Juncture, in
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
, is the manner of moving (transition) between two successive
syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...
s in speech. An important type of juncture is the
suprasegmental
phonem
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most List of dialects of English, dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West M ...
ic cue by means of which a listener can distinguish between two otherwise identical sequences of sounds that have different meanings.
Typology
There are several kinds of juncture, the most widely used typology of which is:
;plus juncture:Also known as open juncture, this is subdivided into internal open juncture and external open juncture. It is the juncture that occurs at word boundaries. In phonetic transcription open juncture is transcribed , hence the name ''plus'' juncture.
;close juncture:Also known as a normal transition, this is a transition between segments (sounds) within a word.
;terminal juncture:Also known as falling, clause terminal or terminal contour, this is the juncture at the end of a clause or utterance with falling pitch before a silence.
Other less common typologies exist, such as the division (favoured by American
Structuralist linguists in the middle twentieth century) into plus, single bar, double bar, and double cross junctures, denoted , , , and respectively. These correspond to syllabification and differences in intonation, single bar being a level pitch before a break, double bar being an upturn in pitch and a break, and double cross being a downturn in pitch that usually comes at the end of an utterance.
Examples from English
In English, a syllable break at the plus juncture sometimes distinguishes otherwise
homophonic phrases.
* "a name" and "an aim"
* "that stuff" and "that's tough"
* "fork handles" and "
four candles"
A word boundary preceded or followed by a syllable break is called an ''external open juncture''. If there is no break, so that words on either side of the juncture are run together, the boundary is called an ''internal open juncture''.
The distinction between open and close juncture is the difference between "
night
Night (also described as night time, unconventionally spelled as "nite") is the period of ambient darkness from sunset to sunrise during each 24-hour day, when the Sun is below the horizon. The exact time when night begins and ends depends o ...
rate", with the open juncture between and , and "
nitrate
Nitrate is a polyatomic ion
A polyatomic ion, also known as a molecular ion, is a covalent bonded set of two or more atoms, or of a metal complex, that can be considered to behave as a single unit and that has a net charge that is not zer ...
", with close juncture between and . In some
varieties of English
Dialects are linguistic varieties that may differ in pronunciation, vocabulary, spelling and grammar. For the classification of varieties of English only in terms of pronunciation, see regional accents of English.
Overview
Dialects can be defi ...
, only the latter involves an
affricate
An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pair. ...
.
In wordplay and games
In
recreational linguistics
Logology (or ludolinguistics) is the field of recreational linguistics, an activity that encompasses a wide variety of word games and wordplay. The term is analogous to the term "recreational mathematics".
Overview
Some of the topics studied in l ...
, various types of junctures of are often used and played with in
word games
Word games (also called word game puzzles or word search games) are spoken, board, or video games often designed to test ability with language or to explore its properties.
Word games are generally used as a source of entertainment, but can add ...
, in order to create or emphasize homophonic effects in pairs of
same-sounding phrases
A homophone () is a word that is Pronunciation, pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be Spelling, spelled the same, for example ''rose'' ( ...
. When pronounced without a pause between words (internal open juncture), phrases which differ in meaning and spelling may share a similar pronunciation. An example is "ice cream" and "I scream" (which is employed in the chant "I scream; you scream; we all scream for ice cream" that is familiar to many English-speaking children.
''
The Two Ronnies
''The Two Ronnies'' is a British television comedy sketch show starring Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett. It was created by Bill Cotton and aired on BBC1 from April 1971 to December 1987. The usual format included sketches, solo sections, seria ...
'' comedy sketch "
Four Candles" is entirely built around same-sounding words and phrases, including a taciturn customer's request for "fork handles" being misheard as "four candles".
In the world of word games,
same-sounding phrases
A homophone () is a word that is Pronunciation, pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be Spelling, spelled the same, for example ''rose'' ( ...
are sometimes also referred to as "oronyms". Such use of that term was first proposed by
Gyles Brandreth
Gyles Daubeney Brandreth (born 8 March 1948) is an English broadcaster, writer and former politician. He has worked as a television presenter, theatre producer, journalist, author and publisher.
He was a presenter for TV-am's '' Good Morning ...
in his book ''The Joy of Lex'' (1980). Since the term
oronym was already well established in
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
as an
onomastic
Onomastics (or, in older texts, onomatology) is the study of the etymology, history, and use of proper names. An ''orthonym'' is the proper name of the object in question, the object of onomastic study.
Onomastics can be helpful in data mining, w ...
designation for a class of
toponymic
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''wikt:toponym, toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a p ...
features (names of mountains, hills, etc.), the proposed alternative use of the same term was not universally accepted in scholarly literature.
See also
*
Eggcorn
An eggcorn is the alteration of a phrase through the mishearing or reinterpretation of one or more of its elements,, sense 2 creating a new phrase having a different meaning from the original but which still makes sense and is plausible when used ...
, a phrase that is substituted for a similar-sounding phrase
*
False etymology
A false etymology (fake etymology, popular etymology, etymythology, pseudo-etymology, or par(a)etymology) is a popular but false belief about the origin or derivation of a specific word. It is sometimes called a folk etymology, but this is also a ...
*
Four Candles
*
Malapropism
A malapropism (also called a malaprop, acyrologia, or Dogberryism) is the mistaken use of an incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound, resulting in a nonsensical, sometimes humorous utterance. An example is the statement attributed to ...
*
Mondegreen
A mondegreen () is a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase in a way that gives it a new meaning. Mondegreens are most often created by a person listening to a poem or a song; the listener, being unable to hear a lyric clearly, substitutes w ...
*
Phono-semantic matching
Phono-semantic matching (PSM) is the incorporation of a word into one language from another, often creating a neologism, where the word's non-native quality is hidden by replacing it with Phonetics, phonetically and semantically similar words or ...
*
Rebracketing
Rebracketing (also known as resegmentation or metanalysis) is a process in historical linguistics where a word originally derived from one set of morphemes is broken down or bracketed into a different set. For example, ''hamburger'', originally ...
or "juncture loss"
References
Reference bibliography
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Further reading
* {{cite book, chapter=American structuralism: juncture phonemes, title=A Guide to Morphosyntax-Phonology Interface Theories: How Extra-Phonological Information is Treated in Phonology since Trubetzkoy's Grenzsignale, first=Tobias, last=Scheer, publisher=Walter de Gruyter, year=2010, isbn=9783110238631
Phonetics
Phonology