Phonetics and Phonology

Phonoloy above the segment of the phoneme is useful for

- understanding some phonological processes, such as the aspiration of voicless plosives

- determing stress within a word

- describing the prosody (speech melody) of loner streches of speech

- number of syllables in a word: easy to determin based on intuition

- syllable boundaries and internal syllable structure: require some analytical tools

- the only mandatory syllable constituent in English is the core element, the head.

- the head of a syllable typically is a vowel. In English, sonorant consonants /l/, /m/, /n/, and /r/ can also be heads of syllables (bottle, bottom, button, butter).

- The optional constituents of a syllable are the onset and the coda. When they do occur, they each contain one more cosonants.

- syllable structres helps explain why in the phonetically similar pairs [i] and [j] on one hand and [u] and [w] on the other hand, the first element is classified as a vowel and the second one as (an approximant) consonant:

- [i] and [u] can be the nucleus of a syllable, thus they are [+syllabic], [j] and [w] can only occur at the syllable onset, thus they are [-syllabic].

- Without suprasegmental phonology, it would not be possible to predict why /p/, /t/ /k/ are aspirated in repair, return and record, but not in respond, disturb, discard although the position of the three voiceless stops is word-medial in both sets

- Applying supra-segmental-phonology, the respective sounds are considered in terms of their position within the syllable: in both sets, the stops are located in the syllable onset. With a preceding /s/ (in the second set), they behave just as word-initial stops : their aspiration is blocked by the presence of /s/.
 

- is not an absolute category, but a relative one: syllables are perceived as stressed or unstressed in comparison to other syllables within the same word or string of words

- is the combined effect of a numbe of articulatory features, each one having an effect on perception

characteristics of production:

Highter fundamental frequency: vocal folds vibrate more quickly ---> perception: as higher pitch

greater duration than unstressed syllables --> perception: as longe than unstressed syllables

with higher intensity --> perception: as louder than unstressed syllables

- while some words are characterized by a clearcut stressed-unstressed dichotomy,

e.g. /ˈfɑð·ər/, /əˈbɑʊt/, /ˈsɪl·ə·bəl/
            (-> stress mark sign (unstressed would be unmarked))

- others have primary and secondary stress:
  / ˈreɪ-ˌdɑr/ (=radar),   compare  /ˈreɪdər/ (<- schwa and compeltely unstressed)

! note the diacritic signs for primary stress (upper vs lower)
 

It reduces full vowels to schwa

„schwa“= - represented in German as „Stummes –e“
                   - reduced vowel
 

- ...easy in fixed stress languages: stress falls on one particular syllable, with the exception of long words (example: gealic word for potato)

example: Swahili: stress  on the penultimate syllable. Scots Gaelic: stress on the initial syllable.

- impossible in free stress languages (e.g. Russian) :  here, the stress pattern has to be learned for each individual word

- a change in stress can efect a difference in meaning,  e.g. Russian ‘muka ‘torment vs. mu‘ka (flour)

 

- challenging in mixed type languages such as English, which has incorporated stress patterns from many languages
- The stress rules (rather: tendencies) in English can be applied to lexical classes:

Verb rule: Stress the final syllable if heavy. If the final
syllable is light stress the penultimate syllable.

examples: /oʊˈbeɪ/ (=obey), /jʊˈsɜrp/ (= to take the lead of sb.),
                              (-> long vowel)  
            /əˈtoʊn/ (=atone)
                   (-> short vowel with a coda)


Light syllables: short vowels no coda
Heavy syllables: all the others
 

- Noun rule: stress the penultimate (second last) syllable if heavy (long vowel w/ or w/out coda or short vowel with coda). If the penultimate syllable is light (short vowel only), stress the antepenultimate  one. (preceding the second to last).
   
examples:  /əˈroʊ·mə/(=aroma), /əˈdʒen·də/ (=agenda), /ˈdɪs·ə·plən/ (=disciplin)

exceptions:  /spəˈge · t̬i/   -> long word
noun rule would predict stress on the initial syllable since the penultimate syllable is light
       
/ˈkæt.ə.mə.ræn/ (=Katamaran) noun rule would predict stress on
              -> penultimate
    the second syllable since the penutimate one is light
 

- Suffixation, a morphological process, sometimes alters stress pattern
- Stress –attracting suffixes are -ette (diminuitive) and –ese (denoting a language or a sociolect)
    e.g. /ˌkɪtʃ.ɪˈnet/ (=kitchenet), / mʌð·ər ˈiːz/ (=motherize)
                      -> stressed               -> stressed to suffix
Stress-shifting suffixes, e.g. –ic, -ity and –al,  move the stress on the base to which they attach one syllable to the right
e.g /əˈtɑm·ɪk/, /ɪˌlekˈtrɪs·ət̬·i/ (=electricity),
                           -> stressed – „electric“
                                                 -> first syllable stressed
    /pəˈren·təl/ (=parental)
           -> stressed to one syllable to the right (compare with “parent”)
 

- Compounds tend to be stressed on the first element

e.g. /ˈgrinˌhɑʊs/   
 

- syllable-timed language:  e,g. French
  --> timing is based on the syllable per se: an equal amount of time is devoted to each
 e.g.:  Il é-TAIT une FOIS une PE-tite FILLE qui  s‘ap-PEL-ait PE-titCHA-pe-ron ROUGE.

- stress-timed language, e.g. English:
  --> timing is allocated on the basis of the distribution of stressed syllables : major stress syllables are required to occur every 0.6. seconds, the time in between is divided up between the unstressed syllable: 

e.g. ONCE up-on a TIME there was a LI-ttle  girl called LI-tle red RI-ding- Hood.            (The last two sequences of unstressed syllables represent the standard  in English : two unstressed syllablles following a stressed one. The sequences that have three  unstresssed syllables to them are pronounced faster in order to fit into the 0.6. time slot.)

The underlined units are referred to as feet. A foot is the smallest
phonological  unit containing an element that receives stress.  A
foot minimally consist in one syllable (cf. second line), but can also consist in a
word with a stressed and an unstressed syllable (RAI-der) or a larger phrase
occuring between short pauses that has one stressed syllable and one or more
unstressed ones (the CAT; is IN-ter-es-ted).

 

- Content words: words whose main function is semantic (referential to extra-linguistic reality)
(This category also includes compounds , phrasal verbs and verbs with prepositions )
-> have at least one stressed syllable

- Compounds tend to receive major stress on the first element, secondary stress on the
second  one.

- Phrasal  verbs:   have a particle that looks like a preposition, but functions as part of the verb:  turn  ON, get BY, put OFF.   The major  stress is on the particle.

- Verbs with prepositions:  e.g. believe in, listen to
--> stress is never on the preposition: beLIEVE in, LISten to

- Function words: words whose main function is grammatical
--> are unstressed
Exception: auxiliary verbs at the end of a sentence
or when used in question tags:
       
You  DID‘nt  just say what I thought I heard, DID you? 
       
Yes, I DID.



 

- Find two examples for each stress pattern. Write them down.

- When you have done that, check for the content word/function word pattern. In patterns where you have two categories of content words:
- which one receives the major stress?

I promise to leave. -+-+
They don`t react.    -+--
Give me a break.     +--+
I like you.   -+-
Take a bath. +-+
We tried to succeed. -+--+
 

are both content words and thus stressed

``Foot`` = next phonological unit above the syllable

....a stressed syllable has to occur at a given intervall
(in english: 6 seconds)