Фонетики со смежными науками: акустикой, анатомией, физиологией, психологией

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 analysis 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:

1. 
   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.
   
2. 
   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 expiration.
   
3. 
   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.
   
4. 
   T he “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. Sounds which precede and follow this centre constitute a chain, or an arc, which is weak in the beginning and in the end and strong in the middle: like in the word cab
   

k æ b

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 (while in Russian it is the open type that forms the basis of syllable formation).
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].
Syllable division.
Syllabic structure of a language is patterned, i.e. the sounds of language can be groupped into syllable according to certain rules. The part of phonetics which deals with this aspect of a language is called phonostatistics. It is possible to fotmulate the rules of syllable division:

1. 
   Sometimes the division of syllables is marked by a stress: concern [kən′sэ:n].
   
2. 
   In other cases the transition from one vowel sound to another indicates the separation of syllables: seeing [′si:ıŋ]. English triphtongs are disyllabic, because they consist of two vowel phonemes: science [′saı-əns], flower [flaυ-ə].
   
3. 
   In affixal words the syllabic boundary coinsides with the morphological boundary: dis-place, be-come, un-able.
   
4. 
   An intervocalic consonant tends to belong to the following syllabic sound: writing [′raı-tıŋ]. But this rule holds true only for cases when a consonant is preceded by a long vowel or a diphtong, as they are always free at the end and there is no need to close the syllable.
   

But in case of a short stressed vowel followed by a consonant theer are three viewpoints concerning the syllableboundary: – the intervocalic consonant belongs to the short vowel preceding it (to make it checked) – it belongs to the following vowel – the boundary goes through the consonant and this consonant belongs structurally to both vowels. The results of instrumental anlysis of speech prove this point as well.

5. 
   Intervocalic combinations of consonants belong to the following syllabic sound, if such combinations are typical of English: naturally [′næt∫-rə-lı].
   
6. 
   In words of CVS and VS structure the syllabic boundary is after the intervocal sonorant: inner [′ın-ə], cinema [sın-əm-ə], enemy [en-em-ı].
   

And there are cases when it’s almost impossible to define the syllabic boundary: extra. There are three intervocal consonants and though it’s evident that there are two peaks, the boundary between them is difficult to define.
Functional characteristic of the syllable.
As a phonological unit the syllable performs three functions: constitutive, distinctive, identificatory. They are closely connected.
The constitutive function lies in its ability to be a part of a word or a word itself. It becomes possible because within a syllable prosodic characteristics of speech are realized (loudness – stress, pitch – tone, duration – length and tempo; syllables my be stressed, unstressed, high, mid, low, rising, falling, long, short). These characteristics form the stress-pattern of a word and the rhythmic and intonation structures of an utterance. Thus, we say that syllable is a soecific minimal structure of both segmental and suprasegmental features.
The other function is called distinctive and differentiatory. In this respect the syllable is characterized by its ability to differentiate words and word-forms: lightening освещение [′laıtnıŋ] – с вертикальной черточкой под n, обозначающей мягкость, and lightning молния [′laıtnıŋ] – без черточки.
The place of the syllable boundary can also perform this function: a name – an aim, ice cream – I scream, we loan – we’ll own. This distinctive, differentiatory function of the boundary between the syllables makes it possible to introduce the term “juncture”. Close juncture, or conjuncture occurs between sounds within one syllable. Open juncture (disjuncture or internal open juncture) occurs between two syllables. American scientists H.A. Gleason, L.S. Harris and K. Pike consider the open juncture a separate segmental phoneme and mark it [+]. They include it into the inventory of phonemes as a separate differentiatory unit.
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.
Осталось: типы слогов по длительности и по акцентному весу.