Phonetic aspect

SYLLABLE

Lecture 3.

1. The syllable as the phonological unit.
2. Theories on the syllable division
3. Types and functions of the syllable.
4. Word stress, its nature and functions.
5. Utterance, logical and emphatic stress.

Syllable is the smallest pronounceable unit which forms language units of greater magnitud (morphemes, words).

The syllable can be considered as the phonetic and phonological unit.

As the phonetic unit the syllable is defined in articulatory, auditory and acoustic terms.

Acoustically and auditoryly the syllables are characterised by prosodic features:

- the force of the utterance

- the pitch of voice

- sonority

- length

Phonologically the syllable is regarded and defined in terms of its structural and functional properties. The term "syllable" denotes smth. taken together.

There are different points of view on syllable formation.

1. There are as many syllable in a word as there are vowels. (but in some languages consonants can be syllabic and it doesn't explain the boundary of syllable.)

2. Expiratory (chest-puls or pressure) theory. Syllable is a sound or group of the sounds that are pronounced in one chest-puls. There are as many syllables in a word as there are chest-pulses made during the word. (Stetson)

The border line between the syllables is a moment of the weaker expiration (but it is quite possible to pronounce some syllables in one articulatory effort).

3. The relative sonority theory (гучності) or the prominence theory. It was created by Danish phonetician O.Jespersen. It is based upon the fact that each sound was a definite carrying power.

Sounds group themselves according to their sonority. There are as many syllables as there are peaks of prominence of sonority.

O.Jespersen classified sounds according to the degree of sonority. He stayed the scale of sonority of sounds. The most sonor are vowels. The less sonor are sonorants. The least sonor consonants are voiced and voiceless.

1. open vowels

2. closed vowels

3. sonorants

4. voiced fricatives

5. voiced plosives

6. voiceless fricatives

7. voiceless plosives

The most sonor sound forms the peak of sonority in a syllable. One peak is separated from another peak by sound of lower sonority that is consonant.

(it doesn't explain the mechanism)of syllable division and formation and it doesn't state to which syllable the less sonorant sound at the boundary of two words belongs

an aim a name summer dresses some addresses

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