6. Phonotactic possibilities of English

Syllable formation in English is based on the phonological opposition vowel – consonant. Vowels are usually syllabic while consonants are not with the exceptions of [l], [m], [n], which become syllabic in a final position preceded by a noise consonant: bottle [bŒtl], bottom [bŒtm], button [b”tn] and [r] (in those accents which pronounce [r]) perhaps [præps].

The structure of English syllables can be summarized as follows:

• Many syllables

The English language has developed the closed type of syllable as the fundamental one while in Russian it is the open type that forms the basis of syllable formation.

7. Phonological constraints on sound clusters in the onset and coda

When we looked at the nature of vowels and consonants in lecture No 1 (articulatory aspect) it was shown that one could decide whether a particular sound was a vowel or a consonant on phonetic grounds (in relation to how much they obstructed the airflow) or on phonological grounds (vowels and consonants having different distributions). We find a similar situation with the syllable, in that it may be defined both phonetically and phonologically. Phonetically (that is, in relation to the way we produce them and the way they sound), syllables are usually described as consisting of a centre which has little or no obstruction to airflow and which sounds comparatively loud; before and after this centre (that is, at the beginning and end of the syllable), there will be greater obstruction to airflow and/or less loud sound. We will now look at some examples:

a) What we might call a minimum syllable would be a single vowel in isolation, e.g. the words 'are' / R/, 'or' / L /, 'err' /“/. These are preceded and followed by silence. Isolated sounds such as m, which we sometimes produce to indicate agreement, or ˜, to ask for silence, must also be regarded as syllables.

b) Some syllables have an onset (that is, they have more than just silence preceding the centre of the syllable): 'bar' /bR/, 'key' /kŠ/, 'more' /mL /.

c) Syllables may have no onset but have a termination: 'am' /m/, 'ought' / Lt/, 'ease' /Šz/.

d) Some syllables have onset and termination: 'run' /r”n/, 'sat' /st/, 'fill' /f‰l/.

There are still problems with this phonetic description of the syllable, particularly in the matter of deciding on the division between syllables. We will look at two words that are good examples of this difficulty. Most of English speakers feel that the word 'going' /'g‰š/ consists of two syllables; presumably we can decide that the in the middle is the dividing point between the two syllables, since the articulation is slightly closer to obstructing airflow than the vowels next to it. This still leaves unanswered the question of whether the belongs to the first or to the second syllable; of course, we know that the is part of the diphthong phoneme, but this is a fact of phonology, nor of the phonetic structure of the syllable. Another difficult case is the word 'extra' /'ekstr•/. One problem is that by some definitions the s in the middle, between k and t, would be counted as a syllable, which most English speakers would reject. They feel that the word has two syllables. However, opinions usually differ as to where the two syllables are to be divided; the possibilities are (using the symbol + to signify a syllable boundary): 'e+kstr•/ 'ek+str•/ 'eks+tr•/ 'ekst+r•/ 'ekstr+•/.

Usually the second or third possibilities are chosen; it is not possible to say which of these is the correct choice.

Looking at syllables in this way, which at first seems the obvious thing to do, turns out not to be very useful. Looking at them from the phonological point of view is quite different. What this involves is looking at the possible combinations of English phonemes. It is simplest to start by looking at what can occur in initial position – in other words, what can occur at the beginning of the first word when we begin to speak after a pause. We find that the word can begin with a vowel, or with one, two or three consonants. No word begins with more than three consonants. In the same way, we can look at how a word ends when it is the last word spoken before a pause; it can end with a vowel, or with one, two, three or (in a small number of cases) four consonants. No word ends with more than four consonants.