Week 4

Question 1

Every language has words. What characteristics does a word have?

Answer 1

Every word has a form, meaning and a syntactic category.

Form:
Sequence of gestures (sign language)
Sequence of sounds (spoken language)

Meaning:
A lexical word is ‘a single unit of language that has meaning and can be spoken, written or signed’.

Category: noun

Question 2

How can words be further divided?

Answer 2

They can be divided into syllables.

A structure is added: one syllable with onset /w/, nucleus /ɜ:/, offset /d/

Question 3

The rhyme consists of…

Answer 3

Nucleus and offset

Question 4

What is evidence for the syllable?

Answer 4

1. Speech production errors (‘spoonerisms’):
   A malt whisky -> a whalt misky.
2. Many languages use one symbol for a syllable in the orthography (Japanese Hiragana).
3. The syllable is intuitively a clear concept (native speakers have strong intuitions about the syllabification of words in their native language).

Question 5

Syllable

Answer 5

An abstract unit that exists at some higher level in the mental activity of the speaker.

Question 6

Does the position within the syllable matter?

Answer 6

Position within the syllable matters, i.e. syllable initial consonants may change places in speech errors, but not e.g. a final and an initial consonant -> speakers ‘know’ that syllables have internal structure.

Question 7

Syllable structure

Answer 7

Every syllable has a ‘centre part’ or nucleus (N).

Usually, the nucleus position is occupied by [-consonant] segments, i.e. vowels (V).

Question 8

In which languages can the nucleus be filled by a sonorant consonant (syllabic consonants)?

And what is the most sonorous part of the syllable?

Answer 8

English and German

The nucleus is the most sonorous part of the syllable.

Question 9

Syllabic consonants

Answer 9

Sonorant consonants

Question 10

How many timing positions does the nucleus have and how are these timing positions represented?

Answer 10

The nucleus can have one timing position (for short vowels and syllabic consonants) or two (for diphthongs and long vowels).

Timing positions are represented on the ‘skeletal tier’.

Question 11

Which segments of a syllable are always unstressed?

Answer 11

Schwa (always unstressed in RP and SSBE).

Syllabic consonants: m, n, or l (always unstressed)
bottom /’bɒ.tᵊm/ [‘bɒ.tˌm]
button [‘bʌ.tˌn]
bottle [‘bɒ.tˌn] noun

Question 12

What does a non-branching nucleus look like?

Answer 12

It can consist of a short vowel (lax vowel) or syllabic sonorant consonant (mˌnˌlˌ).

Question 13

Which words cannot end in a short vowel (/sɪ/) or a syllabic sonorant consonant (/tm/)?

Answer 13

Monosyllabic lexical words

Question 14

How can monosyllabic lexical words not end? And how can they end?

Answer 14

They cannot end in a short vowel or a syllabic sonorant consonant.

Monosyllabic lexical words can end in a long vowel or diphthong.

[+long] = /bi:/ ‘bee’, /ka:/ ‘car’
[-long] = */bɪ/, */kæ/

Question 15

What does a branching nucleus consist of?

Answer 15

A diphthong or a long vowel.

Question 16

How does the nucleus branch in stressed open syllables?

Answer 16

The nucleus ‘branches’ and contains a diphthong or a long vowel that is not followed by a consonant.

/haʊ/
/si:/

Question 17

Open syllables and closed syllables

Answer 17

Open syllables end in a vowel (you, see).

In closed syllables, the nucleus is followed by a consonant. The consonant is not part of the nucleus. It is in ‘coda position’ (out, eat).

Question 18

How do you form the rhyme?

Answer 18

Nucleus + coda (goose, seat)

N + C = R

Question 19

Internal syllable structure and their functions

Answer 19

1. Onset (plays a crucial role in phonotactic restrictions).
2. Nucleus (only obligatory part of the syllable).
3. Rhyme (plays a role in stress assignment).

Question 20

What is remarkable about CV syllables?

Answer 20

Every language of the world has CV syllable, i.e. syllables of the shape ‘onset + nucleus’.

Question 21

Setting up syllables

Answer 21

1. Nucleus-formation: in English, vowels and sonorant consonants are relinked to the nucleus.
2. Onset-formation: onsets are maximised, so consonants to the left are adjoined one by one as long as the configuration resulting at each step satisfies all relevant phonotactic rules of the language in question.
3. Coda-formation: all remaining consonants to the right of a vowel are linked to the ‘coda’ (obeying phonotactic rules).
4. Together, the nucleus and coda form the ‘rhyme’ of a syllable.

Question 22

What are the steps to setting up a syllable in English?

Answer 22

Nucleus, onset, coda = syllable

Question 23

Empty onset

Answer 23

It still branches out and says ‘empty onset’ in, for example, the word ‘elephant’, which starts with a nucleus.

Question 24

Onset consonant clusters

Answer 24

un.true
in.famous
ad.venture

English allows adjacent consonants in the onset of a syllable.

Universally ‘marked’; has to be learnt by the language learning infant (Joan 1;10 black -> [bak].

Also, there is phonotactic constraint: adjacent consonants in the onset must differ by a certain degree of sonority (see (10) in section 7.2).

Question 25

Sonority

Answer 25

Unconstricted vocal tract, high in acoustic energy, acoustically periodic.

1. Vowels
2. Glides
3. Liquids /l r/ sounds
4. Nasal stops
5. Fricatives
6. Oral stops

Constricted vocal tract, low in acoustic energy, acoustic aperiodic.

Question 26

Sonority in onset clusters

Answer 26

Sonority rises = obstruent +liquid
Minimal sonority distance = (*obstruent + nasal)

Question 27

This course is about…

Answer 27

1. The language users’ subconscious knowledge of speech sounds.
2. Which speech sounds are used in a language to contrast meaning (phonemes).
3. How phonemes may alter their form depending on the context (allophones).
4. How phonemes may combine with each other in syllables.

Question 28

Phonotactic restrictions in onsets

Answer 28

In English, word-initial consonant clusters usually begin with /p t k b d g f s/ followed by liquids /j/ or /w/ (nasal crossed out): plan, twelve, cute, dream, flew.

Segment 1: [+cons, -son]
Segment 2: [+cons, +son, -nasal]

Question 29

Loanwords and /kn/-cluster

Answer 29

Words from another language are incorporated into another language.

There is no word-initial /kn/-cluster in the phonology of English: knee [ni].

Loanwords with initial /kn/: English speaking adults perceive both sounds, but their grammar does not allow them to realise a /kn/-sequence as such.
- Knesset -> inserts a /ə/ in the cluster = epenthesis.

Question 30

Light and heavy syllables

Answer 30

In light syllables, the nucleus and rhyme does not branch.

In heavy syllables, the rhyme and/or nucleus branches.