Linguistics 001      Fall 2005     Homework 3      Due Mo 10/3

1. Pick any four consecutive lines from a favorite poem, and write them using the system discussed in the lecture on English pronunciation

Assume careful "dictionary" pronunciation of each word. You can use American pronunciations even if the poem's author clearly assumes British norms of pronunciation. If you decide to use British norms, make it clear that you're doing so.

Try to pick lines whose words you know, or use a dictionary to find the pronunciation of any words that you are not sure of.

2. In the conversational samples linked below, listen for the ways in which the pronunciations used by these two speakers differ from what is in the dictionary. We've given a transcription in ordinary English spelling.

Sample 1: He started questioning me, like uh "what's your social security number", and I said "do you know yours?" He's like "move along, lady, move along", and I'm like "will do!"
Sample 2: Yeah, that's what my friend used to do with his other fish, he used to sell them back to the store. But I thought a few years ago of getting one, but I've moved around so much recently, I mean peop- some people- a lot of people have cats, some people have dogs, I mean I've- I've even seen big- big dogs in small apartments and I don't really see that.
Sample 3: You ever see a picture of the old covered bridge? (( )) Well, there it is, right behind you. ((Oh, mm hmm.)) ((You- that's a- )) turn to the right at the old Magnolia road. Course you can't get to that now. ((Huh.)) But the nearest you can get to it is about three hundred feet back this side.

Find at least two words in each of two samples (four words in all) whose pronunciation is significantly different from the dictionary pronunciation given by a standard (American) dictionary. Compare these pronunciations with the dictionary versions by giving an IPA version of each dictionary pronunciation compared to an IPA transcription of the corresponding word in the recorded version.

In each case, why is the pronuncation different? Reasons might include dialect differences, rapid or reduced ("slurred") speech, or speech production errors. Avoid using partial words broken off by a self-correction.

It may help you to use a computer program that allows you to select a short segment and listen to it over and over again carefully. Some easy-to-use free software of this kind that we can recommend:

Wavesurfer
Audacity

Note on joint work: you're welcome to work together on this assignment, but if you do, multiple the numbers required by the number of people doing the work. Thus if two of you cooperate, then you should transcribe 2x4=8 lines of poetry, and examine the recorded pronunciation of 2x4=8 words in the speech samples. (The set of words selected should come from at least two of the samples).

As usual, please indicate on all joint work who all the authors are.

 
    [course home page]    [lecture schedule]     [homework]