Chapter 7
Rhythm
Rhythm in English speech is based on stress．A rhythm unit(节奏单位)is formed by a stressed syllable, together with unstressed syllables which may come before the stress and after it. The unstressed syllables before the stress are said very quickly, so they are very short, as short as you can make them; but the stressed syllable is as long as before, so there is a great difference of length between the unstressed syllables and the stressed one, e.g.
I’m here． Ｉwas here． Ｉwas in here．
/aim 'hi?/ /ai w?z 'hi?/ /ai w?z in 'hi?/
She is home. She is at home. But she is at home．
/?i:z 'h?um/ /?i:z ?t 'h?um/ /b?t ?i:z ?t 'h?um/
But unstressed syllables after the stress are not said specially quickly. They share with the stressed one the amount of time which a single stressed syllable would have. So the following words all take about the same time to say：
nine ninety ninetieth
/`nаin/ /`nаinti /`nаintiiθ/
good better excellent
/`gud/ /`bet?/ /`eks?l?nt/
Thus，in the sentence ” I can do it. ”/аik?n`du:it/ there are two unstressed syllables before the stress and one after it. The first two are said quickly and the last one not so quickly, taking the same amount of time as /du:/. Here are other examples:
In a minute. /in ? 'minit/
It was better. /it w?z 'bet? /
He was a worker. /hi: w?z ? 'w?:k?/
Rhythm of English speech is formed by the recurrence of stressed syllables at more or less regular intervals of time and by the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables.
In connected speech, the stressed syllables follow each other nearly at roughly equal intervals of time, and the unstressed syllables (whether many or few) occupy almost the same period of time between the stressed syllables. The greater the number of unstressed syllables, the quicker they are pronounced, e.g.
I 'think he 'wants to `go．? ○ ? ○ ? ○
I 'think that he 'wants us to `go．? ○ ? ? ○ ? ? ○
I 'think it was an 'excellent af 'fair．? ○ ? ? ? ○ ? ? ? ○
Each of these three sentences contains the same number of stressed syllables, but a different number of unstressed syllables. However, they are pronounced almost in the same period of time, although in the first sentence the stressed syllables are separated by one unstressed syllables, while in the last the stresses are separated by three. This principle is very important in speaking English, especially in reading English poetry.
In Chinese, a line of poetry is usually determined by counting the total number of syllables, stressed or unstressed alike. Lines containing a greater number of syllables are felt to be of greater length．So Chinese is called a syllable-timed language (以音节计时的语言). English, however, is different from Chinese. English is a stress-timed language(以重音计时的语言). In a line of English poetry, the number of sentence-stress is more important than the number of syllables. Here are two verses from Tennyson which are considered to be perfectly matched and of the same length because they have the same number of sentence-stresses．
“'Break, 'break, 'break,
On thy 'cold gray 'stones，O 'Sea!”
The unstressed syllables are so unimportant, rhythmically speaking, that it is not even necessary to count them. When a person recites those lines, it takes him as long to say the first as the second, even though the first contains only three syllables and the second is made up of seven. The following are lines of a poem for practice:
'Give a 'man a 'pipe he can 'smoke,
'Give a 'man a 'book he can 'read;
And his 'home is 'bright with a 'calm de 'light，
Though the 'room is 'poor in'deed．
Influence of rhythm upon word-stress
In addition to the regular recurrence of stressed syllables, the rhythm of English speech has another characteristic feature, i.e., the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. There is a strong tendency in connected English speech to avoid stressing two syllables in succession. Under the influence of this peculiarity of English rhythm, words normally pronounced with two equally strong stresses in isolation may lose the first when closely preceded by another stressed syllable, or they may lose the second when closely followed by another stressed syllable.
Examples:
Chinese /'?ai'ni:z/
They are having a Chinese lesson．
/eei ? 'h?vi? ? '?ai'ni:z 'lesn/
They speak Chinese．
/ eei 'spi:k ?ai'ni:z /
Upstairs /'Λp 'stε? z/
He lives in an upstairs room．
/hi: 'livz in ?n 'Λp stε? z 'ru:m/
He went upstairs．
/hi: wentΛp 'stε? z /
Second-hand /'sek?nd'h?nd/
It is a second-hand bookshop．
/its ? 'sek?ndh?nd 'buk??p/
It was bought second-hand．
/its w?z 'b?:t sek?nd'h?nd/
The influence of rhythm on sentence-stress
Under the influence of the same tendency of English rhythm to the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables, words with full lexical meaning may lose their stress in a sense group．
Examples:
He left London. /hi: 'left 'lΛnd?n/
Tom left London. /'t?m left 'lΛnd?n/
Very good! /'veri 'gud/
Not very good! /'n?t veri 'gud/
How many? /'hau 'meni/
How many pens do you have? /'hau meni 'penz d? ju: 'h?v/
He put on his hat. /hi: 'put ?n iz 'h?t /
He put his hat on. /hi: 'put iz 'h?t ?n /
He put it on. /hi: 'put it '?n /
Take off the map. /'teik ?f e? 'm?p/
Take the map off. /'teik e? 'm?p ?f /
Take it off. /'teik it '?f /
Thus the characteristic features of English speech rhythm may be summed up as follows:
1) The regular recurrence of stressed syllables，which results in:
(a) the pronunciation of each rhythmic group in a sense-group in the same period of time, irrespective of the number of unstressed syllables in it;
(b) the influence of this feature of English speech rhythm upon the tempo of speech (语速) and the length of sounds, especially vowels.
2) The alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables, which results in the influence of rhythm upon word-stress and sentence-stress．
One way to improve your rhythm is to beat the rhythm with your hand, one beat for each stressed syllable and with exactly the same time between each pair of beats. Now try the following groups of words.
The “key” written at the beginning of each group tells you which part to emphasize. The sign “O” shows a stressed syllable，and the sign “ ．” shows an un stressed syllable．
? ○ ? I’ve 'read it． I 'told him．
○ ? ○ 'Try a'gain． 'Have a 'drink．
○ ? ? ○ 'Where have you 'been? 'What have you 'done?
? ○ ? ○ ? It is 'time． He has 'come．
? ○ ? ○ ? It’s 'time for 'dinner. They’ll 'go to'morrow. 'Time for 'dinner.
○ ? ○ ? 'Peter 'answered．
