Тема 6. «Suprasegmental phonemes»

The notion of suprasegmental phonemes. Syllabic structure of the English language.

Accentual structure of the English language. Word stress

Unless one is trained to listen to speech from a phonetic point of view, he will tend to

believe that it consists of words, spoken as letters of the alphabet, and separated by pauses.

This belief is deceptive. Our speech consists of two simultaneous ‘layers’ of activity. One is

sounds or segments. The other is characteristics of speech which extend usually over more

than one segment. These features are known as non-segmental, suprasegmental, prosodic 34

features. So, the phonemes of the English language can be divided into segmental and

suprasegmental. Segmental phonemes exist in the form of the speech sounds.

Suprasegmental phonemes are abstract language units which are realized on the phonetic

substance of several segmental phonemes. We can segment vowels and consonants from the

sound continuum, but we cannot segment modification of sounds and intonation.

The term “suprasegmental” was invented to refer to aspects of sound such as intonation

that did not seem to be properties of individual segments (vowels and consonants). The term

is used predominantly by American scientists, and British linguists prefer to use the term

“prosodic” instead. There has been a lot of discussion about how many suprasegmental

features are to be found in speech. Among others pitch, loudness, tempo, rhythm and stress

are the most commonly mentioned ones.

Suprasegmental phonemes are distinctively functional units of the language, formed by

the temporal, dynamic and pitch components of the sound matter of the language.

Distinctive variations in duration, force and pitch are inseparable from segmental phonemes;

they spread over two or more of them, and embrace units bigger than a word.

Among suprasegmental units junctual, accentual and intonational phonemes can be

distinguished. Junctual phonemes are linguistic units which differentiate between meanings

of macrosegments in a chain of speech: a nice man – an ice man. Accentual phonemes

differentiate between lexemes and word combinations, larger linguistic units within the

speech continuum: a black bird – a blackbird, a black board – a blackboard. Intonational

phonemes distinguish between syntagms, sentences or phrases: Oh! – Oh?

Before moving onto the suprasegmental phonemes it is necessary to speak about

syllabic structure of the English language. The nature of the syllable has been a matter for

considerable discussion and debate in twentieth-century phonetics. Most native speakers of

a language can recognize syllables of their own language but there is no agreement within

phonetic theory as to what constitutes the basis of a syllable.

The concept of the syllable in the language is very important, because a syllable is the

minimal combination of the elements of the language upon which suprasegmental units are

realized. A syllable is a phonetic and phonological unit. The concept of the syllable as a

phonological unit as distinct from a phonetic one is less controversial. Being the smallest

phonetic units, the syllables form greater language units: morphemes, words, phrases. Each

of these units is characterized by a certain syllabic structure. The study of the syllable has

played an important part in linguistics. The syllable is a complicated matter. Like the

phoneme it can be studied on several levels: acoustic, articulatory, auditory and functional.

This complexity of the syllable gave rise to many theories. Analyzing the syllable on

the articulatory level we can start with the expiratory (chest pulse/pressure) theory which

was experimentally based by R.H. Stetson. This theory is based on the assumption that

expiration in speech is a pulsating process and each syllable corresponds to a single

expiration. The number of the syllables in an utterance is determined by the number of

expirations made in the production of syllables. This theory is criticized in present-day

phonetics as a human being is capable of pronouncing more than even a whole phrase

within a single intake of breath.

Another theory is the sonority theory. It was established by O. Jespersen. This theory is

based on the concept of sonority. According to this theory each sound is characterized by a

certain degree of sonority which is understood as acoustic property of a sound that

determines its perceptibility. Among the sounds the open vowels are the most sonorous, this

scale continues with the close vowels, the sonorants, the voiced fricatives, the voiced

plosives, the voiceless fricatives and the voiceless plosives. At any sequences of sounds the 35

most sonorous sounds form the centre of the syllable; the least sonorous sounds form the

marginal segments.

L.V. Shcherba stated the theory of muscular tension. It defines the syllable as an ark of

articulatory tension: the tension of articulation increases within the range of the prevocalic

consonants and decreases within the range of the postvocalic consonants. This theory was

modified by V. Vasiliev. He stated that the syllable like any other phonetic unit can be

characterized by three physical parameters: pitch, intensity and length. In the syllable those

parameters vary from minimum to maximum on the centre and to minimum on the

postvocalic consonants.

N.I. Zhinkin suggested the loudness theory. The arc of loudness is formed due to

variations of the volume of pharyngeal passage which is modified by contraction of its

walls.

The definition of the syllable from the functional point of view singles out the

following features of the syllable: 1) a syllable is a chain of phonemes of varying length; 2)

a syllable is constructed on the basis of contrast of its constituent which is usually of vowelconsonant type; 3) the nucleus of a syllable is a vowel, the presence of consonants is

optional.

Syllable formation in English is based on the phonological opposition vowel –

consonant. Four types of syllables are distinguished: CV; V; CV(C); V(C). Syllables are

classified according to their distribution. Syllables which start with a consonant are called

covered (CVC, CV). Syllables which start with a vowel are called uncovered (V, VC).

Syllables which are ended with a consonant are called closed (VC, CVC). Syllables which

are ended with a vowel are called open (CV, V).

The other aspect that characterizes the speech continuum is syllable division. As the

phoneticians point out, in English the problem of syllable division exists only in case of

intervocalic consonants and their clusters. The division is realized according to the

phonotactic rules of the English languages. Usually two factors are taken into consideration:

semantic factor and formal factor. The semantic factor implies that the speech continuum is

divided into syllables in accordance to some meaning which is contained in them. The

formal factor implies that the speech chain is segmented into syllables according to the

morphemic division of the language. We shall take in to consideration two very important

functions of the syllable. The first one is the constitutive function. Syllables are the material

for larger language units. The second function is the distinctive function. Syllables help to

distinguish between the words.

Syllables in the sequence in the word are not pronounced identically. The syllable or

syllables, which are uttered with more phonetic prominence than other syllables of the same

word, are said to be stressed or accented. According to A.C. Gimson, the effect of the

phonetic prominence is achieved by any or all four factors: force, tone, length and vowel

colour

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. The contrasting degrees of prominence are called stresses or stress levels. The total

sum of stress patterns is called the accentual (stress) system of the language.

According to which of the four factors plays the dominating part, two basic types of

stress are distinguished. The dynamic stress implies greater force with which the syllable is

pronounced, that is greater muscular strength when the syllable is pronounced. English

accentual system is dynamic or expirative. When the prominence is formed by the change of

pitch or musical tone the stress is musical or tonic. Most of South – East Asian languages

are characterized by this type of stress.

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Gimson A.C. An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English – London: Edward Arnold, 1962. 36

Languages are also differentiated according to the location of the word stress. The

traditional classification differentiates languages with fixed and free stress. A fixed stress is

placed on a particular syllable of the word. An example of such language is French, Czech.

A free stress is not confined to a specific position in a word. English, Russian, German

represent languages with free stress.

Phoneticians also differentiate degrees of stress. British linguists usually distinguish

three degrees of stress: primary, secondary and tertiary. American linguists also distinguish

weak degree of stress. The difference between tertiary and weak stress is subtle and

sometimes its presence seems subjective.

Accentual structure of English is liable to instability due to heterogeneous character of

the word stock of the Modern English language. We should take into consideration three

main tendencies that condition the positioning of accent, or stress on a certain syllable in a

word. According to the recessive tendency the word stress falls on the initial root syllable:

mother, summer, or the second root syllable in English words of Anglo-Saxon origin where

the first syllable is formed by an old prefix which have lost its lexical meaning: ago, alike,

begin, forget. According to the rhythmical tendency in the present-day English language

there is alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables within a word. Such alteration is

possible when rather a large number of syllables are present. According to the retentive

tendency, a derivative retains the stress of the original or parent word.

The distribution of stressed syllables within a word forms its accentual structure. These

accentual structures are closely connected with the morphological type of a word, the

number of syllables within a word, the semantic value of the root and the prefix. Numerous

variations of English word stress are systematized in the typology of accentual structure of

English words worked out by G.P. Torsuev. He classifies them according to the number of

stressed syllables, their degree or character.

In discussing accentual structure of English words, we should speak about the

functional aspect of word stress. Word stress performs the constitutive function. It

constitutes a word, organizes the syllables into the language unit having a definite accentual

structure. Recognitive function helps listeners to make the communication process easier,

enabling the speakers to identify a succession of syllables as a definite accentual pattern of a

word. Distinctive function enables the speakers to differentiate the meanings of words, or

their forms. The stress is a phoneme because we can form an opposition with the help of it:

“export – to export”, “frequent – to frequent”. Accentual oppositions help to distinguish

classes of words, grammatical forms of words, compound words and free word

combinations.

Intonational suprasegmental phonemes. Sentence stress. Tones. Rhythm. Pausation

In a speech chain, the phonetic structure of a word obtains additional characteristics

connected with rhythm, melody and tempo. Non-segmental features can be arranged into

three groups: characteristics from the first group involve the manipulation of the parameters

of loudness, pitch and duration; in the second group there are features which act more or

less as a constant auditory background to everything a person says (voice quality); features

from the third group overlay other suprasegmental characteristics in the stream of speech for

specific emotional reasons. Intonational phonemes belong to the first group of

suprasegmental characteristics. Intonation is a complex matter, which is investigated on

several levels. In present-day linguistics there is another term used to define intonation:

prosody. Prosody of speech is formed by significant variations of pitch, loudness, tempo and

tamber. Let us consider the components of intonational phonemes in detail: 37

− Pitch The role that the vocal folds play in articulation of separate sounds has already been

mentioned, an equally important role is to mediate pitch of the voice in speech. The

impression of pitch corresponds to the speed at which the vocal folds vibrate: a slow speed

of movement correlates with a low pitch, a fast speed with a higher pitch. The actual

physical values associated with low and high pitches vary from individual to individual. For

an adult male the lowest pitch that might be used in normal, unemotional conservation

might be 70 Hz, and the highest might be 120 Hz. For an adult female, the figures might be

150 Hz and 290 Hz respectively. Numerical characteristics help to identify the pitch range

within which the speaker’s voice operates and describe the direction in which pitch changes

– level, falling or rising. On the acoustic level pitch correlates with the fundamental

frequency of the vibrations of the vocal cords. The pitch parameter is characterized by

distinct variations in the direction of pitch, pitch level, and pitch range. Variations in pitch

range occur within the upper and lower limits of the normal human voice. Pitch levels may

be categorized as high, medium (mid) and low. Pitch range may be characterized as narrow,

normal and wide. Variations in pitch direction, pitch level and pitch range discriminate

between meanings of utterances.

− Loudness is the perceived correlate of an increase of energy in the stream of air from the

lungs. It can be measured as an acoustic phenomenon in decibels. Some accents of English,

especially in the South of England, are noticeably louder than the accents from the north.

Loudness plays an important part in the formation of sentence stress which depends on

power of the airstream expelled by the respiratory mechanism of the speech organs.

− Duration Segments are traditionally described subjectively as either short, half-long or

long. Duration is a non-segmental feature as it characterizes the period of time within which

a whole utterance is actualized. It can appear most relevant in the formation of rhythm as the

temporal organization of stressed and unstressed syllables. One could relate the rhythm of a

sentence to the isochronous (equal-timed) alteration of the stressed syllables. Then the

speech flow will be felt by the speakers of English to contain a short syllables followed by a

somewhat longer ones. One can measure the duration of each syllable either in milliseconds

or in a musical notation.

These components may interact within a phrase, thus different intonation patterns will

appear. One of the components may prevail over the others; in this case we shall speak of

different types of intonational phonemes. Now let us reflect upon types of intonational

phonemes which represent abstract units of the language which fulfill the function of

differentiating between meanings of larger sound sequences: utterances, sentences, phrases.

Among the first intonational phonemes to investigate is sentence stress. There is a

tendency in the present-day phonetics to distinguish between word stress and sentence stress

and to term the latter as accent. The organization of the sentence stress is similar to that of

the word stress: the dominating part is played by the dynamic component which is

actualized by force of pronunciation, or loudness. But we should remember that the

sentence stress is not realized in the stressed syllable of an isolated word but in a word

within speech continuum. Thus the functions of word stress and sentence stress are

different. Sentence stress turns a sentence which is a morphemic and syntactical

combination of lexical and grammatical units – into a linguistic unit; it helps to form

rhythmic and intonation patterns of an utterance and it performs the distinctive function on

the level of a phrase. Accent has a wider meaning than stress. Accentual systems of

languages differ in pitch level, tonal contour of the syllable, duration or relative prominence 38

or loudness by means of the force of breath. Accentual system of the language is often

associated with intonation.

There is another intonational phoneme: tone. Here it would be convenient to clarify the

usage of two terms “tone” and “intonation”. The first term refers solely to the direction of

the change in pitch whereas intonation refers to wider phenomena: the whole complex of

suprasegmental features which are used in prosodic organization of the phrase or utterance.

The pitch component usually operates within a linguistic unit which may or may not

correspond with the grammatical phrase or clause but necessarily corresponds with the

syntagm or tone unit. Intonation patterns serve to actualize syntagms in oral speech. L.V.

Shcherba worked out the concept of syntagms. He defined syntagms as minimal

semantically and syntactically completed units. In phonetics, actualized syntagms are called

intonation groups. Intonation group may consist of one or more potential syntagms. Each

syntagm as a unit of communication is characterized by a change of pitch. The change of

pitch direction within the last stressed syllable is called a nuclear tone. This tone is the most

important part of the intonation pattern. All components of intonation form intonation

patterns. An intonation pattern contains one nucleus (a stressed syllable) and may contain a

number of unstressed syllables preceding and/or following the nucleus. Nucleus is the focal

point of an intonational pattern. The boundaries of the intonation pattern are marked by

stops of phonation (temporal pauses).

Intonation groups are divided into functional units which are responsible for the

actualization of different meanings. Within an intonation group we find the prehead which

includes all unstressed syllables before the first stressed syllable; the head which includes

all stressed and unstressed syllables before the last stressed syllable; the nucleus – the last

stressed syllable in the syntagm; the tail – unstressed syllables which follow the nucleus.

Within the intonation group or intonation pattern smaller intonational phonemes

function; thus an intonation group/pattern represents a complex of smaller intonational

phonemes like sentence stress, tone, rhythm and others. Parts of the intonation pattern are

actualized differently; the transition from one part to the other provides other elements of

meaning which constitute the semantics of the whole utterance. Such transitions are

described in detail in books on intonation. Though it would be necessary to mention the socalled basic or neutral pattern in comparison with which other patterns are identified. This

pattern includes the prehead which is pronounced on the low level of pitch at the lowest

level of the speaker`s voice; the head which actualization starts at the high level of pitch at

the highest level of the speaker`s voice and slowly descends towards the bottom of the scale

of the speaker`s voice; the nucleus which is realized in an arc with the change in pitch,

either descending to the at the lowest level of the speaker`s voice (a statement), or ascending

to the middle of the scale of the speaker`s voice (in a question); and the tail which is

pronounced at the lowest level of the speaker`s voice without any change in pitch.

Pitch component prevails over other components in the formation of a tone. Tones are

classified into two big groups according to presence/absence of pitch variations:

− Static (level) tones – through the production of which the pitch of the voice does not

vary. Presence of level tones may indicate various emotional colouring of speech.

− Kinetic (gliding) tones – the tones of varied pitch. Kinetic tones distinguish different

communicative types of utterances. All the kinetic tones are nuclear and they serve as

terminal tones.

Variations and arrangements of static and kinetic tones convey numerous implications.

The meanings of the nuclear tones are difficult to specify. J.D. O` Connor and I. Arnold 39

presented a detailed description of tones in English speech in their famous book on

intonation (1961). Roughly speaking, the falling tone of any level and range expresses

“certainty, completeness and independence”. A rising tone of any level and range expresses

“uncertainty, incompleteness and dependence”. Variations in level and range indicate

additional meanings. In English we can distinguish the following nuclear tones:

− – Low falling – Low rising

− – High falling – High rising

− – Falling-rising – Rising-falling

Pausation characterizes the work of the temporal component. A pause is perceived by

the listener when the interruption in speech is equal to or is more than 200 milliseconds. In

the flow of speech two types of pauses may be found: the so-called syntactical pauses or

necessary pauses which represent boundaries between syntagms or the ones put at the end of

the tone units; and unnecessary pauses like theatrical pauses or hesitation pauses. Theatrical

pauses appear in different places within the syntagm when the speaker wishes to emphasize

some particular unit in the utterance. Hesitation pauses occur when the speaker is searching

for the right word or expression, or when one is not sure about what to say next. Such

pauses may be either silent or filled. Silent pauses tend to be ambiguous, thus they should be

filled either with the conventional noises or with parenthetical phrases.

Yet another prosodic phenomenon is rhythm. Rhythm is formed by the interaction of all

intonational phonemes within an intonation group or a syntagm. Though the concept of

rhythm is wider than a single intonational phoneme, it is still narrower than intonation itself.

But firstly, we should define what rhythm in speech is. Human speech possesses rhythm.

This emerges clearly during those moments when the speech is fluent and uninterrupted.

Rhythm in speech arises out of the periodic recurrence of some sort of movement. The

rhythm of the language is determined by the way in which the chest pulses and the stress

pulses recur, by their mode of succession and coordination. The rhythmic pattern of English

is formed by the complex work of all components of intonation: stress, tempo, loudness,

pitch and others. English is the stress-timed language. The stress-producing process supplies

the periodic recurrence of movement: the stress pulses and hence, the stressed syllables are

isochronous. The number of unstressed syllables, which separate the stress from each other,

is constantly varying; the rate of syllable succession thus has to be continually adjusted in

order to fit varying numbers of syllables into the same time intervals. It provides for a

considerable variation in syllable-length in a language spoken with a stress-timed rhythm.

Tempo helps to maintain the rhythm of speech if it is kept stable throughout process of

phonation, or its variation bears periodic character. Other aspects of temporal component

may also influence the rhythm: equal length of syntagms, pauses at equal periods at the end

of tone groups and some others.

Theoretical approaches to intonation in Europe and America

Intonation has been in the focus of interest of linguists for quite a long time. The

earliest work in this field in Britain was that of Henry Sweet (1878, 1910). In his research

paper he gave a list of five voice qualities: clearness, dullness, nasality, wheeziness,

gutturality. He stated the fact that they may characterize the speech of the whole community

as well as individuals, so they may be considered objective and refer to language, not only

to speech.

D. Jones attempted to transcribe the pitch movements in an individual speaker with the

aid of tuning forks. His book An Outline of English Phonetics is still considered to be a

major text-book in this area. It presented detailed description of the system of intonation 40

patterns in English. He also produced a pronouncing dictionary. He and his disciples

undertook an immense responsibility and updated the dictionary as the pronunciation

changed with time.

H.E. Palmer in 1921 stressed the need to distinguish the functional units of intonation

group. His distinction between the head, the nucleus and the tail came to be widely used by

other phoneticians. R. Kingdon closely followed his approach and made subdivisions of prehead and body within the concept of head. J.D. O’Connor and I. Arnold in 1961 produced

an influential textbook on intonation in conversational English. Nowadays this book is

considered the best intonation-teaching book. The authors of this book offered a concise and

easy system of intonation presentation which is used by the teachers and linguists all over

the world. M.A.K. Halliday in his work in 1967 stated principles of intonational

organization of speech in English. He analyzed intonation as a complex of three systemic

variables:

− tonality: the division of an utterance into tone groups and the placement of tone-group

boundaries;

− tonicity: the placement of the tonic syllables and foot within the tone-group and the

consequent division of the group into tonic and pretonic elements of structure;

− tone: the placement of primary and secondary tones.

In America, D. Crystal views the intonation as a complex of prosodic and

paralinguistic features of different degrees of contrastivity. Without denying grammatical or

other functions of intonation, D. Crystal regards its attitudinal function as the primary

function. L. Bloomfield, who regarded intonation and stress as secondary, because they are

not attached to any particular words or phrases, investigated the phenomenon of intonation.

He associated graphical marks with the various intonations in his book in 1933. G. L. Trager

(1941), Ch. Hockett (1942), B. Bloch (1942), Z. S. Harris (1944) distinguished between the

segmental and suprasegmental abstract intonational units. K. L. Pike (1945) gave the first

thorough description of the intonation of American English. He considered the attitudinal

function to be the principal one: it modified the lexical meaning of the sentence by adding

the speaker’s attitude to it. He distinguished thirty different primary contours.