Connected English Speech - CD-vel [antikvár]

Foreword to the second, revised editionOver 20 years have passed since the first edition of Connected English Speech{ZIS].Jh most important change in the meantime has concerned not so much the subject-matter, but the users of the book. Hungary is now firmly established in post-1989 Europe, and Hungarian students are much more travelled, and much more sophisticated, than they were in those early days. For that reason I believe that what I had to say then about acceptability, prescriptivism, hypercorrectness etc. is largely superfluous: students can doubtless work these things out for themselves.As to subject-matter: Standard British English, both the 'accent' itself, and the use of the word 'Standard', used to be an issue where emotions ran high and where elements of 'political correctness' were involved. We have a more stable situation today, meaning that Chapters 5,6 and 7 of the first edition could be run together and considerably slimmed down.There have been few significant changes in the actual pronunciation of English (both standard and non-standard varieties) during this period - apart from the arrival of 'UPSPEAK'or'UPTALK'among the younger generation, which I shall deal with in somedetail, together with Increasing Instability In the use of syllabic i and n.Phonological theory has, on the other hand, seen a number of advances. Theories about the sounds of language, and a course-book on pronunciation, like the present, are of course different things, but from time to time the theory does Impinge on the practice: some of my remarks in 1993 on the subject of syllable and phrasal stress seem to me today to be Inadequate. More Important is thefact that the present book will quite possibly be used by students interested in research and with some experience of linguistics; for this reason I've decided to add brief separate sections on Metrical Phonology and Optimallty Theory, and, In the main text, to take note of contemporary approaches In stress, Intonation and focus theory.The audio materials for each of the 18 Exercises have been freshly recorded on the accompanying CD: see section 12 for suggestion for use.