The accentual tendencies in English. Basic word stress patterns in English
Dynamic-tonic-quantitative-qualitive; fixed-free
Accentual tendencies:
1. recessive - 1st(unrestricted) and 2nd(restricted) syllables in germanic languages are stressed (eng words+french until 15th)
2. retentive - the borrowed word retains its stress
3. rhythmical – many monosyllabic words, some are stressed, some -not, causes the appearance of secondary stress in polysyllabic words; hystorically rhythmical (3rd from the end) and genuinely rhythmical (second before main)
4. semantic - the most important element of the word is stressed; meaningful prefixes un-, mis-, ex-, udner-
Speech prosody. Its perceptible qualities and acoustic properties
Prosody includes constant non-segmental characteristics of speech: variations in the pitch, loudness, tempo and timber of the voice. Prosody is a synonym to intonation - a study of principles and means of division of speech and connection of divided parts such as melody, dynamics, tempo and pausation. Prosody is a broader notion than intonation as it deals with various sound sequences (from syllables to texts), while intonation is applied to speech units no longer than syntagmas.
Perceptible qualities:
1. speech melody (rising and falling of the basic tone)
2. sentence stress (distributing strong and weak stresses in an utterance)
3. tempo (relative acceleration and deceleration of speech)
4. rhythm (regular occurance of pattern in time)
5. timbre (tone quality, tone colour)
acoustic properties:
1. frequency (=pitch) - hz, cycles/sec
2. intensity (=loudness) - db
3. duration (=length) – msec
Prosody and intonation. Utterance prosody and its linguistic functions
Prosody includes constant non-segmental characteristics of speech: variations in the pitch, loudness, tempo and timber of the voice. Prosody is a synonym to intonation - a study of principles and means of division of speech and connection of divided parts such as melody, dynamics, tempo and pausation. Prosody is a broader notion than intonation as it deals with various sound sequences (from syllables to texts), while intonation is applied to speech units no longer than syntagmas.
Functions:
1. constitutive (structural) - constitutes separate units into prosodic entities; includes integrative and delimitative functions.
2. stylistic - each functional style and each function of speech has its own characteristics in melody, tempo, loudness, voice quality, pause. official style - frequent use of the gradually descending scale, greater degree of loudness, slower tempo of speech; colloquial style - lowered degree of loudness, great number of hesitation pauses.
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3. aesthetic - general impression from the person's speech.
4. social - gives information about gender, age, education, place of living.
The components (subsystems) of utterance prosody and units of its analysis
I. Pitch (=speech melody) is present in every word and in the whole sentence, because it serves to delimit sentences into sense groups, or intonation groups.
1) pitch level of the whole utterance is determined by the pitch of its highest-pitched syllable. It shows the degree of semantic importance the speaker attaches to the utterance and also the speaker's attitude and emotions.
2) pitch range of the utterance is the interval between its highest pitched syllable and its lowest pitched one. According to circumstances the speaker may widen or narrow the pitch range to express emphasis or the speaker's attitudes and emotions.
3) rate of pitch variations may be different dependant on the time, during which these variations take place, and on the range of the variations. When the rate of the fall is fast, the falling tone sounds more categoric and definite than when the rate of the fall is slow.
4) tone can be static and kinetic, can have different pitch levels (low, mid, high)
5) direction of pitch movement - kinetic tones can be simple/unidirectional (\, /) and complex/bidirectional (\/, /\, /\/).
II. Rhythm. An essential feature of connected speech is that the peaks of prominence (the stressed syllables) are inseparably connected with non-prominent syllables (the unstressed ones). The latter are attached to the stressed syllables, they never exist by themselves. The notion of rhythm implies a certain periodicity of phonological events. Such a periodicity is a peculiarity of English. English speech is rhythmic => the units of the rhythmic organization of an utterance are stress-groups, which may be as well called rhythmic groups.
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