Suprasegmentals (06-Nov-2003)
A suprasegmental is defined by Collins as "denoting
those features of a sound or sequence of sounds that accompany rather than
form part of the consecutive segments of a word or sentence, as for example
stress and pitch in English". Two of the most important suprasegmental
features in spoken language are stress and intonation, which
are referred to as prosodic features. Other suprasegmental features
such as changes in voice quality (creaky voice, whispering voice) may be used
in some cultures as a means of conveying extra information to a spoken
utterance - these are referred to as paralinguistic features.
Suprasegmental elements may be used to alter meaning, disambiguate, or
convey extra information, depending on the language being spoken:
- stress, also referred to as accent occurs when a particular
syllable is emphasised using volume (louder) pitch (higher) and length
(longer). It is used in some languages to change the meaning of a specific
word. English has this for certain words (e.g. 'incense vs. in'cense).
Rules for stress in English can seem arbitrary and in some cases the stress
can move around ('photograph, pho'tography). In other languages,
e.g. Spanish, stress generally occurs on the penultimate syllable but can
move to change the meaning of a word (termino == I terminate; terminó == I
terminated; the written word uses an accent shows that the stress has moved
from its default position).
- Intonation is the melody of speech; the way that the pitch rises
and falls throughout an utterance. In English, a statement typically ends
with the pitch falling at the end, and a question with the pitch rising. So
"cats like milk" could be made to sound like a statement or question
depending the intonation. Intonation can convey the emotional state of the
speaker, and also provide clues as to how to parse the information in an
utterance: for example, using a slightly rising pitch to suggest a "comma" in
a list of items, or a low pitch to suggest a parenthesized phrase.
- rhythm refers to the pattern of stresses throughout an utterance,
and varies noticeably between different languages.
Useful book readings for this lecture:
- Roach: "Phonetics", ch. 5
- Crystal: "Encyclopedia of Language", ch. 29
Sounds, Grammar and Meaning page