Syllable, Stress & Accent
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Tutorial: THE SYLLABLE |
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THE SYLLABLE
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§1. |
Defining
the syllable
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The syllable is a basic unit of
speech studied on both the phonetic and phonological levels of analysis. No
matter how easy it can be for people and even for children to count the
number of syllables in a sequence in their native language, still there are
no universally agreed upon phonetic definitions of what a syllable is.
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PHONETIC
DEFINITION |
Phonetically
syllables “are usually described as consisting of a centre which has little
or no obstruction to airflow and which sounds comparatively loud; before and
after that centre (…) there will be greater obstruction to airflow and/or
less loud sound” (Roach, 2000: 70). In the monosyllable (one-syllable word) cat
/kæt/, the
vowel /æ/ is the
“centre” at which little obstruction takes place, whereas we have complete
obstruction to the airflow for the surrounding plosives /k/ and /t/.
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PHONOLOGICAL
DEFINITION |
Laver
(1994: 114) defines the phonological syllable as “a complex unit made
up of nuclear and marginal elements”.
Nuclear elements are the vowels or syllabic
segments; marginal elements are the consonants or
non-syllabic segments. In the syllable paint /peɪnt/, the diphthong /eɪ/ is the nuclear element,
while initial consonant /p/ and the final cluster /nt/ are marginal elements.
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PROMINENCE
THEORY |
Attempts
have been made to provide physiological, acoustic or auditory explanations
and definitions of the syllable.
According to the prominence theory, for example, which is based
mainly on auditory judgements, the number of syllables in a word is determined
by the number of peaks of prominence. In the word entertaining /ˌentəˈteɪnɪŋ/ the peaks of prominence are represented by the
vowels /e
ə eɪ ɪ/. However, this theory does not help much in
discussions of syllable division.
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CHEST
PULSE THEORY |
The
chest pulse theory discusses the syllable in the context of muscular
activities and lung movements in the process of speech. Experiments have
shown that the number of chest pulses, accompanied by increase of air
pressure can determine the number of syllables produced (Gimson, 1980: 56),
thus allowing to associate the number of syllables with the number of chest
pulses. This approach, however, cannot account for cases when 2 vowels occur
one after the other – for example in words like being /ˈbi:ɪŋ/ or playing
/ˈpleɪɪŋ/ the second chest pulse might be almost irrelevant
and thus lead erroneously to the conclusion that such English words consist
of one syllable only.
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SONORITY THEORY, SONORITY
SCALE |
Another
approach is presented by sonority theory according to which the pulses
of pulmonic air stream in speech “correspond to peaks in sonority”
(Giegerich, 1992: 132). The sonority
of a speech sound is discussed as “its relative loudness compared to other
sounds” (Giegerich, 1992: 132) and each syllable corresponds to a peak in the
flow rate of pulmonic air. Thus nuclear elements, or syllabic segments can be
described as intrinsically more sonorous than marginal, or non-syllabic
elements.
Speech
sounds can be ranked in terms of their intrinsic sonority according to a sonority
scale. The sonority scale for English is given below (although in
principle it is also valid for other languages). Voiced segments are more
sonorous than voiceless ones and sonorants are more sonorous than obstruents;
vowels are more sonorous than consonants, open vowels being more sonorous
than close ones. The disyllabic word painting /ˈpeɪntɪŋ/ has
been plotted onto the sonority scale as an example.
As can be seen from the chart, there
are two peaks of sonority in the phoneme string /p-eɪ-n-t-ɪ-ŋ/, namely
the vowels /eɪ ɪ/. This is to indicate
that the number of syllables is 2 as well.
The sonority scale, like all the approaches outlined above, is of little help when it comes to delimiting separate syllables, however. |
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§2. |
Syllable structure
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HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE OF THE SYLLABLE |
The bulk of present-day
phonological theory agrees that the syllable has constituent or hierarchical,
rather than linear, structure.
The
syllable (conventionally marked as small Greek sigma: σ) has two immediate
constituents (it “branches” into two elements, to put it in
another way) – the Onset (O), which includes any consonants that
precede the nuclear element (the vowel), and the Rhyme (R), which
subsumes the nuclear element (the vowel) as well as any marginal elements (consonants)
that might follow it. The Rhyme, in turn, further branches into Peak
(P), also known as Nucleus (N), and Coda (Co). The Peak
(Nucleus), as the designation suggests, represents the “nuclear” or most
sonorous element in a syllable. The Coda includes all consonants that follow
the Peak in a syllable. Syllable structure may be represented graphically by
means of a “tree diagram”. The first example we shall take is cat /kæt/.
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OPTIONAL CONSTITUENTS |
In the case of cat /kæt/, the Onset, Peak and
Coda each consist of one segment: the consonant (C) /k/ occupies the Onset, the
vowel (V) /æ/ – the
Peak, and the consonant /t/ is the Coda of this syllable. However, there are
syllables in English where either or both marginal elements (i.e. O and/or Co)
are absent – only the Peak is an obligatory element in all languages,
and in English both the Onset and the Coda are optional. (There are
languages, though, where the Onset is obligatory, as well as such that allow
no Codas.) Consider the following examples.
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BRANCHING ONSETS, PEAKS AND CODAS |
On
the other hand, the Onset, Peak and Coda may each further branch into two C- or
V-constituents respectively. Then we speak about branching or complex
Onsets etc. The English syllable drowned /draʊnd/ is an example in which all three elements branch:
As can be seen from the diagram,
diphthongs are treated as branching Peaks – each element of the diphthong
occupies a single V-slot. The case is quite similar with “long vowels”: in
terms of syllable structure, they are interpreted as sequences of two
identical V-elements – /i:/ is represented as V1 = [i] + V2 = [i], and /ɑ: ɔ: ɜ: u:/ are [ɑ+ɑ, ɔ+ɔ,
ɜ+ɜ, u+u]
respectively.
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CLOSED SYLLABLE, OPEN SYLLABLE |
Syllables ending in a consonant, e.g. cat
/kæt/, it
/ɪt/, eat /i:t/, are traditionally known as closed syllables,
whereas those ending in a vowel, as in sea /si:/ or eye /aɪ/, are called open. In terms of syllable structure,
in closed syllables the Coda is present, i.e. we have a branching Rhyme,
while open ones have non-branching Rhymes – the Coda element is absent.
Syllable Onset is irrelevant to this distinction.
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FURTHER READING |
For
a more detailed (and slightly more specialised) but still quite terse account
of syllable structure, click here.
Mind some differences in transcription and terminology, though. Then you
might proceed to a description of syllable structure within the framework of Optimality
Theory (a relatively recent school in phonology) by clicking here. (But first
you might wish to read an overview of Optimality Theory.)
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§3. |
Phonotactics
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(Based
on Lass, 1984)
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Phonotactics is a
branch of phonology that studies the permissible strings of phonemes in a language.
The syllable is a central unit in phonotactic description, although sometimes
the principles governing the distribution of phonemes go beyond the confines
of a single syllable.
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GERMAN PLOSIVES AND SIBILANTS |
Two
or more languages with similar, even identical phoneme inventories may have
very different rules governing the distribution of phonemes in morphemes,
words, syllables. Thus both standard North German and English have systems of
plosives that can be represented /p b t d k g/ and both have the
sibilants /s
z ʃ/. But whereas these are distributed quite freely in
English, in German none of the voiced ones may appear word finally. Further,
while German allows both /s/ and /z/ medially, only /z/ occurs initially in native words before vowels: G Sohn
/zo:n/ vs. E son
/sʌn/; and only /ʃ/ occurs initially before
consonants: G Sturm /ʃtʊrm/ vs. E storm /stɔ:m/. (Lass, 1984: 23)
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ENGLISH STRONG-SYLLABLE RHYMES |
English
has certain limitations on the form of strong syllables – they can be open
only if they contain a long vowel or a diphthong, and only a closed
strong syllable may have a short vowel. In other words, long vowels and
diphthongs can occur in both open (sue /su:/, bay /beɪ/) and closed (beam /bi:m/, eight
/eɪt/) strong syllables, whereas short vowels only occur
in closed ones (cat /kæt/, ill /ɪl/).
As we saw in the section on syllable structure,
a syllable ending in VC has a branching Rhyme with a non-branching Peak and
Coda; and VV is a branching Peak, while VVC is a branching Rhyme with a
branching Peak and a non-branching Coda. We can now consider the permissible
Rhyme structures of English strong syllables:
The phonotactic restriction can be
defined this way: the Rhyme of a strong syllable must branch, OR contain
at least one branching constituent. (Lass, 1984: 254–255)
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FURTHER READING |
Click here for a
detailed paper on phonotactics (based on German data).
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§4. |
Division of syllables
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So far we have been using
monosyllabic words as examples. But when a string of syllables is concerned, how
do we decide what is the Coda of one and the Onset of the next? The question
of syllabification, the division of a word into syllables, is quite
controversial and there are several approaches to it.
The
two most important and widely used pronunciation dictionaries of the English
language, the English Pronouncing Dictionary (EPD) and the Longman
Pronunciation Dictionary (LPD), employ different principles of
syllabification, which we shall quote in turn, and then briefly mention
another, more abstract, approach to syllable division.
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SYLLABIFICATION IN EPD, MAXIMAL ONSETS PRINCIPLE |
In the
Introduction to EPD syllable divisions are explained as follows:
A dot .
is used to divide syllables, in accordance with the current recommendations
of the International Phonetic
Association. (…) However, this is not used where a stress mark ˈ or ˌ occurs,
as these are effectively also syllable division markers. (…)
(a) As
far as possible, syllables should not be divided in a way that violates what
is known of English syllable structure. The ‘Maximal Onsets Principle’, which
is widely recognised in contemporary phonology, is followed as far as
possible. This means that, where possible, syllables should be divided in
such a way that as many consonants as possible are assigned to the beginning
of the syllable to the right (if one thinks in terms of how they are written
in transcription), rather than to the end of the syllable to the left.
However, when this would result in a syllable ending with a stressed /ɪ/, /e/, /æ/, /ʌ/, /ɒ/ or /ʊ/, it is considered that this
would constitute a violation of English phonotactics, and the first (or only)
intervocalic consonant is assigned to the preceding syllable; thus the word
‘better’ is divided /ˈbet.ə/, whereas ‘beater’ is divided /ˈbi:.təʳ/. In the case of unstressed short vowels, /e/, /æ/, /ʌ/
and /ɒ/
are also prevented from appearing in syllable-final position; however, unstressed
/ɪ/ and /ʊ/ are allowed the same “privilege
of occurrence” as /ə/ when a
consonant begins a following syllable, and may therefore occur in final
position in unstressed syllables except pre-pausally. Thus in a word such as
‘develop’, the syllable division is /dɪˈvel.əp/.
(b) Notwithstanding the above,
words in compounds should not be re-divided syllabically in a way that does
not agree with perceived word boundaries. For example ‘hardware’ could in
theory be divided /ˈhɑ:.dweə/, but most readers would find
this counter-intuitive and would prefer /ˈhɑ:d.weə/. This principle applies to open,
closed and hyphenated compounds.
(Jones, 1997: xiii)
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SYLLABIFICATION IN LPD |
Here is
how LPD sets out an alternative approach to syllabification:
Syllable divisions are shown in LPD by
spacing. (…)
It is generally agreed that phonetic
syllable divisions must as far as possible avoid creating consonant clusters
which are not found at the edges of words. This is the phonotactic
constraint. Thus windy might be ˈwɪn di or ˈwɪnd i, but it
could not be ˈwɪ
ndi (because English words cannot begin with nd). LPD takes the view
that the syllabification of this word actually parallels its morphology: wind+y,
ˈwɪnd
i. For the same reason, language must be ˈlæŋ ɡwɪʤ, not ˈlæŋɡ wɪʤ or ˈlæ ŋɡwɪʤ.
The
principle that LPD adopts is that consonants are syllabified with
whichever of the two adjacent vowels is more strongly stressed. If they
are both unstressed, it goes with the leftward one. A weak vowel
counts as ‘less stressed’ than an unstressed strong one.
In
general, this principle is subject to the phonotactic constraint. However,
there are some cases where correct prediction of allophones requires us to
override it.
(i) Certain unstressed syllables
end in a strong short vowel, even though words cannot. In nostalgia
the t is unaspirated (as in stack
stæk, not as in tack tæk), so the syllabification is (BrE) nɒ
ˈstælʤ
ə.
(ii) r can end a syllable, even though in BrE it cannot end a
word pronounced in isolation. The r in starry
is like the r in star is, and different
from the more forceful r in star
runner. Likewise, ʒ can end
a syllable: vision ˈvɪʒ ən.
(iii) Within a morpheme, tr and dr are not
split. If petrol were ˈpet rəl,
as the phonotactic constraint leads us to expect (since English words do not
end in tr), its t would likely be glottal and its r voiced (as in rat-race ˈræt reɪs). In fact, the tr in this word is pronounced as a voiceless affricate; so
LPD syllabifies it ˈpetr əl.
(Wells, 2000: xix–xx)
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AMBISYLLABICITY |
Yet
another possibility of treating intervocalic consonants that the phonotactics
of a language allows as both Codas and Onsets is to view them as belonging to
both syllables at the same time. Consider the disyllabic word habit /ˈhæbɪt/. The consonant /b/ may well function as Coda in the initial syllable
– [hæb] – or, alternatively, as Onset in the final syllable
– [bɪt]. (Here we use square brackets [ ] to indicate syllable
boundaries.) In cases like this, many phonologists argue that the
intervocalic consonant has a dual function – Coda in syllable 1, on one hand,
and Onset in syllable 2, on the other. This can be represented as follows: [1hæ[2b]1ɪt]2 (σ1 = [hæb], σ2 = [bɪt]). Consonants that enter the structure of two
syllables are called ambisyllabic. (Example from Lass, 1984: 266)
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FURTHER READING |
A
treatment of syllabication as a mental process (quite different from the
approaches outlined above), can be found here.
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Bibliography
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·
Giegerich, H. J. 1992. English Phonology. An
Introduction. CUP
·
Gimson, A. C. 1980. An Introduction to the
Pronunciation of English. Third edition. Edward Arnold
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Jones, D. 1997. Edited and revised by P. Roach and
J. Hartman. English Pronouncing Dictionary. 15th edition. CUP
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Lass, R. 1984. Phonology. An Introduction to
Basic Concepts. CUP
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Laver, J. 1994. Principles of Phonetics. CUP
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Roach, P. 2000. English Phonetics and Phonology.
A Practical Course. 3rd edition. CUP
·
Wells, J. C. 2000. Longman Pronunciation
Dictionary. 2nd edition. Pearson Education Limited
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