Background of the Study

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter discusses the introduction of the study which is divided into five sections. The first section is background that provides the basis of the topic of the study. The second is limitation of the study that sets the constraint of the writer in limiting the problems of the study. The third part is formulation of the problems that notes the questions of the study. The fourth part is the objectives of the study that exemplify purpose of the research in line with the research questions. Lastly, the fifth part shows benefits of the study that justify the contribution of the study for the other related studies and for the readers.

A. Background of the Study

English has been used as an important means of communication among countries. The fact that English has a role as an International language makes English become important to be learnt by people. It is used necessarily in particular business, trade, tourism, and educational setting. Furthermore, when meeting native speakers, we are required to master English as good as possible, especially on its pronunciation. Our pronunciation will directly and indirectly represents our ability in denoting the target language. The better we can perform the language, the better we can confirm our competence to others. The problem is that, relating the spoken form to its written form, English is one of the languages which typically has different phonetic realization compared to its orthography Jones, 1989: 9. At this point, English is characterized with a cosmopolitan vocabulary where the vocabulary is mixed with words from other 1 various languages Baugh and Cable, 2002: 11. Based on the historical review, English vocabulary nowadays is shaped from Old English, Latin, Greek, French, and some other borrowed languages. Hence, English has wide variation of speech and also its pronunciation system. The spoken forms of word can be different even though their written forms are similar or homographically the same. For example, the pronunciation of wind as a noun w nd and wind as a verb wa nd or different pronunciations among thou ða ʊ, though ðoʊ, tough tʌf, thought θɔːt , taught tɔːt, and thorough ˈθʌr ə that usually misspelled. It makes English pronunciation cannot be simply done by predicting only. It also needs the knowledge of the pronunciation from dictionaries or native speakers of English. In its spoken form, English has so many words in which the pronunciation system is not typically the same as its written spelling. Thus, it can be claimed that English spelling is not completely phonetic, or more specifically, phonemic Womack, 1957: 386. As a consequence, non-native speakers are usually mistaken in guessing the orthographical form from its pronunciation and vice versa. The thing is that, producing English words is not simply talking. There are many factors which influence its pronunciation as well as its spelling. This can be affected by the language orthography, spelling conventions, phonological rule, and historical background of English sound changes, loan words, spelling system. The problem of sounds and letters is one of the cases related to different phonetic realization compared to its orthography that will be the focus of this study. That is how those influences of the written form will affect the way of pronouncing the word. The authentic example can be taken from Crystal’s observation 1998: 37 on the language play by the so- called ‘amateurs’ people who have not had any formal training. In the rehearsal, they will tend to pronounce the word as it is written. For example, they will pronounce knife as ‘kuh-nif-ee’, scissors as ‘ski-ssors’, knitting as ‘kuh-nitting’, gnome as ‘guh-nom- ee’ and others. This occurrence straightens the importance of comprehending both sounds and spellings. It can be seen that the relation between sounds and spelling cannot be neglected. That is, if they only know the pronunciation, they will encounter difficulties when writing and if they only rely on the spelling, they will find obstacles in pronouncing. Hence, English sounds continuously take a special attention in dealing with their spellings. As stated before, sound muting and letter silencing are problems that usually need special attention. Furthermore, in dealing with English as a global language Crystal, 2003: 3, these problems become more serious for non-native speakers. That is, they usually find difficulties when encountering the matters of letter silencing. In more explicit way, they have problems with the matter of deletion. That is, the letter which is there but it is not pronounced. The instances are the words sign sa n and knee niː. The g and k are there but they are not uttered. Besides, when the letter is completely mute, it is totally silenced in all other derived words. The instances are the words bomb b m and bombing ˈb m ŋ, know n əʊ and knowledge ˈn l dʒ, listen ˈl s ən and listener ˈl s ən‿ə, doubt da ʊt and doubtful ˈdaʊt fəl. The other instances are in the words psalm s ːm, pneumonia nju ˈməʊn i‿ə, and gnat næt. In this extent, the stops b, k, t, p, and g never appear at all. It is because of the matter of orthography. In other words, we need historical explanation to account for this stop deletion in orthographical consonant clusters. In line with those matters, the distinct concept of consonant clusters in the pronunciation and the orthography also emerges the problem of the English pronunciation for non-native speakers. For example, in the word foreign, the gn in terms of the spelling orthography is classified as a consonant cluster. However, in terms of spoken form phonology, there is no such a consonant cluster observed in t alking ˈf rən since g is deleted in the pronunciation. Consequently, this matter can generate a problem for the speakers in determining what to speak, especially related to sounds. As a consequence, they are usually confused when coping with these types of word. For example, they do not know in what extent that the sound g can be pronounced as in the word sign sa n and signal ˈs ɡnəl. This occurrence can cause problems dealing with pronouncing words spoken form and also putting letters in writing written form. That is, the students become bewildered when learning English sounds because they will find difficulties in realizing that the spoken form in English is hardly the same as its written form and vice versa. In this extent, it is essential to seek the explanation from the point of view of phonology, Stop deletion such as the word sign, gnome, knee, knife, and knitting in English is significant to be observed in terms of its word spelling and pronunciation linkage. The words are necessary to be studied in order to see the terms and condition as the sound is deleted. Besides, there are so many words in English which contain stop deletion. Stop deletion is one of the features in English that requires special attention in line with pronunciation. In this point, stop deletion is one of the deletions that mostly occur in English words. In addition, there is a need to seek the historical explanation to identify the system of orthography in synchronic or diachronic phonology. That is, whether the occurrence of sound deletion is related to particular diachronic events e.g. sound changes in different time Goldsmith et al., 2011: 320. The sound may have existed in the past but has disappeared in some words at the point of time or the letter is actually there merely because of the orthographical matter and spelling convention in case of borrowing: retaining the orthographical form or taking the written form as it is. This study, then, explores stop deletion that occurs in the consonant clusters of English orthography. That is, those words whose spelling orthographical representations contain a consonant cluster with stop oral stops p, t, k, b, d, g or nasal stops m, n. The examples are the words paradigm ˈpærəda m, design diˈza n and malign məˈla n. In this case, g is mute or not pronounced. Nevertheless, g may appear on the other derived words like and paradigmatic ˌpær ə d ɡ ˈmæt k, designate ˈdez ɡne t and malignancy m əˈl ɡnən t si. These occurrences often make people confused. That is, in what extent that these phonological phenomena may or may not happen. In this case, we need phonological explanations that can clarify the rule for this deletion. For this research, the stop deletion is observed in the words taken from Longman Pronunciation Dictionary Wells, 2000 both soft copy and hard copy. The concerns are to notice the existence of stop deletion and to recognize the occurrence of stop deletion in English. In this sense, the researcher attempts to distinguish between the types of stop deletion in English, identify its characteristics and also tries to identify the possible rules for the deletion. In addition, the historical review is counted to confirm the influence of the language change to the spelling reform and representation.

B. Limitation of the Study