Theories of syllable division

Phoneticians are not always in agreement in their definition of the syllable because in their analysis they proceed from either articulatory or acoustic aspects of the unit. One of the phonetic theories —the expiratory, or chest pulse theory — defines the syllable as a sound or a group of sounds that are pronounced in one chest pulse, accompanied by increases in air pressure. Ac­cording to this definition, there are as many syllables in a word as there are chest pulses (expirations) made during the utterance of the word. Each vowel sound is pronounced with increased expiration. Consequently, vowejs are always syllabic. Boundaries between syllables are in the place where there occur changes in the air pressure. But it is impossible to explain all cases of syllable formation on the basis of the expiratory theory, and therefore, to determine boundaries between syllables. A.Gimson notes that it is doubtful whether a double chest pulse will be evident in the pronunciation of juxtaposed vowels as, for instance, in "seeing" / si: - in l, though such words consist of two syllables.

The relative sonority theory, or the prominence theory, created by the Danish phonetician O. Jespersen, considers that sounds tend to group themselves according to their sonority.

Pronounced with uniform force, length and pitch, speech sounds differ in sonority (prominence, audibility or carrying power). The most sonorous sounds are vowels, less sonorous are sonorants /w, j, r, m, n, "») /and the least sonorous are noise consonants. 0. Jespersen classifies sounds according to the degree of sonority in the following way (beginning with the most sonorous):

1. Open vowels 2. Mid—open vowels 3. Close vowels 4. Sonants 5. Voiced fricatives 6. Voiced stops lb, d, g/ 7. Voiceless fricatives 8. Voiceless stops (p, t, k)

Sounds are grouped around the most sonorous ones, i.e. vowels (and sometimes sonants) which form the peak of sonority in a syllable. One peak of sonority is separated from another peak by sounds of lower sonority, i.e. con­sonants. The distance between the two points of lower sonority is a syllable.The number of syllables is determined by the number of peaks of prominence. The most widespread among Soviet linguists is the muscular tensiоn (or the articulatory effort) theory which is known as Shcherba's theory.

According to this theory a syllable is characterized by variations in muscular tension. The energy of articulation increases at the beginning of a syllable, reaches its maximum with the vowel (or the sonant) and decreases towards the end of the syllable. So, a syllable is an arc of muscular tension. The boundaries between syllables are determined by the occurrence of the lowest articulatory energy.

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