English Phonetic CourseAssimilation & Elision Lesson Plan Teacher: Level: Freshmen Date: Lesson length: 80mn Main aims of the lesson: To enhance students’ understanding of features of rapid and casual speech. Contents of the lesson Purposes To help students understand the ways in which sounds can affect or modify each other when they meet. To raise students’ awareness of the direction of the sound changes, Assimilation i.e. progressive vs. regressive assimilation. To familiarize students with assimilation of voicing, of place of articulation, of manner of articulation, of coalescence of place and manner of articulation. To help students understand how phonemes can disappear and Elision observe some rules of elision. To acquire natural and fluent speech through specially designed Work on assimilation & practice. elision Activities and Procedures 1. To raise students’ awareness that assimilation and elision are the typical features of rapid speech, during which several articulators are involved and are not capable of moving instantaneously. 2. To explain the rules of assimilation and elision to students before attempting to put them into practice. 3. Design some activities for focusing on assimilation and elision. 4. Ask the students to listen to the tapes and imitate the connected speech in focus. 5. Have the students listen to the conversations and attempt to gain a natural transition of two adjacent sounds. 6. Have the students practise the guided conversation. Ask them to pay special attention to assimilation and elision in connected speech. 7. Comment on the students’ performance by highlighting the achievement of the students and the efforts they need for the improvement. 8. Ask the students to do more practice after class and get ready for presentation during the next session. 1 PDF 文件使用 "pdfFactory Pro" 试用版本创建 www.fineprint.com.cn certain sounds are uttered together and thus it actually describes the cause of assimilation. manner of articulation. Phoneme1 Phoneme 2 progressive regressive Regressive assimilation: the sounds assimilated are influenced by the succeeding sounds /nju:z/ (news) → /nju:speipə/ (newspaper) /gu:s/ (goose) → /gu:zbəri/ (gooseberry) /faiv/ (five) → /faifpəns/ (five pence) /hæv/ (have) → /hæf tu/ (have to) /ju:zd/ (used) → /ju:st tu/ (used to) Regressive assimilation can also be found in some words like: describe → description receive → reception.com.1 Direction of change If a phoneme is affected by one than comes later in the sentence. In rapid and casual speech. though the latter term strictly refers to the fact that. the assimilation is termed progressive. receipt twelve → twelfth five → fifth. If a phoneme is affected by one that came earlier in the utterance. Assimilation Assimilation is concerned with one sound becoming phonetically similar to an adjacent sound.fineprint. when pronounced. When a word’s pronunciation is affected by sounds in a neighbouring word. Sounds that belong to one word can cause changes in sounds belonging to other words. 1999: 7). 1. Much recent phonetic research in this area refers to coarticulation (Hardcastle & Hewlett. place of articulation (Roach. the assimilation is termed regressive.Teaching Notes 1. Depending on the type of feature that spreads from one segment to another we can observe several major types of assimilation such as assimilative processes involving voicing. fifty 2 PDF 文件使用 "pdfFactory Pro" 试用版本创建 www. fifteen. we call this process assimilation. 2000: 139) and coalescence of place and manner of articulation (Collins & Mees 2003: 106). the assimilated form is more typical of connected speech.cn . In a certain environment we can consequently observe the voicing or devoicing of a segment. She plays /-z/ learned /-d/. laughed /-t/ Voiced girls /-z/. For example: Plural: Possessive: 3rd person singular: Past tense and past participle: Voiceless students /-s/. 2001: 284). 1. A well-known case is that of English word-final alveolar consonants such as /t. 2001: 285) /ðat ̪ θɪŋ/ get those → /gɛt ̪ ðəʊz/ (Roach. they become voiced. 3 PDF 文件使用 "pdfFactory Pro" 试用版本创建 www. 2001: 285) /tem pleɪəz/ ten cups → /teŋ kʌps/ (Cruttenden. books /-s/ students’ books /-s/ He writes /-s/. pictures /-z/ girls’ pictures /-z/ She reads /-z/.3 Assimilation of place of articulation The most common phonemic changes at word boundaries concern changes of place of articulation. a velar or a dental. If preceded by a voiced sound.Progressive assimilation: the sounds assimilated are affected by the pronunciation of the preceding sounds. “The reason why initial consonants are so rarely obviously changed by assimilatory processes is that syllable initial consonants play a much more important part in identifying a word than do syllable final consonants. word boundary final voiceless consonants in English do not show tendencies to assimilate to their voiced counterparts. 2000: 139) (Cruttenden. the word-final alveolar consonant is likely to change its place of articulation to match that at the beginning of the second word.” (Brown 1990: 65). However. If we examine the pronunciation of the voiced labiodental fricative in the sequence give books /gɪv bʊks/. This is often sen in the inflectional endings -s and –ed. played /-d/ 1.cn . or it may be followed by ‘girl’ and become /ðak/. they become voiceless. particularly involving de-alveolarization. thus the pronunciation of nice boy /naɪz bɔɪ/ will sound foreign to English ears (Cruttenden.com. 2001: 285) Such changes are based on roughly homorganic mouth articulations. namely: that boy → good pen → ten players → that thing → /ðap bɔɪ/ that girl → /ðak gɜːl/ /gʊb pen/ good concert → /gʊg kɒnsət/ (Cruttenden. in the second it is rather pronounced as some kind of /f/.fineprint. d. They always occur in the least obvious part of the syllable coda position. Thus the word ‘that’ /ðat/ may be followed by ‘boy’ /bɔɪ/ and become /ðap/. He speaks /-s/ worked /-t/. if preceded by a voiceless one.2 Assimilation of voicing This may refer to assimilation involving the feature [+/. and we compare it with the sequence give peace /gɪf piːs/ we will easily notice that while in the first case /v/ is fully voiced. n/: if a word ending in one of these consonants is followed by a word whose initial consonant begins with a bilabial.voice]. → impolite. n/). /n/ → /m/ after /p.→ illegal ir. urban /hæpm.(before /r/). Any sequence of two words where the first ends with /s. An example can be a rapid pronunciation of “Get some of that soup”. Thus this shoe /ðɪs ʃuː/ becomes /ðɪʃ ʃuː/. bacon as /sekŋ tʃɑːns. d/ merge with word-initial palatal approximant /j/ in a process of reciprocal assimilation of place and manner. that /s/ becomes /ʃ/. m/). beɪkŋ/ (Cruttenden. (Roach. 2000: 140).(before /t. 1. It may occur when a plosive is followed by a syllabic nasal and the nasal undergoes assimilation to the same place of articulation as the preceding plosive.g. about halfway between alveolar and palatal. z/ and the second begins with /ʃ/ or /j/. and /z/ becomes /ʒ/. the plosives /t. such as in.4 Assimilation of manner of articulation Assimilation of manner is typical of the most rapid and casual speech. The resulting single articulation is postalveolar. insane.→ irregular 1. im(before /p. ɔːgŋ. and /n/ → /ŋ/ after /k. b. imbalance. im. e. ‘good night’ /gʊn naɪt/). those years /ðəʊz jɪəz/ becomes /ðəʊʒ jɪəz/. 2001: 286): /t/ + /j/ /ʧ/ → What you want /wɒtʃuː wɒnt/ /d/ + /j/ → /ʤ/ Would you? /wʊdʒuː/ /s/ + /j/ → /ʃ/ /z/ + /j/ → /ʒ/ In case you need it /ɪŋ keɪʃuː niːd ɪt/ Has your letter come? /hæʒɔː letə kʌm/ 4 PDF 文件使用 "pdfFactory Pro" 试用版本创建 www. in which case one sound changes the manner of its articulation to become similar in manner to a neighbouring sound. Progressive assimilation is relatively uncommon. where instead of the expected /gɛt sʌm əv ðat suːp/ an English speaker says /gɛs sʌm v ðas suːp/.→ indirect.fineprint. b/. ir.e. d.(before /l/). z/ into postalveolar fricatives.com. Coalescence of place and manner of articulation Assimilation of different types may occur simultaneously: e. and the fricatives /s.5.cn . i. il. ɜːbm/. s. Foe example: in. but most unlikely that a final fricative or nasal would become a plosive (Roach. 2000: 140) Assimilation of place is noticeable in the regressive assimilation of alveolar consonants.Another change of place of articulation involves the change of alveolar fricatives /s.g. with /s/ replacing /t/ in two words. It is thus possible to find cases where a final plosive becomes a fricative or nasal (e. happen. z/ have similar reciprocal assimilation with /j/. g/ in second chance. organ. and so represents a ‘compromise’. immoral (不道德的) il. 2001: 286) Regressive assimilation is commonly seen in some prefixes. ” (Heselwood 2005) Examples can be found as follows (Cruttenden.g. not yet becomes /nɒtʃ jɛt/. An easy process to observe is the position of the lips. although it can be referred to as ‘incomplete coalescence’. d/ + /j/ (especially in question tags.g. and between /p/ and /f/ We bought a lovely carved statuette. I think we should call the police. In a vowel such as English /iː/ (as in see). the coalescence into /ʃ. (// can disappear) 5 PDF 文件使用 "pdfFactory Pro" 试用版本创建 www. (/t/ elided between // and /p/.cn . Where this happens it is really a case of assimilation rather than coalescence. She acts like she owns the place! (/kts/ can be simplified to /ks/) Teachers use authentic texts to teach from. these young people becomes /ðiːʒ jʌŋ piːpl/. (// can disappear in the first syllable of police) I’ll love you forever.com. could you? etc. (/t/ elided between /ks/ and /d/) When we reached Paris. the lips are rounded and pushed forward.2 Complex consonant clusters are simplified.g. In a vowel such as English /uː/ (as in two). Elision The term elision describes the disappearance of a sound. Some rules for elision 2. Much of the earlier writing on assimilation has suggested that assimilatory changes generally involve a change from one phoneme to another. e. Again here. We arrived the next day. and it does seem to explain phonetic features of assimilation in a very simple way. miss York becomes /mɪʃ jɔːk/. we stopped for lunch.). and that they are not capable of moving instantaneously. won’t you?. for example. Well. The explanation seems to assume that speakers are basically lazy. (/d/ elided between /v/ and /st/) 2. as for a smile. the lips are spread. and in some instances the difficulty of putting certain consonant sounds together while maintaining a regular rhythm and speed.The coalescence is more complete in the case of /t. 2001: 282).1 The most common elisions in English are /t/ and /d/. Since lip-position is not a distinctive feature opposing any two phonemes in English. in the case of /s. perhaps.3 // can disappear in unstressed syllalbes. e. and do as little work as possible – this is sometimes called the “principle of least effort” (Zipf 1949). z/ + /j/. red yacht becomes /rɛdʒ jɒt/. in the utterance He leaves next week speakers would generally elide (leave out) the /t/ in next saying /neks wi:k/. 2. promise.g.” (Heselwood 2005) One reason for the assimilatory processes is that several articulators are involved in making a speech sound. “Sometimes the coalescence is not complete and there is a /j/ after the postalveolar consonant. (/teksts/ can be simplified to /teks/) George the Sixth’s throne (/sks r/ simplified to /sks r/ 2.fineprint. For example. However. when they appear within a consonant cluster. e. miss you /mɪʃʃu/. that boy is expressed as showing a change from /t/ to /p/. the reason is an economy of effort. Another explanation for assimilation is based on the articulatory one. ʒ/ may be marked by extra length of friction. this does not mean that all assimilations involve phonemic change of this sort. the difference between rounded and non-rounded /t/ is not phonemic (Cruttenden. (// can disappear) Are you coming out tonight? (// can disappear) That’s an interesting idea. reducing the number of syllables in the word) Have we got any vegetables? (// is not pronounced by most speakers. Shut your eyes. Has your letter come? Does your brother like swimming? Who are these young men? May God bless you. before consonants. There are ten girls in our class.com. you can go now. Open the window. Yes. This shape is wonderful. don’t you? I can’t go. First find out what kind of assimilation each phrase or sentence belongs to and then read them aloud. Let’s try to finish it this year.fineprint. Please shut the gate Please show me the way. Beg your pardon.2 You like it. He is making a false show. I don’t care what others may say. 7. reducing the number of syllables in the word) 2.cn . Practice Work in pairs.1 would you / could you / did you / this year / miss you / space ship / question / immediate / associate / education / newspaper / in ten minutes / handkerchief / breadth / absorption (absorb) / fifth / measure / of course / won’t you / student / presume / commercial / leisure / special / appreciative / virtue / mutual / congratulate / literature / sociology / punctual / Christianity / in case you need it / in good condition 7. (// is not pronounced by many speakers. It’s a complete waste of time! That’s the least of my worries! 4.It’s a question of collective responsibility.4 /v/ can disappear in of. My birthday’s on the 11th of November. I should take it if I were you. 6 PDF 文件使用 "pdfFactory Pro" 试用版本创建 www. Haven’t you finished yet? I thought you would come. I should have thought so. We miss you very much. ” She said again.Could you tell me the way to the post office? Would you mind if I open the window? We’ve been waiting for you for ten minutes. you see. Give me a book.” Why don’t you see if any of his clothes fit you? You can bring them back tomorrow. he’ll soon be here. Here he was. “I’m sorry. “I didn’t hear you.cn . Don’t be disappointed. 7 PDF 文件使用 "pdfFactory Pro" 试用版本创建 www. Did you knock? I’m deaf. I used to play volleyball when I was young. He returned the books with thanks.fineprint.com. a stranger in her house and yet she said she was sorry. Coke could hardly believe his ears.