4. Vocoids and contoids.

In the formation of a syllable the consonants are marginal whereas a

vowel is central or nucleus.

The generalized formula of a syllable is CVC: seas, did. But many

other syllables in English are different from this in various ways. All the segments of speech are divided into vowels and consonants. But these terms prove to be quite ambiguous. The name “vowel” and “consonant” are defined according to the general phonetic form of the segment. “Vowels” then are sounds that involve no closure, friction or contact of the tongue or lips (phonetic definition). “Consonants” are all the rest of the segments.

Difficulties arise when the same words ‘vowel” and “consonant” are used to refer to the phonological function of segments in the syllable, because as we have seen the term “vowel” is used as a syllabic element, and the term “consonant” is used for the marginal elements.

But this is not always the fact. Let us regard, for example, such sounds as [w, j, r]. They have no closure or contact of the tongue, their friction is very slight. In this respect they may be called semi-vowels. Yet, they are never syllabic. They are called vocoids.

At the same time such consonants as [l, m, n, ] have a closure, but in them voice prevails over noise and they are syllabic, when preceded by a consonant. They are sometimes called semi-consonants, or contoids.

To avoid this ambiguity the sounds were called vocoids and contoids by an American phonetician Pike. Vocoid is a segment with a structure of open approximation and with central passage of the air-stream The rest sounds are contoids. Thus, we have non-syllabic vocoids [w, r, j] , and a syllabic contoids [l, m, n].

Questions for self-control:

1. What is the place of the syllable in the spoken chain?

2. What are the functions of the syllable from the phonological point of

view?

3. What do the types of syllables depend on?

4. Which above-mentioned theory of syllable formation can we apply to the Enlish language?

5. What are vocoids and contoids?

Lecture 10.

ACCENTUAL STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH WORDS.

1.The definition of word stress. Prominence and stress.

2. Types of word stress. Factors, kinds and degrees of word stress.

3. Rules of word stress. Stress in compounds.

4. The functional aspect of word stress.

5. Strong and weak forms. Degrees of reduction.

6. Sentence stress.

1. The definition of word stress. Prominence and stress.

Any word spoken in isolation has at least one prominent syllable. We perceive it as stressed. According to A.C.Gimson, the effect of prominence is achieved by any or all of four factors: force, tone, length and vowel colour.

The dynamic stress implies greater force with which the syllable is pronounced. In other words in the articulation of the stressed syllable greater muscular energy is produced by the speaker. European languages such as English, German, French, Russian are believed to possess predominantly dynamic word stress. In Scandinavian languages the word stress is considered to be both dynamic and musical. For instance, in Swedish, the word komma (comma) is distinguished from the word komma (come) by a difference in tones. The musical (or tonic) word stress is observed in Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese. It is effected by the variations of voice pitch in relation to neighbouring syllables. In Chinese the sound sequence chu pronounced with the level tone means “pig”, with the rising tone – “bamboo”, with the falling tone – “to live”.

The English linguists D.Crystal, A.C.Gimson agree that in English word stress or accent is a complex phenomenon, marked by the variations in force, pitch, quantity and quality. The dynamic and the tonic features of English word stress prevail over the others. It should be noted that when the tonic or musical component of word stress is involved it is the change of pitch level that is significant in making the syllable prominent but not the type of tone direction. The term prominence seems to cause some ambiguity when related to word stress. The stressed syllables are often said to be the most prominent syllables in the word. According to G.P.Torsuev the notion “stresses” and “prominent” should not be used synonymically. The effect of prominence is created by some phonetic features of sounds which have nothing to do with word or sentence stress. It is common knowledge that sounds of speech have different degrees of sonority. Vowels are more sonorous then consonants. Open vowels are more sonorous than close ones. Sonority is the inner quality of vowels which is not directly connected with the accentual structure of words but with other articulatory characteristics, it contributes to the effect of prominence.

Another characteristic of a vowel which also adds to the effect of prominence but is not connected with the word stress is historical (traditional) length of vowels. The presence of a traditionally long sound in the stressed syllable and a traditionally short vowel in the unstressed syllable adds to the effect of the prominence of the stressed syllable, e.g. in’crease, be’lieve, ‘easy.

Naturally the historical length of vowels is the vowel inner quality which should not be mixed with the quantitative characteristics of word stress.

To sum it up prominence in speech is a broader term than stress. It is obtained by the components of word stress, such as the loudness, the length, the quality of the vowel plus the inherent sonority of the vowel and its historical length. In a discourse the effect of prominence may be strengthened by the melody which is the component of intonation.

Stress is defined differently by different authors. B.A.Bogoroditsky, for instance, defined stress as an increase of energy, accompanied by an increase of expiratory and articulatory activity.

D.Jones defined stress as the degree of force, which is accompanied by a strong force of exhalation and gives an impression of loudness.

H.Sweet also stated that stress is connected with the force of breath. Later, however, D.Jones wrote, that “stress or prominence is effected … by inherent sonority, vowel and consonant length and by intonation”.

A.C.Gimson also admits that a more prominent syllable is accompanied by pitch changes in the voice, quality and quantity of the accented sounds.

If we compare stressed and unstressed syllables in the words ‘contract and to con’tract,we may note that in the stressed syllable:

1. the force of utterance is greater, which is connected with more energetic articulation;

2. the pitch of the voice is higher, which is connected with stronger tenseness of the vocal cords and the walls of the resonance chamber;

3. the quantity of the vowel in ‘contact is greater, the vowel becomes longer;

4. the quality of the vowel in the stressed syllable is different from the quality of this vowel in the unstressed position, in which it is more narrow.

On the auditory level a stressed syllable is the part of the word, which has a special prominence. It is produced by a greater loudness and length, modifications in the pitch and quality. Their physical correlates are: intensity, duration, frequency and the formant structure. All these features can be analyzed on the acoustic level.

Word stress can be defined as the singling out of one or more syllables in a word, which is accompanied by the change of the force of utterance, pitch of the voice, qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the sound, which is usually a vowel.