Phonetics and
phonology
Syllable and phonotactics
Szczecin University
March 8, 2014
Phonetics and
phonology
Syllable and phonotactics
Szczecin University
March 8, 2014
Issues to be discussed
The definition of the syllable
Phonology and the syllable
The structure of the syllable
Sonority hierarchy
OSDP
Definition of the syllable
Syllable – a unit of organisation typically longer than
a sound and shorter than a word.
Syllables are often considered the phonological
"building blocks" of words, as they represent
language-specific sound combinations.
[str-], [skl-], [spj-] Which of these sound sequences
in not found in English?
The term has not been properly defined (Ladefoged
1975)
Arguments for the existence of
the syllable
Syllabaries – writing systems based
on the syllable, e.g. Japanese (kana).
The unit is easily recognised by
children.
Phonological processes are applied
within the domain of the syllable.
Spectrogram of potatoes
Arguments against the syllable
Syllable structure
Phonological syllable
Phonological syllable – the way sounds
combine in a language to produce typical
sound sequences.
The syllables-are-like-words approach.
Phonotactics – the study of permissible
sound combinations in a language.
Phonotactic preferences
70% of the world's languages have only CV
syllables, e.g. Maori.
Fitch (2000: 261) suggests that “the
evolutionary precursor of syllabic structure
was the mandibular oscillation associated
with chewing and sucking, which provides a
frame onto which the content of specific
phonemes is superimposed”.
English phonotactics is said to be relatively
complex.
Monosyllabic words of RP English
V
ear
VC
at
VCC
act
VCCC
acts
CV
far
CCV
star
CCCV
spray
CCCVC
strike
CCCVCC
script
CCCVCCC strength
CCCVCCCC strengths
English and Polish phonotactics
Languages that have the same sound systems
may have different phonotactics.
English and Polish have ‘the same’ inventory of
plosives, i.e. /p, b, t, d, k, g/, but initial plosive
clusters are not found in English.
Both languages allow for initial fricative-plosive
sequences, but in English the /s/ sound is the only
fricative that can be found in such clusters, e.g.
speak, while Polish allows for several fricatives,
e.g. szpilka, wtórny, śpiewać.
Language-specific phonotactics
Phonotactic constraints
l
p r
s + t + j
k w
Accidental gaps: *spw, *stl, *stw, *skl
Sonority
Sonority - the carrying power of individual
sounds.
The sonority of a sound is the greater, the
longer distance the sound can be heard
from.
It has been observed that this auditory
effect is directly linked with the degree of
openness of the vocal tract, which explains
why vowels are heard from considerably
longer distances than, for instance,
voiceless fricatives.
Sonority hierarchy
V > SV > L > N > F > A > P
a > j > l > m > s > ʧ > p
Sonority hierarchies depend on the
phonology of a given language.
Spanish sonority hierarchy
i, u > e, o > a > l/r > p, s, ʧ
Sonority and syllable structure
Sonority Sequencing Principle - well-formed
onset cluster is one in which the sonority of
the individual constituent segments increases
as we approach the nucleus of the syllable,
e.g. [kla], [ksla].
By the same token, in well-formed codas
sonority should decrease as we move further
away from the nucleus, e.g. [arp], [arsk].
The SSP does not account for the existence of
initial clusters of the [str-] type.
The Optimal Sonority Distance
Principle
The OSDP defines the way in which
segments should order themselves in a
successful sequence; the relations
between sonority distances between pairs
of neighbouring sounds should be
optimally balanced.
The OSDP ought to be understood as a set
of conditions, formed in terms of distances
in sonority between the adjacent segments
of a cluster, that need to be fulfilled if a
given cluster is to overcome the tendency
for simplification.
Word-initial doubles
C1C2V: |son (C1) – son (C2) ≥ |son (C2) –
son (V)|, i.e. sondis (C1, C2) ≥ sondis (C2,
V)
The sonority distance between C1 and C2
should be greater than or equal to the
sonority distance between C2 and V.
The sonority distance between C1 and C2
should be greater than or equal to the
sonority distance between C1 and V.
Example
P A F N L SV V
6 5 4 3 2 1 0
The initial cluster of play
(C1, C2) ≥ sondis (C2, V)
6 -2 ≥ 2 - 0
Word-initial and word-final doubles
Syllabification
How to syllabify the word extra?
The maximal onset principle
e.kstrə ek.strə eks.trə ekst.rə
ekstr.ə
Language-specific syllabification rules
Los Estados Unidos
Lo-ses-ta-do-su-ni-dos
Ambisyllabicity
There are words in English, in which a
given speech sound is said to belong to
two neighbouring syllables.
In bisyllabic words with a stressed short
vowel the following
consonant(s) is said
to be ambisyllabic, e.g. better /bet.ə/,
petty /pet.i/
Thank you