Transcript 20130928163055581260
3. Suprasegmentals
Suprasegmental features are those aspects of speech that involve more than single sound segments.
The principal suprasegmentals are:
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3.1 The syllable structure
σ Onset Rime Nucleus Coda k r æ k t
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Open syllable:
bar, tie
Closed syllable:
bard, tied
English Syllable: (((C)C)C)V((((C)C)C)C)
Chinese syllable: (C)V(C)
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Maximal Onset Principle (MOP)
When there is a choice as to where to place a consonant, it is put into the onset rather than the coda.
Cf.
tell
and
telling
– resyllabification
te- + -lling
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Resyllabification
bottle
bottler, call
cooler, deal
calling, cool dealer/dealing, fall
falling, fell
felling, feel
fooling, football
feeling, fool footballer, full
fully, girl
kill
girlish, howl
howling, jell
killer/killing, mail
jelly, mailing, pull
puling, roll
roller, seal
selling, whale
sealing, sell whaling/whaler, whole
wholly, yell
yelling, …
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Sonority scale
It is interesting to find that in English consonant clusters in onset and coda positions disallow many consonant combinations.
For example, we can have help, lump, pray, and quick, but not *hepl, *lupm, *rpay, or *wqick. It is found that a sonority scale is at work. The degree of sonority of different classes of sound affects their possible positions in the syllable:
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Sonority scale:
Most sonorous Least sonorous 5 4 3 2 1 Vowels Approximants Nasals Fricatives Stops 7
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In a word such as
cracked
, the sonority of each sound gradually rises to a peak at the nucleus and then falls at the coda:
* 5 4 3 2 1 * k r * æ * k t * 9
This explains why *rkatk is not allowed:
5 4 * 3 2 1 r * k * æ t * * k 10
Problems with the sonority scale
Consider the case of
silk
and
sickle
. They consist of the same sounds, but are arranged in a different order. Whereas
silk
follows the correct sequence of the sonority scale,
sickle
does not.
The traditional practice is to take
sickle
as a disyllabic word so that [kl] forms a syllable of its own, with [l] being considered to be syllabic.
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The case with [s] in the onset position also behaves unusually, in that it can combine with almost any onset to form a cluster of up to three consonants, e.g. [spl-], [spr-], [str-], [skw-].
Two views have been found to explain this.
One is to take [s] as a separate syllable, i.e. to treat words like
stock
as disyllabic, but this is however against most native speakers’ intuition.
Another view is to take such a segment as an “ appendix ”.
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Phonotactics
The rules that describe possible sequences of sounds for forming English words.
Language can differ in their phonotactic rules, so that
mbotto
might be a possible word of Swahili, or
psore
a possible word of Greek, but they are not possible words in English.
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Phonotactic rule 1:
Sequences of repeated consonants are not possible.
/sssitttt/
As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, ‘ Brazil, here I come … Thanksss , amigo.
’
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Phonotactic rule 2:
The glottal fricative /h/ never occurs in the coda of a syllable.
This rules out the possibility of
beh
.
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To rule out
flezk
and
zipb
Other coda rules:
If the second consonant in a complex coda is voiced, the first consonant in the coda must also be voiced.
When a non-alveolar nasal is in a coda together with a non-alveolar obstruent, they must have the same place of articulation, and the obstruent must be a voiceless stop.
Two obstruents in a coda together must have the same voicing.
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To rule out
psore
and
mbotto
Basic onset rules:
/ ŋ/ is not a possible onset.
Complex onsets may not contain affricates or /h/.
Two-consonant complex onsets may contain either:
A. first consonant: any obstruent other than /s/; second consonant: liquid or glide (l,r,j,w).
B. first consonant: /s/; second consonant: nasal, liquid, glide or voiceless obstruent (except /
/).
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