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Actual Division of the Word.The Distributional Analysis.Alongside of the grammatical division of the sentence into parts naming the basic elements (i.e. the Subject, the Predicate, the Object, the Attribute, the Adverbial Modifier) there exists the so-called Actual Division of the Sentence. It has been recently put forward in theoretical linguistics. The purpose of the ADS is to reveal the significance of the sentence parts from the point of view of their actual informative role in an utterance. In other words, the ADS characterizes the parts of the sentence from the point of view the semantic contribution they make to the total information conveyed by the sentence. The ADS exposes its informative perspective. The main components of the ADS are: the theme and the rheme. The theme expresses the starting point of communication, i.e. it denotes an object about which smth is reported. The rheme expresses the central informative part of the communication, i.e. the communication center of the sentence. The theme may or may not coincide with the subject-group of the sentence. The rheme may or may not coincide with the predicate group of the sentence. Ex.:They bicycled together last summer. The elm trees were just beginning to turn green. The following sentences in which the correlation between the nominative and ADS is reverse. Ex.:Down the frozen river came a sledge drawn by dogs. There was a parking area in the middle of the big square. The ADS is fully expressed only in a concrete context of speech. That why it is sometimes referred to as the contextual division of the S. Ex.: Driffield accompanied Mrs. Traffold to the door. Taken in isolation, presents an example of the so-called direct ADS: its subject coincides with the theme, and its predicate - with the rheme. If put into a certain context the sentence may change its direct ADS into the inverted one: the subject expresses the rheme, and the predicate - the theme: Ex.:Is it true that Gasper Gibbons accompanied her to the door? - Nothing of the kind: Driffield accompanied Mrs. Traffold to the door, not Gibbons. The identification of the rheme is the main problem since any utterance is produced for the sake of conveying to the listener the meaningful content expressed by the rheme. The formal means of expressing the distinction between the theme and the rheme are represented by the following structural elements of language: (a) Special word order (inversion) Ex.:On the right was a small public park with a fountain. (b) Special intonation contours (rhematic accent). Ex.:Go in. I'll tell Ted, you are here. (c) Constructions with introducers Ex.:It was Bosinney, who first noticed her. There was no real misunderstanding between Eric and Haviland. (d) Syntactic patterns of contrastive complexes Ex.:Providing information, not thinking is what computers are capable for. (e) Constructions with articles and other determiners Ex.The boy took us to the physics classroom. vsA boy took us to the physics classroom. This map will do. vsAny map will do. (f) Constructions with intensifying particles, when the context may help us to identify the rheme. Ex.:Marry has planted the flowers. I hope Mother has already planted the flowers. I am sure Mary has already planted the flowers. 3.a)What does teaching pronunciation involve? The concept of 'pronunciation' may be said to include: - the sounds of the language, or phonology - stress and rhythm - intonation. The first of these is perhaps the most obvious and clearly defined of the three. However, this does not mean that the other aspects should be neglected: a learner may enunciate the sounds perfectly and still sound foreign because of unacceptable stress and intonation; in Oriental 'tone' languages intonation often makes a difference to meaning.
Sounds It is useful to be able to list and define the sounds, or phonemes, of the language by writing them down using phonetic1 representations. Different books vary as to exactly which, and how many, symbols are used; for teachers of (British) English, the simplified, phonemic alphabet shown in dictionaries may be helpful. Note that this is quite difficult to dothe first time - it takes a good deal of practiceand learning to beable to transcribe quickly and accurately. Rhythm and stress.
English speech rhythm is characterized by tone-units: a word or group of words which carries one central stressed syllable (other syllables, if there are any, are lightened). Stress can also be indicated in writing: probably the simplest way to do so is to write the stressed syllable in capital letters, another convention, normally used in phonemic transcriptions, is to put a short vertical line above and before the stressed syllable.
Intonation Intonation, the rises and falls in tone that make the 'tune' of an utterance, is an important aspect of the pronunciation of English, often making a difference to meaning or implication. A native speaker usually has little difficulty in hearing intonation changes in his or her own language; others, however, may not find it so easy. The different kinds of intonation are most simply shown by the symbols ∕over the relevant syllable or word in order to show falling and rising intonations.The rhythm of English is, then, mainly a function. Flow of speech It is important also to be aware of the way different sounds, stresses and intonations may affect one another within the flow of speech. For example: - The way a sound is articulated is influenced by what other sounds are next to - Intonation affects how we hear stress. - A change in the stress pattern of a word will change its sounds as well. Thus, it is useful to be aware of the way sounds, stresses and intonations interact within entire utterances to produce easily comprehensible pronunciation. Having said this, however, it is true that many, perhaps most, words have a 'stable' sound, stress and intonation pattern that can be confidently taught in isolation. Unit two: Improving learners pronunciation The objective It needs to be said at the outset that the aim of pronunciation improvement is not to achieve a perfect imitation of a native accent, but simply to get the learner to pronounce accurately enough to be easily and comfortably comprehensible to other (competent) speakers. Why do learners make pronunciation errors? Learners' errors of pronunciation derive from various sources: 1. A particular sound may not exist in the mother tongue, so that the learner is not used to forming it and therefore tends to substitute the nearest equivalent he or she knows (the substitution of /d/ or /z/ for the English th /d/ as in that is a typical example). 2. A sound does exist in the mother tongue, but not as a separate phoneme: that 3. The learners have the actual sounds right, but have not learnt the stress Date: 2015-12-24; view: 2170
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