Stress patterns in English

Degrees of stress.

The word stress in English is not only free but it may be shifting, performing the semantic function of differentiating lexical units. There are as many degrees of stress in a word as there are syllables.

One of the main questions for the linguist is to determine the number of contrastive degrees of word stress in a language.

There are two views of the matter. Some (D. Jones, R. Rington, V. Vassilyev) consider that there are 3 degrees of word stress in English:

1. Primary (or strong stress)

2. Secondary (or partial stress)

3. Weak (unstressed syllables)

Secondary stress is needed to define the stress pattern of words containing four or more syllables and compound words.

e.g.: ͵examiʹnation, ͵qualifiʹcation, ʹhair-͵dresser.

All these degrees of stress are linguistically relevant as there are words in English the meanings of which depend upon the occurrence of either of the three degrees in their stress patterns.

But auditory analysis shows that there are certain positions in the stress patterns of English words where the vowel generally remains unobscured and its duration is considerable, though the syllable it occurs in does not actually bear primary or secondary stress. This can be seen in verbs ending in –ate, -ize, -y (elevate, recognize, occupy). And in such words as portray, canteen, austere. Besides, this can be observed in nouns ending in –ary, -ory, -ony (dictionary, territory, ceremony).

On this account some American scientists B. Bloch and G. Trager distinguish four degrees of word stress:

primary, (ʹ cupboard)

secondary, (discrˆiminʹation)

tertiary (ʹ analˋyse)

weak stress (ʹcupboˇard) but very often the weakly stressed syllable is left unmarked.

American phoneticians consider that secondary stress generally occurs before the primary stress (exˆaminʹation), while tertiary stress occurs after the primary stress (ʹhandboˋok, spʹecialˋize).

Though the second view seems to be more exact, the distinction between secondary and tertiary degrees of stress is too subtle to be noticed by an untrained ear.

Linguistically, tertiary word stress can be taken for a variant of secondary word stress, as there are no words in English the meanings of which depends on whether their stress pattern is characterized by either secondary or tertiary stress.

That is why the stress pattern of English words may be defined as a correlation of three degrees of stress.

The numerous variations of English word stress are systematized in the typology of accentual structure of English words worked out by Torsuev G. P. He distinguishes more than 100 stress patterns, which he grouped into 11 types. The tempo of speech may influence the accentual pattern of words too.

The most common of them are:

┴ (words with one primary stress: ʹafter)

┴ ┴ (words with two primary stresses: ʹweek-ʹend)

┬ ┴ and ┴ ┬ (words with one primary and one secondary stress: ʹhair-˴dresser, ͵magaʹzine).

They are the most productive types of stress patterns too, as borrowings and new words that appear in English are generally stressed accordingly.

The remaining types of stress patterns are less common in English:

┴ ┴ ┴ (USA)

┴ ┴ ┬ (ʹunʹsea͵worthy)

┴ ┬ ┴ (ˋmis˴inʹterpret)

┴ ┬ ┬ (ˋun͵circum˴cision)

┬ ┬ ┴ (͵indi˴vidualiˋzation)

┬ ┴ ┬ (͵gingerˋbeer-˴bottle)

Though word stress in English is called free, there are certain tendencies in English which regulate the accentuation of words. The English word stress is limited by two tendencies: Recessive and Rhythmical due to their origin.

According to the recessive tendency, stress falls on the first syllable which is generally the root syllable (mother, father, sister, brother) or on the second syllable in words which have a prefix or no special meaning (become, indeed, forgive, behind).

The recessive tendency is characteristic of words of Anglo-Saxon origin, but the tendency has also influenced many borrowings.

In the English language 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 3^rd syllable from the end (intensity, possibility). It is the usual way of stressing four-syllabled words (political, democracy, identity, comparison).

In words with more than 4 syllables we find the influence of both the rhythmic and the recessive tendencies (indivisible, inefficiency, physiology, phonological).

In rapid colloquial speech the two tendencies very often coincide as one of the vowels is elided (terit(o)ry, diction(a)ry, lit(e)rature, temp(e)rature).

The rhythmic tendency remains a strong one and it affects the stress patterns of a large number of words in modern English. In some polysyllabic words there is a tendency nowadays to avoid a succession of weak syllables, especially if these have [ə] or [i]. as a result thereappeas a stress shift with a rhythmic alteration of stressed and unstressed syllables. This tendency is clearly evident in the new pronunciation of the following words:

ˋExquisite – Exʹquisite

ˋPrecedence - Preʹcedence

ˋSonorous - Soʹnorous

ˋCapitalist - Caʹpitalist

ˋControversy - Conʹtroversy

ˋHospitable - Hosʹpitable

͵Articuʹlatory - Ar͵ticuˋlatory

The new variant of pronunciation of these words and many more English words have been accepted and included in Everyman’s English Pronouncing Dictionary by D. Jones as either second or even firs variants of pronunciation.

It has also been noticed that the stress of the parent word is often retained in the derivatives: personal – personality, national – nationality. This regularity is called the retentive tendency in English.

There is one more tendency in English: the tendency to stress the nost important elements in words. Such meaningful prominence is given to negative prefixes un-, in-, mis-; such prefixes as ex-, vice-, sub-, under-. Suffix –teen (thirteen, fourteen), semantically important elements in compound words (well-known, red-hot, bad-tempered).

These are the tendencies that regulate the placement of stress in English words and condition their stress patterns.

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