Building blocks of English
Lecture 1
What is involved?
Speech sounds:
o consonants (e.g. ‘b’, ‘th’) (medeklinker)
o Vowels (bad, good) (klinker)
Stress and intonation: in words and sentences
Model: inner circle English (native English): traditional English speaking countries
o United Kingdom United States, Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand
Speech sounds
Phonemes
“A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that makes a difference in the meaning of a word.”
Rope – robe or Crash – crèche
Not the same in English and other languages -> communication problems
Minimal pairs
“a pair of words, as pin and bin, or bet and bed, differing only by one sound in the same
position in each word, especially when such a pair is taken as evidence for the existence of a
phonemic contrast between the two sounds.”
The speech tract
Where sounds are made. For instance, /p/, /b/, /m/: press lips together
How consonants are made in the speech tract:
Air is obstructed(stopped) in the speech tract at least partly
/p/: completely
/f/: partly
/h/: partly
Three ways of describing consonants:
place of articulation (where it is produced)
manner of articulation (how they are produced)
voice (whether they are voiced)
1. Place of articulation
Where in the mouth the air is obstructed
For instance, for ‘th’: tip of the tongue behind upper front teeth
2. Manner of articulation
The kind of obstruction in the mouth: the way the air is blocked or stopped.
Complete blockage and release: Plosive, e.g. /p/ ‘pan’
Very narrow opening with friction: fricative, e.g. /θ/ ‘thin’ – not complete closure! ‘tin’
Narrowing of opening, but no friction: Approximant, e.g. /r/ ‘rubbish’; /j/ ‘you’
Complete closure followed by very narrow opening with friction = combination of plosive and
fricative: affricate, e.g. /dʒ/ ‘jam’ – not only friction!
Complete closure of mouth, and air escapes through the nose: nasal, e.g. /n/ ‘man’
3. Voice: Whether or not the vocal chords vibrate. Examples:
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,Voiced Voiceless
van fan
prove proof
bin pin
How vowels are made in the speech tract
Air passes through the speech tract relatively freely, relatively unobstructed.
Vocal chords vibrate.
Four ways to describe vowels:
length
single pure sound or combination of sounds (monophtongs or diphthongs)
where in the speech tract they are pronounced (front/back)
How far the tongue is from the roof of the mouth (palate)
1. Length
English vowels have a basic length. Long vowels are longer than short ones. The symbol for long
vowels contains a length mark which is “:”. Example: Bam [ae] – Balm [a:]
2. Monophthongs and diphthongs
Monophthongs: Vowels that consist of one sound. Example: /ɔː/ ‘walk’
Diphthongs: Vowels that start with one vowel and end with another. Example: /əʊ/ ‘woke’.
3. Front/back
Front: Front vowels are pronounced with the front of the tongue raised. Example: Beat, Bet.
Back: With back vowels the back of the tongue is raised. Example: Foot, Core.
4. Open/close
Open: Open vowels are pronounced with the tongue less closely to the roof of the mouth. Example:
Boss, fact.
Close: Close vowels are pronounced with the tongue raised more closely to the roof of the mouth.
Example: Beat, do
Ordinary English spelling: not clear indication of pronunciation
One sound: different spellings
/e/: bet, bread, bury, says, friend, any
Same spelling: different pronunciations
‘ea’
‘clean’: /i:/
‘steak’: /eɪ/
‘cleanse’: /e/
‘hearth’: /ɑː/ (BrE) /ɑːr/ (AmE)
International Phonetic Alphabet
A system where one symbol stands for one sound. Used in learner’s dictionaries, pronunciation
books such as Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
Consonant symbols
Most International Phonetic Alphabet consonant symbols are like ordinary writing. You can
distinguish consonants in two ways: voiceless (or fortis) - voiced (or lenis). When a voiceless
consonant is said the vocal chords are inactive. When a voiced consonant is said the vocal chords are
vibrating.
Vowel symbols
Vowel: medeklinker
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, Most IPA vowels symbols are different from ordinary writing.
Two categories: monophthongs and diphthongs
Vowel symbols: monophthongs
Monophthongs: Vowels that consist of one sound.
Note: length mark ‘:’ for
long vowels
/i:/ ‘sheep’
/u:/ shoot
/ɜ:/ ‘bird’
/ɔː/ ‘door’
/ɑː/ ‘far’
Vowel symbols: Diphthongs
Diphthongs: Vowels that start with one vowel and end with another. Diphthongs have two symbols
in their transcription. The most common diphthongs are: [aɪ]. [aʊ]. [ɔɪ]. [eɪ]. [oʊ].
eɪ say /seɪ/
əʊ go /ɡəʊ/
aɪ my /maɪ/
ɔɪ boy /bɔɪ/
aʊ now /naʊ/
ɪə near /nɪə(r)/ (British English)
eə hair /heə(r)/ (British English)
ʊə pure /pjʊə(r)/ (British English)
British English vs American English:
o British /ɪə/ - American /ɪr/ ‘near’
o British /eə/ - American /er/ ‘hair’
o British /ʊə/ - American /ʊr/ ‘pure
o Different sound in ‘go’ British /əʊ/ - American /oʊ/: begins more back in the mouth
Lecture 2
Here is a model of how first- and second-language
words are stored in the mind. Someone’s first language
is the first language they learn and the one they use
most. First language is abbreviated as L1. Someone’s
second language is any language they learn after their
first language and the language they use less. Second
language is abbreviated as L2.
The model in the picture shows that you know more L1
words than L2 words. There is a bigger box with L1
words than with L2 words. The picture also shows that
you know L1 words better than L2 words. The arrows
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, which link L1 words to concepts (meanings) are thicker than the arrows that link L2 words to
concepts, underlying meanings.
L1 words are easier than L2 words, and some L2 words are easier than other L2 words. ”House” is
easier than “collocation”. Why is that? The explanation has to do with the frequency with which you
use and encounter words. The more frequently you use and encounter words, the easier they are.
False friends:
”a word in a foreign language that looks similar to a word in your own language, but has a different
meaning”(Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary)
Actual (English) = “real”
actual (Spanish), actueel (Dutch), aktuell (German) = “current”.
More Dutch examples:
Raar (strange), Rare (zeldzaam)
Mening (opinion), meaning (betekenis)
The meaning of a word must be deduced from the context in which it is used.
What’s jam? It depends … In strawberry ‘jam, “jam” is
“a thick sweet substance made by boiling fruit with sugar, often sold in jars and spread on bread”.
But … in It caused a jam in the printer
Jam is a “situation in which a machine does not work because something is stuck in one position”.
In order to find out what a word means, you must therefore look at the other words around it. For
linguists, there is a famous quotation which captures this idea: “you shall know a word by the
company it keeps”.
Links to other words
Collocations:
“a combination of words in a language that happens very often and more frequently than would
happen by chance”
a resounding victory, heavy smoker, light rain, weak argument (adjective-noun collocation)
Commit a crime, make a mistake, pass an exam (verb-noun collocation)
Have faith in, keep an eye on, run the risk of, take pleasure in (verb-noun-preposition collocation)
Not necessarily similar in other languages
Dependent prepositions:
A kind of collocation. Certain words are followed by certain prepositions.
Preposition (voorzetsel) that follows
A particular verb (werkwoord)
She congratulated me warmly … my exam results – ON
A particular noun (zelfstandig naamwoord)
I wanted to express my admiration … the way the crew handled the crisis - FOR
A particular adjective (bijvoeglijk naamwoord)
He’s proud … his son - OF
Phrasal verbs:
combinations of verbs and particles (adverbs, prepositions):
Combination of verb + preposition (preposition followed by object)
Take after: Your daughter doesn't take after you at all
= to look or behave like an older member of your family, especially your mother or father
Combination of verb + adverb (bijwoord) (adverb before or after object OR no object at all)
Put up: We can put you up for the night.
= to let somebody stay at your home
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