Understanding and working with syllabus

UNDERSTANDING AND WORKING WITH SYLLABUS


PLAN:

Distribution of prominence. Location of stress within a word.

Degrees of stress
Functions of word-stress
Byelorussian
The syllable is a double-faceted category: segmental and non-segmental, or suprasegmental, or prosodic. The terms "suprasegmental", "non-segmental" do not describe the phenomenon from the point of view of its structure. The phenomena termed "non-segmental" or suprasegmental are features that do not participate in the differentiation of sounds, i.e. segments. These features are referred to as prosodic and the phenomenon itself is termed speech prosody. A sound of speech is produced not only with the help of articulatory movements, but possesses such characteristics as loudness and pitch; it always lasts over some period of time (i.e. possesses some duration). Generally speaking, speech sounds have the same acoustic properties as any sound produced by a living being or thing. Yet, the prosodic features of a speech signal are studied not for their own sake, but because they play a role in creating speech utterances both from the point of view of their form and their meaning.
The acoustic parameters of the speech signal which do not participate in distinguishing the segmental units — phonemes - are the fundamental frequency of the voice, intensity and duration. They form the physical, acoustic, correlates of the perceptible features of length, loudness and pitch. On the articuiatory level greater loudness is achieved by subglottal muscular adjustment which will create an acoustic effect of increased amplitude. However, our perception of any of the prosodic properties is influenced by all the three parameters because they are always functioning as a structure, i.e. in combination.
Very little has been discovered so far about the articulatory properties of prosody.
When we talk about the supra-segmental features of connected speech, we traditionally talk about speech melody, stress, rhythm, tempo (sometimes + pausation) and about speech timbre. This is the linguistic interpretation of the acoustic and perceptible prosodic features of speech.
The first prosodic phenomenon that will be discussed today is stress, and it is here, within this phenomenon, that the syllable displays its linguistic, phonological, functions. The syllable is the minimal carrier of prosodic contrasts. The distinctive role of the syllable is demonstrated by the possibility of word stress-pattern oppositions such as ['impo:t - im'po:t]. The existence of such oppositions in a language, in English, in particular, is a sufficient proof of the phonological role of the phenomenon of stress and the phonological status of the syllable at the same time. Thus there are all grounds to state that the syllable as a prosodic unit performs a sense-distinctive role, as well as constitutive and identificatory.
In English we can use the word 'stress' to refer generally to the way we emphasize something or give it prominence. So we talk about stressing (or putting particular stress on) a point: 'I would like to stress that'... Here, obviously, we are referring to language at the level of discourse. But we also use the term to refer more specifically to the sounds of speech. If we listen to spoken language we can hear that certain elements seem to be given more prominence or emphasis. Apparently it is our knowledge of the language system that makes us pick out certain cues from the sound stream and ascribe to them the value 'stress'.
We need to be quite clear that the term 'stress' is used in two different ways. One use is as a conventional label for the overall prominence0f certain syllables over others.
The second, and narrower, use of the term 'stress' is concerned with the way in which speakers actually achieve this impression of prominence, i.e. its physiological cause. In this narrower sense, stress refers to the muscular energy which goes into the production of a syllable.
In producing the continuous sound stream of speech,. sneakers do not keep up a steady degree of articulatory energy: over some stretches the energy level in the articulatory and respiratory muscles is higher than in others. It is important to keep in mind that stress does not just affect sounds but whole syllables.
Word stress (accentual pattern).
The term "stress" is often replaced by the term "accent". While these terms are often used interchangeably, there is also an opposite approach, i.e. to discriminate between the two notions. There is yet another term - "prominence", which is usually attributed to the perceptible effect of stress.
The term "accent" comprises both the production and perception levels. An accented syllable means both stressed by the speaker and prominent for the listener. The term "accentual pattern" has become widely used in phonetic literature.
The common definition of the phenomenon of "word stress" is "the greater prominence of one syllable in relation to the other syllables of the word" (perceptible). What does the speaker do to make a syllable prominent? (What is the nature of prominence?)
2010 Lecture 6. The Syllable as a Prosodic Category. Word-Stress


Physically, stress means more energy applied to a syllable. But is it longer? Higher? Louder? The phonetic nature of stress in different languages has much in common, yet there are still specific peculiarities. The acoustic nature of stress is complex and includes all the prosodic parameters (fundamental frequency, intensity and duration). At the same time their role is not equal. Some parameters may predominate. Word stress in different languages is defined differently depending on the predominate parameter in the creation of prominence. It can be

• 
  quantitative (when the predominant parameter is length)
  
• 
  musical (when it is pitch)
  
• 
  dynamic (intensity, force of articulation)
  
• 
  qualitative (sound quality, spectral characteristics of a sound).
  

It has always been taken for granted that vowels in a stressed syllable are not reduced. This is why the qualitative parameter has not always been taken into consideration. Obviously, for French or Spanish, where there is reduction of vowels, practically, this parameter does not play a significant role. But for the treatment of English or Russian and Byelorussian word-stress it is important to emphasise the role of vowel quality for the creation of the effect of prominence. The English word stress therefore is defined as dynamic and qualitative. Some authors argue that it is also quantitative, because stressed syllables tend to be longer as well, but this is not a consistent feature, e.g. in ['pitid] the unstressed [i] is longer than the stressed
[i]. Even if this or that 'label' is used to specify word stress in a particular
language, it does not deny the fact that in reality all acoustic parameters interact, they are all involved. A -disputable point in the analysis of the phonetic nature of word-stress is the role of fundamental frequency of the voice. Some phoneticians regard it as one of the key features of word stress. At the same time, there exists another point of view: FF is not relevant for word stress recognition. This viewpoint seems to be more consistent if we claim that word-stress and utterance stress should be analyzed and treated as two different phenomena, although they certainly have a common core.
The only really constant feature of word stress, a feature that is always there, is vowel quality. David Brasil uses the term "protected" for the stressed syllables. The quality of a vowel in a stressed syllable is said to be "protected". In unstressed syllables vowels are unprotected. The full quality of a vowel in a stressed syllable is an obligatory feature. It is connected to greater muscular effort, but we do not necessarily need to raise the pitch of the voice although in reality we do this.
In actual speech word stress is realised through utterance stress. Word stress, strictly speaking, is a potential, an abstraction which is manifested in speech by various forms, yet if we want to talk about word stress as a
2010 Lecture 6. The Syllable as a Prosodic Category. Word-Stress 3
phenomenon in its own right, it must be eliminated from utterance stress features analysis.