30. The rules of word stress in English
1. in words of 2-3 syll, the primary str mostly falls on the 1 syl.
2. in prefixal words the primary str falls on the syl following the prefix, recall.
3. in prefixal words with prefixes having their own meaning the place of str is on the prefix, exminister
4. in prefixal verbs which are distinguished from similarly spelled nouns and adjs have their str on the initial syl (‘increase-to in’crease)
5. in compound words the 1st element is stressed when: 1 they are written as 1 word,2 nouns are compounded of a verb and an adv(make up),3 nouns in the possessive case are followed by another noun (a doll’s house).
In compound words the 2nd element is stressed when: 1food items have the 1st elem which is of a material used in manufacturing the whole (appletree), 2names of roads, parks,squares, 3 parts of the house – kitchenwindow, 4 adj-s with past participles, characterizing person, 5 comp nouns ending in –er or –ing are followed by an adv (passer’by)
2 equal str-s are observed in compositive verbs: give up,in numerals 13-19
31. Theories of syl formation and syl division.
There are different points of view on syllable formation which are the following.
The most ancient theory states that there are as many syllables in a word as there are vowels. This theory is primitive and insufficient since it does not take into consideration consonants which also can form syllables in some languages, neither does it explain the boundary of syllables.
The expiratory theory states that there are as many syllables in a word as there are expiration pulses. The borderline between the syllables is, according to this theory, the moment of the weakest expiration. This theory is inconsistent because it is quite possible to pronounce several syllables in one articulatory effort or expiration, e.g. seeing.
The sonority theory states that there are as many syllables in a word as there are peaks of prominence or sonority.
Speech sounds pronounced with uniform force, length and pitch, differ in inherent prominence or sonority. For example, when the Russian vowels /а, о, э, у, и/ are pronounced on one and the same level, their acoustic intensity, or sonority is different: the strongest is /a/, then go /о, э, у, и/.
О. Jespersen established the scale of sonority of sounds, that is, the scale of their inherent prominence. According to this scale the most sonorous are back vowels (low, mid, high), then go semi-vowels and sonorants, then — voiced and voiceless consonants.
Sounds are grouped around the most sonorous ones, which form the peaks of sonority in a syllable. Two points of lower sonority constitute the beginning and the end of one syllable. Compare melt and metal, in the first word [e]is the most sonorous sound, the only peak of sonority, it is a one-syllable word. In the word metal there are two peaks of sonority /e/ and /1/, it is a two-syllable word.
The sonority theory helps to establish the number of syllables in a word, but fails to explain the mechanism of syllable division because it does not state to which syllable the weak sound at the boundary of two syllables belongs.
The "arc of loudness" is based on L.V. Shcherba's statement that the centre of a syllable is the syllable forming phoneme. Sounds which precede or follow it constitute a chain, or an arc, which is weak in the beginning and in the end and strong in the middle. If a syllable consists of a vowel, its strength increases in the beginning, reaches the maximum of loudness and then, gradually decreases.
Consonants
within a sillable are characterized by different distribution of
muscular tension. Shcherba distinguishes the following types of
consonants; finally strong (initially weak), they occur at the
beginning of the syllable;
finally
weak (initially strong), they occur at the end of a closed syllable;
double
peaked (combination of two similar sounds): in their articulation
the beginning and the end are energetic and the middle is weak.
Acoustically they produce an impression of two consonants:
In terms of the "arc of loudness" theory there are as many syllables in a word as there are "arcs of loudness" and the point of syllable division corresponds to the moment, when the arc of loudness begins or ends, that is: initially weak consonants begin a syllable, finally weak end it. For example, the word mistake consists of two arcs of loudness in which /m/ and /t/ are finally strong consonants and /s/ and /k/ are finally weak, /s/ constitutes the end of "the arc of loudness", /t/ constitutes the beginning.
None of the theories mentioned above are reliable in the definition of the syllabic boundary.
1. In affixal words the syllabic boundary coincides with the morphological boundary: dis-place, be-come, un-able, count-less.
2. In words with CVCV structure the syllabic boundary is after the accented vowel: farmer, city, table.
3. In words
of CVC structure the syllabic boundary is after the intervocal
consonant, which terminates accented syllable:
4. In
words of CVS, VS structure the syllabic boundary is after the
ntervocal sonorant: inner
cinema
enemy
Compared with the Russian СГ acoustic connection, English CVC cluster is close, Russian CP syllabic cluster is loose, compare: city
lily
money
and
си-то,
ли-ли,
Ма-ни.English diphthongs are unisyllabic, they consist of one vowel phoneme, English triphthongs are disyllabic, because they consist of two vowel phonemes: science
flower