Syllable Formation

In English syllable formation is based on the phonological opposition vowel -consonant. Vowels are usually syllabic while consonants are not with the exception of [l], [m], [n], which become syllabic if

they occur in an unstressed final position, proceeded by a noise consonant, for example Illlt!] -little,

['blusm] blossom, [,ga:dn] garden.

The structure of the syllable is known to vary because of the number and arrangement of consonants.

In English four types of syllables are distin­guished:

1) open

2) closed

3) covered note

4) uncovered

Here we should point out that due to its structure the English language developed the closed type of syllable as the fundamental one while in Ukrainian it is the open type that forms the basis of syllable

formation. The number of the syllable structural varieties is 23. The structure of the English syllable

reveals variations in the number of prevocalic consonants from 1 to 3 and post vocalic consonants

from I to 5. As to the number of syllables in the English word it can vary from one to eight, like

in [kAm] come, ['SIti] city, [,fcem(a)li] family, [Slm'plisltI] simplicity . So far we have described

some of the aspects of syllable structure of English. The other aspect is syllable division.

functions of the syllable.

The first is the constitutive function. It lies in the ability of the syllable to be part of a word or a

word itself. Syllables form language units of greater magnitude, that is words, morphemes and

utterances. In this respect two things should be emphasized. First, the syllable is the unit within which the relations between the distinctive features of the phonemes and their acous­tic correlates

are revealed. Second, within a syllable (or a sequence of syl­lables) prosodic characteristics of

speech are realized which form the stress pattern of a word and the rhythmic and intonation structure of an utter­ance. In sum, the syllable is a specific minimal structure of both segmental and suprasegmental features. The other function of the syllable is its distinctive function. The syllable

is characterized by its ability to differentiate words and word-forms. To illustrate this a set of minimal pairs should be found so that qualitative and/or quantita­tive peculiarities of certain allophones should indicate the beginning or the end of the syllable.

Summarizing we might say that on the functional level of description the syllable could be considered as the smallest pronounceable unit with potential linguistic importance. That is

why it reveals its functional value occasionally. By way of conclusion we could enumerate

the following peculiarities of the syllabic structure of English which are relevant for learners

of English:

1) syllabic boundary is inside intervocalic consonant preceded by a short checked vowel;

2) the sonorants [1], [m], [n] are syllabic, if they are preceded by noise consonants: little, blossom, sudden;

3) the typical and most fundamental syllable structure is of (C)CVC­ type.