History Of English Intonation English Language Essay

History Of English Intonation English Language Essay Many people think that pronunciation is what makes up an accent. It may be that pronunciation is very important for an understandable accent. But it is intonation that gives the final touch that makes an accent native. Intonation is the music of a language, and is perhaps the most important element of a good accent. Often we hear someone speaking with perfect grammar, and perfect formation of the sounds of English but with a little something that gives them away as not being nativespeaker.Therefore, it is necessary to realize that there is more than the correct pronunciation of the vowels and consonants of a language. This is very important and we do stress it in other articles. But it is only one of the three components to an accent, pronunciation, intonation, and linking. In other places we will examine the correct pronunciation of vowels and consonants, and linking, the way that syllables within a word, and the beginning and ending of words come together. Two useful abstractions: To understand how intonational transcription works, you must understand two different kinds of abstractions which the system relies on. The first is a phonetic abstraction, namely that there is something which we can call intonation, a well-defined set of linguistic phenomena all working together to determine the pitch pattern of an utterance. This abstraction is very useful because it is fairly easy to get a good measure of what listeners perceive as the pitch pattern. We can do this by extracting the fundamental frequency of the voiced parts of the utterance, a task which is computationally quite easy. We can then take the fundamental frequency pattern, and analyze it as the result of a set of linguistic categories with a number of specific purposes, and an algorithm which implements the categories as events in the pitch of the utterance. Two points to note here: 1) not all intonational categories have the same function; being an intonational category only means that the category has a specific and categorical effect on the pitch pattern. 2) these categories do not determine all aspects of the pitch pattern; variou s other non-linguistic differences, such as emotional state, degree of involvement in the speech, and individual differences such as ones due to sex, also affect aspects of the pitch pattern. The second is a functional abstraction. These intonational categories can be classified with respect to the two major types of prosodic functions. Prosody can be described as consisting of head mechanisms and edge mechanisms. Head mechanisms are those which act to pick out one piece of an utterance as different than its neighbors, while edge mechanisms indicate which items go with which by marking the edge of a larger grouping. Intonational categories in the English system similarly function either to pick out syllables which are more stressed than their neighbors, or to mark the final edge of a piece of an utterance which is to be interpreted as a group. Edge marking tones boundary tones and phrase tones. The intonational categories which you will likely find most intuitive are the ones which are used to mark edges. One reason for this, I believe, is that the English orthography actually writes some of these differences. For example, consider the following pair of sentences. 1) This is a test sentence. 2) This is a test sentence? If you convert these into speech (by reading them out loud), you will note a very salient difference in the pitch contour at the end. In 1) the pitch falls throughout the last word, often ending with a little bit of creaky voice, while in 2) the pitch rises throughout the last word, perhaps ending higher than anywhere else in the entire sentence. Such differences in pitch pattern reflect discourse-related differences such as is captured by the use of the question mark in 2). At a full stop, our system indicates the possibility of four different contours, the two which appear in likely renditions of 1) and 2), and two more, one which you will likely produce in the non-final members of a slowly rendered list, and one which you might produce when calling someone in for dinner. In the transcription system, you will see these represented in the following way (more or less). The fall in 1) is low throughout, and so is indicated as LL% (two lows with the % indicating the final boundary). The rise in 2) is high throughout, with a very brief rise to a super-high at the end, and so is indicated as HH% (two highs). The so-called list boundary starts low and rises slightly at the end, and so is indicated as LH%. The last one which appears in calling chants is basically high throughout, and differs from the HH% (question marker) in that it does not rise to a super high. Thus, since it is high to start with, it starts with a H, and since it is not as high as the super high at the end, it is relatively low, and so is indicated with a L%. This makes for a neat 4-way distinction as below, given with stereotypical examples of places where you might find them. (Note these are not the only places you will find them!) LL% Terminal fall statements. HH% High plateau with upped high at end covert questions. LH% Low plateau with little rise at end internal to lists. HL% High plateau with no rise to a super-high end of calling chants Head marking tones pitch accents. If you go back and reproduce the items in 1) and 2) again, and this time concentrate on the area aroundtest, you will very likely notice a large difference in pitch pattern in this region in addition to what is going on at the end. The wordtest is a critical portion of the utterance in most prosodic analyses of English, because it is the last item which bears some degree of stress, usually called tonic or sentence stress. I chose this sentence because the words test sentence form a compound, and one of the peculiarities of English compounds is that they are most stressed on the first half. Thus,test is the most stressed syllable in the last content word in the sentence. In stressed locations such as this, English speakers also implement tonal events. Such events are often called pitch accents,, pitch because they involve parts of the pitch pattern, and accents because they are involved in making a particular syllable more prominent. Stressing this syllable makes it stand out from its neighbors. Thus, the tonal events ontest are head-marking events. Here, like the boundary tones just discussed, there are tonal differences associated with different discourse conditions. In 1) you very likely will produce the stressed item with a high pitch somewhere on it, while in 2) you very likely will produce the stressed item with a relatively low pitch. Thus, the difference between vanilla statements and covert questions is not only in the presence of LL% boundary tones in one and in HH% boundary tones in the other, but also in the presence of a H accent in one, but a L accent in the other. Since there is a categorical difference in how you use pitch to stress the tonic item, you need to have a categorical difference between H* and L* accents. (The star here indicates that the tone is associated with the stressed syllable.) In addition to using relatively high and low pitch, there are more complicated rising and falling pitch accents which differ from the simple low and high accents in what they indicate. Our system captures these differences in the local use of pitch in the accent by combining Hs and Ls in various ways to get rises and falls. Thus, in addition to H* which indicates a generally high pitch around the stress and L* which indicates a generally low pitch around the stress, we can also have H+Ls (falling accents), and L+Hs (rising accents). To illustrate the difference between a simple H and a L+H, consider the following two conditions: 3)We will be having you read bunches of utterances for some obscure reason related to why anyone would be interested in linguistics. The first is a test sentence. Its just there for practice. 4)The first is not a real sentence, the first is a test sentence. In producing test sentence in 3), it is likely there will not be an appreciable rise in pitch, while in 4), where it explicitly contrasts with the precedingreal, it is likely that there will be an appreciable rise in pitch from the is a tot est. In fact, it is a general property of contrasting items that they get rendered with a relatively low pitch on the material preceding the stressed item and a sudden rise to a peak on the stressed syllable. If you read over 4) several times, emphasizing the contrast more and more each time, this rising pitch event associated witht est will become more and more apparent.. In 4) the rising accent is seen in the relationship in pitch between the items immediately preceding the stressed syllable and the pitch on the stressed syllable itself. However, there are other examples of rising pitch accents in which the low pitch predominates in the stressed syllable, and the high does not become realized until very late in the syllable or in the following s yllables. Pierrehumbert Hirschberg (1991) discuss fairly clear examples of this accent such as the following: 5) A: Alans such a klutz. B: Hes a good badminton player. Here the intended meaning of the second response is that B is not sure that playing badminton qualifies one as not being a klutz. In the intended rendition there is a low pitch onbad and a rising pitch on the immediately following syllable, and then another fall to a general low ending in LH% phrase tones. Another example they discuss is the following: 6) A: Did you take out the garbage? B: Sort of. A: Sort of!?! Here, the intended rendition of Sort of starts low inso rt and rises, and then falls and rises again at the end. The intended meaning is very much like that in 5), namely, B is not really sure what she did counts as taking out the garbage. As rendition ofsort of in the last line has exactly the same pattern as Bs, a rise throughsort followed by a fall and a rise at the end, though the rises and falls are more exaggerated. Whats important in each of these cases,badminton in 5), and both sort ofs in 6), is that the stressed syllable exhibits a distinctly low pitch and the rise which comes much later than the rise in 4). In order to annotate this difference, Pierrehumbert used the * to indicate which part of the contour is to be associated with the stressed syllable. Thus, the contour in 4) is annotated as a L+H*, since the H part appears on the stressed syllable, and the L part simply comes some time before it. By contrast, the contour in 5) and 6) is annotated as a L*+H, since the L part happens on the stressed syllable, and the H part appears some time thereafter. Pitch Range. : One final aspect of intonational modeling must also be mentioned, that is the notion of pitch range. As I noted above, the tone category sequences do not all by themselves determine the pitch contour for an utterance, but other non-linguistic (non- conventionalized) factors also affect the final realization of pitch. One approach to handling these less conventionalized effects, such as what may be due to emotional involvement, is to allow for modulation of the overall range of the pitch movements. The general approach used in most models is to specify a pitch window, which indicates the range of pitch to be used at any given time. The top of the window is where you find the Hs and the bottom of the window is where you find the Ls. This window can be affected by a number of different factors, which work in different ways. Some factors are global in that they typically affect a large portion of speech. Take, for instance, the effects of emotional involvement. When people get irate, the re is a strong likelihood that the both Hs and Ls will be higher, and that the difference between the Hs and Ls will be bigger. This larger and higher window will often affect entire sentences. You will also likely find such global shifts in window size if you examine how people do narratives which include parentheticals and quotations. Parentheticals often are rendered with a narrower window, while quotes often involve a larger window. Other factors which affect pitch range can be localized to one particular location in the utterance. The most commented upon is the effect of downstep (sometimes called catathesis). Downstep is a very regular lowering and narrowing of the pitch range which happens in the presence of the accents. In Pierrehumberts analysis, any tone which is composed of two tones (the rising L+H and falling H+L accents) also trigger downstep. You can easily imagine this effect in an emphatic rendition of the following sentence. 7)I dont want horses and dogs; I want sheep and cats. If you are contrasting horses with sheep and dogs with cats, you will very likely produce this sentence with L+H accents on all four items (probably L*+H onhorses anddogs, and L+H* onsheep andcat s). If you do so, you will also notice that the second item in each list,dogs andcat s, will both be lower in pitch than the first,horse s, andsheep. This conventionalized lowering is taken to be due to the downstepping effect of the complex rising accents. One can also see this conventionalized downstepping very clearly in phrases with multiple accents rendered in a finger-wagging lecturing style where the clear intent of the style is to indicate that you should know this by now. For example, 8) You just dont seem to get it. Insert tab A into slot B. Repeat it four times. In this situation, the rendition of the last two sentences, which we can assume have been rendered several times before in the extended discourse, will likely not exhibit huge rising or falling accents. Nevertheless, I have heard this sort sentence produced with clear downsteps between each accent. Due to sentences like these, one must conclude that the occurrence of downstep does not necessarily demand the obvious existence of rising or falling accents. In Pierrehumberts analysis, this is due to the H*+L tone category which is locally the same as a plain H*, except that it triggers the lecturing downstep effect. In other systems, such as the ToBI revision, this downstepping is marked with an explicit marker (an exclamation point placed before the affected accent.

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A supervisor Is defined as â€Å"someone who supervises as In a large business or enterprise,† supervise Itself means â€Å"to be In charge of (someone or something) : to watch and direct (someone or something)† this means that the Job Is still built and run with the same basic and fundamental Ideas of dervish, Interpersonal skill and professional actions In day to day work such as hilling and directing as needed. Though the functions of the Job are oriented around a new Idea for the switch, the functions themselves are the same. 2.Do you think that supervision can be learned through books and study or only through experience? Why? I believe that good supervision can be learned through books and study, however, supervision itself is a skill and therefore must be taught hands on not only through study. Experience is a key to learning a skill such as supervision because it involves instructing others what to do, one cannot have the confidence to lead others by nearly read ing a book and Jumping in. In order to learn how to lead and supervise you must have the experience of being in command preceded by the experience learned in books and study. 3.Explain the glass ceiling: The glass ceiling refers to the concept that states that the majority of successful business leaders and supervisors are â€Å"white male† and there is an invisible barrier now as â€Å"the glass ceiling' holding women and minorities back from progression in the business world. Diversity is very slowly growing in business however this still seems to be a problem. Greater diversity is a need because in today's world a business must have different languages and cultural viewpoints, the glass ceiling prevents this. 4. Explain entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are people who start, manage, work In and operate their own businesses. Pond these tasks an entrepreneurs must also proved the professional did of supervision to their own company, Including all the liableness, risk and taxe s. The rewards of entrepreneurship are great personal accomplishment and profit If done properly. Mod 1 By Sketchbooks would also do well at a bank. A supervisor is defined as â€Å"someone who supervises as in a large business or enterprise,† supervise itself means â€Å"to be in charge of that the Job is still built and run with the same basic and fundamental ideas of leadership, interpersonal skill and professional actions in day to day work such as ring and directing as needed.Though the functions of the Job are oriented around a new idea for the switch, the functions themselves are the same. Known as â€Å"the glass ceiling† holding women and minorities back from progression in Entrepreneurs are people who start, manage, work in and operate their own businesses. Upon these tasks an entrepreneurs must also proved the professional side of supervision to their own company, including all the liabilities, risk and taxes.

Consumer Profiling for Zara Home USA

The Situation CUSTOMER PROFILING In 2010, eMarketer reported that 71% of Americans use the internet. They estimated that figure would grow to 78% by 20141. The latest figures by Internet World Stats show that, in 2012, 78% of Americans are already using the Internet2. Internet use is growing at breakneck speeds, and internet shopping is a big part of that use increase. As an exclusively e-commerce outlet in the United States, Zara Home could view every American internet user as a potential customer.However, Zara Home products are targeted toward women in the age group of 18-34. 27% of the total American population online falls in that age bracket3, almost evenly distributed between men (51%) and women (49%)4. The target audience for Zara Home can therefore, be narrowed down to approximately 13-14% of the American population – women who actively use the internet. The Zara Home target is extremely active online. Usage5 statistics show that they have very high awareness of digita l media beyond simply browsing, including social media, mobile and video.This high engagement and activity is an advantage for the brand. Zara Home must now identify which smaller targets within this group will be most open to the brand’s specific, timely and relevant information. It is extremely important to find niche targets that will integrate the brand into their digital experience. Keeping this insight in mind, two niche targets are suggested: Social Moms and Generation â€Å"Connected† Women.These niche targets add up to roughly 62 million potential customers for Zara Home,6 though there is bound to be overlap between the two groups. 1 2 http://www. emarketer. com/Article. aspx? R=1007519 http://www. internetworldstats. com/stats14. htm 3 http://www. emarketer. com/Article. aspx? R=1007519 4 http://www. emarketer. com/Article. aspx? R=1008382 5 http://www. emarketer. com/Article. aspx? R=1008382 6 http://www. emarketer. com/Article. aspx? R=1008085 4

Water Pollution In The Western Region Of US - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 797 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2019/04/15 Category Ecology Essay Level High school Tags: Water Pollutions Essay Did you like this example? Water Pollution in the West Water pollution is a major concern in the Western region of the United States, especially in California. According to the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), Every year roughly $10 Billion is spent on water pollution control in California, with the vast majority being for site specific sources of pollution such as wastewater treatment(Chappelle, Hanak). Water pollution comes from point and nonpoint sources. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Water Pollution In The Western Region Of US" essay for you Create order Storm water runoff is a nonpoint source that can lead to harmful chemicals ending up in the water supply. California has passed laws requiring cities to limit and clean up pollution from storm water runoff. However, the new storm water regulations are largely ineffective. Currently in the City of San Diego alone, it is estimated that over 2400 businesses were operating without the necessary water pollution control permit(Rivard). The state of California and its cities lack the necessary resources to ensure businesses comply with their water pollution control laws. San Joaquin Valley has the worst water pollution problem in California. Unsurprisingly, the majority of the people affected are from small rural counties which are disproportionately poor and Latino. Some residents are unaware of the water pollution problem due to a lack of information, being unable to understand the language the information is displayed in, and the fact that private water wells are not required to undergo testing. Pollutants such as pesticides, arsenic, nitrates and various other toxic substances can be found in the water. According to the PPIC, Solutions for at-risk communities statewide would require additional expenditures of $30â€Å"$160 million annually, and this number is likely to grow as requirements are tightened(Chappelle, Hanak). Clean water should be a basic human right and the benefits of having clean water far outweigh the cost of providing clean water. All humans, animals and plants need water to survive so it is important for water to be minimally polluted. Some possible remedies for this problem include giving tax incentives to companies who control their pollution, fining companies for polluting the water, increasing information to community members and policy makers, empowering minorities, and altering public policies to make them more effective. Additionally, in poorer areas such as San Joaquin Valley water quality laws should focus on vertical equity to make sure all incomes have access to clean water not just richer areas. These remedies can greatly ease and possibly eliminate some of the water pollution concerns in California. In California, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada droughts are a major water quality concern as they significantly increase pollutants in the water. Relatively recently, Arizona, California, Utah, and Nevada have all been impacted by droughts. Research suggests that Lake Mead â€Å" a reservoir that supplies water to over 25 million people in California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada has shrunk to record lows(Plumer). Climate change and weather patterns can be seen as potential causes for the droughts. There are not many benefits to droughts, however droughts can raise awareness and interest in water quality projects. A main problem during droughts is that a rivers flow decreases due to decreased amounts of water. The low flow and accompanying temperature increase leads to low levels of oxygen in the water. Living organisms need oxygen to survive, so the decreased oxygen levels greatly threaten wildlife and can cause algal blooms. Algal blooms can destroy water supplies because they produce toxi ns that are harmful to humans. Also, droughts can cause the salinity of water to increase which threatens agriculture. Two possible ways to control algal blooms include aerating the water to ensure it is getting enough oxygen, and using ultrasound waves to combat algae growth. Prevention and using strategies to limit the pollution are the most cost effective ways to ensure that water quality is not affected by algae. Additionally, there is technology that can be used to desalinate water through the process of reverse osmosis. This technology can remove the saline pollutant from the water, but it is a very costly process. Investing in this technology now would be very beneficial because as the climate continues to change and droughts become more prevalent, water supplies will be limited and desalinization can help fix the quality of water and make it drinkable for humans. Policy solutions should be in place aimed at preventing droughts because it is much more cost effective to try and prevent and limit droughts then to deal with the impacts of one. Works Cited Chappelle, Caitrin, and Ellen Hanak. Californias Water Quality Challenges.Public Policy Institute of California, 2015, www.ppic.org/publication/californias-water-quality-challenges/. Plumer, Brad. Lake Mead Helps Supply Water to 25 Million People. And It Just Hit A New Record Low. Vox, Vox, 23 May 2016, www.vox.com/2016/5/23/11736340/lake-mead-water-drought-southwest. Rivard, Ry. Californias Stormwater Regulations Are Themselves a Toxic Mess.Water, News Deeply, 10 Jan. 2017, www.newsdeeply.com/water/articles/2017/01/12/californias-stormwater-regulations-are-themselves-a-toxic-mess.