Sylablles

Name: Rizki Restu Permana

Class: III D

NIM: 1211503118

Sylablles

Speakers certainly have an intuitive notion of how many syllables each word contains: for instance, speakers of English would generally agree that meadow, dangerous and antidisestablishmentarianism (allegedly the longest word in the language) have two, three and twelve syllables respectively. It is less easy for speakers to reflect consciously on the in­ternal structure of syllables, or to decide where one stops and the next starts; but a wide variety of cross-linguistic studies have helped phonol­ogists construct a universal template for the syllable, within which particular languages select certain options. The internal structure of the syllable, and evidence for its subparts from a range of English phono­logical processes, will be the topic of this chapter.

Constituents of the syllable

The universal syllable template accepted by most phonologists is given in (1). Note that small sigma (σ) is shorthand for ‘syllable’; capital sigma (Σ), as we shall see later, is used to symbolise the foot.

(1)

onset                                       rhyme

nucleus                              coda

Note that small sigma (σ) is shorthand for ‘syllable’

Nucleus is the only compulsory part of the syllable, and hence its head, or most important, defining unit.
Example :
The first syllable of about, consist only of a nucleus.
The onset and the coda are optional constituents, and each, if filled, will contain one or more consonants.
Examples :
be has an onset but no coda;
eat has a coda but no onset; and beat has both.

The grammar of syllables: patterns of acceptability

Patterns of permissibility vary interms of filling these constituents of the syllable. It’s divided become :

—  Phonotactic constraints

—  The Sonority Sequencing Generalisation

Phonotactic constraints

Allow both onsets and codas, have restrictions on the permissible contents of those slots: these restrictions are known as phonotactic constraints. In particular, English allows clus­ters of two or three consonants in both onsets and codas; some languages have more complex cluster types, others only CC, and perhaps in the onset only. Some restrictions on the composition of clusters reflect structural idiosyncracies ofEnglish.

The Sonority Sequencing Generalisation

Sonority is related to the difference between sonorants (sounds which are typically voiced, like approxi­mants, nasal stops and vowels) and obstruents (oral stops and fricatives, which may be either voiced or voiceless). Sonorants are more sonorous; that is, their acoustic properties give them greater carrying power. If you stood at the front of a large room and said one sound as clearly as you could, a listener at the back would be much more likely to be able to identify a highly sonorous sound like [a] than a sound at the other end of the sonority range, such as [t].

Our knowledge of acoustic phonetics and other aspects of sound behaviour can be combined to produce a sonority scale like the one given in (3). Here, the most sonorous sounds appear at the top, and the least sonorous at the bottom. Some English examples are given for each category.

       Low vowels                              [a ] ...

High vowels                      [i u] ...

Glides                                     [j w]

Liquids                                    [l i]

Nasals                                    [m n i)]

Voiced fricatives                    [v z] ...

Voiceless fricatives               [f s] ...

Voiced plosives                     [b d g]

        Voiceless plosives                [p t k]

Justifying the constituents

1. Syllable-based processes
2. Onset Maximalism
3. Literary applications of syllable constituents
4. Syllable weight

A.Syllable-based processes

The notion of the syllable in general, and the onset constituent in particular, helps us to state the environment for aspiration of voiceless stops more accurately.

B. Onset Maximalism

Where there is a choice, always assign as many consonants as possible to the onset, and as few as possible to the coda. However, remember that every word must also consist of a sequence of well formed syllables.

Onset Maximalism tells us that, in a word like leader, the medial /d/ must belong to the second syllable, where it can be located in the onset, rather than the first, where it would have to be assigned to the less favoured coda.

C. Literary applications of syllable constituents

      Conspiratour, cursit cocatrice, hell caa (caa = crow)

      Turk, trumpour, traitour, tyran intemperate …

It is clear that almost all of the words in the first line begin with <c> /k/, and those in the second with <t> /t/; and in some cases, here cocatrice, intemperate.

The alliterating sound may appear in word-internal onset positions.

D. Syllable weight

Syllable weight is a major factor in determining the position of stress in a word: essentially, no stressed syllable in English may be light.