English accentuation tendencies

The word stress in English is free but there are certain tendencies regulating the placement of stress in English words. The stress patterns of English words may be analyzed according to their accentuation tendencies. The first tendency is recessive – stress on the initial (or root) syllable (mother, begin). The second syllable is stressed if a word begins with a prefix. Such a tendency refers to the words of common Germanic or Anglo-Saxon origin and borrowings up to the 15th century. The second tendency is rhythmical. It is the tendency to alternate stressed and unstressed syllables. It accounts for the appearance of secondary stress in polysyllabic French borrowings (revolution) and for the placement of stress on the third syllable from the end (cinema, articulate). In words with more than four syllables the influence of both recessive and rhythmic tendencies can be observed (physiology, phonological). Retentive tendency means that a derivative retains the stress of the parent word (similar – assimilate; personal - personality). The semantic factor regulates the placement of stress in compound words (greenhouse). The same factor operates in stressing the prefixes the meaning of which is evident for a native speaker (ex-president, anti-war, decompose).

4. English suprasegmental phonetics and phonology: intonation.

Intonation and prosody. Components of intonation

Phonetic system is a set of units organized on two levels. The levels are segmental and suprasegmental. On the segmental level we may find speech segments, in other way – speech sounds. Suprasegmental level is the level of units that are higher than sounds. It includes syllables, rhythmic groups (phonetic words), intonation groups and utterances. Each utterance has its segmental and syllabic structure and also prosodic structure or intonation.

Prosodyis a system of features which are realized on suprasegmental units. The components of prosody are: pitch, loudness and tempo. All the three components have correlates on the three phonetic levels. On the articulatory level pitch corresponds to vibrations of the vocal cords, on the acoustic level pitch equals to fundamental frequency and is measured in Hertz (Hz). From the point of view of perception pitch is the pitch of voice or tone of voice.

Loudness is an auditory term. Articulatorily it correlates with the amplitude of vibrations of the vocal cords. Acoustically loudness corresponds to intensity measured in decibells (dB).

Tempo is a rate of pronunciation of an utterance. It is a time component of prosody. On the acoustic level it is called duration measured in milliseconds (ms) and length is an auditory term. Pauses also belong to the time component of prosody.

Pitch, loudness and tempo are all the components of both prosody and intonation. But prosody and intonation are not identical. Intonation may be applied only to meaningful prosodic units. Meaningful units are intonation groups and utterances. But we cannot speak about the intonation structure of a syllable or a rhythmic group as they are only structural phonetic units. The main conclusion is that prosody is broader than intonation. Prosody organizes phonetic units in speech and intonation conveys meaning.

Intonation is a complex formed by significant variations of pitch (melody), loudness and tempo. Some linguists add to that definition timbre (a special colouring of voice). The periodic repetitions of these characteristics constitute speech rhythm. Intonation and stress make up the prosodic system of any language.

Pitch (melody)

The pitch component is the most important. It may be described in terms of distinctive variations in its direction, level and range. The main element in the intonation structure is the nucleus or the nuclear syllable without which an intonation pattern cannot exist. Nucleus is always present in an intonation group even if it consists only of one syllable. There may be pitch change or not. There exist two main directions of pitch change: falling or rising. It is the basis for differentiating nuclear tones in the English language. If there is no pitch change and the pitch is “flat”, we speak about the level tone. As is clear, falling tones convey finality, completeness and rising tones – non-finality and incompleteness. As for specific English Fall-Rise and Rise-Fall, they have so called “implicatory” meanings. The term “implication” shows that there is more information in the utterance than lexical words convey. E.g. Fall-Rise expresses contrast, doubt, surprise, uncertainty etc. In its turn Rise-Fall can convey approval, irony, surprise, deep impression etc. Level tone is typical for spontaneous speech where it replaces rising tones.

Variations in pitch range take place within the normal range of the human voice. Generally three ranges are distinguished: normal, wide and narrow. Pitch levels may be high, medium or low.

In addition to nuclear syllable an intonation group may consist of head and pre-head which constitute the prenuclear part of an utterance and tail which forms the post-nuclear part. The nuclear syllable and the tail form the terminal tone. Heads may also be of different types. The first subdivision is into Descending (the main direction of pitch is downward), Ascending (the main direction is upward) and Level heads. Among those three types we can also distinguish stepping, sliding or scandent heads. In a stepping head the syllables of a rhythmic group are said on the same pitch level. In sliding and scandent heads such syllables are pronounced with a glide. In case of sliding head it is a downward glide, and in scandent – upward glide. The combinations of different types of heads and nuclei in unity with pre-heads and tails constitute the intonation structure of any English utterance.

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