Word Stress
Definition of Word Stress.
Word/lexical stress. The amount of effort or energy expended in producing a syllable is called STRESS. For the hearer, stress is manifested as perceptual PROMINENCE, or strength. In other words, a stressed syllable seems more prominent or stronger than the other syllables in a word: it stands out [Pennington 1996:129].
Word stress can be defined as the singling out of one or more syllables in a word, which is accompanied by the change of the force of utterance, pitch of the voice, qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the sound which is usually a vowel [Леонтьева 1988: 179]. The correlation of varying prominences of syllables in a word is understood as the accentual structure of the word or its stress pattern.
2. Types of Word Stress.
According to the most salient feature the following types of word stress are distinguished in different languages:
1. dynamic or force stress if special prominence in a stressed syllable(syllables) is achieved mainly through the intensity of articulation;
2. musical or tonic stress if special prominence is achieved mainly through the range of pitch, or musical tone.
3. quantitative stress if special prominence is achieved through the changes in the quantity of the vowels, which are longer in the stressed syllables than in the unstressed ones.
4. qualitative stress if special prominence is achieved through the changes in the quality of the vowel under stress [Леoнтьева l988: 180]. Vowel reduction is often used as manipulation of quality in unstressed syllables.
3. Place and Degrees of Word Stress. Fixed and Free Word Stress.
Languages are also differentiated according to the placement of word stress. The traditional classification of languages concerning place of stress in a word is 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 multisyllabic 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 one but last syllable.
In languages with a free stress its place is not confined to a specific position in the word. In one word it may fall on the first syllable, in another on the second syllable, in the third word — on the last syllable, etc.
The word stress in English is not only free but it may also be shifting, performing the semantic function of differentiating lexical units, parts of speech, grammatical forms. It is worth noting that in English word stress is used as a means of word-building, e.g.:
'contrast – con'trast
'habit – ha'bitual
'music – mu'sician
4. Accentual Tendencies in English.
5. Word Stress vs Sentence stress.
The word stress is closely interrelated with sentence stress. The words which usually become stressed in a phrase are notional words. They convey the main idea of the phrase, though any word including form words may be marked by sentence stress, if it has certain semantic value in the sentence.
Or when the rhythmic structure of the isolated word does not coincide with that of a phrase, e.g. 'Fifteen. 'Room Fif'teen. 'Fifteen 'pages.
Since the spheres of word stress and sentence stress fall apart their functions are actually different. Sentence stress organizes a sentence into a linguistic unit, helps to form its rhythmic and intonation pattern, performs its distinctive function on the level of a phrase.