Syllable (lecture 3)

1. SYLLABLE

Lecture 3

2. Plan

The Phenomenon of the Syllable.
Syllable Formation.
Syllable Division.
Functional Aspect of the Syllable.

3. The Phenomenon of the Syllable

4. The Phenomenon of the Syllable

The syllable is one or more speech sounds
forming a single uninterrupted unit of
utterance, which may be a whole word, or a
commonly
recognized
and
separable
subdivision of a word.
The syllable can be a single word (chair [ʧeə]), a
part of a word (English ['ɪŋɡlɪʃ]), a part of the
grammatical form of a word (later ['leɪ-tə]).

5. The Phenomenon of the Syllable

The syllable can be studied on four levels:
acoustic,
articulatory,
auditory,
functional.

6. The Phenomenon of the Syllable

Acoustically the syllable is characterized by the
force of utterance, pitch of the voice and length.
On the auditory level the syllable is the smallest unit
of perception.
The articulatory energy which constitutes the syllable
results from the combined action of the power,
vibrator, resonator and obstructor mechanisms.
Phonologically the syllable is regarded and defined
in terms of its structural and functional properties

7. The Phenomenon of the Syllable

Theories:
expiratory theory (experimentally proved by R.H.
Stetson);
the sonority theory (O. Jespersen);
the theory of muscular tension (was sketched by L.V.
Sherba and modified by V.A. Vasilyev);
the loudness theory (worked by N.I. Zhinkin).

8. SYLLABLE FORMATION

9. SYLLABLE FORMATION

A syllable is a speech unit consisting of a sound (V) or a
sound sequence (VC, CS) one of which is heard to be
more prominent than the others. The most prominent
sound being the peak of the syllable is called syllabic.
Only syllabic sounds are capable of forming syllables.
Syllabic sounds are generally vowels and sonorants (in
English).
Syllabic sonorants are indicated by [¸] placed beneath
the symbol:
apple ['æpļ], trouble ['trʌbļ].

10. SYLLABLE FORMATION

Many words in English such as parcel, level, person can be pronounced
with the neutral vowel before the sonorant thus making it non-syllabic
['pɑːs(ə)l], ['lev(ə)l], ['pɜːs(ə)n].
Some words in English not having any vowel-letter before the final
sonorant may also be pronounced in both ways
puzzle ['pʌzl] - ['pʌzəl].
Many words having a vowel-letter before the final sonorant may be
pronounced without the neutral vowel, whereby the sonorant is
syllabic
garden ['ɡɑːdn], lesson ['lesn].
The words with the sonorant [m] blossom, rhythm are more often
pronounced with the neutral vowel
['blɒsəm], ['rɪðəm].

11. SYLLABLE FORMATION

In English there are four types of the syllable:
1) CV covered open (no)
2) VC uncovered closed (on)
3) CVC covered closed (man)
4) V uncovered open (awe)

12. Syllable Division

13. Syllable Division

Syllable division rules can be defined as follows:
An intervocalic consonant tends to belong to the following syllabic sound when
it is preceded by a long vowel or a diphthong, as they are always free
(unchecked) at the end and there is no need to close the syllable (music ['mjuːzɪk]).
In case of a short stressed vowel followed by a consonant there are two
viewpoints concerning the syllable boundary.
(a) the intervocalic consonant belongs to the short vowel preceding it (pity ['pɪt-ɪ]);
(b) the syllable boundary goes through the consonant (pity ['pɪtɪ]). In this case the
sound [t] belongs structurally both to the preceding and the following vowels.
When two vowels are separated from each other by two consonants the point
of syllable division is often conditioned by whether this cluster occurs at the
beginning of English words or not. If it does, the point of syllable division is
before the cluster; if it does not, the syllabic boundary is between the
consonants (agree - [ə'-ɡriː], admit [əd'-mɪt]).
English diphthongs are unisyllabic, they consist of one vowel phoneme, English
triphthongs are disyllabic, because they consist of two vowel phonemes (science
['saɪ - əns]).

14. Syllable Division

Division of words into syllables in writing (syllabographs) is based on
morphological principles.
The morphological principle of word division in orthography demands that the part
of a word, which is separated, should be either a prefix, or a suffix, or a root: before, un-divided, utter-ance. However, if there are two or three consonants
before -ing, these consonants can be separated in writing: gras-ping, puz-zling.
Words can be divided in writing according to their syllabic structure (un-kind-liness) or they can also be divided according to their meaning (spot-light).
The following rules can help with dividing a word in writing:
− never divide a word within a syllable;
− never divide a suffix of two syllables such as -able, -ably, -fully;
− with the exception of -ly, never divide a word so that an ending of two letters
such as -ed, -er, -ic begins the next line;
− never divide a word so that one of the parts is a single letter;
− never divide a word of one syllable;
− never divide a word of less than five letters.

15. Functional Aspect of the Syllable

16. Functional Aspect of the Syllable.

The syllable performs three functions:
Constitutive function.
Distinctive function.
Identificatory (recognitive) function.

17. Questions:

Questions:
What is the syllable?
What theories of syllable formation do you know?
What do you know about syllable formation?
What types of the syllable are there in English?
What do you know about syllable division?
What functions does the syllable perform?
What are the rules of dividing a word in writing?

18. Literature

1. Леонтьева С.Ф. Теоретическая фонетика современного английского
языка (на англ. яз.) /С.Ф. Леонтьева.- М., 2002. – 336 с.
2. Соколова М.А. Практическая фонетика английского языка /М.А.
Соколова. – М.: Гуманит. изд. центр ВЛАДОС, 1997. – 384 с.
3.O’Connor L.D. Phonetics /L.D. O’Connor. Penguin, 1977.
4.Sokolova M.A. English Phonetics. A theoretical course /M.A. Sokolova. M.,
1996. – 286 p.
5.Vassilyev V.A. English Phonetics: A theoretical Course /V.A. Vassilyev. M.,
1980. – 323 p.

19. Thank you for your attention!