English Linguistics (Phonology)
Week 4
English Linguistics (Phonology)
Lecture Notes
Week 4: Prosodic Phonology & Sequential Constraints of Phonemes
Course Website: http://www.f.waseda.jp/tharada/phonology/index.htm
Source: Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2006). An Introduction to Language (8th ed).
Boston: Thomson Wadsworth.
Syllable
Syllable Structure
 A syllable is a phonological unit composed of one or more phonemes.
 Every syllable has a nucleus, which is usually a vowel (but which may be a syllabic
liquid or nasal).
 The nucleus may be preceded by one or more phonemes called the syllable onset and
followed by one or more segments called the coda.
A syllable consists of three sub-units: onset, nucleus, and coda.
Onset (optional)
syllable-initial consonant(s)
Nucleus (obligatory)
a vowel
Coda (optional)
syllable-final consonant(s)
Example: STRENGTHS
SYLLABLE
ONSET
str
NUCLEUS
e
CODA
NkTs
Syllable Structures in Japanese and English
Your knowledge of phonology includes information about what sequences of phonemes are
permissible, and what sequences are not.
When you create nonsense or existing words in Japanese and English using the following
phonemes, what combinations are possible?
/p/, /i/, /k/, /s/, /e/, /k/,
Japanese: (C1)(C2)V(C3) : kyak-ka
 (C2) must be a (
).
 (C3) must be (
); or
 (C3) must be the first consonant of a geminate.
Tetsuo Harada
1
English Linguistics (Phonology)
Week 4
English: (C1)(C2)(C3)V(C4)(C5)(C6)(C7): strengths
 If a word begins with an /l/ or an /r/, the next segment must be a vowel.
 If /tʃ, dʒ/ begin a word, the next sound must be a vowel.
 No more than three sequential consonants can occur at the beginning of a word, and these
three are restricted to /s/ + /p, t, k/ +/l, r, w, j/ (Note that /stl/ is not a permitted sequence.):
spew, sclaff, squat.
The limitations on sequences of segments are called phonotactic constraints.
Accent
Stress-accent languages (e.g., English)
Stress is realized by the combination of pitch, vowel duration and loudness. The stressed
syllable is often associated with high pitch and tends to be longer and louder than the
unstressed one. Note that in English the change of a pitch pattern does not affect the
intellectual meaning of a word, whereas the stress pattern is contrastive (e.g., súbject <noun>
vs. subjéct <verb>).
e.g.,
Judy.
Judy?









Compound Noun vs. Adjective + Noun
1
1
1 2
1
1
2 1
hot + dog → hotdog (frankfurter)
hot + dog → hotdog (an overheated dog)
1
1
1
2
white + house → White House
1
1
2 1
white + house → white house (a house painted white)
In English we place primary stress o the adjectival part of a compound noun (which may be
written as one word, two words separated by a hyphen, or two separate words), but we place
the stress on the noun when the words are a noun phrase consisting of an adjective followed
by a noun.
Tone languages are languages that use the pitch of individual syllables to contrast meanings.
e.g., Thai (naa with falling pitch = face, naa with a rising pitch = thick), Mandarin
Chinese (shu with a level tone = write, shu with a rising tone = sorghum, shu with a falling
tone = technique, shu with a falling-rising tone = category)
Pitch-accent languages
e.g., Japanese
Unlike the case with tone languages, the pitch pattern of the entire word is contrastive.
1) Contrastive function
hashi (箸)
hashi (橋)
kami (神)
kami (紙)
Accent plays a role in contrasting words.
Tetsuo Harada
2
English Linguistics (Phonology)
Week 4
2) Grammatical function
きょうかいにいく。
きょうかいにいく。
きょうかいにいく。
Accent indicates word boundaries.
Rhythm
The Concept of Mora
Mora is a timing unit, each of which is supposed to bear the psychologically same length of
time.
The mora has one of the following three realizations, each of which counts as one mora:
1) (Consonant) Vowel
2) The first part of a geminate: 「っ」
3) Syllable final nasal /N/: 「ん」
How many moras does each of the words discussed above have?
Mora-based
Syllable-based
yama =
2
2
itta =
nihon =
English and Japanese Rhythm (Isochrony)
English is a stress-timed language.
The stressed syllables happen repeatedly at regular intervals of time, regardless of the number
of intervening unstressed syllables. The length of an utterance depends not on the number of
syllables but on the number of stresses (Celce-Murcia, Brinton, & Goodwin, 1996).
Cats
The cats
The cats
The cats
The cats
have
will
have been
could have been
 
chase
chased
chase
chasing
chasing

mice.
mice.
the mice.
the mice.
the mice.

In English stressed syllables alternate with unstressed ones and the stressed syllables tend to
be lengthened.
e.g., education

Tetsuo Harada
3
English Linguistics (Phonology)
Week 4
Japanese is a mora-timed language.
The moras are said to occur at regular intervals of time. The length of an utterance depends
on the number of moras.
YA
MA
DA
  
YA
MA
DA
SA
N
    
The negative transfer of the stress-timed rhythm is often observed in the production of
Japanese words by English speakers. Therefore, strong and weak syllables alternate and the
stressed syllables tend to be longer.
e.g., Yokohama

Bimoraic Foot
a) ニックネームの構成
 「チャン」の前は二拍になる。
純子ちゃん ＞ 純ちゃん ＞＊じゅちゃん
 二拍にするために、音を伸ばすこともある。
まさちゃん ＞ まーちゃ
 第一拍と第三拍を取って、二拍にすることもある。
もとこちゃん＞もこちゃん
b) 数字、電話番号
 541-2329 ごー、よん、いち、にー、さん、にー、きゅう
c) 曜日
 げつ、かー、すい、もく、きん、どー、にち
d) 外来語の省略形
 ワードプロセッサー ＞ ワープロ
リモートコントロール ＞ リモコン
Question
The following Japanese and English sentences are ambiguous. Discuss two readings each in
terms of stress or pitch accent.
きょうようがある。
He is an English teacher
Tetsuo Harada
4