Metrical phonology

Although English does not have tones, it possesses important non-segmental features - characteristics which exist alongside the phonemes. In particular, each word and group of words has its own rhythm, an interplay of stressed and unstressed syllables. This branch of phonology is relatively new, and is known as metrical phonology.

In the words in Figure 14, the most stressed syllables have the most stars, and the least stressed, the smallest number of stars (some peo­ple leave the least stressed syllable unstarred, which would lower the number of stars all along):

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The actual quantity of stress given to a syllable does not matter very much. The important point is the relative amount given to each. In happiness, for example, it is essential to give the greatest amount of stress to hap-, and the least to -pi-.

But this rhythm is not merely a sequence of different stress levels. It appears to have an internal structure, which can be represented on a 'tree diagram' - so-called because its branches resemble an upside-down tree. This shows the overall structure of the rhythm better than a grid of stars. It shows how strong and weak syllables alternate, and indicates that each syllable can be regarded as a sub-portion of a larger unit, sometimes called a foot. The words in Figure 15 have been split into a strong portion (S) and a weak portion (W), which in some cases is further subdivided:

The word rhythms outlined above are not static, in that they may

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change as words come into contact with one another. The words cen­tral and heating each sound rather similar when pronounced alone. But when spoken together as the phrase central heating, the rhythm alters, so that the strongest stress goes onto heating (Figure 16).

Recent phonology pays attention not only to the interplay between words, but also to the interaction between sound segments and rhythm. For example, as in poetry, long vowels tend to coincide with strong syllables, and so do short vowels followed by two consonants. In the long run, phonologists hope to work out a universal framework for handling the rhythmic structure of any language.

This chapter has looked at how linguists handle sound structure. This is the first aspect which confronts anyone working on an unwrit­ten language. In practice, sorting out the sound structure overlaps with the analysis of larger units, such as words. This is the topic of the next chapter.

Questions

1. What do you understand by the term phoneme?

2. What is a minimal pair? Suggest at least ten examples of minimal pairs in English.

3. What is an allophone? Give examples.

4. What are distinctive features?

5. What is a natural class?

6. What is metrical phonology?

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6

Words and pieces of words

The word appears to be a widespread concept. Even in primitive cul­tures, informants are often able to identify words. This is somewhat surprising, because nobody has yet proposed a satisfactory universal definition of the notion 'word', or provided a foolproof method of identification. People sometimes wrongly assume that a word is recognizable because it represents a 'single piece of meaning'. But it can easily be shown that this view is wrong by looking at the lack of correspondence between words from different languages. In English, the three words cycle repair outfit correspond to one in German, Fahrradreparaturwerkzeuge. Or the six words He used to live in Rome are translated by two in Latin, Romae habitabat. And even in English, a word such as walked includes at least two pieces of meaning, 'walk' and 'past tense'.

This chapter will deal with this matter. First, it will look at the prob­lems of defining and identifying words. Second, it will consider pieces of words, or morphemes.