{"id":1544,"date":"2022-09-28T01:06:54","date_gmt":"2022-09-28T00:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jesusromerotrillo.es\/?page_id=1544"},"modified":"2024-06-22T18:11:33","modified_gmt":"2024-06-22T17:11:33","slug":"pragmatics-prosody","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.jesusromerotrillo.es\/?page_id=1544","title":{"rendered":"Teaching English Prosodic Pragmatics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Teaching English Prosodic Pragmatics (TEPP)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Research project funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain
PID2019-105678RB-C22<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Teaching English Prosodic Pragmatics (TEPP) presents the basic concepts of English prosody (stress, rhythm and intonation). You can also learn the relationship between prosody and pragmatics (meaning in context) with audio examples to achieve effective communication in real situations. With our app you can share your recordings with our research team for evaluation.<\/strong> <\/h6>\n\n\n\n
For a better sound quality, please use headphones and a microphone<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

ENGLISH STRESS AND RYTHM<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/strong>part A<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Rhythm is the perception of stressing certain words with certain regularity in a sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The picture below indicates the main patterns across languages. English is a stress-timed<\/strong> language in which the stress occurs at regular intervals -represented with the adults. Other languages like Spanish, French or Italian work on a different principle (syllable-timed<\/strong>). These languages give the impression of giving the same length to each word (represented by the soldiers), regardless of whether the word is lexical or grammatical. Here each syllable (word) appears to have approximately equal time value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Example 1: Pronuncia<\/strong>tion is impor<\/strong>tant<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In English you need to  emphasise words such as nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and main verbs. Also, you shouldn\u00b4t emphasise words such determiners (e.g. \u201cthe\u201d, \u201can\u201d), conjunctions (e.g. \u201cand\u201d, \u201cbut\u201d), pronouns (e.g. \u201cshe\u201d, \u201cthem\u201d), prepositions (e.g.  \u201cat\u201d, \u201cfrom\u201d), auxiliary verbs (e.g. \u201cdo\u201d, \u201cbe\u201d, \u201ccan\u201d). You do this by compressing or reducing the pronunciation of these grammatical words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Other examples (stressed syllables are in bold):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Example 2: I love<\/strong> my cat<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Example 3: The house<\/strong> was full<\/strong> of children<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

part B<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

In English, the words that are more likely to receive stress or emphasis are lexical words such as nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and main verbs. These words carry the main meaning in a sentence. The unstressed or compressed words carry relatively little information and are called grammatical words: determiners (e.g. \u201cthe\u201d, \u201can\u201d), conjunctions (e.g. \u201cand\u201d, \u201cbut\u201d), pronouns (e.g. \u201cshe\u201d, \u201cthem\u201d), prepositions (e.g. \u201cat\u201d, \u201cfrom\u201d), auxiliary verbs (e.g. \u201cdo\u201d, \u201cbe\u201d, \u201ccan\u201d). You do this by compressing or reducing the pronunciation of these grammatical words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This difference in the distribution of stresses makes each language unique in how they sound and this is because of the rhythmic patterns that you have just learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Say phrase a, b, c and d. aloud and slowly, with emphasis on the words in bold in all the lines. They should all last the same time so, reduce the time of the words that are not in bold. You can clap at regular intervals matching the words in bold with your clap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a. one<\/strong><\/td> <\/td>two<\/strong><\/td> <\/td>three<\/strong><\/td> <\/td>four<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
b. one<\/strong><\/td>and<\/td>two<\/strong><\/td>and<\/td>three<\/strong><\/td>and<\/td>four<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
c. one<\/strong><\/td>and a<\/td>two<\/strong><\/td>and a<\/td>three<\/strong><\/td>and a<\/td>four<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
d. one<\/strong><\/td>and then a<\/td>two<\/strong><\/td>and then a<\/td>three<\/strong><\/td>and then a<\/td>four<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You may have realized that the 4 sentences occupy approximately the same amount of time and that the underlined words are pronounced at regular intervals. To maintain this regularity, you need to \u2018squash\u2019 (saying faster and reducing) the grammatical words \u201cand\u201d, \u201cthen\u201d, \u201ca\u201d. For example, \u201cand\u201d and \u201ca\u201d together sound like \u201cana\u201d since \/d\/ in \u201cand\u201d tends to be elided (not pronounced) and also \/n\/ \u201can\u201d is linked to \u201ca\u201d. This combination of stressing and unstressing words makes English rhythm possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can now practise with a metronome at a speed of 60 bpm (beats per minute)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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