Accentual Structure of English Words

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 1809.

The syllable or syllables which are uttered with more prominence than the other

syllables of the word are said to be stressedor accented. Word stresscan 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 [Леонтьева 1988: 179]. The correlation of varying prominences of syllables in a word is understood as the accentual structure of the word or its stress pattern.

According to the most salient feature the following types of word stress are distinguished in different languages:

1. dynamic or force stressif special prominence in a stressed syllable (syllables) is achieved mainly through the intensity of articulation;

2. musical or tonic stressif special prominence is achieved mainly through the

range of pitch, or musical tone.

3. quantitative stressif special prominence is achieved through the changes in the

quantity of the vowels, which are longer in the stressed syllables than in the unstressed

ones.

4. qualitative stressif special prominence is achieved through the changes in the

quality of the vowel under stress [Леoнтьева l988: 180]. Vowel reduction is often used as manipulation of quality in unstressed syllables.

According to A.C. Gimson, the effect of prominence is achieved by any or all of

four factors: force, tone, length and vowel colour [1970]. The dynamic stress implies

greater force with which the syllable is pronounced. In other words in the articulation

of the stressed syllable greater muscular energy is produced by the speaker. European

languages such as English, German, French, Ukrainian are believed to possess predominantly dynamic word stress. In Scandinavian languages the word stress is considered to be both dynamic and musical. The musical (or tonic) word stress is observed in Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese. It is effected by the variations of voice pitch in relation to neighbouring syllables.

The English linguists (D. Crystal [1969], A.C. Gimson [1970]) agree that in English word stress or accent is a complex phenomenon, marked by the variations in force, pitch, quantityand quality.The dynamic and the tonic features of English word stress prevail over the others. It should be noted that when the tonic or musical component of word stress is involved it is the change of pitch level that is significant in making the syllable prominent, but not the type of tone direction.

As to the quantitative and qualitative components of word stress they are also significant. Certain distinctions of the vowel length and colour are reduced or lacking in

unstressed syllables. The fact strengthens the idea that the accentuation is influenced

by the vowel length and quality. The vowel of the stressed syllable is perceived as never

reduced or obscure and longer than the same vowel in the unstressed syllables. Thus, the word “stress” or “accent” is also defined as qualitative where the vowel colour or quality is a means of stress and quantitative with relatively increased length of the stressed vowel.

Languages are also differentiated according to the placement of word stress.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 multisyllabic word. For instance, in French the stress falls on the last syllable of the word (if pronounced

in isolation), in Finnish and Czech it is fixed on the first syllable, in Polish on the one but last syllable.

In languages with a free stress its place is not confined to a specific position in the

word. In one word it may fall on the first syllable, in another on the second syllable, in the third word — on the last syllable, etc.

The word stress in English as well as in Ukrainian is not only free but it may also be shifting, performing the semantic function of differentiating lexical units, parts of speech, grammatical forms. It is worth noting that in English word stress is used as a means of word-building, in Ukrainian it marks both word-building and word formation, e.g.:

'contrast – con'trast

'habit – ha'bitual

The opinions of phoneticians differ as to how many degrees of stress are linguistically relevant in a word. The majority of British (D. Jones, R. Kingdon, A.C. Gimson) and Russian linguists (V.A. Vassilyev, J. Shakhbagova) usually distinguish three degrees of stress in the word. The primary stress is the strongest, the secondary stress is the second strongest. All the other degrees are termed weak stress. Unstressed syllables are supposed to have weak stress.

There are several systems of notation for marking stress in a written word that

can make the concept visual for the language users. Most dictionaries mark primary stress with a vertical superscript stress mark– ' before the main stress syllable, and secondary stress with a subscript stress mark– ¸ before the syllable bearing secondary stress.

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.

The rhythm of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables gave birth to the rhythmicaltendency in the present-day English which caused the appearance of the

secondary stress in the multisyllabic French borrowings, e.g. ¸revo'lution, ¸organi'sation, as¸simi'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 retentive tendencyconsists in the retention of the primary stress on the parent word: 'person - 'personal.

There are certain categories of English words stressing of which is determined by

the semantic factor,e.g. compound words and words with the 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 the semantic factor thus canceling the rhythmic tendency in word stressing, e.g.

• compound adjectives:hard-working, blue-eyed,

• verbs with post positions: sit down, take off,

• numerals from 13 to 19.fourteen, sixteen.

The numerous variations of English word stress are systematized in the typology

of accentual structureof English words worked out by G.P. Torsuev [1960]. He classifies them according to the number of stressed syllables, their degree or character (the main and the secondary stress). The distribution of stressed syllables within the word accentual types forms accentual structures of words, e.g. the accentual type of words with two equal stresses may be presented by several accentual structures: 'well-'bred [ᅩᅩ], 'absent-minded [ᅩ –ᅩ –], or 'good-looking [ᅩᅩ –]. Accentual types and accentual structures are closely connected with the morphological type of words, with the number of syllables, the semantic value of the root and the prefix of the word.

The accentual types are:

I. [ᅩ –] This accentual type marks both simple and compound words, e.g. 'father, 'gas-pipe.

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

III. [ᅩᅩᅩ] and IV. [ᅩᅩᅩᅩ]. The accentual types are met in initial compound abbreviations like 'U'S'A, 'R'S'V'P.

V. [ᅩᅮ –] The type is realized both in simple and compound words, very common among compound words, e.g. 'hair-¸dresser, 'sub¸structure.

VI. [ᅮᅩ –]. The accentual type marks a great number of simple words and some

compound words as well. In simple words the stresses fall onto:

1. the prefix and the root: ¸maga'zine;

2. the root and the suffix: ¸hospi'tality;

3. the prefix and the suffix: ¸disorgani'zation.

VII. [ᅩᅮᅩ –] The type includes rather a small number of simple words with the

separable prefixes, e.g. 'mis¸repre'sent.

VIII. [ᅮᅮᅩ –]. The type is found in a very small number of words, usually simple words with the stresses on the prefix, the root and the suffix, e.g. ¸indi¸viduali'zation.

IX. [ᅩᅩᅮ–]. The type is met in rare instances of compound words with separable prefixes, e.g. 'un'sea¸worthy.

X. [ᅩ –ᅮᅮ]. The type is represented by rare instances of simple and compound

words, e.g. 'soda-¸water ¸bottle.

XI. [ᅮᅩᅮ]. The type is found in rare instances of compound words consisting of

the three components, e.g. ¸ginger'beer-¸bottle.

The data given above suggest an idea of the great variability in the accentual structure of English words. The most widely spread among the enumerated accentual types are supposed to be Type I [ᅩ –], Type II [ᅩᅩ], Type V [ᅩᅮ] and Type VI [ᅮᅩ]. Each type includes varieties of definite accentual structures with different numbers of syllables and marks thousands of words. So the four of them cover the main bulk of most common English words and are therefore most typical for the English vocabulary. As we may see, the typical feature of English accentual structure is its instability. There is a great number of words having variants of their accentual patterns.

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.

The word stress is closely interrelated with sentence stress. The demarcation of

word stress and sentence stress is very important both from the theoretical and the practical viewpoint. Sentence stress usually falls on the very syllable of the word which

is marked by word stress. Thus the accentual structure of the word predetermines the

arrangement of stresses in a phrase. At the same time the stress pattern of a phrase is always conditioned by the semantic and syntactical factors. The words which usually

become stressed in a phrase are notional words. They convey the main idea of the phrase, though any word including form words may be marked by sentence stress, if it

has certain semantic value in the sentence.

The common character of word stress and sentence stress is also observed in their

rhythmical tendency to alternate stressed and unstressed syllables and pronounce them

at approximately equal intervals.

Word stress and sentence stress are first of all different in their sphere of application as they are applied to different language units: Word stress is naturally applied to a word, as a linguistic unit, sentence stress is applied to a phrase.

Since the spheres of word stress and sentence stress fall apart their functions are actually different. Sentence stress organizes a sentence into a linguistic unit, helps to form its rhythmic and intonation pattern, performs its distinctive function on the level of a phrase.

We shall turn now to the functional aspect of word stress.Word stress in a language performs three functions.

I. 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.

II. 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 identificatory (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.

III. 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. There are about 135 pairs of

words of identical orthography in English which could occur either as nouns (with stress on the penultimate syllable) or as verbs (with stress on the final syllable), with a very small number of cases the location of lexical stress alone being the differentiating factor: 'import (noun) – im'port (verb), 'insult (noun) – in'sult (verb) [Laver 1995: 516].

A.C. Gimson establishes three groups of words with identical spelling representing different parts of speech which are opposed by means of shifting of the stress [1970].

1. A small group of words where the noun is differentiated from a verb by the opposition of the accentual pattern of the word alone, e.g.

increase [ 'inkris] – [in'kri:s]

insult ['ins٨lt] – [in's٨lt]

impress ['impres] – [im'pres]

2. The second group where the shifting of the stress which means the change of the

accentual pattern of the word may be or may not be accompanied by the reduction of the

vowel in the unstressed syllable of the verbs, e.g.

transport ['træsnspɔ:t] [træns'pɔ:t] or [trəns'pɔ:t]

torment ['tɔ:ment] [tɔ:'ment] or [tə'ment]

3. The largest group of such pairs of words manifests the change of their accentual

pattern together with the qualitative reduction of the unstressed vowel, e.g.

combine ['kɒmbain] – [kəm'bain]

conduct ['kɒnd٨kt] – [kən'd٨kt]

contrast ['kɒntra:st] – [kən'tra:st]

and many others.

Oppositions of accentual types of words are also observed as a concomitant factor

in word-formation in addition to suffixation.

1. [ᅩ – –] – [ᅮ – ᅩ] e.g. 'organize – ¸organi'zation

2. [ᅩ ᅩ – –] – [ᅩᅮ– ᅩ –] e.g. 're'organize – 're¸organi'zation

3. [ᅩ – –] – [ᅩ – – ᅩ] e.g. 'palatalize – 'palatali'zation

4. [ᅮ – ᅩ] – [ᅩ –ᅮ– ᅩ –] e.g. ¸incon'siderable –'incon¸side'ration

and others.

There is also a group of accentuation oppositions where compound nouns are opposed to free word combinations, e.g.

a 'blackboard класна дошка

a 'black 'board чорна дошка

a 'dancing-girl танцівниця

a 'dancing 'girl дівчина, яка танцює