Linguistically relevant degrees of stress. The functions of word stress

THE STRESS PATTERNS OF ENGLISH WORDS.

There are Ls in which stress always falls on the 1^st syllable, or on the last. Word stress in such L is said to be fixed. The stress patterns of the bulk E words are regular and stable. Word stress in E is called free, there are certain tendencies in E which to a certain extent regulate the accentuation of words. The linguists who have made a thorough analysis of E stress patterns have agreed upon the existence of 2 main accentuation tendencies in E: the recessive tendency and the rhythmic tendency. According to the recessive tendency, stress falls on the first syllable, which is generally the root syllable or on the second syllable in words which have a prefix of no special meaning. The RT in stressing words is characteristic of words of Anglo-Saxon origin, but the tendency has also influenced many borrowings. In EL a considerable part of the vocabulary consists of monosyllabic words, some of which are stressed, others not. This created the rhythmic tendency to alternate stressed and unstressed syllables. According to the rhythmic tendency, stress is on the 3d syllable from the end. In words with more than 4 syllables we very often find the influence of both the rhythmic and the recessive tendencies. There is one more tendency in E: the tendency to stress the most important elements in words. Such meaningful prominence is given to negative prefixes (-un, -in, -mis), such prefixes as –ex, -vice, -sub, -under; suffix –teen, semantically important elements in compound words. These are the tendencies that to some extent regulate the placement of stress in E words and condition their stress patterns.

WS has a constitutive function, as it moulds syllables into a word by forming its stress pattern. Without a definite stress pattern a word ceases to be a word and becomes a sequence of syllables. Word stress has a distinctive function which are differentiated words in EL with analigus sound structure which are differentiated in speech only by their stress patterns. Some linguists regard degrees of word stress as phonological units, which can distinguish words. They consider degrees of word stress to be separate phonemes. Alongside the generally accepted phonemes they have introduced into the phonemic inventory 4 stress phonemes: primary (loud), secondary (reduced loud), tertiary (medial) and weak stress phonemes. Vasiliev treats the degrees of stress as phonological units. He distinguishes 3 word accentemes in E: primary accenteme, secondary accenteme, weak accenteme. Accentemes differ from phonemes, because accentemes are prosodic phonological units. Torsuev thinks that it is stress patterns of words that contrast with each other rather than degrees of stress. This view-point appears to be well-grounded. It is evident that degrees of stress can be perceived only in stress patterns as relatively strong, medium or weak stress. Moreover, in one stress pattern secondary stress may be stronger than primary stress in another stress pattern. Word stress has an identificatory function, as well, because the stress patterns of words enable people to identify definite combinations of sounds as meaningful linguistic units. A distortion of the stress pattern may hamper understanding or produce a strange accent.

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