o Syllable

o Stress
SUPRASEGMENTALS o Pitch
o Tone
o Intonation
PROSODICS / SUPRASEGMENTALS
PROSODICS studies the processes that affect units of speech larger
than a single speech (sound) segment.

SUPRASEGMENTALS are the features, other than sound segments,

which allow to distinguish “rhythm” and “singing melodies” across
languages. These features are relative.
1. SYLLABLE
Linguistic domain of most suprasegmentals (tone, pitch).
While native speakers can easily agree on the number of syllables in
their language, linguists have had difficulty defining syllables.

σ = “one pulse of speech. It always contains one loud or prominent

part [almost always a vowel sound] and may optionally have
consonant sounds preceeding or following the vowel.”

C V C
1. SYLLABLE C V C
Onset Coda
Nucleus

Rhyme
Happiness /hæ.pɪ.nes/
Smile /smaɪl/
Ketchup /kɛ.tʃʌp/ - /kɛtʃ.ʌp/
* /kɛt.ʃʌp/
1. SYLLABLE
PHONOTACTICS
Different languages have different possible constraints and syllable shapes
Some shapes: V, CV, CVV, CVC, CCV, CCCV, CVVV, etc.
Some allow or forbid certain clusters, for example, in the coda or in the
onset:
 English allows onset of [sC], Spanish does not
 Syllable constraints are language-specific
1. STRESS
PROMINENCE
It is the degree of initiatory power – energy from the lungs .

You may perceive this syllable as being longer, louder, or higher

pitched than the other syllables.

ˈCV
2. STRESS
In some languages, syllable stress is completely predictable
 Swahili – stress always penultimate syllable
 Czech – stress always first syllable
In others, stress depends on lexical status of word (noun vs. verb, for
example) or structure of syllable (syllable coda = consonant vs. coda=vowel)
2. STRESS
Lexical stress in English
• As opposed to French and Spanish (Romance languages)…
• The variability of stress in English is due to historical derivation of
Germanic and non-Germanic words (mostly French).

Germanic stress rule = primary stress falls on the first syllable of the base of
the word.
ˈha.ppy  un.ˈha.ppy.ness
2. STRESS
Fourteen people were killed last night
The number of the victims is fourteen

I have sixteen patients waiting for me

The last patient is only sixteen
2. STRESS
3. PITCH
It is the degree of height or depth of a sound, depending upon the relative
frequency of the vibrations of the vocal folds by which it is produced.
 stretching vocal folds to make more tense
 altering subglottal pressure, the pressure below the vocal folds (higher
pressure=higher pitch)

It is related to voice quality.

Changes in pitch mark out intonation and tone:

 Tone = pitch variations on short segments (syllables, phonemes,
morphemes).
 Intonation = pitch variations on longer segments.
4. TONE
Tone is usually phonemic – that is, it can be used to contrast word
meanings – it serves the function of contrasting word A (with meaning
A) with word B (with meaning B), even though the segments may be
the same.

Thai, Chinese, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Shona, Zulu and Luganda are

tone languages.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foImPuD_bKc
4. TONE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGR2LTa2SlI
 It’s a new car!
5. INTONATION It’s a new car?

Intonation is generally used pragmatically – that is, to tell how the

utterance functions:
•As a question Tone units (delimited by:)
•As a statement - Pause
- final syllable lengthening or slow speech rate
•Sarcasm
at the end of an IU
•Speaker attitude - a following fast speech rate at the beginning
•Emotions of the next IU
- pitch reset
Hirschberg & Pierrehumbert (1986)
5. INTONATION
5. INTONATION
5. INTONATION
FINAL REMARKS

English speakers focus very much on stressed vowels and usually

“blur” unstressed vowels in their speech.

English speakers focus very much on the relationship between the local
stress and the global stress in an utterance.

Vowel reduction
FINAL REMARKS
FINAL REMARKS
FINAL REMARKS
Practice:

1. I can understand
2. Give me the book
3. He wants to leave
4. I did it as quickly as posible
5. He was sick
She watched the people coming on or leaving at the station,
greeting, or kissing goodbye, and it seemed a lucky sign
she did not see a sad face anywhere. There was a cold
sweet sunshine on the snow, and the city people didn’t look
all frozen and bundled up. Their faces looked smooth after
the raw Frost-bitten country faces. The Grand Central
hadn’t changed at all, with all the crowds whirling in every
direction, and a noise that almost had a tune in it, it was so
steady.
/ ʃɪ ˈwɒʧt δə ˈpi:pl̩ ˈkᴧmɪŋ ˈɒn ɔ:ͬ ˈlɪvɪŋ ət δə ˈsteɪʃn̩z ǀ ˈgrɪtɪŋ ǀ
ɔ:ͬ ˈkɪsɪŋ gʊdˈbaɪ and ɪt ˈsi:md ə ˈlukɪ ˈsaɪn ʃɪ dɪd nɒt ˈsi: ə
ˈsӕd ˈfeɪz ˈenɪweɚ ǁ theɚ waz ə ˈkəuld ˈswi:t ˈsᴧnʃaɪn ɒn thə
ˈsnou ǀ ənd thə ˈsɪtɪ ˈpi:pl̩ ˈdɪdn̩t ˈlʊk ɒ:l ˈfrəuzn̩ ənd ˈbᴧndl̩ d
ᴧp ǁ theɚ ˈfeɪzɪz ˈlʊkt ˈsmu:th ˈӕftɚ thə ˈrɔ: ˈfrost ˈbɪtn̩
ˈkᴧntrɪ ˈfeɪzɪz ǁ thə ˈgrӕnd ˈsɛntrl̩ ˈhӕdn̩t ˈʧeɪnʧt ət ˈɒ:l ǀ wɪth
ɒ:l the ˈkraudz ˈwɪrlɪng ɪn ˈɛvrɪ dɪˈrɛkʃn̩ ǀ ən ə ˈnoɪz thət
ˈɒlməst həd ə ˈtjun ɪn ɪt ǀ ɪt wəz ˈsəu ˈstedɪ /