On suprasegmental features 一． Introduction So far we have been talking about phonetic features as they apply to single phonetic segments， or Phonetic features can also apply to a string of several sounds， such as a syllable， or an entire word or The study of phonological features which applies to groups larger than the single segment， are known as suprasegmental features， such as the syllable or the The study of these features is known as It mainly includes syllable， stress， pitch， tone， and In this paper， I will talk about the suprasegmental features in great Key words: phonetic， 二． Syllable The most obvious prosodic feature in language is the Let's briefly discuss the notion of Like all of our other basic linguistic concepts， although everyone knows what a syllable is， the concept "syllable" is difficult to define in absolute A syllable can be divided into three parts， that is， onset， nucleus， and coda， of which nucleus is a A syllable that has no coda is called an open syllable while a syllable with coda is called a closed In English only long vowels and diphthongs can occur in open The onset may be empty or filled by a cluster of as many as three consonants， while the coda position may be filled as many as four The maximal onset principle states that when there is a choice as to where to place a consonant， it is put into the onset rather than the In some languages， syllables are always open， that is， they always end in a vowel， never a (Hawaiian) On the other hand， every Hawaiian syllable must begin with a (Aloha spoken as a single word begins in a glottal ) In other languages， syllables are always closed; they must end in a consonant (Navaho): Háá'ishah Let's build a Táá diné 'ooljéé'go naaskai' Three men went to the (Like Hawaiian， they must also begin in a )三． Stress The nature of stress The word stress is used differently by different authors， and the relationship between stress， emphasis， accent and prominence is also defined Robins has defined it as “a generic term for the relatively greater force exerted in the articulation of part of utterance” The nature of stress is simple enough—practically everyone would agree that the first syllable of words like“father”， “open” is stressed， that the middle syllable is stressed in “potato”， “apartment” and the final syllable is stressed in “about”， “perhaps”， and most people feel they have some sort of idea of what the difference is between stressed and unstressed syllables， though they might explain it in many different The production of stress is generally believed to depend on the speaker using more muscular energy than is used for unstressed From the perceptual point of view， all stressed syllables have one characteristic in common， and that is “prominence” Roach has manifested that at least four different factors are important to make a syllable prominent:i) Loudness: Most people seem to feel that stressed syllables are louder than unstressed ones; in other words， loudness is a component of ii) Length: The length of syllables has an important part to play in prominence; the syllables which are made longer than the others will be heard as iii) Pitch: Pitch in speech is closely related to the frequency of vibration of the vocal folds and to the musical notion of low-pitched and high-pitched notes; if one syllable is said with a pitch that is noticeably different from that of the others， this will have a strong tendency to produce the effect of iv) Quality: a syllable will tend to be prominent if it contains a vowel that is different in quality from neighboring Languages differ in how they use 1) In some languages， each syllable is equally stressed or unstressed，as in Cambodian2) the syllable in each word is more The place of stress is fixed on a certain syllable:1) Finnish， Hungarian and other Finno-Ugric languages2) Polish，3) F4) Complex set of In Bulgarian nouns and verbs have separate sets of rules for stress Hopi (phonetic: first syllable of a two syllable word: síkwi meat; in words of three or more syllables， accent falls on the first long vowel: máamatsi to recognize; or on the first short vowel before a consonant cluster: péntani to write; otherwise it falls on the next to last syllable: wunúvtu stand up)The place of stress is 1) In Russian the stress is completely random: xoroshó， xoró2) In English the stress is more predictable but still Usually a middle syllable of a longer word receives the In two syllable words stress is rando and often renders differences in meaning: project/to project， produce/produce， and insult/ to Some languages have more than one stress per word: English is such a In English， words of four syllables or more have a primary and a secondary Some English compounds have phrasal stress on the first element of the Phrasal stress often distinguishes meaning in adjective/noun Sentence stress in English According to He Shanfen (1992)， English sentence stress has two main functions:⑴ to indicate the important words in the sentence; ⑵ to serve as the basis for the rhythmic structure of the Consequently， in connected English speech， sentence stress usually falls on content ( or lexical) words， which carry the basic meaning of a sentence， nouns， adjectives， adverbs Those which are usually unstressed in sentences are form (or structural) words， which show grammatical relationships， such as articles， auxiliary and modal verbs， monosyllabic prepositions，
On suprasegmental features Introduction So far we havebeen talking about phonetic features as they apply to single phonetic segments，or Phonetic features can also apply to a string of severalsounds， such as a syllable， or an entire word or The study ofphonological features which applies to groups larger than the single segment，are known as suprasegmentalfeatures， such as the syllable or the The study of these features is knownas It mainly includessyllable， stress， pitch， tone， and In this paper， I will talk aboutthe suprasegmental features ingreat Key words: phonetic， Syllable The most obvious prosodic feature in languageis the Let's briefly discuss the notion of Like all of our other basic linguistic concepts，although everyone knows what a syllable is， the concept "syllable" isdifficult to define in absolute A syllable can be divided into threeparts， that is， onset， nucleus， and coda， of which nucleus is a Asyllable that has no coda is called an open syllable while a syllable with codais called a closed In English only long vowels and diphthongs canoccur in open The onset may be empty or filled by a cluster of asmany as three consonants， while the coda position may be filled as many as The maximal onset principle states that when there is a choice asto where to place a consonant， it is put into the onset rather than the In some languages， syllables are always open，that is， they always end in a vowel， never a (Hawaiian) On the other hand， every Hawaiian syllable must begin with a (Aloha spoken as a single word beginsin a glottal ) In other languages， syllables are always closed; they mustend in a consonant (Navaho): Háá'ishah Let's build a Táá diné 'ooljéé'go naaskai' Three men went to the (LikeHawaiian， they must also begin in a )Stress The nature of stress The word stress is used differently bydifferent authors， and the relationship between stress， emphasis， accent andprominence is also defined Robins has defined it as “a genericterm for the relatively greater force exerted in the articulation of part ofutterance” The nature of stress is simple enough—practically everyone wouldagree that the first syllable of words like“father”， “open” is stressed， thatthe middle syllable is stressed in “potato”， “apartment” and the final syllableis stressed in “about”， “perhaps”， and most people feel they have some sort ofidea of what the difference is between stressed and unstressed syllables，though they might explain it in many different The production of stress is generallybelieved to depend on the speaker using more muscular energy than is used forunstressed From the perceptual point of view， all stressed syllableshave one characteristic in common， and that is “prominence” Roach hasmanifested that at least four different factors are important to make asyllable prominent:i) Loudness: Most people seem to feelthat stressed syllables are louder than unstressed ones; in other words，loudness is a component of ii) Length: The length of syllables hasan important part to play in prominence; the syllables which are made longerthan the others will be heard as iii) Pitch: Pitch in speech is closelyrelated to the frequency of vibration of the vocal folds and to the musicalnotion of low-pitched and high-pitched notes; if one syllable is said with apitch that is noticeably different from that of the others， this will have astrong tendency to produce the effect of iv) Quality: a syllable will tend to be prominentif it contains a vowel that is different in quality from neighboring Languages differ in how they use 1) In some languages， eachsyllable is equally stressed or unstressed，as in Cambodian2) the syllable in eachword is more Theplace of stress is fixed on acertain syllable:1) Finnish，Hungarian and other Finno-Ugric languages2) Polish，3) F4) Complex set In Bulgarian nouns and verbs have separate sets of rules forstress Hopi (phonetic: first syllable of a two syllableword: síkwi meat; inwords of three or more syllables， accent falls on the first long vowel: máamatsi to recognize; or onthe first short vowel before a consonant cluster: péntani to write; otherwise it falls on thenext to last syllable: wunúvtu standup)The place of stress is 1) In Russian the stress iscompletely random: xoroshó， xoró2) In English the stress ismore predictable but still Usually a middle syllable of a longerword receives the In two syllable words stress is rando and oftenrenders differences in meaning: project/toproject， produce/produce， and insult/ to Some languages have more than one stress perword: English is such a In English， words of foursyllables or more have a primaryand a secondary SomeEnglish compounds have phrasal stress on the first element of Phrasal stress often distinguishes meaning in adjective/ Sentence stress in English According to He Shanfen (1992)， Englishsentence stress has two main functions:⑴ to indicate the important words in thesentence; ⑵ to serve as thebasis for the rhythmic structure of the Consequently， in connected English speech，sentence stress usually falls on content ( or lexical) words， which carry thebasic meaning of a sentence， nouns， adjectives， adverbs Those whichare usually unstressed in sentences are form (or structural) words， which showgrammatical relationships， such as articles， auxiliary and modal verbs，monosyllabic prepositions， Pitch Another prosodic feature is pitch， defined as the frequency ofvibration of vocal Pitch is measured in Physiologically， pitch tends to be higher inwoman than in men and higher before puberty than after Also， thepitch of women's voices tends to lower with old age; the pitch of men's voicestends to get higher with Despite these physiological， non-linguisticuniversal， each language uses pitch distinctions for linguisticallymeaningful Startingfrom the lowest pitch on the initial syllable， the pitch of each subsequentsyllable raises until the word reaches the "peak" From that point，pitch either remains at the same level for the remainder of the word or itdrops The choice between maintenance of high pitch or allowing it todrop is a matter of formality: pitch is maintained in formal or careful speech，but dropped in colloquial 七．ConclusionBeing the most important part， suprasegmental features can not be despised in phonology From the whole passage， we can understand that suprasegmentalfeatures not only has its phonology significance， but also the practicaluse as We can not say this person is a good language user just by his orher vocabulary， as well as the Spoken language is also very Ido hope that the paper will be sufficient to prove that suprasegmental features is an efficient way for our studies and encouragemore and more students to pay attention to using Reference【1】CaoJ The Rhythm of Mandarin C Instituteof Linguistics of Chinese Academyof Social S RPR-IL/CASS (2000-2002)【2】Chen Y Contrastive Study of Suprasegmental Phonology in English and Chinese: aFunctional P MA: Southwest China Normal U【3】Chomsky，N & Halle，M The Sound Pattern of E New York: Harper and Row， P
