PROSODIC
PROSODIC
PROSODIC
PROSODIC FEATURES
SYLLABLE
Phonology can be studied in various levels, i.e. (segmental and
suprasegmental or prosody) but in between these we have the
syllable.
Syllable: it can be made of one or more phoneme. It is a unit if
language that can be pronounceable in one breath.
Phonetically, it is a breath group. This means before any other
syllable can be produced, there must be a small pause after the
previous one. E.g. Education, "edu" is produced and a small
pause occurs before the pronunciation of "ca" and then "tion"
It is therefore defined as the systematic way of looking at the
possible combination of English phoneme "phonetically" A
syllable is a phonological chunk that coincides with a chest-
pulse when an utterance is rendered.
Syllable
Onset Rhyme
Peak (nucleus), Coda
As seen in the diagram, the consonant that comes before the
nucleus is called the ONSET.
E.g.: "air" in this word, we have a rhyme which is the peach and
there is no coda, (a coda is the consonant that comes after the
nucleus). It is the first structure of syllable known as
"phonological structure"
Phonemic structure is the second structure which focuses on
the constituent i.e. it is comprised in a syllable: C represents
consonants and V represents Vowel. E.g.
CVC Words
A CVC word is a single syllable three-phoneme (sound) word
that follows the pattern of consonant sound, vowel sound,
consonant sound. Whilst some of them are three-letter words,
not all CVC words have only three letters.
STRESS
Stress, in phonetics, is the force given to a syllable of speech by
efforts in utterance, resulting in relative loudness. It drives
more and detailed information at the interlocution stage of
communication. It is the extra force expanded on the
production of a syllable. It is a great inclination on the system of
accentuating i.e. "The prosody of English Syllable" that given
word should be stressed. Else, the message of the speaker
might be endangered in the perception of the decoder.
Note: Don’t forget these five features next time you pronounce
a word.
Examples:
table /TA-ble/
scissors /SCI-ssors/
pretty /PRE-tty/,
clever /CLE-ver/
hotel /ho-TEL/
extreme /ex-TREME/
concise /con-CISE/
2. Verbs and prepositions with two syllables
The rule: When a verb (a word referring to an action, event or
state of being) or a preposition (a word that comes before a
noun, pronoun or the “-ing” form of a verb, and shows its
relation to another word or part of the sentence) has two
syllables, the stress is usually on the second syllable.
Examples:
present /pre-SENT/
export /ex-PORT/
aside /a-SIDE/
between /be-TWEEN/
Examples:
creation /cre-A-tion/
commission /com-MI-ssion/
photographic /pho-to-GRA-phic/
Examples:
democracy /de-MO-cra-cy/
photography /pho-TO-gra-phy/
logical /LO-gi-cal/
commodity /com-MO-di-ty/
psychology /psy-CHO-lo-gy/
7. Compound nouns
Here are four general rules to keep in mind about word stress
as you practice pronunciation:
SENTENCE STRESS
This is to emphasis a particular word in a sentence. For example,
I want a black shoe. The black in the sentence indicates the
importance in the sentence.
Note: We stress content words not grammatical words.
"Content words are word class with unlimited member. They
carry meaning in a sentence. We don't stress pronoun unless
they are nominal grammatical unit. The unstressed syllable can
either be brushed through or omitted completely.
Rising Tune
* it is used to make polite requests.
* Rising tune is also used in casting questions that anticipate
Yes/No responses.
* it is also used in listing in continuative speech.
Mastering the subject of word stress isn’t easy, as there are
many rules and exceptions. While native speakers do it
naturally, English learners have to get there through a lot of
practice and repetition.
BRAIN TEASER
Count the number of syllables in each of these words. Answers
are below.
house
jacket
glasses
encyclopedia
employer
information
troublemaker
thought
happy
incoherent
Answers
1 (house)
2 (ja / ket)
2 (gla / sses)
6 (en / cy / clo / pe / di / a)
3 (em / ploy / er)
4 (in / for / ma / tion)
4 (trou / ble /ma / ker)
1 (thought)
2 (ha / ppy)
4 (in / co / her / ent)
JUDAISKY-OBA-ODOGWU