The accentual structure of English language

Contents:
 

Introduction

In this course paper we shall treat some problems of accentual structure. . According to D.Crystal the terms "heaviness, sound pressure, force, power, strength, intensity, amplitude, prominence, emphasis, accent, stress" tend to be used synonymously by most writers. According to G.P. Torsuev the notions “stressed” and “prominent” should not be used synonymically. The effect of prominence is created by some phonetic features of sounds which have nothing to do with word or sentence stress.

RI.Avanesov considers the variability in the placement of the Russian word stress an individual sign of every particular word which presents a difficulty for foreign learners and sometimes for the natives. It is interesting to note that Russian word stress may have stylistic distinction and poetic usage, cf. молодéц — мóлодец, девúца - дéвица, шéлковый —шелкóвый.

In chapter I. we shall regard to English stress. It is common knowledge that sounds of speech have different degrees of sonority. Vowels are more sonorous than consonants. Open vowels are more sonorous than close ones. The quantitative, and qualitative components of word stress they are also significant.

In the point 1.1. we shall say about tha nature of word stress and prominence. According to A.C.Gimson, the effect of prominence is achieved by any or all of four factors: force, tone, length and vowel colour.

In the point 1.2. we shall consider the placement of word stress. The word siress in English as well as in Russian is not only free but it may also be shifting, performing the semantic function of differentiating lexical units, parts of speech, grammatical forms.

In chapter II. We shall pay attention to the question of typology of accentual structure.

According G.Torsuev 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.

In the point 2.1. we shall to point out degrees of stress and rhythmical tendency. 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 second syllable, the root syllable in the English words with prefixes. This tendency was called recessive.

The aim: to analyse the opinions, poins of view of phoneticians to accentual structure.

Tasks: 1) To give the definitions of word stress

2) To sigle out the nature of word stress and prominence

3) To study the degrees of word accent.

Chapter I. English stress as a phenomenon

It is common knowledge that sounds of speech have different degrees of sonority. Vowels are more sonorous than consonants. Open vowels are more sonorous than close ones. 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 qualily is a means of stress and quantitative with relatively increased length of the stressed vowel. Compare the quality (colour) and quantity (length) of the same vowel in a word, e.g. ab'stract, 'car-park; идú, úли, yмý.

It is fair to mention that there is a terminological confusion in discussing the nature of stress. According to D.Crystal the terms "heaviness, sound pressure, force, power, strength, intensity, amplitude, prominence, emphasis, accent, stress" tend to be used synonymously by most writers. The discrepancy in terminology is largely due to the fact that there are two major views depending on whether the productive or receptive aspects of stress are discussed. The main drawback with any theory of stress based on production of speech is that it only gives an explanation of the phenomenon but does not analyse it on the perceptive level. Instrumental investigations study the physical 'nature of word stress.

1.1             Peculiarities of Word Stress in English

It is known that the word-accent in the English language is free. Linguists have a firm belief that the nature of free word-stress in this or that language is determined by the unpredictability of its place. However, research shows that in English there are certain factors which define the place of word-stress in a word or a word form. Unlike languages in which the accent is completely free, the freedom of word-stress in English is limited by a number of tendencies which let the place of the accent in a word be predicted. Nevertheless, it is necessary to remember, as D. Jones marked, if it is at all possible to formulate the rules of the place of word-stress in English they will contain a set of exceptions.

It is impossible to disagree with the statement that the arrangement and the degree of word-stress in compound words in English are determined by historically developed factors. The inconsistent character of accentual variants of compound words can be connected with simultaneous and different in time influences on the accentual structure of a word caused by diverse factors and accentual regularities. D. A. Shakhbagova explains the instability of the accentual balance of compound words by the unstable semantic balance of their components.

Linguistic causes are considered to be the most essential for accentual changes and variations in word-stress. The major factors which determine the accentual structure of English words are the following: recessive, rhythmic, retentive, semantic, morphological and the factor of analogy. The recessive tendency is considered by many linguists to be a decisive force which regulates word-stress in English. It is the first and the most ancient tendency characteristic of all Germanic languages. According to this tendency the word-stress is placed at the beginning of a word. It is the recessive tendency which defines the direction of the accent movement. In Old English the first syllable was mainly stressed, in some cases — the second. V. A.Vassilyev distinguishes two types of recessive stress: unrestricted and restricted.

Unrestricted recessive stress in Modern English falls on the initial syllable, if it is not a prefix which has lost its meaning. This type of stress is observed in the majority of native English words (for example, father ['- -], wonder ['- -]). Restricted recessive stress falls on the root of native English words with a prefix which has lost its previous meaning (for example, among [-'-], forget [-'-]).

The main factor which diachronically determined the place of word-stress in English was the prevalence of monosyllabic and disyllabic words in the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian languages. Words with several syllables (three or four) were derivatives. They all had a constant stress, the place of which was determined by the recessive tendency (for example, wonder ['- -], wonderful ['---], wonderfully ['----]).

Owing to these factors the effect of this tendency has been very strong during the whole period of the development of the English language. The recessive tendency determined the place of word-stress in a great number of borrowings. The loan words gradually submitted to phonetic regularities of the English language. When for some reason or other the word-stress did not fall on the first or second syllable there appeared a secondary stress on one of the syllables. I.I. Wolfson assumes that secondary stress first appeared on the initial syllable in all cases. A significant amount of three-syllable words of French origin which used to have the last syllable stressed, later, due to the effect of the recessive tendency, got the stress on the first syllable. So, for example, the word radical originally had the stress on the last syllable. Then according to the recessive factor it got the stress on the first syllable. Later the stress on the last syllable weakened and the last syllable ceased to be perceived as stressed. According to the retentive tendency (from Latin retentus) a derivative word keeps the stress of its initial word (for example, person ['- -] — personal ['---]. If a derivative word shifts the main stress closer to the end of the word there appears a secondary stress on the syllable which was the carrier of the main stress in the initial word (for example, personal ['---] —personality [,- -'- - -]).

The frequent use of everyday vocabulary which in most cases consists of one syllable has caused another tendency — rhythmic. This tendency means the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. Prepositions, conjunctions, particles, articles, auxiliary verbs turned out to be unstressed. In Modem English they are also unstressed. It was also promoted by the fact that between short words with their own lexical meaning and therefore stressed there often appeared unstressed words with grammatical meaning. The borrowed complex words of four or more syllables began to submit to the rhythmic tendency of alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables receiving a secondary stress. And in this way the stress divided them into two parts which structurally and rhythmically coincided with short words. The rhythmic tendency is caused by the difficulty of pronouncing two stressed syllables successively.

Recent research shows that rhythmic tendency itself cannot cause the presence of the secondary stress though O. Espersen, for example, considered this tendency to be the main reason for the secondary stress to appear in a word. G. M. Skulanova explains the influence of rhythmic tendency upon the place of the secondary stress. She writes that the secondary stress in simple and derivative words never falls on the syllable directly previous to the syllable with the main stress. There is always an unstressed syllable between them (for examplе, e,xami’nation).

This factor often becomes apparent in the arrangement of word-stress in a compound word in English in which a tendency to change accentual models under the influence of phrase rhythm depending on the position in a syntagm manifests itself.

It concerns first of all compound marked words, i.e. words which  have  variants  with  a  special  mark  in  the  Pronouncing Dictionary (EPD). Most clearly this phenomenon manifests itself if the variant row contains subsidiary variants with different accentual models, which are marked in the same way. For example, there exist accentual models ['- -] and [-'-] in the same variant row, marked with the labels "under influence of sentence-stress" or "according to sentence-stress". Such a combination of accentual models is possible because the variants have components with a different place of stress and the mark, which is connected with the rhythmic organization in a phrase, which regulates their use. There can exist variants with the same accentual model (for example, [-'-]) but with different marks.

The influence of rhythmic tendency can be compared to litmus paper which reveals the latent connection between the accentual model and the mark. For example, in compound nouns all subsidiary variants with the accentual models ['- -] and ['- ,-] are marked by the syntactic label "when attributive". The use of these variants in the function of an attribute can be explained by the effect of the rhythmic factor, because both the models have the main stress on the first component of the compound word.

The most essential for accent shift and the appearance of accentual variations in the language are the factors of morphological and word-formation character E. A. Glikina considers that the analysis of regular connections between the structure of a compound word and its lexical and grammatical type is the only way of investigation. I. A. Fedyanina emphasizes the fact that the accent submits to strict laws based on the dependence of accent on morphology. Thus, "it is hopeless to study accent from the angle of pure phonetics". It is connected with the fact that, firstly, a lot of phonetic issues are boarding on morphology and, secondly, phonetic changes directly influence the process of grammatical transformation.

Varieties in word stress in different parts of speech are determined by the distinction of their syntactic functions. The results of the research show that the accentual structure of the main and the subsidiary orthoepic variants depends on the part of speech the word belongs to. The main variant of most compound nouns has an accentual model with a unifying stress on the first component (['- -]) Compound adjectives, verbs and adverbs have a secondary stress on the first component and the main stress on the second ([,-'-]).

The analyses show that all compound nouns which, owing to the influence of semantic-morphological factor can fulfill the function of an attribute and have the accentual model with the secondary stress on the first component ([,-'-]). Besides, this model is considered to be the most perspective for subsidiary variants, since all the new words have this model in their accentual variant row.

The same reason causes a different degree of variation of the accentual structure in various parts of speech. Compound adjectives and adverbs have a larger degree of variation than compound nouns and verbs.

The morphological factor is connected not only with the morphological type of a word but also with its structure.  The diachronic analysis of the accentual structure of compound words helped to discover the accentual redistribution determined by the number of syllables in their components. It is well-known that secondary stress appears in polysyllabic words on the syllables which are the most distant from the syllable with the main stress and therefore they do not depend on it much. In other words, the number of syllables in the second component of a compound word predetermines the choice of the accentual model of this word. This factor is called syllablic-quantitative. If the second component of a compound word is monosyllabic the accentual model with a unifying main stress on the first component is predominant (['- -]), i.e. the second component is unstressed. If the second component is polysyllabic (has two or more syllables), the accentual variant gets the accentual model with the main stress on the first component and the secondary stress on the second (['-, -]).

The morphological factor in English reveals itself, for example, in stressed syllables in which the stress is caused by the accentuation of some English word-forming suffixes. In this case the stress is morphologic. Certain groups of morphemes become stressed owing to the fact that they keep their semantic weight. In such cases the effect of the two factors is united and linguists single out the semantic-morphological factor of word-stress. This is G. P. Torsuyev's term (1960). This principle regulated word-stress in English already during the early period of its development.

In compound and complex words in English the position of word-stress depends on the semantic weight of the components of the word. Compound words represent a combination of two or three stems in which one of them defines another, or limits its meaning, or introduces an element of contrast. When a semantically more important element is at the beginning, the first component is stressed (for example, 'rain-coat, 'opera-glasses). If the main element is the second one, the main stress falls on the second component (for example: ,arm-'chair, ,eye-'witness).

A different interpretation of this tendency is given by E. A. Glikina in her dissertation research. She believes that the semantic factor manifests itself in compound words where their general meaning is more or less clearly deduced from the meaning of their components. Such words have secondary stress on the second component. Compounds words possessing a high degree of semantic integrity tend to preserve the unity of accent.

In G- P- Torsuyev's opinion, the semantic factor is the leading factor in the English language. It becomes rather distinctly apparent in the tendency to place the stress on a root morpheme, a prefix with its own meaning (usually productive).

The place and the degree of stress can also depend on the chance of opposing the compound word to other words or word-combinations. Thus, one of the components becomes more important according to its structure or meaning. D.Jones marks that both the components can be felt equally important and the distribution of stress, therefore, can depend on a very small difference in the degree of the importance of the components. G. P. Torsuyev explains the instability of accent balance of many compound words in English by the unstable semantic balance of their components.

The semantic factor, undoubtedly, remains now a rather important factor which defines the place and the degree of stress in a compound word. The stressed component in a compound word is a determinant. It provides more important information in the process of communication.

The accentual leveling on the analogy is also an important factor. It has already been mentioned that for the most part compound adjectives have the accentual model [,-'-] in the main variant. If a word used to have another accentual model, which was registered in previous editions of the dictionary, (for example, the model ['- -]), it is changed by the basic model and the model with the unifying stress remains in the variant row but at its periphery and belongs to a subsidiary variant. Such a process takes place, for example, in the adjectives thick-skinned, thick-set.

Leveling on the analogy also takes place in a group of compound nouns. For example, the accentual model [,-'-] was used in the word churchyard till 1997. But then it got another accentual model (['- -]), which used to belong to a subsidiary variant of the word. This is the basic accentual model for nouns; therefore it has occupied the place of the main variant. The compound nouns tomcat, oil-paint, beefsteak have undergone a similar process.

1.2 The placement of word stress

Russian phoneticians (L.V.Zlatoustova; L.L.Bulanin, ) insist on the quantitative character of the Russian word stress as its principal feature, though other components of word stress in Russian are not denied. We would like to dwell on the term prominence here. It seems to cause some ambiguity when related to word stress. The stressed syllables are often said to be the most prominent syllables in the word. According to G.P.Torsuev the notions "stressed" and "prominent" should not be used synonymically. The effect of prominence is created by some phonetic features of sounds which have nothing to do with word or sentence stress. It is common knowledge that sounds of speech have different degrees of sonority. Vowels are more sonorous than consonants. Open vowels are more sonorous than close ones. Sonority is the inner quality of vowels which is not directly connected with the accentual structure of words but with other articulatory characteristics, it contributes to the effect of prominence.

The word siress in English as well as in Russian 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-buildingi in Russian it marks both word-building and word formation, e.g.

‘contrast – con’trast