Lecture 3.

1. The syllable as the phonological unit.

2. Theories on the syllable division

3. Types and functions of the syllable.

4. Word stress, its nature and functions.

5. Utterance, logical and emphatic stress.

Syllable

Syllable is the smallest pronounceable unit which forms language units of greater magnitud (morphemes, words and phonemes).

The syllable can be considered as the phonetic and phonological unit.

As the phonetic unit the syllable is defined in articulatory, auditory and acoustic terms.

Acoustically and auditory the syllables are characteristic by prosodic features:

- the force of the utterance

- the pitch of voice

- sonority

- length

Phonologically the syllable is regarded and defined in terms of its structural and functional properties. The term "syllable" denotes smth. taken together.

Phonetic aspect

There are different points of view on syllable formation.

1. There are as many syllable in a word as there are vowels.(but in some languages consonants can be syllabic and it doesn't explain the boundary of syllable.)

2. Expiratory (shest-puls or pressure) theory. Syllable is a sound or group of the sounds that are pronounced in one chest-puls . There are as many syllables in a word as there are chest-pulses made during the word .

The border line between the syllables is a moment of the weaker expiration (it is quite possible possible to pronounce some syllables in one articulatory effort).

3. The relative sonority theory (гучності) or the prominence theory. It was created by Danish phonetician O.Jespersen. It is based upon the fact that each sound was a definite carrying power.

Sounds group themselves according to their sonority. There are as many syllables as there are peaks of prominence of sonority.

O.Jespersen classified sounds according to the degree of sonority. He stayed the scale of sonority of sounds. The most sonor are vowels. The less sonor are sonorants . The least sonor consonants are voiced and voiceless.

1. open vowels

2. closed vowels

3. sonorants

4. voiced fricatives

5. voiced plosives

6. voiceless fricatives

7. voiceless plosives

The most sonor sound form the peak of sonority in a syllable. One peak is separated from another peak by sound of lower sonority that is consonant.

melt metl s dn

(it doesn't explain the mechanism )of syllable division and formation and it doesn't state to which syllable the less sonorant sound at the boundary of two words belongs

an aim

a name

summer dresses

some addresses

4. The muscular tension or the articulatory effort theory.

A syllable is characteristic by variations in muscular tension . The energy of articulation increases at the beginning of the syllable reaches its maximum within a vowel sound and decreases towards the end of the syllable.

p l a n t

The syllable is defined as an arc are of artificial tension. The boundary is determined by lowest articulatory energy. There are as many syllables as there are max of muscular tension.

Consonants within a syllable are characteristic by different distribution of muscular tension.

Scherba advanced the theory about 3 types of consonants :

- finally strong (initially weak) . The end of the syllable is more energetic. They occur at the beginning of the syllable /si:/ - cv

- finally weak (initially strong). The beginning is more energetic, the end is weaker. It occurs at the beginning of the syllable. /at/ - vc

- double peak. The beginning and the end are energetic, while the middle is weak. It occurs at the junction of the words or morphemes: what time /wɒtaɪm/, unknown /ʌnəʊn/. Acoustically they produce an effect of 2 consonants.

5. Loudness theory. It was worked out by N.I.Zhinkin. It took into consideration Scherba's statement about peaks. It takes into consideration both levels production and perception. Syllable is an arc of loudness.

The peak of the syllable is louder and higher in pitch than the slopes. Zhinkin proved that the organ which is responsible for the variation of loudness is pharynx . There are as many syllables in a word as there are arcs of loudness.