English Phonetics and Phonology. Mid-term2 (2)

Phonology . Mid- term 2.
Syllable - is a phonological unit consisting of one or more phonemes.
In phonetics – a syllable is a unit which consists of a centre , that has little or no obstruction to airflow ; it is comparatively louder than other sounds.
In phonology – syllables are the possible combinations of phonemes.
The syllable consists of - onset , nucleus , coda . (every syllable has a nucleus: vowel , syllabic l, or m, n).
Rhyme /rime – nucleus + coda; the nucleus and the coda constitute a sub-syllabic unit – rhyme. Words rhyme, when their nucleus and coda are identical. (E.g ’cr-o-wn’, ’d-o-wn’).
The hierarchical structure of the syllable:
Onset – the beginning of the syllable
Nucleus/ peak – the open part of a syllable, generally a vowel.
Coda – a consonant sound which ends the syllable.
Open syllable - has no coda
Closed syllable - has a coda!
Texts: [t-e-k-s-t-s]- (Consonant, Vowel, Consonant, Consonant, Consonant, Consonant).
Strong syllables - has as its nucleus one of the vowel phonemes but not “schwa”
Weak syllables has 4 types of nucleus – 1) the vowel „schwa“ 2) a close front unrounded vowel in the general area of i: and ı 3) a close back unrounded vowel in the general area of u: and υ 4) a syllabic consonant
Close front vowels – occur in word- final weak syllables (as in happy ), weak initial syllables (as in react ) and in unstressed personal pronouns (be, the), when preceding a vowel.
NB. i: or ı, as in „ easy , busy “, is transcribed as i
Close back vowels – occur in unstressed syllables, when not preceding a consonant (you, to, into, do) and in unstressed syllables in all positions ( through , who).
NB. u: or υ, as in „food to eat“, is transcibed as u
„schwa“ - is a reduced vowel that is in weak syllables only, and it’s sound quality is mid and central. E.g. carrot, perhaps , attend.
Syllabic consonants - l, n, m, η, r can function as a syllable ( as in button [bᴧt-n]); placing a “schwa” before a syllabic liquid or nasal also shows that these are separate syllables.
Stress in simple words – stressed first syllable indicates a noun, stressed second syllable indicates a verb (as in pérvert (N) ‘My neighbour is a pervert’; pervért (V) ‘Don’t pervert the idea ’).
Factors that contribute to prominence of stress in syllables are – loudness, length , pitch , quality.
Stress (accent) – relative loudness and tenseness of syllable peak, the use of extra respiratory energy during a syllable.
Pitch ( tone ) – the auditory property of a sound that enables a listener to place it on a scale going from low to high, without considering the acoustic properties such as the frequency of sound.
To produce a stressed syllable one may – change the pitch, make the syllable louder, make the syllable longer.
Fixed stress – always word-initial ( Czech , Hungarian), always word-final (Turkish, French), penultimate (Polish).
Dynamic stress – Russian , English
Tone languages – Somali , Mandarin
Stress- timed languages – syllables may last different amounts of time, but stressed syllables appear at a roughly constant rate . Non-stressed syllables are shortened to accomodate this.
Syllable-timed languages – every syllable is perceived as taking up roughly the same amount of time. Syllables are given approximately equal stress.
When words are combined into sentences (or phrases ), only one of the syllables receives a primary stress in that sentence (or phrase ) and all the other syllables have a secondary stress.
There are words in English that may be pronounced in two different ways – in weak forms , in strong forms. Function words (auxiliary verbs , prepositions, conjunctions and certain pronouns) have weak forms.
Strong forms replace the weak forms– at the end of the sentence, being contrasted with another word, there is a co-ordinated use of prepositions, emphasis.
Problems in phonemic analysis . Essay.
There are two main areas of difficulty. The first can be called the problem of analysis: we may accept the principle of the phoneme as a fundamental unit in language , but we find difficulty in deciding what are the phonemes of English. The result of this is that different writers produce different analyses of the phonemic system of English. It is possible to treat
each of the pair tᶴ, dᶾ as a single consonant phoneme - the one-phoneme analysis, and it is also possible to say that they are composed of two phonemes each - either t plus ᶴ or d plus ᶾ- all of which are already established as independent phonemes of English - the two-phoneme analysis. There are also problems in how to analyse ᵑ - as a phoneme or allophone, and many others. The second area of difficulty can be called the problem of assignment. There may be found many cases where it is difficult to assign a particular speech sound to a particular phoneme. We use the term neutralisation for cases where contrasts between phonemes which exist in other places in the language disappear in particular contexts. A clearer case of neutralisation can be found in the case of plosives following s in syllable-initial position . Words like ' spill ', ' still ', ' skill ' are usually represented with the phonemes p, t, k following the s. But, as many writers have pointed out, it would be quite reasonable to transcribe them with b, d, g instead, because b, d, g are unaspirated while p, t, k in syllable-initial position are
usually aspirated; but in sp, st, sk we find an unaspirated plosive . Although we dont transcribe as such, it is important to remember that the contrasts between p and b, between t and d and between k and g are neutralised in this context . There are many ways of analysing the English phonemic system, each with its own advantages and disadvantages .
The rhythm of speech is determined by many factors – where the stresses fall , whether long and short vowels contrasted, whether unstressed vowels in syllables can be reduced, what syllabic structures are allowed (e.g. onsets and codas have consonant clusters).
(E.g English can have up to 7 consonants in a row – texts spread [teksts-spred]).
Differences in the allowed syllable structures influence the rhythm of a language and these rhythmic differences can be described in terms of length variation.
Syllable-timed rhythm – rhythm of speech is based on the syllable, taking each syllable a similar amount of time to be pronounced. Each syllable is distinctively and clealry pronounced (timing the flow of the language).
Stress-timed rhythm – rhythm is based on stressed syllables of words. Unstressed syllables tend to be compressed and can almost disappear (In English, vowels are reduced to schwa). The words that carry the stressed syllables responsible for sentence rhythm are usually content words, function words are usually unstressed.
Content words – nouns , main verbs, adjectives, adverbs
Function words – prepositions, articles , determines, pronouns, auxiliary verbs.
Assimilation – the change of one sound into another sound because of the influence of neighbouring sounds. Primarily consonants are affected by it and it is typical of rapid and casual speech.
Types of assimilation:

• Regressive assimilation – the word-final morpheme is affected by the initial one of the following word (assimilation in place of articulation). E.g. light blue, that thing
  
• Progressive assimilation – the word final morpheme affects the initial one of the following word (progressive assimilation of manner). E.g. in the, read these
  

Assimilation also happens within words, not only across word boundaries. E.g. tenth , bank.
Assimilation happens because it is more comfortable to go from one certain place of articulation to a similar place of articulation (from bilabial to labiodental etc.not bilabial to nasal).
Elision – in certain circumstances a phoneme maybe realised as zero or be deleted. (E.g. loss of final v in ’of’ before consonants - „ lots of them“
Linking – linking r „ here are“ and intrusive r „media event“.
A falling tone – descends from a higher to a lower pitch
A rising tone – a movement from a lower pitch to a higher one
NB! In tone languages pitch is a phonemic feature. In intonation languages the intonation of the phrase or sentence is contrasted.
Pitch contour – intonation of the phrase or sentence.
Intonation contours may reflect semantic or syntactic differences.
5 clearly discernible intonation patterns of single syllables in English – fall, rise , rise-fall, fall-rise, level.
Speech -> utterances -> tone-units -> feet -> syllables ->phonemes
Tone-unit components - (pre-head); (head); Tonic Syllable;( tail ). E.g. she ′ LIVES in ˛LONdon
Tone-unit structure:

• The head – a part of the tone unit that extends from the first stressed syllable up to the tonic syllable, but the latter is not included . When there is no stressed syllable before the tone unit, there is no head either.
  
• The pre-head – is is composed of all the unstressed syllables in a tone unit preceding the first stressed syllable.
  
• The tail – any syllables between the tonic syllable and the end of the tone unit.
  

A simple tone unit has one tonic syllable only.
Tonic syllable – a syllable with a high degree of prominence, carries a tone
Intonation is entirely carried by the stressed syllables of a tone-unit (-so when marking intonation, only stressed syllables are marked).
Intonation helps the speaker to communicate their message and makes it easier for the adressee to understand what is being said.
Functions of intonation (how intonation facilitates understanding ):

• Attitudinal function – intonation helps us to express emotions and attitudes
  
• Accentual function – intonation helps to produce the effect of prominence on syllables that need to be recognized as stressed, and to mark out the most important element in tone-unit by placing the tonic stress on it.
  
• Grammatical funtion – intonation helps to recognize the boundaries between phrases, clauses, sentences and the difference between questions and sentences.
  
• Discourse function – intonation can signal to the listener, what information is to be taken as „new“ and what is already „given“ and what material is being contrasted with material in some other tone-unit.