Sonority, Syllable Structure, and Stress in English
Sonority Scale and Syllable Formation
The Sonority Scale (or sonority hierarchy) posits that sonority increases towards the syllable peak, typically occupied by vowels and other sonorant sounds, and decreases away from it. Obstruent sounds, with the lowest sonority, often mark syllable boundaries. The scale has seven levels:
- 7-Vowels
- 6-Glides
- 5-Liquids
- 4-Nasals
- 3-Fricatives
- 2-Affricates
- 1-Plosives
The Sonority Sequencing Generalization (SSG) states that an optimal syllable has a sonority peak, optionally preceded and followed by segments of decreasing sonority. A word like blind exemplifies this, being monosyllabic with a single sonority peak.
Maximal Onset Principle and Syllabification
The Maximal Onset Principle assigns as many consonants as possible to the syllable onset, within the constraints of English phonotactics. To maintain stressed syllables as heavy, consonants following a short stressed vowel become ambisyllabic, belonging to both the coda and onset of adjacent syllables. For example, ‘happy’, ‘winter’, and ‘petrol’ are syllabified as ‘hap.py’, ‘win.ter’, and ‘pet.trol’.
Wells’ Theory of Syllabicity
In Wells’ theory, consonants are syllabified with the more strongly stressed adjacent vowel, except when between equally stressed syllables, where they syllabify to the left. This approach aligns with allophonic distribution at syllable boundaries (e.g., at ease [æt iːz] and a tease [ə tʰiːz]). Phonotactics must be respected, and word and morpheme boundaries in compounds must coincide with syllable boundaries (e.g., sell#fish vs. self-ish). Thus, ‘happy’, ‘winter’, and ‘petrol’ are syllabified as /’hæp.i/, /’wɪnt.ə/, and /’petr.əl/, respectively.
English Phonotactic Constraints
English phonotactics limit onsets to a maximum of two consonants, unless they begin with [s]. This explains why ‘flew’ is not pronounced */flju:/, but ‘stew’ is pronounced with a yod.
Stress in English
Stress is the degree of force with which a sound or syllable is uttered. Along with intonation, lexical stress gives prominence to some syllables and helps to avoid monotony. It is a suprasegmental feature along with rhythm, intonation and length.
Complexity of English Stress
Predicting stress placement in English is difficult due to its complex nature, being a mixture of Romance and Germanic languages, which follow different principles.
Compound Nouns vs. Syntactic Units
The meaning of compound nouns (CN) cannot be inferred from their components, unlike syntactic units (SU). For example, ‘rédneck’ (a reactionary person) vs. ‘réd néck’ (a neck that is red). Many CNs are lexicalized forms, treated as monomorphemic. CNs are usually stressed on the first component, while SUs stress both components (e.g., rédneck vs. réd néck). Some CNs, however, are double-stressed (e.g., tóp hát).
Stress Shift and Word Origin
English words may or may not undergo stress shift depending on their origin. Germanic words are less likely to shift stress with suffixation (e.g., wórker, wórkers, wórking). Greek prefixes tend to retain stress when followed by one syllable (e.g., mónologue), but shift stress if followed by more than one syllable (e.g., monópoly). Romance words shift stress onto the suffix with suffixation (e.g., cigár > cígarette).