Development of syllable structure of english language

1.2.Syllabic structure of English words.
Though the basic phonological elements are phonemes, human communication is actualized in syllables. Syllable is a comonly recognized subdivision of a word.
The syllable may be defined as one or more speech sounds forming a single uninterrupted unit of uterance, which may be a whole word. The syllable can be analized from the acoustic and auditory, articulatory and functional points of view.
Acoustic analysis⁵ of syllables made it possible to formulate some rules of syllable division. Auditorily the syllable is the smallest unit of perception: the listener identifies the whole of the syllable anfd only after that the sounds it consists of. The articulatory energy which constitutes the syllable results from the combinied action of the power, vibrator, resonator and obstructor mechanisms. Phonologically the syllable is regarded and defined in terms of its structural and functional properties.
Syllable formation:
Every syllable has its structure, or form, depending on the kind of speech sounds it ends in. From this point of view there are two types of syllables:
OPEN –if it ends in a vowel sound: he, they, wri-ter.
CLOSED – if it ends in a consonant sound: it, hun-dred, man.
There is however another approach to classification of syllables, it’s based on the principle of what sound the syllable begins and ends with:
FULLY OPEN – it consists of one vowel sound: ore, or. (V)
FULLY CLOSED – has a vowel between consonants: bit, left, space. (CVC, CVCC, CCVC)
COVERED AT THE BEGINNING – one consonant or a sequance of consonants precede a vowel: too, spy, straw. (CV, CCV, CCCV)
COVERED AT THE END – is completed by one or more consonants: on, act, acts. (VC, VCC, VCCC)
If there are more than one sounds in the syllable, one in this sequence is heard to be more prominent. This sound is the peak, or the nucleos of the syllable and is called a SYLLABIC SOUND. Syllabic sounds are generally vowels and sometimes sonorants (when joined to a preceding consonant). A syllabic sonorant is marked by a strictly vertical desh under it [ņ]. The consonants which precede the peak and follow it are called slopes.
There are different points of view on syllable formation and division:
The most ancient theory states that there are as many syllables in the word as there are vowels. But it’s not sufficient because it doesn’t take into consideration consonants which can also form syllables plus it doesn’t explain the boundary of syllables.
The expiratory theory states that there are as many syllables in a word as there are expiration pulses. The borderline between the syllables, acc. to this theory, is the moment of the weakest expiration. But it’s inconsistent, too, because it’s possible to pronounce several syllables in one articulatory effort or expiration⁶.
The sonority theory states that there are as many syllables as there are peak of prominence of sonority. Speech sounds pronounced with uniform force, length and pitch, differ in inherent prominence of sonority. O. Jespersen established the scale of sonority ofsounds, that is, the scale of their inherent prominence. According to his theory the most prominent are back vowels (low, mid and then high), then semi-vowels [w,j], then sonorants, then voiced and voiceless consonants. Sounds in a word are grouped around the most sonorous ones – which are the peaks of sonority – and the points of lower sonority constitute the beginning and the end of the syllabe. Only this theory fails to explain the syllable division because it doesn’t state to which syllable the weak sound at the boundary of the syllable belongs.
The “arc of loundness” or “arc of articulatory tension” theory is based on L.V. Shcherba’s statement that the centre of a syllable is the syllable forming phoneme.
Even if a syllable consists of a single vowel, its strength increases in the beginning, reaches its maximum of loudness and then gradually decreases. But this theory, just like the previous one, is not reliable in the definition of the boundaries of the syllable.
In any case syllable formation in English is based on the phonological opposition vowel – consonant. It should be pointed out that due to its structure the English language has developed the closed type of syllable as the fundamental one.
So, the syllable formation in English can described as follows:
A word consisting of only one vowel represents a separate syllable, if it’s a diphtong [I] then its nucleus is the peak of the syllable.
[l, n] and less commoly [m] are syllabic, [w, j, r] are not, since they are always syllable initial: apple [′æpl], trouble [′tr٨bl].
Many words in English such as parcel, level, special, person and so on, could be pronounced with the neutral vowel before the sonorant thus making it non-syllabic. Or some of them are pronounced without this neutral sound, thus making the sonorant syllabic: garden [′ga:dn], lesson [′lesn], pupil [′pju:pl]⁷.
The identificatory function is conditioned by the pronunciation of the speaker. The listener can understand the exact meaning of the utterance only if he perceives the correc syllabic boundary – syllabodisjuncture: peace talks – pea stalks, my train – might rain. The syllabic structure of all languages can be characterized from the point of view of two aspects: syllable formation and syllable division which are inseparable from each other. Let us begin with the study of the first aspect.
Syllable formation in English is generally based on the phonological opposition ‘vowel vs. consonant’. Vowels are usually syllabic while consonants are not, with the exceptions of [l, m, n]. The English language possesses a great variety of syllables types.
V.A. Vassilyev classifies syllable formation in English on the basis of the type of phoneme the syllable ends in. He states the existence of two types of syllables:
(1) open syllables ending in a vowel phoneme (I [aı], me [mi:], spy [spaı], spray [spreı]);
(2) closed syllables ending in a consonant phoneme (it [ıt], and [ænd], ants [ænts]).
The linguist underlines that these are phonetic syllables which distinguish the actual pronunciation of a word. They shouldn’t be confused with orphthographic syllables into which words are divided in writing and which are used in the system of reading rules.
M.A. Sokolova, V.D. Arakin and other linguists suggest another approach. They define four types of syllables in English on the basis of the number and arrangement of consonants with a vowel. These are:
(1) fully open syllables, which consist of a vowel sound only (V type): are [a:], or [o:], I [aı];
(2) fully closed syllables, in which a vowel is between consonants (C) CVC(C) type): cat [kæt], jump [ʤ∧mp], plan [plæn];
(3) syllables covered at the beginning, in which a consonant or a sequence of consonants precede a vowel (CC)CV type): so [sǩu], spy
[spaı], screw [skru:];
(4) syllables covered at the end, in which a consonant or a sequence of consonants follow a vowel (VC(CC) type): on [ɔn], old [ǩuld], acts [ækts].
Certain peculiarities of the system of English phonemes admit the existence of types of syllables which consist of consonants only, with the nucleous [l, n, m]. These are:
(1) syllables of CC type (table [teıbl], taken [teıkn], rhythm [rıðm]);
(2) syllables of CCC type (decent [di:snt], seldom [seldm]);
(3) syllables of CCCC type (students [stju:dnts];
(4) syllables of CCCCC type (functional [f∧ŋk∫nl]).
The distribution of consonant sounds in the structure of syllables is fixed by certain rules and restrictions:
— sonorants [w, j] are always syllable initial (wheel [wi:l], yes [jes]);
— sonorants [n, l, m] are syllabic only in unstressed final positions if preceded by a noise consonant (bottle [bɔtl], bottom [bɔtm], button [b∧tn]);
— [s] is always initial in the syllables of CCCV type (straw
[stro:]);
— [s/z] are usually included in the syllables of VC(CC) type as morphological indexes of the plural form of nouns or 3rd person singular form of verbs (casks [ka:sks], asks [a:sks]);
— [r] becomes syllabic in some accents (perhaps [præps]);
A single generalized formula of English syllables can be summarized as follows: (C)V/C(C). The brackets indicate the optional presence of consonants. This formula shows that the syllabic structure of the English language consists of a nucleus which may be accompanied with consonants.
The nucleus is the peak of the syllable which is presented by a vowel or a sonorous consonant. Consonant(s) preceding the nucleus make up the syllable onset. Consonant(s) following the nucleus make up the syllable coda. The combination of the nucleus and the coda makes up the rhyming property of a syllable.
The structure of the English syllable admits from 1 to 3 pre-vocalic consonants (splay [spleı]) and from 1 to 5 post-vocalic consonants (minstrels ['mınstrlz]).
The number of syllables in English words can vary from 1 to 8 (day
[deı], baby ['beıbı], family ['fæmılı], generation [ ʤenǩ'reı∫n], liberality [ lıbǩ'rælıtı], responsibility [rıs ponsǩ'bılıtı], ' irresponsibility [ırıs' ponsǩ'bılıtı], incomprehensibility' [ın'komprı hensǩ'bılıtı].
The basis of syllable formation in the English lang' ' uage is the open type of syllable in case of long or diphthongized vowels, and the closed type of syllable in case of short vowels. This statement brings us to the point of syllable division.