ENGLISH VERB-MARKERS SERVING AS AN ACCURATE PREDICTOR OF ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION: THE CASE OF A VERB- MARKER ‘-FY’

Sukrisno, Alim ( English Department, Semarang State University,)

Language Circle : Journal of Language and Literature
Vol 10, No 1 (2015): October 2015

This article deals with English spelling in relation with its segmental and suprasegmental realizations.The reciprocal relationship between English spelling and its pronunciation is mostly arbitrary, and thus unpredictable. However, a closer observation on certain verbal markers, one of which is a verb-marker ‗-fy‟ indicates that to some greater extent itssegmental and suprasegmental realizations are highly predictable.Firstly, English verbs ending in „-fy‟must be segmentally realized as [-faI]. Secondly, English verbs ending in „-fy‟ must be stressed on the antepenultimate syllable.A minor exception exists, but a high degree of accuracy is recorded. Owing to the high degree of predictability of its segmental and suprasegmental realizations, the verb-marker ‗-fy‘lends itself to be a predictor of accurate pronunciation. Therefore, teachers as well as students of English as an SL or FL can improve their pronunciation by relying on this observation findings.