Peculiarities of the Syllabic Structure of English
THE SYLLABIC STRUCTURE OF THE ENGLISH WORDS
Theories of Syllables
The Expiratory Theory.
The Prominence Theory.
The Muscular Tension Theory. Peculiarities of the Syllabic structure of thy English language.
Functions of the Syllable.
In connected speech sounds are not pronounced by “themselves”. It is practically impossible to draw articulatory boundaries between them. If we slow down the tempo of utterance & articulate the sounds distinctly we shall see that the smallest unit into which the speech continuum is divided, are syllables.
The boundaries between the consonant & the vowel are not clearly marked. On the contrary, boundaries between syllables are marked by the alternation of openings & closings in sound production &, as a result, by the alternation of increases & decreases in articulatory tension. So the smallest pronunciation (articulatory) unit is the syllable.
It has been proved experimentally that the syllable is also the smallest perceptible unit. A number of experiments, carried out by Russian linguists L. Chistovitch, V. Kozhevnikov, Z. Dzhaparidze, show that the listener can recognize the preceding sound only after he has analyzed the whole syllable.
A syllable can be considered as both a phonetic & a phonological unit. As a phonetic unit the syllable is defined in articulatory, auditory (perceptual) & acoustic terms with universal application for all languages.
As a phonological unit the syllable can be defined only with reference to the structure of one particular language. The very term “syllable” denotes particular ways in which phonemes are combined in a language. (CF. The Greek syllable, “smth. Taken together”, from syn., “together” & labein, “take”).
The ancient Greek scholars noticed that the two main phonological types of sounds – vowels & consonants fulfill different functions in speech. The function of a vowel is to occupy the central position in certain combinations of sounds, whereas consonants serve as the margins of the sound combinations (Hence, the term “consonant”, which means “sounding with smth.” Con+sonant).
In other words, vowels are always syllabic & consonants are incapable of forming syllables without vowels.
But in a number of languages some sonorous consonants, such as /n, l, r, m/, can also be syllabic bec. of their strong vocalic features, e.g. in Czech – “krk” (neck), “vlk” (wolf) & in English “garden” / ga:-dn /, “needn’t” / ni:-dnt /, “castle” / kas:-sl /, “lighten” / lai-tn /.
So, phonologically, the syllable is a structural unit, which consists of a vowel alone or of vowel (or a syllabic sonorant) surrounded by consonants in the numbers &
arrangement permitted by a given language. Phoneticians are not always in agreement in their definition of the syllable bec. in their analysis they proceed from either articulatory or acoustic aspects of the unit.
One of the ancient phonetic theories – the expiratory (chest pulse) theory – define the syllable as a sound or a group of sounds that are pronounced in one chest pulse, accompanied by increases in air pressure. According to this definition, there are as many syllables in a word as there are chest pulses (expirations) made during the utterance of the word. Each vowels sound is pronounced with increased expiration. Consequently, vowels are always syllabic. Boundaries between syllables are in the place where there occur changes in the air pressure. But it is impossible to explain all cases of syllable formation on the basis of the expiratory, & therefore, to determine boundaries between syllables. A. Gimson notes that it is doubtful whether a double chest pulse will be evident in the pronunciation of juxtaposed vowels as, e.g. in “seeing” / si:-in /, though such words consist of two syllables.
The relative sonority theory (the prominence) created by the Danish phonetician O. Jesperson, considers that sounds tend to group themselves according to their sonority (prominence, audibility or carrying power). The most sonorous sounds are vowels, less sonorous are sonorants / w, j, r, m, n, n / & the least sonorous are noise consonants. O. Jesperson classifies sounds according to the degree of sonority in the following way (beginning with the most sonorous):
1. Open vowels / /
2. Mid-Open vowels / /
3. Close vowels / i:, i, , u: /
4. Sonants / /
5. Voiced fricatives / /
6. Voiced stops / b, d, g /
7. Voiceless fricatives / f, , s /
8. Voiceless stops / p, t, k /.
Sounds are grouped around the most sonorous ones, i.e. vowels (& sometimes sonants) which from the peak of sonority in a syllable. One peak of sonority is separated from another peaks by sounds of lower sonority i.e. consonants. This distance between the 2 points of lower sonority is a syllable, e.g. / k – to - b / “October”. The number of syllables is determined by the number of peaks of prominence. Thus in the word / melt / “melt” there is one peak of sonority / e / & the word is monosyllabic. In the word / metl / “metal” there are two peaks of sonority - / e / and / l /, separated by the least sonorous / t /, & consequently, there are two peaks.
In Czech words like “vlk”, “krk” & in English “pst” the sounds / l, r, s / are sonorous peaks. But there are cases that contradict Jesperson’s theory e.g. / sta: / “star”, / skeit / “skate”, / nekst / “next”. In these words the sound / s / is more sonorous than / t / & / k / & forms the second peak of sonority. Yet, the words are monosyllabic. It is evident that the relative sonority theory doesn’t explain the mechanism of syllable formation. It only makes an attempt at explaining our perception of a syllable. Neither does it explain syllable division, as it doesn’t say to which syllable the less sonorous sounds belong, e.g. / n aism n / “an ice-man” & / nais m n / “a nice man”, / n eim / “an aim” & / neim/ “a name”, / s m dresiz / “some addresses” & / s m dresiz / “summer dresses”.
Nevertheless, the relative sonority theory has been accepted by D. Jones & some other phoneticians.
The widespread among Russian linguists is the muscular tension (or the articulatory effort) theory which is known as Scherba’s theory. According to this theory a syllable is characterized by variations in muscular tension. The energy of articulation increases at the beginning of a syllable reaches its maximum with the vowel (or the sonant) & decreases towards the end of the syllable. So, a syllable is an arc of muscular tension. The boundaries between syllables are determined by the occurrence of the lower articulatory energy. There are as many syllables in a word as there are maxima of muscular tension in it. Cf. / ta: / “tar” & / ta: / “tower” (a reduced variant of / ta /). The sound / a:/ in the second example is pronounced with two articulatory efforts, so there are 2 arcs of muscular tension & therefore, 2 syllables. Consonants within a syllable are characterized by different distribution of muscular tension. In accordance with this, L. Shcherba distinguishes the following 3 types of consonants.
Initially strong consonants, in the articulation of which the beginning is stronger while the end is weaker. They occur at the end of a closed syllable.
E.g. / I|t /, / |s /, / pi|n /, / s |d /, / pa:|t/.
Finally strong consonants, in the articulation of which the beginning is weak while the end is more energetic. They occur at the beginning of a syllable. E.g. / m|I /, / t|ai /, / p|a:t /, / s| d /.
Double peaked consonants, in the articulation of which both the beginning & the end are energetic whereas the middle is weak. They produce the impression of two consonants. These consonants occur at the junction of words or morphemes. E.g. / pe|nn|aif /, / tt|aim /, / mi|dd|ei/. The type of consonant is therefore a cue for syllable division. If in / nais ha s/, the sound / n / is initially strong, the syllabic boundary is after the /n / - / n ais ha s /. If the sound / n / is finally strong, the boundary is before it - / nais ha s /. In other words, if there is a new onset of muscular tension on the sound / n /, the latter belongs to the second syllable, & if the new onset of muscular tension is on / ai /, the sound / n / belongs to the first syllable.
The above theories define syllables on either the production or perception level. N. Zhinkin has worked out the so-called loudness theory, which takes into account both the levels. On the perception level the syllable is defined as an arc of actual loudness. The experiments, carried out by Zhinkin, showed that the organ immediately responsible for the variations in loudness of a syllable in the pharynx. The narrowing of the pharyngeal passage & the resulting increase in muscular tension of its walls reinforce the actual loudness of the vowel thus forming the peak of the syllable, while the loudness variations of all the speech mechanisms are involved. So on the speech production level the correlate of “arc of loudness” is “the arc of articulatory effort” (the latter term is suggested by V. A. Vassilyev).
The acoustic aspect of the syllable has been studied by E. Zwirner, R. Jacobson & M. Halle. According to the results obtained, the peak of the syllable (a vowel or sonant) has a higher intensity than its consonants & in many cases a higher fundamental frequency. Perceptually, the peak is louder & higher in pitch. These acoustic features easily agree with physiological definition of the syllable as an arc of articulatory effort (muscular tension).
In analyzing the above theories of the syllable, we cannot but agree with the scholar who point out that each of the existing theories is correct to a certain extent, but none
of them is able to explain reliably all the cases of syll. boundaries.
The syllabic structure of English has certain peculiarities. They are as follows:
1. Syllabic structure in English is not only vowels, but also sonants / m, n, l / when they are preceded by a noise consonant. E.g. / teibl / “table”, / ga:dn / “garden”.
2. As to the type of sounds constituting the syllable (V, C) there exist 23 syllable structures in English. Depending on the position of vowels, which is the peak of the syllable, and that of the consonant (C), which form margins of the syllable, we distinguish the following 4 types of syllables in English.
a) Open syllables, when there is no consonant after the vocalic peak, (CV) e.g. far, sea, tie.
b) Closed syllables, when the vocalic peak is followed by a consonant, (VC) e.g. art, sit.
c) Covered syllables, (CV(c)), when the peak is preceded by a consonant, e.g. long, shore.
d) Uncovered syllables, (VC(c)), when there is no consonant before the peak, e.g. apt, eat.
The fundamental syllable type in English is closed syll., the most frequent type in English is CVC.
3. Consonant clusters are very characteristic of the syll. structure of English, 19 structures out of 23 consonant clusters.
4. English checked vowels (i.e. short vowels) occur only in a closed syll. Checked vowels are always followed by initially strong consonants. E.g. bed, Sunday, put. English free vowels (long monophthongs, diphthongs & unstressed short monophthongs) can occur both in the open & in the closed syll., bec. the end of free vowels is weaker than the beginning. E.g. car, tie, (s n) di, / dvais /.
5. The syll. boundary never occurs after checked vowel. E.g. / twen-ti /, / kwik-li /, / let /, / big /.
If a checked vowel is separated from a succeeding stressed vowel by only one consonant sound, the syll. in which such a vowel occurs is always open. E.g. / ai-di /, / ka: tu:n /, / i-rekt /.
7. When there is a cluster of consonants between 2 vowels the place of the syllabic boundary is conditioned by whether this cluster occurs word-initially or not. If it does occur at the beginning of vowels, the syllabic boundary is before it. E.g. / gri: /, / rigret/. If it doesn’t the boundary between the consonants. E.g. / dmit /, / d vais /. When two vowels are separated by more than 2 consonants as e.g. in / ekstr / the boundary may be both before / s / & / t /, bec. / str / & / tr / occur at the beginning of words.
8. The so-called triphthongs in English are disyllabic combinations. E.g. / sain- ns /, / fla - /.
+9. The structure of the stressed syll. in English is different from the structure of the unstressed syllable. The main difference is in the peak. The peak of the stressed syll. is always vocalic. In the unstressed syllable the peak may be a vowel or a consonant. When the peak of the stressed syllable is checked, the syllable must be “closed” by a
consonant. The structure of the stressed syllable ((open or closed) may be presented by the following formula:
a. (C)V(C) – where V is a historically long monophthong or a diphthong & the brackets show that the consonant may be absent;
b. (C)V(C) – where V is a historically long monophthongs.
Summing up we can say that syllabic formation & syllabic division can more usefully be described with the reference to an individual language, since each particular language has its own syllabic structure.
Functions of the Syllable
Syllable performs 3 main functions: constitutive, distinctive & identificatory. The constitutive function of the syllable manifests itself in the fact that the syllabic forms higher-level units-words, accentual or rhythmic groups, utterances. On the one hand, the syll. is a unit in which segmental phonemes are realized. L. Bondarko has proved experimentally that the relations between the distinctive feature of the phonemes & their acoustic correlates can be revealed only within the syllable. On the other hand, within a syllable or a sequence of syllables prosodic features of speech are also realized. There are distinctive variations in loudness (stress), in pitch (tone), & in duration (tempo, length). Thus, syllable maybe stressed & unstressed, high, mid or low, rising or falling, long or short. Al these prosodic features are significant for constituting the stress-pattern of a word & the tonal & rhythmic structure of an utterance.
The distinctive feature of the syllable is to differentiate words & word combinations. Phonemes exist & function within the syllable. Therefore words are actually differentiated by the syllable as one articulatory or perceptible unit. E.g. / bi:t / “beat” & “bead” / bi:d / differ not only in their consonant phonemes / t / & / d /, but also in the length of / i:/, which is conditioned by the neighboring fortis and lenis consonants.
there are some words in English where syllabicity alone is responsible for the differentiation of the words: / laitnin / освещение (lightning) & / laitnin /молния (lightning). On this account V. Vassilyev distinguishes a separate phonological unit – the syllabeme.
Syllable division is very important too in distinguishing words & utterances:
/ naitreit / “nitrate” - / naitreit / “night-rate”
/ neim/ “a name” - / neim / “an aim”
/ ai skri:m / “I scream” - / aiskri:m / “ice-cream”
Due to the distinctive importance of syllable division, the syllabic boundary is often regarded by the American descriptivists as a separate phonological unit – the juncture phoneme. Open juncture (or open transition) occurs between syllables: it is called intersyllabic juncture. Thus, in “I scream” / ai| skri:m / the open juncture is between / I / & / s / & in / ais|kri:m / “ice-cream” it is between / s / & / k /. Close juncture (or close transition) occurs between sounds within one syllable. Thus in “ice-cream” / ais|kri:m / the close juncture is between / k / & / r /, / r / & / i:/, / i:/ & / m /. This juncture is called intersyllabic juncture. The largest acoustic investigations of juncture show that the factors determining an open or a close juncture are the
duration of the sounds, their intensity & formant transitions. Thus, according to the data obtained by I. Lehiste, the initial / n /in “a nice man” is longer than the final / n / in “an iceman”. The pre-junctural / n / gas falling intensity, while the post-junctural / n / has rising intensity. Formant transitions of / n / & / ai / are different in the contrasted pairs.
Some phoneticians consider the open juncture to be a segmental phoneme; others consider it a suprasegmental phoneme or a phoneme in its own right.
K. Pike & I. Lehiste regard the juncture to be a contrastive feature of high-level units but not a phonological unit in its own right.
+The identificatory function of the syllable is conditioned by the hearer’s perception of syllables as entire phonetic units with their concrete allophones & syllabic boundaries.
The listener identifies two syllables in “plum pie” - сливовый пирог & “plump eye” – глаза навыкате bulging with the corresponding boundaries before / p / & after / p /, bec. in the first example / p / is unaspirated & / m / is shorter on account of the following fortis / p /.
Thus, shifting of the syllabic boundary causes not only a strong foreign accent, but also misunderstanding on the part of the listener.