The CVX Theory of Syllable: The Analysis of Word-Final Rhymes in English and in Slovak

Abstract

The CVX theory of syllable by S. Duanmu claims that the maximal rhyme size in all languages is VX, i.e. VV or VC (Duanmu 2009). Duanmu's analysis of wordfinal rhymes in English shows that all coda clusters form a complex sound or can be explained by morphology. Long vowels can be represented as short and thus the rhyme size does not exceed VX. The data from Slovak cast doubts on the universal nature of the CVX syllable theory. In Slovak, word-final consonant clusters form complex sounds only rarely and not all consonants beyond the VX limit have morphological solution. Moreover, the dominant feature of Slovak vowels is their length, which expands the number of timing slots in the rhyme structure template.

A Contrastive Analysis of High/Closed Vowels Produced by Native Speakers of British English and Serbian

“…Mnogi autori bavili su se ovom temom, opisujući, pritom, fonetski sistem maternjeg jezika, među kojima nailazimo na španski (Bradlow 1995), japanski (Tsukada 1999), slovački (Gregova 2008), francuski (Markey 1998) itd. -jedino je u radu Gregove (2008) izvršena kontrastivna analiza između slovačkog i engeskog jezka, ne na planu usvajanja drugog jezika (L2), već na planu proučavanja konkretnih fonetskih odlika ovih jezika.…”