词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Thought Groups in Spoken English

Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: October 2, 2003

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- English teacher Lida Baker¹ in Los Angeles talks about improving English pronunciation by understanding the idea of thought groups.

RS: Thought groups are something we don't even think about as native speakers of English. It's a way to break long sentences into shorter pieces, separated by slight pauses, to help listeners organize the meaning.

AA: But English learners need help to develop this skill when they study pronunciation. Lida says over the last twenty years, many teachers of English have come to focus not just on vowels² and consonants³, but also on stress and intonation⁴.

BAKER: "So we're talking about the way that the voice moves up and down and where we pause and things of that sort. This is a much more authentic⁵ way of learning about spoken language."

RS: Take a sentence like: "I took the milk from the table and I put it in the refrigerator."

BAKER: "This is not right: [robotic monotone] 'I took the milk from the refrigerator and I put it on the table.' Nobody talks like that."

AA: "You sound like a robot."

BAKER: "That's right. But that's not how we speak English. What we do is, the voice moves up and down, and there's also an alternation between syllables⁶ that are stressed and pronounced clearly, and syllables that are unstressed and therefore are reduced and spoken very quickly. So 'I took the milk' becomes 'I took the milk,' puh-PAH, puh-PAH, OK? So within each thought group you will also find that there are these variations in pitch, with the voice moving up and down, and then syllables that are pronounced more clearly, syllables that are reduced and pronounced unclearly. So you get this effect of 'I took the milk,' puh-PAH, puh-PAH, 'from the table,' puh-puh-PAH-PAH, 'and I put it,' da-da-DAH-DAH, 'in the refrigerator,' puh-puh-PAH-puh-puh-puh."

AA: "You've got a hit there!"

BAKER: "Funny you should say that, because one of the easiest ways to learn about thought groups is to listen to popular music. And it happens that my daughter is absolutely crazy about the Beatles and she plays the guitar, so yesterday she was singing 'Can't Buy Me Love.'"

MUSIC: "Can't Buy Me Love"

Can鈥檛 buy me love, love,

Can't buy me love

I鈥檒l buy you a diamond ring my friend if it makes you feel alright

I鈥檒l get you anything my friend if it makes you feel alright

'cause I don鈥檛 care too much for money, money can鈥檛 buy me love ...

BAKER: "First of all 'can't buy me love,' that's a thought group right there. 'I'll buy you a diamond ring, my friend,' -- so, 'I'll buy you,' 'a diamond ring, 'my friend.' That's three thought groups right there."

RS: "What about for those who speak English as a foreign language, are there some rules, or do they have to learn by doing."

BAKER: "Well, I can't give you any rules, but I can give you some guidelines. Generally speaking, the pauses occur, they sort of correspond to grammatical units such as phrases and clauses and things like the complete subject of a sentence. So if you have a sentence like 'a big black cat sat on a tall white fence.' So the subject there is 'a big black cat,' and that's a thought group. 'A big black cat sat on a tall white fence,' 'on a tall white fence is also a thought group, and that's a prepositional phrase.

"Now pop music isn't the only way to learn this. A great way to learn this, I'm going to put in a plug here for the Voice of America -- is to go the Special English broadcasts and look at the transcripts⁷ and then listen to the announcers. Because on Special English the language is slowed down, it's a wonderful way for learners to pick up on the way sentences are broken down into thought groups.

"Another way is to use a video cassette recorder and tape any television program and do something called tracking. You tape a segment of a show and then you play it back and what you try to do is to imitate what they're saying, just one beat behind them. And incidentally it doesn't have to be done with television. It can be done with radio as well."

RS: "Anywhere there's sound going on in English."

BAKER: "That's right!"

AA: Lida Baker teaches at the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. She also writes and edits textbooks for English learners. And, by the way, those Special English programs she mentioned are all available online at voaspecialenglish.com.

RS: You can also find a link from our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is [email protected]. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

1 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。

2 vowels   

n.元音，元音字母( vowel的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Vowels possess greater sonority than consonants. 元音比辅音响亮。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Note the various sounds of vowels followed by r. 注意r跟随的各种元音的发音。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

3 consonants   

n.辅音，子音( consonant的名词复数 )；辅音字母

参考例句：

• Consonants are frequently assimilated to neighboring consonants. 辅音往往被其邻近的辅音同化。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Vowels possess greater sonority than consonants. 元音比辅音响亮。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

4 intonation   

n.语调，声调；发声

参考例句：

• The teacher checks for pronunciation and intonation.老师在检查发音和语调。
• Questions are spoken with a rising intonation.疑问句是以升调说出来的。

5 authentic   

a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的

参考例句：

• This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
• Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。

6 syllables   

n.音节( syllable的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a word with two syllables 双音节单词
• 'No. But I'll swear it was a name of two syllables.' “想不起。不过我可以发誓，它有两个音节。” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

7 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句