Part Ⅰ Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
1.1 Why should we learn English phonetics？ 1
1.2 Problems about pronunciation 2
1.3 Phonemes and phonetic transcription 4
Chapter 2 Organs of Speech and Classification of Speech Sounds 8
2.1 Organs of speech 8
2.2 Classification of speech sounds 11
Part Ⅱ English Phonemes 14
Chapter 3 English Vowel Phonemes 14
3.1 The cardinal vowels 14
3.2 Monophthongs and diphthongs 16
3.3 English monophthongs 17
Chapter 4 English Diphthongs 49
4.1 The closing diphthongs 49
4.2 The centring diphthongs 61
Chapter 5 English Consonants（Ⅰ）：Plosives 68
5.1 Classification of consonants 68
5.2 Plosives 71
Chapter 6 English Consonants（Ⅱ）：Fricatives and Affricates 82
6.1 Fricatives 82
6.2 Affricates 94
Chapter 7 English Consonants（Ⅲ）：Nasals,Lateral and Approximants 98
7.1 Nasals 98
7.2 Lateral/l/ 104
7.3 Approximants 106
Chapter 8 The English Syllables and Consonant Clusters 114
8.1 What is a syllable？ 114
8.2 The English syllable 114
8.3 How to read consonant clusters correctly？ 115
Part Ⅲ Aspects in Connected Speech 122
Chapter 9 Word Stress 122
9.1 What makes a syllable prominent？ 122
9.2 Levels of stress 123
9.3 Stress patterns of simple words 123
9.4 Word-class pairs 128
9.5 Stress of compound words 129
Chapter 10 Sentence Stress 133
10.1 Sentence stress and its functions 133
10.2 Which words are usually stressed？ 134
10.3 Stress for contrast or special emphasis 137
10.4 In special cases,content words are unstressed 138
10.5 Function words may be stressed in certain cases 142
Chapter 11 Weak Forms 148
11.1 Weak forms—normal forms 148
11.2 Weak forms of words differ from their strong ones 149
11.3 How are the weak forms used？ 150
11.4 The use of strong forms 157
Chapter 12 Rhythm in English Speech 161
12.1 Rhythm in English speech 161
12.2 Rhythm units（or stress groups） 161
12.3 English has a stress-timed rhythm 163
12.4 Rhythm and vowel reduction 165
12.5 Influence of rhythm upon word-stress 165
12.6 The influence of rhythm on sentence-stress 166
12.7 Summary 167
Chapter 13 Liaison（or linking） 174
13.1 Linking the final consonant to the initial vowel 174
13.2 Linking a final/r/to initial vowels 177
13.3 Linking final vowels to initial vowels 179
Chapter 14 Assimilation 184
14.1 What is assimilation？ 184
14.2 Direction of assimilation 184
14.3 Assimilations which frequently take place in spoken English 185
Chapter 15 Elision and Contraction 192
15.1 Types of elisions 192
15.2 Elisions frequently taking place in rapid speaking 192
15.3 Common contractions 194
15.4 Negative contractions 195
Part Ⅳ English Intonation 198
Chapter 16 Tone Unit and the Tonic Stress 198
16.1 The sense group and tone group 198
16.2 Tone-unit and tonic stress 200
16.3 The position of the tonic stress 201
16.4 Changes in focus：New information 203
Chapter 17 The Structure of Tone Unit 208
17.1 What is intonation？ 208
17.2 The Structure of the intonation-unit 208
17.3 Reading the intonation marks 210
Chapter 18 The Uses of the Tones（Ⅰ） 216
18.1 The falling tone 216
18.2 The rising tone 218
Chapter 19 The Uses of the Tones（Ⅱ） 227
19.1 The falling-rising tone 227
Chapter 20 Miscellaneous Patterns 236
20.1 The accidental rise 236
20.2 Intonation of compound sentences 236
20.3 Intonation of appositives 237
20.4 Intonation of the parenthesis 238
20.5 Intonation of reporting phrases 239
20.6 Intonation of the complex sentence containing an object clause 241
20.7 Intonation of attributive clauses 241
Chapter 21 Functions of Intonation 244
21.1 The function of organizing information 244
21.2 The attitudinal function 244
21.3 The communicative function 244
21.4 The grammatical function 248
Appendix 1 Suggested Key to the Exercises 255
Appendix 2 General Terms of English Phonetics 270
Appendix 3 Pronunciation of American English 276
Appendix 4 Intonation of American English 281
Bibliography 286