Segmental vs. Suprasegmental

Segmental vs. Suprasegmental

1. In speech, a segment is

   • any one of the discrete units that occur in a sequence of sounds
     • which can be broken down into phonemes,
       • syllables or words in spoken language
         • through a process called speech segmentation.
   • Examples:
     • An example of segmental phonemes are the sounds of "a," "e," "i," "o," and "u."

2. Suprasegmental phonology

   • refers to intonation patterns
     • stress placement
       • and rhythm in spoken language;
         • also called prosody.
     • Word Stress
       • In polysyllabic words, one or more syllables
         • tend to have a
           • higher emphasis on them
             • than others.
         • Sentence stress
           • within a larger unit
             • Emphasize particular words
           • least 3 levels of accentuation,
             • We can distinguish at
           • distinguish between homograph verbs and nouns
             • primary (indicated by ˈ), secondary (indicated by ˌ) and unstressed
       • Examples:
         • Stress on penultimate syllable
           • GRAPHic geoGRAPHic geoLOGic
     • Intonation
       • It is the vibrational frequency
         • of the vocal cords.
           • which is modulated to
             • achieve particular effects
               • on the speaker.
                 • These effects may be attitudinal
                 • A further function of intonation is to convey incompleteness
   • Examples:
     • In talking to
       • a cat, a dog or a baby, you
         • may adopt a particular set
           • of suprasegmentals.

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