionary” (EPD), published by Daniel Jones in 1917, was a landmark in the history of the teaching and learning of English. He wrote many authoritative books on phonetics, such as his “Outline of English Phonetics” (1918), his most complete work after the EPD. In 1888, the International Phonetic Association had drawn up the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), a set of phonetic symbols, which Jones used in the EPD. The association was founded by a group of European (non-native) teachers of English. They used phonetic transcriptions while teaching English pronunciation. A.C. Gimson was a highly esteemed colleague of his, and he took over from Daniel Jones as the editor of the 13th edition of the EPD in 1967. The 1st edition contained 50,000 words, not counting variant forms, plurals and inflections. When Jones compiled the EPD, his reference points were friends and colleagues and a few gramophone recordings (there was no television or radio Marconi invented the wireless telegraph in 1895, but voice over the air came in 1920 and film soundtracks became common in the mid 1920s). The “Oxford English Dictionary” - the biggest dictionary ever compiled in English - was published in instalments. In 1917 it was not yet complete. The OED contained information about pronunciation, but the pronunciation system adopted was complicated and not up to date, since pronunciation changes over time. Nowadays the OED acknowledges the EPD as the source of its pronunciation. American Pronunciation was not included in the early versions of the EPD. The model of pronunciation in the EPD was ‘the least regionalized accent in the United Kingdom’. In 1944 an American scholar, John S. Kenyon, who had studied with Daniel Jones, became the senior editor of the first US pronunciation dictionary, the “Pronunciation Dictionary of American English” (PDAE). 2