找回密码
 立即注册

QQ登录

只需一步,快速开始

教程经验总索引TVMW5/小日本5 索引【视频转换】小日本4/TE4XP 索引【视频转换】TAW4 / TDA3 索引【DVD打包软件】
Nero 索引DVD-Lab 索引【DVD打包软件】编解码器 索引 【必读】固顶帖011号
查看: 3969|回复: 0

语调和重音:理解和交流的关键(英文版)

[复制链接]

9328

威望

300

金钱

1万

贡献

管理员

自由的灵魂

积分
99875
主题
5265
回帖
26222
注册时间
2003-4-10
最后登录
2024-4-26
发表于 2005-1-23 09:19:47 | 显示全部楼层 |阅读模式

马上注册,结交更多好友,享用更多功能,让你轻松玩转社区。

您需要 登录 才可以下载或查看,没有账号?立即注册

×
本帖最后由 IsaacZ 于 2010-5-20 07:19 编辑

Intonation and Stress: Key to Understanding and Being Understood
(语调和重音:理解和交流的关键)

Try this short exercise Say this sentence aloud and count how many seconds it takes. The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance. Time required? Probably about 5 seconds. Now, try speaking this sentence aloud. He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening. Time required? Probably about 5 seconds. Wait a minute the first sentence is much shorter than the second sentence! The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening

You are only partially right!

This simple exercise makes a very important point about how we speak and use English. Namely, English is considered a stressed language while many other languages are considered syllabic. What does that mean? It means that, in English, we give stress to certain words while other words are quickly spoken (some students say eaten!). In other languages, such as French or Italian, each syllable receives equal importance (there is stress, but each syllable has its own length).

Many speakers of syllabic languages don't understand why we quickly speak, or swallow, a number of words in a sentence. In syllabic languages each syllable has equal importance, and therefore equal time is needed. English however, spends more time on specific stressed words while quickly gliding over the other, less important, words.

Let's look at a simple example: the modal verb "can". When we use the positive form of "can" we quickly glide over the can and it is hardly pronounced. They can come on Friday. On the other hand, when we use the negative form "can't" we tend to stress the fact that it is the negative form by also stressing "can't". They can't come on Friday.

As you can see from the above example the sentence, "They can't come on Friday" is longer than "They can come on Friday" because both the modal "can't" and the verb "come" are stressed.

So, what does this mean for my speaking skills?

Well, first of all, you need to understand which words we generally stress and which we do not stress. Basically, stress words are considered CONTENT WORDS such as * Nouns e.g. kitchen, Peter * (most) principle verbs e.g. visit, construct * Adjectives e.g. beautiful, interesting * Adverbs e.g. often, carefully

Non-stressed words are considered FUNCTION WORDS such as * Determiners e.g. the, a, some, a few * Auxiliary verbs e.g. don't, am, can, were * Prepositions e.g. before, next to, opposite * Conjunctions e.g. but, while, as * Pronouns e.g. they, she, us

Let's return to the beginning example to demonstrate how this affects speech. The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance. (14 syllables) He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening. (22 syllables)

Even though the second sentence is approximately 30% longer than the first, the sentences take the same time to speak. This is because there are 5 stressed words in each sentence. From this example, you can see that you needn't worry about pronouncing every word clearly to be understood (we native speakers certainly don't). You should however, concentrate on pronouncing the stressed words clearly.
IsaacZ的发言中如果提到任何字母缩写或专有名词,在本论坛中一般都能搜索到。点此立即搜索点拨论坛。如有搜索不到的,请尝试搜索百度百科,或者跟帖提问。
发帖前请注意看置顶帖。如果你发现自己的问题没有得到回答,说明你的问题提错了地方或者提问前未先阅读本版规则固顶帖011号
您需要登录后才可以回帖 登录 | 立即注册

本版积分规则

QQ|Archiver|手机版|小黑屋|点拨论坛

GMT+8, 2024-4-27 02:41 , Processed in 0.101467 second(s), 3 queries , Redis On.

Powered by Discuz! X3.5

© 2001-2024 Discuz! Team.

快速回复 返回顶部 返回列表