This document provides an overview of the syllabic and accentual structure of English words. It discusses several theories of syllables, including the expiratory theory, sonority theory, and theories of muscular tension and loudness. It describes different types of syllables based on vowel and consonant placement. Rules of syllable division and the functions of syllables are also outlined. The document then examines accentual structure, including types of word stress, rules for stressing two-syllable and three-syllable words, and stress patterns in words with suffixes, compounds, and phrases.

1. Lecture 5
SYLLABIC AND ACCENTUAL STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH
WORDS

2. Plan:
1. Syllabic structure of English words.
2. Accentual structure of English words.

3. Speech can be broken into minimal
pronounceable units into which sounds
show a tendency to cluster or group
themselves. These smallest phonetic
groups are generally given the name
of syllables. The syllable is one or more
speech sounds forming a single
uninterrupted unit of utterance which
may be a commonly recognized
subdivision of a word or the whole of a
word.

4. Theories of syllable
The syllable is a complicated
phenomenon which can be viewed
on four levels: acoustic, articulatory,
auditory and functional. There exist
numerous theories of the syllable.
Some of them consider the syllable
to be a purely articulatory unit
without any functional value. The
majority of linguists regard the
syllable as the smallest
pronounceable unit which can
perform some linguistic function.

5. Expiratory theory:
• Was experimentally based by
R.H.Stetson.
• Expiration in speech is a pulsating
process and each syllable should
correspond to a single expiration.
• The number of the syllables in an
utterance is determined by the number
of expirations made in the production
of the utterance.

6. Criticism
• In a phrase a number of words and
consequently syllables can be pronounced
with a single expiration (G.P.Torsuev).
↓ ↓
This fact makes the validity of the pulse theory
doubtful

7. Sonority
• Тheory is based on the concept of
sonority (O.Jespersen)
• The creator of this theory has proved
that the least sonorous sounds which
have the least carrying power, are those
for which the mouth is closed (voiceless
oral stops), while the most sonorous
sounds are those for which the mouth
is wide open (low vowels).

8. All other sounds are ranked in between these two extreme
points of the sonority scale (from the highest degree to the
lowest):
1. Low vowels (a:, ɔ..).
2. High vowels (i:, i....)
3. Semivowels (j, w)
4. Liquids (1, r)
5. Nasals (m, n, ŋ)
6. Fricatives (voiced) (v, z, ð)
7. Fricatives (voiceless) (f, θ, s)
8. Oral stops (voiced) (b, d, g)
9. Oral stops (voiceless) (p, t, k).

9. By this theory the syllable is treated as the combination of a more sonorous
sound with a less sonorous one. All the sounds with the greatest degree of
sonority (vowels and sonorants) are at the peak of the syllable, by which the
syllable may be marked as a unit,because the rest of the sounds
surrounding the peak cling to it.

10. The theory of muscular tension and loudness theory
The theory of muscular tension (or the articulatory effort) which is known as
Scherba’s theory. According to this theory, a syllable is characterized by
variations in muscular tension. The energy of articulation increases at the
beginning of a syllable, reaches its maximum with the vowel (or a
sonant) and decreases towards the end of the syllable. So, the syllable is
an arc of muscular tension. The boundaries between syllables are
determined by the occurrence of the lowest articulatory energy.
There are as many syllables as there are arcs of muscular tension. Every
syllable is a unique articulatory effort.
N. Zhinkin has worked out the so-called loudness theory. On the
perception level the syllable is defined as an arc of actual loudness.

11. According to the placement of vowels and
consonants the following types of syllables are
distinguished:
Placement of VOWELS Placement of CONSONANTS
Open: the V is at the end, such a S is
articulated with the opening of the
mouth by the end: e.g. they, wri-ter
Covered at the beginning:
the C is at the beginning of the
syllable: e.g. tie
Closed: which end in C, at the end of
such a S the mouth is closed: e.g. hun-
dred, hat
S the mouth is closed: e.g. hun-dred,
hat
covered at the end:
the C is at the end of a S: e.g. on

12. The presentation of a syllable structure in terms of C and V gives
rather numerous combinations which can be grouped into 4
structural types of syllables:
1. Fully open V ore, or
2. Fully closed
(V between C)
CVC fat CCVC place CVCC fact
CCCVCC street CVCCC facts CVCCCC
sixths [siksθs]
3. Covered at the beginning
(one C or a sequence of C precede a
vowel)
CV too CCV spy CCCV traw
4. Covered at the end (one C or
more
complete the syllable
VC on YCC act VCCC cts

13. Rules of syllable division
• A most GENERAL RULE claims that division of
words into syllables in writing is passed on the
morphological principle which demands that
the part of a word which is separated should
be either a prefix, or a suffix or a root
(morphograph), e.g. pic- ture ['pik ʧə].
• Compound words can be divided according to
their meaning: hot-dog; spot-light

14. The functions of the syllable
As a phonological unit the syllable performs several
functions, that may be combined into the main
three: constitutive, distinctive and identificatory.
The constitutive function of the syllable manifests itself
in the fact that the syllable forms higher level units –
words, accentual or rhythmic groups, utterances.
The distinctive function of the syllable is to differentiate
words and word combinations.
The identificatory function of the syllable is conditioned
by the hearer’s perception of syllables as entire
phonetic units with their concrete allophones and
syllable boundaries.

15. Accentual Structure of English Words
The syllable or syllables which are uttered
with more prominence than the other
syllables of the word are said to be stressed
or accented. Word stress can be defined as
the singling out of one or more syllables in a
word, which is accompanied by the change
of the force of utterance, pitch of the voice,
qualitative and quantitative characteristics
of the sound which is usually a vowel.

16. According to the most salient feature the following types of word
stress are distinguished in different languages:
1. Dynamic or force stress if special prominence in a stressed syllable(syllables) is achieved mainly through the
intensity of articulation;
2. Musical or tonic stress if special prominence is achieved mainly through the
range of pitch, or musical tone.
3. Quantitative stress if special prominence is achieved through the changes in the
quantity of the vowels, which are longer in the stressed syllables than in the unstressed
ones.
4. Qualitative stress if special prominence is achieved through the changes in the
quality of the vowel under stress [Леoнтьева l988: 180]. Vowel reduction is often
used as manipulation of quality in unstressed syllables.

17. In order to decide on stress placement, it is
necessary to make use of some or all of the
following information:
1.Whether the word is morphologically simple, or
whether it is complex containing
2.One or more affixes (prefixes or suffixes) or a
compound word;
the grammatical category to which the word belongs
(noun, verb, adjective, etc.)
3.The number of syllables in a word;
4.The phonological structure of the syllables;
5.The historical origin of a word.

18. Basic rules of stressing two-syllable simple words
comprise rules of stressing:
Verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc. The basic rule of stressing two-syllable VERBS runs
that if the second syllable of the verb contains a long vowel or a diphthong, or if
it ends with more than one consonant, that second syllable is stressed: apply,
attract, arrive.
1. If the final syllable contains a short vowel and one final consonant, the first
syllable is stressed: open, enter.
2. A final syllable is also unstressed if it contains hah. follow, borrow.
3. Any two-syllable verbs with prefixes of Germanic and Latin origin have the
root syllable stressed (see a more detailed explanation in words with prefixes).
Two syllable simple ADJECTIVES are stressed according to the same rule as
two-syllable verbs: 'lovely, 'even, 'hollow; co'rrect, a'live .There are exceptions to
this rule: 'honest, 'perfect.
Two-syllable NOUNS have the first syllable stressed if the second syllable
contains a short vowel: dinner, money, colour. Otherwise it will be on the second
syllable: de'sign, bdloon.
Other two-syllable words such as adverbs seem to behave like verbs and
adjectives.

19. Lexical stress of three-syllable simple words:
Three-syllable verbs
If the last syllable of a three-syllable verb
1) Contains a short vowel and ends with not
more than one consonant, that syllable will
be unstressed and s will be placed on the
preceding(penultimate syllable):
de'termine,en'counter.
2) Contains a long vowel or a diphthong, or
ends with more than one consonant, that
final syllable will be stressed:
enter'tain,under'stand.
Three-syllable nouns
If the final syllable of a three-syllable simple noun
contains 1) a long vowel or a diphthong and/or
ends with more than one consonant, the stress
will usually be placed on the first
syllable:'intellect,'marigold.
2) A short vowel and the middle syllable contains
a short vowel and ends with not more than one
consonant, the first syllable will be
stressed:'quantity, 'cinema.
3) Contains a short vowel or [ǝu] and if the
penultimate syllable contains a long vowel or a
diphthong, or if it ends with more than one
syllable,that penultimate syllable will be
stressed: po'tato, di'saster, sy'nopsis.

20. Words with suffixes
We can identify three types of suffixes, from the point of view of
stress

21. Stress in compounds and phrases
Compounds are composed of more than one root
morpheme but function grammatically and/or semantically
as a single word . Compounds may be written as one word,
e.g. dishwasher, or with a hyphen,e.g. user-friendly, or with a
space between the two elements, e.g. season ticket. There is
no systematic practice in the choice among these three
ways, although there is a tendency for compounds with
primary stress on the first element to be written as one
word or with a hyphen, and for those with the primary
stress on the final element to be written as two words.

22. When an adjective modifies the following noun, they make a phrase, and typically,they
have a late stress, i.e. the second word has more stress than the first, e.g. ,polished'wood,
,interesting 'book, ,funning 'water, ,hard 'work, ,difficult 'course.
There are some guidelines for defining stress placement in compounds and phrases:
• Compounds typically have early stress, the first element is more stressed than
thesecond: 'firewood, 'library book, 'running shoes, 'homework, correspondence course.
• Early stress is usual in compounds in which:
the two elements are written as one word:'headline, 'screwdriver; 'laptop,
'lifestyle;
• Expressions consisting of NOUN+NOUN:'picture frame, 'child abuse, 'theme park,'tape
measure.
• Expressions consisting of A(djective)+NOUN, N's+N, N+V, N+Ving:
'batting average;

23. LATE STRESS is usual in the following compounds as if they were phrases:
• When the first element is the material or ingredient out of which the thing is made:
cherry 'pie, pork 'chop, pee 'pudding, panana 'split, except for CAKE,JUICE and WATER:
these have normal early stress: 'carrot cake.
• The first element is a proper name:Euston 'Road, the ,Hilton 'Hotel.
except for STREET: these have normal early stress: 'Oxford Street.
• The first element names a place or time:,city 'centre, ,town 'hall.
• When both Nl andN2 are equally referential:acid 'rain, aroma 'therapy;
• When Nl is a value:100per cent 'effort, dollar 'bill, pound 'note.

24. Thank you for attention!