6, Tenseness
the degree of tenseness which distributes vowels into tense and lax is closely connected with vowel length.
tense vowels are produced when the speech organs are tense, here belong all english long vowels: [i:, a:, o:, ə:, u:].
lax vowels are produced with less tenseness of the speech organs, here belong all english short vowels: [i, e, ɔ, u, ə, ∧, æ].
Sound modifications are allophonic variations of speech sounds caused by their position in a word.The main types of sound modifications characterizing vowels are re-
duction and elision.
I. Reduction is the weakening of vowels in unstressed positions, determined by the position of a vowel, the stress structure of a word or the tempo of speech. this type of vowel modification may be qualitative, quantitative, or both.
1. Quantitative reduction is the decrease of vowel quantity when its length is shortened under the influence of the following factors:
— word stress: vowels in unstressed positions are usually shorter (cf: Is he [hi:] or she to blame? vs. At 'last he [hi] has \ done it.);
— position of a vowel in a word: the positional length of English vowels is the longest in the end, shorter before a lenis consonant,
and the shortest before a fortis consonant (cf: he [hi:] — heel [hi·l] — heat [hit]).
2. Qualitative reduction is the loss of vowel quality (colour) which generally results in the following changes:
— reduction of the vowels of full value to the neutral sound [ə] in unstressed positions (analyze ['ænəlaız] — analysis [ə'nælısıs]);
— slight nasalization of vowels preceded or followed by nasal consonants [n, m] (no, my, can,come).
II. Vowel elision (zero reduction) is the complete omission of the unstressed vowel which is realized in connected speech under the influence of tempo, rhythm and style of speech. It usually occurs:
— in notional words within a sequence of unstressed syllables (history ['hıstərı] → ['hıstrı], territory ['terıtərı] → ['terıtrı]);
— in notional words within unstressed syllables preceding the stressed one (correct [kə'rekt] → [k'rekt], suppose [sə'pəuz] →[s'pəuz]);
— in unstressed form words within a phrase (Has he done it? [hæz hi·d∧n ıt] → [həz hı d∧n ıt] → [əz ı d∧n ıt] → [z ı d∧n ıt]).
Syllabic structure of eng words
A syllable may consist of one or a number of phonemes, i.e. it may be formed by any vowel (alone or in combination with consonants) or by a word-final sonorant preceded by a consonant. A speech sound which is capable of forming a syllable is called syllabic. It is the most sonorous sound in the syllable and makes up the peak of prominence (the centre of the syllable, the nucleus). Speech sounds which are not capable of forming syllables are called non-syllabic. The consonants which precede the peak are called the onset and those which follow it are called the coda.
Speech is a continuum. However, it can be broken into minimal pronounceable units into which sounds show a tendency to cluster or group themselves. These smallest phonetic groups are generally given the name of syllables. A meaningful language unit phonetically may be considered from the point of view of syllable formation and syllable division.
The syllable is a complicated phenomenon and like a phoneme it can be studied on four levels - articulatory, acoustic, auditory and functional. The complexity of the phenomenon gave rise to many theories.
We could start with the so-called expiratory theory by R.H. Stetson(chest pulse theory, pressure theory). This theory is based on the assumption that expiration in speech is a pulsating process and each syllable should correspond to a single expiration. So the number of syllables in an utterance is determined by the number of expirations made in the production of the utterance. This theory was strongly criticized by Russian and foreign linguists. G.P. Torsuyev, for example, wrote that in a phrase a number of words and consequently a number of syllables can be pronounced with a single expiration. This fact makes the validity of the theory doubtful.
Another theory of syllable put forward by O. Jespersen is generally called the sonority theory. According to O. Jespersen, each sound is characterized by a certain degree of sonority which is understood us acoustic property of a sound that determines its perceptibility. According to V.A. Vasssilyev the most serious drawback of this theory is that it fails to explain the actual mechanism of syllable formation and syllable division. Besides, the concept of sonority is not very clearly defined.
Further experimental work aimed to description of the syllable resulted in lot of other theories. However the question of articulatory mechanism of syllable in a still an open question in phonetics. We might suppose that this mechanism is similar in all languages and could be regarded as phonetic universal.
In Russian linguistics there has been adopted the theory of syllable by LV Shcherba. It is called the theory of muscular tension. In most languages there is the syllabic phoneme in the centre of the syllable which is usually a vowel phoneme or, in some languages, a sonorant. The phonemes preceding or following the syllabic peak are called marginal. The tense of articulation increases within the range of prevocalic consonants and then decreases within the range of postvocalic consonants. the syllable is defined as an arc of muscular tension in which the tension of articulation increases within the range of prevocalic consonants and then decreases within the range of postvocalic consonants. this theory has been further modified by V.A. Vassilyev, who suggested that the physical parameters of pitch, intensity and length also vary within the range of the syllable. So on the speech production level the syllable can be treated as an arc of articulatory effort which combines the changes in the muscular tension of articulation and the acoustic data.
The syllabic structure of words may be graphically represented by the letter V standing for a vowel and the letter C standing for a consonant. The syllabic sonorant is represented by S.
Every syllable has a definite structure. A syllable which begins in a consonant is called covered, a syllable which begins in a vowel is called uncovered. A syllable which ends in a consonant is called closed, a syllable which ends in a vowel is called open. There are four main types of syllables:
V – uncovered, open, or fully open, e.g. or [o:], I [aɪ];
VC – uncovered, closed, e.g. it [ɪt], add [æd];
CV – covered, closed, e.g. see [si:], no[nou];
CVC – covered, closed, or fully closed, e.g. catch [kæʧ], pit [pɪt].
Или вот такое деление:(где как)
open CV
closed VC
covered CV(C)
uncovered V(C)
This is syllabic structure
Syllables may begin with an onset (ω) which is an initial consonant. All languages optionally allow onsets, some require them. Syllables are usually required to have a nucleus (ν) which is usually what grants a string of sounds syllablehood. This is most commonly a vowel or sonorant segment. Final consonants within a syllable but occurring after the nucleus are in the coda (κ). Some languages may not allow any coda segments, and only CV syllables are allowed. The nucleus and coda together are referred to as the rhyme.
Syllable division is an aspect of the syllabic structure of any language. It helps to establish the structure of meaningful language units (morphemes and words) and thus determines the syllabic characteristics of the language. the rules of syllable division are studied by a special branch of phonetics — phonotactics. It determines the patterns according to which phonemes are grouped into syllables. Phonotactics deals with the rules and restrictions languages have for what strings of segments are permissible.
The Maximum Onset Principle states that intervocalic consonants should be considered onsets first if possible as long there is no violation of the sonority hierarchy. That is, there is a preference for consonants to be onsets rather than codas. • Thus: /e.bo.la/ not /e.bol.a/ (or /eb.ol.a/); /pol.ka/ not /po.lka/ (because this would violate the sonority hierarchy) or /polk.a/; /di.plo.ma/ not /dip.lo.ma/ or /dipl.om.a/
Correct syllable division is important from the point of view of pronunciation and understanding.
e.g. a nice house | an ice house
The basic syllable division rules are as follows:
a. the English long monophthongs, diphthongs and unstressed short vowels [i], [q], [u] always occur in a phonetically open syllable when they are separated from the next syllabic sound by only one consonant.
e.g about [ q - baut] music [ mju: - zik] Michael [ mai – kl]
b. A short stressed vowel followed by only one consonant always occurs in a phonetically closed syllable.
e.g. pity [ pit – i] coffee [ k f – i]
c. Intervocalic combinations of consonants belong to the next syllable if such combinations are typical of English (i. e. they can be found at the beginning of words). Otherwise, the consonants must be divided between the two syllables.
e.g. naturally [ næ t∫ - rә – li] (næ – and t∫rә – are impossible in English)