English vocalic system

There are 20 vowels in English. 12 – monophthongs, 8 – diphthongs: i-gliding, u-gliding, ə-gliding; 2 diphthongoids.

English consonant system

Syllable formation theories

Syllable – is a phoneme or a group of phoneme united by word accent and meant to build up phonetic word.

Syllables can be viewed:

1. Articulatory – we can pronounce it, divide it into syllables for better understanding.

2. Acoustically – we can perceive the syllable with word accent.

3. Functionally – constitutive – to build up word.

4. Graphically – syllabographs in writing.

Syllable may be: one word; a part of a word; a grammatical part of a word – un-known.

Types of syllables in English: open, closed, vowel+/r/, vowel+/re/.

Theories:

• There are as many syllables in a world as there are vowels.

• Expiratory theory. There are as many syllables in a word as there are pulses of expiration.

• Sonority theory. There as many syllables in a word as there are vowels and sonorants.

• Arch of loudness. There as many syllables in a word as there are peaks of loudness.

Syllable division:

1. Morphological – the word is split strictly sticking to its morphological structure (tutor – tut –or)

2. Phonetic principle – based on sonority theory and articulatory principle (English – Eng – lish)

Word accent

is a special prominence or highlighting given to one or more syllables among other syllables in a word. Classification of word accent:

1. Acc. To the position in a word – free,fixed.

2. Acc. To the degree – primary, secondary, tertiary.

Functions of word accent:

1. Constitutive – helps to build up words.

2. Recognative – we can hear the boundaries of the words in speech because of word accent and rhythm caused by it.

3. Distinctive – helps to differentiate grammar forms of the word (‘conduct – con’duct)

Tendencies of word accent distribution in English:

• Recessive – the majority of Eng. Words have the word accent on the initial syllable.

• Rhythmic – alteration of stressed and unstressed syllables at approximate equal periods of time.

• Retentive – manifests that the position of word accent is preserved in parent words

• Semantic – states that in compound words the most semantically important part is under primary stress.

Utterance stress

is a special prominence given to one or more syllables among other syllables in the utterance. U. s. underlines the words which are essential to the meaning of the whole utterance. Words of little semantic value are usually unstressed or just partially stressed.

Utterance stress:

1. Emphatic/syntagmatic – some words within an utterance are irreplaceable and thus make the backbone of the utterance.

2. Normal – defines those words which can be omitted but still have importance concerning the whole meaning.

3. Logical – forms the communicative centre of the utterance. It shows the most important word within utterance.