2018-01-29 Pronunciation: thought groups and focus words

Greg Malivuk
[email protected]
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - notes from all classes
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Homework: find 40-50 consecutive words of English (from a newspaper or magazine or speech) and bring it to class with no sentences or punctuation
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With your partner, try to read these with pauses and intonation rises and falls in the correct places to make sense:

For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” and whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

my father was a foreign student born and raised in a small village in Kenya. he grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin-roof shack. his father, my grandfather, was a cook, a domestic servant to the british. but my grandfather had larger dreams for his son. through hard work and perseverance my father got a scholarship to study in a magical place, america, that’s shown as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to so many who had come before him

you ask what is our policy. I will say it is to wage war by sea, land, and air with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us. to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime. that is our policy. you ask what is our aim? I can answer in one word: victory. victory at all costs. victory in spite of all terror. victory however long and hard the road may be. for without victory, there is no survival.
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In a thought group, there is usually one word that gets the strongest stress.
p. 80 (on the board) - What is the focus word in each thought group of this conversation?
Do you notice something common among the focus words?
- They’re all content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, interrogatives, or interjections)
- (something else)
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What should be the focus word in B’s responses?

A: It’s started raining.
B: I thought it was going to rain.

A: It’s started snowing.
B: I thought it was going to rain.