Accent types of words

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 661.

1. Mono-, dis- and trisyllabic words are stressed on the 1^st syllable. In words with unseparable prefixes the stress falls on the syllable next to the prefix (begin, prepare)
2. Most of 4-syllable words have the stress laid on the 3^rd syllabograph from the end. Political, historical.

1. Compound nouns are stressed on the 1^st component, the 2^nd though unstressed, has a vowel of full formation. Blackboard, bookstand.
2. Polysyllabic words have the primary stress on the 3 syllabograph rom the end and a secondary stress on the second pretonic syllable. University, Examination, assimilation
3. The following groups of words have 2 primary stresses

- Numerals (13-19)

- Compound adjectives well-known, good-looking

- Composite verb get up, sit down

- Words with separable prefixes unknown, subtitle

The functional aspects of word tress:

1. Word stress constitutes word, it organized 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 doesn't exist without the word stress. 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 indentificatory.
3. Word stress alone is capable of differentiating the meaning of words or their forms, thus performing its distinctive function.

1. Word accentuation tendencies and basic word stress patterns in English. Rhythmical patterns of lexical stress in words of Anglo-Saxon origin and in French borrowings.

I would like to point out that the accentual structure of English words is liable to instability due to the different origin of several layers in the modern English wordstock. In Germanic languages the word stress originally fell on the initial syllable or the 2^nd 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 are subjected to this recessive tendency. Unrestrictive recessive tendency observed in the native English words having no prefix – mother, daughter, brother; in assimilated French borrowings – reason, colour, restaurant. Restricted recessive tendency marks English words with prefixes – begin, apart, foresee. A great number of words of Anglo-Saxon origin are monosyllabic or disyllabic.

The rhythm of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables have birth to the rhythmical tendency in the present-day English caused the appearance of the secondary stress in the multisyllabic French borrowings – evolution, assimilation.

The appearance of the stress on the 1^st syllable is the result of the recessive tendency and at the same time adaptation to the rhythmical tendency.

A 3^rd tendency was traces in the instability of the accentual structure of English word stress, the retentive tendency.

1. Suprasegmental Phonology. Intonation as the complex semantic unity of suprasegmental features. Different approaches to the definition of intonation and its components.

Phonology is the study of the sound system of languages, and of the general properties displayed by these systems. By contrast with phonetics, which studies all possible sounds that the human vocal apparatus can make, phonology studies only those contrasts in sound which make differences of meaning within language. When we listen carefully to the way people speak English, we will hear hundreds of slight differences in the way individuals pronounce particular sounds.

Intonation is a language universal. There are no languages which are spoken as a monotone, without any change of prosodic parameters. But intonation functions in various languages is a different way.

Intonation is a complex unity of a number of components, such as speech melody, utterance stress, rhythm, loudness, tempo, timbre. Intonation realized in speech the following functions:

1. It organizes words into utterances.
2. It delimits 1 utterance from another by means of pause
3. It defines the communicative type of sentence
4. It expresses the speaker's attitude towards what he says.

16. Intonation and prosody. Prosodic subsystems; their acoustic and auditory properties. Functions of intonation/prosody and its subsystems.

Intonation is a language universal. There are no languages which are spoken as a monotone, without any change of prosodic parameters. But intonation functions in various languages is a different way.

Intonation is a complex unity of a number of components, such as speech melody, utterance stress, rhythm, loudness, tempo, timbre.

The Basic Functions of Intonation/Prosody are constitutive, distinctive, identificatory.

1. Constitutive functionis to form utterances as communicative units. Prosody unifies words into utterances, thus giving the latter the final form without which they cannot exist. Prosody is the only language device that transforms words as vocabulary items into communicative units – utterances. In constituting an utterance prosody at the same time performs the segmentative and delimitative subfunctions. It means that intonation segments connected discourse into utterances and intonation groups, and simultaneously delimits them one from another.

2. The distinctive functionof prosody manifests itself in several subfunctions: communicative-distinctive, modal-distinctive (attitudinal), culminative (“theme-and-rheme”)-distinctive, syntactical-distinctive and stylistic-distinctive functions.

The communicative-distinctive function is to differentiate the communicative types of utterances.

The modal-distinctive (attitudinal) function of prosody manifests itself in differentiating modal meanings of utterances and the speaker's attitudes.

The culminative (“theme-and-rheme”)-distinctive function of prosody manifests itself in differentiating the location of the semantic nuclei of utterances and other semantically important words. This function is also called logical, predicative or informational. Performing this function prosody distinguishes between what is already known and what is new in the meaning of an utterance.

The syntactical-distinctive function of prosody is to differentiate syntactical types of sentences and syntactical relations in sentences.

The stylistic-distinctive functions function of prosody manifest itself in that prosody differentiates phonetic styles: informational, scientific, publicistic, declamatory, conversational, determined by extralinguistic factors.

3. The identificatory functionof prosody is to provide a basis for the hearer's identification of the communicative and modal type of an utterance its semantic and syntactical structure with the communicative situation. All the functions of prosody are fulfilled simultaneously and cannot be separate on from another. They show that utterance prosody is linguistically significant and meaningful.

17. Intonation group as a meaningful unit in speech communication. Functional parts of the intonation group and their semantic loadings. Possible types of intonation groups in English. Different systems of graphical notation of intonation.

An intonation patterns contains 1 nucleus and may contain other stressed or unstressed syllables normally preceding or following the nucleus. The boundaries of an intonation pattern may be marked by stops of phonation that is temporal pauses.

Intonation patterns serve to actualize syntagms in oral speech. Syntagm is a group of words which is semantically and syntactically complete. In phonetics actualized syntagms are called intonation groups.

Each intonation group may consist of one or more potential syntagms. The intonation group is a stretch of speech which may have the length of the whole phrase. (by phrase hare we mean a sentence actualized in oral speech). But the phrase often contains more than 1 intonation group. The number of intonation groups depends on the length of the phrase and the degree of semantic importance.

Among the pitch parameters we shall concentrate on the 3 of them, the distinct variations in the direction of pitch, pitch level and pitch range.Though pitch changes are of primary linguistic significance they should be viewed together with the variations of loudness, the 2^nd component of intonation, since it is clearly not possible to separate pitch and loudness in creating the effect of accentuation. That is why the 1^st task is to discuss the anatomy of pitch-and- stress structure of the intonation pattern.

Not all stressed syllables are of equal importance. 1 of the syllables has the greater prominence than the others and forms the nucleus, or focal point of an intonation pattern. The nuclear tone is the most important part of the intonation pattern without which the latter cannot exist at all.

18. Utterance stress, its types and problems of classification. The interrelation of word-stress and utterance stress.

Utterance stress is the special prominence given to one or more words in an utterance. On the auditory level the special prominence is achieved by pitch, loudness, length and quality. Acoustically, utterance stress is determined by variations of fundamental frequency, intensity, duration and format structure. The effect of utterance stress is created not by a single acoustic parameter, but by the interaction of different parameters. The subsystem of utterance stress in English includes the following basic types: nuclear stress (marked by a kinetic tone), non-nuclear full stress (often marked by static tones) and weak stress (syllables are not marked as a rule as they are not stress.) The distribution of stress in an utterance depends on the following factors: semantic (which determines the placement, type and degree), singles out the utterance semantic center by this or that nuclear, or primary stress, carries the greatest semantic importance, grammatical (grammatical structure of the utterance also predetermines its accentual structure) and rhythmical (the distributions of stress in an utterance is also affected by the rhythmical laws of English.) All these factors are closely linked, the semantic factor being the most important.

19. Speech melody as a subsystem of intonation. Functions of its components. Nuclear tones in the system of English intonation.

Speech melody is the variations in the pitch of the voice which take place with voiced sounds. Describing the speech melody we determine the relevant pitch levels, pitch ranges, rate and directions of pitch movement in the terminal tone of the intonation group and the type of interval at the juncture of intonation group segments. The pitch level of the whole utterance or intonation group is determined by the pitch of its highest-pitched syllable. It shows the degree of semantic importance the speaker attaches to the utterance in comparison with any other utterance, and also the speaker's attitude and emotions. Parenthetical phrases, for example, and other semantically less important intonation groups of and utterance are characterized by a lower pitch level than the neighbouring intonation groups. The pitch range of an utterance is the interval between its highest-pitched syllable and its lowest-pitched syllable. According to circumstances the speaker changes his voice range: it may by widened and narrowed to express emphasis or the speaker's attitude and emotions. The rate of pitch variations may be different depending on the time, during which these variations take place, and on the range of the variations. The falling tone for instance, is stepper when it is pronounced within a shorter period of time, its range being the same.

20. Pausation and tempo in the structure of English intonation. Their functions.

Pause is the means of speech continuum division into units of different length and hierarchy. The main function of a pause is to segmental connected speech into utterance and intonation groups. Phoneticians distinguish 3 main types of pauses: silent pauses (short pauses which may be used to separate intonation groups within a phrase; longer pauses which normally manifest the end of the phrase; very long pauses, which are approximately twice as long as the 1^st type, are used to separate phonetic wholes), pauses of perception and voiced or filled pauses. A silent pauses is a stop in the phonation. Pauses of reception are marked by a wavy line and its effect is produced by a sharp change of pitch direction or by variation in duration. Filled pauses are used to signal hesitation or doubt.