Content and Function Words

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English Pedagogy English Phonetics and Phonology: Supra-segmentals, Second Term 2012
Text One: Identify the lexical units that can be categorized as Function Words in the following text. As we saw during last semester here at Ucinf, and as you might recall then, you might know that English is a language in which word stress is highly important and significant for effective communication. You might also remember that we can make a syllable more prominent than others by altering or, rather, modifying the speech energy through our vocal tract and by the direct and indirect actions from our articulators. As we perceive such prominent syllables, stressed ones are notoriously higher in pitch and usually longer in duration. Reduced syllables, on the opposite, are often lower in pitch and usually pronounced or uttered very, very quickly. For example, when uttering the sentence a) "My moms at the store, the lexical units Moms' and store will be higher in pitch. Such words will then receive more prominence, and therefore, be stressed in this utterance (a). In the same example, then, the lexical units 'at' and 'the' are sounded very quickly: at the, at the, and they're also lower in pitch: My moms at the store A relevant and important question then arises from here on: How do we know which lexical units within a sentence should receive more prominence and, therefore, be stressed? Lexical units that are usually stressed in a sentence are called content words. Words that are not usually stressed, sometimes reduced, are called function words. A noun can be a person, place, or thing. For example, Rachel, sister, glass, phone, beach, school. In the instance given earlier (a), "My moms at the store, both Mom and store are classified as nouns. A verb is the part of speech that communicates the principal action in one idea (usually depicted within a single sentence). Such actions can be drive, eat, say, think, etc. In the sentence (b) "He went to the bank," went is the part of speech communicating the main action, so it is the verb, and when uttering this sentence or even hearing it, then it will be rather noticeable that such lexical unit is more prominent than other syllables: It is higher in pitch. Continuing with the same example, the lexical unit store is also higher in pitch, therefore, it is a prominent syllable. It is a noun, which is also a content word. An adverb is a lexical unit that describes the performance of a particular action, so it modifies it. Adverbs often, though not always, morphologically end in -lee. Examples of such parts of speech can be quietly, quickly, often, usually. In the following sentence (c) "I'll be here soon", 'soon' is the adverb. It is stressed, higher in pitch. An adjective is a lexical unit that denotes and describes another lexical unit - a noun. For example: boring, smart, funny. In the following utterance (d) "They took the blue car," red is the adjective. It is stressed, higher in pitch. So these are the four principal categories of content words.
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Text Two: Identify the lexical units that can be categorized as Function Words in the following text. Now lets look at the following example, (e) Sometimes it's hard to walk in a single woman's shoes. Which words did you hear as being stressed, higher in pitch? If you can read this sentence in normal circumstances and aloud you might be able to identify that there are three lexical units which are uttered more prominently than other syllables. Such words can be: hard, single, and shoes. From a content word perspective, and considering the parts of speech, we can say that they correspond to two adjectives and one noun. Now, those were not the only content words in the sentence. 'Sometimes' is an adverb, that's a content word. But 'hard' was stressed at a higher level. Walk is a verb, again a content word, but it wasn't brought out as high as the other ones. The word 'to' was reduced so it corresponded to a weak realization of such word. In the part where In a is located, such words were also reduced. Then, during the realization of single woman's shoes, the word woman, again, is a noun, but it wasn't stressed as much as 'single' or 'shoes'. So you can see, or rather hear, in this sentence, all of the stressed words were content words, but not every one of the content words was stressed. Do the same analysis with the following example: (f) Bob and I finally received our wedding give from Michael
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Text Three: Identify the lexical units that can be categorized as Function Words in the following text. From text two, in the example (f) Bob and I finally received our wedding give from Michael, the analysis should be something closer to the following explanation. Were you closer or farther away? Bob and I, Bob is stressed more than 'and I'. 'Finally' is given the most stress here. It's an adverb. Received is a verb, but it's not as high as 'finally'. The stress is on 'finally', as if they've been waiting for it. In: Our wedding gift, wedding gift being a noun, from Michael, Michael also being a noun. These content words are just to give you an idea of what might be stressed in a sentence. There are always exceptions, for example, in the following sentence: (g) Now let the world come to you. The word 'you' was stressed in this sentence. You is a pronoun, which is a function word, not a content word. So it is normally not stressed in a sentence, but they did stress it here for emphasis. And you will find that sometimes words that are not content words are stressed within a sentence usually do draw attention and emphasis to that idea.
Adapted from: http://rachelsenglish.com/intro_content_words
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Class on August 23rd, 2012
Do they hate each other? I saw somebody at the window. There was a ring from her boyfriend. There should be some more in the fridge. We were going to visit her friends. She doesn't look as old as me. When do you get the results of your tests? I was at home from eight o'clock. This class gets completely boring sometimes. Its rather natural for children to love nature. Certain types of plants are typically grown indoors. Her hair was a real mess. Do you know what the word ward means? The dress she wore wasnt worth much. Those sandwiches looked and smelled pretty delicious. They cut fiscal expenditures for physical education. The mystery had been resolved pretty mysteriously. Eber doesnt eber eberly. Big black dogs chase small white cats. Shed love to look at the moon and stars at nights. You shouldve talked to her. If I had known you were coming to the party, I wouldve met you at the bus stop. Well...you always argue about everything Im trying to say. One boy got into trouble about smoking. You shouldve expressed your ideas in other words. He removed his clothes from the washing machine and put them away. Speech is a process that involves several stages. Speech is not only mental activity but also a muscular activity. When learning a sport such as tennis, you need to learn how to make your muscles do what you want them to do and you need to practice to get those muscles to perform regularly. The rhythm of the English language in speech involves the alternation of strong or stressed syllables and weak or unstressed ones, in which the strong ones are uttered longer, clearer and sometimes in higher pitch.
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Weak Forms of Function Words. As weve been talking about so far, your own repertoire of lexical units can be formally classified according to two major groups of lexical units: Content and Function words. Generally, it is the content word which carries the most prominent aspect within a single idea, embedded within a particular grammatical configuration. In such communicative situations, it is rather general to have Function words receive no prominence at all, thus influencing the way such lexical units are uttered or pronounced. Such function words are pronounced then in their contracted, or weak, forms. Some of the weak forms can be seen in the following chart. As usual with these kinds of exercises, youre supposed to read out the sentences out loud in order to practice your pronunciation and fluency as well. Function Word Type Personal pronouns Possessive determiners Each other, one another Articles Determiners some & any Indefinite pronouns when being the object of verbal phrase. There + be, used as an introductory phrase Auxiliary verbs & Modal verbs Prepositions Conjunctions Examples She saw me. Hes my brother They were hitting each other. Its an email. Do you want some? / Have you got any? I didnt see anyone Theres some cake left. He was late. I can hear it. Theyre from Spain. Hes older than me.
What comes now is a series of mini-dialogues illustrating some common communicative situations. Again, identify content and function words and practice your fluency and general pronunciation by reading the sentences out loud as many times as necessary. I strongly recommend you to do such activities together with another person; in that way one can produce the sentences while the other listens attentively and then you can swop roles. Eventhough such mini-dialogues are directed towards specific sections within class, the more you practice the more chances you get for improving your fluency and general pronunciation. As Underhill (1994)1 suggested weak forms are intimately related to the velocity of our speech. The faster your speech is, the more weak forms. And therefore, effective use of weak forms will provide naturalness, clarity and will eventually lead the L2 learner to better listening skills and much improved self-confidence in terms of language command. So I honestly recommend you to incorporate weak forms into your own language repertoire if wanting to improve and take your actual language command to even further manipulation.
Underhill, A. (2005). Sound Foundations: Learning and Teaching Pronunciation. Great Britain: Macmillan Education.
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Dialogues. Cases for analysis and practice work. (Section D1) Case# some A: That ice-cream looks really nice. B: Do you want some? Case# some A: Im really thirsty. B: Theres some orange juice in the kitchen. Case# would A: Do you think I should apologise? B: Yes, Im sure that would help Case# would A: Did you get a 7,0 on the Phonetics test? B: No, I pronounced would wrong. Case# were A: I was in Via last weekend. B: What were you doing in there? Case# were A: Why werent you guys at the party last night? B: But we were. Case# from A: What have you got in there, Nataly? / What do you have in there, Nataly? B: Its a present from David. Case# from A: Is this a card for Ms. Iturrietas Bday? B: No, its from Ms. Iturrieta. Case# your A: Why did you have mark it wrong? B: You wrote your instead of you.
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Case# your A: Were off to_______________ again in the summer. B: Are you going with your sister? Case# for A: Can I borrow your car? B: What do you want it for? Case# for A: Has the phone just rung? B: Yes, it was for Gonzalo.
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Dialogues. Cases for analysis and practice work. (Section D2) Case# some A: That beer looks really nice. B: Do you want some? Case# some A: Im really thirsty. B: Theres some sangria in the kitchen. Case# would A: Do you think I should apologise? B: Yes, Im sure that would help Case# would A: Did you get a 100% on the Phonetics test? B: No, I pronounced would wrong. Case# were A: I was in Via last weekend. B: What were you doing in there? Case# were A: Why werent you guys at the party last night? B: But we were. Case# from A: What have you got in there, Vanessa? / What do you have in there, Vanessa? B: Its a present from Eber. Case# from A: Is this a card for Davids Bday? B: No, its from David. Case# your A: Why did you have mark it wrong? B: You wrote your instead of you.
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Case# your A: Were off to_______________ again in the summer. B: Are you going with your sister? Case# for A: Can I borrow your car? B: What do you want it for? Case# for A: Has the phone just rung? B: Yes, it was for Valentina.
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Articulatory Exercises: Experiencing How Vocal Folds Go Up & Down

Locate your hand on your larynx while reproducing such vowels consecutively, first with a pause in between and then continuously. Your vocal folds will experience fascinating movements as you vary the pitch of your voice. If you utter a vowel with a high pitch (pronounced more intensely) then your vocal folds should go...guess where?...Voila! high or up. If you utter such vowels with a low pitch (less intense), then your vocal folds will have to move...guessed it?...low or down. HIGH-LOW Uh oh Monday Fifty Coming Later Hey Hello Yes No FALLING Ill have an apple Well see you tomorrow This mightve been impossible She runs in the morning. Another one Now. Hello. Im on the phone. Its in your book. Itll be seeing you. Fortunately. The refrigerator. LOW-HIGH Uh oh? Monday? Fifty? Coming? Later? Hey? Hello? Yes? No? RISING Ill have an apple? Well see you tomorrow? This mightve been impossible? She runs in the morning? Another one? Now? Hello? Im on the phone? Its in your book? Itll be seeing you? Fortunately? The refrigerator? LEVEL Uh oh... Monday... Fifty ... Coming ... Later ... Hey... Hello... Yes ... No ... LEVEL Ill have an apple... Well see you tomorrow ... This mightve been impossible... She runs in the morning... Another one... Now... Hello... Im on the phone... Its in your book... Itll be seeing you... Fortunately... The refrigerator...
And now with a slight change, actually contextualizing some phrases...
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Dialogues for Practicing Fluency and Intonation (1)
A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B:
Can you recommend somewhere for a holiday? What an odd coincidence! I was just going to tell you about our holiday! Really? Where did you go? The south of France? No, this time we went to the South of Chile. Oh, you went to Chile, did you? You were thinking about it the last time we met. Oh yes, I mentioned it to you, didnt I? You were thinking of Valdivia, werent you? Frutillar. But we didnt go there in the end. Didnt you? Where did you go? Where? To Aysen. Thats on the coast, isnt it? Was the weather good? Reasonably good. Tell me about the prices there, would you? They werent too bad. You should go there and try it. But you ought to go soon. But thank you very much for your advice. Good luck. Have a good time. Thank you. Goodbye.
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Sentence Stress and Intonation: Extending Generosity & Sharing Thoughts Intonation can be roughly said to correspond to the melody of speech or the fluctuations that take place in the pitch of our voice, fully controlled by our vocal folds (Crystal, 2004; Dauer, 1995). As we have been observing and witnessing, segmented features (consonant and vowel sounds) together with stress itself convey no meaning at all apart from their corresponding isolated forms. However, once communication takes place, then subtleties, or peculiarities, of meaning are easily conveyed through the aspect of intonation. Intonation is, then, intimately related to the meaning we, human beings, want to convey, and to the grammatical constructions or configurations associated to a particular and shared medium of communication: language. In our case this medium corresponds with the English language. Having total control over intonation, or fluctuations of pitch within human speech, we can simply assign a very rich variety of, say, emotions, certain attitudes towards our listeners (other actors in the communication process), etc to our speech in a foreign language. The difficulty of acquiring intonation patterns related to this foreign language is that you, whose native one might be a romance language: Spanish, usually transfer certain melodic contours belonging to this native language while the English one, and Anglo-Saxon language, uses different melodic patterns to different meanings. So what do you then? It might sound sort of clich, but the reality to get familiar with English intonation patterns is through, first, becoming aware of how pitch controls our voice, how our voice can fluctuate from high to low tones, and the location of the most important pieces of information to be conveyed in a particular communicative setting. Once aware of such fluctuations, then you can easily put together such tones on particular lexical units or phrases to reproduce the intonation patterns in the English language through constant and efficient reproduction. For you to remember, it is actually necessary that every single utterance, independently of its extension and grammatical sophistication, must contain a major change in pitch, either through a falling one, a rising one, a level one, or a rich mix of such fluctuations. This change in pitch will correspond to our sentence stress in which the most notorious change or prominent part will be our nucleus of such sentence stress. Surrounding such nucleus, we can find the initiation of such change and its corresponding conclusion. These will correspond to an onset element (everything possibly located before the nucleus) and a coda element (everything that might be after our nucleus), respectively. The placement of the nucleus in a determined sentence is intimately related to you, the speaker, since it is you who actually decide on which lexical unit, or combination of them, prominence will fall providing that this location satisfy the communication process. To simplify this idea, then, we can easily and simply say that in the English language, the location of a nucleus element within a sentence usually happens to be on its last content lexical unit before a pause or potential pause. If this helps out compensate the difficulties of this challenging endeavour, I can say that you are not alone. So, enjoy the melodic ride! Freddy Espinoza
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Making function words prominent. As we have seen, such function words are usually pronounced without any prominence, provided that we are under normal communicative situations. However, we can make such function words more prominent in special situations to satisfy a variety of communicative purposes. Have a look at the following dialogues. As you can notice, there are some words in bold. Underline the lexical units that are likely to be more prominent. And then try to practice them by reading it aloud as fast as you can. Remember that intonation goes intimately related to fluency. The more fluent you are then the more natural you sound and less communicative problems you encounter.
A: B: A: B:
Dialogue # One Do you know of any good restaurants in here? Well, I havent been here for some years, but there used to be some very good ones. The Sartn Loca was the place to eat local food. Mmm. I do like trying local food. But Im sure any of the restaurants here will be good. Dialogue # Two
A: B: A: B: A: B: A:
Try turning the tap off. I have tried turning it, but its stuck. Did you ask anyone for help? No. Look, why dont you try? Okay. Hmmm. There must be some way of doing it. I did tell you it was stuck. There. It just needed some power! Anyone could have done it!
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Making your speech more natural and more fluent (1) As Ive been repeating it during the last sessions so far: intonation goes hand in hand with the feature of fluency. This is extraordinarily necessary for better intonation patterns to be incorporated within your own language repertoire. Thus, a question that naturally arises then has to do with How can I make my L2 speech more fluent then? well, apart from the usual response from all your teachers in Practice and practice, the most effective way to decrease the distance between the fluency level wanted to be achieved and your actual level of language command is through practicing contracted forms. So, voila! Contracted Function form d Had Would s ll ve re nt Is Has Will Have Are Not Pronunciation /d/ after vowel sounds: Id already seen it before. /d/ after consonant sounds: Itd be a wonderful idea to practice more. /s/ after the following consonant sounds /p/ /t/ /k/ /f/ //, it is interesting /z/ after other consonant sounds: Shes left home already. /l/ as in Ill get it, dont worry /v/ after vowel sounds as in Youve got an email from them. /v/ after consonant sounds as in I couldve gone to that soccer match. /r/ before vowel sounds as in Were all right in here. // before consonant sounds as in Were beating them all at Mortal Kombat. /nt/ as in She hasnt got any piece of information to give.
Remember too that such contracted forms are very uncommon when writing in English, even if such forms are fully written they are normally uttered in their contracted forms. And very often it happens that you might encounter two consecutive contracted forms, like in the following examples which are to be read out loud as fast as you can. Would/will + have Not + have Illve finished it by tomorrow /ailv fnit it bai tmr/ Hedve loved to have been there /hidv lvd t hv bn e/ She couldntve knwon anything about it /kdnvnnenibatt/ I wouldntve minded doing it in front of the class. /awdnvmandddutnfrntvkls/
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Making your speech more natural and more fluent (2) Continuing with more exercises on how to make your speech more fluent and sound more natural, and therefore, minimize the chances for experiencing communication breakdowns, here are some more mini-dialogues to practice both specific pronunciations of contracted forms as well as to practice overall features of pronunciation in the English language. Match part A of these mini-dialogues to their correspondent part B. In each of both parts, identify their corresponding content words or more prominent words by circling/underlining them. Then start practicing by reading them aloud. A: Hes leaving now A: Were arriving at ten. A: I havent got any money on me. (UK) A: I dont have any money on me. (Am) A: Do you think itd be okay to camp here? A: You shouldve taken the job. A: I suppose youve heard Toms idea? A: Im starving. ___ B: Lets ask that farmer. ___ B: I thought hed gone already. ___ B: Yes, I think its ridiculous. ___ ___ ___ ___ B: Itll be good to see you. B: Well, lets eat now. B: Dont worry. Ive got my credit card. B: Youre right. I should.
As explained before, contracted forms are spoken forms of written format or organized lexical units in grammatical configurations. So when speaking, its absolutely normal, and further recommendable, to use contracted forms even if written forms are in long ones. For example, you might find the following sentence: Those are too big, but these will fit. The underlined lexical units are the ones that in normal and fluent speech should be uttered in their contracted forms. The production of such sentence should be something like:
|ztubg|btizlft
Can you utter such sentence following the IPA symbols and especially, giving the intonation contour indicated in the above transcription? In normal speech, these two ideas, utterances, should be clearly pronounce in, say, ONE SECOND and, maybe, with one or three milliseconds more extra. Like in the following exercises, with which youre supposed to so the same practice, identify content words, practice pronunciation, fluency, intonation and contracted forms. N 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 SENTENCES / UTTERANCES My feet will get wet because my shoes have got holes in them. There is no butter, but this will do instead. I am sure David would help you if he could. How did they know we would be there? Diego has phoned to say he is not ready to go yet, but he will call again when he is. (no more that 4 secs) There have been four parcels delivered for you while you have been away. (no more than 2 secs) What will you do if Freddy has already gone?
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Breaking Speech into Units (1): Breath Groups

Once appreciated the use of identifying content from function words in a given sentence, it is the time for recognizing that when speaking, we actually divide our speech in units due to the fact that our speech is embedded within our respiratory system. Such units are known as Breath Groups. Thus, then, an utterance can be defined easily as the portion of speech located between ...you guessed it?...pauses. Every breath groups must contain a Nucleus, meaning there must be a syllable that stands out from the rest, and therefore, made more prominent. And it is that syllable, within a lexical unit, usually of a content-word nature, that carries the principal melody in such utterance. Have a look at the following dialogue, and try to identify the pauses and within each utterance, identify the main prominent word: the one that carries the most important and relevant piece of information. And start practising it out loud. A: B: A: B: A: B: Have you got much work on just now? Dr. Goetz has given us a very hard essay, but I mustnt get a low mark this time. I had an argument with my tutor last week. What happened? Well, I couldnt find my coursework, so I asked for a couple of days extra. He got really annoyed with me and complained I was always late for lectures. Anyway, I told him I thought his course was a waste of time. Did you? Well, at least Dr. Goetz doesnt shout at us, although Im not very confident that Ill pass his exam.
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Breaking Speech into Units (2): Breath Groups Identication

Have a look at the following portion of speech. Where are the breath groups located? Text One
I can remember as children we were rather naughty once we stuck a picture of an elephant on the back of our teachers jacket before he went out of the class of course he couldnt see it so he didnt know why everyone was laughing at him until he got home and took it off
Text Two
Thats the main thing and then if youve got any questions afterwards hopefully well still have time to go through a few of them is that okay
Text Three
Shed left when she had a baby and then decided not to go back although the job had been kept open for her
Text Four
Gonzalo dear wheres the advert for this calculator because I dont know the address and I dont know who Ive got to make the check payable to
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Breaking Speech into Units (3): Breath Groups Identication

All of the following sentences should be divided into three major breath units. Identify the boundaries of them and practice reading them aloud as many times as necessary for fluency to develop in your own command. Text One
when you read it carefully it doesnt say anything thats very critical
Text Two
When I woke up I didnt even realise what time it was

Text Three
Of course its written in a language that hardly anyone can understand

Text Four
I was working late because they want it done as quickly as possible

Text Five
Because he was ill I didnt expect him to come to class

Text Six
If I get some time Ill be over on the weekend to see you both
Text Seven
Luckily we havent had any rain since the day we arrived

Text Eight
It should never have been built in my opinion this new office building
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Predicting the Locations of Breath Groups (4)

This exercise has to be done while listening to the mp3 file attached to it, otherwise it wont work. As you go listening try to assign the boundaries for the breath groups that you can identify. You can listen to it as many times as possible.
To describe marble first you have to define metamorphic rock. Metamorphic rock is rock thats, uh, changed, from one kind of rock to another. Ummm marble comes from a softer rock thats called limestone, which is a sedimentary rock. Marble is a hard rock. Marble comes in various colours. Like other metamorphic rocks, it is so strong that it is often used for building. Supermarkets have been successful for two main reasons. The first reason is that costs are low. One reason the costs are low is...uh...that supermarkets buy in huge quantities. This is called...lets see...economy of scale.
The Complete Guide to the Toefl iBT p64, including a listening activity for this exercise. And there are more activities related to breath groups.
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This exercise has to be done while listening to the mp3 file attached to it, otherwise it wont work. As you go listening try to assign the boundaries for the breath groups that you can identify. You can listen to it as many times as possible.
Now, most of you in the class know how I feel about medical research done on animals. I oppose it, no matter why...no matter what the justification. But...for the sake of fairness, I wanted you to see this article that my colleague in the biology department, Professor White, wrote for our departmental journal. At the heart of his argument is the professors claim that animal experimentation
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From Tips for Pronunciation, (Flashdrive), p51
P52 Then thought groups: (p.52 onwards) Starting form the sentence: Its not too late to find a room at a national park this season. P85 deals with the aspect of intonation in English starting with a pragmatic issue: that of rising intonation associated with unfinished sentences or ideas, and that of falling ones with those finished, completed ideas.
Interesting example to illustrate the idea of intonation and communicative meanings. (p88)
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Class on August 23rd, 2012

Articulatory Exercises: Experiencing How Vocal Folds Go Up & Down

And now with a slight change, actually contextualizing some phrases...

Dialogues for Practicing Fluency and Intonation (1)

Breaking Speech into Units (1): Breath Groups

Breaking Speech into Units (2): Breath Groups Identication

Breaking Speech into Units (3): Breath Groups Identication

When I woke up I didnt even realise what time it was

Of course its written in a language that hardly anyone can understand

I was working late because they want it done as quickly as possible

Because he was ill I didnt expect him to come to class

Luckily we havent had any rain since the day we arrived

Predicting the Locations of Breath Groups (4)

Predicting the Locations of Breath Groups (5)

Predicting the Locations of Breath Groups (1)

From Tips for Pronunciation, (Flashdrive), p51

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