Publisher Description

The Pronunciation of English: A Course Book is an introduction to the phonetics and phonology of English. It incorporates all central aspects of research in the phonology of English and involves the reader at every step, with over 80 exercises leading students to discover facts, to formulate general statements, and to apply concepts. This revised second edition provides a brief history of the English language, highlighting the main native-speaker varieties that exist today. In succession, it deals with the nature of speech and phonetic description, the principles of phonological analysis, the consonants and vowels of English, and their possible sequences. It provides an extensive treatment of rhythm, stress, and intonation and the role of these prosodic elements in discourse, as well as coverage of phonological processes that make casual, conversational usage different from formal style. In addition to general updating throughout, this new edition incorporates developments in phonology since the first edition appeared. It also includes a glossary of technical terms and visual aids to assist students with little background in linguistics.

Back Cover

The Pronunciation of English: A Course Book is an introduction to the phonetics and phonology of English. It incorporates all central aspects of research in the phonology of English and involves the reader at every step, with over 80 exercises leading students to discover facts, to formulate general statements, and to apply concepts.

This revised second edition provides a brief history of the English language, highlighting the main native-speaker varieties that exist today. In succession, it deals with the nature of speech and phonetic description, the principles of phonological analysis, the consonants and vowels of English, and their possible sequences. It provides an extensive treatment of rhythm, stress, and intonation and the role of these prosodic elements in discourse, as well as coverage of phonological processes that make casual, conversational usage different from formal style.
In addition to general updating throughout, this new edition incorporates developments in phonology since the first edition appeared. It also includes a glossary of technical terms and visual aids to assist students with little background in linguistics.

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The Pronunciation of English: A Course Book is an introduction to the phonetics and phonology of English. It incorporates all central aspects of research in the phonology of English and involves the reader at every step, with over 80 exercises leading students to discover facts, to formulate general statements, and to apply concepts. This revised second edition provides a brief history of the English language, highlighting the main native-speaker varieties that exist today. In succession, it deals with the nature of speech and phonetic description, the principles of phonological analysis, the consonants and vowels of English, and their possible sequences. It provides an extensive treatment of rhythm, stress, and intonation and the role of these prosodic elements in discourse, as well as coverage of phonological processes that make casual, conversational usage different from formal style. In addition to general updating throughout, this new edition incorporates developments in phonology since the first edition appeared. It also includes a glossary of technical terms and visual aids to assist students with little background in linguistics.

Author Biography

Charles W. Kreidler is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at Georgetown University. His publications include The Dynamics of Language (co-author, 1971), Introducing English Semantics (1998), and Phonology: Critical Concepts (edited, 6 volumes, 2000).

Table of Contents

Preface To The Second Edition. About the Book. 1. Language And Speech. Language Variation. A Very Brief History Of The English Language. Speech And Language. Phonological Analysis. Summary. Notes. 2. Sound And Voice. Hearing. Energy, Vibration, And Medium. The Measurement Of Vibrations. Figure 2.1. Exercise: Sound Waves. Resonance. Air In Motion. The Human Voice. Figure 2.2. The Vocal Cords. Figure 2.3. The Vocal Tract. Kinds Of Speech Sounds. Exercise: Classes Of Sounds And Features. Summary. Addendum: A Note On Redundancy. Exercise: Redundancy Statements. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Notes. 3. Consonants. Preliminary Exercise: Identifying Consonants By Matching. The Feature [Consonantal]. Lip Consonants (Labials). Tongue'Tip Consonants (Apicals). Questions About Features. Tongue'Front Consonants (Laminals). Tongue'Back Consonants (Dorsals). Summary Chart. Questions About Feature Differences. Articulators Or Points Of Articulation?. The Feature [Lateral]. Summary. Practice With Symbols. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Notes. 4. Vowels And Glides. Preliminary Exercise. Dialect Differences. Vowel Features. A General Inventory And Particular Inventories. Phonetic Descriptions. Figure 4.1. Figure 4.2. The Vowel Inventories Of Specific Dialects. The Incidence Of Vowels. Practice With Transcription. The Glides. Practice With Phoneme Classes. Exploring Matters Of Vowel Incidence. Summary. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Notes. 5. Syllables And Stress. Syllables. Syllable Structure. Exploring Syllable Onsets. Feedback And Comment. Exploring Syllable Codas. Feedback And Comment. Strong And Weak Syllables. Exercise On Strong And Weak Syllables. Syllable Division. Suffixes And Stress. Exercise On Stress In Related Words. Compounds And Some Other Words. Exercise On Certain Word Endings. Identifying The Vowels Of Weak Syllables. Exercise And Comment: Final /-I, -U, -O/. Exercise And Comment: /-I-, -U-/ Before Vowels. Exercise And Comment: Contrast Of Schwa And /I/. Syllabic Consonants. Practice With Syllabic Consonants. Summary. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Notes. 6. Phonotactics. Word'Initial Position. Problem: Initial Clusters. Feedback And Discussion. A Note Regarding /J/. Contrast And Variation. Word'Final Position. Questions: Final Clusters. Feedback And Discussion. Clusters Of Three Consonants. Word'Medial Position. Question: Medial Clusters. Practice: Dividing Into Syllables. Borrowed Words. Omission And Insertion Of A Consonant. Limits On Vowel Occurrences. Free Vowels And Checked Vowels. Investigating Some Constraints. Functional Loads. Summary. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Notes. 7. Consonant And Vowel Variation. Variation In Point Of Articulation. Questions About Apical Consonants. Questions About Dorsal Consonants. Questions About Clear And Dark /L/. An Example Of Mutual Assimilation. Variation In Lip Shape. Variation In Nasality. Questions About Nasalized Vowels. Variation In Onset And Release. Exploring Onset And Release Of Stops. Exploring Lateral And Nasal Release. Questions On The Onset Of Sonorant Consonants. Questions On The Onset And Release Of Voiced Obstruents. Experiment With Aspiration. Variation In Length. Question On A Sequence Of Two Consonants. Question On Length In Sonorants. Multiple Variation For /T/. Some Questions Of Perception. Summary. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Notes. 8. Some Consequences Of Phonotactics. Consonant Clusters And Some Grammatical Suffixes. Exploration: Regular Past Tense. Exploration: Regular Plural Number. Question: Possessive. Question: 3rd Person Present. Questions: Reduced 'Is' And 'Has'. Feedback And Discussion. Question: Generative Treatment Of Past Tense Morpheme. Exercise: Final Clusters. Morpheme Variation. Practice: Bases In –CI. Practice: Bases In –Cl. Questions: Bases In –Mn. Differences In Morpheme Division. Summary. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Notes. 9. The Rhythm Of English Speech. Prosody. Tone Units. Practice: Dividing An Utterance Into Tone Units. Stress Timing. Marked Accent: Paradigmatic Focus. Practice: Sentences Accented Differently. Marked Accent: Syntagmatic Focus. Exploration: Placing Accent In A Dialog. Feedback And Discussion. A Note On 'Too' And 'Either'. De'Accenting: Anaphoric Words. Lexical Anaphora. De'Accenting To Embed An Additional Message. Exploration: Differences Of De-Accenting. Practice: Creating Different Dialogs. Accent On Operators. Summary. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. 10. Intonation. Intonation And Perception. The Falling Tunes. The Rising Tunes. Comparisons. Compound Tunes. Practice: Utterances That Differ In Tune. Summary. Additional Practice; Three Dialogs. Feedback. Notes. 11. Predicting Word Stress. Is Stress Predictable?. Stress Rules. Neutral Suffixes. Tonic Endings. The Basic Stress Rule For Verbs. Exercise With Verbs. The Basic Stress Rule For Nouns. Exercise With Nouns. Rules For Adjectives. Exercise With Adjectives. Question. Extending The Basic Stress Rules. Discovery Exercise. Practice. Some Variations In Stress. Questions. What Do You Say?. Mixed Endings. Some 'Special' Endings. Question. Practice. Exercise. Formulate The Rule. Summary. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Notes. 12. Prefixes, Compound Words, And Phrases. Compounds. Practice: Compound Nouns. Practice: Compound Verbs, Nouns, And Adverbs. Practice Trees. Compounds And Phrases. Practice: Compounds And Phrases. What Do You Say?. Compound Verbs. Prefixes. Questions: Stress In Verbs. Exploration: Stress In Related Verbs And Nouns. Greek'Type Compounds. Question. A Rhythm Rule. Summary. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Notes. 13. Phonological Processes In Speech. Full Forms And Reduced Forms. Auxiliaries Or Operators Like Can. Pronouns Like You. Question. Prepositions Like To. Questions. Determiners Like Some. Conjunctions Like And. Miscellaneous. Chart 13. Exploration: Homophones?. More About Phonological Processes. Exploration. Questions. Summary. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Notes. 14. Phonological Processes And The Lexicon. Words And Morphemes That Change. Underlying Forms And Lexical Processes. Checked Vowel Reduction. Palatalization. Practice. Alternation With Zero. Problem. Spirantization. Exercises. Velar Softening. Practice. The Sequence Of Rules. Problem. Change In Voice. Questions. The Vowel Shift Rule. Practice. Free And Checked Vowels. Practice. More About Augments. Exercise. Applications. Practice. Summary. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. Notes. Appendix. A List Of Word'Endings And Their Effects On Stress:. Neutral Suffixes. Tonic Endings. Heavy Endings. Light Endings. Posttonic Suffixes. Some Special Suffixes. Glossary. References. Index.

Review

"A must for the professional teacher of English as a second language and the serious student. This book offers a comprehensive snapshot of all the aspects of English sound patterns and provides a solid grounding in pronunciation." Steven Donahue, Language Magazine and Miami-Dade College

Long Description

The Pronunciation of English is an introduction to the phonetics and phonology of English that incorporates all central aspects of research in the field and involves the readers at every step. Its many integral exercises lead the reader to discover facts, formulate general statements, and apply concepts. The text provides a brief history of the English language, highlighting the main native-speaker varieties that exist today. In succession it deals with the nature of speech and phonetic description, the principles of phonological analysis, the consonants and vowels of English, and their possible sequences. It provides an extensive treatment of rhythm, stress, and intonation, and the role of these prosodic elements in discourse, as well as coverage of phonological processes that make causal, conversational usage different from formal style. In addition to general updating throughout, the new edition incorporates developments in phonology since the first edition appeared, including Optimality Theory. It also includes a glossary of technical terms and more visual aids to assist readers with little background in linguistics.

Review Text

"A must for the professional teacher of English as a second language and the serious student. This book offers a comprehensive snapshot of all the aspects of English sound patterns and provides a solid grounding in pronunciation." Steven Donahue, Language Magazine and Miami-Dade College

Review Quote

A must for the professional teacher of English as a second language and the serious student. This book offers a comprehensive snapshot of all the aspects of English sound patterns and provides a solid grounding in pronunciation." Steven Donahue, Language Magazine and Miami-Dade College

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