Theories of the syllable.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 994.

Though we say that speech is a continuant thing, it can be broken in units with the help of linguistic analysis. Speech sounds are not aid by themselves; they show the tendency to cluster/to group themselves. The smallest phonetics groups are usually called syllables. Syllables form language unites of greater magnitude. Syllables =/ morphemes =/ words =/ sentences =/ texts. Each of these units characterized by certain features. Syllable (Kenyon) – 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 or a word-form. A vowel sound always forms a syllable. In EL sonorants when preceded by noise consonants may also form a syllable. When one or more consonants are pronounced together with the same vowel in the same syllable, this vowel forms nucleus of a syllable. Consonants preceding and following the vowel form the slopes of the word/syllable. The slopes may contain from 1 to 4 consonants. Classification. 1) Whether it begins or ends with the vowel. 1) Syllable begins with consonant and ends with vowel: CV – covered; 2) VC – close/uncovered; 3) CVC – covered/close; 4) V – uncovered/open. (C)V(C). VC (close/uncovered) – the most specific to EL structure of syllable. Phonetic syllables should not be mixed with the orthographic syllables. They may coincide but it is not obligatory. Eg: mak|er [‘mei–k#]. To denote a syllable in writing the term ‘syllabograph' was introduced. Syllabic structure of words has correlation with morphemic structure. Eg: late|ly, late–ly, [‘leit-li], lat|er, [‘lei–t#]. 2) Classification is based on supra-segmental units: duration, pitch, force. Duration: short; long. The linguistic unit of length of syllable is mora. Mora equals the length of historically short vowel. And the length of historically long vowels and diphthongs = 2 moras. Latin belonged to mora counting language. (The position of the stress was dependent on the moras.) English belongs to syllable counting languages. In tonic languages the syllable is also a carrier of toneme. Toneme – is a distinctive movement or change of pitch within the syllable. Syllables: 1) which are pronounced with even pitch (low-even, mid-even, high-even); 2) the syllables pronounced with changes of pitch (fall/rise); 3) syllables pronounced in combination with such changes (fall-rise, rise-fall, rise-fall-rise). Syllables carry dynamic stress, variations in the force of utterance. Syllable pronounced with force – stressed; without it – unstressed. Stressed syllables: Distinctive variations form a phonologic unit – ‘word accentim', ‘sentence accentim'.

1) Expiratory theory/Chest-pulse theory/Pressure theory. Each syllable corresponds to a single expiration. A word contains as many syllables as there are fresh expirations. A vowel sound is pronounced with a fresh expiration. That's why vowels are always syllabic. Syllable division is affected by the on-set of a fresh expiration. Syllable boundary is at the point where fresh expiratory pulse begins. Stetson tried to prove validity of this theory by instrumental investigations. These investigations were criticized because the theory fails to explain all cases of syllable formation and principles of syllable division. 2) Sonority theory. It was proposed by Otto Jespesen. Sonority – acoustic property of speech sounds which determines this or that degree of perceptibility. (Sonority – tone prevailing over nose). He developed “The scale of sonority”. The most sonorous are vowels. Low vowels are more sonorous than high; back vowels are more sonorous than front. Semi vowels: [w, j]; next go frictionlis-continuents: [r, l, n, m, n']; voiced fricatives: [v, ‘th, gh, z]; voiced stops: [b, d, g]; voiceless fricatives: [f, th, s, sh]; voiceless stops: [p, t, k], which are the least sonorous. A syllable contains one peak of sonority separated from other peaks by valleys of low sonority. Drawbacks: Sonority theory does not attempt the actual mechanism of syllable formation and syllable division. It only tries to show that a continuum/sequence of sounds consists of 2 syllables. e.g.: a name/an aim -/ [a|neim]/[an|eim]. 3) Shcherba. Muscular tension theory/Articulatory effort theory. The center of the syllable is the syllabic phoneme. Sounds which precede and follow the syllable constitute a chain or an arch of articulatory tension. Articulatory tension is weak at the beginning and at the end of the arch and strong in the middle. Types of consonants. (by Shcherba): Finally strong/initially weak (сильноконечные) – these consonants occur at the beginning of the syllable. Finally weak/initially strong (сильноначальные) – occur at the end of a close syllable. Double-peaked/geminated. In their articulation they are weak in the middle and energetic at the beginning and in the end. Such double-peaked consonants present the combination of 2 allophones of one and the same phoneme. They usually occur at the junction of 2 syllables. e.g.: seeing -/ [‘si:|i'n]. 4) Zhinkin. Theory of arch of loudness. There is a special organ which is responsible for syllable division. Pharyngeal cavity. The contraction of the walls of the cavity narrows the pharyngeal passage. The muscular tension of the walls increases and the actual loudness of the vocal element/vowel/ increases too. It increases to such an extent that this vocal element becomes the peak, which in its term becomes the arch of loudness. The arch of loudness is the ‘product' of another arch of tenseness.