Word-stress

The majority of British phoneticians distinguish 3 degrees of word-stress. The strongest stress is called primary stress, the second strongest secondary stress, while all the other degrees of stress are grouped together under the cover term of weak stress. The syllables bearing either primary or secondary stress termed stressed, while syllables with weak stress are called, somewhat inaccurately, unstressed.

H.A.Gleason and most other American descriptivists distinguish also 4 degrees of word-stress in English, calling and indicating them as follows: (1) primary stress, (2) secondary stress, (3) tertiary stress, and (4) wek stress.

The distinction between secondary and tertiary stresses is very subtle one, and there are, so far, no generally recognized formal indicators of their occurrence in relation to the primary stress or pitch levels. The result is that the allocation these two degrees of stress to syllables in particular words is a subjective matter, and even phonetically trained linguists sometimes differ from each other in this respect.

Thus, H.A.Gleason writes: “ The contrast of secondary stress with tertiary stress may be seen in such a pair as black bird: black bird. The first implies a bird that is described as being black; the second a particular kind of which, incidentally, may or may not be black.

The contradictions and discrepancies of word-stress are due to two factors. The first is that the American descriptivists’ interpretation of the nature of English word accent is oversimplified. They reduce it to different degrees of loudness, the perception of which is highly subjective, and underestimate the role of the other components of word accent, viz. changes of pitch level and pitch direction, of quality and quantity.

The second factor is that the American descriptivists and, to a lesser extent, British phoneticians do not discriminate between word, accent, phrase accent, and sentence accent. They do not take into account the fact that word accent is a constituent feature of the phonetic structure of the word as a vocabulary item, which exists as such when it is pronounced in isolation, in the so-called citation for, or, at the most, as part of compound words or free word combinations also pronounced in isolation.

Sentence accent is, on the contrary, a constituent part of the phonetic structure of the spoken sentence and one of the components of intonation in the broad sense of the term.

The semantic facto is one of them. In a sentence, semantically more important words are pronounced with greater stress.

The second solution is to find reliable objective criteria for determining the position of the tertiary stress in words pronounced in isolation. This is important from a theoretical point of view because the existence of tertiary word-stress in English can hardly be doubted.

Different types of word accent are distinguished not only to its nature or degree, but also according to its position, place, or incidence, in different words of the language. From this point of view two types of word accent are distinguished: (1) fixed, and (2) free.

Within free word accent two subtypes are distinguished on morphological grounds: (1) constant accent, and (2) shifting accent. A constant accent is one which remains on the same morpheme in different grammatical forms of a word or in different derivatives from one and the same root. For instance, the accent is constant in all the case forms of the Russian noun ноша, ноши, ноше, ношу, нош, ношах. It is also constant in such English words as wonder, wonderful, wonderfully.

A shifting accent falls on different morphemes in different grammatical forms of a word or in different derivatives from one and the same root, e.g. сад-сады, вода-воды, сад-садовод, вода-водавоз, active-activity.

The first and the oldest of the English word accentuation tendencies is known as the recessive tendency, and the incidence of the accent in accordance with it is called recessive accent, or stress.

The presence in English of a great number of short words has caused the development of one more tendency in the incidence of word accent. This is so-called rhythmic tendency, while the accent determined by it is called rhythmical.

There is a third tendency clearly distinguishable in English word accentuation. It is a manifestation of constant accent in word derivation.

Like all phonetic phenomena, word accent must also be analyzed from a functional, or phonological, point of view. The first function of word accent is constitutive function. The second function of word accent is distinctive function. The third function is identiflactory, or precognitive function.

Questions for discussions:

1. The accentual structure of English words.

2. Types and degrees of word-stress.

3. Positions, tendencies and functions of word-stress.

Questions to be discussed:

1. How many phonemen may a syllable consist of?

2. What sounds may perform syllables in English?

3. What speech sounds are called syllabic and non-syllabic?

4. What are the main function of the syllable?

Phonemes are seldom pronounced in isolation, they usually occur in sequences. Any speech flow consists of series of peaks and valleys of prominence with the more sonorous phonemes at the peaks and the less sonorous in the valleys. Thus, sound sequences are acoustically broken up into smaller units known as syllables, which are the minimal units of sounding speech.

A syllable may consist of one or a number of phonemes, i.e. it may be formed by any vowel (alone or in combination with consonants) or by a word-final sonorant (/l, m, n, ŋ/) preceded by a consonant, as in /ai/ (I), /a:/ (are), /wi:/ (we) /æt/ (at), /ten/ (ten), /hot/ (hot), /`æpl/ (apple), /`ga:dn/ (garden), / stei/ (stay), /ri:dz/ (reads), /strict/ (strict), /`beikŋ/ (bacon), etc.

A speech sound which is capable of forming a syllable is called syllabic. It is the most sonorous sound in the syllable and makes up the peak of prominence.

Speech sounds which are not capable of forming a syllable are called non-syllabic. They are the less sonorous sounds of the syllable and make up the valleys of prominence.

Prof. V.AVassilyev defines the syllable as “one or more speech sounds forming a single uninterrupted unit of utterance, which may be a whole word, e.g. /mæn/ (man), or a commonly recognized and separable subdivision of a word, e.g. /`in-gli∫/ (English) or wordform, e.g. /`lei-tә/ (later).

The syllabic structure of words of may be graphically represented by the letter V standing for a vowel sound, and the letter C standing for a consonant sound. The syllabic sonorant is represented by S.

Every syllable has a definite structure. It belongs to one of the following four main types of syllables: V, VC, CV, CVC. They are classified as covered, uncovered, open and closed.

A syllable which begins in a consonant is called u n c o v e r e d, a syllable which begins in a consonant is called c o v e r e d. A syllable which ends in a vowe..is called open, a syllable which ends in a consonant is called closed.

So, the main types of syllables may be defined in the following way:

V- uncovered, open; e.g. / / (or), /ia/ (I), /a:/ (are);

VC- uncovered, closed; e.g. /it/ (it), /æd/ (add);

CV- covered, open; e.g. /si:/ (see), /nou/ (no), /mi:/ (me);

CVC- covered, closed; e.g. /kæt∫/ (catch), /pit/ (pit).

There are a great number of variants in the syllabic structure which are formed by increasing the number of consonants in the initial and final position, as in:

VCC (e.g. and, act, oaks, ask, else, and, old, eggs, etc.);

VCCC (e.g. ends, acts, asks, ants, elks, aunts, angle, etc.);

CCV (e.g. blue, clay, cry, fly, grow, stay, sky, dry, etc.);

CCCV (e.g. spray, straw, screw, scry, sprue, scree, etc.);

CVCC (e.g. cats, goats, pens, child, bolt, fact, rags, etc.);

CVCCC (e.g. child’s, facts, minds, bulbs, bolts, etc.);

CCVC (e.g. sleep, speak, black, cries, frame, shrew, etc.);

CCVCC (e.g. stoves, placed, flex, gloves, dressed, etc.);

CCVCCC (e.g. clasps, grasped, sphinx, flanks, scuffles, etc.)

CCCVC (e.g. street, strong, scream, splash, stress, etc.)

CCCVCC (e.g. splint, strikes, screams, streets, splashed, etc.);

CCCVCCC (e.g. splints, strengths, strands, sprints, etc.);

The most common syllables that sonorants form are of Ş, CŞ and CŞC types. For instance, Ş type: / ‘æp-l/ (apple), / ‘ b٨t-n/ (button), / ‘rið-m/ (‘rhythm); CŞ type: / ‘tei-bl/ (table), / ‘ ga:dn/ (garden), / ‘ nou-bl/ (no-ble), / ‘i:tn/ (eaten);

CŞC type: / ‘nei-∫nz/ (nations), / ‘ou-pnz/ (opens), /dik‘tei-∫nz/ (dictations); etc.

Kazakh sonorants are non-syllabic.

There are several theories – which try to explain the mechanism the of syllable formation and syllable division.

The oldest of them in the so-called expiratory theory (also breath-puff, pressure, or’chest theory). According to this theory each syllable corresponds to one expiration. A word consists of аs many syllables as there are such expirations made when the word is uttered. Each syllable begins with a fresh expiration. For instance, the word “forty” has two syllables. According to the expiratory theory there must be two expirations. The point where a new expiration starts indicates the syllabic boundary of the word.

The expiratory theory is strongly criticized here and abroad (by B.I.Zhinkin, O.P. Torsuyev, A.C.Gimson and others). According to the last experimental data more than ten syllables can easily be pronounced during one expiration.

Next appared the so-called sonority theory of the syllable. It was propounded by Otto Jesperson. This theory is nowadays widespread among foreign linguists. The term “sonority” is taken by O.Jesperson as ‘the degree of perceptibility”.

All speech sounds have different inherent sonority. The most sonorous are open back vowel, the least sonorous are the voiceless tope. O.Jesperson classified all speech sounds according to seven levels of sonority:

The sequence of / ‘CVCV/ has a closed syllable and an open one / ‘CVC-V/ if the stressed vowel is a short monophthong, e.g.

/ ‘pit-i/ (pity), / ‘b٨t-∂/ (butter),

/ ‘ mer-i/ (merry), / ‘k p-i/ (copy)

/ ‘æp-l/ (apple), / ‘les-n/ (lesson),

/ ‘ful-i/ (fully), / ‘priz-m/ (prism), etc.

Syllables of this type present a great difficulty to Russian and Kazakh students because in similar Russian and Kazakh words there are two open syllables. In English the intervocalic consonants of this type initially strong while in Russian and Kazakh they are finally strong.

Short and long monophthongs and diphthong make for an open type of syllable if they are unstressed and are separated from the adjacent vowels by only one consonant, e.g.

/ ri:-‘ækt/ (react) / mju:‘- ziәm/ (museum),

/bi-‘gin/ (begim) /:-‘gænik/ (artistic),

/mæ-‘leiz/ (malaise) /a:-‘tistik/ (artistic),

/ә-‘gein/ (again), /nou-‘t:riәs/ (notorious),

/i-vækju-‘ei∫n/ (evacuation),

/Juә-‘rei з jәn/ (Eurasian), etc.

Phonetic and orthographic syllables should not be confused. They sometimes coincide and sometimes do not. For instance, phonetically disyllabic words like “apple”, “higher”, “eaten”, “flower”, “battle”, “fire”, “drizzle”, etc. are treated in writing as monosyllabic words. Whereas orthographically disyllabic words like “type”, “come”, “wrote”, “theme”, “change”, etc. have only one phonetic syllable.

Here are some examples:

/ а:-‘tis-tik / art-ist-ic

/ ‘ drai-vә/ driv-er The syllabic boudary does not coicide

/ ‘ lei-tә/ lat-er

/ ‘ә:-li/ ear-ly

/ ‘ iә-dr٨m/ drum The syllabic boundary coincides

/ ‘leit-li/ late-ly

The phonetic syllable division is governed by the three rules which have been stated above. The orthographic syl­lable division is governed by the morphemic principle, as in: star-less, writ-er, read-ing, do-er, rang-ing, pre-war, dis-­crete, help-less, etc.

The syllabic structure of English performs three main functions:

(1) corstltutlve,

(2) distinctive, and

(3) recognitive ^.

(Compare it with thethree functions of the phonemic struc­ture of English. See Part One).

The syllabic structure fulfils constitutive function because syllables constitute the material forms of all the words, phrases and sentences. The latter cannot exist without syllables. Such words as: /a:/ (are), /о:/ (ore), /ai/ (I), etc., when pro­nounced in isolation are at the same time syllables (and pho­nemes as well).

The distinctive function of the syllabic structure in­cludes differences in both syllable formation and syllable divi­sion. Presence or absence of a syllable in one and the same po­sition, as well as different syllabic boundaries may differen­tiate one word (or phrase, or sentence) from another word (or phrase, or sentence).

Here are some phonological:, oppositions of presence vs. ab­sence of a syllable in the same position in a minimal pair:

/bet/ - /'betә/ (bet - better);

/belt/ - /ә'belt/ (bate - abate);

/dri:m/ - /'dri:mi/ (dream - dreamy);

/sli:p/ - /ә's1i:р/ (sleep - asleep);

/sli:p/ - /'sli:pә/ (sleep - sleeper), etc.

The distinctive function of syllable division may be illus­trated by only one example:

/'nai-treit/ - /'nait-reit/ (nitrate - night-rate).

The number of combinations of words distinguished from each other by different syllabic boundaries is rather considerable:

	a name	an aim
I scream	ice-cream
a nice house	- an ice house
He had a black tie	- He had a blacked eye
not a tall one	- not at all one
I saw her eyes	- I saw her rise
pick it	- picket
a jar	- ajar
that's tough	- that stuff
confined	- can find
a notion	- an ocean
I saw the meat	- I saw them eat, etc.

The recognitive function of the syllabic structure man­ifests itself in the fact that the right syllabic' boundary makes it easier to recognize words, phrases and sentences. Compare the following (Mind that wrong pronunciation produces a phonetic but not a phonological mistake.):

Correct proruncietlon Incorrect pronunciation
happy /'hæp-i/ /'hæ-pi/

Stand up! /'staæd'٨p/ /'stæn 'd٨р/

an apple /әn’pl/ /ә’næpl/

at eight /әt 'en t/ /ә'teit/, etc.

The violation of the recognitive function of the syllabic structure results in the following:

(1) wrong syllable division produces a strong foreign accent;

(2) it produces a comic impression upon an Englishman;

(3) it hampers the process of communication