How often Phonology: sounds, stress and pronunciation is asked

Where it was asked

• Supp 202412 marks
• Oct/Nov 202210 marks
• Oct/Nov 202115 marks

The questions

1. Supp 2024, Q3.16 marks

   This question falls under Section B: Morphology, Phonology, Syntax and Semantics of the ENG1502 January/February 2024 paper. It is noted that in English, spelling and pronunciation do not always match up. Using the following word pairs as supporting evidence, demonstrate this claim: (i) ship and sheep; (ii) nation and fashion; (iii) knew and new.

2. Supp 2024, Q4.46 marks

   Question 4 is based on a short review passage about the novel 'Lay Still', which candidates must read before answering the sub-questions. The passage reads: 'Lay Still is a relentlessly paced and ruthlessly efficient futuristic thriller. It aspires to be a kind of low-tech, sci-fi, cyberpunk story, but is really a fairly traditional crime novel – stealthy and nasty and wonderfully well written – with an frequent amount of (very graphic) violence and some late-in-the-game plot twists. The aesthetic here runs everywhere between Blade Runner and Sin City (both the movie and the graphic novel) – the author's absorption of the crime genre appears to be encyclopaedic – but the prose most closely resembles Lee Child's (the Jack Reacher series). The style – quick, mean, mechanical, technical, airtight – is very contemporary and very, very brutal.' In the second sentence of the 'Lay Still' passage the word 'frequent' is used. Note that the meaning of this word, as well as its part of speech, can change depending on where the stress falls. Underline where the stress should be placed, state the resulting part of speech, and write a sentence that demonstrates how shifting the stress changes the meaning of the word 'frequent'.

3. Oct/Nov 2022, Q3.110 marks

   Stress placement in English can shift both the meaning and the part of speech of a word. Five such words are given: content, defect, frequent, incense, and transfer. Using each of the five words - content, defect, frequent, incense, and transfer - write two separate sentences per word so as to demonstrate how changing the stress placement changes the word's meaning and/or part of speech. In each sentence, clearly indicate where the stress falls on the word.

4. Oct/Nov 2021, Q3.12 marks

   Having completed this module on English language structure, you should be able to explain why certain words are spelled differently yet share the same pronunciation, and why some words that look identical carry different pronunciations. The following sub-questions test your knowledge of this aspect of English; read each instruction carefully and respond accordingly. Name and define one concept you studied that accounts for the arbitrary relationship between spelling and pronunciation in English. Illustrate the concept you have chosen with one example.

5. Oct/Nov 2021, Q3.24 marks

   Having completed this module on English language structure, you should be able to explain why certain words are spelled differently yet share the same pronunciation, and why some words that look identical carry different pronunciations. The following sub-questions test your knowledge of this aspect of English; read each instruction carefully and respond accordingly. Consider the following list of words, paying attention to how the consonant 'l' is pronounced in each: Paul, children, told, Lesley, playroom, English, July, final, clean. One example has already been completed for you: the 'l' in 'Paul' and 'children' is pronounced the same in English. Using the remaining words in the list (excluding Paul and children, which you may not reuse), identify two further pairs of words in which the consonant 'l' is pronounced the same.