Kilian, Helmut-Erwin; (1997) Student talk: A preliminary study of features of connected speech in contemporary colloquial English, as exemplified by students at the University of London. Masters thesis (M.Phil), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

The present paper tries to improve the description of connected speech in colloquial English as closely as possible to the object, with the aim of establishing the basis for the teaching of the phonetics of English to foreign students who are at an advanced stage of their academic development (continental upper course students or British post-graduates). Connected speech is considered in connection with standard pronunciation, phonostylistics and language changes. At present the concept of Near-RP (Wells, 1982) is the most sensible. However, research was conducted to establish principles for future teaching which are expected to be valid in decades to come; those tendencies of development which are already in progress. Some ideas for the redefinition of the pronunciation standard are given and discussed. The features of connected speech are explained and discussed in detail. The practical research was conducted using the method of simulated situations. The author selected from his subjects a homogeneous group of 13 subjects who had the following properties in common: undergraduates, English- English native speakers and their performance qualified either for RP (1 speaker) or Near-RP (12 speakers). The discussion of the features of connected speech focuses on the two principal approaches which are: segment change and reduction (i.e. a continuum of gradual obscuration) and bridges the gap by asserting that reduction is the actual mechanism of producing these features and segment change is a useful tool to demonstrate various stages within this continuum, not unlike cinematographic "freeze frames". The decisive role of rhythm which triggers reduction is emphasised. Due to the methodology used in this paper it was not possible to establish rules for deaccentuation, i.e. those which modify the rule for accent placement so that the unaccented or unstressed realisation of meaningful items in a sentence can be accounted for. The character of this study is preliminary. The overall result is that, along the lines of the present paper, future research can be successfully conducted. The relevant conclusions are drawn.

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