The nature of English word stress. Degrees of stress

THE STRUCTURAL ASPECT OF THE ENGLISH SYLLABLE.

The study the syllable as a phonological unit of English is to describe the structure of the syllable by stating the functions of the phonemes in it and the relations between the phonemes. The term structure denotes the relations between elements of a system. Applied to the syllable it refers to the relationship between the phonemes constituting the syllable. Syllable formation in E, as in other Ls, is based on the phonological opposition of V and C. V are always syllabic, they occupy a central position in the syllable. C are non - syllabic and marginal. The sounds (w,r,j), despite their strong vocalic features, function as Cs, occurring only before the V. The sounds (l,m,n) normally function as C, in various sound combinations before the V. But in unstressed final position, when preceed by a noise C, they are syllabic, Historically, the short V () never occur in stressed position without the following C. In unstressed position the V () can occur as final. C present particular interest in the study of the syllable, because is due to the number and arrangement of C that the structure of he syllable varies..And it is largely due to C in relation to the V, there are 4 types of syllables: 1. Open syllables (CV); 2. Closed syllables (VC); 3.covered syllables (CV(C)); 4. Uncovered syllables (V (C)). The fundamental syllable type in E is the closed syllable, whereas in R it is open syllable. As to the presence, number and arrangement of C there are 23 syllable patterns in E. The V may occur alone in a syllable or it may have up to 3 C before and up to 4 C after it. The most frequent and fundamental pattern in E is CVC. The structure of an E syllable depends on whether it is stressed or not. The peak of the stressed syllable is always a V. In the unstressed syllable the peak may be a Vor a sonant. When the peak of the stressed syllable is a short V, the syllable must be “closed” by a C.

A word, as a meaningful L unit, has a definite ph structure. The ph structure of a word comprises not only the sounds that the word is composed of and not only the syllabic structure that these sounds form it also has a definite stress pattern. The auditory impression of stress ia that of prominence. There may be one prominent syllable in a word as compared to the rest of the syllables of the same word, there may be 2 equally prominent syllables, 2 unequally prominent syllables or more PS. And this correlation of degrees of prominence of the syllables in a word forms the stress pattern of the word, which called the accentual structure of a word. Monosyllabic words have no stress pattern, because there can be established no correlation of prominence within it. Yet as lexical units monosyllables are regarded as stressed. Actual speech does not consist of isolated words. And the stress pattern of a word is deducted from how the word is accented in connected speech. On the other hand, the stress pattern of a word is only its potential pattern in an utterance. Though E words generally retain their stress patterns in connected speech, there occur numerous instances when the stress pattern of a word is altered. One of the main questions for the linguist is to determine the number of constructive degrees of word stress in a L, Instrumental investigations show that a polysyllabic word has as many degrees of prominence as there are syllables in it. American linguists distinguish 4 degrees of word stress: primary ( cupboard ), secondary (crimination), tertiary ( analyse), weak (cupboard). Aph consider that secondary stress generally occurs before the primary stress, while tertiary stress occurs after the primary stress. Linguistically, tertiary word stress can be taken for a variant of secondary stress, as there are no words in E the meanings of which depend on whether their stress pattern is characterized by either secondary or tertiary stress. That is why the stress pattern of E words may be defined as a correlation of 3 degrees of stress.

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