Analysis Of The Use Of Sentence Stress Among Selected Undergraduate Students
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Analysis Of The Use Of Sentence Stress Among Selected Undergraduate Students
Chapter one
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Constructively, a sentence is a collection of words that transmit meaning and are produced in accordance with standard grammar rules. Short and straightforward sentences are generally preferred and more effective than long and complex sentences.
Apparently, a sentence is a linguistic unit of one or more words that communicates an autonomous articulation, a question, a request, a summons, a cry, and so on, and usually includes a subject and a predicate.
A sentence, on the other hand, often begins with a capital letter and finishes with suitable punctuation; in speech, it has discernible, unconstrained intonation patterns and is repeatedly punctuated by preceding and succeeding pauses.
In general, statements and enquiries regarding the inexorable preponderance of sentences require a subject and a verb formatted independently, followed by what is known as an independent clause: for example, he took the phone is a sentence.
It is no longer a sentence after hitting the phone; instead, it is a dependent clause. Even if he has a subject and a verb, he needs to be linked to something to complete the sentence: after picking up the phone, he answered a call; or He answered a call after picking up the phone (Amayo, 2013).
It is vital to note that the sentences provide the structure required for a comprehensible written sentence. However, effective writing abilities are inextricably linked to academic and professional achievement. The capacity to write unambiguously and competently can turn complex and difficult writing into a more creative, engaging, and rewarding writing experience.
In more concrete terms, phrase learning is one of the most important techniques to improve your English writing abilities. Writing, on the other hand, is made up of sentences that are arranged in a coherent order.
If a single sentence is read aloud, it must be explainable, and focussing on sentence structure mechanics can make a significant difference in your writing (Kachru, 2014). Typically, sentences are made up of clauses: groups of words that express a single notion. Given that, there are two kinds of clauses:
Independent clauses
Dependent clauses.
Actually, independent clauses can stand alone as complete sentences, whereas dependent clauses require an independent clause to complete their meaning. As a result, different types of sentences are composed of various combinations of these two types of clauses.
Simple sentences are made up of a single independent clause and require only one punctuation mark at the end.
Compound sentences are created by combining basic ones. Sentences that are closely related in substance are connected together to make the writing flow more easily.
Complex sentences are formed by combining an independent clause with a dependent clause, with the dependent clause in the example below in italics.
However, sentence stress comes into play when one has to emphasise a specific fact or point in a text; there are numerous ways to direct the reader’s or listener’s attention to it.
Imperative word arrangement: by placing an introduction word at the beginning of a sentence, the writer draws the reader’s attention to that word, making the reader alert for the rest of the sentence.
Undoubtedly, the English language has a towering frequency of homographic vocabulary; however, this linguistic observable fact habitually results in phonological and lexical ambiguities
as well as delays in lexical and pronunciation decisions by L2 readers, more than ever those that are not capable of exploring contextual clues in pronouncing the words and ‘Improper’ or ‘incorrect’ pronunciation of some English words, primarily the homographic ones
during reading Notably, previous researchers who studied this observable fact focused on inter-lingual factors associated with some sociolinguistic chemistry of languages in contact, and these contact circumstances gave rise to many world Englishes (Kachru 2014, Crystal 2015, and Schneider 2003).
Aside from these inter-lingual circumstances, there are some complexities in English that pose pronunciation challenges to speakers of the language in general and second language (L2) users in particular. Bryson (2015) and Soneye (2007) have identified the impact of spelling on the pronunciation of English speakers, and Amayo (2013) has identified the supra-segmental as the ‘unlearn-able’ aspect of English in an L2 context.
Nonetheless, apart from the problems of English orthography and supra-segmental features, there is the problem posed by homographic words to English speakers in general, and L2 speakers in particular, for a variety of reasons.
English homographic words are words with the same spelling but with double or different pronunciations. However, repeatedly using this duality of elocution results in lexical ambiguity, as Frost, Feldman, and Katz (2012) define it. For example,’read’ (present tense) is pronounced as /rí: d/, but the past tense form is pronounced /red /.
Uncertainty is a phenomenon of human language, including English, and it requires more than one denotation because it manifests at the phonological, lexical, syntactic, and semantic levels of language, with the result being communication failure or miscommunication, or in other words, meaning is obscured, resulting in defective communication.
At this point, it is extremely important to establish a relationship between orthography and phonology on the one hand, and phonology and importance on the other. Frost et al. (2012:569) argue that there might be ambiguity in the relationship between a word’s orthographic and phonological kinds, as well as between its phonological structure and semantic representation.
The objective of combining phonology with semantics is to better represent meaning. A word is a phonological structure that is represented by a lexical passage. As a result, each homographic word is assigned two distinct passages with the sole objective of semantically separating it.
In any event, English lacks a visual identifier (like tonal dialects) to distinguish these homographic terms and their various elocution suggestions. This frequently results in semantic confusion.
On the other hand, the purpose of this study is to experimentally evaluate the obstacles given by English homographic terms to some students at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, in order to determine their impact on communication among Nigerian undergraduates.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Furthermore, Simpson (2015) discusses some of the impacts of semantic uncertainty on visual word recognition. Because words in this class include two sections, the possibility of encountering one of them is greater than the chance of identifying a single piece.
When bivalent words are read as two distinct elements, they cause delay in correct articulation because users set aside time to align elocution with importance. Unfortunately, this is not a universal standard, and there are numerous English words that sound the same as verbs and nouns: ‘travel’ (He works in a Travel Agency and hopes to travel by air to Abuja), and ‘picture’ (He remembered taking the picture at a studio but couldn’t remember which studio).
These word arrangements are unambiguous in terms of phonology and meaning. The actual open repercussions of such lexical items are typically determined by their use environment.
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