content and function words

Universidad Ucinf English Pedagogy

English Phonetics and Phonology: Supra-segmentals, Second Term 2012

Text One:

Identify the lexical units that can be categorized as Function Words in the following text.

As we saw during last semester here at Ucinf, and as you might recall then, you might know that

English is a language in which word stress is highly important and significant for effective

communication. You might also remember that we can make a syllable more prominent than

others by altering or, rather, modifying the speech energy through our vocal tract and by the

direct and indirect actions from our articulators. As we perceive such prominent syllables,

stressed ones are notoriously higher in pitch and usually longer in duration. Reduced syllables,

on the opposite, are often lower in pitch and usually pronounced or uttered very, very quickly. For

example, when uttering the sentence a) "My mom‟s at the store”, the lexical units Mom‟s' and

store will be higher in pitch. Such words will then receive more prominence, and therefore, be

stressed in this utterance (a). In the same example, then, the lexical units 'at' and 'the' are

sounded very quickly: at the, at the, and they're also lower in pitch: “My mom‟s at the store”

A relevant and important question then arises from here on: How do we know which lexical units

within a sentence should receive more prominence and, therefore, be stressed? Lexical units that

are usually stressed in a sentence are called content words. Words that are not usually stressed,

sometimes reduced, are called function words.

A noun can be a person, place, or thing. For example, Rachel, sister, glass, phone, beach,

school. In the instance given earlier (a), "My mom‟s at the store”, both Mom and store are

classified as nouns. A verb is the part of speech that communicates the principal action in one

idea (usually depicted within a single sentence). Such actions can be drive, eat, say, think, etc. In

the sentence (b) "He went to the bank," went is the part of speech communicating the main

action, so it is the verb, and when uttering this sentence or even hearing it, then it will be rather

noticeable that such lexical unit is more prominent than other syllables: It is higher in pitch.

Continuing with the same example, the lexical unit store is also higher in pitch, therefore, it is a

prominent syllable. It is a noun, which is also a content word.

An adverb is a lexical unit that describes the performance of a particular action, so it modifies it.

Adverbs often, though not always, morphologically end in -lee. Examples of such parts of speech

can be quietly, quickly, often, usually. In the following sentence (c) "I'll be here soon", 'soon' is the

adverb. It is stressed, higher in pitch.

An adjective is a lexical unit that denotes and describes another lexical unit - a noun. For

example: boring, smart, funny. In the following utterance (d) "They took the blue car," red is the

adjective. It is stressed, higher in pitch.

So these are the four principal categories of content words.



Text Two:


Now let‟s look at the following example,

(e) Sometimes it's hard to walk in a single woman's shoes.

Which words did you hear as being stressed, higher in pitch?

If you can read this sentence in normal circumstances and aloud you might be able to identify that

there are three lexical units which are uttered more prominently than other syllables. Such words

can be: hard, single, and shoes.

From a content word perspective, and considering the parts of speech, we can say that they

correspond to two adjectives and one noun. Now, those were not the only content words in the

sentence. 'Sometimes' is an adverb, that's a content word.

But 'hard' was stressed at a higher level. Walk is a verb, again a content word, but it wasn't

brought out as high as the other ones. The word 'to' was reduced so it corresponded to a weak

realization of such word.

In the part where “In a” is located, such words were also reduced. Then, during the realization of

“single woman's shoes”, the word woman, again, is a noun, but it wasn't stressed as much as

'single' or 'shoes'.

So you can see, or rather hear, in this sentence, all of the stressed words were content words,

but not every one of the content words was stressed.

Do the same analysis with the following example:

(f) “Bob and I finally received our wedding give from Michael”



Text Three:


From text two, in the example (f) “Bob and I finally received our wedding give from Michael”, the

analysis should be something closer to the following explanation. Were you closer or farther

away?

Bob and I, Bob is stressed more than 'and I'.

'Finally' is given the most stress here. It's an adverb.

Received is a verb, but it's not as high as 'finally'. The stress is on 'finally', as if they've been

waiting for it.

In: “Our wedding gift”, wedding gift being a noun, from Michael, Michael also being a noun.

These content words are just to give you an idea of what might be stressed in a sentence. There

are always exceptions, for example, in the following sentence: (g) Now let the world come to you.

The word 'you' was stressed in this sentence.

You is a pronoun, which is a function word, not a content word. So it is normally not stressed in a

sentence, but they did stress it here for emphasis. And you will find that sometimes words that

are not content words are stressed within a sentence usually do draw attention and emphasis to

that idea.

Adapted from: http://rachelsenglish.com/intro_content_words

http://rachelsenglish.com/intro_content_words



Class on August 23rd, 2012

Do they hate each other?

I saw somebody at the window.

There was a ring from her boyfriend.

There should be some more in the fridge.

We were going to visit her friends.

She doesn't look as old as me.

When do you get the results of your tests?

I was at home from eight o'clock.

This class gets completely boring sometimes.

It’s rather natural for children to love nature.

Certain types of plants are typically grown indoors.

Her hair was a real mess.

Do you know what the word “ward” means?

The dress she wore wasn’t worth much.

Those sandwiches looked and smelled pretty delicious.

They cut fiscal expenditures for physical education.

The mystery had been resolved pretty mysteriously.

Eber doesn’t eber eberly.

Big black dogs chase small white cats.

She’d love to look at the moon and stars at nights.

You should’ve talked to her.

If I had known you were coming to the party, I would’ve met you at the bus stop.

Well...you always argue about everything I’m trying to say.

One boy got into trouble about smoking.

You should’ve expressed your ideas in other words.

He removed his clothes from the washing machine and put them away.

Speech is a process that involves several stages.

Speech is not only mental activity but also a muscular activity.

When learning a sport such as tennis, you need to learn how to make your muscles do what you want them to do and you need to practice to get those muscles to perform regularly.

The rhythm of the English language in speech involves the alternation of strong or stressed syllables and weak or unstressed ones, in which the strong ones are uttered longer, clearer and sometimes in higher pitch.



Weak Forms of Function Words.

As we‟ve been talking about so far, your own repertoire of lexical units can be formally classified

according to two major groups of lexical units: Content and Function words. Generally, it is the

content word which carries the most prominent aspect within a single idea, embedded within a

particular grammatical configuration. In such communicative situations, it is rather general to have

Function words receive no prominence at all, thus influencing the way such lexical units are

uttered or pronounced. Such function words are pronounced then in their contracted, or weak,

forms. Some of the weak forms can be seen in the following chart. As usual with these kinds of

exercises, you‟re supposed to read out the sentences out loud in order to practice your

pronunciation and fluency as well.

Function Word Type Examples

Personal pronouns She saw me.

Possessive determiners He‟s my brother

Each other, one another They were hitting each other.

Articles It‟s an email.

Determiners some & any Do you want some? / Have you got any?

Indefinite pronouns when being the object of verbal phrase.

I didn‟t see anyone

There + be, used as an introductory phrase

There‟s some cake left.

Auxiliary verbs & Modal verbs He was late. I can hear it.

Prepositions They‟re from Spain.

Conjunctions He‟s older than me.

What comes now is a series of mini-dialogues illustrating some common communicative

situations. Again, identify content and function words and practice your fluency and general

pronunciation by reading the sentences out loud as many times as necessary. I strongly

recommend you to do such activities together with another person; in that way one can produce

the sentences while the other listens attentively and then you can swop roles. Eventhough such

mini-dialogues are directed towards specific sections within class, the more you practice the more

chances you get for improving your fluency and general pronunciation.

As Underhill (1994)1 suggested weak forms are intimately related to the velocity of our speech.

The faster your speech is, the more weak forms. And therefore, effective use of weak forms will

provide naturalness, clarity and will eventually lead the L2 learner to better listening skills and

much improved self-confidence in terms of language command. So I honestly recommend you to

incorporate weak forms into your own language repertoire if wanting to improve and take your

actual language command to even further manipulation.

1 Underhill, A. (2005). Sound Foundations: Learning and Teaching Pronunciation. Great Britain: Macmillan Education.



Dialogues. Cases for analysis and practice work. (Section D1) Case# some

A: That ice-cream looks really nice.

B: Do you want some?

Case# some

A: I‟m really thirsty.

B: There‟s some orange juice in the kitchen.

Case# would

A: Do you think I should apologise?

B: Yes, I‟m sure that would help

Case# would

A: Did you get a 7,0 on the Phonetics test?

B: No, I pronounced “would” wrong.

Case# were

A: I was in Viña last weekend.

B: What were you doing in there?

Case# were

A: Why weren‟t you guys at the party last night?

B: But we were.

Case# from

A: What have you got in there, Nataly? / What do you have in there, Nataly?

B: It‟s a present from David.

Case# from

A: Is this a card for Ms. Iturrieta‟s Bday?

B: No, it‟s from Ms. Iturrieta.

Case# your

A: Why did you have mark it wrong?

B: You wrote “your” instead of “you”.



Case# your

A: We‟re off to_______________ again in the summer.

B: Are you going with your sister?

Case# for

A: Can I borrow your car?

B: What do you want it for?

Case# for

A: Has the phone just rung?

B: Yes, it was for Gonzalo.



Dialogues. Cases for analysis and practice work. (Section D2) Case# some

A: That beer looks really nice.

B: Do you want some?

Case# some

A: I‟m really thirsty.

B: There‟s some sangria in the kitchen.

Case# would

A: Do you think I should apologise?

B: Yes, I‟m sure that would help

Case# would

A: Did you get a 100% on the Phonetics test?

B: No, I pronounced “would” wrong.

Case# were

A: I was in Viña last weekend.

B: What were you doing in there?

Case# were

A: Why weren‟t you guys at the party last night?

B: But we were.

Case# from

A: What have you got in there, Vanessa? / What do you have in there, Vanessa?

B: It‟s a present from Eber.

Case# from

A: Is this a card for David‟s Bday?

B: No, it‟s from David.

Case# your

A: Why did you have mark it wrong?

B: You wrote “your” instead of “you”.



Case# your

A: We‟re off to_______________ again in the summer.

B: Are you going with your sister?

Case# for

A: Can I borrow your car?

B: What do you want it for?

Case# for

A: Has the phone just rung?

B: Yes, it was for Valentina.



Articulatory Exercises: Experiencing How Vocal Folds Go Up & Down

Locate your hand on your larynx while reproducing such vowels consecutively, first with a pause

in between and then continuously. Your vocal folds will experience fascinating movements as you

vary the pitch of your voice. If you utter a vowel with a high pitch (pronounced more intensely)

then your vocal folds should go...guess where?...Voila! high or up. If you utter such vowels with a

low pitch (less intense), then your vocal folds will have to move...guessed it?...low or down.

HIGH-LOW LOW-HIGH LEVEL

Uh oh Uh oh? Uh oh...

Monday Monday? Monday...

Fifty Fifty? Fifty ...

Coming Coming? Coming ...

Later Later? Later ...

Hey Hey? Hey...

Hello Hello? Hello...

Yes Yes? Yes ...

No No? No ...

And now with a slight change, actually contextualizing some phrases...

FALLING RISING LEVEL

I‟ll have an apple I‟ll have an apple? I‟ll have an apple...

We‟ll see you tomorrow We‟ll see you tomorrow? We‟ll see you tomorrow ...

This might‟ve been impossible This might‟ve been impossible?

This might‟ve been impossible...

She runs in the morning. She runs in the morning? She runs in the morning...

Another one Another one? Another one...

Now. Now? Now...

Hello. Hello? Hello...

I‟m on the phone. I‟m on the phone? I‟m on the phone...

It‟s in your book. It‟s in your book? It‟s in your book...

It‟ll be seeing you. It‟ll be seeing you? It‟ll be seeing you...

Fortunately. Fortunately? Fortunately...

The refrigerator. The refrigerator? The refrigerator...



Dialogues for Practicing Fluency and Intonation (1)

A: Can you recommend somewhere for a holiday?

B: What an odd coincidence! I was just going to tell you about our holiday!

A: Really? Where did you go? The south of France?

B: No, this time we went to the South of Chile.

A: Oh, you went to Chile, did you? You were thinking about it the last time we met.

B: Oh yes, I mentioned it to you, didn‟t I?

A: You were thinking of Valdivia, weren‟t you?

B: Frutillar. But we didn‟t go there in the end.

A: Didn‟t you? Where did you go?

B: Where? To Aysen.

A: That‟s on the coast, isn‟t it? Was the weather good?

B: Reasonably good.

A: Tell me about the prices there, would you?

B: They weren‟t too bad. You should go there and try it. But you ought to go soon. But thank you very much for your advice.

A: Good luck. Have a good time.

B: Thank you. Goodbye.



Sentence Stress and Intonation: Extending Generosity & Sharing Thoughts

Intonation can be roughly said to correspond to the melody of speech or the fluctuations

that take place in the pitch of our voice, fully controlled by our vocal folds (Crystal, 2004; Dauer,

1995). As we have been observing and witnessing, segmented features (consonant and vowel

sounds) together with stress itself convey no meaning at all apart from their corresponding

isolated forms. However, once communication takes place, then subtleties, or peculiarities, of

meaning are easily conveyed through the aspect of intonation. Intonation is, then, intimately

related to the meaning we, human beings, want to convey, and to the grammatical constructions

or configurations associated to a particular and shared medium of communication: language. In

our case this medium corresponds with the English language.

Having total control over intonation, or fluctuations of pitch within human speech, we can

simply assign a very rich variety of, say, emotions, certain attitudes towards our listeners (other

actors in the communication process), etc to our speech in a foreign language. The difficulty of

acquiring intonation patterns related to this foreign language is that you, whose native one might

be a romance language: Spanish, usually transfer certain melodic contours belonging to this

native language while the English one, and Anglo-Saxon language, uses different melodic

patterns to different meanings. So what do you then? It might sound sort of cliché, but the reality

to get familiar with English intonation patterns is through, first, becoming aware of how pitch

controls our voice, how our voice can fluctuate from high to low tones, and the location of the

most important pieces of information to be conveyed in a particular communicative setting. Once

aware of such fluctuations, then you can easily put together such tones on particular lexical units

or phrases to reproduce the intonation patterns in the English language through constant and

efficient reproduction.

For you to remember, it is actually necessary that every single utterance, independently

of its extension and grammatical sophistication, must contain a major change in pitch, either

through a falling one, a rising one, a level one, or a rich mix of such fluctuations. This change in

pitch will correspond to our sentence stress in which the most notorious change or prominent part

will be our nucleus of such sentence stress. Surrounding such nucleus, we can find the initiation

of such change and its corresponding conclusion. These will correspond to an onset element

(everything possibly located before the nucleus) and a coda element (everything that might be

after our nucleus), respectively. The placement of the nucleus in a determined sentence is

intimately related to you, the speaker, since it is you who actually decide on which lexical unit, or

combination of them, prominence will fall providing that this location satisfy the communication

process. To simplify this idea, then, we can easily and simply say that in the English language,

the location of a nucleus element within a sentence usually happens to be on its last content

lexical unit before a pause or potential pause.

If this helps out compensate the difficulties of this challenging endeavour, I can say that

you are not alone. So, enjoy the melodic ride!

Freddy Espinoza



Making function words prominent.

As we have seen, such function words are usually pronounced without any prominence, provided

that we are under normal communicative situations. However, we can make such function words

more prominent in special situations to satisfy a variety of communicative purposes.

Have a look at the following dialogues. As you can notice, there are some words in bold.

Underline the lexical units that are likely to be more prominent. And then try to practice them by

reading it aloud as fast as you can. Remember that intonation goes intimately related to fluency.

The more fluent you are then the more natural you sound and less communicative problems you

encounter.

Dialogue # One

A: Do you know of any good restaurants in here?

B: Well, I haven‟t been here for some years, but there used to be some very good ones. The Sartén Loca was the place to eat local food.

A: Mmm. I do like trying local food.

B: But I‟m sure any of the restaurants here will be good.

Dialogue # Two

A: Try turning the tap off.

B: I have tried turning it, but it‟s stuck.

A: Did you ask anyone for help?

B: No. Look, why don‟t you try?

A: Okay. Hmmm. There must be some way of doing it.

B: I did tell you it was stuck.

A: There. It just needed some power! Anyone could have done it!



Making your speech more natural and more fluent (1)

As I‟ve been repeating it during the last sessions so far: intonation goes hand in hand with the

feature of fluency. This is extraordinarily necessary for better intonation patterns to be

incorporated within your own language repertoire. Thus, a question that naturally arises then has

to do with “How can I make my L2 speech more fluent then?” well, apart from the usual response

from all your teachers in “Practice and practice”, the most effective way to decrease the distance

between the fluency level wanted to be achieved and your actual level of language command is

through practicing contracted forms. So, voila!

Contracted form

Function Pronunciation

„d Had Would

/d/ after vowel sounds: I’d already seen it before.

/əd/ after consonant sounds: It’d be a wonderful idea to practice more.

„s Is Has

/s/ after the following consonant sounds /p/ /t/ /k/ /f/ /θ/, it is interesting

/z/ after other consonant sounds: She’s left home already.

„ll Will /l/ as in I’ll get it, don’t worry „ve Have /v/ after vowel sounds as in You’ve got an email from them.

/əv/ after consonant sounds as in I could’ve gone to that soccer match.

„re Are /ər/ before vowel sounds as in We’re all right in here. /ə/ before consonant sounds as in We’re beating them all at Mortal Kombat.

n‟t Not /nt/ as in She hasn’t got any piece of information to give.

Remember too that such contracted forms are very uncommon when writing in English, even if

such forms are fully written they are normally uttered in their contracted forms. And very often it

happens that you might encounter two consecutive contracted forms, like in the following

examples which are to be read out loud as fast as you can.

Would/will + have I‟ll‟ve finished it by tomorrow /ailəv fɪniʃt it bai tmɒrəʊ/ He‟d‟ve loved to have been there /hidəv lʌvd tə hæv bɪːn δeə/

Not + have She couldn‟t‟ve knwon anything about it /ʃɪkʊdnəvnəʊneniθɪŋəbaʊtɪt/ I wouldn‟t‟ve minded doing it in front of the class.

/aɪwʊdnəvmaɪndɪdduːɪŋɪtɪnfrʌntəvðəklɑːs/



Making your speech more natural and more fluent (2)

Continuing with more exercises on how to make your speech more fluent and sound more

natural, and therefore, minimize the chances for experiencing communication breakdowns, here

are some more mini-dialogues to practice both specific pronunciations of contracted forms as well

as to practice overall features of pronunciation in the English language. Match part A of these

mini-dialogues to their correspondent part B. In each of both parts, identify their corresponding

content words or more prominent words by circling/underlining them. Then start practicing by

reading them aloud.

A: He‟s leaving now ___ B: Let‟s ask that farmer. A: We‟re arriving at ten. ___ B: I thought he‟d gone already.

A: I haven‟t got any money on me. (UK) A: I don‟t have any money on me. (Am)

___ B: Yes, I think it‟s ridiculous.

A: Do you think it‟d be okay to camp here? ___ B: It‟ll be good to see you. A: You should‟ve taken the job. ___ B: Well, let‟s eat now. A: I suppose you‟ve heard Tom‟s idea? ___ B: Don‟t worry. I‟ve got my credit card. A: I‟m starving. ___ B: You‟re right. I should.

As explained before, contracted forms are spoken forms of written format or organized lexical

units in grammatical configurations. So when speaking, it‟s absolutely normal, and further

recommendable, to use contracted forms even if written forms are in long ones. For example, you

might find the following sentence: “Those are too big, but these will fit”. The underlined lexical

units are the ones that in normal and fluent speech should be uttered in their contracted forms.

The production of such sentence should be something like:

|ðəʊzəˈtuː↗bɪg|bətˈðiːzəl↘fɪtǁ

Can you utter such sentence following the IPA symbols and especially, giving the intonation

contour indicated in the above transcription? In normal speech, these two ideas, utterances,

should be clearly pronounce in, say, ONE SECOND and, maybe, with one or three milliseconds

more extra. Like in the following exercises, with which you‟re supposed to so the same practice,

identify content words, practice pronunciation, fluency, intonation and contracted forms.

Nº SENTENCES / UTTERANCES

1 My feet will get wet because my shoes have got holes in them.

2 There is no butter, but this will do instead.

3 I am sure David would help you if he could.

4 How did they know we would be there?

5 Diego has phoned to say he is not ready to go yet, but he will call again when he is. (no more that 4 sec’s)

6 There have been four parcels delivered for you while you have been away. (no more than 2 sec’s)

7 What will you do if Freddy has already gone?



Breaking Speech into Units (1): Breath Groups

Once appreciated the use of identifying content from function words in a given sentence, it is the

time for recognizing that when speaking, we actually divide our speech in units due to the fact

that our speech is embedded within our respiratory system. Such units are known as “Breath

Groups”. Thus, then, an utterance can be defined easily as the portion of speech located between

...you guessed it?...pauses. Every breath groups must contain a Nucleus, meaning there must be

a syllable that stands out from the rest, and therefore, made more prominent. And it is that

syllable, within a lexical unit, usually of a content-word nature, that carries the principal melody in

such utterance. Have a look at the following dialogue, and try to identify the pauses and within

each utterance, identify the main prominent word: the one that carries the most important and

relevant piece of information. And start practising it out loud.

A: Have you got much work on just now?

B: Dr. Goetz has given us a very hard essay, but I mustn‟t get a low mark this time.

A: I had an argument with my tutor last week.

B: What happened?

A: Well, I couldn‟t find my coursework, so I asked for a couple of days extra. He got really annoyed with me and complained I was always late for lectures. Anyway, I told him I thought his course was a waste of time.

B: Did you? Well, at least Dr. Goetz doesn‟t shout at us, although I‟m not very confident that I‟ll pass his exam.



Breaking Speech into Units (2): Breath Groups Identication

Have a look at the following portion of speech. Where are the breath groups located?

Text One

I can remember as children we were rather naughty once we stuck a picture of an elephant on the back of our teacher’s jacket before he went out of the class of course he couldn’t see it so he didn’t know why everyone was laughing at him until he got home and took it off Text Two

That’s the main thing and then if you’ve got any questions afterwards hopefully we’ll still have time to go through a few of them is that okay Text Three

She’d left when she had a baby and then decided not to go back although the job had been kept open for her Text Four

Gonzalo dear where’s the advert for this calculator because I don’t know the address and I don’t know who I’ve got to make the check payable to



Breaking Speech into Units (3): Breath Groups Identication

All of the following sentences should be divided into three major breath units. Identify the

boundaries of them and practice reading them aloud as many times as necessary for fluency to

develop in your own command.

Text One

when you read it carefully it doesn’t say anything that’s very critical Text Two

When I woke up I didn’t even realise what time it was Text Three

Of course it’s written in a language that hardly anyone can understand Text Four

I was working late because they want it done as quickly as possible Text Five

Because he was ill I didn’t expect him to come to class Text Six

If I get some time I’ll be over on the weekend to see you both Text Seven

Luckily we haven’t had any rain since the day we arrived Text Eight

It should never have been built in my opinion this new office building



Predicting the Locations of Breath Groups (4)

This exercise has to be done while listening to the mp3 file attached to it, otherwise it won‟t work.

As you go listening try to assign the boundaries for the breath groups that you can identify. You

can listen to it as many times as possible.

To describe marble first you have to define metamorphic rock. Metamorphic rock is rock that’s, uh, changed, from one kind of rock to another. Ummm marble comes from a softer rock that’s called limestone, which is a sedimentary rock. Marble is a hard rock. Marble comes in various colours. Like other metamorphic rocks, it is so strong that it is often used for building.

Supermarkets have been successful for two main reasons.

The first reason is that costs are low. One reason the costs

are low is...uh...that supermarkets buy in huge quantities.

This is called...let’s see...economy of scale.

The Complete Guide to the Toefl iBT p64, including a listening activity for this exercise. And there

are more activities related to breath groups.




This exercise has to be done while listening to the mp3 file attached to it, otherwise it won‟t work.

As you go listening try to assign the boundaries for the breath groups that you can identify. You

can listen to it as many times as possible.

Now, most of you in the class know how I feel about medical research done

on animals. I oppose it, no matter why...no matter what the justification.

But...for the sake of fairness, I wanted you to see this article that my

colleague in the biology department, Professor White, wrote for our

departmental journal.

At the heart of his argument is the professor’s claim that animal

experimentation




From Tips for Pronunciation, (Flashdrive), p51

P52

Then thought groups: (p.52 onwards)

Starting form the sentence:

It‟s not too late to find a room at a national park this season.

P85 deals with the aspect of intonation in English starting with a pragmatic issue: that of rising

intonation associated with unfinished sentences or ideas, and that of falling ones with those

finished, completed ideas.

Interesting example to illustrate the idea of intonation and communicative meanings. (p88)

content and function words

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