Practice question · Select all that apply
Why does a speaker who uses only full forms become harder to follow, not easier? Select every true statement about weak forms.
Hints
- Three describe the system; one repeats a prescriptive belief that measurement contradicts.
- Formal speech is full of weak forms.
Show the answer
- B. Connected speech uses the reduced form by default
- C. Using only full forms produces a rhythm listeners do not expect
- D. Function words have a full citation form and a reduced form with schwa
Why
The fourth is the persistent myth. Weak forms occur throughout formal speech, including in read news bulletins; what changes with register is speed and precision, not the existence of reduction. A learner drilled to avoid them ends up harder to follow, not clearer.
Practise English Vowels II: Diphthongs and Reduction
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More questions on English Vowels II: Diphthongs and Reduction
- Schwa occurs only in unstressed syllables in English.
- How many diphthongs does the standard analysis of RP recognise?
- Sort each item by whether it is a CLOSING diphthong, a CENTRING diphthong, or a MONOPHTHONG.
- Vowel reduction is frequently mischaracterised as phonetic sloppiness, yet phonologically it is a systematic…
- Complete the account of reduction.
- The centring diphthongs of RP are stable and show no signs of change.
- Arrange the stages by which a full vowel becomes schwa in a derived word.