Distinctive / contrastive function

Word stress alone is capable of differentiating the meaning of words or their forms.

The accentual patterns of words or the degrees of word stress and their positions form oppositions:

E.g. 'import — im'port, 'billow — be'low.

According to Prof. V.O. Vasyliev (V.A.Vassilyev), the distinctive function makes word accent a suprasegmental phonological unit which performs a sense-differentiating function. He calls it accenteme.

Word Stress Tendencies

According to Prof. V.O. Vasyliev (V.A. Vassilyev), they are:

— The recessive tendency

— The rhythmic tendency

— The retentive tendency

— The semantic factor

The recessive tendency

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.

Unrestricted recessive tendency is observed in the native English words having no prefix, e.g. mother, daughter, brother, swallow, in assimilated French borrowings, e.g. reason, colour, restaurant.

Restricted recessive tendency marks English words with prefixes which have no referential meaning now, e.g. foresee, begin, withdraw, apart.

The rhythmic tendency

The rhythm of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables gave birth to this tendency in the present-day English which caused the appearance of the secondary stress in the multisyllabic French borrowings, e.g. ˌrevo'lution, ˌorgani'sation, aˌssimi'lation, etc.

It also explains the placement of primary stress on the third syllable from the end in three- and four-syllable words, e.g. 'cinema, 'situate, ar'ticulate.

The retentive tendency

A third tendency was traced in the instability of the accentual structure of English word stress: a derivative often retains the stress of the original or parent word,

E.g. ‘person — 'personal — ˌperso'nality,

'similar — as'similate,

recom'mend — recommen 'dation.

The semantic factor

It determines the stress in compound words and words with so-called separable prefixes.

The majority of such words have two equally strong stresses, both stressed parts are considered to be of equal semantic importance, with semantic factor thus canceling the rhythmic tendency in word stressing, e.g.

Compound adjectives: hard-working, blue-eyed;

Verbs with postpositions: sit down, take off;

Numerals from 13 to 19: fourteen, sixteen.

The Typology of Accentual Structure

G.P. Torsuyev classifies the accentual types according to the number of stressed syllables, their degree or character (the main and the secondary stress).

The most widely spread accentual types are:

1. ['___]. This accentual type marks both simple and compound words. The accentual structures of this type may include two and more syllables, e.g. 'father, 'possibly, 'mother-in-law, 'gas-pipe.

2. [ '_ '_ ]. The accentual type is commonly realized in compound words, most of them are with separable prefixes, e.g. 'radio-'active, 're'write, 'diso'bey.

3. ['_ ˌ___]. The type is realized both in simple and compound words, very common among compound words, e.g. 'hair-,dresser, 'substructure.

4. [ˌ _'___]. The accentual type marks a great number of simple words and some compound words as well. In simple words the stresses fall onto:

— the prefix and the root: ˌmaga'zine;

— the root and the suffix: ˌhospi'tality;

— the prefix and the suffix.

The variability of the word accentual structure is multiplied in connected speech. The accentual structure of words may be altered under the influence of rhythm, e.g. An 'unpolished 'stone but: The 'stone was un'polished.

The tempo of speech may influence the accentual pattern of words. With the quickening of the speed the carefulness of articulation is diminished, the vowels are reduced or elided, the secondary stress may be dropped, e.g. The 'whole organi'zation of the 'meeting was 'faulty.

Lecture 6. Intonation

• Intonation: Definition, Approaches, Functions.

• The Components of Intonation and the Structure of English Tone-Group.

• The Phonological Aspect of Intonation.

Two main approaches to the problem of intonation:

— The contour analysis(H. Sweet, D. Jones, H. Palmer, L. Armstrong, I. Ward, R. Kingdon, J. D. O'Connor, A. C. Gimson)

— The grammatical approach(M. Halliday).

— According to the contour analysis the smallest unit to which linguistic meaning can beattached is a tone-group (sense-group).

— According to the grammatical approach the main unit of intonation is a clause. Intonation is a complex of three systemic variables: tonality, tonicity and tone, which are connected with grammatical categories.

On perception level intonation is a complex, a whole, formed by significant variations of pitch, loudness and tempo closely related. Some linguists regard speech timbre as the fourth component of intonation.

M.O. Sokolova writes that the term prosody embraces the three prosodic components and substitutes the term intonation.

According to D. Crystal, the most important prosodic effects are those conveyed by the linguistic use of pitch movement, or melody.

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