Glossary of phonetic terms

Crest – the peak of the syllable. It is usually formed by a vowel or a sonorant.

Hiatus – combination of two vowels which belong to different syllables.

Orthographic syllable – into which words in writing and in print are divided.

Protected vowel (strong vowel) – thevowel in the syllable which according to dictionaries has primary stress. If the word has two stresses then the vowels in both syllables are protected (strong). The vowel of a monosyllable is protected if it is a content word, but not if it is a function word used in speech.

Scale of sonority – the arrangement of phonemes according to their degree of loudness. According to this scale the most sonorous are front low vowels, then go sonants and voiced consonants. Voiceless consonants are characterised by minimal sonority.

Slope – the consonants which precede the peak and follow it.

Sonority – a degree of loudness.

Strong syllable – the syllable which has as its peak one of the vowel phonemes, but not the schwa vowel [ə], reduced [i] or [ʊ].

Syllabic – capable of forming a syllable.

Syllabicate – to divide into syllables.

Syllabograph – syllable in writing. It is closely connected with the morphemic structure of words.

Syllable pattern – the type of syllable most common for the language. English is characterized by CV syllable pattern.

Weak syllable – one which can have sounds with obscured quality: the schwa vowel [ə], a close front unrounded vowel [i], a close back rounded vowel [ʊ] and one of the syllabic consonants [l], [n], [m].

Unit VI

Word stress

1. Nature of word stress in the English language.

2. Factors that determine the place and degree of word stress.

3. Disyllables.

4. Polysyllables.

5. Words with suffixes.

6. Prefixes and stress.

7. Compound words.

Accent is a greater degree of prominence, given to one or more syllables in a word, which singles it out through changes in the pitch and intensity of the voice and results in qualitative and quantitative modifications of sounds in the accented syllable.

In different languages one of the factors constituting word accent is usually more significant than the others, it is said to be phonologically relevant. From the point of view of the position of stress in words and their grammatical forms, accent can be characterized as free and fixed.

In the English language word accent is free, that is stress may fall on the first, the second or on the final syllable.

Stress in the English language is not only free, but at the same time it is also shifting, that is it may shift from one syllable to another in different parts of speech, or in different forms of one and the same word: ig'nore – 'ignorant. Shifting of word stress may perform semantic function: a) it distinguishes words semantically; b) it may also serve to differentiate grammatical forms of words.

Most British phoneticians term the strongest stress primary, the second strongest secondary and all the other degrees of stress weak. The stress marks placed before the stressed syllables indicate simultaneously their places and the point of syllable division. The American scholars (B. Bloch, G. Trager) distinguish four contrastive degrees of word stress: loud, reduced loud, medial and weak. H. A. Gleason defines the degrees of word stress as primary, secondary, tertiary and weak stress.

The typology of accentual structure of English words was worked out by G.P. Torsuev. He classifies variations according to the number of stressed syllables and their degree (the main and the secondary stress). The distribution of stressed syllables within the word accentual types forms accentual structures of words. There are 11 accentual types in English.

In spite of the fact, that word accent in the English word stress system is free, there are certain factors, that determine the place and different degree of word stress. V. A. Vassilyev describes them as follows: 1) recessive tendency, 2) rhythmic tendency, 3) retentive tendency and 4) semantic tendency.

1. Recessive tendency consists in gradual shifting of word accent to the first syllable (which is usually the root of the word). It can be of two sub-types: a) unrestricted recessive accent, which falls on the first syllable: father; b) restricted recessive accent, which is characterized by placing the word accent on the root of the word if this word has a prefix, which has lost its meaning: become.

2. Rhythmic tendency – the tendency to alternate stressed and unstressed syllables. This tendency gave rise to the origin of the secondary stress, especially in four-syllable words of foreign origin: conversation.

Rhythmical accent can be: a) historically or diachronically rhythmical, with one stress, which was originally rhythmical. It falls on the third syllable from the end in three and four syllable words: ` family; b) synchronically rhythmical in words with a secondary stress on the second pre-tonic syllable: pronunciation.

3. Retentive tendency is characterized by the retention of the accent in the derivative on the same syllable on which it falls in the parent word: person – personal. More commonly it is retained in the parent word as a secondary accent: similar – similarity.

The interaction of the recessive and rhythmic tendencies resulted in the victory of: a) recessive tendency in a few four syllable words: adversary; b) in the victory of historically rhythmic tendency in three or four syllable words: family; c) a compromise which was, in its turn, of two types: when a three syllable word received its accent on the first syllable: enemy (coincidence of historically rhythmical and recessive tendency).

4. The semantic tendency can be observed in compound words, and according to this factor the most important part of the compound is usually stressed. It is, as a rule, the first element of the compound: 'bluebottle.

Accent performs constitutive, distinctive and recognitive functions:

Word stress performs three functions.

1) It organizes the syllables of a word into a language unit with a definite accentual structure, organizes words when they are pronounced separately and joins them into sentences.

2) Its identificatory (recognitive) function enables a person to identify a succession of syllables as a definite accentual pattern of a word and helps to recognize words.

3) Word stress alone is capable of differentiating the meaning of words and their grammatical forms: 'conduct (noun) – to con'duct (verb). It also helps to distinguish compound words from word combinations: 'blackboard (классная доска) – 'black 'board (черная доска).

V.A. Vassilyev writes that this function makes word accent a separate supra segmental, or prosodic, phonological unit which may be called accenteme. The disjunctive function makes word accent a separate suprasegmental, or prosodic phonological unit. Primary and weak word accentemes perform word distinctive function: 'import – im'port. He distinguishes three word accentemes in English: primary – equal to primary stress, secondary – equal to secondary stress, weak – equal to unstressed syllable.

Disyllables

1. According to the recessive tendency in most disyllabic nouns and adjectives stress falls on the initial syllable: accent, concert, murmur, motor.

2. Disyllabic verbs may have stress both on the initial: render, follow, enter, open, swallow and on the lastsyllable: endow, allow, assist, arrive, ignore. In most disyllabic verbs ending in: -ate, -ise (ize), - ite, -fy, -ny stress falls on the last syllable: dictate, surprise, unite, defy, deny.

3. In disyllabic words with a prefix of no special meaning the second syllable is stressed. This rule mostly affects verbs: forgive, pretend, impart, intend, forget.

4. Disyllabic French borrowings retain the stress on the last syllable: police, regime, machine.

5. The recessive tendency in stressing words is characteristic of words of Anglo-Saxon origin, but this tendency has also influenced many borrowings: differ, suffer, conquer, offer, profit, rescue.

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