WORDS AND SYLLABLES

Compiled to complete the assignment of English Phonology

Compiled by : Ahmad Rizki Amrizal (0304183231)

ENGLISH EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT OF TARBIYAH SCIENCE AND TEACHER
TRAINING
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF NORTH SUMATERA
MEDAN
2020
 PREFACE
Thanks to Almighty God who has given his mercy and bless to the
writer for finishing the English Phonology paper assignment. The writer
also wish to express his deep and science gratitude for those who have
guided in compliting this paper. Maybe while we on the process making
the paper, some information couldnot completely gathered. But I hope this
paper can help the readers to expand their knowledge about English
Phonology and the Words and Syllable especially.

Hopefully we as students in “Islamic State University of North

Sumatera” can work more professional by using English as the second
language whatever we done. Thankyou.

Medan, 11 May 2020

Author

i
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I : PRELIMINARY

1.1 Background
1.2 Formulation of Problem
1.3 Purpose of Writing

CHAPTER II : DISCUSSION

2.1 Definition of Word and Syllable

2.1.1 Word
2.1.2 Syllable
2.2 Function of Words and Syllables
2.2.1 Syllable
2.2.2 Word
2.3 How to Master Words and Syllables?
2.4 The Differences Between Indonesian Syllable and English Syllable

CHAPTER III : CLOSING

3.1 Conclusion
3.2 Suggestion

REFERENCES

ii
 CHAPTER I

PRELIMINARY

1.1 Background

Word is a unit of language, consisting of one or more spoken

sounds or their written representation, that functions as a principal carrier
of meaning. Words are composed of one or more morphemes and are
either the smallest units susceptible of independent use or consist of two
or three such units combined under certain linking conditions, as with the
loss of primary accent that distinguishes black bird from black bird. Words
are usually separated by spaces in writing, and are distinguished
phonologically, as by accent, in many languages.

Roach states that the syllable is a very important unit in both

Phonetics and Phonology. Skandera and Burleigh sustain that syllable can
be probably defined as the smallest rhythmic unit of spoken language, for
example, or a unit that is typically larger than a single sound smaller than
a word.

1.2 Formulation of Problem

2. What is Words and Syllable?
3. What is the function of Words and Syllable in studying Phonology?
4. How to master Words and Syllable rapidly?
5. Whats the difference from Indonesia and English Words and Syllable?

1.3 Purpose of Writing

2. To know what is Words and Syllable.
3. To know the function of Words and Syllables in Phonology.
4. To master Words and Syllables.
5. To know the differences between Indonesian Syllable and English
Syllable.

1
 CHAPTRR II

DISCUSSION

2.1 Definition of Word and Syllable

2.1.1 Word

Native speakers who are not linguists may be slightly surprised by

the discovery, that they can count syllables and determine the boundaries
between them. However, they will typically be much more consciously
aware of the word as a linguistic unit, prob-ably because words are
meaningful units; moreover, in a highly literate society, we are familiar with
orthographic words, which conveniently appear with white space on each
side.1 However, words, like other linguistic units, are not entirely straight-
forward and trouble-free for native speakers or for linguists. In particu-lar,
there are cases where it is difficult to determine how many words we are
dealing with. For example, is washing-machine one word or two? Is it
easier or more difficult to decide if we write it as washing machine, with-
out the hyphen? And if we conclude that this is two words, then where
does that leave teapot, where two acceptable independent words seem to
make up one larger one? It seems that compounds like this take some
time to become accepted in the speech community as single words: for a
while, they appear as two written words, though signalling one distinct
concept semantically (thus, a washing-machine washes clothes, not
dishes, for which we have dishwashers, or cars, which go through a
carwash). As they are encountered more commonly, they begin to be
written with a hyphen, which ultimately drops to leave a single
orthographic word – although speakers may think of a compound as a
single word before this stage is reached. Conversely, although didn’t, can’t

1
April McMahon, An Introduction to English Phonology, (Edinburgh, Edinburgh
University Press, 2002), p. 117.

2
or it’s appear as single written words, speakers will tend to regard these as
sequences of two words, contracted by the deletion of a vowel, as
signalled by the apostrophe. So, it’s (in It’s Saturday) is a short form of it
is, and therefore in a sense two words, as distinct from its (in The cat ate
its dinner), which is a single word however you look at it.

Word is a unit of language, consisting of one or more spoken

sounds or their written representation, that functions as a principal carrier
of meaning. Words are composed of one or more morphemes and are
either the smallest units susceptible of independent use or consist of two
or three such units combined under certain linking conditions, as with the
loss of primary accent that distinguishes black bird from black bird. Words
are usually separated by spaces in writing, and are distinguished
phonologically, as by accent, in many languages.

For phonological purposes, we can simply note these tricky ex-

ceptional cases, and accept that native speakers typically have a good
intuitive idea of what a word is (although this is an issue of considerable
interest to morphologists)2. What we are interested in are the phono-logical
properties of words; and the most important of these, in English at least, is
stress. As we shall see, although each word has its own charac-teristic
stress pattern when uttered in isolation, words are generally produced in
strings, combining into phrases and whole sentences; and phonological
processes also operate at these higher levels. First, the position of stress
on the isolated word may change when that word forms part of a larger
unit; and secondly, some segmental processes, affecting vowels or
consonants, may also apply between words.

In most common everyday speech situations, phonological words

are not separated or preceded by pauses. That is, speakers of different
languages do not indicate word boundaries by pauses, which would be the

2
Gorka Elordieta l, The Word in Phonology, (Universidad del Pais Vasco, 2014),
p. 8.

3
most obvious means of identifying words. Thus, the question arises
whether there are any phonetic or phonological cues that serve to
demarcate the edges of words in the speech chain. Several studies have
reported the existence of different types of cues for word boundaries
present in the world’s languages.

At least in higher levels of the prosodic hierarchy (utterance,

intonational phrase, intermediate phrase, phonological phrase), the left
edges or beginnings of words have been found to be pronounced with a
higher degree of articulatory strength, in the form of greater duration of
initial consonants and/or initial syllables, VOT or aspiration in initial
consonants, glottalization of word-initial vowels, or bigger resistance to
assimilation and lenition processes. In contrast, word-medial consonants
and vowels are more prone to weakening effects, such as lenition,
reduction, and deletion. Diachronically, strengthening processes may
result in favoring obstruents in word-initial positions. Inversely, weakening
processes affecting word-medial segments may lead to the occurrence of
sonorants word-medially (cf. Martinet 1955, Hock 1991, 1992,Vennemann
1993). On the other hand, the ends or right edges of words can also be
strengthened. At higher levels of the prosodic hierarchy, word-final
syllables can be signaled by lengthening, accompanied by other
suprasegmental cues such as the presence of boundary tones. These
phenomena are clearer the higher the prosodic constituent the word starts
or ends.

2.1.2 Syllable

Speakers certainly have an intuitive notion of how many syllables

each word contains: for instance, speakers of English would generally
agree that meadow, dangerous and antidisestablishmentarianism 3
3
April McMahon, An Introduction to English Phonology, (Edinburgh, Edinburgh
University Press, 2002), p. 104.

4
(allegedly the longest word in the language) have two, three and twelve
syllables respectively. It is less easy for speakers to reflect consciously on
the in-ternal structure of syllables, or to decide where one stops and the
next starts; but a wide variety of cross-linguistic studies have helped
phonol-ogists construct a universal template for the syllable, within which
particular languages select certain options. 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.

Roach states that the syllable is a very important unit in both

Phonetics and Phonology4. Skandera and Burleigh sustain that syllable
can be probably defined as the smallest rhythmic unit of spoken language,
for example, or a unit that is typically larger than a single sound smaller
than a word5. So, they believe that the syllable can be defined in different
ways. Crystal believes that syllable is an element of speech that acts as a
unit of rhythm, which is noticeable in English pronunciation and consisting
of a vowel, a syllable consonant or a vowel plus consonant combination 6.
On the other hand, Hancock (2003:50) beliefs that a syllable is often
described as a group of one or more sounds with a peak or nucleus. Forel
and Puskás affirm that in English a syllable consists of a phoneme or
sequence of phonemes7. If the syllable receives word stress it can be
associated with meaning and form what is usually called a word.

2.2 Function of Words and Syllable in Phonology

2.2.1 Syllable

4
Roach, P. English Phonetics and Phonology. 2nd ed., UK, CUP, 1998.
5
Skandera, P., and Burleigh, P. A manual of English Phonetics and Phonology.
Bindung,
Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005.
6
Crystal, D. (1985). What is linguistics? London: Edward Arnold
7
Forel, Claire-A. and Puska’s, G. Phonetics and Phonology. Geneva, University
of Geneva,
2005.

5
 However, some other restrictions on possible clusters are not
specific to English, but rather reflect universal prohibitions or
requirements. The most notable phonological principle which comes into
play here is known as the Sonority Sequencing Generalisation, and
governs the shape of both onsets and codas 8. Sonority is related to the
difference between sonorants (sounds which are typically voiced, like
approxi-mants, nasal stops and vowels) and obstruents (oral stops and
fricatives, which may be either voiced or voiceless). Sonorants are more
sonorous; that is, their acoustic properties give them greater carrying
power. If you stood at the front of a large room and said one sound as
clearly as you could, a listener at the back would be much more likely to
be able to identify a highly sonorous sound like [ɑ] than a sound at the
other end of the sonority range, such as [t].

Our knowledge of acoustic phonetics and other aspects of sound

behaviour can be combined to produce a sonority scale like the one given
in (3). Here, the most sonorous sounds appear at the top, and the least
sonorous at the bottom. Some English examples are given for each
category.

(3) Low vowels [ɑ ae] …

High vowels [i u] …

Glides [j w]

Liquids [l ɹ]

Nasals [m n ŋ]

Voiced fricatives [v z] …

Voiceless fricatives [f s] …

Voiced plosives [b d ]

8
April McMahon, An Introduction to English Phonology, (Edinburgh, Edinburgh
University Press, 2002), p. 107.

6
 Voiceless plosives [p t k]

Natural classes of sounds which function together in phonological

processes are often composed of single or adjacent levels on the sonor-ity
hierarchy. For instance, English liquids and nasals can be syllabic, and
these are the closest consonants to the vowel series (with the exception of
then glides; and as we have seen already, we might say that [j w] do have
syllabic counterparts, namely the high vowels).

2.2.2 Words

Imagine a life without words! Trappist monks opt for it. But most of
us would not give up words for anything. Every day we utter thousands
and thousands of words. Communicating our joys, fears, opinions,
fantasies, wishes, requests, demands, feelings—and the occasional threat
or insult—is a very important aspect of being human. The air is always
thick with our verbal emissions. There are so many things we want to tell
the world. Some of them are important, some of them are not. But we talk
anyway—even when we know that what we are saying is totally
unimportant. We love chitchat and find silent encounters awkward, or even
oppressive. A life without words would be a horrendous privation 9.

It is a cliché to say that words and language are probably

humankind’s most valuable single possession. It is language that sets us
apart from our biologically close relatives, the great primates. (I would
imagine that many a chimp or gorilla would give an arm and a leg for a few
words—but we will probably never know because they cannot tell us.) Yet,
surprisingly, most of us take words (and more generally language) for
granted. We cannot discuss words with anything like the competence with
which we can discuss fashion, films or football.

9
Francis Katamba, English Words, (USA, Routledge, 2015), p. 1-2.

7
 We should not take words for granted. They are too important. This
book is intended to make explicit some of the things that we know
subconsciously about words. It is a linguistic introduction to the nature and
structure of English words. It addresses the question ‘what sorts of things
do people need to know about English words in order to use them in
speech?’ It is intended to increase the degree of sophistication with which
you think about words. It is designed to give you a theoretical grasp of
English word-formation, the sources of English vocabulary and the way in
which we store and retrieve words from the mind.

I hope a desirable side effect of working through English Words will

be the enrichment of your vocabulary. This book will help to increase,in a
very practical way, your awareness ofthe relationship between words. You
will be equipped with the tools you need to work out the meanings of
unfamiliar words and to see in a new light the underlying structural
patterns in many familiar words which you have not previously stopped to
think about analytically.

For the student of language, words are a very rewarding object of

study. An understanding of the nature of words provides us with a key that
opens the door to an understanding of important aspects of the nature of
language in general. Words give us a panoramic view of the entire field of
linguistics because they impinge on every aspect of language structure.
This book stresses the ramifications of the fact that words are complex
and multi-faceted entities whose structure and use interacts with the other
modules of the grammar such as PHONOLOGY, the study of how sounds
are used to represent words in speech, SYNTAX, the study of sentence
structure, and SEMANTICS, the study of meaning in language.

2.3 How to Master Words and Syllables?

8
 Syllables are one of the few phonological notions that the average
layman knows about. Others include sounds, consonants and vowels.
Syllables belong to the prosodic domain of sound structure, together with
feet: both categories are related to the rhythm of speech. While feet are
the manifestation of the rhythmic alternation of stressed and unstressed
portions, syllables represent the alternation of high-sonority (syllabic) and
low-sonority (nonsyllabic) portions, or vowels and consonants, as they are
usually referred to. These two waves, the rhythm wave and the sonority
wave, carry the speech signal. Their interference is constructive, i.e., a
rhythmic peak always co-incides with a sonority peak, so the two waves
never cancel out.

Since, unlike morphemes, syllables are not associated with mean-

ing, semantic considerations do not enable the speaker to discern where
one syllable ends and the next one begins. In fact, it is not even obvious if
phonological theory has to include an entity that cor-responds to syllables.
It is well-known that syllables are claimed to be unnecessary by Chomsky
& Halle (1968) in what came to be a cornerstone of modern phonological
theory, the SPE (The Sound Pattern of English). Section shows that
although technically viable, this solution misses a generalization, the
recurrent environment that can be identified as the end of the syllable,
which can only be expressed disjunctively in the classical version of the
generative theory. On the other hand, the syllable as a unit of phonological
rep-resentations does not appear to be absolutely necessary. Section
examines whether syllable structure can be derived from the order of
sound strings, or at least some part of it must be given lexically. The
impossibility of equating word and syllable boundaries is demonstrated.
This calls for an exclusively sonority based syllabification, which also turns
out to be problematic. The conclusion is that syllabicity must be lexically
marked.

9
2.4 The Differences Between Indonesian Syllable and English Syllable

Roach states that the syllable is a very important unit in both

Phonetics and Phonology10. Skandera and Burleigh sustain that syllable
can be probably defined as the smallest rhythmic unit of spoken language,
for example, or a unit that is typically larger than a single sound smaller
than a word11. So, they believe that the syllable can be defined in different
ways. Crystal believes that syllable is an element of speech that acts as a
unit of rhythm, which is noticeable in English pronunciation and consisting
of a vowel, a syllable consonant or a vowel plus consonant combination 12.
On the other hand, Hancock (2003:50) beliefs that a syllable is often
described as a group of one or more sounds with a peak or nucleus. Forel
and Puskás affirm that in English a syllable consists of a phoneme or
sequence of phonemes13. If the syllable receives word stress it can be
associated with meaning and form what is usually called a word.

Indonesian syllable and English syllable itself don’t far different

each other by the meaning. But if we look deeper and analyze it, they
have some differences between them. The differences between
Indonesian syllable and English syllable are:

1. In Indonesian, syllable is not important enough.

2. Every syllable has a relatively the sake degree.
3. The place of syllable depends on the meaning.
4. The syllable can be put anywhere without changing the meaning.

CHAPTER III

10
Roach, P. English Phonetics and Phonology. 2nd ed., UK, CUP, 1998.
11
Skandera, P., and Burleigh, P. A manual of English Phonetics and Phonology.
Bindung, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005.
12
Crystal, D. (1985). What is linguistics? London: Edward Arnold
13
Forel, Claire-A. and Puska’s, G. Phonetics and Phonology. Geneva, University
of Geneva,
2005.

10
 CLOSING

3.1 Conclusion

Word is a unit of language, consisting of one or more spoken

sounds or their written representation, that functions as a principal carrier
of meaning. Words are composed of one or more morphemes and are
either the smallest units susceptible of independent use or consist of two
or three such units combined under certain linking conditions, as with the
loss of primary accent that distinguishes black bird from black bird. Words
are usually separated by spaces in writing, and are distinguished
phonologically, as by accent, in many languages.

Roach states that the syllable is a very important unit in both

Phonetics and Phonology. Skandera and Burleigh sustain that syllable can
be probably defined as the smallest rhythmic unit of spoken language, for
example, or a unit that is typically larger than a single sound smaller than
a word.

Indonesian syllable and English syllable itself don’t far different

each other by the meaning. But if we look deeper and analyze it, they
have some differences between them. The differences between
Indonesian syllable and English syllable are:

1. In Indonesian, syllable is not important enough.

2. Every syllable has a relatively the sake degree.
3. The place of syllable depends on the meaning.
4. The syllable can be put anywhere without changing the meaning.

3.2 Suggestion

The writer realized that this paper is still lacking. In the future the
writer will explain more about the contents of this paper, and hopes that

11
the readers can learn and understand well about this paper in order to
further add insight about theory of English vowels.

12
 REFERENCES

April McMahon, An Introduction to English Phonology, (Edinburgh, Edinburgh

University Press, 2002).
Gorka Elordieta l, The Word in Phonology, (Universidad del Pais Vasco, 2014).
Roach, P. English Phonetics and Phonology. 2nd ed., UK, CUP, 1998.

Skandera, P., and Burleigh, P. A manual of English Phonetics and Phonology.

Bindung, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005.

Crystal, D. (1985). What is linguistics? London: Edward Arnold

Forel, Claire-A. and Puska’s, G. Phonetics and Phonology. Geneva, University of

Geneva, 2005.

13