Perpustakaan.Uns.Ac.Id Digilib.Uns.Ac.Id Commit to User 7 CHAPTER
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perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE A. Review on English Pronunciation 1. The Definition of Pronunciation There are various definitions of pronunciation from the experts. Hornby (1995) defines pronunciation as the way in which a language is spoken; the way a person speaks the words of a language. Kreidler argues that when we talk about pronunciation, it deals with phonology and phonetic. Phonology is concerned with the way speech sounds are organized into a system, the sound system of a specific language. Phonology relates the physical facts of speech to other linguistic knowledge which speakers possess knowledge of vocabulary and grammar while phonetic deals with speech in its purely physical aspects, the way sounds are articulated by the speaker, the acoustic properties of sound waves, and the effects that these have on the ear of the hearer (1989). Avery and Ehrlich define phonetics as, “The study of how sounds are produced and how the position of the mouth can be changed to produce different sounds” (1992: 11). The definition about phonetics is closely related to Yates‟s definition about pronunciation. She says, “Pronunciation refers to the production of sounds that we use to make meaning” (2002: 01). She says that pronunciation includes attention to the particular sounds of a language, it calls segmental and aspects of speech beyond the level of the individual sound, such as intonation, phrasing, stress, timing, rhythm (supra segmental aspects), how the voice is projected (voice quality). Ur defines the concept of pronunciation including (1) the sounds of the language; (2) stress and rhythm; and (3) intonation (1996). From the definitions above, it can be seen that there are two aspects of pronunciation. They are segmental and supra segmental features. According to Dobrovolsky and Katamba, segmental is defined as “an individual speech sound” (1996: 20). The sound system of English is made up of phonemes, or individual commit to user 7 perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id8 sounds to construct words, sentence and phrase to make meaning. These may be vowels, diphthongs (combinations of two vowel sounds), trip thongs (combinations of three vowel sounds) or consonants (Lynda, 2002). These sounds are made using our tongue in different parts of the mouth. Segmental features deal with vowels which include complex vowel (diphthong) and consonant of 26 letters in the English alphabet and 44 sounds in the English language, while supra segmental defined as those features of speech which extend over more than one segment, such as intonation and stress. Lynda says that supra segmental is also called prosodic features. Supra segmental features consist of stress, intonation, featured of connected speech, and voice quality (2002). The writer concludes that pronunciation is the way in which a language is spoken related to how sound are produced based on segmental includes vowel which includes complex vowel (diphthong), consonant of 26 letters in the English alphabet and 44 sounds of English and supra segmental aspects includes stress, rhythm, and intonation. 2. Organs of Speech Most individuals who speak a non-native language fluently speak it with an accent of their native tongue. Because every language has different sound system and it will affect the pronunciation when they speak other languages. But, “all languages use the same channel for receiving and sending: sound waves, the vibration of the atmosphere” (Bolinger, 1981:03). All set the vibrations moving by the activity of the speech organs. And all organize the vibration in essentially the same way, into small units of sound that can be combined and recombined in distinctive ways. Bolinger says “if we learn a language we must learn to produce sounds” (1981: 03). The organs used by English or Indonesian to produce sound the same although they have different sound system. Based on the theory of sound production, Indriani says that there are three areas of human body that are used for produce sound They are the chest, the throat and the head (2001). Each of them will be described in details below: commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id9 a. The organs of speech in the chest are lungs, the windpipe (trachea), and the organ of breathing. The lungs are really important for speaking because the sounds are produced with air flowing from the lungs. When air is expelled from the lungs, it is passes from the windpipe into the larynx, which is forms the upper part of it. b. The organ of speech in the throat is larynx. Larynx is a soft membrane which is located inside the adam‟s apple in a man and corresponding area in a woman. The larynx consists of the ring cartilage, the shield cartilage, the arytenoids, and the vocal cords. The vocal cords can be in three positions. They are : 1) Wide open as for voiceless sounds and for breathing. 2) Slightly open as for voiced sounds. 3) Tightly closed as for glottal stop. Larynx has an opening called the glottis, the space between the vocal cords and between the arytenoids. The space between the vocal cords is called the cord glottis or glottis proper, the part between arytenoids is called whisper glottis. c. The organs of speech in the head are organ articulation and cavities. There are two cavities, oral cavity (mouth) and nasal cavity (nose). There are six organs of articulation in the upper part of the mouth. They are the uvula, soft palate, the hard palate, the alveolar ridge (the gums behind the upper front teeth), the upper teeth and the upper lip. The roof of the mouth is divided into three parts. The first is alveolar or teeth ridge which is defined as the part of the roof of the mouth just behind the teeth; The second is the bony arch which forms hard palate and which varies in size and arching from one individual to another; The third is the back part, the soft palate or velum which is capable of being raised or lowered, and the extremity of which is the uvula Others organ of speech beside three above, there are lips and tongue that help in speech production. The lips are significant in the formation of vowel quality. Based on Indriani, she said that if the lips are held apart, the position they assume may be summarized undercommit six heading to user (2001) . They are: perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id10 1). Held sufficiently close together over all their length that friction occurs between them. 2).Held sufficiently far apart for no friction to be heard, yet remaining fairly closed together and energetically spread. This shape is taken up for a tense variety of the vowel in see and it is known as spread lips position. 3).Held in relaxed position with a medium lowering of the lower jaw. This is the position taken up for the vowel of get and is known as the neutral position. 4).Held relatively wide apart, without any marked rounding, as for the vowel in card. This is the open position. 5).Tightly pursed, so that the aperture is small and rounded, as in the vowel of do. This is the close rounded position. 6).Held wide apart, but with slight projection and rounding, as in the vowel of got. This is the open rounded position. The figure of organ of speech can be described in figure 2.1. Figure 2.1. Organ of Speech commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id11 3. English Sound Production Claude Levis – Strauss said that when we learn a language it means that we have to be the speaker of the language (In Herusatoto, 2008). It means that we must to know the culture, the social live and follow the rules of the phonetic, and the syntactic rules. In learning English as a foreign language it is essential to have understanding of how the speech sounds of English are produced. Most speech is produced by an air stream that starts in the lungs and is pushed upwards trough the windpipe and the oral and nasal cavities. This statement is supported by Avery and Ehrlich. They say, “Speech sounds are made by air moving outward from the lungs through the mouth or nose” (1992: 11). During the process, the air stream is modified by various organs of speech that is mentioned above. Each modification has different effects, which are used for the differentiation of sounds. The production of speech sound divided into four separate but interrelates processes. They are the initiation process, take place in the lungs; phonation process, take place in the larynx through the operation of the vocal folds; oro-nasal process, its direction by the velum into either the oral cavity or nasal cavity; and articulation, mainly by the tongue, in the oral cavity (Giegerich, 1992:1-6). The processes will be described in detail below: 1. The Initiation process The operation of the lungs is the primary function in the breathing process: the contraction of inter costal muscles and lowering the diaphragm causes the chest volume to increase and air is sucked into the lungs through the trachea. When the process is reversed, air will escape again through trachea. Apart from recurring at regular intervals as breath, this air stream provides the source of energy for speech. In English, all speech sounds require a pulmonic (lung) air stream for their production. The air stream used for speech in English is always egressive, that is, moving out of the lungs and up the trachea. In English, speech sounds are initiated by a pulmonic egressive air stream.