Файл: Definition of word stress. Its types and components word stress or accent is usually defined as the degree of force or prominence with which a sound or syllable is uttered.docx
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DEFINITION OF WORD STRESS. ITS TYPES AND COMPONENTS Word stress or accent is usually defined as the degree of force or prominence with which a sound or syllable is uttered. Incidently, the syllabic structure of a word is closely connected with its accentual structure as in disyllabic (a word consisting of two syllables) and polysyllabic (a word consisting of more than three syllables) words; there may be different degrees of prominence in syllables of initial, medial or final positions. Hence by word stress we mean singling out one or more syllable in a word with the help of greater prominence accompanied by the change of pitch, qualitative and quantitative features of the sound in relation to other syllable or syllables of the same word. A.C. Gimson emphasizes that in a stressed syllable there is relatively greater breath effort and muscular energy1 in comparison with another syllable or syllables of the same word. The classification of words according to the place and degree of stress is known as the accentual structure (type, pattern) of words. Traditionally word accent has the following phonetic components: a) In articulatory aspect stress is realized by the great force of respiration (a stressed syllable has both an increase in respiratory and laryngeal activity2, duration of articulation (a stressed syllable may belong and tense3) high frequency of the vibration of vocal chords; b) Acoustically, a stressed syllable hag greater intensity, duration and pitch or tone of voice than an unstressed syllable; c) Perceptually, a stressed syllable is characterized by more loudness, duration and high tone of a sound in comparison with an unstressed syllable. 1 A.C. Gimson. An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English. London, 1962. 128. 2 P. Ladefoged. A Course in Phonetics. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Ins., 1975. 3 Г.П. Торсуев. Экспериментальное исследование словесного ударения в английском языке. Уч. записки, МГПИИЯ, 1950, т. 18. - 1 5 4 - Word accent serves not only to single out one or more syllables in a word with the help of intensity, pitch and duration but it also prosodically combines and thus, phonetically shapes the word as a semantic unit in language structure. According to the significance of prosodic features of intensity, duration and pitch (including qualitative and quantitative features of sounds (mainly vowels) languages are classified into the following three types: 1) languages, in which intensity is more significant than the other correlates - duration and pitch to form special prominence of the stressed syllable, are called stress languages or languages which have force or dynamic stress or accent. E. g. English, Russian, Uzbek have dynamic accent; 2) languages, in which a stressed syllable is mainly characterized by a pitch change accompanied by greater duration and intensity are known as tone languages or languages with pitch accent (also called «musical accent»), e. g. Serb, Japanese, Chinese, Thai are tone languages; 3) in some languages the duration of a stressed syllable is more significant than other factors. This type of languages has a quantitative stress. E. g. Czech and Greek (See also chapter VI, 6.2). N.S. Trubetzkoy emphasized the culminative function of word accent. While a tone language can allow a high pitch to occur on more than one syllable of a word, the basic principle in a stress language is that only one syllable per word will receive primary stress. This idea is somewhat vague as there are words which have two primary stresses. Word accent is culminative in nature but its number and degree depend on the structure of a word in syllable-counting languages. For example, kindЪеаН ^, 'penmanship, 'brightness etc. In mora-counting (tone) languages short moras may receive one pitch while long moras have two pitches which are in contrast1. Typologically, in stress languages syllable prominence is culminative, while in tone languages it is not. In the first type stress is syntagmatically conditioned as its place is free, i.e. a stress may be placed on any syllable if we take all the words. In tone languages pitch is paradigmatic. Some languages use lexical pitch in the same way that 1 H.C. Трубецкой. Основы фонологии. М., 1960, с. 230-233. - 155 - English uses stress, i.e. in such languages the same sequence of segmental phonemes can have different meanings depending on the pitch distinction, e. g. In Thai naa has five meanings: naa - middle tone «field», (noojonaa - low tone «custard apple»; naa - falling tone «face», naa - high tone «mother's young brother (or sister), naa - rising tone «to be thick»1. This type of pitch distinction is somewhat similar with that in English in which a noun and a verb may be distinguished by the place of stress: 'con,tract - con'tract, 'extract - ex 'tract, 'digest-di'gest, 'in,sult-in'sult, 'object - ob'ject etc. D.B. Fry states that differences of stress are perceived by the listener as variations in a complex pattern bounded by four physiological dimensions; length, loudness, pitch and quality. The physical correlates of these perceptual factors are: duration, intensity, fundamental frequency and formant structure of speech sound waves. If we consider the accentual patterns of English in perceptual terms, there are a number of factors that influence a judgement of stress. The listener relies on differences in: 1) the length of syllables, 2) the loudness of syllables, 3) the pitch of syllables, 4) the sound qualities occurring in the syllables, 5) the kinaesthetic memories associated with his own production of the syllables he is receiving2. Instrumental investigations have proved that in English the fully stressed vowel is characterized by a greater intensity, a high fundamental frequency, pitch and more duration in comparison with the unstressed vowels." The relationship between the components of word accent depends on the position of stressed syllable3. In Russian the main distinction between the stressed and unstressed vowels depends on their length which is accompanied by their quality and intensity, while pitch is irrelevant, though in * 1 F.C. Southworth, Ch. J. Daswani. Foundations of Linguistics. N. Y., 1974, pp. 67-68. 2 D.B. Fry. Experiments in the Perception of Stress. «Language and Speech», vol. I, 1958, pp. 126-128. 3 Т. А. Бровченко. Словесное ударение в английском языке (в сопоставлении с украинским). Автореферат докт. дисс. Одесса-Ленинград, 1974. М. А. Соколова. ЭкспериментаЪьно-фонетическое исследование словесного ударения в английском языке. «Ученые записки 1-МГПИИЯ», т. XX, М., 1960, с. 373-395. - 1 5 6 - some cases it contributes to weakening intensity of the stressed vowels and to change their timbre in final positions1. As to Uzbek it is said that word accent is realized more often with combination of fundamental frequency of tone and intensity, and that the stressed syllable is distinguished from an unstressed syllable, first of all, by a greater force2. We regard that in Uzbek word accent intensity is the main component, while pitch (fundamental frequency of tone) and duration are prosodically additional correlates of it. Acoustically, languages with dynamic stress do not use both intensity and pitch equally. Though there is an exception, for example, the Scandinavian languages use both dynamic stress and tonic accent in more or less equal degree. The given definition of word stress in Uzbek is based on perceptual dimentions, though it was proved by instrumental investigation. However, word stress in English, Russian and Uzbek is defined as dynamic but they differ by the action of their physical components and distribution in different syllables in relation to the initial, medial and final positions of polisyllabic words. The components of word stress are in mutual compensation and therefore it is not right to expect that the stressed syllable is always very long, loud and high in tone3. It should be emphasized that word stress and sentence stress are different, as the terms indicate. Word stress forms a word and singles out one or more of its syllables, while sentence stress deals with the formation of a sentence or phrase and singles out one or more words in the structure of a phrase. Thus, sentence stress is regarded as one of the components of intonation. These two types of stress, which are used in different levels of investigation, are sometimes mixed4, though they differ with their components and degrees and also with their factors and functions. For example, the word can is often unstressed, but it may receive stress in such a sentence as, Now you can see it. Can you see it? I can. 1JI. В. Златоустова. Фонетические особенности словесного ударения в русском и болгарском языках. В книге «Вопросы славяноведения». Ученые записки Казанского ГУ им. В. И. Ульянова Ленина, т. 122, кн. 5,1962, с. 170-199. 2 А. Махмудов. Словесное ударение в узбекском языке. Ташкент, 1960, с. 15. 1 Г.П. Торсуев. Вопросы акцентологии современного английского языка. М., I960, с. 41-58. 4 Pilch Н. Empirical Linguistics. Munchen, 1976, pp. 7б-79. -157- In English the accentual patterns of words normally preserve their identity in the context of the sentence and that the onset of the pitch figure of the sentence is usually determined by the accentual pattern of the word. Probably, owing to this fact some linguists do not distinguish word stress from sentence stress. VII.2. PLACEMENT AND DEGREES OF W ORD STRESS Languages can differ with word stress placement and degrees of it. According to the position of stress in words and word forms, word accent may be free (or shifting) and fixed (or constant). As to A.C. Gimson: «The accentual pattern of English words is fixed, in the sense that the main accent always falls on a particular syllable of any given word, but free in the sense that the main accent is not tied to any particular situation in the chain of syllable, constituting a word, as it is in some languages»1. Thus, word accent in English may be regarded free if we take all words in which any syllable can receive stress. E. g. 'water, 'common (the first syllable is stressed), be'come, mis'spell (the second syllable is stressed), ,after'noon (the third syllable is stressed while the first receives secondary and the second receives the tertiary stress), 'all-'round (both syllables are stressed),,representation (the fourth syllable is stressed) etc. If we take a separate word, it is noticeable that stress replacement in it is fixed and cannot be shifted to any other syllable of a monosyllabic, disyllabic and polysyllabic word. E. g. a'bout, a'bility, 'up-to-date, uni'-versal, con'tain etc. Word-stress in Russian is both free and shifting as it falls on any syllable of words and word forms and may shift from one syllable to another in different grammatjpal forms of words. E. g. голова, голову, письмо, пи'сьма, высокий, высок, вы'ше, ноги, ноги'. In Uzbek word stress is free as it may fall on any syllable. E. g. deraza «a window», rels «rails», qonun «a law», sekretar «secretary» etc. Word stress in Uzbek has become free as a result of language contacts which is observed in the cited examples. In the Turkic languages, particularly in Uzbek, word stress usually 1 A.C. Gimson. An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English. London, 1962, p. 216. - 158- falls on the final syllable. Turkic languages are regarded as agglutinative, i.e. word forms may take from one to six suffixes. For example, the word bola «a child» may have four suffixes as bolalar-i-miz-ga «for our children», in the word form ishqi-boz-li-gimiz-dan «as we like» there are six different suffixes. In these examples word stress tends to be at the end of the word form and very often the last syllable receives stress. Many languages have dominant initial or final syllable stress. Turkic languages have heavy syllables in word final position and in order to combine such «heavy» syllables (or suffixes) into a single word form the final stress is very important. Besides, there is historical evidence that long vowels, which had been stressed, was being lost in Uzbek and short vowels began to be used in all words. As a result of this historical change, final stress was generalized in all words of Turkic origin. As to borrowings from other languages, they brought foreign accentual patterns and prosodic rules which influenced to make the placement of word stress in Uzbek free. Different authors distinguish from three to five degrees) of word stress in English. The British linguists distinguish three degrees of word stress: primary O, secondary (,) and weak (unstressed)1. Most American linguists distinguish four degrees of word stress in English: primary (% secondary Q , tertiary C) and weak (v)2 but the terms and marks used to indicate the degrees of word stress are also different. For example, they use the terms main, lowered main, medium and weak degrees of stress and also full stress3, half stress, weak stress distinguishing three degrees4. Probably, it is possible to differentiate more than three degrees of word stress in English polysyllabic words. Though listeners cannot perceive five or more degrees of word stress (as D. Jones and A.C. Gimson have admitted them), theoretically such degrees of stress may be important only for some polysyllabic words. Practically the human ear can distinguish three degrees of stress. 1 V. A. Vassilyev. Op. cit., p. 261. 2 P. Ladejoged. A Course in Phonetics. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1975, p. 101. Г. Глисон. Введение в дескриптивную лингвистику. М., 1959, с. 79-80. 3 F. S. Southworth. Ch. J. Daswani. Id., p. 67. 4 H. Kurath. A Phonology and Prosody of Modem English. Ann Arbor, 1964, p. 141. - 159- N. Chomsky and M. Halle distinguish five degrees of word stress in English and emphasize «... that the major stress contours are determined by the operation of a transformation cycle»1. By the latter cycle they mean both the placement of main stress and stress contours (secondary, tertiary, fourthiary, weak) within initial medial and final positions of words and vowel reduction. Transformational-generative phonology attempts to distinguish at least four and five or more degrees of stress and to suggest the predictable stress placement rules. Their description is in sharp disagreement with the statements in most textbooks, which, like, D. Jones have been teaching that, generally speaking, there are no rules determining, which syllable or syllables of polysyllabic English words bear the stress2. They regard that the location of the stress can be determined automatically, for example, the location of primary stress in a word is closely correlated with the distribution of tense (long vowels and diphthongs) vowels. The other degrees of stress may depend on the distribution of lax (short) vowels. Thus, English has a complex system of stress contours. For the description of word stress in English three degrees of stress (primary, secondary and weak) may be sufficient which are both theoretically and practically important. Three degrees of word stress may be distinguished in Russian: main (основное /'/), accessory (побочное IJ) and weak (unstressed). E.g. вбдонепроницаемый, аэронавигация, стометровый, драмкружок3. We distinguish four degrees of word stress in Uzbek: primary /'/ secondary /,/ tertiary /7 and weak, e. g. uylarimizda «at our house», kutubxona «library», studentlar «students» etc. Recent experimental investigation proves the correctness of this idea as to Uzbek4. The placement and degrees of word stress in Uzbek depend on the syllabic structure of words. Different degrees of word 1N. Chomsky and M. Halle. The Sound Pattern of English. N. Y.. 1968, p. 74. 2 M. Halle and S. J. Keyser. English Stress. Its Form, its Growth, and its Role in Verse. N. Y., 1970, p. 3. 3 P.M. Аванесов. Русская литературная и диалектная фонетика. М., Изд. «Просвещение», 1974, с. 107-118. 4 С. Сапиджанов. Силлабическая, и акцентная структуры слова н их соотношение в разносистемных языках. (Сопоставительно-типологическое и экспериментально-фонетическое исследование на материале английского и узбекского языков.) Автореферат канд. диссертации. М., 1982. - 160- stress may fall on any syllable of a polysyllabic word. Primary stress cannot be shifted from one syllable to another in most English words of Germanic origin though some suffixes may be added (e. g. beauty, beautiful, beauti-fulness, ’beautifully). On the contrary, in Uzbek word stress can be shifted from syllable to syllable, e. g. ko'z «eye», ko'zi «his (or her) eye», ko'zlar «eyes», ko'zlarga «to eyes», ko'zlarimizga «to our eyes». Some linguists do not distinguish word stress from sentence stress, as a result of which they distinguish four or more degrees of stress interdependent with tone. For example, R. Kingdon suggested the following four degrees of stress: 1) full (kinetic) stress; 2) full static (atonic) high level stress; 3) partial static (low-level) stress and 4) absence of stress1. P. Ladefoged distinguishes stress tonic accent when he speaks of the combination of stress, intonation and vowel reduction. He notices the existence of tonic accent in the words explain, exploit (in the second syllable), exploitation, explanation (in the third syllable). As to stress placement which coincides with the position of tonic accent and in the word exploitation, explanation the first and third syllables are stressed2. Although both authors give four levels of stress in English which are possible in polysyllabic words but do not explain the relationship between stress and pitch. VII.3. THE FACTORS AND TENDENCIES DETERMINING WORD STRESS Stress is one of the constitutive features of a word. Owing to stress the sound structure of a word is phonetically combined and shaped and forms a semantic unit. Singling out a syllable or syllables of a word by great prominence does not take place isolately; it is a result of many factors among which semantic, morphological (i.e. grammatical) rhythmic and phonetic factors should be mentioned. Usually those factors are interdependent. They are very important in stress placement and in distinguishing the degrees of stress. Probably, the semantic factor is more important than the other factor in English. G. P. Torsuyev gave a brief de1 R. Kingdon. The Groundwork of English Stress, London, 1958, p. 8. 2 R. Ladefoged. Op. cit., p. 217. - 161 - scription of all these factors in his works1, which is used in this book. The semantic factor is observed in the accentual structure of English words. For example, in abbreviations represented by letters such as USA /'ju:'es 'ei/ each component has equal stress owing to its semantic importance. Besides, there are words with separable prefixes as they are called, i.e. those which have a distinct referential meaning of their own, and compound words. The majority of such compound words have two equally strong stresses known as a double-stress, or even (level) accent. Usually the second stress in these words is somewhat stronger than the first. H. Kurath calls this type of stress «fore-stress» which is used in native words consisting of two or more free forms (bases). In this respect, these compound words differ sharply from the normally end-stressed phrases of English as in the following examples: a blue bird - a blue bird, a glass house - a glass door, a standstill - stand still, a black out - black out2. Even accent is observed in the following words: 'over-'dressed, 'white- Ъо^ 'well-'made, 'upstairs, 'apple-'pie etc. Stress usually falls on the semantically important element of a word. Compound words which are formed by two stems as noun-noun, adjective-noun etc., are usually called compound nouns, compound adjectives, compound adverbs etc. They often have even (level) stress as both components of a compound word are important semantically. E. gl 'rain 'fall, 'sun 'rise, 'mid'night, red-'skin, 'home-'sick, 'stead 'fast, 'nowa 'days, 'no'where, 'kind-'hearted, 'hot-'tempered etc. The Morphological factor is determined by stressing some of the suffixes in word formation. It should be stated that an accentual pattern of a word is regarded one of the main characteristics of the phonetic structure of words. Stressed morphemes (basic or suffixal) of English have specifioprosodic features. 1 Г.П. Topcyee. Вопросы фонетической структуры слова (на материале английского языка). Изд. АН СССР, M.-JL, 1962, с. 9-15; Его же. Вопросы акцентологии современного английского языка. Изд., АН СССР, М.-Л., 1960. Проблемы теоретической фонетики и фонологии. Изд. «Наука», Л., 1969, с. 74- 82; Константность и вариативность в фонетической системе (на материале английского языка), Изд. «Наука», М., 1977, с. 71-86. 2 Н. Kurath. A Phonology and Prosody of Modern English. Ann Arbor, 1964, pp. 143- 144. - 1 6 2 - Owing to the semantic importance of suffixal morphemes, the latter elements in word final position may be stressed in polysyllabic words. The stressed suffixes of these types are: -ian, -ic (al), -ental, -mental, -ion, -ious, -eous, -itis, -ade, -ier, -esgue, - ette, -ique, -oon, -ее, -eer; physician: /fi'zijn/, politician /poh'tijan/, symbolic /simbolik/, democratic /demo'kraetik, oriental /оri'ental/, instrumental /mstru 'mental/, decision /di'si3n/, affection /a'fekjn/, religious /rilidSas/, courageous /k.Ynd3as/, tonsilitis /tanzi litis/, blockade /blo'keid/, cavalier /ка valia/, grotesque /grs tesk/, novelette /novilit/, intrique /in trig/, unique /ju:'mk/, cartoon /ka:'tu:n/, employee /imploi'i:/, pioneer /раю'шэ/. Some of these words were borrowed from French and Latin. Usually it is difficult to distinguish semantic and morphological factors as morphemes are meaningful units and, therefore, they may be stressed. Though not all suffixes or suffixal morphemes may always be stressed in words which depends on the semantic weight of suffixes. Incidently, we should distinguish the semantic morphological factor of word-stress thanks to the close relationship between semantic and morphological factors. The semantic-morphological factor contributes to determining the stress placement in words which are distinguished by the place of stress, e. g. reform /ri'fo:m/ (improve) - reform /'n'fo:m/ (form again), recollect /,пко lekt/ (remember) - recollect /'rekolekt/ (collect again), overdevelop /'auva'divelap/, overbusy /'suvsbizi/, to over look /auvaluk/, overcoat /'auvaTcaut/. In the given pairs of words the first of them has one stress while the second receives even (double) stress. The prefixes, which are semantically important, may also be stressed, e. g. anticlerical /'aentiTderikal/, decontrol /'di'kontrol/, ex-champion /'eks t/empian/, misspel /'mis'spel/, overead /'aua'ri:d/, pre-war /'pn'wo:/, ultra-modern /'Altra'modan/, undertake /4nda'teik/. Some words may be contrasted by different position of stress. For example: conduct /kondakt/ - to conduct /kan'dAkt/, protest /'prautest/ - to protest /protest/, record /'reko:d/ - to record /п T<;o:d/. Besides, the difference of the position of word stress, there are some changes owing to reduction and phonetic opposition between stressed and unstressed vowels /аи/ - /а/, /е/ - III, h - e/ may be observed in these words. -163- Mixing the position of word stress in words, may lead to accentual interference as a result of which a foreign accent or pronunciation mistake will take place. The rhythmic factor of word stress is observed while singling out a certain syllable or syllables in accordance with rhythmic habits and tendency to alternate stressed and unstressed syllables in order to distribute stress contours in relatively equal times. Word stress in English falls on a certain syllable in relation initial, medial and final positions of a word. In many cases a syllable before primary stress is either unstressed or weakly stressed, a syllable once removed receives secondary stress, e. g. supernatural /sjupa'naetjral/, extravagant /ekstrA 'vaegant/, hypercritical /,haip3,kritikal/. Thus, the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables is rhythmically determined. Probably, the rhythmic factor helps make pronunciation easy, i.e. to economize speech effort. The rhythmic factor is associated with the prosodic structure of a word and therefore it is possible also to speak of a rhythmic-accentual factor of word stress. When a syllable or syllables of a word receive some degree of stress, the latter stresses make up a rhythm or rhythmic pattern. Rhythmic-accentual contrasts may distinguish words or grammatical forms of words, e. g. permit /'рз.-mit/ (a noun) - permit /рэ 'mit/ (a verb), project /'prodSekt/ - /prs,d3ekt/ (a verb) etc. Thus, the rhythmicaccentual structure of a word may be associated with the morphological factor, as parts of speech may be distinguished by their combination. The rhythmic-accentual structure is regarded as one of the components of the phonetic structure of a word. The Phonetic factor of word stress serves to single out one syllable from another by its sound structure i.e. the prominence or force of articulation rises sharply at the beginning, culminates in the syllabic, and tapers off towards the end. Hence, consonants preceding the syllabic are pronounged with greater force than those following it; the former are «strong» and the latter are weak». They are called prosodic allophones of consonants, which are observed in monosyllabic morphemes beginning and ending the identical consonants. These prosodic allophones with primary stress may be observed in such words as coke /кэик/ - cook /кик/, judge /d3Ad3/, life /laif/1 etc. 1 H. Kurath, Op. cit., p. 151. - 1 6 4 - G.P. Torsuyey regards the phonetic factor to be not very important in stress placement. It is connected with the rhythmic factor which is not determined by the phonetic structure of syllables1. The phonetic factor of word stress is a constituent part of a word. Hence, it shapes the word phonetically and through it semantically. In fact, all the factors of word stress are in close relationship, though each of them is tied to one of the characteristics of a word. As it was emphasized in the previous chapter, a syllable and a morpheme are regarded as constituents of a word, though these two different units do not coincide in breaking a word into syllables and morphemes. The relationship between the phonetic (a syllable) and morphological units (a morpheme) can be established through the central unit of a language, namely words. Some polysyllabic words which have the alternation of rhythmical accent also have a tendency to retain stress in the initial syllable or on the other syllable of the same wordform. Such a type of free stress, namely recessive accent, is a result of ancient accentual structure existing in the Proto-Indo-European language, from which both English and Latin descended. The words borrowed from Latin into English have preserved the variable position of stress, e. g. perceive /p3:'si:v/, percept /'p3:sept/, perception /p3:'sepjn/, transcribe /trans Tcraib/, transcript /traenskript/, transcription /'traensknpjn/ etc. V.A. Vassilyev distinguishes two sub-types of recessive stress in words with prefixes which have lost their referential meaning: (1) unrestricted and (2) restricted (by an unstressed prefix)2. Unrestricted recessive stress falls on the initial syllable of the great majority of native English words, e. g. Sunday /'sAndi/, /'sAndei/, hopeful /hsupful/, freedom /fri.-dsmJ, brightness - /Ъгашш/, Greenwich /'gri:nitj7 etc. Restricted recessive stress falls on the stem of native words with a prefix which has no referential meaning in Modem "English, e. g. forgive /fa'giv/, asleep /a'slitp/, withdraw /wid'dro:/, again /a'gein/ etc. 1 Г.П. Торсуев. Вопросы акцентологии современного английского языка. Изд. АН ССР, М., 1960, с. 6. 2 V.A. Vassilyev. Op. cit., p. 282. - 1 6 5 - Historically, the recessive tendency contributed to preserve stress in certain positions of native word derivatives of three or four syllables, e. g. 'beauty - 'beautiful - 'beautifully - 'beautifulness, 'love - lovely - 'loveliness - 'loving. Thus, to stress the root syllable of a word is an ancient tendency which came from the so called by O. Jespersen «valuestressing», i.e. to stress that part of the word which was of greatest value to the speaker and which therefore he wanted the hearers to notice1. This tendency has become habitual in Germanic languages and led to other consequences of interest. In English the distinction between stressed and unstressed syllables is more distinct than in French and Uzbek, in which native words receive a stress on the final syllable. English borrowed a large number of Latin and French words during the Middle English period but the adaptation of these words to native accentual patterns was a complicated process which continued over several centuries. Many French words, stressed on the final syllable, are now stressed on the first syllable, though this is often ascribed to the inability of the English people to imitate the French accentuation. Gradually more and more French words had their accent shifted according to the English prosodic rules: value-stressing, contrast of accents and rhythm2. There were a few words which’received stress on the final syllable, but it was confined to verbs with prefixes, such as arise, believe, forget, understand. Some Latin and French verbs with prefixes retained stress on the last syllable according to this accentual pattern, e. g. ad'just, com'mit, con'nected, im'ply, suf'fice, sur'vive. This adaptation of foreign words to the native stress rules is called an accentual assimilation (V.A. Vassilyev). In terms of language contacts, this type of phonetic interference may be called an accentual interference between languages. The majority of disyllabic and trisyllabig, French words borrowed by English have recessive accent as a result of this accentual interference. We have already mentioned the importance of the rhythmic factor in English word stress. Rhythm means the regular occurrance of some phonetic features. According to rhythmic structure, languages may be of two 1 O. Jespersen. Growth and Structure of the English language, N. Y. 1955. pp. 26-27. 2 O. Jespersen. Op. cit., pp. 107-109. - 1 6 6 - types: (1) languages, in which the syllable determining the rhythm irrespective of stress occurs regularly are known as syllabletimed language, e. g. French, Uzbek and other Turkic languages; (2) the other type of rhythm is where stresses occur at regular intervals irrespective of the number o f intervening unstressed syllables are known as stress-timed languages, e. g. English, German, Russian. The difference between these types of rhythm lies in the equal time intervals of syllables and the large number of stressed syllables. The methodic recommendations given by S. Pit Corder1 may be applied to English learners of Uzbek. There may appear some difficulties in teaching English to Uzbeks. The English students of Uzbek will have to learn to distribute the total «stress energy» of his utterance more evenly over the whole utterance instead of concentrating it principally on one or two places, usually on the final syllables. Otherwise, pronunciation mistakes may occur which are caused by the rhythmical structure of Uzbek. In the great majority of three- and four-syllabic words stress falls on the third syllable from the end and this type of stress is known as rhythmical accent in Modem English, e. g. radical, family, opinion, occasion etc. It is possible to distinguish two types of rhythmical stress: (1) historical, or diachronical rhythmical stress which is determined by historical changes (e. g. French and Latin borrowings) and (2) synchronical rhythmical stress which can be illustrated in the words pronunciation and examination in which stress falls on the second pretonic syllable2. There is also one more tendency of word stress, namely retentive3, which characterizes the constant position of word accent in word derivatation. The retentive tendency is observed in the derivative of one and the same basic word in which accent falls on a certain syllable and cannot shift its position, e. g. hope - ^hoping - Tiopeful - TiopefuIIy (Iy) - ^hopefulness, life - lively - liveliness - livelihood. The retentive tendency is typical in other Germanic languages. For example, in German word derivation such as 'reden - 1 S. Pit Corder. Introducing Applied Linguistics. Penguin Books., 1977, p.257. 2 V.A. Vassilyev.Op. cit., p. 284. 3 И.И. Вольфсон. Словесное ударение в английском языке (закономерности распределения ударения в многосложных простых и производных словах). Автореферат канд. дисс, М.. 1960. - 1 6 7 - 'redest, 'redete - 'Rede - 'Redner - 'rednerisch - 'Redefreiheit - 'Rednerpult1. A great number of English disyllabic and polysyllabic words retain the primary or secondary stress on the basic word, e. g. de 'clare declaration, 'examine - exami'nation, 'prepare preparation, refuge /'refju:d3/ - refuges /'refju:d3iz/ - refugee /,refju(:)'d3i:/ - refuges /,refju(:)'d3i:z/. D. Jones formulated the stress rules in derived words. When the head-word (i. e. basic word) is monosyllable it may have a strong stress while affixes may be unstressed. Thus from the entry nine, - s, fold /nain - zfauld/ it is to be understood that the word ninefold has a single stress on the first syllable. And from the entry ewe, - s, - Iamb (s) it is to be understood that in ewe - lamb both syllables have a strong stress. When a head-word is a compound word in which the second element is a weakly stressed monosyllable and the termination for forming a derived word adds yet another syllable, the first syllable of the second element of the derived word receives a secondary stress, e. g. greenhouse /'grirnhaus/, green houses /'gri:n, hauziz/, shockhead /Jokhed/, shockheaded/j'ok,hedid/2. If we compare a fixed (constant) stress with the retentive accent, it is possible to notice that the former falls on the same syllable in all the grammatical forais of a word or in all the derivatives from one and the same root, whereas the latter falls on the same syllable on which it falls in the basic word. However, in other derivatives from the same root it may be shifted, e. g. canon /'кэепэп/ - canoness /Tcaenams/ - canonic /кэ'пэшк/ - canonisation /,kaen9nai'zeijn/. From this example, we can notice the relationship between the retentive and recessive tendencies. Thus, in canonic and canonization, which are derived from canon, both accents do not coincide, whereas in canon and canoness they coincide in position though the latter^two derivatives have a different rhythmical structure than the former two examples. The changes of word accentuation, caused by the explained factors and tendencies are still going on. A.C. Gimson emphasized: «The most obvious area of change is that of word accentua1 R. Arnold, K. Hansen, Phonetik Der Englischen Sprache. Eine Einfiihrung. Leipzig, 1965, s. Ш. 2 D. Jones. Everyman's English Pronouncing Dictionary. М., 1964, p. XXTV. - 1 6 8 - tion» and gives the examples: harass, primarily, controversy, statutory, mondatory, rhetoric in which the second syllable is stressed, while in the word dispute the first syllable is stressed1. Partly, these changes in stress placement have occured under American influence and partly due to analogy i.e. the changes reinforced by analogy in the accentual structure of words. For example, due to the influence of the verb 'compare the adjective comparable /котреэпЫ/ is stressed on the first syllable. This kind of anological stress may be observed in preferable, lamentable, admirable in which the first syllable is stressed. There are words in which the second syllable is stressed due to new tendencies in word accentuation, that cannot be explained by analogy, e. g. doc'trinal, communal, formidable, hos'pitable, pe'jorative, aris'tocrat. In disyllabic words, in which normally the second syllable is stressed the stress is shifted to the first syllable, e. g. garage, adult, alloy, ally2 etc. In some English words there are two or more 'possible variants of word accentuation. Such cases are known as free variation of the accentual patterns of words, e. d. decade /'deksd/ in RP and /dl'keid/ popular pronunciation, similarly, deficit /'defisit/, /di'fisit/, explicable /eks'plikabl/, /iks'plikabi/. Other words with free variation of accentuation given by D. Jones, Ch. Barber, R. Arnold and K. Hansen are listed below: interesting /'intristiq/, /’mtarastiq/, Aints'restiq/; applicable /'aeplikabl/, /s'pliksbl/; etiquette /,eti Tcet/, /'etiket/; hospitable /Tiospitsbl/, /hos'pitabl/; intricacy /'intrikasi/, /m'tnkasi/; kilometre /Tcila,mi :ta/, /kilomita/; miscellany /mi'seism/, /'misibni/; Waterloo /,wo:talu:/, /'wo:t3lu:/. 1 A. C. Gimson. English as she is spoke (n). «New Society», 8 July 1976, p. 72. 2 Ch. Barber. Linguistic Change in Present-Day English. London, 1974, p. 66. - 1 6 9 - A marked difference may be noticed between RP and GA in the position of secondary accent. They are found in J. Windsor Lewis's dictionary1: interloper RP Лш;э1эирэ(г)/, GA ЛтэДэирэг/; commentary RP /Тсэтэтэп/, GA / Teaman,teri/; centenary RP /sen'tnnari/, GA /'sent9,nsri/; auditory RP /'o:dit9ri/, GA /'odi,tori/. It is too complicated to establish which tendency is primary and which is subsidiary in the accentuation of English words. Generally, all the tendencies explained here by come into contact in Modern English and some new accentuation patterns may be explained by language contacts. VII.4. THE FUNCTIONS OF WORD STRESS We have emphasized that stress is one of the constitutive features of a word. Any word, no matter whether it is monosyllabic, disyllabic or polysyllabic, has its own stress. The constitutive function of word stress shapes the word phonetically, join the sound sequences by articulatory means, combines its stressed and unstressed syllables with the help of intensity (loudness), pitch, quantity and quality. The accentual-rhythmic structure is regarded as one of the components of the phonetic structure of a word which has a phonemic structure as well the structure of combinations of phonemes, a syllabic structure. The latter three components of the phonetic structure of a word may be joined thanks to the accentual rhythmic structure which shapes a word into a single unit of utterance and through this, a word may function as a semantic and central linguistic unit. Word stress as a prosodic or suprasegmental unit has a phonological or distinctive function, which means that the stress placement and degrees of accent can distinguish words and their grammatical forms. The distinctive function of word accent is closely connected with lexical and morphological aspects. When words may be distinguished by the position of stress, some linguists prefer to call it lexical stress or lexical 1 J. Windsor Lewis. A Concise Pronouncing Dictionary of British and American English. London, Oxford Univ. Press, 1972. - 1 7 0 - function of stress. If the position or degree of accent can distinguish grammatical forms (parts of speech and morphemes), it performs a morphological function which is known as grammatical stress. There are two types of grammatical stress: (1) morphological and (2) demarcative. The morphological stress exists in English, Russian and Uzbek languages in which the morphological categories (morphemes and parts of speech) may be distinguished by the position of accent, e. g. 'present (a verb) - pre'sent (a noun); in Russian: ноги - ногй; in Uzbek: olma' (a noun) «an apple» - 'olma (imperative form of a verb) «do not take». The demarcative stress serves as a boundary or a signal, for example, in Polish it is common for the second syllable from the end to be stressed Thus, the distinctive function of word accent performs both lexical and grammatical functions simultenously. The distinctive function makes word accent a separate, suprasegmental or prosodic, phonological unit which is called by V. A. Vassilyev the word-accenteme in accordance with - emic linguistic terminology. The number of word-accentemes in a language with free stress is determined by the number of the latter's distinctive degrees1. In Russian and Uzbek among the degrees of word accent only two of them, i.e. primary stress vs. weak stress may be contrasted which are regarded as two word-accentemes, e. g. in Russian: муки - муки (word-distinctive function), руки - руки (form - distinctive function); in Uzbek: atlas «a material» atlas «atlas» (word - distinctive function), yozma «written form» - yo'zma «do not write» (form-distinctive function). In English primary and weak word accentemes only perform a word-distinctive function,2 e.g. contest /Contest/ n. - to contest /кэп'test/ v.; transport /'traenspo:t/ n. - to transport /traens'po:t/ v, absent /'aeb-s(9)nt/ adj. - to absent /aebsent/, /absent/, /absent/ v, perfect /'p3:fikt/ adj. - to perfect /ps'fekt/, /'pafikt/ v. In these minimal pairs word accenteme appears in its morphological aspect distinguishing different parts of speech, though there may be some free variations of the phonemic or 1 V.A. Vassilyev. Op cit., p. 282. 2 V.A. Vassilyev. Op. cit., p. 283. - 171 - accentual structures of words, e. g. to perfect /pa'fekt/, /'pefikt/, to decrease /diTmis/, /'di:kri:s/, to increase /inTails/, /'inkri:s/, contact /kan'taskt/, /Tcontsekt/, to export /eks'po:t/, /'ekspo:t/ to prospect /pras'pekt/, /'prospekt/, to subject /sab'd3ekt/,/'sAbd3ikt/\ Compound words with the main stress on the first component and tertiary on the second component can be distinguished from free word: combinations by the contrast tertiary stress vs. primary stress, e. g: a 'blue/bird - a ,blue'bird, a 'glass,house - a ,glass 'house, a 'blackboard - a ,black 'board, a white ,house - 'a , white 'house. These minimal pairs may confirm the difference between the functions of word accent and sentence stress (in word combinations) and in the latter case we can notice the function of stress signaling the boundaries of the words. In many cases word accent cannot perform a delimitative function because of the non-regularity of difference between the degrees of stress on the first and second syllables. In Russian words the secondary stress always precedes primary stress, and, due to this, it may mark the beginning of a word2. As to Uzbek primary stress signals the boundary of a word and the next word usually begins with a weak stress. Hence, Russian and Uzbek wprd accent has a delimitative function. The onset of stress is determined by the morphological structure of English words. The onset of stress strengthens the initial consonant or consonant cluster, which marks the beginning of a word or morpheme for the listener. This phenomenon is easily observed in such utterances as ,sell'fish, 'shell-,fish vs., ,self- 'interest, 'shelf-,ice; the 'street, ,two 'streets, Ъау,street, vs. ,this 'treat; 'race-,track vs. ,last'rack, 'test ,run. In each of these sets of expressions the consonant sequence between the syllables is the same, but the breaks vary with the onset of stress as determined by morphological structure. Besides these types of signalling a word boundary, there are cases when stressconditioned allophones occur in such minimal pairs as a'name /a'neim/ - an'aim /эп' eim/ and strong allophones of consonants serve to illustrate the prosodic signalling of morpheme breaks as 1 Examples are borrowed from R. Arnold, A. Hansen's book, p. 123. 2 Г.П. Торсуев. Проблемы теоретической фонетики и фонологии. М., 1969, с. 82. - 172- in minimal pair ,buy'tin /bai'tin / - bite in /,bait 'in/' etc. Thus, the delimitative function is determined by the syllabic and morphological boundaries with the assistance of prosodic features. Word accent in English has a morphonological aspect which is usually known as grammatical function of stress alternations or morphonological function of word accent2. Free word stress in English is characterized by shifting its position and degrees in various word derivatives representing different grammatical (morphological) categories, e. g. 'diplomat /'diplauimt/ - diplomacy /diplsumssi/ - diplomatic /dipbu'mastik/, mechanic /mi'kaemk/ - mechanician /meka'mjn/ - diagnostic /^Jaiag'nostik/ - diagnostician Adaiagnos'tijan/, history /histen/ - historian /his'to:mn/, custody /TcAstadi/ - custodian /kAs'tsudjan/, placid /'plaesid/ - placidity /plae 'siditi/, plural /'pluaral/ - plurality /plus 'rasliti/. In the examples cited, besides stress alternations, there are phonemic alternations which are not determined by their morphological position. Both types of alternations - phonemic (or segmental) and prosodic (or suprasegmental) are studied by morphonology (see chapter X) a special linguistic level or aspect between phonology and morphology (grammar). Morphonological function of word accent is in close relationship to its distinctive (phonological) function owing to the fact that word-formation in English uses stress alternations (also phonemic alternations) which contribute to their semantic identification. The following function of word accent or as a phonological unit word-accenteme is called recognitive or identificatory which means that the correct accentuation of words facilitates their recognition and comprehension3, and semantic identification. Wrong accentuation of words may destroy their semantic (distinctive) function. The recognitive function of word accent is both theoretically and practically important. All the functions of word accent are in close relationship with each other and wrong accentuation (misplace of the degree and positions of word accent etc.) distroys the functions and, thus, leads to in-comprehensive speech communication. The latter process is a result of the accentual interference in language learning. English, Russian and 1 H. Kurath. Op. cit., 151-152. 2 Л.А. Телегин. Морфонологическое использование английского словесного ударения. СамГУ, Самарканд, 1976. 3 V.A. Vassilyev. Op. cit., p. 284. - 173 - Uzbek have different accentual patterns of words, though they all have free dynamic stress. Therefore, each accentual pattern of an English word should be explained separately in terms of tone (pitch) sequences. For example, the word educational consists of three tone sequences: /edju:/ - pre-tonic sequence, /kei/ tonic syllable, /|эпэ1/ - post-tonic sequence; 'purify has tonic syllable /pju:s/ and post-tonic sequence /п-fai/, internationalization has five pretonic sequences /15т э 4пзе31п2э1а11/ tonic syllable /zei/ and post-tonic sequence /Jan/1. Tonic syllable coincides with the position of primary stress. VII.5. THE ACCENTUAL PATTERNS OF ENGLISH WORDS Analysing D. Jones's pronouncing dictionary G.P. Torsuyev established eleven accentual patterns and more than hundred accentual-syllabic patterns of English words2. A.C. Gimson gives more than fifty accentual-syllabic patterns of English words for foreign learners3. Other authors distinguish about forty to eighty accentual-syllabic patterns of English words4. Cited below are the most usual accentual-syllabic patterns of English words using G.P. Torsuyev's graphic notation:. ± a syllable with primary stress, T syllable with secondary stress - a weak syllable. Thus, for convinience, we distinguish three degrees of word accent, regarding the tertiary stress as a variant of the secondary stress or as a type of alloaccenteme, though there is a slight difference between these two degrees of word accent. The monosyllabic words have no stress pattern. They have one degree of stress if they are main words, which include nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, numerals. The auxiliary words (pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs and certain adverbs) are usually unstressed or half stressed. Their stressing depends upon the prosodic structure of phrases of which they are constituent parts. 1 G.F. Arnold. Stress in English. Amsterdam, 1957, p. 21. 2 Г.П. Торсуев. Вопросы акцентологии современного английского языка. М., 1960. с. 52-61. 3 А. С. Gimson. A Practical Course of English Pronunciation. London, 1975, pp. 33-43. 4 Yi-Chen Fu. The Phonemic Structure of English Words. Taipei, Taiwan, 1960, pp. 152-160. - 1 7 4 - The difference in the degrees of word stress, the distribution of the primary and secondary degrees of stress and different number of stresses in words form the accentual patterns or types of words, e. g. /_LJL/, /ХТ/, ГХ U , /_LT_L/ etc. The distribution of stresses in the syllables of a word form the accentual-syllabic structures of words, e. g. within one accentual pattern we may distinguish various accentual-syllabic structures of words such as /X _L -/, /_L - _L -/, /_L — Х -/, /X — X / etc. The accentual pattern I includes words with one primary stress and consists of fifteen accentual-syllabic structures among which there are words with primary stress on the first syllable (/X - /, /± — /, /X ------ 1,11.----------/, /X ------------ /), on the second syllable ( / - 1 /, /- Х-/, /- X - - 1 ------ /, / - 1 --------- /, /- X - ---------/), and on the third syllable (/ — 1.1,1 — 1-1, / — X— 1,1— X ------ /) asking /a:skiq/, diamond /'daiamsnd/, misarable /'mizarsbl/, justify /'d3Astifai/, spiritualism /spiritunlizm/, contain /ksn’tem/, abnormal /э'Ьпз: тэ1/, accuracy /'askju.-rssi/, ability /a'bihti/ etc. The accentual pattern II includes words with two primary stresses. If has twenty-seven accentual-syllabic structures, six of which have even (level) stress (/X U , /X _L - /, /X X — /, /X X - — /, /X X ---------/, /X X ------------ Г) and the others have two primary stresses in different syllables (/X - X /, /X - X -/, /X - X — /,/X-X ------/,/X-X --------- /, /X — U , /X -------U, /X ---------- 1 ------ /, /X - - X - /, /X - - X ------- /, /X - - X - /), e. g. backbone /ЪэекЪэип/, well-being /wel bi:ir)/, up-to-da-te /'Apta'deit/, high-spirited /hai spintid/, ivory-black / aivan'blask/, misapply /'miss'plai/, impracticable /'im'peerktikabl/ unjustifiableness /лп 'dSAStifaisblms/, prehistoric /’prihis'torik/ etc. The accentual pattern III includes words with three primary stresses on the first, second and third syllables (/X X X/) which is typical in three syllable abbriviations like G.P.O. /'d3i: 'pi: 'эи/. The accentual pattern IV is characteristic of abbriviations like USSR /'ju:'es'es'a:/ with primary stresses in all four syllables (/X xxxo. The accentual pattern V includes words with one primary and one secondary stresses. It has fourteen accentual-syllahic structures, in ten of which the first syllable receives the primary stress and one of the following syllables have secondary stress /X T - /, /X T - - /, /X -Т /, /X - T - /, /X - T - - /, /X - - Т/, /X — -175 - Т — 1, II. — Т ----I, I L ------- ТI, IL L — Т — /. The rest accentual-syllabic structures are: /— J_L —/, /— _L T — I, I - L - T - 1,1 --L-T - --/. E.g. platform /'plaet,fo:m/, dressmaker /'dres,meik9/, avenue /'aevi,nju:/, illustrate /'ibs,treit/, experimental /iks,pen'mental/, materialize /ma'tianajaiz/, justifiable /'dSAsti,faiabl/, liberialism /libarajizm/, anybody /'em,bodi/ etc. The accentual pattern VI has two stresses the first of which is the secondary and the second one is the primary. It has twenty accentual-syllabic structures such as /Т - _L/, IT - L-1,1T — ± - - /, IT - L -------1, I T - L -----------l,IT--LI,IT--L-l,fT- -L --I ,I T --L -------1, IT--------L - /, IT--------L - - / J - L т - U - T - U J - T - L - I , l - T - L - - I J - T - L -------1,1 - T — L —1,1 — T — ± — 1,1 — T -------L -IJ -T --------± - - / . Examples, magazine /,mseg9'zi:n/, coincide /,koin'said/, representation /,repnzen'teijn/, academical /,жкэУегткэ1/, satisfaction /,saetisTekJn/, dissatisfactority /'dis,saetis'faektinti/, identification /ai'dentifi'keijn/, economically Aiks'nomikali/, evolutionary /,evalju:Jn9n/ etc. The accentual pattern VII has two primary stresses on the first and second syllables and the secondary stress on the third syllable of a word. It has two accentual-syllabic structures such as / _L i. T - /, / J—I—L----/, e.g. unciworthy /4n'si:,w3:9i/, unciworthiness ;/'An'si'w3:6ims/. In the accentual pattern VIII the secondary stress is placed between two primary stresses. It has fourteen accentual-syllabic structures: IL T - U - misrepresent /'mis,repn'zent/, IL T - J_ - / - Konstantinopol / Icons, taen tin'supl/, ILT - L -----/ - unostentacialy /'Anpsten'teijasli/, /±T-_L -------/ - unfilosophically /'An,fite'sofiksli/, dimobilization /'dmmbilai'zeifen/, IL - T - L — / - incompatibility / 'lnksrr^pasta hiliti/, individualization /'indi,vidju:3lai'zeijn/, undesireabffitj/'Andi,zai9bihti/, IL — L ------ X - / - valitudinearianism /'vaeli,tju:di 'nssnzm/, IL------ LI - oliomargarine /'9uliau,ma:d33'rin/, I L----T L — / - intercommunication /'int9k9,mju:m 'keijn/. In the accentual pattern ЯХ/ the primary stress precedes two secondary stresses which has two accentual-syllabic structures: IL T - T - / - imcercamcigion /4n,s3:k9ms,i3n/, IL — T — T — I - sodawater-bottfe /'s9ud9,wot9,botl/. - 1 7 6 - The accentual pattern X has three stresses, i.e. secondary stresses precede the primary stress. It has four accentual-syllabic structures ft — T—_L—/ - superanewation /,sjp9r,aenju'eijn/, superficiality /,sju:p3,fi|i'aelitiy, Я —T-_L------ / - autobiographically /,o:to,bai3,graefik3h/, ГТ - T — — T — / - individualization /,indi,vidju3lai'zeijn/. The accentual pattern XI has three stresses, i.e. the primary stress is placed between two secondary stresses. This pattern has an accentual-syllabic structure /Т — _LT — /: overstimulate /,9u3'stimju:leit/. These accentual patterns and their accentual-syllabic structures are determined by the morphological type of wordformation, by the number of syllables of a word, by the semantic weight of the stem and affixes (prefixes) and suffixes (postfixes)) and also by other