6.1 Regularity of stresses. Instability of syllable duration

Every utterance has its peaks of prominence – stressed syllables. An important feature of English speech is that it is stress-timed, i.e. prominent syllables occur at approximately equal periods of time. Speed and rhythm vary from phrase to phrase, but within each phrase stresses come at roughly regular intervals of time. Thus English rhythm can be defined as periodicity of stressed syllables.

An English utterance can be split into groups of syllables unified by a stressed syllable, i.e. stress-groups, or rhythmic groups. A rhythmic group is a unit of rhythm; sometimes it is a word, often it is more than a word, because stress does not fall on every word in an utterance. Unstressed syllables never exist by themselves, they are inseparably connected with stressed ones. Thus English rhythm can also be described as alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. Sometimes an utterance consists of stresses syllables only (= consecutive stressing), this peculiarity implies more or less the same length of each stressed syllable in an utterance,

e.g.: ‘Don’t | ‘go | `now. Or I `hate| ‘black| ‘clothes.

When there are unstressed syllables between the stressed ones, it means relatively equal time for each of the stress-groups,

e.g.: ‘Walk down |the ‘path |to the ‘end |of the ca`nal.

I’d ‘like |to ‘give you |a ‘piece of | a`dvice.

Regularity of stresses is achieved due to the instability of syllable duration: when the number of syllables in adjacent groups is not equal, the speed will be higher in the groups having a greater number of syllables. Conversely, the utterance speed is lower in the groups consisting of a smaller number of syllables. In longer groups syllables are compressed and reduced, in smaller groups they are lengthened.

6.2 The influence of rhythm on word stress and utterance stress.

Alongside with regularity of stresses another important feature of English rhythm is alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. This tendency may be accounted mostly for a high frequency of monosyllabic notional words (usually stressed) and intervening form-words (unstressed). The alternation of one stressed and one unstressed syllables occurs but rarely, as in the following example:

e.g.: I ‘can’t |be‘lieve |my`eyes.

The ratio of stressed and unstressed syllables may be one to two, one to three, or even more,

e.g.: They’re ‘leaving |to’morrow |by `air.

The ‘car is |more con‘venient |than the `train.

The cases of consecutive stressing are rare due to the active tendency of alternation. This tendency results in modifying even the “normal” stressing of notional words in an utterance. Stressable words can lose their prominence if the immediately following and preceding words are stressed,

e.g.: She’s a ‘very good `actress. But She’s a ‘good `actress.

The tendency to alternate strong and week syllables accounts for making two syllables prominent in many English polysyllabic words,

e.g.: ,abso’lutely, e ,xami’ nation, ,conver’sation, ,demo’cratic.

In connected speech, however, the stress placement may be conditioned by the influence of rhythm, and one of the stressed can be dropped completely,

e.g.: The ‘girl looked ‘absolutely `lovely.

The conver’sation lasted for ‘two `hours.