What are the main functions of word stress?

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 504.

How many degrees of word stress exist in English?

Instrumental investigations show that a polysyllabic word has as many degrees of prominence as there are syllables in it. D. Jones indicated the degrees of prominence in the word “Opportunity”. But not all these degrees of prom are linguistically relevant. The problem is to determine which of these degrees are linguistically relevant. There are 2 views of the matter. Some (e.g. D. Jones, R. Kingdon, V. Vassilyev consider that there are 3 degrees or W-s in English: primary, secondary (partial stress) and weak (unstressed). Secondary stress is chiefly needed to define the stress pattern of words. E.g. “e,xami'nation”, “,qualifi'cation”, “'hair-,dresser”.

All these degrees stress are linguistically relevant as there are words in English the meanings of which depend on the occurrence of either of the 3 degrees in their stress patterns. E.g. 'import - im'port, ,certifi'cation - cer,tifi'cation =certificate.Some American linguists (G. Trager, A. Hill) distinguish 4 degrees of W-s:

- Primary (as in “cupboard”) / ¢ /

- Secondary (as in “discrimination) / ^ /

- Tertiary (as in “analyze”)

Weak stress (as in “cupboard”), but very often the weakly stressed syllable is left unmarked. /v/

Word-stress has a constitutive function, as it moulds syllables into a word forming its stress pattern.

Word-stress has a distinctive function in English, because exists there different words in English with analogous sound structure which are differentiated in speech only by their stress pattern. E.g.

Noun / adjective verb

'Insult in'sult

'Subject sub'ject

Word-stress has an identificatory factory function, because stress patterns of words enable people to identify definite combinations of sounds as meaningful linguistic units. A distortion of the stress pattern may hamper understanding or produce a strange accent.