The Notion of Syllable Across History, Theories and Analysis

Book excerpt: Any notion linguistically expressed, even one such as the syllable, is always the result of several different viewpoints. In order to take this into account, this book draws inspiration from the scheme of quaternion, as conceived by Sir William Rowan Hamilton and later introduced in theoretical linguistics by Ferdinand de Saussure. The first term of the quaternion (The Dawn of the Syllable) is provided by historical observations. The second term (Beyond the Sound of Syllables) is composed of different descriptive analyses of the syllable carried out in some particular languages and dialects. The third term (The Body of Syllables) presents the analytical-instrumental analysis of the syllable, while the fourth (De Syllaba Ventura) proposes some theoretical considerations.