Distinctive functions of the word accent in English.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 631.

Word stress is one the elements of the Phonetic system. Stress can also be defined as power, intensity, force, energy. Stress organizes syllables in sound shapes. It can be defined in different ways. H.Sweet defines it as a force of breath. D.Jones as a degree of force that gives an impression of loudness. A.C.Gimson says that a more prominent syllable is accompanied by the change in the pitch of the voice, quality and quantity of the stressed sound. We can also say that it is an increase or decrease of energy accompanied by an increase or a decrease of articulatory activity.

The role of the stress in our speech is very important due to the functions it fulfils. There are 3:

1) Constitutive/ organizing

Word stress constitutes word shapes, it organizes syllables into a word (language unit) having a definite accentual structure.

2) Semantically distinctive function

Word stress alone is capable of differentiating the meaning of words or their grammatical forms, thus performing its distinctive function on the basis of the pairs of positions form oppositions...(`import—im`port)

3) Syntactical distinctive function in distinguishing between a noun and a compound noun

a'hotdog (a form of food),

a 'hot 'dog (an overheated animal) – a phrase of an adjective followed by a noun.....