Lecture 6. Accentual structure of English Words

The sequence of syllables in the word is not pronounced identically. The syllables which are uttered with more prominence than the other syllables of the word are said to be stressed or accented. 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 A.C.Gimson , the effect of prominence is achieved by four factors: force, tone, length and vowel colour. 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, and Russian are believed to posses predominantly dynamic word stress. In Scandinavian languages the word stress is considered to be both dynamic and musical. The musical (tonic) word stress is observed in Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese. It is affected by variations of voice pith in relation to neighbouring syllables. The English Linguists D. Crystal and A.C.Gimson agree that in English word stress or accent is a complex phenomenon, marked by the variations in force, pitch, quantity and quality. All of them are of significant importance in the process of the studying the nature of word stress. Experimental data show that pitch and length are particularly important cues for stress perception in English, whereas vowel length (quantity) and vowel colour (quality) are decisive for the Russian language. The overall impression of greater stress in English is due to a greater contrastbetween stressed and unstressed syllables in pitch and duration.

It is the presence of secondary stress that distinguishes the rhythm of an English polysyllabic word from a Russian word of the same length. In Russian there is only one word stress in a word, it is culminative, as the whole word is centered around it.

According to the placement of word stress languages are differentiated 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 polysyllabic 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 last syllable. In English and Russian word stress is free and variable.

In order to decide on stress placement in English it is necessary to make use of the following factors:

· whether the word is morphologically simple, complex or compound;

· the grammatical category to which the word belongs to (noun, verb, adjective);

· the number of syllables in the word;

· the phonological structure of syllable (syllable weight)

Thus the main factors are morphological and rhythmical. Stress models with a secondary stress are especially productive.

In discussing accentual structure of English words we should state the functions of word stress:

1. Constitutive. Word stress organizes the syllables of a word into a language unit having a definite accentual structure, which is a pattern of relationship among the syllables; a word does not exist without the word stress.

2. Word – identifying. Word stress enables a person to identify a succession of syllables as a definite accentual pattern of a word. Correct accentuation helps the listeners make process of communication easier, whereas misplaced word stresses prevent normal understanding.

3. Distinctive. Word stress alone is capable of differentiating the meanings of words or their forms. The accentual patterns of words form oppositions, e.g. import – im` port, billow – be` low.

The complicated system of the accentual structure of English words makes teachers of English be very attentive to the subject. The typical mistakes of Russian learners in the sphere of word stress are mispronunciation of : 1) words with the main and secondary stresses (conver` sational); 2) words with two equal stresses in connected speech (`up `stairs,` re `organize); 3) words with the full vowel in the unstressed syllable (`architect).

In case of doubt it is advisable to consult a pronouncing dictionary.

The accentual structure of English words in speech continuum is inseparably connected with the rhythmic organization of speech.

Questions and tasks:

1. What do we understand by the accentual structure of the word?

2. Dynamic and musical stress.

3. Give a definition of an accent or word stress.

4. Free and variable stress.

5. The functions of word stress.