7 Rhythm

7.1 What is rhythm?

Rhythm refers to the timing patterns of a language. English is a stress-timed language (as opposed to a syllable-timed language). This means that the timing patterns of the language are built around the stressed syllables, which are pronounced as longer syllables with clearer pronunciation of vowels and consonants. Syllables that are unstressed, on the other hand, are pronounced less clearly. The vowels of unstressed syllables are often pronounced similarly, as schwa, no matter how they are spelled. The consonants of unstressed syllables are also more likely to be pronounced in unexpected ways, including being changed or deleted. This means that the ‘beat’ of English rhythm is created from the combination of strong and weak (stressed and unstressed) syllables and words. This is represented by people standing in line in Figure 1.

To understand how rhythm is affected by different types of words, it is helpful to understand the role of function and content words in contributing to the patterns of English rhythm. Content words carry the majority of the meaning in a sentence or phrase. They are represented by nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and negative words (e.g., no, never, not, nothing). Function words are those that carry little lexical meaning but instead signify grammatical relationships within sentences. Common function words are determiners, conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, modals, qualifiers, and question words. In the following example sentence, the content words are bolded, and the function words are not.

I saw a dog and the cat.

Saw, dog, and cat (verb, noun, noun) are content words, are stressed, have clear vowels, and carry the most important semantic information of the sentence, while I, a, and, and the are function words that glue together the meaning by specifying the grammatical relationships among them. The function words are pronounced without stress, are spoken more quickly and less clearly, and often are reduced (they have a schwa). Reduction is a key feature of English rhythm. Syllable reduction also contributes to other features of speech such as deletion, illustrated in the example sentence when and loses its final [d].

The alternations of stress/unstress in content and function words helps to create rhythm in English. The connected speech chapter has more information about the effects of reduction and how reduction and other effects of listening affect listening and speaking.

Rhythm is pronounced within thought groups, which reflect where pauses or perceived pauses are used when speaking. A thought group is a chunk of speech that is semantically and grammatically coherent (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010). Rhythm, prominence, and intonation are pronounced within thought groups, and the many thought groups produced by speakers in connected speech create the characteristic melody and rhythm of English. The length of thought groups may differ due to speech rate or speaker decisions, but speakers usually average about 5-7 words in a thought group before taking a breath to continue. Faster speech may have fewer breaks and longer thought groups than slower speech, but speakers almost always keep meaningful groups of words together when they speak. In writing, thought groups are commonly indicated with commas, semicolons, periods, or dashes. Here is an example of a sentence divided by thought groups with slashes dividing thought groups: When I was a kid / every Friday night we had pizza for dinner / and then we went for ice cream.

7.2 Function words: Strong and Weak Forms

Many of the most frequent function words in spoken English are single-syllable words. These words are so frequent that they total nearly half the words in normal spoken English. This affects rhythm because nearly every other syllable is unstressed in speech. In normal speech, they are usually reduced in their pronunciation. These reduced pronunciations are called “weak forms”, a contrast to the more unusual pronunciation of strong forms. Examples of words that have weak and strong forms are shown in Table 1.

Strong forms, or dictionary forms, of function words, are unusual in spoken language. They are not more formal but instead send a message that the speaker wants to call attention to the grammar for some reason. For example, someone might say “I didn’t say A [eɪ] house, I said THE [ði] house” to call attention to the fact that a particular house is important.

Weak forms, on the other hand, are the normal pronunciation of these words in English. They are not clearly spoken, but they do not need to be. Often they are predictable from a knowledge of grammar, and even if they are not clearly pronounced, listeners expect them. To use knowledge of rhythm for listening comprehension, it is essential to practice listening to weak forms and learn what these important words sound like in speech.

The importance of weak forms is illustrated by the distinction between can and can’t. Can is pronounced /kæn/ in its strong form but usually is reduced to its weak form in speech, being pronounced /kən/ while the negative can’t is always stressed and pronounced as /kænt/ in isolation. In normal speech, if can’t precedes another consonant, as in I can’t play golf, the [t] is not pronounced because it is between two other consonants [ntp]. This means the [t] is lost as a clue to the negative meaning, and the only difference between can and can’t is the way the vowel is pronounced. If can is not reduced, then it will be heard as can’t.

7.3 Why is rhythm important in English speech?

Rhythm is important because it impacts both intelligibility and comprehensibility. If a speaker does not use the expected rhythm of English, the listener might not be able to understand them or the listener may require extra effort to understand what they are saying, both when speaking with native or non-native speakers. If a speaker uses a rhythm that is hard to follow or speaks with a monotone, it can be hard for listeners to pay attention to the speaker and pick out the important information from what they are saying. This is especially important if the speaker is doing presentations or has a job such as teaching. Additionally, it may be difficult to decipher what the important part of the sentence or phrase is when rhythm is lacking.

Just as importantly, rhythm is important for listening comprehension. English speakers will use the characteristic alternation of long (stressed) and short (unstressed) syllables in their speech. The unstressed syllables, because they are reduced in pronunciation clarity, are more difficult to understand in the stream of speech. This makes it difficult for language learners to understand the grammatical connections between the stressed syllables. Not being able to clue into the rhythm of English speech can also make it seem like English speakers speak too quickly. Learning how to listen to English rhythm can change how easy it is to understand English speech.

Speakers who come from a syllable-timed language such as French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and many African languages are used to listening to and speaking with a different type of rhythm with syllables that are relatively equal in length. Therefore, it may be difficult to produce or understand stress-timed rhythm. This means they may not give enough length to stressed syllables in content words or reduce unstressed syllables in function words when they speak English (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010).

In addition to learning to lengthen stressed syllables and reduce unstressed syllables, rhythm can be affected by poor choices in thought groups. When speakers do not use thought groups correctly, it can lead to reduced comprehensibility because listeners will struggle to follow the message. If thought groups are too short, speech sounds slower and the speech rhythm may make the speaker’s message hard to follow.

7.4 How can we approach teaching rhythm?

Before teaching rhythm, it is important that your students understand word stress and prominence first, due to the reliance on strong and weak (stressed and unstressed) syllables. Make sure that your students are lengthening stressed vowels and reducing the unstressed vowels. This includes making sure that students are aware of and can accurately use schwa. This will help create the rhythm in English. Focusing on content and function words from connected speech will also help students be able to improve their Rhythm in English. If you teach these different features, then the students can put together what they have learned to create rhythm in English.

7.6 Activities

Listening Discrimination

Exercise 7-1. Find the stress in a poem

My Shadow

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Exercise 7-2. Can or can’t?

Directions:  Select can or can’t, depending on what you hear.

Controlled Practice

Exercise 7-3. Waveform matching

Directions: Match each sentence to the waveform that represents it’s rhythm.

Guided & Communicative Production

Exercise 7-4. Nursery rhymes

Directions: Read these nursery rhymes aloud. You can record yourself and then compare your rhythm to the recording. When you are reading them, focus on full vowels in the stressed content words and reduced vowels in the unstressed syllables and function words.

Jack and Jill

Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water;
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
and Jill came tumbling after.
Up Jack got, and home did trot,
As fast as he could caper,
To old Dame Dob, who patched his nob
With vinegar and brown paper.

Humpty Dumpty

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

Hickory, Dickory, Dock

Hickory, dickory, dock,
The mouse ran up the clock;
The clock struck one,
And down he run,
Hickory, dickory, dock.

Exercise 7-5. Folk beliefs

Directions: Read each Folk Belief aloud, paying attention to smooth speech between pause markers. Discuss whether people in your country/group have a similar belief in your culture (like a sick family getting better if you do something).

What some people believe in the United States:

1. In Illinois, if you drive around the house in low gear, a sick family member will get better.
2. In North Carolina, if the first bird seen on New Year’s morning is flying high, there will be good health during the year.
3. On Groundhog Day, in February, if the groundhog sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter.
4. If you break a mirror, then you will have seven years of bad luck, unless you throw the pieces into a moving stream.
5. If you spill salt, then you will have bad luck, unless you throw some over your left Shoulder.

Now, create and then read a few of your own sentences using this pattern:

If ______A______, then _______B_________, unless _____C______ (optional).

Exercise 7-6. Sentence completion

Directions:  Complete each of the ten sentences and then read them aloud. There are many grammatically correct ways to complete the sentences.

For examples, you may read:

Before he left for work,

From that phrase, you can say:

Before he left for work, he went our for breakfast. Or Before he left for work, he called his friend. 

Exercise 7-7. What can you do?

Directions: Talk with another student and find out two things he or she can do and two things he or she can’t do. Report your findings to the class.

Concentrate on using an unstressed vowel for can and stressed for can’t. Also, practice shaking your head side to side when you say can’t.

Example:

• Student 1: What kinds of things can you do?
• Student 2: Well, I can 200 meters. I swim several times a week.

7.7 References

Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D. M., Goodwin, J. M., & Griner, B. (2010). Teaching pronunciation: A course book and reference guide (2nd ed.). Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Prator, C.H., & Robinett, B.W. (1985). Manual of American English pronunciation (4th ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.