Lakhasly

But hearing and seeing are not enough.Compare "I'd never say THAT" with one focus and "I / would NEVer / say THAT" with three. Typically, when speech is represented in print, italics are sometimes used to indicate the accent, but this is done only sporadically and unevenly; our writing system largely neglects this important element of spoken communication. A written transcript of a speech can be highly misleading because it is only a partial rendition of that speech. In speech there is always an accent in some part of an utterance, and placement of accent in different parts of an utterance creates differences of meaning. Y 3 Whatdid O D 4 What I

In the English language accent is mobile, enabling us to communicate different meanings by putting the emphasis in different places. The usual place is on the last important word, for instance: My cousin is an ARchitect. If the utterance is broken into two or more sense groups, each group has its own accent. The last accent is ordinarily the most prominent of all because the pitch changes on that syllable. My COUsin is an ARchitect. My cousin EDward, who lives in FULton, is an ARchitect. Thus the speaker can highlight one word or several words in an utterance and give special focus to that word or those words. The placement of accent on different words ties the utterance to what has been said preciously. For example, in reply to the question "What does your cousin do?," one might say My cousin's Edward's an ARchitecht.As speakers we typically hesitate as we figure what we intend to say; we put in 'fillers' ("Well"; "As a matter of fact..."); we repeat; we correct ourselves ("I mean"); we appeal to the addressee's understanding ("You know"). So even a short utterance like the one above can come out this way: Well, I'll uh let you know (pause) the answer (pause) as soon - as soon as I get the information (pause) from a friend of mine (pause) who lives in Winchester. 16 Introducing English Semantics This may look strange on the printed page because in written English we are used to seeing the result of careful planning and polishing but conversational speech is scarcely ever planned and polished. Practice 2.1 Context and meaning The meaning of any language symbol depends to some extent on the context in which it occurs. Here are two 'narratives' that are rather vague because a lot of details are missing, but in each group the mere collocation of the words that are there tells a sort of story. (a) ... pain ... clinic ... doctor ... examine ... surgery ... hospital ... nurses ... surgeon ... successful operation ... quick recovery (b) ... rocket ... preparation ... countdown ... blastoff ... orbit ... splashdown ... quick recovery ... successful operation The term successful operation occurs in both stories. Does it seem to have the same meaning in both of them? The phrase quick recovery also occurs in both stories. Does it have the same meaning in both? Listeners - and to a lesser extent readers - often have to fill in information that the speaker or writer takes for granted. For example, suppose that A and B are standing somewhere and A says to B, "This was the site of the old Stanwick Theater.The stage was over here on the right and the lobby over there on the left." B will probably understand well enough, but his understanding is due to the fact that he inserts, between the two utterances, the information that the Stanwick Theater had a stage and a lobby - A has not told him so, or has not exactly told him so. The English definite article the is used in some proper names like 'the Stanwick Theater,' 'the Hudson River,' 'the Alps,' and it is used with ordinary nouns such as stage and lobby when these have already been introduced into the discourse. Since they are just now entering the discourse, B must relate the new information to what has been said, and he will probably do so without even recognizing that his comprehension is due to his own contribution. A bit of information inserted in such a context is called an implicature - a conversational implicature, to be precise. An implicature is a bridge constructed by the hearer (or reader) to relate one utterance to some previous utterance, and often the hearer or reader makes this connection unconsciously. In this case the bridge is easy to construct; our knowledge of the world lets us take for

Has the Winston Street bus come yet? 2 C: D: Oh? What did you say? I'm afraid Fred didn't like the remark I made. 3 E: F: And you? What did you say? Some of my partners said they wouldn't accept these terms. 4 G: H: Oh? What did you say? You're misquoting me. I didn't say anything like that. Language in use 17 granted the fact that a theater has a stage and a lobby. If the speaker were to say "This was the site of the old Stanwick Theater.Individual speakers may vary somewhat in just what they pronounce, but the four renditions can be represented as follows, where the most prominent syllable is indicated with capital letters and the rising or falling 1 T did you say?Intonation and accent together constitute prosody, the meaningful elements of speech apart from the words that are uttered.U say?D you say?

But hearing and seeing are not enough. We get no message from an utterance in a language we don’t know. Identification of the elements in an utterance requires speaker and hearer to share common ground. By and large, speaker and hearer use the same vocabulary; they attach the same meanings to the same words and sentences; they have similar pronunciations; and they generally have the same ways of forming sentences. Of course, there can be different degrees of commonality in the common ground. Speaker and hearer may speak different dialects of the same language, so that their pronunciations differ to some degree and there is some divergence in the ways they express themselves. Big differences in pronunciation, use of vocabulary items that the other doesn’t know, meanings not shared, syntactic constructions not familiar to both – these disturb the process of identification.
Suppose we hear an utterance, know the language, know the meanings of the words, and the sentences formed with the words. We may still not fully comprehend what is said because we don’t know what the utterance is about, because we don’t know what the speaker is referring to. On the other hand, when communication is successful, we, as hearers, interpret correctly because we derive some information from what has been said previously (the discourse context) and from knowledge of the speaker and the conditions and circumstances in the environment (the physical-social context).
When we listen to someone talking, we first take in a sequence of sounds, a phonetic event, but our understanding is not a matter of grasping one sound after another, nor even one word after another. We organize the message into sense-groups (Clark and Clark 1977: 43–57). Possibly the speaker helps by speaking in sense-groups, making the pauses that are needed for breathing between sense-groups: for example, at some of the places marked ‘(pause)’ in this utterance:
I’ll let you know the answer (pause) as soon as I get the information (pause) from a friend of mine (pause) who lives in Winchester.
What we call a ‘pause’ may be an instant of silence or it may be simply the lengthening of a final sound, for example, information-n-n. But conversational discourse is not usually so neatly organized. As speakers we typically hesitate as we figure what we intend to say; we put in ‘fillers’ (“Well”; “As a matter of fact...”); we repeat; we correct ourselves (“I mean”); we appeal to the addressee’s understanding (“You know”). So even a short utterance like the one above can come out this way:
Well, I’ll uh let you know (pause) the answer (pause) as soon – as soon as I get the information (pause) from a friend of mine (pause) who lives in Winchester.

16 Introducing English Semantics
This may look strange on the printed page because in written English we are used to seeing the result of careful planning and polishing but conversational speech is scarcely ever planned and polished.
Practice 2.1 Context and meaning
The meaning of any language symbol depends to some extent on the context in which it occurs. Here are two ‘narratives’ that are rather vague because a lot of details are missing, but in each group the mere collocation of the words that are there tells a sort of story.
(a) ... pain ... clinic ... doctor ... examine ... surgery ... hospital ... nurses ... surgeon ... successful operation ... quick recovery
(b) ... rocket ... preparation ... countdown ... blastoff ... orbit ... splashdown ... quick recovery ... successful operation
The term successful operation occurs in both stories. Does it seem to have the same meaning in both of them?
The phrase quick recovery also occurs in both stories. Does it have the same meaning in both?
Listeners – and to a lesser extent readers – often have to fill in information that the speaker or writer takes for granted. For example, suppose that A and B are standing somewhere and A says to B, “This was the site of the old Stanwick Theater. The stage was over here on the right and the lobby over there on the left.” B will probably understand well enough, but his understanding is due to the fact that he inserts, between the two utterances, the information that the Stanwick Theater had a stage and a lobby – A has not told him so, or has not exactly told him so. The English definite article the is used in some proper names like ‘the Stanwick Theater,’ ‘the Hudson River,’ ‘the Alps,’ and it is used with ordinary nouns such as stage and lobby when these have already been introduced into the discourse. Since they are just now entering the discourse, B must relate the new information to what has been said, and he will probably do so without even recognizing that his comprehension is due to his own contribution. A bit of information inserted in such a context is called an implicature – a conversational implicature, to be precise. An implicature is a bridge constructed by the hearer (or reader) to relate one utterance to some previous utterance, and often the hearer or reader makes this connection unconsciously. In this case the bridge is easy to construct; our knowledge of the world lets us take for

Has the Winston Street bus come yet?
2 C:
D: Oh? What did you say?
I’m afraid Fred didn’t like the remark I made.
3 E:
F: And you? What did you say?
Some of my partners said they wouldn’t accept these terms.
4 G:
H: Oh? What did you say?
You’re misquoting me. I didn’t say anything like that.
Language in use 17
granted the fact that a theater has a stage and a lobby. If the speaker were to say “This was the site of the old Stanwick Theater. It had a stage and a lobby. The stage was over here...”, he would seem quite pedantic.
Practice 2.2 Implicatures
In the following short discourses what is the implicature that connects the second utterance to the first?
(a) Is there a garage near here? Our engine is making strange noises.
(b) Barbara: How did you do on the exam?
Barry: I think I’ll just drop this course.
(c) Jim: Would you like to go dancing tomorrow night?
Laura: We have guests coming from out of town.
Has Laura answered Jim’s question? If so, what is her answer?
Has she answered a question that he didn’t ask? If so, what is the question?
Going back to A’s first utterance to B near the site of the Stanwick Theater, what, precisely, are the meanings of ‘over here on the right’ and ‘over there on the left’? Without being present at the scene we don’t know the places that these terms designate, but since we know the English language we know that their meanings are contrary to each other and that the speaker is closer to whatever is ‘on the right.’ Deictic elements like these, which derive their meaning from the place and time of utterance, are examined in more detail in Chapter 6.
2.4 Prosody
A spoken utterance consists of more than words. In speech, meanings are communicated not merely by what is said but also by the way it is said. Read these four brief dialogues.
1 A:
B: Sorry. I didn’t understand. What did you say?

18 Introducing English Semantics
The sequence of words “What did you say?” occurs in all four dialogues but it is pronounced differently in each. Individual speakers may vary somewhat in just what they pronounce, but the four renditions can be represented as follows, where the most prominent syllable is indicated with capital letters and the rising or falling
1 T did you say? A
H W
S
2 What did you A
Y?
U say?
D you say?
We produce all our spoken utterances with a melody, or intonation: by changing the speed with which the vocal bands in the throat vibrate we produce rising or falling pitch or combinations of rise and fall. By making one syllable in a sense-group especially loud and long, usually where the change of pitch occurs, we endow that word with a special prominence called accent. Intonation and accent together constitute prosody, the meaningful elements of speech apart from the words that are uttered.
Within each sense-group one word (more accurately, the stressed syllable of one word) is more prominent than the rest of the group, giving special attention or focus to that word. Thus, the more numerous the divisions made, the more points of emphasis there are. Compare “I’d never say THAT” with one focus and “I / would NEVer / say THAT” with three.
Typically, when speech is represented in print, italics are sometimes used to indicate the accent, but this is done only sporadically and unevenly; our writing system largely neglects this important element of spoken communication. A written transcript of a speech can be highly misleading because it is only a partial rendition of that speech. In speech there is always an accent in some part of an utterance, and placement of accent in different parts of an utterance creates differences of meaning.
Y
3 Whatdid O
D
4 What I

In the English language accent is mobile, enabling us to communicate different meanings by putting the emphasis in different places. The usual place is on the last important word, for instance:
My cousin is an ARchitect.
If the utterance is broken into two or more sense groups, each group has its own accent. The last accent is ordinarily the most prominent of all because the pitch changes on that syllable.
My COUsin is an ARchitect.
My cousin EDward, who lives in FULton, is an ARchitect.
Thus the speaker can highlight one word or several words in an utterance and give special focus to that word or those words.
The placement of accent on different words ties the utterance to what has been said preciously. For example, in reply to the question “What does your cousin do?,” one might say
My cousin’s
Edward’s an ARchitecht. He’s
Here the word architect is new information something not previously mentioned, and Edward or my cousin is old, or given information, reference to what was already in the discourse. Suppose, instead, that nothing had been said about anybody’s cousin but the discussion had somehow turned to architects. One might then volunteer this information:
My cousin EDward’s an architect.
Here my cousin Edward is new information and the stressed syllable of the name Edward is accented. The phrase an architect now represents given information and is de-accented.
Accent, by giving special focus to one word, can create contrast with other words that might have been used in a same place. Moving the accent to different words creates different meanings in what would otherwise be a single utterance.