Different syllable in one and the same word are usually pronounced

with a different degree of prominence. Such special prominence given

to one or more syllables in the same word is called word accent (or
word stress). Different linguists define word accent differently.
There exist different ways of making a syllable more prominent. That is
why we may speak of different types of word accent:
1) The pronunciation of a syllable may be made more prominent if the
syllable is said with greater force. Prof.D.Jones said in this respect
“stress may be described as the degree of force with which a sound or
a syllable is uttered. A strong force of utterance means energetic action
of all the articulating organs. This generally gives the objective
impression of loudness “. Word accent of this type is known as force
accent(or dynamic accent).
2) A syllable may become more prominent if it is pronounced at
different pitch levels or in different pitch directions. Word accent of this
type is called musical accent(or pitch accent).
3) A syllable may become more prominent if its vowel is pronounced
longer than the same vowel in an unstressed position. For instance, the
/i:/ vowels of the word /’θi:s:z/ (theses) are of different lengths. It is
longer in a stressed position and shorter in an unstressed one. This
type of word accent is known as quantitative accent.
4) A syllable may become more prominent if the vowel is pronounced
distinctly and its quality is not obscured. For instance, the /iə/ vowels in
/’siəriəs/ (serious) are a bit different in quality: the stressed /iə/ is
distinct and clear, while the unstressed /iə/ is somewhat obscured.
According to Prof.G.P.Torsuyev this type of word accent is qualitative
accent.
All existing languages have either the force or the musical type of word
accent as leading principle, while the quantitative and the qualitative
types play a subsidiary role.
English, Russian, Kazakh, German, French and other European
languages belong to the force type of word accent, the only difference
being in the degree of the force with which the stressed syllables are
pronounced.
To the musical type of word accent belong Swedish, Norwegian, and
oriental languages, such as Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean
and others. For example, if the syllable /ma/ of Chinese is said with the
falling tone, it means “scold”, but if it is said with the rising tone, then
it means “hemp” (конопля). Another example, from Swedishs if the
word “Anden” is pronounced with
It is a standard and genu1ne joke in linguistic circles that in one
Burmese dialect the word /ma/ pronounced in five different tones
corresponds to the sentence: “Help the horse; a mad dog comes!”
British and Soviet phoneticians distinguish three degrees of word
accent in English: primary, secondary and weak. The strongest accent
is primary, the second strongest is secondary. The syllables with
primary and secondary accents are called stressed, while syllables with
weak accents are called unstressed.
The primary accent is indicated by Prof.D.Jones by placing a raised
stress mark /’/ before the accented syllable, the secondary accent is
indicated by a lowered stress mark /, /; the weak accent is not marked
in any way.
The American scientists are not unanimous in treating of the degrees of
word accent in English. B.Bloch and C.Trager, for instance, distinguish
four degrees of word accent and call them: loud, reduced loud; medial
and weak.
H.A.Cleason and most American descriptivists also distinguish four
degrees of word accent and call them: primary stress /′/, secondary
stress /ˆ/, tertiary stress / /, and weak stress / v/.
The difference between secondary and tertiary stresses is not clear
enough, and there are no indicators for differentiating between them.
This results in different treatments of the same example by American
linguists. For instance, according to B.Bloch and G.Trager a free word
combination like “black bird” has secondary-primary stresses /^ ′/;
according to H.A.Gleason it has primary-secondary stresses/′ ^/. One
more example: such words as “examination” have tertiary-primary
stresses according to American descriptivists; but they have secondary-
primary stresses according to British phoneticians.
These examples really prove that it is difficult to say which a secondary
stress is and which a tertiary one is.
Prof.V.A.Vassilyev offers two ways of solving this problem. The easiest
one is to do away with the tertiary stress altogether and treat it either
as a secondary stress or a weak stress and thus follow the accentuation
system of the British phoneticians.The second way of solving this
problem consists in finding some objective criteria for determining the
position of both secondary and tertiary stresses.
According to Prof.V.A.Vassilyev a tertiary stress is post-tonic. It occurs
in words after the primary stress. There are several groups of words of
primary-tertiary type having the following pitch pattern. They are:
- a large group of compound nouns of the “blackbird”type: black-ball,
blackbook, blackcap, black-cock, blackguard, black-head, black Jack,
blackleg, black-list, blackmail, black sheep, blacksmith, class-room,
class-book, class-fellow, book-case, hair-pin, door-mat, playhouse,
greenhouse, green-room, dancing-girl, missing-list, street-cleaner, etc;
- polysyllabic verbs ending in –ate, -ise(-ize), -fy(-py), etc., as in:
occupy, demonstrate, situate, emphasize, satisfy, memorize, articulate,
colonize, negotiate, etc;
-polysyllabic words in General American English ending in –ary(-ory,
-ery), -ony(-oly), etc., as in: secretary, testimony, etc;
According to Prof.V.A.Vassilyev a secondary stress is pre-tonic. It
occurs in words before the primary stress. There are several groups of
secondary-primary type which have the following pitch pattern. They
are:
-a large group of polysyllabic nouns ending In the suffix –tion(-sion,
-cian), as in: assimilation, realization, modification, participation,
consideration, investigation, simplification, testification, colonization,
representation, qualification, phonetician, academician, etc.;
-a group of polysyllabic abstract nouns ending in the suffix –ity, as in:
possibility, impossibility, peculiarity, credibility, theatricality,
muscularity, permissibility, perfectibility, regularity, etc.;
-a fairly large group of polysyllabic adjectives ending in the suffixes –al,
-ic(-ical), as in: experimental, aristocratic, continental, democratic,
arithmetic(al), mathematic(el), economic(al), horizontal, incidental,
categoric(al),etc. There may be distinguished some other groups of
words belonging to a secondary-primary type too.
Languages may also be classified according to the position of word
accent in disyllabic and polysyllabic words. From this point of view
languages have either free word accent or fixed word accent.
To the fixed type of word accent belong French and Kazakh (the final
syllable is accented), Polish (the penultimate предпоследний syllable is
accented).
English and Russian belong to the so-called free word accent. It means
that the main accent may fall in different words on a syllable occupying
any position. The position of the stress in each particular word remains
unchanged, or fixed. In Russian and English there are words in which
the main stress falls either on the first, or the second, or the third, etc.
syllable in a word,
Accent is called shifting if it changes its position from one morpheme to
another in different derivatives and grammatical forms of the word. For
example:
in Russiant: холод, холодный, холода;
in English: ‘accent, to aс’cent, accentu’ation, ac’centuate; ‘subject,
sub’jective, subjec’tivity, etc.
In languages with free word accent it is extremely difficult to determine
the position of the stress in every word. Such is the case with the
Russian language. Its accentuation system must be learnt individually.
The accentual system of English is also free. But it is easier to learn the
English accent than the Russian one due to a number of reasons. There
exist in English certain tendencies which make the occurrence of word
accent more predictable than in Russian. Prof.V.A.Vasailyev describes
them as follows: the recessive tendency, the rhythmic tendency, the
retentive tendency, and the semantic factor.
These four help learners to determine the position of word accent in
most English words.
The recessive tendency which is the oldest one is characteristic of all
the Germanic languages. According to this t tendency most native
words in English received a stress either on the initial syllable (e.g.
father, mother, husband, wonder, etc.) or on the root morpheme in
words with prefixes that have lost their meaning (e.g. among, before,
forget, become, begin).
The recessive tendency has always been very strong throughout the
historical development of the English language. Its strong character is
reflected in the fact that most French words which were borrowed into
English before the 15th century underwent accentual assimilation. For
example: reason, marriage, colour etc. (the initial syllable is stressed);
conduct, compose, surprise, produce, remain, depend, etc. (the root
morpheme is stressed).
English speech is characterized by rhythmic alternations of stressed
and unstressed syllables, in which stressed notional words alternate
with short unstressed form words. This feature has caused the
development of the so-called rhythmic tendency in the English word
accentuation system.
Two types of rhythmical stress are distinguished in English:
1) historically rhythmical;
2) synchronically rhythmical stress.
We speak of historically rhythmical stress in case of French words
which were borrowed before the 15th century. In present-day English
such borrowed words as “family, opinion, colony, radical”, etc. have a
recessive stress on the first syllable. But during the development of the
language these words underwent rhythmic changes. Formerly they had
a fixed stress on the final syllable, as all French words. Under the
influence of a strong recessive tendency they also received a stress on
the initial syllable as well. For some time such words had two stresses:
on the initial and on the final syllables with an unstressed syllable in-
between. That is why this type of stress is called historically rhythmical
– because it is rhythmical only in its origin.
In English there is a fairly large group of words with genuinely
rhythmical stress. Such type of stress existing in present-day English is
called synchronically rhythmical. This group of words are achieved by
the alternation of a secondary and a primary stress.
To this group belong polysyllabic nouns with the suffixes -tion(-sion,
-cian), -ity; also polysyllabic adjectives with the suffixes -al, -ic(-ical);
polysyllabic verbs, etc. For instance:
– population, punctuation, mathematician, derivation, delegation,
arithmetician, decoration, etc.
– contiguity, continuity, desirability, temporality, removability, etc.
– deferential, demagogic, energetic, enthusiastic, etymologic-(al), etc.
– represent, underline, recommend, reproduce, understand, recollect,
etc.
The so-called retentive tendency consists in retaining the accent (either
primary or secondary) in derivatives on the same syllable as in the
original word. The difference between retentive accent and constant
accent lies in the following: constant accent remains on the same
syllable in all the derivatives and grammatical forms of the word;
retentive accent in one group of derivatives falls on the same syllable,
while in another it may be shifted. For example:
– retentive accent: con’verse, conversable, conversant, but:
conversation, conversational;
– expect, expectancy, expectant, expectative,but: expectation,
(Cf. constant accent: begin, begins, began, begun, beginner,
beginners, beginning, etc.).
The accentuation structure of some English words is determined by the
semantic factor. The influence of the semantic factor upon the word
accent may be commonly observed in compound words. Most of them
have two equally strong accents. Both elements of such compound
words are considered to be semantically important.
We can distinguish the following groups of double stressed words in
English the accentual structure of which is determined by the semantic
factor:
a) words with strong prefixes (which have definite meaning of their
own), as in: ‘anti-fascist, ‘ arch-‘enemy, ‘disbelieve, ‘ex-president,
half-‘price, ‘in’dooro, ‘interco’nnect, ‘ vice-chairman, etc.;
b) compound adjectives, as: ‘well-bred, ‘ill-‘tempered, ‘light-blue,
timber-‘headed, ‘good-looking, ‘dark-green, etc.;
c) compound verbs with postverbal adverbs, such as: “come ‘in, ‘go
‘out, ‘put ‘on, ‘put ‘off, ‘switch ‘on, ‘turn ‘on, ‘turn ‘off, etc.;
d) simple numerals from 13 to 19. Each word of a compound numeral
is stressed, e.g. ‘nineteen, -‘thirteen, ‘fifty-seven, etc.;
e) a small group of compound nouns in which both elements are
semantically important. They have two primary stresses, as in: ‘ice-
cream, gas-stove, ‘arm-chair, ‘eye-witness, absent-mindedness, etc.
The great majority of English compound nouns belong to the
“blackbird” type.
As Prof.V.A.Vassilyev states the accentual system of present-day
English is a product of the combined action of all the three tendencies
(recessive, rhythmic, retentive) end the semantic factor as well.
The accentual structure of English words may also be analysed from
the phonological point of view. The accentual structure fulfils three
main functional constitutive, distinctive, recognitive.
 The constitutive function of the accentual structure is proved by the
fact that all the words when pronounced in isolation have word accent
irrespective of the number of syllables in them. We cannot pronounce
any word without making it prominent. Even monosyllabic words
pronounced as vocabulary items have word accent.
The distinctive function may be observed in phonological oppositions:
presence of stress vs. absence of stress. In English’ word accent is
capable of differentiating one word from another word,
e.g. ‘conduct (n) - conduct (v),
‘local (adj) - local (n),
‘billow (n) - . be’low (adv),
‘insight (n) - incite (v),
‘abstract (a) - ab’stract (v),
‘increase (n) - in’crease (v),
‘perfume (n) - per’fume (v), etc.
In Russian accentual structure fulfils word-differentiating function, as in
‘жаркое – жар’кое, пла́чу- плачу́
In Russian this kind of opposition (i.e. stressed syllable vs. unstressed
syllable) is the only possible one. In English oppositions may also be
based on primary stress vs. tertiary stress. Free word combinations are
opposed to compound nouns by this principle. For example:
(a) ‘black ‘bird - (a) ‘blackbird;’
(to) ‘play ‘house - (a) ‘playhouses
(keep the) ‘street ‘cleaner - (a) ‘street-cleaner; (a) ‘strong ‘hold - (a)
‘strong-hold; ‘birds ‘nest - (the) ‘bird’s nest; (a) ‘dancing ‘girl - (a)
‘dancing-girl, etc.
The recognitive function of the accentual structure consists in the
correct accentuation of words which makes it easier to understand
speech. Wrong accentuation may produce two kinds of mistakes:
phonological and phonetic.
If the correct accentuation pattern of a word is substituted by another
accentual pattern of the same word (also existent in the language) we
have a phonological mistake. For examples
 
2-кесте – Phonological mistakes

Correct accentuation Wrong accentuation

contrast (n) /’kontræst/ /kən’træst/

protest (v) /prə’test/ /’proutest/

 
If the correct accentual pattern of a word is substituted by an accentual
pattern non-existent in the language we get a phonetic mistake. For
examples,
 
3-кесте – Phonetic mistakes

Correct accentuation Wrong accentuation

situate /’sitjueit/ /sitju’eit/

phoneme /’founi:m/ /fou’ni:m/

 
Phonetic mistakes violate the recognitive function of the accentual
structure.
  The violation of the recognitive function of the accentual structure
results in the following: 1) wrong accentuation of words produces a
strong foreign accent; 2) it produces a comic impression upon the
listener; 3) wrong accentuation of words hampers the communication.
Questions
1. What is word accent?
2. What different types of word accent do you know?
3. What can you say about the force type of word accent?
4. What is musical word accent?
5. What are the main types of word accent that all existing languages
have as their leading principle?
6. What type of word accent do British and Soviet phoneticians
distinguish in English?
7. What type of word accent do English, Kazakh and Russian use?
8. What is constant accent? Give examples.
9. What is shifting accent? Give examples.
10. What factors help to predict the position of stress in most English
words?
11. What functions does the accentual structure fulfill?
12. Speak about the tendencies in English and give examples.
13. What can you say about each function of word accent?
14. Which function do you think is the most important?
15. What does violation of the recognitive function result in?
 
Practical task:
1) Make a glossary of the main notions and give their definitions.
2) Divide the following languages into two groups according to their
force and musical type of word accentuation system.
Kazakh, Chinese, English, Norwegian, Vietnamese, Russian, French,
German, Japanese, Spanish, Swedish, Polish, Kirghiz, Italian.
3) Mark the stress in the following words: profile, capitalize,
unintelligibility, temperamental, qualify, situate, dictate, desert (verb),
desert (noun), bare-headed.
4) Define which subtype of free word accent the following words belong
to (constant or shifting):
Diverse, diversiform, diversify, diversity, diversion; habit, habitual;
consult, consultation; photograph, photography, photographer,
photographic; bad, badly, badness.
5) Analyze the following words form the viewpoint of the word
accentuation tendencies. Say which tendencies (or the semantic factor)
they illustrate.
Obliteration, family, maker, pronunciation, genealogic, hungry, reprint,
vice-governor, unused, colony, darken, underneath, overbalance.