HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY
MID-TERM TEST ON PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY
E-LEARNING CENTRE
Test No: 3 Full name: Khổng Hồng An Date of birth: 01-04-1996
Group: FDNBD217A / 22C7137D1035
Question 1: What is a phoneme? How are phonemes classified? Give examples to illustrate your answer.
Question 2: What is stress? What are the rules applied for affix-words? Give examples to illustrate your answer.
N.B:* -The answers can be typed or written by hand, then changed into PDF form. (HANDWRITING IS PLUS)
-Only answers in PDF form are accepted.
-The assignment which is copied or identical to others will be given mark 0. The answers Question 1:
- A phoneme is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
Ex: PAN and BAN differ only in their initial sound: /p/ and /b/ are phonemes.
- The phonemes are classified into consonants and vowels.
· English has 44 phonemes which include 24 consonants (ex: n, m) , 12 vowels(ex: u:,i: ) and 8 diphthongs (ex: ae, ei).
Ex: Letter “A” can be pronounced: /ə/ in “ago”, /ei/ in “today” or /æ/ in “hat”. Question 2:
- Stress is the prominence given to the syllable. The prominence is made up of 4 factors: clearer, longer, higher and louder. · • 3 types of stress + Word stress + Phrase stress + Sentence stress
Examples: father /'fa: ðə/ , information /|infə'meiʃn/
- The rule applied for affix-words often come into two main types, pre-fix and suffix word.
+ Stress in Pre-fix words:
- Do not affect the stress placement of the root words though some prefixes have their own stress.
Example: honest /’ɔ:nist/ - dishonest /dis ’ɔ:nist/
polite /pə ‘lait/ - impolite /impə ‘lait/
smoking /’sməu kiŋ/ – anti-smoking /’ænti ’sməu kiŋ/
+ Stress in suffix words:
- Suffixes that carry their own stress: ese, ette, esque, ee…
Example : Japan /dʒə ‘pæn/- Japanese /dʒa p ‘ni:z/
- Suffixes that cause the change of stress placement to the preceding syllable: ial, ic, ion, ity…
Examples: president /’pre zi dnt/- presidential /pre zi ‘denʃl/
economy /I ‘kɔ nəmi/- economic /,ikə ‘nɔ mik/
- Suffixes that cause no change to stress placement of the root words: ful, fy, y, er, ness, less, ing, ly, ment…
Example: beauty /’bju ti/ - beautiful / ‘bju ti fəl/ - beautify /’bju ti fai/