Functional characteristics of the syllable

The syllable as a phonological unit performs three functions: constitutive, distinctive, identificatory. They are closely connected.

1. Constitutive Function

Syllables constitute words, phrases and sentences through the com­bination of their prosodic features: loudness — stress, pitch — tone, duration — length and tempo. Syllables may be stressed, unstressed,, high, mid, low, rising, falling, long, short. All these prosodic fea­tures constitute the stress pattern of words, tonal and rhythmic struc­ture of an utterance, help to perform distinctive variations on the syllabic level.

2. Distinctive and Differentiator^ Function

If we compare the words: lightening освещение and lightning молния, we may observe that their syllabicity is the only min­imal, distinctive feature: /Uaitfltn vs. Uaitnm/.

It is an example of the word-distinctive function of the syllab­icity of /n/.

There are rather many combinations in English distinguished from each other by means of the difference in the place ol the syllabic boundary: a name—an aim, ice cream —/ scream, we loan — we'll own: /ataeim/—/an leim/, /iais'kri:m/—/ai iskrhm/, /wi- Uaun/—,/wil isun/.

The distinctive, differentiator function of the syllabic boundary makes it possible to introduce the term "juncture". Close juncture or conjuncture occurs between sounds within one syllable, e.g. a name, I scream: in the first example the close juncture is between In! and /ei/, in the second — between /s/ and /k/. Open juncture, disjuncture, or internal open juncture occurs between two syllables. If we mark open juncture with /-f / then in our examples it will occur between a +mme, I + scream. American scientists H. A. Gleason, L. S. Har-

ris and K. Pike consider the open juncture a separate segmental phoneme. They include /+/ into the inventory of phonemes as a separate differentiatory unit.

3. Identificatory Function

This function is conditioned by the pronunciation of the speaker. The listener can understand the exact meaning of the utterance only if he perceives the correct syllabic boundary — "syllabodisjuncture", e.g. pea stalks стеблу гороха — peace talks мирные переговоры; my train мой поезд — might rain возможен дождь.

The existence of such pairs demands special attention to teaching not only the correct pronunciation of sounds but also the observation of the correct place for syllabodisjuncture.

GRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SYLLABLE

The auditory image of a syllable can be shown in transcription: unknown /1лп-1пзип/, liner /Uai-пэ/, maker /imet-кэ/. Parts of ortho­graphic and phonetic syllables do not always coincide. E. g.

Word Phonetic syllables Orthographic syllables

(Syllabographs)

 

table	/Itei-bl/	ta-ble
laden	/Uei-dn/	la-den
Spanish	/fspga-nij/	Span-ish

It is very important to observe correct syllable division when necessity arises to divide a word in writing. Division of words into syllables in writing (syllabographs) is based on morphological prin­ciples. The morphological principle of word division in orthography demands that the part of a word, which is separated, should be either a prefix, or a suffix, or a root (morphograph): un-divided, utter-ance, pun-ish_s be-fore.

However, if there are two or three consonants before -ing, these consonants may be separated in writing, e. g. gras-ping, puz-zling.

Words can be divided in writing according to their syllabic struc­ture, e. g. un-kind'U-ness. They can also be divided according to their meaning, e.g. spot-light.

There are six rules to help with dividing a word in writing:

1) Never divide a word within a syllable.

2) Never divide an ending (a suffix) of two syllables such as -able,
-ably, -fully.

3) With the exception of -ly, never divide a word so that an end­
ing of two letters such as -ed, -er, -ic begins the next line.

4) Never divide a word so that one of the parts is a single letter.

5) Never divide a word of one syllable.

6) Never divide a word of less than five letters.¹

If we compare the system of syllable division and syllable forma-

¹ Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary ofi Current English by A. S. Hornby — Moscow, 1982,— P. XIV.

tion in Russian and in English, we can draw the following conclu­sions:

1) Similar syllabic structural types can be found in both languages.

2) In both languages the single intervocal consonant between two
phonetic syllables belongs to the next vowel:

morning /lfflo:-mn/—мо-ре

cozy /'кэи-zi/—во-ля

occasi on /э-'ке1-зп/—вб-ло-ком

The checked vowels constitute an exception, e.g. city, pity.

There is a tendency in the Russian language to accomplish syllable division before a sound of minimal sonority, e. g. тол-па, мор'Ской^. конь-ки, боч-ка, etc.

3) All consonants may begin a syllable in English, the only ex­
ception is the sound /rj/. In the system of the Russian language all
consonants may begin a syllable.

4) The structure of the Russian syllable is characterized by more
complex initial clusters. The structure of the English syllable is char­
acterized by more complex final clusters.

5) Initial CCCC type clusters constitute syllables only in Russian.

6) Russian words of foreign origin with the suffixes -ция, -ия,
corresponding to English words with the suffixes -tion, -y, have one
extra syllable: революция — revolution, тенденция — tendency.

7) English diphthortgsjDelong to one syllable, triphthongs may be
divided into two parts.

Questions

1. What is a syllable? 2, What are the lines along which a syllable can be analysed? 3. What is the structure of the syllable? 4. Define the peak and the slopes of the syllable. 5. "What is the role of sonorants-in syllable formation? 6. What do you know about different structur­al types of the syllable? 7. What do you know about structural dif­ferences of English and Russian syllables? 8. Speak on the theories-of syllable formation. 9. What do you know about syllable division?' 10. How does the syllable perform constitutive and distinctive func­tions? 11. What is "disjuncture" ("internal open juncture"), "close-juncture" ("conjuncture")? 12. Give examples to prove the importance-of the ident'iflcatory function öf the disjuncture. 13. What are the* principal differences of syllable formation and syllable division in; English and in Russian?

Exercises

■*!. Give syllabic structural patterns of the following English and Russia«? words; characterize them from the viewpoint of their structure: open, cov­ered, etc.

(l)"pit, pat, pot, bet, tip, ten, top, took;

пол, бак, ток, час, воз, сон, так, нос (2) fact, taken, rhythm, prism, region, bacon, listen;

вопль, вепрь, жатв, битв, ритм, метр, типе, ЗАГС:

176'

(3) depths, lapsed, boxed, lisped, lifts, busts;
текст, жертв, горсть, шерсть, Минск, тем

(4) рЗал, price, shriek, fret, smoke, twice;
птах, прав, жнец, здесь, злак, сгиб

(5) do, go, so, dew, he, pea, pie, boy;
да, бы, фа, си, те, ту, ли

(6) spy, stay, blue, brew, pray, dry;
дно, пну, все, про, кто_; два

(7) ought, eat, orb, oak, eight, out, art,
он, ас, ад, ил, ух, ох, от, ах

(8) splay, spray, straw;
мсти, мзда, льсти, мгла

(9) ebbed, act, ask, else, aunt, apt
акт, акр, игл, игр, ость, альф

(10) aked, aunts, asks, eights, acts, elks
искр, астр

(11) spleens, springs, sprawls, sprains, strains, screams;
вскользь, всласть, вдрызг, взвизг

(12) serpents, patents, students, servants, licensed;
монстр, ханств, царств, земств, чувств

(13) spleen, split, street, struck, squeek, scroll;
взлом, вздеть, сдвиг, сгнить, взмах, взрыв

(14) twiddle, trance, plosion, flask, flint, thrust;
цвесть, фланг, внутрь, швабр, скетч

(15) stamps, tramps, twelfth, cleansed, clenched, еггапЖ»;
спектр, ксеркс, сфинкс

*2, (a) Divide these words into phonetic syllables, (b) Give their syllable structural^ patterns.

people, bugle, satchel, trifle, rhythm, April, equal, happens, mar­bles, patterns, dragons, urgent, servant, listened, heralds, errands, parents, tangents, patients, scaffold?

*3. Define the number of syllables in these words according to the sonority theory.

alone, female, unfortunate, insufficient, machine, unimportant, yesterday, aristocracy, appetite, remarkable, solecism, misunder­stand, inferiority, window, tomato, satisfactory, electrification

4. Mark initially strong consonants with a single line and initially weak con» sonants with^two Tines.

, la-пи, ii:-te, llai-пэ, 'sek-ta, 'bu-tl, U:-gl,, j

'глд-bi, 'mi-dl, 'wm-ta, 'лп-пэип, msep, film

S. Supply each word of exercise 4 with the corresponding arc of loudness.

a. Read these examples to prote the semantic importance^ of the correct syl­lable boundarv. Mark dose juncture by pluses,

a nation—an Asian see Mable—seem able

a nice house—an ice house it swings—its wings

the tall boys—that all boys хлеб с ухой—хлеб сухой

до дела ли—доделала по машинам—помаши нам

*7. Analyse these words from the viewpoint of phonetic and orthographic syllable division; transcribe and divide them into syllabographs.

work, working, worker, pined, pining, stirring, occurred, cured, cheerless, curing, cheering, firing, redder, nation, culture, thoroughly

Control Tasks

*1. Arrange these words into three columns according to the type of syllable structure: (a) closed uncovered, (b) closed covered, (c) open covered.

took, pray, lifts, at, straw, boy, aunt, texts, clenched, tip, pea, struck, strays, elks, thrust, bet, fact, fret, asks, ebbed, price

мгла, рад, ил, ЗАГС, кто, от, горсть, та, астр, скетч, взрыв, всласть, сфинкс, чувств, сон, Минск, гипс, здесь, злак, что

*2. Write out: (a) initially weak (finally strong) and (b) finally weak (ini­tially strong) consonants.

sit, lame, back, miss, sack, grave, tip, tide, top, late, mad, made, nine, till, cake, thick, bat, pin, pine, hate, act, ice, plot, face, hid, fate, stamp, spot, pile, land, mist, mole, mark, gold, cap, nose, fix, harm, merry, horn, start, form

*3. Divide these words into phonetic syllables.

comfortable, cottage, orchard, ground, kitchen, pantry, study, sev­eral, upstairs, bedroom, nursery, bathroom, furniture, modern, own, electricity, January, February, August, September, October, Novem­ber, December, Wednesday, Tuesday, Thursday

*4. Divide these words into syllabographs (where possible).

parents, fire, plural, rural, dinner, marry, disappear, speaking, writing, playing, walking, standing, passing, breakfast, potatoes, tomatoes, coffee, cabbage, bananas, berries, pudding, pears, beer, shopping, ironing, housework, mistake, fishing

*S. Mark with /+/ open Juncture in the examples below. Turn them into exam­ples with close juncture.

a name for it; a black tie; not at all; that's tough; I saw her rise; the waiter cut it; Isawthem eat; why choose; my train; keep sticking; gray day

VII. STRESS

Any word spoken in isolation has at least one prominent syllable. We perceive it as stressed. Stress in the isolated word is termed word stress, stress in connected speech is termed sentence stress. Stress is indicated by placing a stress mark before the stressed syllable: 14.

Stress is defined differently by different authors, B. A. Bogorodi-tsky, for instance, defined stress as an increase of energy, accompanied by an increase of expiratory and articulatory activity. D. Jones de­fined stress as the degree of force, which is accompanied by a strong force of exhalation and gives an impression of loudness. H. Sweet also> stated that stress is connected with the force of breath. Later, however, D. Jones wrote, that "stress or prominence is effected... by inherent sonority, vowel and consonant length and by intonation." ^l A, C, Gim-son also admits that a more prominent syllable is accompanied by pitch changes in the voice, quality and quantity of the accented! sounds.

If we compare stressed and unstressed syllables in the words. contract /'kuntrsekt/ договор, to contract /ta kan'trsekt/ заключать договор, we may note that in the stressed syllable:

(a) the force of utterance is greater, which is connected with more
energetic articulation;

(b) the pitch of the voice is higher, which is connected with strong­
er tenseness of the vocal cords and the walls of the resonance chamber;

(c) the quantity of the vowel /se/ in /ksn'trsekt/ is greater, the
vowel becomes longer;

(d) the quality of the vowel /se/ in the stressed syllable is differ­
ent from the quality of this vowel in the unstressed position, in which
it is more narrow than /'se/.

On the auditory level a stressed syllable is the part of the word, which has a special prominence. It is produced by a greater loudness and length, modifications in the pitch and quality. Their physical correlates are: intensity, duration, frequency and the formant struc­ture. All these features can be analysed on the acoustic level.

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.

In different languages one of the factors constituting word stress is usually more significant than the others. According to the most important feature different types of word stress are distinguished in different languages.

1) If special prominence in a stressed syllable or syllables is achieved mainly through the intensity of articulation, such type of stress is called dynamic, or force stress.

¹ Jones D. An Outline of English Phonetics.— 9th ed.— Cambridge, 1960,—P. 247.

2) If special prominence in a stressed syllable is achieved mainly
through the change of pitch, or musical tone, such accent is called
musical, or tonic. It is characteristic of the Japanese, Korean and
other oriental languages.

3) If special prominence in a stressed syllable is achieved through
the changes in the quantity of the vowels, which are longer in the
stressed syllables than in the unstressed ones, such type of stress is
called quantitative.

4) Qualitative type of stress is achieved through the changes in
the quality of the vowel under stress.

English word stress is traditionally defined as dynamic, but in faet, the special prominence of the stressed syllables is manifested in the English language not only through the increase of intensity, but also through the changes in the vowel quantity, consonant and vowel quality and pitch of the voice.

Russian word stress is not only dynamic but mostly quantita­tive and qualitative. The length of the Russian vowels always depends on the position in a word. The quality of unaccented vowels in Russian may differ greatly from the quality of the same vowels under stress, e.g. /a/ in травы, травь'1, травяной is realized as /a, 5, ъ/. /а, о, э/ undergo the greatest changes, /y/ and /и/ are not so much reduced when unstressed.

Stress difficulties peculiar to the accentual structure of the English language are connected with the vowel special and inher­ent prominence. In identical positions the intensity of English vowels is different. The highest in intensity is /a/, then go /э:, з:, i:, u:, se, u, e, u, i/.

The quantity of long vowels and diphthongs can be preserved in (a) pretonic and (b) post-tonic position.

a) idea /ai'dra/ b) placard /iplsekad/

sarcastic /saiksestik/ railway /ireriwei/
archaic /aikeuk/ compound /ifc»mpaund/

All English vowels may occur in accented syllables, the only exception is /э/, which is never stressed. English vowels /i, u, эй/ tend to occur in unstressed syllables. Syllables with the syllabic /1, m, n/ are never stressed.

Unstressed diphthongs may partially lose their glide quality.

In stressed syllables ^English stops have complete closure, frica­tives have full friction, features of fortis/lenis distinction are clearly defined.

tress can be characterized as fixed and free. In languages with fixed type of stress the place of stress is always the same. For example in Czech and Slovak the stress regularly falls on the first syllable. In Italian, Welsh, Polish it is on the penultimate syllable.

In English and Russian word-stress is free, that is it may fall on any syllable in a word:

on the first— ^mother мама

on the second— occasion возможность

on the third— deWnation детонация

Stress in English and in Russian is not only free but also shifting. In both languages the place of stress may shift, which helps to differentiate different parts of speech, e.g. Hnsult — to ШтИ, Hmport — to imSpoH. In Russian: $зко, кисло, мало are adjectives, узко, кисло, мало are adverbs, что, как, когда may be pronouns and conjunctions: что читает — что читает; как вошел — как вошел; когда уехал — когда уехал.

In English ^billow is морской вал, beUow — вниз. Similar cases can be observed in Russian: му~ка — мука, замок — замок, кружки — кружки.

When the shifting of word-stress serves to perform distinctive function, V. Vassilyev terms this suprasegmental phonological unit form distinctive accenteme, when it serves to distinguish the meaning of different words, its term is word-distinctive accenteme.

Stress performs not only distinctive function, it helps to constitute and recognize words and their forms (constitutive and recognitive functions).

Strictly speaking, a polysyllabic word has as many degrees of stress as there are syllables in it. American and English phoneticians give the following pattern of stress distribution in the word examina­tion. They mark the strongest syllable with primary accent with the numeral 1, then goes 2, 3, etc.

It is more convenient and vivid to represent this pattern of stress distribution in the following way.

i g, ъ аз m r n ei
3 2 4 i

,0 p 8 tlUinit I 1 ^V Ь 1 5 3 1

 

i 1	\
\ 1	\ /
v	\/
4j	V

The number of lines corresponds to the number of syllables in a word. The primary strongest stress mark is placed on the highest line, the second strongest one is placed on the second line, the other stress marks are distributed on the appropriate lines according to accentual sonority. The vertical lines, drawn perpendicularly to the lowest line vividly show the degree of accentual sonority of the syllabic phonemes and the height of the voice pitch, which is bigger within the strongest syllable, smaller within the second strongest syllable, etc.

The least strong syllable has the lowest sonority and pitch (5 in

our examples). Such graphs help to visualize the greater intensity of syllables with primary and secondary stress compared to other,, less prominent syllables.

There is some controversy about degrees of the word-stress termin­ology and about placing the stress marks. Most British phoneticians term the strongest stress primary, the second strongest secondary and all the other degrees of stress weak. The stress marks placed before the stressed syllables indicate simultaneously their places and the point of syllable division: examination.

American descriptivists (B. Bloch, G. Träger) distinguish the following degrees of word-stress: loud /i/, reduced loud /"/, medi­al /V, weak, which is not indicated. H. A. Gleason defines the degrees of stress as primary 14, secondary /"/, tertiary /7, weak /"/, (H. Sweet distinguishes weak /^v/, medium, or half-strong (:{, strong /7 and extrastrong, or emphatic stress /;/.

V. A. Vassilyev, D. Jones, R. Kingdon consider that there are three degrees of word-stress in English: primary—strong, secon­dary—partial, weak—in unstressed syllables. For example: certif­ication /|S3:tifiikeiJ"ön/—the second and the third syllables have weak stress, which is not marked.

Most English scientists place the stress marks before the stressed syllables and don't mark monosyllabic words.

Some American scientists suggest placing the stress marks above the vowels of the stressed syllable, e.g. blackbird /ЫгекЬз:а/. They place the stress marks even on monosyllabic words, e. g. cat, pen_Y map.

In the Russian word-stress system there are two degrees of word accent: primary and weak. The stress marks in the Russian pho­netic tradition are placed above the vowels which are the nuclei of the syllable, e. g. усердней с каждым днем гляжу" в словарь.

The dictionary of accent for TV and radio workers gives some words with two stresses /7-—primary, /7—secondary (побочное), e.g. автокорд, водоналивной, библиотековедение, агрометеорология.

Some scientists distinguish between stressed and accented syl­lables. O'Connor states: "Accent... is indicated by stress and pitch combined. If a stress occurs... without a downward step in pitch, the word concerned is not accented." Stressed syllables in the text have the symbol /i/, accented syllables have the sym­bol /'/. For example: \Are you doming \back again onfiunday? On tonograms stressed and unstressed syllables, according to O'Connor, * correspond to big and small dots.

Gimson suggests marking accentual elements in the following way:

j —a black dot with a downward curve corresponds to the syllable, receiving primary accent.

¹ O'Connor I. D., Arnold 0. F. Intonation of Colloquial English.— L.„ 1959.—P. 18.

18a

„°—a black dot, or a "white" dot correspond to the syllable receiving secondary accent.

.—a tiny dot corresponds to the unaccented syllable. Here are some accentual patterns for 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, 6- and 7-, 9- syllable words according to Gimson's representation:¹

• * unknown; female, window * •

• ■ • quantity, yesterday; tobacco, tomato ■ ' •

• * ■ remarkable, impossible; conterattack > ■ • ^a

............. affiliation, consideration;rehabilitate • • > • •

° ■ ■ •» • ■ • characteristically

• • • • • unilateralism; internationalization • ■ • • • ■»•

In spite of the fact that word accent in the English stress system is free, there are certain factors that determine the place and different degree of word-stress. V. A. Vassilyev describes them as follows:

(1) recessive tendency, (2) rhythmic tendency, (3) retentive tend­ency and (4) semantic factor.

(1) Recessive tendency results in placing the word-stress on the initial syllable. It can be of two sub-types: (a) unrestricted reces­sive accent, which falls ön the first syllable: father /'faSs/, mother /'тлЗэ/ and (b) restricted recessive accent, which is characterized Ъу placing the word accent on the root of the word if this word Jias a prefix, which has lost its meaning: become /Ь1<клт/, begin bi

(2) Rhythmic tendency results in alternating stressed and un­
stressed syllables, e.g. pronunciation /ргэ|1Ш151^!е1,Гэ>п/.

(3) Retentive tendency consists in the retention of the primary
.accent on the parent word, e.g. person — personal /ip3:sn—^!ps:snl/.
More commonly it is retained on the parent word as a secondary
accent, e.g. similar—similarity /'stmib—isnniHaentr/.

(4) Semantic factor.

Given below are the rules of word-stress in English:

1. In words of 2 or 3 syllables the primary stress mostly falls
on the first syllable, e.g. terror, Cabinet, ^sensible.

2. In prefixal words the primary stress typically falls on the
syllable following the prefix, e.g. impossible, recall, behind.

3. In prefixal words with prefixes having their own meaning,
the place of stress is on the prefix, e. g. ^anti-capitalist, \non-Party,
^ex-minister, ■ W ice-president, ^ultra-fashionable,

4. In prefixal verbs which are distinguished from similarly
spelt nouns and adjectives, the place of stress is on the second
syllable, nouns and adjectives have their stress on the initial syl-
}al>le, e.g.

verb noun adjective

to compound — 'compound

to in'crease I increase —

¹ Gimson A. C. Op. cit.

5. Suffixes: -esce, -esque, -ate, -ize, -fy, -ette, -ique, -ее, -eer,
-ade have the place of stress on the preceding syllable or en them­
selves, e.g. [picturesque, \Cigairette, technique, \re\e\ree, \рШпеег,
\tnarVnade, fluaWfy, _tspecia4ize, dictate.

6. Suffixes: -ical, -ic, -ion, -ity, -ian, -dent, -ieticy, -eous,
-ual, -uous, -ety, -itous, -ive, -ative (-Hive), -itude, -ident, -inal,
-ital, -wards have the place of stress on the preceding syllable,
e.g. economic, grammatical, position, majority, ^special, etc.

7. In words of four or more syllables the place of stress is'on
the antepenultimate syllable (third from the end), e.g. Emergency _f
caHamity, historical.

In compound words the first element is stressed when:

1. compounds are written as one word, e. g. lappletree, ^bedroom?
^caretaker, 'watchdog, ^downcast;

2. nouns are compounded of a verb and an adverb, e. g. a ' pick­
up, a ^make-up;

3. nouns in the possessive case are followed by another noun»
e. g. a \doWs house, Hady's maid.

In compound words the second element is stressed when:

1. food items have the first element which is of a material
used in manufacturing the whole, e. g. apple Hart',

2. names of roads, parks and squares are implied, e. g. CaUhe-
dral iRoad, Park Wace (but CaHhedral street);

3. parts of the house and other buildings are implied, e.g.
front idoor, kitchen ^window;

4. adjectives with past participles characterizing'personsi e.g..
thick-skinned, cold-blooded (but \downcast);

5. compound nouns ending in -er or -ing are followed by an¹
adverb, e.g. passer iby, summing 'кр.

Two equal stresses are observed: (a) in composite verbs, e.g* to igive \up, to \come If«;

(b) in numerals from 13 to 19, e.g. \six4een, ififHeen. The semantic factor is observed in compounds:

(a) when compound nouns denote a single idea, e. g. ^blacksmith
(кузнец), ^walking stick (палка, трость); \drawing room (гости­
ная);

(b) when the first element of the compound is most important
e. g. \birthday (день рождения), \darning needle (штопальная игла;
Am. стрекоза);

(c) when the first element of the compound is contrasted with
some other word, e.g. \flute player (флейтист), not ЫоШ player
(скрипач);

(d) when a compound is very common and frequently used it
may have a single stress, e.g. \midsummer (середина¹-¹ лета); ^mid­
night (полночь).

The rhythmic tendency is very strong in modem English. Due to its influence there are such accentual variants as: capitalist /■toepitehst/, /katprtelist/, hospitable /Urespitebl/, /hesipitebl/, etc..

In sentences words with two equal stresses can be pronounced!

with one single stress Runder the influence of rhythm, e. g. Uhir-Heen, but: Her ^number is Ukirteen ^hundred.

Under the influence of rhythm a shifting of word-stress can be observed in words with secondary stress, e. g.: [qualification — ljust qualification — ^qualification (emphatic variant).

The rhythmic stress affects the stress pattern of a great number of words in the English language. This results in the secondary accent, e. g. refugee, employ^ee, engineer, picturesque, occupation, recommendation, etc.

Under the influence of rhythm compounds of three elements may have a single stress on the second element; e.g. hot iwater bottle грелка, waste ' paper basket корзина для ненужных бумаг (\hoi \water bottle, \waste \paper basket may also occur.).

In everyday speech the following variants of stress patterns can also be observed:

J. stylistically conditioned accentual variants, e. g. territory /jteriib:n/ (full style)—/itentri/ (rapid colloquial style);

p Similar cases can be observed in Russian, e. g. п/А/игёл, which is pronounced in full style, and п/ъ/шёл, pronounced in rapid col­loquial style. Творог /твбрък/, /твлрбк/—both variants are correct. Free accentual variants should not be confused with orthoe-pically incorrect accentuation. According to the data given by Soviet and foreign phoneticians-the most common types of English stress pattern are: in two-syllable words — —, e.g. after —1, e.g. before in three-syllable words —-----, e.g. family — I—, e.g. importance

2. individual, free accentual variants, e.g. hospitable/ ihospitabl/,

itebl/

Questions

1. How is stress defined by different authors? 2. What is stress on the auditory, articulatory and acoustic level? 3. What types of word-stress do you know? 4. To what type of word-stress does the English accentual structure belong? 5. To what type of word-stress does the Russian accentual structure belong? 6. What is the difference between stressed vocalism in English and in Russian? 7. What is the differ­ence between fixed and free type of word-stress? 8. What is the shifting of word-stress? 9. How does stress perform constitutive, distinctive and recognitive functions? 10. How can the stress patterns be represent^ ed graphically? 11. What is the terminology suggested by different authors to distinguish betwen different degrees of word-stress? 12. How is stress represented in written form? 13. How does Gimson mark accentual elements? 14. What factors determine the place and differ­ent degree of word-stress? 16. What rules of word-stress do you know a) for prefixal words, b) for compound words? 16. How does theseman-

tic factor affect the place of word-stress? 17. How does the rhythmic tendency influence word-stress system in modern English? 18. What are the most common types of English stress patterns?

Exercises

*I. Read these compound words with two equal stresses and translate them.

unaided /lAn'eidid] repack /irkipaek/

tmalienable Ллп'еи^пэЫ/ prepaid /'prUpeid/

unaltered /'лп'э:1Ы/ misspell /imis'spel/

unarmed /Uniarad/ misuse /imis'ju:z/

unaspirated /lAn'sespireitid/ misrule /'mis'ru:l/

unclean /'лп'кШп/ misquote /'mis'kwaut/

anticyclonic /lantisai'kkmik/ misplace /'misipleis/

anti-national /isentilnaej9nl/ under-dressed /Undaidrest/

non-payment /'mm! pennant/ underoificer ^Andatofisa/

non-resident /'monirezidsnt/ underpopulated /'d'j
non-stop /inon'stup/ leitid/

ex-minister /leks¹ minis tg/ vice-adrairal /ivais'eedmiral/

reopen /'гк'эирэп/ vice-consul /'vais'konsal/

reorganize /'г1:'э:дэпак/ pre-history /iprh'histan/

ultra-modern /'Иа

*2. Read these compound adjectives with two equal stresses and translate them.

igood-ilooking, ^!old-!fashioned, 'bad-'tempered, labsent-iminded _f fbare-'headed, inome-imade

Note. When a compound adjective has a synonym to its first element, the stress is on the first element:

!oval-shaped=oyal Syellow ish-! ooking=yellowish Jsquare-sha ped=square Igreenish-Iooking=greenish

3. Read these composite verbs with two equal stresses,

'carry 'out выполнять igo 'on продолжать

'come a^!cross встречать 'point 'out указывать

iget 'up вставать 'put ion надевать

'see 'off провожать isit idown садиться

'set lup устанавливать Hake 'off снимать (одежду)
ifall 'out ссориться; выпадать ifall 'back отступать

imake 'up мириться iget 'back возвращаться

'blow 'out взрываться ibring 'forth производить

Ipick 'out выбирать 'fix lup устраивать

*4. Read these compound words with one single stress on the first, most im­portant part of the compound, and translate them.

apple-tree, bystander, daybreak, birthday, sheep dog, pillow­case, school-boy, suit-case, time-table, inkpot, hair-do, housewife, eve­rything, fire-place, broadcast, fountain-pen, anyone

Ш

*5. Read these compound nouns with one stress denoting a single idea and translate them.

butterfly, newcomer, butter-fingers, blacksmith, greatcoat, air­plane, bluebottle, butter-boat, butterdish, bookmark

*6. Read these pairs of words. Translate them into Russian, mind the seman­tic importance of word-stress (distinctive and recognitive function).

^blackboard—'black 'board 'overwork—'over 'work 'blackbird—'black 'bird 'yellow-cup—'yellow 'cup 'strongbox—'strong 'box 'tallboy—'tall 'boy

7. Read these pairs of words. Translate them into Russian, mind the impor­
tance of the form-distinctive accenteine.

'abstract—to ab'stract 'desert—to de'sert

'commune—to co'mmune 'forecast—to fore'cast

'compound—to com'pound 'import—to im'port

^conflict—to conflict 'outgo—to out'go

'contest—to con'test 'produce—to pro'duce

8. Translate these words. Mind the position of secondary stress on the first
syllable in the (a) column and on the second syllable in the (b) column.

(a),modification (b) ad,minis'tration

,oma mentation a,f filiation

,qualification assimilation

,represenitation consideration

,archaeo4ogical e,xami'nation

,tempera' mental pro,nunci 'ation

,aristo'cratic an,tago'nistic

,mathematician academician

9. Mark the accentual elements of these words according to Gimson's accen­
tual patterns. Read them.

2-syttable words: female, window, profile, over, under, cotton, table, husband

3-syltabte words: important, excessive, relation, appetite, photog­raph, telephone

4-sytlabte words: unimportant, insufficient, melancholy, caterpil­lar, criticism, capitalize

5'Syttable words: satisfactory, aristocracy, administrative, empi­ricism, consideration, circumlocution

6-sytlabte words: variability, meteorological, autobiographic, identification

7-and 8-syllable words: unreliability, industrialization, impenetra­bility, unilateralism, uninteligibility

10. Read the sentences below to prove the distinctive function of the stress. Translate them into Russian.

1. 'Contrast makes it seem better. 2. 'Export is forbidden.
Contrast Tom with his sister. Ex'port cotton goods.
It's because of 'contrast. These goods the cities ex'port.

It's because they con'trast,

3. This 'forecast was wrong. 4. A iprefix is added.

I like his iforecast. Pre'fix a paragraph to Chap-

ter I.
It's what they forecast. It's a 'prefix.

It's a paragraph they decided to pre'fix.

5. He is a 'suspect. 6. They gave way without " pro-

He is the man we susipect. test.

The 'suspect is here. They decided to pro'test.

We susipect this man. This iprotest was wrong.

Protest against it.

11. Put down the stress marks in the words below. Read them according to the model.

Model: qualification — ljust [qualification (emphatic variant)

centralization, modification, composition, nationalization, orga­nization, anticipation, intercession, overbalance, justification, hos­pitality, satisfactory, sentimentality, impossibility, idiomatic, ar­tificial, unaccountable, fundamental, distribution, representation, characteristic, ornamentation, interrogation, administration

\2. Put down the stress marks in the words below. Tran late them into Rus sian and read according to the stress pattern.

ascertain, acquiesce, grotesque, cigarette, antique, saloon, emplo­yee, career, lemonade, atomic, phonetic, phonological, familiarity, proletarian, beneficial, efficient, aqueous, residual, impetuous, pro­priety, active, relative, gratitude, attitudinal, sagittal, upwards

Control Tasks

*1. Provide these words with necessary stress marks.

;ir-raid, birdcage, coalmine, teapot, washstand, mail-bag, dance-music, grandfather, handwriting, shopkeeper, ladybird, office-boy, waiting-room, dinner-jacket, tape recorder, labour exchange, ground floor, knee-deep, cross-question, flat-footed, shop-window, hot-water-bottle, waste-paper-basket, post-graduate, vice-chancellor, second­hand

*2. Transcribe the words and put down stress marks in these verbs and nouns. Translate them.

absent n —absent v combine n —combine v

compress n~ compress v concert n —concert v

consort n —consort v desert n —desert v

produce n—produce v outlay n —outlay v
infix n —infix v

3. Give examples to show the existence of word and form-distinctive accen-
tcmes in English and in Russian.

4. Give examples of the most common stress patterns in English,
188

5. Give examples to illustrate the rules of word-stress for a) prefixal words;
b) compound words.

6. Give examples to prove the importance of a) the rhythmic tendency and b>
the semantic factor for the system of English word-stress.