The definition of word accent

I. Word accent. Word accent in English.

1.
In
the English language the word accent is the constitutive function of
a word as of lexical and morphological element of a language in its
absolute form. The word accent can be observed both in monosyllabic
and polysyllabic words. For the latter it is typical to single out
one or more syllables by increasing the degree of their prominence.
Thus, the word accent organizes a word as complex auditory unit and
at the same time gives prominence to separate syllables. Such
syllables are considered to be singled out accentually (accented) or
stressed.

It is a
common knowledge that stress
or accent
means greater degree of prominence to certain syllable or syllables.
Such prominence is achieved through the greater force of exhalation
and higher level of voice pitch and slight change in the direction of
voice.

The
nature of an accent
— still represents a ground for disputes.

Gimson
believes
that the effect of prominence
is
achieved through the combination of 4 major factors: degree of
tenseness, tone, intensity and length of a vowel. The prominence of a
syllable in the languages with the rhythmic tendency is achieved by
higher muscular tension while pronouncing the given syllable.

In the European languages,
such as English, German, French, Russian the dynamic tendency in a
word accent prevails. In the Scandinavian languages the accent is
considered to be dynamic and musical. Musical character of a word
accent may be observed in Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese languages.

So, passing
directly to the English language, it is necessary to mention, that
word accent in the English language is
dynamic.
It is accepted practically by all the linguists. However,
experimental researches testify, and such linguists as Gimson
and
Crystal point out as well, that the word accents in English is a
complex and complicated phenomenon marked by changes in the energy,
in the voice height, characterized by qualitative and quantitative
changes. Dynamic and tonal features of the English word accent
prevail over the other characteristics.

Qualitative
and
quantitative
aspects of a stress or accent
are
important components of a word accent. In this case we deal with the
qualitative or quantitative changes of a vowel in the unstressed
syllables in comparison with the stressed ones. It is natural, that
in a stressed syllable a vowel is longer and of full quality
(possesses all the qualitative characteristics). The qualitative
aspect of an accent is revealed through the change of a colour or
quality of a vowel in the stressed position while quantitative aspect
— with the change in the length of a vowel sound.

The nature
of Russian
stress differs from
English.
The qualitative component of an accent plays bigger role in the
system of Russian word accent as Russian vowels in the unstressed
position always undergo a qualitative reduction. While in the English
language we may find vowels of full quality in the unstressed
position (we spoke about it at our last lecture).

One more
fact that deserves our attention here is the
position
of a stress in different languages. So, according to this aspect we
may single out languages that have
fixed
stress and those whose word accent has free
character.

In the
languages with
the fixed accent,
the position of a word accent is fixed on a concrete syllable. Thus,
for example, in the French language it is the last syllable in a word
(Paris, a cachenez, an orchestra),
in the Finnish and Czech languages — on the first syllable
(Helsinki, the Sauna, Карловы
Вары,
Gold Prague),
and in Polish — on the last but one.

In
languages with a free
stress,
the word accent is not fixed on any concrete syllable. For example,
appetite, beginning, balloon
and
lake, weather, milk.

It is
necessary to note, that in the English language the accent is not
only free, but even has a shifting character, i.e. carries out
semantic function, distinguishing lexical units, parts of speech,
grammar forms.

The phonologic status of a
word accent also doesn’t possess any stability in the world of
linguistics. Anyway, all the linguists are of the same opinion — the
analysis of a word accent should be carried out from the point of
view of its degree.

Thus, it is
accepted, that the English word stress has three degrees:
primary, secondary
and
weak stress.
These ideas are reflected in the works of Jones, Gimson, Kingdon,
Torsuev, Vasiliev. Some phoneticians distinguish four degrees of a
word accent:
primary, secondary, tertiary
and
weak stress.

Primary
accent
falls either on the third or on the second syllable from the end.

In the
majority of words
the secondary
stress falls on the syllable separated from a stressed (nuclear)
syllable by one unstressed syllable. Something like in the following
words,
pro’nunciֽaton,
ֽ
occupation,
governmental, patriotic.

In many
derivative nouns the secondary accent falls on the same syllable
which has a primary accent in the initial word, i.e. in the word from
which the noun is derived:
organize
—
organization,
peculiar
—
peculiarity.

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Britannica Dictionary definition of ACCENT

Britannica Dictionary definition of ACCENT

[+ object]

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An accent is the way a person speaks.

Some people pronounce words differently. A lot of the time, different countries that speak the same language pronounce the same words in a different way. Usually they can understand each-other, but they will notice that they sound a little different.

Sometimes, people will talk about someone’s accent. They might say that the person has a German accent, or an Australian accent. An accent is the way you say the words. If you notice someone has (for example) a British accent, you can understand them (you know what they are saying), but also know they came from Britain.

The way a person says words usually comes from where the person was a child (where they «grew up», or their «home town») and the other people where the person lives. People learn how to say words and sentences and so they sound the same people near them when they speak.^[1]

People speaking the same language can have different accents. Even people in the same country can have different accents. Sometimes people can tell what city someone lived in when they were a child by the way that person speaks. One example is a New York City accent. They might say «bwoll» () instead of ball (normally in America), like used in sports and games; or they might say «hwot dwog» () instead of hot dog (normally or in that country). It sounds different, but people still know they mean «ball» or «hot dog» when they’re talking.

When first trying to learn a new language, often a person will still have the old accent from their first language. That often allows other people to guess which country or place that person lived in before.

If someone can learn another language well enough, someone may not have the old accent anymore and may get a new accent in the new language. If someone studied German in Austria, for example, people in Germany may think that person was Austrian.

Sometimes it can be confusing for people learning a language if there are more than one common accents. If you’re learning English but hear a mix of British, American, Canadian and Australian people and people from Singapore and India often, like in your school or on the Internet, it might confuse you when you hear them say the same sounds or words differently. Sometimes, people think it’s better to learn the language with one accent so you can be less confused, and when you’re good enough at the language, you can start to tell the different accents different people from different countries have.

References[change | change source]