Functions of the english word stress

Word stress in a language
performs three functions.

1. Word stress constitutes a
word, it organizes the syllables of a word into a language unit
having a definite accentual structure, that is a pattern of
relationship among the syllables; a word does not exist without the
word stress Thus the word stress performs the constitutive function.
Sound continuum becomes a phrase when it is divided into units
organized by word stress into words.

2. Word
stress enables a person to identify a succession of syllables as a
definite accentual pattern of a word. This function of word stress
is known as identificatoiy(у
него
так
в
лекции)
(or recognitive). Correct accentuation helps the listener to make
the process of communication easier, whereas the distorted accentual
pattern of words, misplaced word stresses prevent normal
understanding.

3. Word
stress alone is capable of differentiating the meaning of words or
their forms, thus performing its distinctive function. The accentual
patterns of words or the degrees of word stress and their positions
form oppositions, e.g. ‘import
—
im’port,
‘billow —
below.

The
accentual structure of English words is liable to instability due to
the different origin of several layers in the Modern English
word-stock. In Germanic languages the word stress originally fell on
the initial syllable or the second syllable, the root syllable in
the English words with prefixes. This tendency was called recessive.
Most English words of Anglo-Saxon origin as well as the French
borrowings (dated back to the 15th century) are subjected to this
recessive tendency. Unrestricted recessive tendency is observed in
the native English words having no prefix, e.g. mother,
daughter, brother, swallow, ,in
assimilated French borrowings, e.g. reason,
colour, restaurant. Restricted
recessive tendency marks English words with prefixes, e.g.
foresee, begin, withdraw, apart. A
great number of words of Anglo-Saxon origin are monosyllabic or
disyllabic, both notional words and form words. They tend to
alternate in the flow of speech, e.g. ‘don’t
be’lieve he’s ‘right.

The rhythm
of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables gave birth to the
rhythmical tendency in the present-day English which caused the
appearance of the secondary stress in the multisyllabic French
borrowings, e.g. revolution,
organi’sation, assimilation, etc.
It also explains the placement of primary stress on the third
syllable from the end in three- and four-syllable words, e.g.
‘cinema,
‘situate, ar’ticulate. The
interrelation of both the recessive and the rhythmical tendencies is
traced in the process of accentual assimilation of
the
French-borrowed word personal
on
the diachronic level, e.g. perso’nal
—
‘perso’nal
—
‘personal.

The
appearance of the stress on the first syllable is the result of the
recessive tendency and at the same time adaptation to the rhythmical
tendency. The recessive tendency being stronger, the trisyllabic
words like personal
gained
the only stress on the third syllable from the end, e.g. ‘family,
‘library, faculty, ‘possible.

The
accentual patterns of the words territory,
dictionary, necessary in
AmE with the primary stress on the first syllable and the tertiary
stress on the third are other examples illustrating the correlation
of the recessive and rhythmical tendencies. Nowadays we witness a
great number of variations in the accentual structure of English
multisyllabic words as a result of the interrelation of the
tendencies. The stress on the initial syllable is caused by the
diachronical recessive tendency or the stress on the second syllable
under the influence of the strong rhythmical tendency of the present
day, e.g. ‘hospitable
—
ho’spitable,
‘distribute —
dis’tribute,
‘aristocrat —
a’ristocrat,
‘laryngoscope —
la’ryngoscope.

A third
tendency was traced in the instability of the accentual structure of
English word stress, the retentive tendency: a derivative often
retains the stress of the original or parent word, e.g. ‘similar
—
as’simitate,
recom’mend —
recommen
‘dation.

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Описание презентации по отдельным слайдам:

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  Lecture 5. Word Stress
  The Nature of Word Stress.
  The Place of Word Stress in English. The Degrees of Stress.
  The Functions and Tendencies of the English Stress.
  The Typology of Accentual Structures.

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  The syllable or syllables which are uttered with more prominence than the other syllables of the word are said to be stressed or accented.

  Stress in the isolated word is termed word stress; stress in connected speech is termed sentence stress.

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  Word stress can be defined as the singling out of one or more syllables in a word, which is accompanied by the change of the force of utterance, pitch of the voice, qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the sound, which is usually a vowel.
  In different languages one of the factors constituting word stress is usually more significant than the others.

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  If special prominence in a stressed syllable or syllables is achieved mainly through the intensity of articulation, such type of stress is called dynamic, or force stress.

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  If special prominence in a stressed syllable is achieved mainly through the change of pitch, or musical tone, such accent is called musical, or tonic. It is characteristic of the Japanese, Korean and other oriental languages.

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  If special prominence in a stressed syllable is achieved through the changes in the quantity of the vowels, which are longer in the stressed syllables than in the unstressed ones, such type of stress is called quantitative.

  Qualitative type of stress is achieved through the changes in the quality of the vowel under stress.

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  The traditional classification of languages concerning place of stress in a word is into those with a fixed stress and those with a free stress.
  In languages with a fixed stress the occurrence of the word stress is limited to a particular syllable in a polysyllabic word.
  In languages with a free stress its place is not confined to a specific position in the word.
  E.g. ‘appetite — be’ginning — ba’lloon

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  The word stress in English is not only free but it may also be shifting, performing the semantic function of differentiating lexical units, parts of speech, grammatical forms.
  E.g. ‘contrast — con’trast; ‘music — mu’sician.

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  There are actually as many degrees of stress in a word as there are syllables.
  examination
  ɪɡ.ˌzæm.ɪ.ˈneɪʃ. Ən
  3 2 4 1 5

  Degrees of Word Stress

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  The primary stress is the strongest, it is marked by number 1, the secondary stress is the second strongest marked by 2. All the other degrees are termed weak stress. Unstressed syllables are supposed to have weak stress.

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  American linguists distinguish four degrees of word stress and term them: primary stress, secondary stress, tertiary stress and weak stress. The difference between the secondary and tertiary stresses is very subtle and seems subjective.

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  The second pretonic syllables of such words as libe’ration, recog’nition are marked by secondary stress in BrE, in AmE they are said to have tertiary stress.

  In AmE tertiary stress also affects the suffixes -ory, -ary, -ony of nouns and the suffixes –ate, -ize, -y of verbs, which are considered unstressed in BrE, e.g. ‘territory, ‘ceremony, ‘dictionary; ‘demonstrate, ‘organize, ‘simplify.

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  Word stress in a language performs three functions.
  Functions of Word Stress

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  Word stress constitutes a word, it organizes the syllables of a word into a language unit having a definite accentual structure, that is a pattern of relationship among the syllables; a word does not exist without the word stress.
  Constitutive function

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  Word stress enables a person to identify a succession of syllables as a definite accentual pattern of a word.
  Identificatory / recognitive function

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  Word stress alone is capable of differentiating the meaning of words or their forms.
  The accentual patterns of words or the degrees of word stress and their positions form oppositions:
  E.g. ‘import — im’port, ‘billow — be’low.
  Distinctive / contrastive function

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  According to Prof. V.O. Vasyliev (V.A.Vassilyev), the distinctive function makes word accent a suprasegmental phonological unit which performs a sense-differentiating function. He calls it accenteme.

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  According to Prof. V.O. Vasyliev (V.A. Vassilyev), they are:

  The recessive tendency

  The rhythmic tendency

  The retentive tendency

  The semantic factor

  Word Stress Tendencies

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  In Germanic languages the word stress originally fell on the initial syllable or the second syllable, the root syllable in the English words with prefixes.
  Unrestricted recessive tendency is observed in the native English words having no prefix, e.g. mother, daughter, brother, swallow, in assimilated French borrowings, e.g. reason, colour, restaurant.
  Restricted recessive tendency marks English words with prefixes which have no referential meaning now, e.g. foresee, begin, withdraw, apart.

  The recessive tendency

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  20 слайд

  The rhythm of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables gave birth to this tendency in the present-day English which caused the appearance of the secondary stress in the multisyllabic French borrowings, e.g. ˌrevo’lution, ˌorgani’sation, aˌssimi’lation, etc.
  It also explains the placement of primary stress on the third syllable from the end in three- and four-syllable words, e.g. ‘cinema, ‘situate, ar’ticulate.

  The rhythmic tendency

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  A third tendency was traced in the instability of the accentual structure of English word stress: a derivative often retains the stress of the original or parent word,
  E.g. ‘person — ‘personal — ˌperso’nality,
  ‘similar — as’similate,
  recom’mend — recommen ‘dation.

  The retentive tendency

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  22 слайд

  It determines the stress in compound words and words with so-called separable prefixes.
  The majority of such words have two equally strong stresses, both stressed parts are considered to be of equal semantic importance, with semantic factor thus canceling the rhythmic tendency in word stressing, e.g.
  Compound adjectives: hard-working, blue-eyed;
  Verbs with postpositions: sit down, take off;
  Numerals from 13 to 19: fourteen, sixteen.

  The semantic factor

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  G.P. Torsuyev classifies the accentual types according to the number of stressed syllables, their degree or character (the main and the secondary stress).
  The most widely spread accentual types are:
  1. [‘___]. This accentual type marks both simple and compound words. The accentual structures of this type may include two and more syllables, e.g. ‘father, ‘possibly, ‘mother-in-law, ‘gas-pipe.

  The Typology of Accentual Structure

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  24 слайд

  2. [ ‘_ ‘_ ]. The accentual type is commonly realized in compound words, most of them are with separable prefixes, e.g. ‘radio-‘active, ‘re’write, ‘diso’bey.

  3. [‘_ ˌ___]. The type is realized both in simple and compound words, very common among compound words, e.g. ‘hair-,dresser, ‘substructure.

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  25 слайд

  4. [ˌ _’___]. The accentual type marks a great number of simple words and some compound words as well. In simple words the stresses fall onto:
  the prefix and the root: ˌmaga’zine;
  the root and the suffix: ˌhospi’tality;
  the prefix and the suffix.

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  The variability of the word accentual structure is multiplied in connected speech. The accentual structure of words may be altered under the influence of rhythm, e.g. An ‘unpolished ‘stone but: The ‘stone was un’polished.

  The tempo of speech may influence the accentual pattern of words. With the quickening of the speed the carefulness of articulation is diminished, the vowels are reduced or elided, the secondary stress may be dropped, e.g. The ‘whole organi’zation of the ‘meeting was ‘faulty.

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Lecture 5 Word Stress

Plan 1. The Nature of English Word Stress 2. Linguistically Relevant Degrees of Word Stress 3. The Stress Pattern of English Words 4. The Functions of Word Stress

List of Terms the stress pattern of a word (the accentual structure of a word) n word-stress n utterance stress n dynamic/tonic (musical)/qualitative /quantitative accent n degrees of word stress n accentuation tendencies: recessive, rhythmic, retentive n

A word, as a meaningful language unit, has a definite phonetic structure: § sounds that a word is composed of § syllabic structure that these sounds form § a definite stress pattern The auditory impression of stress is the effect of prominence. If a word is polysyllabic, the relative prominence of its syllables differs. (e. g. [`plei], [, konsti`tju: ∫n])

The correlation of degrees of prominence of syllables in a word forms the stress pattern of the word, which is often called the accentual structure of a word. The stress patterns of different words may coincide (e. g. “`mother”, “`sister”‑ `__-__ ) or differ (e. g. “`prominent”, “`syllable” ‑ `__-__-__).

Word Stress (word accent) — is a constituent feature of the phonetic structure of a word as a vocabulary item, which exists as such when it is pronounced in isolation (here we deal with a phonological word) (e. g. ‘well-`known) The stress pattern of a word is conditioned by objective factors (pronunciation tendencies and the orthoepic norm).

Utterance Stress (sentence accent) — a constituent part of the phonetic structure of a spoken sentence and one of the components of intonation in the broad sense of the term, source of creating phonetic words (e. g. He is well-`known. He is a ‘well-known `writer) The placement of utterance stress is conditioned by: n the situational and linguistic context (semantically more important words are pronounced with greater stress; the semantic factor determines also the position of the socalled logical stress); n the subjective factors (by the speaker’s intention to bring out words which are considered by him to be semantically important in the situational context).

Types of Word Stress 1. According to the nature of word stress: §dynamic (force) The effect of prominence is achieved by greater force of articulation of a stressed syllable (e. g. European languages). §tonic (musical) The effect of prominence is achieved by uttering a stressed syllable on a different pitch level or with a different pitch direction than the other syllable or syllables of a word (e. g. Oriental languages, African languages).

§qualitative The effect of prominence is achieved by preserving the full quality of a vowel phoneme in the stressed syllable. §quantitative The effect of prominence is achieved by uttering a vowel of the stressed syllable longer than another vowel or other vowels. English word stress is of a complex nature. English word stress is created by an interaction of four acoustic parameters: intensity (responsible for loudness), fundamental frequency (pitch), duration (length) and formant structure (quality).

2. According to the stability of position: n. Free (The main accent may fall in different words on a syllable in any position in relation to the beginning or end of a word). (1) a constant accent is one which remains on the same morpheme in different grammatical forms of a word or in different derivatives from one and the same root (e. g. wonder, wonderfully) (2) a shifting accent is one which falls on different morphemes in different grammatical forms of a word or in different derivatives from one and the same root (e. g. active – activity; сад – садовод –садовый)

§fixed (the main accent invariably falls on a syllable which occupies in all the words of a language one and the same position in relation to the beginning or end of a word (e. g. French, Check).

One of the main questions for the linguists is to determine the number of contrastive degrees of word stress in a language. British phoneticians (D. Jones, R. Kingdon, etc. ) consider that there are three degrees of word stress in English: nprimary (or strong stress) nsecondary (or partial stress) nweak (the so-called «unstressed» syllables have weak stress) e. g. ‑ e¸xami`nation, `hair-, dresser All these degrees of stress are linguistically relevant as there are words in English the meanings of which depend upon the occurrence of either of the three degrees in their stress patterns (e. g. «`import — im`port»; , certifi`cation — cer, tifi`cation).

On this account American linguists (G. Trager, A. Hill, etc. ) distinguish four degrees of word stress: §primary stress / / §secondary stress /^/ §tertiary stress / / §weak stress / v / ( cupboard) ( dis^crimi nation) ( ana lyse ) ( cupbo vard)

American phoneticians consider that secondary stress generally occurs before the primary stress (e. g. e^xami nation), while tertiary stress occurs after the primary stress (e. g. hand book). Linguistically, tertiary word stress can be taken for a variant of secondary word stress, as there are no words in English the meanings of which depend on the position of the tertiary stress. That is why the stress pattern of English words may be defined as a correlation of 3 linguistically relevant degrees of stress: primary, secondary, weak.

Though English word-stress is free, there are certain tendencies in English which to a certain extent regulate the accentuation of words. §the recessive tendency the stress falls on the first syllable which is generally the root syllable (e. g. `mother, `ready) or on the second syllable if a word has a prefix of no special meaning (e. g. be`come, in`deed, for`give, be `hind) §the rhythmic tendency the stress falls on the third syllable from the end (e. g. `decorate, `justify, `recognize)

n the retentive tendency the stress of the parent word is often retrained in derivatives (e. g. `wonder – `wonderful) nin some polysyllabic words there is a tendency nowadays to avoid a succession of weak syllables, especially if these have [ǝ] or [i], as a result there a stress shift with a rhythmic alteration of stressed and unstressed syllables appears (e. g. hospitable – hos pitable, , articu latory – ar, ticu latory) nthere is a tendency to stress the most important elements in words: negative prefixies; prefexies ex-, vice-, sub-; suffix –teen

Functions of Word Stress Constitutive function (word stress moulds syllables into a word by forming its stress pattern) Distinctive function (in English different words exist with analogous sound structure which are differentiated in speech only by their stress patterns, e. g. `abstract – ab`stract) Identificatory function (the stress patterns of words enable people to identify definite combinations of sounds as meaningful linguistic units)

List of Literature 1. 2. 3. Борисова, Л. В. Теоретическая фонетика английского языка: учеб. пособ. для ин-тов и фак. иностр. яз. / Л. В. Борисова, А. А. Метлюк; под ред. Л. В. Борисовой. – Минск: Выш. шк. , 1980. – 144 с. Леонтьева, С. Ф. Теоретическая фонетика современного английского языка: учеб. для студентов педагогических вузов и университетов / С. Ф. Леонтьева. – М. : Издательство «Менеджер» , 2004. – 336 с. Соколова, М. А. Теоретическая фонетика английского языка: учеб. для студ. высш. учеб. заведений / М. А. Соколова, К. Г. Гинтовт, И. С. Тихонова, Р. М. Тихонова. – М. : Гуманитар. Изд. Центр ВЛАДОС, 2004. – 289 с.

Summing-up Choose among the alternatives 1. The correlation of degrees of prominence of the syllables in a word forms: A. the stress pattern of words B. utterance stress

2. A constituent feature of the phonetic structure of a word taken in isolation: A. utterance stress B. word stress 3. A constituent feature of the phonetic structure of a spoken sentence: A. utterance stress B. word stress 4. Factors that condition the position of word stress are: A. objective B. subjective

5. The placement of utterance stress is conditioned by: A. the orthoepic norm B. the situational and linguistic context 6. The effect of prominence is achieved by changes in pitch level in … languages. A. dynamic B. Tonic 7. English word stress is: A. fixed B. Free 8. English word stress is of … nature. A. complex B. dynamic

9. The accentuation tendency to stress he third syllable from the end is … A. rhythmic B. Recessive 10. What degree of word stress is not linguistically relevant and is not included into the British classification? A. secondary B. tertiary

Insert the necessary words. 1. The placement of … is conditioned by the rhythm, the situational and linguistic context. 2. Stress is produced by greater force of articulation in … languages. 3. …. degree of word stress is not included into British classification? 4. The subsystem of utterance stress in English comprises three basic functional types: nuclear stress, partial stress and … …. . 5. The stress of the parent word is often preserved in derivatives. This regularity is called ….

3. The following word combinations one’s own – one zone, we’ll own – we loan prove that syllable performs the … function. 4. The syllable is called … when there is no consonant before a vowel. 5. … consonant clusters are more complex in English than in Russian.

Fill in the text with the words from the list muscular tension theory, perceptible, closed syllables, a vowel, chest pulse, structure, the expiratory theory, open syllables, syllabic, sonority, numbers, arrangements, peaks, non-syllabic, covered syllables, syllable division, before, syllable, the relative sonority theory, consonants It has been proved experimentally that (1)… is the smallest articulatory and (2)… unit. As a phonological unit the syllable is defined with reference to its (3)…. It is a structural unit which consists of (4)… or of a vowel surrounded by (5)… in the (6)… and (7)… permitted by a given language. Vowels are (8)… while consonants are (9)….

muscular tension theory, perceptible, closed syllables, a vowel, chest pulse, structure, the expiratory theory, open syllables, syllabic, sonority, numbers, arrangements, peaks, non-syllabic, covered syllables, syllable division, before, syllable, the relative sonority theory, consonants The hot issue for phoneticians is the problem of (10)…. There are several theories and approaches to the question. The oldest theory is (11)…, that defines a syllable as a sound or a group of sounds pronounced with one (12)…. Otto Jespersen created (13)…, that is based on the idea that sounds tend to group themselves according to their (14)…. Shcherba proposed (15)… according to which there as many syllables in a word as there are (16)… of muscular tension.

muscular tension theory, perceptible, closed syllables, a vowel, chest pulse, structure, the expiratory theory, open syllables, syllabic, sonority, numbers, arrangements, peaks, non-syllabic, covered syllables, syllable division, before, syllable, the relative sonority theory, consonants There are 4 types of syllables: (17)…, when there is no consonant after the vowel, (18)…, when the vowel is followed by a consonant, (19)…when the vowel is preceded by a consonant and uncovered syllables when there is no consonant (20)… the vowel.

Word Stress in English

CONTENTS

1. The nature of Word Stress in
English

.1 Origins of the Word Stress
and the notion of Accent

.2 Types of English Word
Stress2. Place of Word Stress in English

.1 Functions of Word Stress

.2 English accentuation
tendencies

word stress accent vowel

INTRODUCTION

«major part of second language
learners seem to reach adequate proficiency in the spheres of morphology and
syntax, still they have difficulty reaching the same proficiency level in the
fields of phonology and phonetics. Native speakers who are competent users of
the language absolutely know in what way to say a word, know how to pronounce
it. The difficulty attaining the same level as native speakers is found within
the results of interference of the mother tongue with English. The interference
of native Russian as the mother tongue is obscure in learners of English, but
not just in grammar aspect, also in pronunciation and it can be shown in the
comparative display of the word stress that this paper is partly about.this
course paper our attention will be focused on the accentual patterns of English
words. The sequence of syllables in the word is pronounced not even close or
identically. One syllable or syllables that are uttered with some prominence
than the other syllables in the very word, are meant to be stressed or in other
words accented. The correlation of prominences of different syllables in a word
is totally understood as the accentual (stress) structure of the word or its
(accentual) stress pattern.English and Russian linguists worked over the
question of word stress in English as the unique phenomenon. According to D.
Crystal the terms «… heaviness, sound pressure, force, power, strength,
intensity, amplitude, prominence, emphasis, accent, stress» tend to be used
synonymously by most writers. According to G.P. Torsuev the notions
«stressed» and «prominent» should not be used as the
synonyms. The effect of prominence, states the linguist, is made by some
phonetic features of sounds, which have nothing to do with the actual word or
sentence stress.

The actuality
of the investigation may be argued by the fact that nowadays the great
attention is paid to the research of accentual structure of English words.
Because stress or accent fulfill enormous functions of formation words and
compound words. The main aim of the course paper is to clarify types of
stress, places and degrees of word stress, factors and functions of word
stress.

CHAPTER 1. The nature of Word stress
in English

1.1 Origins of the
Word Stress and the notion of Accent

spoken language has a unique
division into segments like vowels and consonants. As we utter them, we make
use of wide range of tones of voice. The speech features that are higher than
the sound segments are length, stress, pitch, intonation, rhythm and juncture.
Here we are describing the nature of word stress.sequence of syllables in the
word is not pronounced identically. The syllable or syllables which are uttered
with more prominence than the other syllables of the word are said to be
stressed or accented. Stress in the isolated word is termed word stress; stress
in connected speech is termed sentence stress.first we have to find out the
meaning of the notions: word stress, intonation, accent. «Different
authors define stress differently. B.A. Bogoroditsky, for instance, defined stress
as an increase of energy, accompanied by an increase of expiratory and
articulatory activity. D. Jones defined word stress as the degree
of force, which is accompanied by a strong force of exhalation and gives an
impression of loudness. H. Sweet also stated that stress, is connected
with the force of breath. According to A.C. Gimson, any or all of four factors
achieve the effect of prominence: force, tone, length and vowel color.native
English listeners, the most important syllable in a word is the stressed
syllable, the primary cue for identifying the word. This makes stress the most
important pronunciation topic. In addition, the characteristics of stressed and
unstressed syllables in single words are mirrored in rhythm. Word stress
is described as a communicatively important pronunciation topic, bridging the
continuum between segmentals (consonants and vowels) and suprasegmentals
(rhythm and intonation)» [20; 17].A.M. suggested another description. He
states that «the word stress can be defined as the singling out of
one or more syllables in а word, which is accompanied by the change of the
force of utterance, pitch of the voice, qualitative and quantitative
characteristics of the vowel sound» [4].the most full and correct
definition can be found in the Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. «A
term used in phonetics to refer to the degree of force used in producing a
syllable. The usual distinction is between stressed and unstressed syllables,
the former being more prominent than the latter (and marked in transcription
with a raised vertical line, [c]. The prominence is usually due to an increase
in loudness of the stressed syllable, but increases in length and often pitch
may contribute to the overall impression of prominence. In popular usage,
‘stress’ is usually equated with an undifferentiated notion of ‘emphasis’ or
‘strength’» [13; 454].notion of stress is supposed to close enough to the
meaning of intonation. Still there exists a huge difference. The difference
between stress and intonation is that » …stress is the relative loudness
of parts of speech where intonation is the variation in the pitch of different
parts of speech. Linguists generally believe that there are about 3 to 4 levels
of stress in the English language. In most cases, stress does not really change
the meaning of words and is more or less associated with the dialect or accent
being used» [8; 138]. There are some cases where this assumption is not
valid — see the table 1.1.

1.1. Examples in
English, where the stress changes the meaning of the word

Loudness has an inherent pitch
component, stress, as the relative loudness, sometimes has an added pitch
variation. This extra pitch variation is called a pitch accent. An
example of a language, which contains a pronounced level of pitch accent is
Turkish. Pitch variations are used to change the stress level of a word mostly
due to rhythmic constraints imposed by the language.long as we are discussing
the notion of accent, it is reasonable to define its meaning. Accent was
originally a loan translation from Greek into Latin (a loan translation is when
each constituent of a compound in one language is translated into its
equivalent in another, and then reassembled into a new compound). » … Greek
prosōidíā (whence English
prosody) was formed from pros ‘to’ and
ōidé ‘song’ (whence English ode);
these elements were translated into Latin ad ‘to’ and cantus ‘song’ (whence
English chant, cant, cantata, canticle), giving accentus. The notion
underlying this combination of ‘to’ and ‘song’ was of a song added to speech —
that is, the intonation of spoken language. The sense of a particular mode of
pronunciation did not arise in English until the 16th century» [6; 4].the
Britannica Encyclopedia exists the following meaning of the accent notion.
» … in phonetics, that property of a syllable which makes it stand out in
an utterance relative to its neighboring syllables. The emphasis on the
accented syllable, relative to the unaccented syllables may be realized through
greater length, higher or lower pitch, a changing pitch contour, greater
loudness or a combination of these characteristics» [10;54].

«The emphasis which makes a
particular word or syllable stand out in a stream of speech — one talks
especially of an accented sound/word/syllable, or the accent(ual) pattern of a
phrase/sentence. The term is usually found in a discussion of metre (metrics),
where it refers to the ‘beats’ in a line of poetry — the accented syllables, as
opposed to the unaccented ones. But any style of spoken language could be
described with reference to the relative weight (accentuation) of its
syllables: one might talk of the ‘strongly accented’ speech of a politician,
for instance., accent is not solely a matter of loudness, but also of pitch and
duration, especially pitch: comparing the verb record (as in I’m
going to record the tune) and the noun (I’ve got a record),
the contrast in word accent between re`cord and `record is made by the
syllables differing in loudness, length and pitch movement. The notion of pitch
accent as also been used in the phonological analysis of these languages,
referring to cases where there is a restricted distribution of tone within
words (as in Japanese). A similar use of these variables is found in the notion
of sentence accent (also called ‘contrastive accent’). This is an
important aspect of linguistic analysis, especially of intonation, because it
can affect the acceptability, the meaning, or the presuppositions of a
sentence, e.g. He was wearing a red hat could be heard as a response to
Was he wearing a red coat?; whereas He was wearing a red hat would
respond to Was he wearing a green hat? The term stress, however,
is often used for contrasts of this kind (as in the phrases ‘word stress’
and ‘contrastive stress’). An analysis in terms of pitch accent is also
possible.total system of accents in a language is sometimes called the
accentual system, and would be part of the study of phonology. The coinage
accentology for the study of accents is sometimes found in European
linguistics. (3) In graphology, an accent is a mark placed above a letter,
showing how that letter is to be pronounced. French accents, for example,
include a distinction between é,
è and ê.
Accents are a type of diacritic» [13; 4].linguists believe that syllabic
and lexical accents do not change the meaning of words in English. However, we
know that syllabic and lexical accents are also components of linguistic
stress along with other concepts such as syllabic and lexical sonority
variations and metrical variations. In those regards, since syllabic stress
does change the meaning of words in English, then so do accent.

1.2 Types of
English Word Stress

has various domains: the word, the
phrase, the sentence. Word accent (also called word stress or lexical stress)
is a part of the characteristic way in which a language is pronounced. Given to
a particular language system, word accent may be:

.        Fixed (like in Welsh);

.        Predictable (e.g. in
French, where it occurs regularly at the end of words, or in Czech, where it
occurs initially);

.        Movable, as in English,
which then leaves accent free to function to distinguish one word from another
that is identical segmentally (e.g. the noun permit versus the verb to
permit).types of word stress are distinguished not only according to its
physical (acoustic) nature and degree, but also according to its position in
different words of the language. «From this point of view two types of
word stress are distinguished: fixed and free.)        In languages with fixed
word stress the position of stress is the same in all the words. For
instance, in Czech and Lettish the main stress falls on the first syllable of
each word and grammatical form of а word; in French, stress is tied to the last
syllable of each word; in Polish, it falls on the prefinal syllable of all
words and their grammatical forms.)        In languages with free word
stress the primary stress may fall in different words on any syllable. For
example in Russian: к`омната,
раб`ота,
матем`атика,
преподав`атель,
машиностро`ение,
окн`о; in English: `mother, ig`nore, соn`sideÐration,
ciga`rette.

Within frее word stress two subtypes
are distinguished on morphological grounds: constant and shifting.

a.      А constant stress
is one which remains on the same morpheme in different grammatical forms of а
word or in different derivatives from one and the same root. For example:
«wonder — `wondering — `wonderful — `wonderfully.

b.      А shifting stress
is one which falls on different morphemes in different grammatical forms of а
word or in different derivatives from one and the same root,is also shifted
under the influence of rhythm. For instance, Ber`lin — `Berlin `streets,
Chi`nese — a `Chinese `lantern; un`known — an `unknown writer — The `writer is
`quite un`known., accent can be used at the phrasal level to distinguish
sequences identical at the segmental level (e.g. ‘light housekeeping’ versus
‘lighthouse keeping’ or ‘blackboard’ versus ‘black board’). Finally, accent can
be used at the sentence level to draw attention to one part of the sentence
rather then another (e.g. ‘What did you sign?’ ‘I signed a contract
to do some light housekeeping.’ versus ‘Who signed a contract?’ ‘I
signed a contract to do some light housekeeping.’)» [10; 54].the auditory
level a stressed syllable is the part of the word which has a special
prominence. It is produced by a greater loudness and length, modifications in
the pitch and quality. The physical correlates are: inten sity, duration,
frequency and the formant structure. All these features can be analyzed on the
acoustic level. «Word stress can be defined as the singling out of one or
more syllables in a word, which is accompanied by the change of the force of
utterance, pitch of the voice, qualitative and quantitative characteristics of
the sound, which is usually a vowel. In different languages one of the factors
constituting word stress is usually more significant than the others. According
to the most important feature different types, of word stress are distinguished
in different languages.

) If special prominence in a
stressed syllable or syllables is achieved mainly through the intensity of
articulation, such type of stress is called dynamic, or force stress.

) If special prominence in a
stressed syllable is achieved mainly through the change of pitch, or musical
tone, such accent is called musical, or tonic. It is characteristic of the
Japanese, Korean and other oriental languages.

) If special prominence in a
stressed syllable is achieved through the changes in the quantity of the
vowels, which are longer in the stressed syllables than in the unstressed ones,
such type of stress is called quantitative.

) Qualitative type of stress is
achieved through the changes in the quality of the vowel under stress» [4;
51].word stress is traditionally defined as dynamic, but in fact, the special
prominence of the stressed syllables is manifested in the English language not
only through the increase of intensity, but also through the changes in the
vowel quantity, consonant and vowel quality and pitch of the voice.the
viewpoint of phonology, the main function of stress is to provide a
means of distinguishing degrees of emphasis
or contrast in sentences (sentence stress),
as in The big man looks angry; the term contrastive stress is often used
for this function. Many pairs of words and word
sequences can also be distinguished using stress variation (lexical stress or
word stress), as in the contrast between
An increase in pay is needed and I’m going to increase his pay or
the distinction between `black `bird and `black-bird.analytical question here,
which attracted a great deal of attention in the middle decades of the
twentieth century, is how many degrees of stress need to be recognized in order
to account for all such contrasts, and to show the interrelationships between
words derived from a common root, such as `telegraph, tele`graphic and
te`legraphy.а purely phonetic point of view polysyllabic word has as many
degrees of prominence as there are syllables in it. А. С. Gimson gives the
following distribution of the degrees of stress in the word
«ехаmination»:most prominent syllable is marked by figure 1, the
second degree of prominence — by figure 2, then goes 3, and so on. However, not
all these degrees of prominence are linguistically relevant.majority of British
phoneticians distinguish three degrees of word stress in English:

.        primary (the strongest
stress),

.        secondary (the second
strongest) and

.        weak stress (аll the other
degrees of stress).syllables bearing either primary or secondary stress are
termed stressed, while syllables with weak stress are саlled, somewhat
inaccurately, unstressed.the American structuralist tradition, four such
degrees are usually distinguished, and analyzed as stress phonemes,
namely (from strongest to weakest):

(1) ‘primary’,

(2) ‘secondary’,

(3) ‘tertiary’ and

(4) ‘weak’.contrasts are, however,
demonstrable only on words in isolation, as in the compound elevator operator —
one of several such phrases originally cited to justify analyses of this kind.views
recognized different kinds and degrees of stress, the simplest
postulating a straight stressed v. unstressed contrast, referring to other
factors (such as intonation and vowel quality) to explain such sequences as
elevator operator. «In distinctive feature theories of phonology, the
various degrees of stress are assigned to the syllables of words by means of
the repeated application of rules (such as ‘lexical’, ‘compound’ and ‘nuclear’ stress
rules). Some analysts maintain there is a distinction to be made between
linguistic contrasts involving loudness (which they refer to as ‘stress’) and
those additionally involving pitch (which they refer to as «accent»).
All the examples given above, they would argue, are matters of accent, not stress,
because contrasts in pitch variation are normally involved. Similar problems
arise in the analysis of tone languages.the context of rhythm studies, the
notion of a stress-timed language is often cited, i.e. one where the stresses
fall at roughly regular intervals within an utterance. In analyzing such a
language in this way, the notion of silent stress is sometimes invoked. The
reason is to handle cases where the omission of a stressed syllable in
colloquial speech can none the less be ‘felt’; a regularly cited case in the
abbreviated version of thank you, which is said to be the unstressed
residue of an unspoken stressed + unstressed combination. A sequence of
syllables constituting a rhythmical unit, containing one primary stress, is
known as a stress group. In metrical phonology a stress-foot is a
string containing as its first element a
stressed syllable, followed by zero or more unstressed syllables symbolized by
Σ. The most prominent element in the stress foot is called the head. It
should be noted that ‘foot’, in this context, refers to an underlying
unit, whose phonetic interpretation varies according to the theoretical
approach., in this approach, is a rule, which eliminates stresses produced by
foot construction. When two stressed syllables are immediately adjacent, the
situation is described as stress clash. Speakers have a tendency to avoid
stress clash; for example, the word thirteen is normally stressed on the
second syllable, but in the phrase thirteen men, the stress shifts to
the first syllable» [13; 456].languages, stressed and unstressed syllables
differences can be distinguished by differences in length, pitch, loudness, or
vowel quality. As the chart below shows, English makes use of all these
distinctions. See table 1.2.

1.2.
Characteristics of levels of stress in words

CHAPTER 2. Place of word Stress in
English

.1 Functions of Word Stress

any phonological unit, word stress
performs three functions: constitutive, distinctive and identificatory.

.        «Word stress has а
constitutive function as it arranges syllables into а word by forming its
stress pattern. Without а definite stress pattern а word stops being а word and
becomes just а sequence of syllables.

.        Word stress has а
distinctive function because it helps to differentiate the meaning of words of
the same morphological structure. The opposition of the primary stress and weak
stress can differentiate the parts of speech, like:n — subject vn — object vn —
import vn — insult vn — export vn — progress vn — combine vn — conduct vn —
frequent vn — present voppositions may differentiate the actual meaning of the
some words:

`billow (naval term) — be`low
(down);

`artist — ar`tist.opposition of the
second primary stress to weak stress is also distinctive:

`re`cover (put a new cover on) —
re`cover (get well again);

`restrain (strain again) — re`strain
(keep in check).primary stress opposed to the secondary stress
can sometimes differentiate the meaning as well:

`recre`ation (creating anew) —
recre`ation (amusement).

А compound noun is differentiated
from а free word combination by the opposition of tertiary stress to primary
stress:

`black-board — `black `board;

`stong-box — `strong `box;

`goldfish — `gold `fish;

`blackbird — `black `bird., however,
the second component of such compound nouns is considered to have weak stress,
the distinctive function in such minimal pairs will be realized through the
opposition of weak stress (in the `compound) and рrimary stress.

2.2 English
accentuation tendencies

stress in English is free, but the
«freedom» of its position is regulated by four accentuation
tendencies as а result of its historical development. The first and the oldest
of them is the recessive tendency, according to which, stress falls on
the first syllable of а word which is generally the root syllable (`father,
`sister, `husband, `water, `window,` ready, `clever), or on the second syllable
in words which have а prefix of nо special meaning (bе`fore, bе`come, а`mong,
for`get, mis`take).recessive tendency is characteristic of words of
Germanic origin. It has also influenced many disyllabic and trisyllabic words
borrowed from French, (`colour, `marriage, `excellent, `garage, `ballet,
ab`stain, de`pend, ob`tain, sur`prise, re`main, pro`duce, com`pose). But:
ma`сhinе, tech`nique, ро`lice.second tendency is the result of the mutual
influence of Germanic and French accentual patterns. It is known as the rhythmic
tendency, which manifests itself in stressing the third syllable from the
end, (`family, `unity, in`tensity, ро`litical, а`bility, а`cademy, de`mocracy,
in`finitive, com`parison, i`dentify).stress is especially common for verbs with
the suffixes -аtе, -fy,

ize, (`situate, ar`ticulate,
`qualify, `organize).accentuation of words ending in the suffix —ion
with its variants —sion, -tion, -ation, is also rhythmical in its
origin. Nowadays stress falls on the prefinal syllable, but it used to be on
the third syllable from the end as the spelling still shows, (`nation,
ос`casion, о`pinion).in three and four syllable words is called historically,
or diachronically, rhythmical (`radical, ос`casion, i`dentity).words with more
than four syllables we often find the secondary stress, which falls on the
first or second syllable. It mау be called synchronically rhythmical stress
(ad`mini`stration, re`sposi`bility, `popu`larity, `physic`ology, `indi`visible,
etc).long polysyllabic words like `indi`visi`bility, `inter`conti`nental, `unfa`mili`arity,
`inter`com`muni`cation, the stress on the 3^rd (2^nd)
syllable from the end is diachronically rhythmical while the other two stresses
are synchronically rhythmical. There has been а constant struggle between the
recessive and the rhythmic tendencies, the outcome being threefold:

·        an accentual
compromise in words like enemy, cinema, recognize, diction(a)ry;

·        аdefinite victory,
in the great majority of words, for the rhythmic tendency, articulate, аcademy,
аbility, еÐхаmination,
visibility, Ðесоnomical;

·        аdefinite victory
for the recessive tendency in аsmall number of four- and five- syllable words,
(advocacy, candidature, cannibalism, rationalism, characterize).third, retentive,
tendency consists in the retention of the primary stress of the parent word
in the derivatives, person — personal. More commonly, it is retained in the
derivative as а secondary stress, possible — possibility, арpreciate —
ар`рrесiation, nation — `nationality.is one more tendency in English that
determines the place and the degree of word stress — the semantic tendency.
It consists in stressing the most important elements of compound words.
Compounds are words composed of two separable roots, which may be spelled as
one word, with а hyphen, or two separate words. Compound nouns usually have а
single stress on the first element, `birthday, `blacksmith, `apple tree,
`suitcase, `booking оffiсе, `Newcastle, `music-hall, gui`tar player (but not
`banjo player), `make up, etc.

In English there are words with two
primary stresses, because both of their elements are semantically
important. Неrе belong:

.        words with separable
(«strong») prefixes, (`re-`write, `vice-`president, `anti-`fascist,
`ex-`minister, `sub-`editor, `under`estimate, `over`burden); negative prefixes
(`disap`pear, `un`known, `irres`ponsible, `il`literate, `inar`tistic,
`non-`smoker, `misunder`stand. But: mis`take, im`possible, dis`courage;

.        numerals from
«`thir`teen» to «`nine`teen»;

.        compound numerals
(`twenty-`one, `ffty-`three, etc);

.        compound verbs, (to `give
`in, `get `uр, `take `оff, etc);

.        compound adjectives
(`well-`known, `blue-`eyed, `red-`hot; `first-`class, `good-`looking, etc).
But: `childlike;

.        а small number оf compound
nouns (`gas-`stove, `ice-`cream, `absent-`mindedness); But: `note-book, man`kind,
etc.nouns of three elements have а single primary stress on the second element
due to the rhythmic tendency (`hot`water`bottle, `waste`рареr`basket,
`lost`property`оffiсе, etc)., all the above-mentioned double-stressed words
lose one of the primary stresses in word соmbinations and sentences under the
influence of Еnglish rhythm:

(an `аbsent-minded `man — `sо absent
-ˎminded;`went up ˎstairs — I met her ˎupstairs;

CONCLUSION

·        Stress refers to
the relative perceived prominence of a unit of spoken language;

·        stress has
distinctive function in English (`produce — pro`duce);

·        the production of a
stressed syllable usually involves several aspects:

.        an increase of articulatory
force, increased rate of airflow, greater muscular tension in the articulators;

.        greater intensity, higher
pitch, and longer duration are typically involved;

·        we recognize
several degrees of stress — primary stress, secondary stress, and unstress;

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