Page 234 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Linguistics

Notes measured by counting up the number of times an s symbol occurs above it. The levels in the sentence
shown above can be diagrammed like this (leaving out syllables that have never received stress at
any level):
s
s s s
s s s s
twen ty pla ces fur ther back
The above “metrical grid” may be correct for very slow speech, but we must now look at what happens
to the rhythm in normal speech: many English speakers would feel that, although in ‘twenty places’
the right-hand foot is the stronger, the word ‘twenty’ is stronger than ‘places’ in ‘twenty places further
back’ when spoken in conversational style. It is widely claimed that English speech tends towards a
regular alternation between stronger and weaker, and tends to adjust stress levels to bring this about.
The effect is particularly noticeable in cases such as the following, which all show the effect of what
is called stress-shift:
• compact (adjective) km'p ktc F but compact disk ’kZmp F kt‘ dwsk

+
• thirteen θf+ ti n but thirteenth place ’ θ f+’ti+n θ ’plews
• Westminster west’mwnstc but Westminster Abbey ‘westmwnstcr ‘ F bi
In brief, it seems that stresses are altered according to context: we need to be able to explain how and
why this happens, but this is a difficult question and one for which we have only partial answers.
An additional factor is that in speaking English we vary in how rhythmically we speak: sometimes
we speak very rhythmically (this is typical of some styles of public speaking) while at other times we
may speak arhythmically (i.e. without rhythm) if we are hesitant or nervous. Stress-timed rhythm is
thus perhaps characteristic of one style of speaking, not of English speech as a whole; one always
speaks with some degree of rhythmicality, but the degree varies between a minimum value
(arhythmical) and a maximum value (completely stress-timed rhythm).
It follows from what was stated earlier that in a stress-timed language all the feet are supposed to be
of roughly the same duration. Many foreign learners of English are made to practise speaking English
with a regular rhythm, often with the teacher beating time or clapping hands on the stressed syllables.
It must be pointed out, however, that the evidence for the existence of truly stress-timed rhythm is
not strong. There are many laboratory techniques for measuring time in speech, and measurement of
the time intervals between stressed syllables in connected English speech has not shown the expected
regularity; moreover, using the same measuring techniques on different languages, it has not been
possible to show a clear difference between “stress-timed” and “syllable-timed” languages.
Experiments have shown that we tend to hear speech-as more rhythmical than it actually is, and one
suspects that this is what the proponents of the stress-timed rhythm theory have been led to do in
their auditory analysis of English rhythm. However, one ought to keep an open mind on the subject,
remembering that the large-scale, objective study of suprasegmental aspects of real speech is difficult
to carry out, and much research remains to be done.

Factors such as assimilation and elision are dealt with in an interesting and original
way in Shockey. Assimilation is described in more conventional terms in Cruttenden.
For reading on coarticulation, which studies the influences of sounds on each other
in wider and more complex ways than assimilation.

What, then, is the practical value of the traditional “rhythm exercise” for foreign learners? The
argument about rhythm should not make us forget the very important difference in English between
strong and weak syllables. Some languages do not have such a noticeable difference (which may,

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