Locky's English Playground: Speaking

Showing posts with label Speaking. Show all posts

Wednesday, 2 July 2014

IPA: Is It Possible to Have Primary-Stressed Vowels In An English Word?

"There is no agreed phonetic definition of a syllable" -- Ladefoged (1982, p219)
Image from Peter Ladefoged's homepage

"There is no agreed phonetic definition of a syllable" -- Ladefoged (1982, p219)

Last year, one of my students who happens to be an IPA teacher with a Master's degree in Translation, spotted something pretty interesting when I was introducing the word "masseur".

Image from Cambridge Dictionary Online

She argued that the stress mark should be before the /s/ not after it, according to the rules she has learnt. She suspected that this is a typo made by Cambridge University.

To my knowledge, having a primary stress on a vowel alone is not unusual at all, according to my hundreds of hours of blog-writing (thus my exploitation of the Cambridge Dictionary Online), but at that moment, I couldn't come up with a counter-example. She was convinced with what she knew and stressed that by telling me she was an IPA teacher, and I was also sure with what I know, and so she challenged me to find another example on the Cambridge Dictionary Online, or if the same word "masseur" shows up with the same IPA. Subsequently, the situation got worse and I even received a complaint from her through my boss. My ex-boss, who is a fervent supporter of the Oxford Dictionary, was on her side and instructed me never to teach IPA in class again because "you are wrong!" I found no point of arguing with her and also pointless to even think about educating her, and so I pretended to have accepted her view.

Why should I make her smarter if they insist that they are smarter, right?

But am I really wrong? Of course not, not in this case. What they do not know is the most fundamental concepts of pronunciation.

Now that things have cooled down, I can explain the logic and reasons behind.

Notice the difference in IPA for the same word by different dictionaries
Image from Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

Now, here's something we must know. If we check different authoritative dictionaries, we are bound to get many different IPA representations for the same word. How's that possible?

The answer is both political and commonsensical.

It is political because of the way these dictionary authorities, such as Cambridge, Oxford, BBC, Colins, Longman, Webster, Merriam-Webster, etc., they are not friends and they don't share their researches. Sponsors or funded money is spent on top-secret data collections, data processing and computer programs.

It is also commonsensical since they basically use different algorithms to work on different lexico-grammatical and phonological data collected from different regions of the world, few, if any, of the linguistic features such as IPA, grammar, meanings, translations will be the same. Why would it be the same anyway if there is something called copyright and patent infringement? Just ask Apple Inc. about copyrights and patents!

What's more, I believe that there is in fact no 100% foolproof rule to anything on this planet. I used to believe that there is something that is absolutely right and absolutely wrong when I was a kid, just to realise that there are something called grey areas eventually.

When a theory or a rule is wrong, people set a new boundary and then set a new rule, and the new rule remains correct until someone disproves it. The subject of science works exactly this way. Remember that our Earth was once believe to be a cube and travelling too far off the ships would fall off the edge of the world?

Let's not forget, we are dealing with English, a language which has borrowed, devoured, digested and "stolen" from over 350 languages around the world since 450 AD, sometimes, or most of the time, which English word belongs to which language is a tough task to trace. Then how can one IPA rule bound every word in the English language? Quite impossible.

Anyway, I find this question really challenging and here's what I've found!

Images from Cambridge Dictionary Online

All of them, with the exception of "batik" which is from Dutch, are from French.

Could this primary-stressed vowel pattern mainly happens in French loanwords? I doubt it. Dutch, in particular, is well-known for their stressed vowels.

Could this primary-stressed vowel pattern only appears in Cambridge Dictionary Online? Not sure, but I checked every one of these words in the Oxford Dictionaries, and none of them shows this pattern.

Images from Oxford Dictionary Online

Anyway, I would very much like a clarification on that from the Cambridge University Press to make my student happy, so I wrote Cambridge University Press an email at 1:45am (now it's 2:33am, 26th July 2013), the response that I received was, they will follow up, and they never did.

That being said, you can try searching words like "ergo", "earnings", "urgent", "also", always", "pronunciation" and see the same pattern of primary-stressed vowel.

Back to my point, I believe that there is hardly any rules which can always be true (this is something I have learnt from Dr. House), pronunciation models are forever changing as humans evolve, what the quote from Ladefoged back in 1982 at the beginning of this post is very much still valid today, even with the advance technology that we possess right now. Syllabification, the separation of a word into syllables, whether spoken or written, is a complex topic in linguistics study and like everything academic, it is heavily argued and debated.

I must say I do not know everything, but you do not need to be a genius to know that nothing is true forever.

So, as common learners of English, whether you belong to the ESL, EFL, ESP or EAP group, when learning IPA, I have one advice -- don't be too rigid.

"Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water." -- Bruce Lee

The Analysis of French Schwa
Image from Jstor

Image from Wiktionary

For more articles on IPA, do visit my IPA page.

Vocabulary:

masseur -- (n)[C] a person whose job it is to give massages to people

typo -- (n)[C] informal a small mistake in a text made when it was typed or printed
fervent (also fervid) formal-- (adj) describes beliefs that are strongly and sincerely felt or people who have strong and sincere beliefs

authoritative -- (adj) containing complete and accurate information , and therefore respected

commonsensical -- (adj) the basic level of practical knowledge and judgement that we all need to help us live in a reasonable and safe way

bound to do sth-- certain to do something; destined to do something.

foolproof -- (adj) (of a plan or machine ) so simple and easy to understand that it is unable to go wrong or be used wrongly

devour -- (vb)[T] to eat something eagerly and in large amounts so that nothing is left

trace -- (vb)[T] to find the origin of something
syllabification or syllabication -- (n)[U] the separation of a word into syllables, whether spoken or written.

Resources:

IPA @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/search/label/IPA

IPA & Website: Peter Ladefoged's IPA Home Page @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2010/10/ipa-website-peter-ladefogeds-ipa-home.html

The History of English in 10 Minutes @ YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3r9bOkYW9s

Thursday, 24 April 2014

Vocabulary & Slang: Confusing Words in English feat. -Graphs, -Phones and -Nyms

Image from BuzzFeed

Another simple day for me. Just watch and learn.

By the way, examples in the last video, Words You're Probably Mixing Up -- Similar-sounding words you're probably using wrong, such as

aural - oral
discreet - discrete

have same pronunciation but different meanings, therefore, they are homophones, whereas, the following are minimal pairs because they are different in one phoneme,

ascend - assent
prescribe - proscribe

Venn diagram showing the relationships between homographs (green) and related linguistic concepts
Image from Wikipedia

As for "restful - restive", they are sort of antonyms, meaning they are words of opposite meanings, whereas "flammable - inflammable" are synonyms, meaning they are words of similar meanings.

Lastly, "ingenuous - ingenious", they are different in spellings, different in pronunciation, different in meanings, outside of the minimal pairs region, so, they are just confusing words.

Just in case you wanna meet some faux amis, do check out Culture & Usage: "Lufsig", False Friends & Bad Words.

Vocabulary:
peen
tittle
nurdle
dongle
angina
diphthong
annals
pusillanimous
futtock
coccyx
mastication
kumquat
sexton
dictionaries
brucschetta
charcuterie
gnocchi
quinoa
beignet
endive
anise
gyro
cognac
espresso
prosciutto
pho
paella
bon appetit
aural
oral
ascend
assent
prescribe
proscribe
restful
restive
ingenuous
ingenious
discreet
discrete
flammable
inflammable
homophones
minimal pairs
antonyms
synonyms
faux amis

Resources:

Culture & Usage: "Lufsig", False Friends & Bad Words @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2013/12/culture-usage-lufsig-false-friends-bad.html

13 Words That Sound Sexy But Actually Aren't @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/iTSXGanCd7c

Words You're Probably Mixing Up @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/KC5DSkrhYFM

13 Foods You're Pronouncing Wrong @ YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu9AEX0LHXQ

Homophone @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homophone

Minimal pairs @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimal_pair

Friday, 24 February 2012

Speaking: A Story Of My Learning

Article 4 on Singtao Student Page:

An anecdote of my learning experience -- my doubts and enlightenment.

This is how I learn
Image from directory.ac

When I wrote the first entry of my blog, Locky's English Playground, I put the following quote just beneath the blog title, "Languages are tunnels that lead to the worlds of infinite knowledge -- Locky", in other words, languages are tools for us to gain knowledge. This may be common sense, but truly understanding the essence of it cost me years of time.

Some students in schools consider learning English boring, I agree, because that was exactly what I used to feel. Dully spelling words and getting the grammar correct will not make the learning experience meaningful, we have to go beyond knowing English language itself. It is only fun to learn a language if one will eventually make meanings out of it. An easy question to ask ourself is, "What can I do with English if I am good at it?"

I did not like reading news when I was in schools. I always kept in mind, "Why should I like it? It will not do anything good to me!" No matter how my teachers made me subscribe to news magazines and how many reading periods went by, I just could not find any meanings in knowing about wars and politics. I was still a school kid!

But then, meanings slowly appeared when I started teaching.

At that time, experienced English teachers in my workplace memorised English grammar so well that given any unit numbers, they could recite the entire grammar lesson . On the other than, some new Caucasian teachers knew little about grammar, but students enjoyed talking to them because these teachers knew about their home countries better than anyone else. There had to be something more than just learning English, I supposed.

Following the school's guidelines, I taught my very first week of classes and I was already bored to death. I thought to myself, "I like grammar, but how can I not feel bored doing the same things over and over again?" It was then I began to go online and explore the world of knowledge on my desktop computer.

I selected some topics which I found fun and intriguing from the internet, merged it into my lessons, and the responses from my students were remarkable! Since then, I have continuously expanded my circle of interest and my knowledge has grown exponentially.

For me, I enjoy the feeling of knowing anything and relevance is the key to my interest in learning.

Looking back, I wish my teachers in my schools had at least told me how to build interests in news, or anything such as maths and science, rather than telling me to repeatedly read them. Had I known the fun and joy of knowing, I would have collected much more amazing knowledge in my brain.

When I was training my students for oral examinations, many of them possess common knowledge, but few have actual substance. Student must have quality knowledge in order to impress the examiners, or as a matter of fact, to mature as a human being in the long run.

Although Locky's English Playground on Singtao Daily has only lasted 4 weeks, my blog is always online. If you would like to learn more about everything through English, do visit Locky's English Playground at http://lockyep.blogspot.com/ or simply Google it.

I will see you there, thrice a week. Have fun with English! Goodbye (to my Singtao readers) for now!

Vocabulary:
anecdote -- (n) [C] a short often funny story, especially about something someone has done
enlightenment -- (n) [U] the state of understanding something
beneath -- (prep) in or to a lower position than, under
dully -- (adv) not interesting or exciting in any way; boring
Caucasian
to death -- until you die
intriguing -- (adj) very interesting because of being unusual or mysterious
remarkable -- (adj) unusual or special and therefore surprising and worth mentioning
exponentially -- (adj) formal describes a rate of increase which becomes quicker and quicker as the thing that increases becomes larger
relevance -- (n) [U] (also relevancy) the degree to which something is related or useful to what is happening or being talked about
as a matter of fact -- as a matter of fact (also in (actual) fact) used to add emphasis to what you are saying, or to show that it is the opposite of or different from what went before
in the long run -- at a time that is far away in the future

Fun Tasks For You:

Sit together with a group of friends or classmates and share your learning timeline, focus on what are the most successful and unsuccessful in your past learning experience.
Ask yourself, "What can I do with English if I am good at it?"
Ask yourself, "What do I enjoy learning and knowing?"
Once you have the answer for question 2 and 3, start to focus on achieving your goal.

Grammar:
Third Conditional -- an unreal situation; something which cannot be changed any more because it has already happened, to express regrets or past possibilities

if + past perfect --- would have + past participle

eg.

If I had practised more speaking, I would have passed the oral examination.
Had I practised more speaking, I would have passed the oral examination. (Variant of 1)
Had I known the fun and joy of knowing, I would have collected much more amazing knowledge in my brain. (Because I didn't know, so I did not collect those amazing knowledge)
If I had not decided to make a change, I could have lived a boring life teaching repetitive lessons. (Notice the use of "not" and "could")

Friday, 10 February 2012

Slang & Speaking: Speaking Valentine's

Article 2 on Singtao Student Page:

Walking on the streets of Hong Kong as Valentine’s Day draws near, I have some observations to make and advice to offer.

Image from shoppingblog.com

Valentine's Day is just around the corner! A time for the lovers' creativity to materialise and have your wallets emptied! Before you can even notice it, shops and malls are fully decorated to draw customers in the mood of mega-spending. Love is all around! Young couples hug and kiss every step of the way, presents wielded firmly. Pink hearts, white bears and red roses appear at every angle of eyesight even when your eyes are closed, not having any of these in a girlfriend's hands seemingly indicates a stingy or incapable boyfriend... or otherwise.

To some, maybe gifts do not matter at all!

"Having calm and staying a logical mind is what makes a man a man!" (Notice the wrong use of words!)

Image from sakura-hostel.co.jp

Inside that logical mind of this man, he thinks, "Gifts don't matter! Since a real heart is in fact not pink in colour nor is it the shape of two lobeless ears adhered together, polar bears are not cuddly nor naturally friendly to human and their fur is not exactly white, and red roses symbolise nothing but thoughtless, uncaring, and unoriginal as anyone would purchase the same flower for their beloved mother. Gifts are just for showing off! How practical can they be?"

Red Roses
Image from Flowers Photoblog

"It is the thought that counts!" is a cliché some keep in their armoury since their first empty-handed Valentine's Day.

And there is more than just one cliché.

Take Hong Kong for example, according to my survey through years of observation, boys in Hong Kong overuse the word "baby", and abuse the word "cute". The former confuses me whenever I am near 11th floor of Langham Place in Mongkok, the latter irritates my ears because of the absence of the consonant "t" in its pronunciation.

"Baby! You are so Q!" is what I often heard in English, if any.

Why would any girls still buy this kind of compliment? He's saying you are a stick!!

What about "sweetie", "honey", "darling", "my angel", "my love", "cutie"and "cutiepie"? I understand the goosebumps issue and I am hearing some readers are shouting "Do you mind?" but let's put that aside for now. Where is the variety in the choice of vocabulary?

This might sound nothing related to English speaking or oral examinations but I must say, it is related. Consonant "t" at the end of words is a sound often omitted by students, often unaware of the error. Although arguably perfectly acceptable in some occasions, the absence of consonant "t" such as "cute" transforms the word entirely into a different one. It is crucial to pay special attention to such words when practising your speaking.

Another point is the lack of variety in the vocabulary. The most popular words students conveniently use in the secondary school level are "fine", "okay", "do", "see", "play", "nice", "good", "happy", "sad", "hot", "cold", "painful", "easy" and "not easy".

Basic vocabulary is for survival English. If you are aiming for better grades in speaking and listening, you will need to start working on the variety.

This is no sweet little lie.

Image from somekindofawesome.com

By the way, if you are the recipient of the compliment, "Baby! You are so Q! I Lub U!" Tell the boy, "Practice your pronunciation at home before ever speaking to me again!" Because how hard he tries to correct his pronunciations is a measurement of how much he means the words he says.

Fun Tasks For You:

Which words have the same pronunciation as "Q"?
Find a total of 10 different terms which have the word "sweet" and "sugar" in it.
Try pronounce "sea" and "seat", "her" and "hurt" and note the difference.
Pick any selected adjectives in the vocabulary section and find words with similar meanings.
Search online for a list of sweet quotes and then ask the boys and girls in your class how sweet these quotes are to them.
Carry out a survey in your class for the list of presents your classmates hope to receive on Valentine's Day.

Discussion Questions:

What are some of the Valentine's Day marketing strategies you have come across?
What does Valentine's Day mean to you / to the society / to other cultures?
What did the past generations do on Valentine's Day?
Are we over-materialistic?
Is materialism gender-specific? Discuss.
How to enjoy a low-budget Valentine's Day?

Vocabulary:

materialize -- (vb) [I] (UK usually materialise) If an idea or hope materializes, it becomes real

stingy -- (adj) informal disapproving unwilling to spend money

incapable -- (adj) unable to do something

or otherwise -- used to refer to the opposite of the word which comes before it

lobeless ear -- (n) [C] a ear with no lobe

Image from bbc.co.uk

adhere -- (vb) [I] formal to stick firmly

cuddly -- (adj) approving liking to cuddle, or making you want to cuddle

symbolize (UK usually symbolise) to represent something

thoughtless -- (adj) not considering how your actions or words may upset someone

uncaring -- (adj) disapproving not worrying about other people's troubles or doing anything to help them

unoriginal -- (adj) the same as a lot of other things and therefore not interesting or special

cliché -- (n)[C or U] a comment that is very often made and is therefore not original and not interesting

armoury -- (n) (US armory) [C] a place where weapons and other military equipment are stored

abuse -- (vb) [T] to use or treat someone or something wrongly or badly, especially in a way that is to your own advantage

the former -- (n)[S] the first of two people, things or groups previously mentioned

the latter -- (n)[S] the second of two people, things or groups previously mentioned

irritate -- (vb)[T] to make angry or annoyed

cutie -- (n) [C] (also cutiepie) mainly US informal a woman or girl who you consider attractive or like a lot

goosebumps -- (n) plural noun (UK also goose pimples) small raised areas that appear on the skin because of cold, fear or excitement

Do you mind? said to someone when you feel annoyed with them for what they have just done or said

put sth aside phrasal verb to save something, usually time or money, for a special purpose

unaware -- (adj) [after verb] not understanding or realising something

conveniently -- (adv) humorous suitable for your purposes and needs and causing the least difficulty

survival -- (adj) continuing to exist or wanting to continue to exist

recipient --(vb) [C] formal a person who receives something

Pronunciation:

cliché /ˈkliː.ʃeɪ/

/-ˈ-/

The stress for the UK pronunciation is on the 1st syllable while the stress for the US pronunciation is on the 2nd syllable.

Do you mind?

When pronouncing "Do you mind?", the word "mind" carries the strongest sentence stress, thus it should be the loudest, also, "mind" should take a high-low-high (up-down-up) tone to enhance the level of annoyance.

Structures:

not... nor

When nor is used as an adverb, it mean "also not", which is why it should be preceded by a negative not.

eg.

Jason isn't online, nor is John.
Janet didn't speak, nor did Florence.
I am not clever, nor am I stupid.
A real heart is in fact not pink in colour nor is it the shape of two lobeless ears adhered together.

Notice the position of the auxiliary verbs "is", "did", "am" and "is" in the above examples. They are immediately after "nor".