English speakers have instinctive knowledge about where stress goes on novel words; the instinct is tied in
interesting ways to the historical development of the English lexicon, even though most speakers know
nothing about the subject. How would you pronounce these made‐up words?
fendren – potchlin – fotstrel – rendlick – fendrenhood – potchlinly – fostreler – rendlickness
lollidoolipog – anilominic – fontimolin – resveratol –cellaxin – amtarin – tyleenol
The top row contains words that mimick the phonemic content of words that have been in English for
centuries (which are mostly two syllables long, occasionally three) and have left‐dominant stress, while the
bottom row evokes more recent words borrowed from Latin, French, and other languages. In these words,
stress is located further to the right margin of the word.
SYLLABLE STRUCTURE
Most literate English speakers, even if they don’t grasp the notion of syllables, know how to divide them up,
which they do when creating, say, song lyrics or sponatneous oral poetry.
Even so, there can be ambiguity, as you see in the case of mistake. Whether the /t/ is realized as an aspirated
stop depends on where the syllable boundary falls. That, in turn, is influenced by people’s instinctive
awareness – or lack thereof – of the morphological structure of the word.
When you make a mistake, is that a variation on the action denoted by the verb take? Or is it an independent,
irreducible lexical morpheme in its own right? Speakers often have both in their heads and may switch
between them unpredictably and unconsciously
Broad Phonetic Transcription Syllabification
Illogical [IllɑdƷIkəl] Il . l ɑ . dƷ I . k ə l
Mental [mɛntəl] mɛn.təl
mentality [mɛnthælIɾi] mɛn.t h
æ . l I.ɾ i
misinform [mIsInform] m Is . In . f o r m
misinformation [mIsInfərmeʃən] m Is . In . f ə r . m e . ʃ ə n
partake [pɑrthek] p ɑ r . th e k
mistake [mIstek] m I.s t e k OR m I s . th e k
Ling 170D | Intro to Linguistics with Dr. Getty | Fall 2009 | Week 6 part 1 | Page 2 of 4
Within syllables, there are more layers of structure.
SYLLABLE
ONSET RHYME
NUCLEUS CODA
truth t r u θ
spiked s p a j k t
scratched s k r æ tʃ t
pains p e j n z
odd ɑ: d
sixths s I k s θ s
As the term suggests, you don’t have a syllable if you don’t have a nucleus. The nucleus contains the peak of
sonoroity within a syllable, sonority being the combination of voicing and lack of obstruction of the air flow.
As a cognitive reality, the onset is supported by spoonerisms, a pattern of speech errors named after the
Reverend William Archibald Spooner, who was notoriously prone to them (source).
Ling 170D | Intro to Linguistics with Dr. Getty | Fall 2009 | Week 6 part 1 | Page 4 of 4