语言学概论-Chapter 3.ppt

Sentence stress Sentence stress----the relative force given to the components of a sentence. nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs, numerals , demonstrative pronouns articles, person pronouns, auxiliary verbs prepositions conjunctions Sentence stress 1. He is driving my car on the school playground. 2. My mother bought me a new skirt yesterday. Sentence stress Note: for pragmatic reason, this rule is not always right, e.g. we may stress any part in the following sentences. 1. He is driving my car on the school playground. 2. My mother bought me a new skirt yesterday. Tone Tones are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords. 1.pitch variations can distinguish meaning just like phonemes. 2.English is not a tone language, but Chinese is. Tone ma 妈 (level) ma 麻 (the second rise) ma 马 (the third rise) ma 骂 (the fourth fall) Intonation important role in the conveyance of meaning in almost every language, , esp. in English When pitch, stress and length variations are tied to the sentence rather than to the word, they are collectively known as intonation. Intonation For instance That’s not the book he wants. English has three major types of intonation: falling tone (matter of fact statement) rising tone (doubts or question) the fall-rise tone (implied message) Try to read the following sentence in different types of intonation. Those who bought quickly made a profit. Grammatical functions of intonations e.g. John didn’t come because of Marry. Within one intonation unit, it means: John came, but it had nothing to do with Marry. With two intonation units, it means: Marry was the reason why John didn’t come. Try to think of the following sentence in different types of intonation. Those who bought quickly made a profit. Try to think of the following sentence in different types of intonation. Those who bought quickly made a profit. Grammatical f