Syllabic Structure of English Words

       Speech is a continuous flow of sounds, but it can be broken into minimal units, i. e. syllables that are interconnected with each other. Syllables form large units. They are grouped into morphemes, morphemes are grouped into words, words are grouped into phrases. There are some theories in phonetics which try to explain the syllable. The most important ones are:

1. The sonority theory.

2. The expiratory theory.

3. The theory of muscular tension.

The expiratory theory is based on the idea that each syllable should correspond to a single expiration. So, the number of syllables in an utterance is determined by the number of expirations made in the process of articulation.

But it’s not always so. There are words in which syllables can be pronounced with a single expiration.

e. g. seeing

The theory of sonority was put forward by Jens Otto Harry Jespersen (16 July 1860, Randers – 30 April 1943, Roskilde). It is based on the acoustic properties of the sound. According to it, each sound is characterized by a certain degree of sonority, and each syllable is a combination of a more sonorous element with a less sonorous one. Any two different according to sonority sounds can form a syllable. A vowel isn’t an obligatory element and the center of the syllable.

       A special ranking of sounds was established. It starts with open vowels ([æ], [ɑ:], [ʌ]) as most sonorous, continues through close vowels ([i:], [ɪ], [u:]), then come the sonorants ([l], [m], [n], [ŋ], [r], [w], [j]), the voiced fricatives ([z], [ʒ], [ð]), then the voiced plosives ([b]), then the voiceless fricatives ([s], [h], [ʃ], [θ]). The gradation ends with the voiceless plosives ([p], [t], [k]). In any sequence most sonorants tend to form the center of the syllable, the least sonorous – the marginal elements. In some cases it’s doubtful, because one and the same sound can be pronounced with a different degree of sonority. For example, the sound [r].

       The theory of muscular tension, which was introduced by Lev Scherba (March 3 [O.S. February 20] 1880, Igumen, Minsk region – December 26, 1944, Moscow), states that every sound is pronounced with certain energy, i. e. tension of articulation. The center of the syllable is usually a vowel phoneme or a sonorant. Each of them is called the syllable peak. The phonemes which precede or follow the syllable peak are called marginal. The tension of articulation increases in prevocalic consonants. It decreases in postvocalic consonants. Thanks to that the syllable looks like an arc of articulatory tension.

e. g. drive

       One minor theory is the theory of loudness. It is connected with the theory of muscular tension. The theory of loudness shows that the arc of loudness (articulation) is formed due to the variation of the volume passage.

       All these theories characterize the syllable from the articulatory point of view.

Functional Aspect of the Syllable

       A number of features:

1. The syllable is a chain of phonemes.

2. The syllable is constructed on the basis of its constituency (vowels and consonants).

3. The center of the syllable is a vowel. In all languages vowels are syllabic nucleus.

4. The distribution of sounds in syllables is particular to a given language. The syllabic formation in English is based on the opposition of vowel to consonant. Vowels, as a rule, are syllabic, the consonants are not. But if the sounds [l], [m], [n] occur in the final unstressed position and are preceded by noise consonants, they become syllabic (little, blossom, sudden).

Types of Syllables

1. Open syllables finish in vowel (consonant – vowel)

e. g. go

2. Closed syllables finish in consonant (vowel – consonant)

e. g. egg

3. Covered syllables begin with one or several consonants

e. g. frog

4. Uncovered syllables begin with a vowel

e. g. oh

       If a syllable consists of one vowel, it is open and uncovered.

       The closed type of syllable is the most frequent in English, while in Russian the open type is most frequent. In English the number of consonants in prevocalic position may vary from one to three, in postvocalic position – from one to five.

e. g. split[ˈsplɪt]

strudel[ˈʃtruːdəl]

angsts[ˈæŋksts]

twelfths[ˈtwɛlfθs]

sixths[ˈsɪksθs]

bursts[ˈbɜrsts]

glimpsed[ˈɡlɪmpst]

       The number of syllables in the English word may vary from one to eight.

e. g.unconstitutionality

electronystaymography

       The division of English words into syllables is governed by some rules:

1) English long monophthongs, diphthongs and unstressed shorts vowels ([ɪ], [Ə], [u]) always occur in phonetically open syllables, i. e. the point of syllable division comes immediately after them when they are separated from the following syllabic sound by only one consonant (meeting, ordinary, garden);

2) a short stressed vowel in the position when it is separated from a following syllabic sound by only one consonant always occurs in a closed syllable. The syllable boundary in that case is within the consonants (city, many, study). In Russian words with only one consonant between two vowels have the first syllable always open (сила). The free character of the Russian vowels makes the learners forget that the English stressed short vowels can occur only in a closed syllable. As a result of this we tend to make the first syllable open in all English words with only one consonant between a vowel and the following syllabic sound;

3) the learners of English should take care not to pronounce the final consonant of word in such a way as if it were the first sound of the following stressed word

Functions of the Syllable

1. Constitutive. It means that syllables form morphemes, words, sentences. In syllables all features of the phonemes are revealed. The syllable serves to realize the characteristics of speech which form the stress, rhythmic and intonation pattern. In other words, the syllable realizes both segmental and suprasegmental features.

2. Distinctive. As syllable serves to differentiate words and word forms, it distinguishes them.

e. g. an aim – a name

mice kill – my skill

an ice house – a nice house

peace talks – pea stalks

plate rack – play track

Stress

(Accentual Structure of the Words)

       The syllables in the process of speech aren’t pronounced identically. They are pronounced with different prominence. By that we mean that they’re stressed, or accented, with a different degree. But the notions stressed and prominent aren’t synonymous. Prominence is created by some phonetic features of sounds and is broader than stress. It is obtained by all the components of word stress, such as loudness, length quality of vowel, sonority and historical length. In other words, the stress implies greater force with which the syllable is pronounced. Also, the stressed syllable is pronounced with greater muscular tension and energy. So, the English word stress is marked by force, pitch, quantity and quality. English, as well as Russian, has dynamic word stress.

       According to the place of word stress, we may talk about fixed and free stress. Fixed stress is limited to a particular syllable in a word. It can be a syllable in the initial, middle or final position. Unlike fixed stress, free stress is not limited to a certain position in a word. In one word it may fall on the first syllable, in another – on the second, in the third – on the last. The word stress in English, as well as in Russian, is not only free, but may also be shifting. As a result of that, it performs the semantic function: to differentiate meanings, grammatical forms and parts of speech.

       There can be different degrees of stress in a word. Some authors think there are as many degrees of stress in a word as there are syllables. Usually we distinguish three degrees of stress in a word:

1) primary (it is the strongest);

2) secondary (it is the second strongest);

3) all other degrees are weak.

American phoneticians, such as Bernard Bloch (1907, New York City, NY – 1965), George Leonard Trager (1906–1992), distinguish four contrastive degrees of word stress: primary, secondary, tertiary and weak.

       The accentual structure of English has some particular features due to the different origin of English words. In Germanic languages stress originally fell on the initial or second syllable, on the root syllable in words with prefixes. This tendency was called recessive. Most English words of Anglo-Saxon origin are subjected to this tendency. The so-called unrestricted recessive tendency is observed in native English words with no prefixes (mother, daughter, brother, swallow, carry) and in assimilated French borrowings (reason, color). Restricted recessive tendency marks English words with prefixes, some of which no longer exist (foresee, withdraw, begin, apart, forget).

       In the present-day English there is one more tendency – rhythmical. It appeared thanks to the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. It caused the appearance of the secondary stress in multisyllabic French borrowings (revolution, assimilation). This tendency also explains the place of the primary stress on the third syllable from the end in borrowed three and four-syllable words (cinema, family, library). The stress on the initial syllable is caused by the diachronical recessive tendency. The stress on the second syllable is caused by the rhythmical tendency.

       The third tendency is called retentive. It is realized in the relations between the derivative and the original word. To be more exact, the derivative often retains the stress of the original word (similar – to assimilate, to recommend – recommendation).

       But in Modern English there are lots of variations of accentual patterns which appeared as a result of interrelation of the tendencies mentioned above. The types of these patterns are classified according to the number of stress syllables and their degree (main or secondary). Here we speak about the distribution of stressed and unstressed syllables in a word.

       There can be different types of syllable:

1) stressed + unstressed (big);

2) stressed + stressed (undergo);

3) three-stressed (USA);

4) four-stressed (USSR).

There are other variations of stressed and unstressed syllables which cover the English vocabulary, but the accentual structures may alter under the influence of rhythm and tempo of speech. For example, if the vowels are reduced, the secondary stress may be stopped.

The word stress is closely interrelated with sentence stress. Sentence stress usually falls on that syllable of the word which is marked by the word stress. The words which usually become stressed in a phrase or sentence are notional words: nouns, adjectives, numerals, notional verbs, pronouns (demonstrative, interrogative, possessive in dependent forms) and adverbs. The words that are not usually stressed in the sentence are auxiliary, link and modal verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, articles and particles. Interjections are considered to be outside of sentence elements.

The functions of word stress

1) constitutive (word stress organizes the syllables into a word. A word doesn’t exist without the word stress);

2) distinctive (word stress serves to differentiate between the meanings of the words and their forms);

3) indentificatory, or recognitive (word stress makes it possible to identify a succession of syllable with a definite recurrent stress pattern as a word).