Moazzam Ali Malik

Assistant Professor

University of Gujrat

Stylistics and Levels of

Language Stylistics is a method of textual

interpretation in which primacy of place

is assigned to language. (Paul Simpson)

Levels of Language

Phonological

Morphological

Syntactic

Discoursal

Phonology and Phonetics

“Phonology is essentially the description of

the systems and patterns of speech sounds in

a language.”

(The Study of Language, 2nd Edition (p. 64) by George Yule)

Phonetics is concerned with how sounds are

produced, transmitted and perceived in any

human speech.

Phonemes

In any language we can identify a small number of

regularly used sound segments (know as vowels and

consonants). In English 44 sounds or PHONEMES have

been identified.

Phoneme (Gk. phonema “a sound”):

A phoneme is the smallest meaningful sound-unit in a

languages.

A vowel is a type of sound for which there is no closure at

any point of the vocal tract.

A consonant is a sound in spoken language that is

characterized by a constriction or closure at one or more

points along the vocal tract.

Phonemes of English Language

Phonemes (44)

Vowels (20) Consonants

(24)

Monopthongs (12) Diphthongs (08)

Consonants

Classification of Consonants

Consonants are classified on the basis of the following features:

Place, Manner, and Voicing

A. Place (also called place of articulation): Where is the breath stream impeded, constricted, diverted, or obstructed? For example:

lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, palate, velum, …

B. Manner: How is the breath stream impeded, constricted, diverted, or obstructed? For example:

stop or plosive: complete obstruction of air stream

C. Voicing is produced when the vocal folds are used in the articulation of a sound. Voiced sounds produce vibration at Adam’s apple

English Consonants

Consonants: Places of Articulation

1. Bilabial : Lips together /p/,/b/,/m/,/w/

2. Labio-Dental: Upper Teeth on lower lip /f/, /v/

3. Dental: Upper teeth on tip of tongue /θ/ ,/ð/

4. Alveolar: Tip of tongue on hard ridge behind upper

teeth /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /n/, /l/, /r/

5. Palatal: Front of tongue is raised to hard palate /j/

6. Plato-Alveolar: Tip of the tongue is placed

between the alveolar ridge and hard palate.

/ʃ/,/ʒ/,/tʃ/,/dʒ/

7. Glottol:The vocal cords. /h/

8. Velar:Back of the tongue is raised to soft palate

/k/,/g/, /Ŋ/

Consonants: Manners of Articulation

1. Stop or plosive: complete obstruction of air stream

Plosives may be bilabial [p,b] park, bark, alveolar [t,d] tar, dark or

velar [k,g] car, guard.

2. Fricative: air passed thru a narrow channel, creating turbulence.

Fricatives may be labiodental [f,v] wife, wives, dental [/θ/ ,/ð/]

breath, breathe, alveolar [s,z] sink, zinc, palato-alveolar [/ʃ/,/ʒ/]

nation, evasion, or glottal [h] help. [h] is a glottal fricative.

3. Affricate: complete obstruction of air stream followed by fricative

release. [tʃ] (as in “choke”), [dʒ] (as in “joke”)

4. Nasal: air stream redirected through the nasal cavity.

The three English nasals are all voiced, and [m] is bilabial, ram, [n]

is alveolar, ran, and [Ŋ] velar, rang

5. Laterals are sounds where the air escapes around the sides of the

tongue. There is only one lateral in English, [l], a voiced alveolar

lateral.

6. Approximants: consonants that are almost like vowels [r] [w] [j]

Voiceless and Voiced Phonemes

Voiceless

Voiced

/p/

/t/

/k/

/f/

/s/

/tʃ/

/ʃ/

/b/

/d/

/g/

/v/

/z/

/dʒ/

/ʒ/

The Consonants of English

Consonants in Red are problematic for Pakistani Speakers

1. /p/ (pot, shot)

2. /b/ (boat, bell)

3. /t/ (tall, tell)

4. /d/ (doll, desk)

5. /k/ (cat, call)

6. /g/ (get, game)

7. /tʃ/ (check, patch)

8. /dʒ/ (jug, badge)

9. /f/ (friend, four)

10. /v/ (van, of)

11. /θ/ (thick, path)

12. /ð/ (that, father)

13. /s/ (son, race)

14. /z/ (zebra, maze)

15. /ʃ/ (shawl, posh)

16. /ʒ/ (measure, pleasure)

17. /h/ (hen, house)

18. /r/ (rate, fright)

19. /l/ (light, bell)

20. /m/ (moon, sim)

21. /n/ (rain, name)

22. /Ŋ/ (ring, ringing)

23. /j/ (yes, mayer)

24. /w/ (world, we)

English Consonants

Vowels

The Monopthongs of English

1. /i:/ (beat, feet) 7. /כ:/ (board, all)

2. /i/ (bit, fit) 8. /^/ (cut, shut)

3. /e/ (bet, fret, pepper) 9. /u/ (should, full)

4. /æ/ (rat, fat, cat) 10. /u:/ (suit, food)

5. /a:/ (arm, heart) 11. /ә:/ or /З:/ (shirt, girl)

6. /a/ or /כ/ (rot, bought) 12. /ә/ (faster, desire)

Notice the symbols for long vowels have two small dots in

front of them

Table for Diphthongs

The Diphthongs of English

1. /ai/ (kite, fight, night, fried)

2. /ei/ (say, pay, rate, paper, plate)

3. i/ (boy, soil, coil, boil)כ/

4. /au/ (shout, flower, couch)

5. /әu/ or /ou/ (in AE) (no, soul)

6. /iә/ (fear, near, mere, career)

7. /eә/ (fair, gear, flare, prayer)

8. /uә/ (sure, poor, doer)

Stress

Stressed syllables are perceived as

having prominence

What makes a syllable prominent?

Loudness

Length

Pitch

Quality

Syllable

Syllable is a phonetic unit larger and

more stable than phoneme. Syllable is a

unit of spoken language consisting of a

single uninterrupted sound formed by a

vowel, diphthong, or syllabic consonant

alone, or by any of these sounds

preceded, followed, or surrounded by

one or more consonants. Syllables are

often considered the phonological

"building blocks" of words.

Loudness and length

(duration) In a sequence of syllables

/bɑ:bɑ:bɑ:bɑ:/, if one is made louder it

will sound stressed

However, it is difficult to make it louder

without changing the other features!

Pitch

Every voiced syllable is said on some pitch

This is related to the vibration of the vocal

folds

In a sequence of syllables /bɑ:bɑ:bɑ:bɑ:/, if

one is produced with different pitch to the

others it will sound stressed

Quality

In a sequence of syllables /bɑ:bɑ:bɑ:bɑ:/, if

the vowel in one is made different it will

sound stressed

E.g., /bɑ:bɑ:bibɑ:/

Week syllables provide a kind of

“background” for other syllables containing

vowels of different qualities

Level of stress

In the English Pronouncing Dictionary, we recognise three levels of stress in words: Primary stress – the strongest stress

Secondary stress – having stress but not the strongest

Unstressed – not having stress

Other levels of stress are sometimes used E.g., tertiary stress

Two-syllable simple words

In verbs and adjectives, if the second syllable is a strong syllable, it will be stressed

• If not – or if it contains /ǝʊ/ - it will be unstressed E.g., apply /ǝ̍plaι/, detract /dι̍trækt/

enter / ̍entǝ/, open / ̍ǝʊpǝn/, borrow / ̍bɒrǝʊ/

• Exceptions for adjectives are honest and perfect – although note the rule works for the verb!

Two-syllable simple words

In nouns, if the second syllable

contains a short vowel, it will be

unstressed

If not, it will be stressed

– E.g., money /̍mʌni/

– estate /ι̍steιt/, balloon /bǝlu:n/

Other two-syllable words like adverbs

and prepositions behave like verbs

and adjectives

Noun

address

conduct

desert

present

Verb

address

conduct

desert

present

Stress for Multiple Syllables

In words of more than one syllable, secondary stress may be present

E.g., photographic

We mark secondary stress with a small vertical line to the lower left of the syllable it relates to

Here, it goes on the first syllable

The third syllable takes primary stress

/ ̩fǝʊtǝ̍ɡræfιk/

Chapter 4

Alliteration

Full Alliteration

Repetition of the same consonants

A dreadful winter passed, each day severe

Misty when mild but cold when clear

Parallel pairs

Misty and Mild

Cold and Clear

Alliteration

Loose Alliteration

Repetition of the similar consonants

These fruitful trees, these numerous flocks I see,

Are others’ gain, but killing cares to me

Here Files of Pins extend their shining Rows

Puffs, Powders, Patches, Bibles, Billet-doux

Full fathom five thy father lies, (The Tempest)

Assonance

Patterns of repetition between vowel sounds

I, like yon wither’d leaf, remain behind,

Nipped by the frost, and shivering in the wind;

You’ll never get a better bit of butter on your knife

Rhyme

Refers to the identical Syllable-Final

consonants in the lines of a poem

Half rhyme

Five/Fife

Internal rhyme

Rhyme at the positions other than the end

Fuller Rhyme

If more than one syllable has rhyme

relation

Rhyme: Examples Or is it only the breeze, in its listlessness

Travelling across the wet mead to me here,

You being ever dissolved to wan wistlessness,

Heard no more again far or near?

(Thomas Hardy, The Voice)

"Out of this house" ‚ said rider to reader,

"Yours never will" ‚ said farer to fearer,

"They're looking for you" ‚ said hearer to horror,

As he left them there, as he left them there.

(W H Auden, O where are you going)

Sound Symbolism

Refers to the intrinsic relationship between

the phonetic form and the meaning

Onomatopoeic words

crack, miaow, boom, buz

Sound symbolism is not common and

sounds get some extra linguistic reality in the

context of their use

But nedes day departe hem moste sone

(Chaucer, ‘Troilus and Criseyde’)

Sound Symbolism

Sounds may also convey some additional

extra linguistic meaning in terms of length

of consonants and vowels

Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle

(Owen, Anthem for Doomed Youth)

Watching the last oozings hours by hours

Drowsed with the fumes of poppies

(Keats, To Autumn)

Sound Symbolism

Pitch may also give extra-linguistic

meaning to the sounds

Splish Splash

Ding Dong

A child sitting under the piano, in the boom

of the tingling strings

(D. H. Lawrence, Piano)

Sound Symbolism

Clear Sounds

Bright consonants like /p/, /t/, /k/

Indistinct Sounds

Long Voiced Consonants, Back Vowels,

and Fricatives

Clunk Click, Every Trip

Phonasthemes

Some phonemic patterns lie between

phonemic and morphemic status

Word-initial cluster gl equivalent to “light”

Gleam, glimmer, glisten, glare, glint, glance.

Gland, global, gladiator are the counter

examples

Word-initial cluster sl equivalent to “wet”

Slime, slippery, sludge, slither

Sleep, slang, slender are the counter

examples

Chapter 5

An audible pattern in verse established by the intervals between stressed syllables . Rhythms are of different patterns of stressed (/) and unstressed (x) syllables. Each unit of these types is called foot. Here are the five types of rhythm

Rhythms: Foot

Rhythm: Meter

In the following examples the stressed

and unstressed syllables are marked as

"/" and "x." Each unit of rhythm is called

a "foot" of poetry.

A line of 1 foot is a monometer,

2 feet is a dimeter, and so on—

trimeter (3), tetrameter (4),

pentameter (5), hexameter (6),

heptameter (7), and o ctameter (8)

Rhythm: Meter

The meters with two-syllable feet are

IAMBIC (x /) :

That time of year thou mayst in me behold

TROCHAIC (/ x):

Tell me not in mournful numbers

SPONDAIC (/ /):

“White founts falling in the Courts of the sun”

Rhythm: Meter

ANAPESTIC (x x /):

And the sound of a voice that is still

DACTYLIC (/ x x):

This is the forest primeval,

the murmuring pines and the hemlock

Issues in Rhythm Identification

“Shall I | compare | thee to | a sum | mer’s day?|”

(Sonnet 18, by William Shakespeare)

The line’s five metrical feet, with stress falling

on the second element, clearly make it iambic

pentameter. However, this classification tends

to assume that all accentuation is equal, an

interpretation which is not necessarily borne out

when reading the line aloud.

1 = Minimum stress 4= Maximum stress

“Shall I | compare | thee to | a sum | mer’s day?|”

3 4 1 4 1 2 1 4 1 4

Thanks