An Analysis on the Phenomenon of Eng- Lish Elision and Its Formation

2013 International Conference on Advances in Social Science, Humanities, and Management (ASSHM 2013)

An Analysis on the Phenomenon of Eng- lish Elision and Its Formation

MA Li-hua

Foreign Languages School，Zhejiang Ocean University , Zhoushan 316000, China Abstract quires into the limiting conditions of the usage of elision and its formation. As a common phenomenon in human Through revealing the general laws of language，elision is of great significance elision, this article will help language to language learners. This essay explores learners better get hold of a fluent and the phonological rules concerning elision authentic English pronunciation. and presents the array of elision phenom- ena and their constraints on both vowels 2. Description of the phenomenon of and consonants, hoping it help learners to elision acquire English phonetics better. Pronunciation of a language is the mate- Keywords: Principle of Least Effort； rial carrier of its meaning. The existence spoken chain；contextual elision of a language is manifested through the sounds. Therefore when elision occurs in certain speeches, patterns and rules can 1. Introduction surely be found. In the following discus- sions, the article will describe and gener- It is evident that in real life English, the alize the phenomenon of elision to ac- pronunciation is more than a simple com- quire some rules of regularity. The elision bination of clearly spoken words. Instead, of vowels, consonants and syllables are a flow of spoken chains are pronounced observed as follows: by the speaker accompanied with distinct

phonetic changes, including assimilations, elisions, liaison, etc. If a non-native Eng- 2.1. Elision of vowels lish learner intends to speak fluent and 2.1.1． [] and [] in unstressed syl- authentic English, he must first master the lables] standard pronunciations of the 46 phonemes of English, and then have a good The elision of vowels [] and [] is very command of the phonological rule of the common, which is shown in the pronun- language, with special attentions paid to ciations of the underlined letters in the the laws of phonetic change, which occur words below. frequently in fast spoken chains of spo- temperature ken English. The phenomenon of phonet- [()], factory ic change exists in every language and [], business embodies different laws and features in []. each of them, which explains why it is This use of elision is by no means difficult to truly master a foreign lan- random. It only applies when the mispro- guage. Elision is one typical manifesta- nounced vowel is in unstressed syllables tion of phonetic changes. This article en- between two consonants.

Letter b: usually in the form of “- 2.1.2． [, , , , , ] in un- mb”, “-bt”, lamb thumb, subtle, doubt. stressed syllables Letter c: indicter [ ], czar [ ]. The pronunciation of these strong vowels Letter d: Wednesday in unstressed syllables are weakened and [], handsome replaced by [], a less articulate central [ ]. vowel. The examples are as follows: Letter g: usually in the form of “-gn- []→[ə]: absorb [ ] “, gnosis [ ], design →[ ]. []. []→ []: forworn [ f:'w:n ] Letter h: when is the initial letter or → []. in the form of “gh” or after “ex-”, [:]→[]: but [  ] → honest [ ]，heir [ ]， [  ]. ghost [ ] ， ghetto []→ []: benefit ['] [ ]， → [']. exhibit [], exhort []→ []: policeman [ ]. [] → Letter k: know [], knee []. [ ], knight [ ]. []→ []: decade Letter l: palm [ ], half [] → []. [], folk [ ]. Letter m: in the form of “mn”, 2.1.3． Diphthong mnemonic [ () ]. Letter n: in the form of “mn” ： In American spoken English, especially autumn [], damn []. in fast speeches, diphthongs are simpli- Letter p: psychology fied into monophthongs, which mean sin- []; corps [ ]. gle vowels, by usually omitting the se- Letter s: aisle [], island cond sound. []. [] → []: say [] → []. Letter t: nestle [], fasten [] → []: sure [] → [], castle [], whis- []. tle []. [] → []: problem Letter w: in the form of “wr-” and [ ] → others, wrong [] ， write []. ， [Əu] → []: progress [] answer []. [] → In the elision of consonants, two typ- []. ical cases should be paid special attention It’s worth mentioning that in modern to: spoken English, the compound vowel [] is usually simplified into [] 2.2.1． [t] and [d] in words such as hire, fire, wire, etc. These are the two most common conso- 2.2. Elision of consonants nants in elision. The presence of other plosives, affricates or fricatives in a Below is a list of typical elisions of con- speech always affects the pronunciation sonants of these two phonemes and results in an incomplete plosion of sounds, such as in:

727

Strict parents, bridegroom, hot have changed from informal to formal chocolate. words and are now included in dictionar- When pronouncing the underlined ies letters above, the speaker does not aspi- To sum up, the universality of eli- rate, so the air-flow in the mouth will not sion is well recognized in the pronuncia- be off-glided, leaving behind a silent, tions of vowels, consonants as well as the quick pause. Elision of t or d between two entire syllables. Referring to the dia- consonants is very common and known chronic and synchronic characteristics of as the simplification of consonant clusters, the variations of pronunciations, a num- examples are as follow: ber of phonetists classify different eli- next door [ ], fast sions into two major categories: historical music[ ], elision and contextual elision. Historical sound track [() ]. elision is formed with the evolution of history, the rule of which is fixed as Eng- 2.2.2． [h] lish develops and is not influenced by subjective linguistic or behavioral factors. Elision of letter h is becoming increasing- Therefore whenever the conditions hold, ly common and very likely to appear in relevant elision will mandatorily occurs. every phoneme later, especially in quick Contextual elision, on the other hand, is conversations or when the letter appears formed in continuous spoken chains ac- at the head of unstressed syllables. Here cording to adjacent phonemes as well as are the examples: the speed, tone and volume of the speech. Give him a book. [    Dependence on the speed and random- ]. ness of the speech implies that the elision Did he win? [  ]. is optional for the speaker. We can sum- You`ve met her. [  marize the above ideas into the following ]. chart: Example Pronuncia- Types of elision tion 2.3. Elision of semivowel [j] e in eu- [  Historical phemism  elision In American English, [] is some- Elision of ] vowels times replaced by [], for example: Contextu- o in victo- [ al elision ry  ] news [ ] →. [ ]. Historical gh in [  Elision of altitude [] → elision bright ] conso- Contextu- t in most- [ []. nants al elision ly ] . Historical / / 2.4. Omission of syllables Elision of elision syllables Contextu- be in be- [ ] . The elision of vowels often results in the al elision cause omission of syllables. And sometimes in informal English, omission of an entire 3. An inquiry into causes of formation syllable can occur. For example, “because” is simplified into “cus” and pro- The principle of least effort is a common nounced as [], “ecology” is sim- law governing human behavior. In simi- plified into “eco” and pronounced as larity with other human actions, evolution [], “telephone” is simplified of a language aims at being more eco- into “phone”. Using word-formation nomical and expedient; its development methods through elision and omission, tends to gradually adopt easier language similar simplified words such as ad, exam, forms to replace difficult ones. A typcal

728

case: ancient English words like “hlaf”, It has become common to avoid or “hring”, and “hit” evolved into “loaf”, omit complicated consonant clusters in “ring” and “it” caused by the disappear- pronunciation, and its odds prove to be ance of the first letter “h” during the lan- higher when two consonants have more guage’s transformation into a modern one. overlapping distinctive features. Elision is In comparison, it’s much more energy- almost inevitable to occur in common consuming to pronounce the words’ old consonant clusters like “-mm-“, “-mb”, “- version correctly. Another example in- gh-”, not only because of their identical volves the abundant usage of abbrevia- prime attributes (consonant), but also of tions in modern English, such as flu from their identical characteristics in acoustic influenza and fridge from refrigerator. cavity: both m and n are nasal sounds, m Elision phenomenon like incomplete plo- and b bilabials, and g and h non-front sion also demonstrates such energy- sounds, albeit their difference in place saving principle: due to its powerful am- and method of articulation. plitude, which makes it harder for human vocal organs to pronounce two adjacent 3.2 The necessity of phonetic balance plosives, the former one loses part or all and cadence. of its plosion. This kind of elision takes place in other consonant clusters too. English is a typical stress-timed language. Apart from the principle of least ef- The appearance of stressed syllables is fort, other causes may also account for regular, with almost the same time inter- elision in English: val. Unstressed syllables are usually omitted in order to achieve phonetic bal- 3.1 The Phonological rules of English ance and a sense of rhyme. Traditional poetry emphasizes immaculate metrical Pursuant to the “concord principle” in pattern and therefore would adopt lots of English morphology, when two or more elision for the sake of rhyme. Modern po- phonemes are completely or partly identi- etry has inherited such trait. The follow- cal in distinctive features, one of them is ing is an excerpt from an English song likely to be omitted. Relative to vowels, where “got to”, “going to” and “want to” consonants have similar distinctive fea- take on their colloquial form “gotta”, tures, which lead to the elision of one “gonna”, “wanna” and has omitted two consonant when a consecution of them plosives, which in turn enhances the brev- appears in a flow of speech, for instance: ity, rhyme and symmetry of the language. last night: [ ] Sealed with a Kiss →[() ], [t] is omitted Though we gotta say good bye… from the consonant cluster []; Yes it’s gonna be extraordinary: A cold lonely summer… [] But darling you won’t be there →[()], [ k ] is I don’t wanna say good bye omitted from the consonant cluster In common parlance, elision in con- []; text is often reflected on the weakened sixths: [] →[()]， words. For example: [] is omitted from the consonant cluster Have you read your book ？ - [ [ ];   ]. mostly: [] [] and [] are the weakened →[()] ， [] is omitted form of have and you，which serves to from the consonant cluster [ ]. balance phonetics and rhyme.

729

habitual and systematic features of the 3.3 The influence of borrowed words phenomenon of elision indicate that there are patterns to follow. This article mainly The words with monograms like“ae”, focuses on the description and prelimi- “eu”“oe”are of Latin origin and their first nary generalization of the phenomenon of syllable is omitted in pronunciation be- elision and touches on its causes of for- cause there’s no such phoneme permuta- mation. And there remain many elements tion in English, such as: to be further examined and discussed to aesthetics → learn more about the complexity of this [ ]，where a is omit- subject. ted； euphemism → 5. References [] ， where e is omitted. [1] Jones, D. An Outline of English Pho- oecology → [ ], netics [M]. Cambridge University Press. where o is omitted. 1976. In another opposite situation, bor- [2] Meng xianzhong. English Phonetics rowed languages prescribe the elision of [M].Huazhong Normal University Press. certain syllables which shouldn’t in ac- 2003. cord with English rules in pronunciation [3] R. H. Robins ，General Linguistics but are still preserved to protect its au- [M] Foreign Language Teaching and Re- thenticity, as the last consonant of French search Press, 2000 words usually stays unpronounced, like [4] Dai weidong. Introduction to modern coup and corps pronounced as [] English linguistics [M]. Shanghai Foreign and []. Language Education Press.1998. [5] Hornby,A.S. Oxford Advanced learn- 3.4 The influence of dialects er’ Dictionary of Current English [M]. Oxford University Press. 1989. The elision of [] after gum consonants is under the influence of regional dialects, which mainly appears in American Eng- lish, such as: Tune is pronounced as [] in British accent, but [ ] in Amer- ican accent; sue is pronounced as [ ], but [ ] in American accent; new is pronounced as [ ], but [ ] in American accent.

4. Final thoughts

Elision takes form under certain rules of pronunciations and subjects to the influence of time, location and other different factors. Except for historical elision, most elisions are random and variable, sometimes even lack of unified forms. But the

730