PROSODIC

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THE SUPRASEGMENTAL PHONOLOGY OR

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.

NOTE: Not all syllable contains an 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.

Cats /kæts/ - CVCC


Sprinkle /'sprɪŋkəl / CCCVCCC
If a syllable ends with a consonant, it is called a closed syllable.
If a syllable ends with a vowel, it is called an open syllable.
Patterns of syllables can be shown with C and V (C for
'consonant', V for 'vowel'). Closed syllables are often shown as
CVC (such as got), and open syllables as CV (such as go). CVC
stands for “consonant, vowel, consonant. ” When the last three
letters of a one-syllable word follow the CVC pattern, the last
consonant should be doubled when adding the ending.
The English language has several rules that dictate how and
when to use double consonants when applying a suffix to a root
word. Certain rules that apply to root words are used with
suffixes that begin with a vowel (-ing, ed, -er, -est). Suffixes may
also begin with a consonant (-ly), but in those cases, the root
word is rarely altered. The main rules for adding suffixes that
begin with vowels apply in the following instances:

1. When a root word has a consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC)


ending
2. When a root word with two syllables has a CVC ending
3. When a word contains a double vowel
4. When a root word ends with two consonants

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.

Three stages of stress

1. Syllabic stress (Word)


2. Sentence stress
3. Emphatic stress

Syllabic stress deals with syllable that are available in a given


word while sentence stress deals with the word that carries
more importance in a sentence.
NOTE:

 One major advantage of the "syllabic" stress in a word is to


indicate which class the word belongs to and any attempt
to misplace it in a word tends to jeopardize
communication.

A great distinction is set by this is seen in many disyllabic words


by distinguishing their normal classifications from their verbal
set though the placement of stress on either of the syllable to
indicate nominal class while those that are produced with the
placement of stress on the second syllable indicates the verbal
class.
a. export, import, teacher, discuss, produce, refuse, programme.
b. export, import, ago, discuss, produce, refuse

SYLLABIC (WORD) STRESS


there are three (3) types, namely:
1. Primary stress (superscript)
2. Secondary stress (subscript)
3. Weak stress
1. Primary stress is indicated by a tiny stroke that is raised just
before the syllable (a superscript)
2. Secondary stress is indicated also by a tiny stroke it is
lowered just before the syllable (a subscript)
3. Weak stress is not indicated by any mark in the word.

Note: Those that carry primary stress are accented, secondary


stress is less accented and weak stress are not accented.

Definition of Word Stress?


In English, the individual sounds of a word (i.e. syllables, aren’t
pronounced with the same weight.) One syllable receives more
emphasis than the others.
For example, there are three syllables in the word “beautiful”
/BEAU-ti-ful/ and the word stress falls on the first one /BEAU/.
(I will demonstrate the stress in a word by capitalizing all the
letters that make up the syllable.)
Identifying syllables to understand word stress
A syllable is a unit of pronunciation that has one vowel sound. A
word might have one syllable (like an or can) or more, such as
po-lice” (two syllables), com-pa-ny (three syllables), ne-ce-ssa-
ry (four syllables), etc.
Do you know the English word with the most syllables?
The answer is antidisestablishmentarianism. (The opposition of
the belief that there shouldn’t be an official church in a country.)
The word has 12 syllables.
Remember that syllables aren’t similar to letters. For example,
“scratch” has seven letters but one syllable, while “umami” has
five letters but three syllables. Whatever the word, pay
attention to the vowels because one of them will be where you
find the stress of a word.
Features of a stressed syllable
Now you know that you need to emphasize a particular vowel
in a specific syllable of a word. However, you might still wonder
exactly how to do so. Let’s take a look at a native speaker’s
speech pattern.
When a native speaker stresses a syllable in a word, this is what
they do:
1. Produce a longer vowel

2. Raise the pitch of the syllable to a higher level

3. Say the syllable louder

4. Pronounce it with clarity

5. Create a more distinctive facial movement

Note: Don’t forget these five features next time you pronounce
a word.

8 Word Stress Rules to Improve Your English Pronunciation

1. Nouns and adjectives with two syllables


The rule: When a noun (a word referring to a person, thing,
place or abstract quality) or an adjective (a word that gives
information about a noun) has two syllables, the stress is
usually on the first syllable.

Examples:
table /TA-ble/
scissors /SCI-ssors/
pretty /PRE-tty/,
clever /CLE-ver/

Unfortunately, there are exceptions to this rule. It could be that


a word was taken from another language or it could be
completely random. You just have to learn these “outsiders” by
heart. Here are three words you can start with:

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/

3. Words that are both a noun and a verb


The rule: Some words in English can be both a noun and a verb.
In those cases, the noun has its word stress on the first syllable,
and with the verb, the stress falls on the second syllable.
If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll see that this rule is a
derivation from the prior two sections and notice some of the
same words. However, this is a separate section since those
pairs of words are relatively common in English and they’re
likely to cause misunderstanding due to the same spelling.
Examples:
present /PRE-sent/ (a gift) vs. present /pre-SENT/ (give
something formally)
export /EX-port/ (the practice or business of selling goods to
another country or an article that is exported) vs. export /ex-
PORT/ (to sell goods to another country)
suspect /SU-spect/ (someone who the police believe may have
committed a crime) vs suspect /su-SPECT/ (to believe that
something is true, especially something bad)

There are, however, exceptions to this rule. For example, the


word “respect” has a stress on the second syllable both when
it’s a verb and a noun.

4. Three syllable words ending in “er” and “ly”


The rule: Words that have three syllables and end in “-er” or “-
ly” often have a stress on the first syllable.
Examples:
orderly /OR-der-ly/
quietly /QUI-et-ly/
manager /MA-na-ger/
5. Words ending in “ic,” “sion” and “tion”
The rule: When a word ends in “ic,” “sion” or “tion,” the stress
is usually on the second-to-last syllable. You count syllables
backwards and put a stress on the second one from the end.

Examples:
creation /cre-A-tion/
commission /com-MI-ssion/
photographic /pho-to-GRA-phic/

6. Words ending in “cy,” “ty,” “phy,” “gy” and “al”


The rule: When a word ends in “cy,” “ty,” “phy,” “gy” and “al,”
the stress is often on the third to last syllable. Similarly, you
count syllables backwards and put a stress on the third one
from the end.

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

The rule: In most compound nouns (a noun made up of two or


more existing words), the word stress is on the first noun.
Examples:
football /FOOT-ball/
keyboard /KEY-board/

8. Compound adjectives and verbs


The rule: In most compound adjectives (a single adjective made
of more than one word and often linked with a hyphen) and
compound verbs (a multi-word verb that functions as a single
verb), the stress is on the second word.
Examples:
old-fashioned /old-FA-shioned/
understand /un-der–STAND/

Here are four general rules to keep in mind about word stress
as you practice pronunciation:

1. Stress the first syllable of:


Most two-syllable nouns (examples: CLImate, KNOWledge)
Most two-syllable adjectives (examples: FLIPpant, SPAcious)

2. Stress the last syllable of:


Most two-syllable verbs (examples: reQUIRE, deCIDE)

3. Stress the second-to-last syllable of:


Words that end in -ic (examples: ecSTATic, geoGRAPHic)
Words ending in -sion and -tion (examples: exTENsion,
retriBUtion)
4. Stress the third-from-last syllable of:
Words that end in -cy, -ty, -phy and -gy (examples: deMOCracy,
unCERtainty, geOGraphy, radiOLogy)
Words that end in -al (examples: exCEPtional, CRItical)

In language the word stress performs 3 functions:


1) constitutive – word stress constitutes a word; it organizes
the syllables of a word into a language unit. A word does not
exist without the word stress. Thus, the function is constitutive
– sound continuum becomes a phrase when it is divided into
units organized by word stress into words.
2) Word stress enables a person to identify a succession of
syllables as a definite accentual pattern of a word. This function
is known as identificatory (or recognitive).
3) Word stress alone is capable of differentiating the meaning
of words or their forms, thus performing its distinctive function.
The accentual patterns of words or the degrees of word stress
and their positions form oppositions (“/import – im /port”,
“/present – pre /sent”).

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.

EMPHATIC STRESS (CONTRASTIVE STRESS) USUALLY


"CONTRAST"

It is more imperative to know what stress is before adjusting


the concept to a particular idea. It is used to draw attention to
certain words. A sentence can be given various interpretation
as a result of the placement of the emphatic stress on various
words in the context of the sentence. It is focused on getting
the intended meaning and attitude of the speaker to the hearer,
emotions are devoted by the clues given in the way the speaker
speaks.

Note: In emphatic stress, there is no rule. A non-content word


can also be stressed to convey meaning. It is mainly used in a
situation of the absence of others.
INTONATION (used in variation of meaning)
This is used to show the mood of the speaker. We have two
types of tune (Rising and Falling tune). It is used to indicate the
fall and rise in pitch of utterances.
Falling Tune
* it is used to mark declaratives/statements.
* it is used at the end wh-interrogatives.
* it is a common prosodic feature that accompanies
imperatives and exclamation.

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

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