Practice in Spoken Discourse: Pronunciation and Transcription

Practice in Spoken Discourse: Pronunciation and Transcription​

By KHO CHUNG WEI

In this lecture, you will:

• Listen to and transcribe extracts of spoken discourse

• Record your own pronunciation and identify aspects of connected speech

​

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English Phonetics and Phonology

Let's​ recall what you have learnt!

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Fill in the Blanks

Which symbol do you use to indicate the boundary of a non-pause tone unit?

Fill in the Blanks

Which symbol do you use to indicate the boundary of a pause tone unit (i.e. a sentence break)?

Open Ended

How do you indicate a sentence stress?

Multiple Select

Which of the following are at the peaks of weak syllables?

• ə

• i

• long vowels

• syllabic consonants

• diphthongs

Fill in the Blanks

Transcribe the word "had" in its weak form.

Transcription Guide (From a Written Text)

1. Read the text aloud to yourself a number of times.

2. ​Remember that you are dealing with connected speech and not a string of isolated words.

3. Mark off with | the breaks between tone units (i.e. intonation groups). Use || for sentence breaks. There are usually several different possibilities for division into tone units.

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English Phonetics and Phonology

Fill in the Blanks

Read the following text aloud and mark off the breaks between the tone units:

A most important thing to remember is to clean the filter frequently. This will

ensure that the machine runs efficiently at all times.

Transcription Guide (From a Written Text)

4. Mark the stress syllables as found in connected speech (i.e. sentence stress) and not in isolated words.

   1. Sentence stress most likely falls on a syllable of content words.

   2. Function words (except for demonstratives e.g. this and wh- question words) are unstressed.

5. Transcribe into phonemic symbols.

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Fill in the Blanks

Mark the stress syllables as found in connected speech:

A most important thing to remember | is to clean the filter frequently. || This will ensure | that the machine runs efficiently at all times. ||

Fill in the Blanks

Now, transcribe into phonemic symbols:

A 'most im'portant 'thing to re'member | is to 'clean the 'filter 'frequently. || 'This will en'sure | that the ma'chine 'runs e'fficiently at 'all 'times. ||

Some transcription do's

• Do use weak and contracted forms​ wherever possible.

• ​Do show syllabic consonants with the syllabic mark, e.g. /ˈbɒtl̩/ /ˈrɪtn̩/

• ​Do transcribe numbers or abbreviations in their full spoken form. For abbreviations, stress always falls on the last item, e.g. /siː en ˈen/

• Do include the linking r by transcribing it between words, e.g. /fɑː r ɒf/

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Some transcription don'ts

• Don't use any capital letters and punctuations

• ​Don't include symbols that do not occur in English, e.g. c o q x y

  ​

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Transcribe the following passage:

‘How do you know I’m mad?’ said Alice.

‘You must be,’ said the cat, ‘or you wouldn’t have come here.’

Alice didn’t think that proved it at all. However, she went on, ‘And how do you know that you’re mad?’

‘To begin with,’ said the cat, ‘a dog’s not mad. You grant that?’

‘I suppose so,’ said Alice.

‘Well, then,’ the cat went on, ‘you see a dog growls when it’s angry, and wags its tail

when it’s pleased. Now I growl when I’m pleased, and wag my tail when I’m angry. Therefore I’m mad.’

‘I call it purring, not growling,’ said Alice.

‘Call it what you like,’ said the cat.​

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Audio Response

But before you transcribe, record yourself reading the passage. Can you identify any aspects of connected speech?

‘How do you know I’m mad?’ said Alice.

‘You must be,’ said the cat, ‘or you wouldn’t have come here.’

Alice didn’t think that proved it at all. However, she went on, ‘And how do you know that you’re mad?’

‘To begin with,’ said the cat, ‘a dog’s not mad. You grant that?’

‘I suppose so,’ said Alice.

‘Well, then,’ the cat went on, ‘you see a dog growls when it’s angry, and wags its tail when it’s pleased. Now I growl when I’m pleased, and wag my tail when I’m angry. Therefore I’m mad.’

‘I call it purring, not growling,’ said Alice.

‘Call it what you like,’ said the cat.​

Open Audio Recorder

Transcription Guide (From a Spoken Text)

1. Listen to the text several times.

2. ​Mark the tone unit boundaries.

3. ​Concentrate on one tone unit at a time and mark the stress syllables.

4. ​Transcribe into phonemic symbols.

5. Remember that there is only one interpretation, i.e. transcribe exactly what the speaker has uttered.

6. Show all assimilations and elisions​ you can hear.

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Listen and transcribe the following:

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Now, compare both your transcriptions to the following transcription.

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Poll

How do you feel about this week's lecture?

Open Ended

Q&A / Reflection / Issue

Please ask at least ONE question.

OR Tell us your thoughts on what you have learned this week.

OR State ONE issue/difficulty that you have faced during this week's class.