The Principle Theories on Syllable

Lecture 6.

Syllable Formation in English:

2. The Syllable Construction in English.

3. Functions of a Syllable in Speech.

Speech can be broken into minimal uttered units, where sounds show a tendency to cluster or group themselves. These smallest phonetic groups are generally given the name of syllables. Being the smallest pronounceable units, the syllables form language units of greater magnitude that is morphemes, words and phrases. Each of these units is characterized by a certain syllabic structure. Thus, we may say that a meaningful language unit has two aspects: syllable formation and syllable division which form a dialectical unity. The syllable can be studied on four levels: acoustic, articulatory, auditory and functional. On the articulatory level, we could start with the so-called expiratory theory of R.H. Stetson. For him expiration in speech is a pulsation process and each syllable corresponds to a single expiration, so the number of syllables in an utterance is determined by a number of expirations. Another theory is put forward by O. Jesperson. It is called the sonority theory. According to it, each sound is characterized by a certain degree of sonority which is understood as acoustic property of a sound that determines its perception, so the most sonorous sounds tend to form the centre of the syllable and the least sonorous- the marginal segments. There exist a great number of other theories, such as F. de Saussure’ theory, A. Rosetti’s, Hala’s. The problem is still under discussion. In our country there has been adopted L.V. Scerba’s theory of muscular tension. The energy increases within the range of prevocalic consonants and then decreases within the range of postvocalic consonants. However, the majority of linguists treat the syllable as the smallest pronounceable unit which can reveal some linguistic function. So, a syllable is a chain of phonemes of varying length; it is constructed on the basis of contrast of its constituents, which is usually the vowel- consonant type; the nucleus of a syllable is a vowel, the presence of consonants is optional; the distribution of phonemes in the syllabic structure follows the rules which are specific enough for a particular language. Syllable formation in English is based on the phonological opposition vowel- consonant. Vowels are usually syllabic while consonants are not, with the exception of [l], [m], [n], which are syllabic in some cases [garden]. The other aspect of the dialectical unity is syllable division. The linguistic importance of syllable division in different languages is in finding typology of syllables and syllabic structure of meaningful units of a language that is morphemes and words… There are two functions of the syllable.

The constitutive function. It lies in the ability to be a part of a word or a word itself.

2. The distinctive function. The syllable is characterized by its ability to differentiate words and word-forms.

Lecture 7.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-07