THE SYLLABIC

STRUCTURE OF
ENGLISH WORDS
 A syllable is a single unit of speech, either a whole word or one of
the parts into which a word can be separated, usually containing a
vowel.

The syllable as
THE  a single word: chair [ʧeə]
PHENOMENON  a part of a word: English ['ɪŋɡ-lɪʃ]
OF THE SYLLABLE  a part of the grammatical form of a word: lat-er ['leɪ-tə]
(J. Kenyon)
 Four levels of study:
THE  acoustic
PHENOMENON  articulatory
OF THE SYLLABLE  auditory
 functional
 Theories of syllables:
1) the expiratory theory (R.H. Stetson);
THE 2) the sonority theory (O. Jespersen);
PHENOMENON
3) the theory of muscular tension (sketched by
OF THE SYLLABLE
L.V. Sherba and modified by V.A. Vasilyev);
4) the loudness theory (N.I. Zhinkin)
 Examples:
person ['pɜːs(ə)n]
apple ['æpļ]
puzzle ['pʌzl] - ['pʌzəl]
trouble ['trʌbļ]
garden ['ɡɑːdn]
SYLLABLE I [aɪ]
lesson ['lesn]
FORMATION are [ɑː]
blossom ['blɒs(ə)m]
parcel ['pɑːs(ə)l]
rhythm ['rɪð(ə)m]
level ['lev(ə)l]
 Types of the syllable:
1) CV - covered open: no
SYLLABLE 2) VC - uncovered closed: on
FORMATION 3) CVC - covered closed: man
4) V - uncovered open: awe
 Examples:
create [krɪ-'eɪt]
SYLLABLE seeing ['siː-ɪŋ]
DIVISION
extra ['ek-strə] - ['eks-trə]
 Syllable division rules. Examples:
1) In case of a long vowel or a diphthong: music ['mjuː-zɪk]
2) In case of a short stressed vowel followed by a consonant:
 pity ['pɪt-ɪ]
 pity ['pɪtɪ]
SYLLABLE 3) Two vowels are separated from each other by two consonants:
DIVISION  permissible initial cluster: agree - [ə'-ɡriː]
 not permissible initial cluster: admit [əd'-mɪt], abhor [əb'-hɔː]

4) Diphthongs are unisyllabic: dry [draɪ], playful ['pleɪ-fəl]

5) Triphthongs are disyllabic: science ['saɪ - əns]
 Functions of the syllable:
1. Constitutive function 
2. Distinctive function
 a name [ə'neɪm] – an aim [ən'eɪm]
 ice cream ['aɪs 'kri:m] – I scream [aɪ 'skri:m]

FUNCTIONAL Close juncture – open juncture:

ASPECT OF o a + name; an + aim
THE SYLLABLE o ice + cream; I + scream

3. Identificatory (recognitive) function

 pea stalks (стебли гороха) – peace talks (мирные переговоры)
 plum pie – plump eye (глаза на выкате)
 Morphological principle:
be-fore
un-divided
utter-ance
GRAPHIC gras-ping
CHARACTERISTICS
puz-zling
OF THE SYLLABLE
Syllabic structure:
un-kind-li-ness
Meaning:
spot-light
 Rules to divide a word in writing:
 never divide a word within a syllable;
 never divide a suffix of two syllables such as -able, -ably, -fully;
 with the exception of -ly, never divide a word so that an ending of
GRAPHIC two letters such as -ed, -er,
CHARACTERISTICS  -ic begins the next line;
OF THE SYLLABLE  never divide a word so that one of the parts is a single letter;
 never divide a word of one syllable;
 never divide a word of less than five letters.