Syllables boundaries

So, taking the vowel as the centre of the syllable, all we have to do is decide which consonants belong to which syllables. In words such as hotel, we can safely say that the /h/ belongs to the first syllable and the l l to the last, but what about the /t/ There are a number of positions to take on this. One position is the so-called maximal onset principle where consonants that potentially could be in the onset or coda of a syllable are taken as being in the onset. Using the symbol /./ to denote a syllable boundary, hotel is then represented as /h ow. t eh 1/. 

This will provide a satisfactory account for many words, and it can be argued that this has some cognitive reality because, again from singing, we find that consonants tend to follow this pattern. There are a number of problems however. Firstly, in non-word-initial syllables which have /s t r/ and other such sequences, instruct, /ih n s t r ah k t/ it can be argued that the /s/ attaches to the first syllable and not the second. Secondly, consider such words as bookend, /b uh k eh n d/ - here it definitely seems that the /k/ attaches to the first syllable - in fact a syllable final /k/ and an syllable initial one sound quite different and so /b uh k. eh n d/ sounds different from uh. k eh n d/. There is an obvious reason to this, namely that bookend is a word formed by compounding book and end, and it seems that the word/morpheme boundary has been preserved as a syllable boundary. 

Indicates syllable boundary when following syllable is unstressed... 

One of the most important aspects of phonology concerns the structural representation of sound patterns above the phoneme. We have already seen that morpheme boundaries are significant (e g. in the difference between the realisation of pens and pence) as are word boimdaries. In addition to these, we find it is very useful to make use of a third unit, the syllable as this also helps explain many of the effects and patterns in speech. 

The AM school (which includes ToBI) describes intonation in terms of abstract High and Low tones. Diacritics (, %, -) are used to specify which tones align with syllables and boundaries. The tones can be combined in various ways to form an inventory of pitch accents (e.g. H +L). 

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