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THE CORRELATION BETWEEN SYLLABLE WEIGHT AND STRESS PLACEMENT OF ADJECTIVE AND NOUN HOMOGRAPHS AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
YOSEPHINE DEWI UTAMI
Student Number: 07 4214 087
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2011
THE CORRELATION BETWEEN SYLLABLE WEIGHT AND STRESS PLACEMENT OF ADJECTIVE AND NOUN HOMOGRAPHS AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
YOSEPHINE DEWI UTAMI
Student Number: 07 4214 087
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2011
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan dibawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma : Nama : Yosephine Dewi Utami Nomor Mahasiswa : 074214087
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memeberikan kepada perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
THE CORRELATION BETWEEN SYLLABLE WEIGHT AND
STRESS PLACEMENT OF ADJECTIVE AND NOUN
HOMOGRAPHSBeserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media lain utnuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu ijin kepada saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta pada tanggal: 31 Januari 2012 Yang menyatakan (Yosephine Dewi Utami)
"When running a race, the last lap is always the hardest ... so keep going! You are almost there!" Sharon Fulham
dedicated to my family, Francisco Rodriguez, and my friends, who have been a great source of motivation and inspiration
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, my deepest thankfulness be to God for my life through all tests in the past five years. May Your name be praised, honored, and lift up.
I my family for their
take this opportunity to convey my sincere thanks to
tireless love and support throughout my life; this thesis is simply impossible without
them. I am owning gratitude to my father, Drs. A. Ponidjo Hadi, for his cares and love
and my mother, C.A. Meiningsih, for her everlasting love to me; although she is no
longer with us, she is forever remembered. I am sure she shares our happiness in heaven.
I feel fortunate and thankful having brothers and a sister who always give me constant
supports.I would like to thank Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd. M.A, as my thesis advisor.
This thesis could not have been written without his help. He, and the other faculty members, includes my co-advisor Linda V. Budiman, S.S, M.Hum. and my academic advisor, Harris Hermansyah S.,S.S., M.Hum., have also encouraged and challenged me throughout my academic years.
I would like to express my thanks to my friends: Ibel, Billy, Nenek and Icha for always making my school-days more fun than I expected. Especially I thank Francisco Rodriguez who kindly supports my study with good books and information and Adrian Harris for helping me on computer works.
I also extend my thanks to all lectures, hospitable librarian and my classmates of 2007, who have made my experience studying in Sanata Dharma University unforgettable.
Yosephine Dewi Utami
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE3. Four-Syllabled Adjective and Noun ….…………………………………... 44
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY
…………………………………………….……..35
A. Object of the Study …………………………………………………………… 36
B. Approach of the Study …………………………………………………………36
C. Method of the Study …………………………………………………………...37
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS RESULT
………………………………………………… 40
A. The Stress Placement of Adjective and Noun Homographs …........…………. 40
1. Two-Syllabled Adjective and Noun …………………………….…………40
2. Three-Syllabled Adjective and Noun ….………………….……………….42
4. Five-Syllabled Adjective and Noun …..…………………………………...45
B. Review of Related Theories …………………………………………..………. 11
B. The Correlation between Syllable Weight and Stress Placement of Non Compound Noun and Adjective Homographs ….……………………………46
1. Two-Syllabled Adjective and Noun ….……………………………...…..46
1.1. Two-Syllabled Adjective ..………………………………......……....... 46
1.2. Two-Syllabled Noun ……………………………..………….………...50
2. Three-Syllabled Adjective and Noun ……..………..…………………….53
2.1. Three-Syllabled Adjective …….………………….…………………... 53
2.2. Three-Syllabled Noun …………………………..……………………..57
3. Four-Syllabled Adjective and Noun ………………..…………………... 60
3.1. Four-Syllabled Adjective …………………………..…………………. 60
3.2. Four-Syllabled Noun ………………………………………..…………62
C. Theoretical Framework ……………………………………………….………. 32
A. Review of Related Studies .………………………………………………........ 8
……………………………………………………………………............ i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
APPROVAL PAGE
…………………………………………………………………….. ii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE
………………………………………………………………… iii
MOTTO PAGE
…………………………………………………………………………. v
DEDICATION PAGE
……………………………………………………………. …….vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
………………………………………………………….… vii
………………………………………………………………. viii
……………………………………..….... 8
ABSTRACT
……………………………………………………………………………...x
ABSTRAK
………………………………………………………………………………. xi
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
……………………………………………………… 1
A. Background of the Study …………………………………………..…………. 1
B. Problem Formulation …………………………………………………..……... 6
C. Objectives of the Study ………………………………………………..……… 6
D. Definition of Terms ………………………………………………...………….7
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW
4. Five-Syllabled Adjective and Noun …………………………..………….64
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION
……………………………………………………….. 66
BIBLIOGRAPHY
……………………………………………………………………… 69
APPENDICES
………………………………………………………………………….. 71 Appendix 1 ………………………………………………………………………..71 Appendix 2 ………………………………………………………………..............75 Appendix 3 ………………………………………………………………………..78 Appendix 4 ………………………………………………………………………..80
ABSTRACT
YOSEPHINE DEWI UTAMI. The Correlation between Syllable Weight and
Stress Placement of Noun and Adjective Homographs. Yogyakarta:
Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2011.
For the non-native speakers and English learners, stress placement in English is a problem since misplacing the stress in a lexical word might cause misunderstanding. This thesis is an effort to answer two questions. The first question is what the stress placement of adjective and noun homographs is. The second is how the syllable weight correlates with the stress placement of English adjective and noun homographs.
The method of this thesis is library research; using Longman
rd
Pronunciation Dictionary 3 Edition published in 2008 as the primary source of the analysis, besides other books and information on net to supply theories in this study, and field research by collecting data from the primary source of analysis.
This thesis is focused on the phonological study limited to stress placement of noun and adjective homographs. There are 96 adjectives and nouns
rd each which are collected from Longman Pronunciation Dictionary 3 Edition.
The 96 adjectives consist of 15 bisyllabic having primary stress on their ultimate positions, 49 penultimate and 32 antepenultimate for polysyllabic. The 96 nouns are composed of 8 bisyllabic with primary stress on ultimate position, 49 penultimate and 40 antepenultimate for polysyllabic.
The answer of the first question of this thesis is the stress placement of bisyllabic adjective and noun is on penultimate. The three-syllabled adjective and noun have stress on the third syllable from the end (antepenultimate), so are the four and five-syllabled noun and adjectives.
To answer the second question, the syllable weight pattern of each noun and adjective must be drawn. From the syllable weight pattern of each group, there is a tendency of stress to fall on heavy syllable which are characterized with tense or long vowel or diphthong, and or ending with more than one consonant. Nevertheless, there is the possibility of some cases where light syllable is bearing the stress through the process of ambisyllabicity to meet the requirement that stressed syllable must be heavy. Furthermore the difference in pronunciation may affect the weight of syllable which in turn affects the occurrence of second primary stress and stress-moving of primary stress on some words.
The phonological study reveals that syllable weight and stress placement are correlated. They influence each other, that stress can only be applied to a heavy syllable; otherwise stress placement sets weight syllable to meet the requirement of stressed syllable.
ABSTRAK
YOSEPHINE DEWI UTAMI. The Correlation between Syllable Weight and
Stress Placement of Noun and Adjective Homographs. Yogyakarta:
Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2011.
Bagi yang bukan penutur asli dan pelajar yang belajar bahasa Inggris, penempatan tekanan kata dalam bahasa Inggris menjadi sebuah masalah karena kesalahan penempatan tekanan kata dalam sebuah kata bermakna leksikal dapat menyebabkan kesalahpahaman. Skripsi ini berupaya untuk menjawab dua pertanyaan, yaitu bagaimana penempatan tekanan kata pada homograf kata sifat dan kata benda dan bagaimana berat suku kata berhubungan timbal-balik dengan penempatan tekanan kata dalam bahasa Inggris pada homograf kata sifat dan kata benda.
Metode skripsi ini dengan penelitian pustaka; menggunakan kamus
Longman Pronunciation Dictionary 3rd Edition yang diterbitkan pada tahun
2008 sebagai sumber utama analisa, disamping buku-buku dan informasi yang diunduh dari internet untuk memasok teori, dan dengan penelitian lapangan yaitu mengumpulkan data dari sumber utama analisa.
Skripsi ini fokus pada studi phonologi yang dibatasi pada penempatan tekanan kata pada homograf kata sifat dan kata benda. Ada 96 homograf dari masing-masing kata sifat dan kata benda, dimana 15 kata sifat berdua suku kata memiliki penempatan tekanan kata primer pada suku kata terakhir, ultimate, 49 kata pada suku kata kedua dari belakang (penultimate) dan 32 kata pada suka kata ketiga dari belakang (antepenultimate) pada kata bersuka kata lebih dari dua. Pada 96 kata benda yang terdiri dari 8 kata benda bersuku kata dua dengan tekanan kata primer pada ultimate, 49 kata pada penultimate dan 40 kata pada
antepenultimate.
Menjawab pertanyaan pertama skripsi ini, penempatan tekanan kata pada kata sifat dan kata benda bersuku kata dua terletak di ultimate. Kata sifat dan kata benda bersuku kata tiga atau lebih memiliki tekanan kata pada antepenultimate.
Untuk menjawab pertanyaan kedua, pola berat suku kata dari setiap kata sifat dan kata benda ada kecenderungan tekanan kata jatuh pada suku kata berat yang ditandai oleh adanya vokal yang tegang, tense, atau panjang atau diftong, dan atau berakhir dengan lebih dari satu konsonan. Namun demikian, ada kemungkinan beberapa kasus dimana suku kata yang ringan dapat menerima tekanan kata melalui proses ambisyllabicity untuk memenuhi persyaratan bahwa satu kata yang mengalami tekanan harus berat. Selain itu, perbedaan dalam pengucapan juga akan mempengaruhi berat suku kata yang pada gilirannya mempengaruhi timbulnya tekanan kata sekunder dan pergeseran tekanan kata primer pada beberapa kata. Studi phonologi mengungkapkan bahwa berat suku kata dan penempatan tekanan kerja berhubungan satu sama lain. Mereka saling mempengaruhi satu sama lain.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study Learning another language opens up new opportunities and gives us
perspectives that we might never have encountered. Mastering a new language, besides our native language, can not only expand our educational development and opportunities but also unrestraint our communication and thinking abilities. We will have the ability to fully appreciate and understand the world where we live in.
That English is spoken by over one third of population in this world makes English one popular language that learned by its non-native students. To have a satisfactory conversation, non-native students have to have a good skill and knowledge in it. Usually, the difficulties in learning a new language are that the new language has different rules and systems from their mother tongue. The differences such as vocabularies, grammar and other general rules, which are applied in a language, can cause errors in the communication practice.
Learning a language is basically learning to speak. Unconsciously the way we speak is one of the first things that others will notice about. People will judge our background, education and social position just by the way we speak, although we have already talked in English, if we do not speak clearly, people will hardly understand us and it is just tiring. They might not talk again to us.
2 In order to speak fluently, one must pronounce the words correctly. Listening and understanding are also important. If we do not know how different words are pronounced, we will not improve our understanding, especially when we are communicating with a native speaker. A wrong pronunciation often causes a misunderstanding which may lead to failure in communication. To have proper communication, one should consider some aspects in both segmental and supra segmental level. The supra segmental aspects like intonation, rhyme and word stress will be influential in the oral communication. These aspects function to make some elements more prominent than others (Fromklin, 2000).
A word stress in English is very important to study, especially for the non- native speakers. Griegerich (1992: 179) states that English is a stress language in which every lexical word – a noun, a verb an adjective or an adverb has stressed syllable. English word stress is phonemic. It means it can distinguish the meaning of a word. For foreign language learners whose native language does not have word stress as something phonemic, this may lead to difficulty. Carr marks the differences of stress among languages:
In some languages, the location of the main stress in polysyllabic words is fairly straightforward matter, which requires merely a general statement of which syllable position the main stress falls on: in French and Turkish, for instance, it falls on the last syllable in the word, in Polish and Welsh on the penultimate, and in Finnish and Czech on the initial (1993: 214).
It shows that the stress patterns in one language may be distinguishable from other languages. The stress syllable in French and Turkish is on the last syllable. Polish and Welsh have stress on the penultimate, while stressed syllable of Finnish and
3 Czech are on the initial position. In English, we cannot say the English stress is always on the ultimate, penultimate or antepenultimate syllable. This is a result of its history. English is inherited from Germanic but it has frequently been strongly influenced by Latin, French, and other Romance languages (McMahon, 2002:120). By that reason, the stress in English word may be different from the stress in other words and it seems that the English stress within words is not fixed.
Collin and Mees (2003:76) state that phonology produces deeper insights into the structures and patterns of language sound systems. The phonology of a language may be different from other languages. By knowing phonology, one can recognize sounds in language. In phonology, sounds emitted by organs of speech work together with supra segmental aspects; stress, rhythm, and intonation (Collins and Mees, 2003:108). Unfortunately, it is not easy for non-native to memorize the word stress’ application in English. It is possible that some words having same spelling but different in part of speech. Fromklin (1991:525) defines a word spelt identically to another and possibly pronounced the same as homograph. For example compact, the pronunciation might be: (1) compact: ʹcom-pact /ʹkɒm pᴂkt/ (2) compact: com-ʹpact / kəm ʹpᴂkt/ That also differentiates their lexical group. The stress in (1) compact /ʹkɒmpᴂkt / is on first syllable /ʹkɒ/ and it is lexically grouped in a noun (N), which is defined as a small flat container with a mirror, containing powder for a woman's face. It is
4 different from (2) compact /kəm ʹpᴂkt/ that has stress on second syllable /ʹpᴂkt/. It is categorized lexically in an adjective which means small, but arranged so that everything fits neatly into the space available; or into verb which is defined as to be press something together so that it becomes smaller or more solid. In this example, both words are spelled identically, but they have differences in pronunciation and stress pattern. The stress pattern of this homograph can determine the grammatical category of some words (Roach, 2001:32). If the speaker puts the wrong stress of words in (1) and (2) in a sentence, then the sentence will be confusing, therefore stress pattern in English has relation with semantics and syntax. If a certain syllable of words is stressed incorrectly, the meaning of the words can be different from what it supposed to be meant and syntactically it can also be wrong. For example:
(1) *A comʹpact (N) was made between two countries in fighting drug dealers (2a) *The soil where I plant my roses is not ʹcompact (Adj), or (2b) *She has untied her ʹcompacted (V) books by cutting the rope.
The examples above show that stress pattern in noun are different from adjective or verb.
….., there are pairs of words which contrast only by virtue of the position of stress, such as con′vert, pro′duce (verb) vs. ′convert, ′produce (noun). This initially makes English look like free stress language, like Russian, but turns out to reflect the fact that such stress rules as English has very depending on the lexical class of the word they are applying to (McMahon, 2001: 120).
5 McMahon says that English words are not classified based on the lexical class. English has the general rule in the relation to the stress assignment. As an example words that have same number of syllables may have different stress pattern. A stressed syllable usually is a heavy syllable. McMahon (2001:122) states that nouns bear a primary stress in the penultimate (on the second syllable from the last) syllable if it is heavy. If the penultimate is light, the stress falls in the antepenultimate (on the third syllable from the last) syllable. In the words
′abstract / ʹæb.strækt/ and al′ternate /ɔ:l.ʹtɜ:n.ət/ that have heavy syllables on their
penultimate syllables, thus they have stress on the penultimate syllables. In
′aggregate /ʹæg.rɪg.ət/ and biʹnocular / bɪ.ʹnɒk.jʊ.ə/, the penultimate syllables are
light, thus the main stress are on one syllable before from the last, which is on the antepenultimate syllable. There are not many books talking about stress pattern in adjective. However, the stress pattern of adjective can be learnt.
The knowledge of stress pattern rules will be very helpful to distinguish homograph in a lexical word of English. It will help one to predict where the stress should be put on a word. As an example above, the word compact, as a noun, it has stress on the penultimate syllable. It is different, when the word
compact, as adjective, the stress is put on the antepenultimate syllable. Knowing
the stress pattern will improve the pronunciation and listening ability which is important in good communication.
To be able to predict the stress pattern in a word, the syllabification process will take important part to be taken. The syllabification process will deal
6 with the syllable weight pattern that all stressed syllables must be heavy but not all heavy syllables are stressed (Giegerich, 1992:179).
In English vowel quality has significant role in the syllabification process. Vowel quality indicates whether a vowel is central that is contained by unstressed syllable, or peripheral that is contained by stressed syllable. Vowel duration is an important factor in indicating stress in that vowels in English are shorter in unstressed syllables than in stressed ones (Collin and Mees, 2003: 109-110).
B. Problem Formulation
The role of syllable weight in English stress system is very important to be discussed to distinguish homograph noun and adjective in English. Based on that, this study answers the following questions :
1. What are the stress placement of adjective and noun homographs?
2. How does syllable weight correlate with the stress placement of English adjective and noun homographs?
C. Objectives of the study
Based on the problem formulations, the first objective of this study is to draw the stress pattern of each adjective and noun homographs. By considering the
7 pattern of stress which has been mentioned before, the second objective is to find out how the syllable weight correlates with the stress pattern itself which means the way of syllable weight characterizes the stress pattern of simple noun and adjective homographs.
D. Definition of Terms
Syllable Weight is the concept that syllables pattern together according to
the number and/or duration of segments in the rime. Syllable weight uses two terms: heavy (H) and light (L). It plays important roles in determining the stress placement, since a stressed syllable must be heavy and unstressed one is light (Giegerich, 1992). One word only has one syllable. It cannot have two stresses at same time. When it is heard two stresses, it means there are two words. Since it is true there can be a secondary stress in some words, but a secondary stress is much smaller than the primary stress, and is only used in long words.
Stress Placement in phonology normally the number of syllable in a word
is counted from the back. Giegerich (1992) classifies stress placement into either final or non-final. English has some rules to predict the stress placement in words.
Final stress or ultimate stress is marked in English (Giegerich, 1992). It means we can predict if a word can receive final stress.
Homograph is a word spelt identically to another and possibly
pronounced the same (Fromkin, 1991:525). Homographs might differ from each other in meaning, origin and sometimes pronunciation.
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies Word stress is not used in all languages. Some languages, Japanese or French for example, pronounce each syllable with equal emphasis. English words
are pronounced with at least one dominant syllable while the other syllables tend to get squashed and reduced. In English, words with different stress position can have different meanings.
The importance of learning the different position of word stress to distinguish meanings of words among non-native students has been studied as a thesis titled The Mastery of Stress Placement of Nouns among the Second
Semester Students of the English Language Education Study Program (Kenyar,
2009). Her study was focused on the mastery of stress placement of noun among the second semester students of the English language education study program.
She analyzed the knowledge and common errors of the objects of the study in putting stress in either disyllabic, trisyllabic and tetrasyllabic nouns, affix nouns and compound nouns. The data of her study was collected from students’ speeches that had been recorded. Kenyar was aware that the difference in stress position of an English word is very important to be identified by a non-native who learns spoken English. Accurate word stress is essential for the learner’s
8
9
knowledge and his concept of English. One of her findings on her study is three commons errors done by the students which are misplacing the word stress, putting double stress in three-syllabled words and equaling stress to both unstressed and stressed syllables (2009:58-59). This study is supporting her evaluation on her data in putting stress of English words, that it is not free to stress whichever syllable. However this study is more concern on stress placement of both non-compound noun and adjective sharing same spelling but having different pronunciation. To find further if stressing a word based merely on the class of the word or if another factors can influence in assigning the stress.
Relating to stress pattern, Setyarini has also written about the stress pattern of English noun and adjective homographs on her journal titled The Stress Pattern
of English Noun and Adjective Homographs (2009:51-59). She collected both
noun and adjective homographs and described the patterns of those homographs by considering the tenseness of the peak of a syllable. Her study finds that 33 out of 54 homographs have same stress pattern, but 9 homographs have different stresses due to their different pronunciations. Although she served her paper with data, not all of her data was analyzed if the stress pattern of her data bearing stress by following the theories that she used. The fact that she analyzed her data by syllabifying the word but she did not consider the form of the syllables, if the syllabification of the word is following the characteristics of the elements forming syllables itself and the principles of syllabification. She also used both phonological and syntactical theories to justify the stress assignment of her data.
This study with bigger data tries to analyze if a word bearing stress by following
10
particular theories or if there is more specific conditions which not allow a word to bear stress just based on general rules of stress assignment based on phonological theories that is syllable weight or reverse condition happens. The data in this study is also limited to non-compound words.
The correct placement of stress requires the correct syllable boundaries, such as phonotactic constraints and onset maximalism, since the correct syllable boundaries is restricted, and wrong in applying the boundaries of syllable might lead to wrong implementation of stress and pronunciation. Budiman in her journal titled Recognizing the Phonotactic Constraints in the English Syllabification (2008:95-103) discussed the rules that control the placement of syllable boundaries in words. With the same understanding, this study syllabifies the data by considering the restriction of syllable boundaries to gain correct syllabification.
Since the study of stress pattern cannot purely learnt based on phonetics, this study takes in phonological reasons, generalizations and exceptions. But this study only analyzed the data, non-compound noun and adjective homographs which found from Longman Pronunciation Dictionary 3rd Edition, published in 2008 and took the placement of stress of both non-compound noun and adjectives homographs. Subsequently, it would describe how the syllable weight correlates with stress pattern of English non-compound adjective and noun homographs.
11
B. Review of Related Theories
Stress is only present in the syllable which forms a word. There are some factors which influence the prediction of stress placement. They are phonological factor, which is involving the segment which makes up each syllable and syllable weight, and non-phonological factor which is relating to the lexical category, in which the noun has different pattern with verb and adjective, morphological and etymological process. This study concerns on the phonological process, although the non-phonological is alluded a bit to help the analysis later.
The most precise way to talk about the placement of stress in a word phonologically is by analyzing the syllables that build a word. Analyzing a syllable includes rules which are related to the establishment of a syllable and syllable process that allows stress to be placed on the syllable.
1. Syllables
1.1 Structure of Syllables
Native speakers of English are usually able to count how many syllables that contain in a word easily. They know back and fall consist of one syllable (monosyllabic); content and pedal each has two syllables (bisyllabic); arsenic and
piano three (trisyllabic), arithmetic and periodic four (tetrasyllabic),
excommunicate five (pentasyllabic), and so on.12
There are a few English words that may have variable pronounciations with different numbers of syllables – bottling may be pronounced with two or three syllables, realistic with three or four etc. – and in some such cases the difference in the number of syllables may be a matter of what the listener perceives rather than one of the actual pronunciation (Giegerich, 1992:131).
To be able to predict the right number of syllables for a great majority of English words, Giegerich states two principles. Those are the sonority principle and number of phonemes which are contained in a syllable.
Giegerich (1992: 132-133) states the sonority of a sound is its relative loudness compared to other sounds, everything else (pitch, etc) being equal.
Speech sounds can be ranked in terms of their relative sonority: voiceless oral stops are of minimal sonority while low vowels have the highest degree of sonority of all speech sounds. The other sounds are ranked in between those two sounds.
Oral stops Fricatives Nasals Liquids Semivowels Vowels Voiceless Voiced Voiceless Voiced High Low p b f v m t d ɵ ð n j i a k g s z ŋ l r w u ɑ sonority
Figure 2.1 Sonority Scale (Giegerich, 1992:133)The more sonorous a sounds, the more audible it is. For example Dardjowidjojo (2009:135) analyzes the word planes /plenz/, the coda is /nz/.
13
It can be seen on the figure 2.1 that the /n/ is more sonorous than the /z/. Dardjowidjojo visualizes this word by: e l n p z
Figure 2.2 The Order of Sonority of the Word planes.In the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary 3rd Edition published in 2008, as the main source of data, the word planes /pleɪnz/ has a diphthong /eɪ/ in its peak, nevertheless the sonority of the coda is unchanged.
The right number of syllables of a word, which are associated with peaks of sonority, is able to be predicted with the help of the sonority scale. For instance, the word aroma, by considering the peaks of the graphic figure 2.3 then the numbers of a syllable can be clearly predicted. sonority time
/ə r o m ə/
Figure 2.3 The Graphic Sonority of the Word aromaThe graphic is showing three sonority peaks. That means the word aroma has three syllables.
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In the vowel system, the vowel phonemes can be compared into pairs, for example /i/ and /ɪ/; /u/ and /ʊ/, in which the members of each pair are phonetically similar (but not identical), one member is in longer than other and the one which is longer can only occur in closed syllable (Giegerich, 1992:95). The difference of the height and front/backness of vowels provide the quality differences of vowels which lead to differences in “tenseness”. Like /u/ and /ʊ/ which both are high, back and rounded; but compared with /ʊ/, the /u/ is higher, further back and more rounded with [+tense] feature.
[Tense]: Tense sounds are produced with a deliberate, accurate, maximally distict gesture that involves considerable muscular effort; nontense sounds are produced rapidly and somewhat indistinctly (Grigerich, 1992:98)
Based on the description of tense vowel above, vowels are divided into two [+tense] and [-tense]. [+tense] vowels, has two X-positions, are long vowels /iː/, /eː/, /ɑː/, /ɔː/, /oː/, uː/, and diphthongs /ai/, /au/, /eɪ/, /əʊ/, /oʊ/, /ɔɪ/, /ɪə/, /eə/, and /ʊə/. The [-tense] vowels, or lax vowel, has one X-position, are /ɪ/, /e/, /ᴂ/, /ʌ/, /ɒ/, and /ʊ/.
Vowel and consonants are not just strung together randomly into long, unstructured strands: instead, they form a series of larger units with their own internal structure and distribution, governed by their own rules (McMahon, 2002:104). Structurally a syllable commonly has two parts, Onset and Rhyme (Collin and Mees, 2003:71). Rhyme itself can be further divided into two parts, Nucleus and Coda.
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Every syllable has a syllabic segment called Peak (Giegerich, 1992:138). Peak and Coda form a Rhyme. It can be said that Peak is equal to Nucleus. Both peak and nucleus refer to the part of the rhyme that most sonorous in one syllable.
The peak may be preceded by one or more consonants, called Onset; while following the peak called Coda. It can be drawn as follows: syllable onset rhyme nucleus coda
Figure 2.5 Syllable Structure1.1.1 The Onset
The onset (On) stands before the peak and it must be a consonant (C). The existence of the onset is not compulsory. For example the words eat, pie and pry.
a. Syl b. Syl c. Syl Rh On Rh On Rh
X X X / ɪ t/ / p a ɪ / /p r a ɪ/ Figure 2.6 The Onset Structure of the Words eat, pie and pry.
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Each ‘X’ stands for a position occupied by a single consonant phoneme. The triangle simply covers unanalyzed material. In (a), there is not found any onset. The onset consists of maximally two consonants. The first consonant must be less sonorous than the second, which in turn will be less sonorous than the peak. In (b) and (c) each consonant preceding the vowel or vowels will always be less sonorous than the vowel or vowels. In (c) the first consonant /p/ must be less sonorous than the second one /r/. Two consonants must be less sonorous than the vowel or vowels.
However, there is a phoneme /s/ that can occupy a consonant position which is not allowable in the onset because it violates the generalization that onset sequences increase in sonority and the /s/ also extend the limit amount of X- position. The phoneme /s/ can occur before /p/, /t/ and /k/ as in the words split,
strong, and screw. Can be seen that the /s/ is as sonorous as /p/, /t/, /k/, but it
occupies the position before those sounds and the /s/ in those words forms a third X-position in the onset. The /s/ here called appendix (Giegerich, 1992:149).
1.1.2 The Coda
The coda (Co) of the syllable is the consonant or sequence of consonants that follows the peak (Giegerich, 1992:139). It is similar to onset, except it follows the peak. The existence of the coda is optional. While onset and peak compose an ascending in sonority, peak and coda are descending. Also like onset, a coda can contain maximally two consonants.
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a. Syl b Syl c Syl Rh Rh Rh
On Pe On Pe Co On Pe Co
X X X / f i / /f i /f i/ /f i l/ /f ɪ l m/ Figure 2.7 The Coda Structure of the words fee, feel and film.
The number of X-position in the coda (a) is none; in (b) is one; in (c) are two. In (c) phoneme /m/ is more sonorous than /l/.
Similar to onset, maximally contains two consonants, a coda also can be followed by certain appendices – /d/, /t/, /z/, /s/, /Ө/, /dᴣ/ that violate the coda’s generalization in sonority and the total number of X-position. For example: lobed, mind, globes, length, texts.
a. Sy b. Sy Rh Rh
On Pe Co On Pe Co