A lecture to college students

If a ˈstereo‘metrical ‘figure ‚F│ be ˈbrought from its o“riginal po ˇ sition in ˈspace ˙S_/1│ˌinto ¦ a ‘different ро‚sition ˈS_/2,│ ˈtwo ‚cases will be dis _\ tinguished. The ‘first ‚case is ¯that ¦ the ¯tran‘sition from ˈS_/1 to ˈS_/2│¯can be ‚made ˈby ¦ ˈmeans of a ‘motion│ ‘that ‚is, by a ˙trans‘lation,│ a ˈshift ˇ parallel to itself,│ by ˈro ˇ tation or ‚by ¦ a ˈheli‚coidal ‘motion, ˈthis ˌbeing a ˈcombination of the two ‘former. In the po ˇ sitions ˈS_/1 and ˈS_/2│the ^↘figure ^↘thus re‚mains ˇ congruent with it _\ self. ˈLet us sup ˇ pose that this disˈtinction ˙seems ‘simple eˌnough│ but it ˈcarries ˇ consequences ˈvery “far from _\ simple.

POETRY

The Arrow and the Song ♫

I ˈshot an ‘arrow ˌinto the _\ air,It ˈfell to _\ earth, I ˌknow ˈnot ‘where;For, so ‘swiftly it ‘flew, the ˈsight│ˌCould not ‘follow it│in its _\ flight. I ˈbreathed a ‘song ˌinto the _\ air,It ˈfell to _\ earth, I ˈknew ˈnot _\ where;For ˈwho│has _\ sight so ˈkeen and ‘strongThat it can ˈfollow the ˈflights of _\ song. ˈLong, ˙long ‘afterward, in an ‘oakI ‘found the ‘arrow, ˈstill un _\ broken;And the ˈsong, from beˈginning to ‘end,I ˈfound a’gain│in the ˈheart of a _\ friend.

H. W. Longfellow (1807-1882)

Practice in Reading and Memory Work

Listen to the recording and note the difference in the prosodic peculiarities of formal and informal varieties of speech (the degree of loudness and tempo, the placement and type of pauses, the number and length of intonation groups, the degree of expressiveness, etc.).

Formal Official

1. Conversation ♫

Interviewer: Aˈmong the ‘speakers at toˈday’s ^↘National ^↘Transport ‚Conference will be ˈMr. ˈTom _\ Williams. ˈMr. ‘Williams, ^↘I under _\ stand that, ˈhaving been a ‘keen "not to ˙say fa“natical ˌmotorist for ‘most of your ‚life you’re now ‚having ˌsecond ˆ thoughts?

Mr. Williams: ˈThat’s ˈquite cor _\ rect, ‘yes.

Interviewer: And ˈwhat e˙xactly _\ is it that you’ll be _\\ saying to the _\ conference?

Mr. Williams: It’s a ˈvery ˈsimple ‘message, ‚really. ˈI’m ‚saying we ˙should re‘strict the ˇ manufacture and ‘use ¦ of ‘private ˌmotor ‚cars and er … ˈconcentrate in‚stead on de^↘veloping ¦ ef‚ficient and ˈcheap ‘public ˌtransport.

Interviewer: ˈCan you ex‘plain to us ˈwhy you ˈfeel ˙so ‘strongly aˌbout this?

Mr. Williams: ‚Well, I ˈthink ˈfirst and ˇ foremost there’s … ¦ there’s what I ˈcall the enˈviron‘mental ˌcase. Er … we ˌall ˈknow that >cars conˈsume ˈvaluable ‘energy ‚sources … re _\ sources. They proˈduce ˈcarbon ˇ dioxide in ‘great ‚quantities and they’re ‘major con‚tributors to ˈenviron‘mental ˌproblems. Er … for ˌinstance, their ˌmanu“facture ˌuses up ˈother ˇ scarce, often ˈirre ˇ placeable, ˈnatural re“sources, and erm … they’re es>sentially … they’re esˈsentially ˈshort- _\ lived ˌarticles. They creˈate con>tinuing and ˈever-inˈcreasing ‚problems of dis‘posal ˈwhen they’re ˙no ˈlonger _\ wanted.

2. A New Chief for the Securities and Exchange Commission ♫

Radio announcer:

The Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington was created in nineteen thirty-four to protect investors. The S.E.C. enforces laws and rules that govern financial markets. Last week, its chairman, William Donaldson, announced that he would resign at the end of June.

President Bush quickly named a replacement for approval by the Senate. He nominated California Representative Christopher Cox. The president calls him “a champion of the free-enterprise system.” He also says Mister Cox “knows that a free economy is built on trust.”

Mister Cox has strong support from business groups. He supported legislation, for example, to make it more difficult for investors to bring legal actions against companies. Mister Cox was first elected to Congress in nineteen eighty-eight.

William Donaldson is a former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange. He became chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission in February of two thousand three. At that time, public trust in the markets had been weakened. Big companies like the energy trader Enron had cheated investors.

The commission had to develop rules to meet new requirements from Congress. Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of two thousand two. The law added responsibilities for top officials of companies that sell stock publicly. Now, chief executives and chief financial officers must confirm financial results. Companies must have controls to protect against mistakes and wrongdoing.

Another rule requires investors to receive the best stock price possible. The agency has also increased rules on mutual funds and hedge funds. Mutual funds make many different investments. Mutual funds often pay other companies to supervise their investments. The agency acted to require that most top officials of such funds be independent of the management company. Hedge funds are similar to mutual funds, but are designed for big investors. Advisers to large hedge funds will now have to be known to the S.E.C.

The five-member commission has two Democrats and three Republicans, including Mister Donaldson. Critics of the chairman said his actions were often too restrictive on business. Yet Mister Donaldson says the last two and one-half years may well be remembered as the most productive period in the agency’s history.

3. Monologue ♫

Good morning, everyone and and … as the Head Teacher of Cranley Hill Primary School I’m very happy to welcome you to our Open Day. Today the school is open not just to parents of our pupils, but also anyone else interested in seeing the school. I’ll start by telling you about the school, and after that you can walk round and see it for yourselves.

We take most of our pupils from the two nearby villages of Seaborne and Milthorpe. These were once coal mining villages – there have been coal mines here since the eighteenth thirties. When the school was originally established, way back in 1899, almost every child’s father worked in the mines. However, the coal mines were closed in nineteen eighty-three and many people left the area as a result. Nowadays most of the remaining inhabitants tend to commute to work in the city rather than working locally. At present, the number of students on our rolls is just ninety, compared to almost two hundred in nineteen eighty-five, due to the decline in the population of the mining villages, and the staff see this as a big bonus because we know each student personally. The school is very involved in the local community and we are especially proud of our status as Great Britain’s first school to be entirely powered by wind energy. This project began…

Formal Neutral

Conversation ♫

Bookseller: ‘Good ‚morning. ˈCan I ‚help you?

Customer: I’m ˈlooking for a ‘book by ‘Sutcliffe. It’s A ˈ Life of _\ Arnold.

Bookseller: A " Life of _\ Arnold. ˈLet me ‘see, ˌnow. Is ˌthat the ˆ title?

Customer: I ‘think ˌso.

Bookseller: It ^↘isn’t the ^↘title of a ˆ novel?

Customer: _\ Well, I ˈdon’t ‘think it ˌis. But the ‘problem is I’m ^↘not ^↘quite ˇ sure.

Bookseller: _\ I see. You’ve ^↘looked in the bi‘ography ‚section?

Customer: Is ˈthat near the ‘maps and ˌthings? ˈOver _\ there?

Bookseller: ˈThat’s _\ right.

Customer: ‘Yes, I’ve ‘looked ˌthere. But I ˈcan’t _\ see it.

Bookseller: You ^↘don’t ˈknow who the ˆ publisher is?

Customer: _\ Sorry, ‘no.

Bookseller: Would you ˙mind ‘waiting a ˌmoment, while I ^↘serve this _\ lady, and ˈthen I’ll ˈsee what I can _\ do ˌfor you.

Customer: _\ Thank you.

Monologue ♫

Now, I’d just like to tell you some of the things to look out for as you go round the school site. At present we’re standing just at the front entrance to the school, facing north, and as you can see, the ground slopes up quite steeply behind the school. To our right we have the car park, OK? And to our left we have our sports field – this is just for training and informal games, we use the village football field for our under-eleven matches. At the far end of the car park is our recycling centre; this is for things like paper, glass and so on and everyone is very welcome to make use of it. Immediately behind the school, to the north, we have the play area – unfortunately, we had to remove the play equipment, the climbing frame and so on, because it didn’t conform to safety regulations. But we do have the tree house in the middle of that area – that’s very popular. Then at the top end of the play area, you’ll find the entrance to the secret garden. The vegetable patch is in the bottom corner, and beyond it, hidden in the trees, we have a pond. The children love this because it attracts all sorts of wildlife: frogs, fish and lots of birds. In the middle of the garden, we have what we call the storyteller’s chair, and this is where the children come with their teachers and sit on the grass to listen to stories. And finally, at the top end of the secret garden, to the left, is our wind turbine… And as you go round the classrooms you’ll find lots of work done by the children explaining all about how it works and how proud they are of it. Right, now before we…

Informal Ordinary

A. Conversation ♫

Don: Hi, Craig. Been home long?

Craig: Yeah, quite a time.

Don: Did anyone phone about renting the spare room?

Craig: Yeah, we’ve had … three phone calls about it.

Don: Really?

Craig: Yeah, do you want to hear about them?

Don: Sure.

Craig: Right. The first one was called Phil Parrott.

Don: Uh-huh.

Craig: He’s a teacher; he’s just qualified, and he teaches sports.

Don: OK.

Craig: Actually I’m not sure about him. He certainly sounded energetic, but … he asked lots of questions about whether we smoked, and what sort of food we cooked.

Don: Yeah, I mean we don’t exactly live on pizza and chips and takeaways, well, not quite, but…

Craig: … but he might… be a bit too health-conscious to really fit in with the sort of life we lead. Yeah. And he asked a lot of questions about the room. … He said he needs a big room because he’s got lots of sports equipment.

Don: Well, that’s OK, the room’s quite big but I’m not so sure about him… what about the second one?

Craig: He was called David Spencer.

Don: Spender?

Craig: No, Spencer – cer [si: i: a:]. He works at Cooper-Long – you know, the big company on Broad Street. He said he was a lawyer.

Don: Oh, I’d have thought in that case he’d be earning enough to rent his own place. I wonder why he wants to share a flat.

Craig: Well, he didn’t say. He’s quite a bit older than us. He did say he’s just moved down here from the north of England. He seemed very quiet, actually. Maybe he wants to meet some new people. I got the impression he was a hardworking kind of person who doesn’t go out all that much…

Don: Right.

Craig: But he sounded OK. Oh, one thing though, he said he wouldn’t be staying in the flat at the weekends so he wants to pay reduced costs for gas and electricity … because he’s only here five days out of seven.

Don: Oh, I’m not sure about that … what do you think?

Craig: Well, I suppose it’s fair but it all sounds a bit complicated.

Don: Anyway, there was a third person, Leo Norris.

Craig: Yes.

Don: He’s an engineer.

Craig: Oh, yeah?

Don: And he’s about our age.

Craig: Right. What did he sound like?

Don: Well, actually he was really funny I couldn’t stop laughing when I was talking to him. He said he was very lazy and never got up until noon at weekends and I said that wouldn’t be a problem here…

Craig: No, certainly not.

Don: But actually I suspect he was joking when he said he was lazy… I think he lives life as it comes, he’s certainly not competitive or stressed, but he likes cycling and things like that. He sounds like an outdoor type. Anyway, I thought he sounded as if he’s fit in. He wanted to check if there was somewhere safe for his bicycle … that’s not a problem…

Craig: No, he can leave it in the garage with my car. So did you get his contact details?

Don: Yes, he left his mobile number, it’s 07776872433 (oh triple seven six eight seven two four double three).

Craig: And does he want to move in straight away?

Don: Well, he’s paid his rent in his present place up to the thirty-first of September, but he said that if possible he’d like to move in a bit before then – he said the twenty-eighth of September.

Craig: And he was OK about the rent?

Don: Yeah, he said it was fine.

Craig: Right. So shall we give him a ring and see if he wants to come round and…

B. Just Shopping ♫

Kay: Hi, Sally. Long time to see! What are you doing here?

Sally: Oh, hi, Kay. Same as you, I expect… just shopping.

Kay: Great. Is that a new dress?

Sally: Yes, it is. I got it yesterday. Do you like it?

Kay: Well… it’s very, urn… very short for you, isn’t it, Sally?

Sally: Short is “in” this summer. Didn’t you know?

Kay: Oh, I don’t read any of those fashion magazines.

Sally: I can tell you don’t. Well, this is the latest fashion… from Milan.

Kay: Oh, I know it’s popular, I’ve seen that kind of dress a lot. It seems everyone is wearing it these days. I prefer something more… individual.

Sally: Yes, so I see. What exactly is that you are wearing?

Kay: It’s a pair of shorts, but it looks like a skirt. See?

Sally: Oh, yes! How… original! Did you make it yourself?

Kay: No.

Sally: Marvelous. But, I’m just not sure it’s quite “you”, Kay.

Kay: Oh, really. Sally? Well, never mind. Perhaps it’s too… sophisticated for you.

Sally: Hmm. No, I don’t think it’s that. But you’re right – I can’t see me in it somehow. Anyway, must hurry. I’ve got more shopping to do.

Kay: Well, good luck, Sally. Keep reading those magazines!

Sally: Thanks, Kay. Perhaps you should buy some too!

Informal Familiar

1. ♫

Sue: ‘Cheers!

Tony: ˈCheers, ‚Sue! >Well, ˈwhat’s the ‘news then? ˈHow ‘is ˌeverybody? I supˈpose ˙old ‘Arthur’s ‚still there. ˈStill˙trying to ˈkeep ˙everyone in ’order.

Sue: Oh, _\ yeah. ^↘He’ll go ˙on for ˇ ever. ^↘Nothing ˙changes for ‘Arthur. ¯Or if it ‘does, ‘he doesn’t _\ notice. ¯You reˈmember that ˆ friend of his ˌthough, the ˈguy who ˈcame from _\ Liverpool… He ˈalways ˙came on _\ Friday, and ˈnobody ˈquite ˙knew _\ why.

Tony: ‘Oh that ‘tall ˌguy, ‘yeah. ˈHad an ˙old ‘Bentley or ‚something, ’didn’t he? ¯We ˌused to ˈsay he was –

Sue: _\ Yes. _\ Well, ˈnobody ˈknows ˈwhat _\ happened, but ¯he had a ‚nasty ˆ accident ¦ of ˈsome _\ sort.

Tony: An ˆ accident?

Sue: In his “car. ¯But you ^↘know ‘Arthur – ¯he ‚never ‘tells you ˌmuch. _\ So ¯we ‚don’t ˌreally ˌknow “what it ˌwas.

Tony: _\ Oh, ˌdear.

Sue: ‘Anyway, ¯he ˈsuddenly ’stopped ˆ coming. ¯Rather _\ sad, ‚really.

Tony: ˈWhat about ˈJane and ‘Ted, up‘stairs?

Sue: ‘Ah, ˌwell ¦ ‘Ted’s still ‚there. He’s ^↘not very ‘happy aˌbout it, ‚though. He’d ^↘like a ‘move if he could ˇ get one, ¦ but he ˈsort of ˈseems to be _\\ stuck. And ˇ Jane – ‘she ‚went ¦ about a ‚couple of ‘years a‚go.

Tony: ˇ Really?

Sue: ˈI haven’t ˙seen her for ‘ages, ¦ ˌso I ˈdon’t ˙know what she’s _\ doing. ‘Nobody ˌseems to be in ˇ touch with her. ¯Had ˆ Mary ‚come be˙fore you ˙left?

Tony: ˌMary _\ who?

Sue: ˈMary in _\ Accounts. She’s _\ Irish.

Tony: I ^↘don’t ˇ think so, ˇ no. I ^↘knew ˇ Sarah. I reˈmember ‘she was in Ac‚counts. >And ˈthen there was that ‘other ˌJane, ˈJane ‘Harrison. And ˈthen there was ‘Angela, ¯of _\ course, a ˈrather ‘serious one. But I ^↘don’t re^↘call a ˇ Mary.

Sue: >Well, ‘she must have ‘been after you ‘left, ˌthen.

2. ♫ ***

So I say to Claire ‘Where’s David, Claire?’ and she says ‘Oh, he’s staying at home to do his homework,’ and of course I thought ‘Oh no, he’s not!’ Because I saw him, you see, going into the café with Lorraine and I said, ‘Hi, David!’ and he went completely red, and Lorraine said, ‘We’re doing school project together,’ and I thought, ‘Oh, yes, I know what kind of project that is!’

***

A: I said to Terry, I said ‘Can you open the door for me?’ and he says, ‘Open it yourself!’ Can you believe it!

B: I know. That boy’s so rude! I said to his father, I said ‘you should do something about that boy,’ and do you know what he said to me? He said, ‘It’s none of your business.’

A: Oh, he’s just as bad as Terry. ‘Like father like son’ as they say.

***

A: Ugh! This coffee is really horrible!

B: Yea, I know. Machine coffee, I mean, why do we drink the stuff?

A: It’s sort of like… someone puts the contents of an ashtray in water and… ehm … like, heats it up or something, you know.

B: Yeah, that’s what it tastes like … and… I mean, having you tried the … ehm… the tea?

A: Ah yeah, the tea! That’s even worse! I mean the plastic cups don’t help, do they?

B: No, I know … plastic cups! … We like even had champagne in plastic cups, you know, at what’s-her-name’s leaving party…

A: Jenny. Jenny. Glen. Yeah, I remember that, last January it was … I … kind of … liked Jenny. I wonder what she’s doing now…

♦♦♦ Unit 2. The Problem of Phonetic Functional Styles Classification