Obligatory Tasks and Exercises:

1. Read the following extracts. Comment on each phonetic conception of word-accent concerned with its acoustic nature, degree, position and lin­guistic function in English and in Russian.

Stress may be described as the degree of force with which a sound or syl­lable is uttered. It is essentially a subjective action; a trong force of utterance means energetic action of all the articulating organs: it is usually accompa­nied by a gesture with the hand or head or other parts of the body; it involves a strong «push» from the chest wall and consequently strong force of exhala­tion; this generally gives the objective impression of loudness.

.„It is important not to confuse stress with prominence. The promi­nence of a syllable is its degree of general distinctness, this being the com­bined effort of the tamber, length, stress and (if voiced) intonation of the syllabic sound.

Jones D. An Outline of English Phonetics, Cambr., 1960. P. 245.

Stress is, organically, the result of the force with which the breath is expelled from the lungs: while acoustically it produces the effekt of loud­ness, which is dependent on the size of the sound-vibrations: the bigger the waves, the louder the sound, and the greater the stress, of which we may distinguish infinite degrees or.

Force (stress), like quantity, belongs essentially to the synthesis of sounds. Physically it is synonymous with the of force with which the breath is expelled from the lungs. Every impulse oforce is therefore attended by a distipct muscular sensation. Acoustically it produces the effect known as «loudness», which is dependent on the size of the vibration — waves, which produce the sensation of sound... The comparative force with which the syllables that make up a longer group are uttered is called «stress».

The Indispensible Foundation. A Selection from the writings of Henry Sweet. Lnd., 1971. P. 131.

Stress has been defined as the degree of force with which a sound or syl­lable is uttered.

...usually a sound or syllable which the speaker feels to be important is uttered with relatively greater energy, envolving more vigorous articulation on the part of the speech organs concerned together with strong breath force. The sound or syllable in question is thereby given greater objective promi­nence — it is made to stand out from its neighbours. In every syllable there is one sound — generally, though not always, a vowel — which stands out from its neighbours and forms the point of greatest prominence in the syllable (this sound is called «syllabic»).

Stress is not the same thing as prominence, it is an important element contributing to prominence. Other important factors are length, intonation, and the inherent quality or sonority of individual sounds.

MacCarthy P. English Pronunciation. Cambr., 1952. P. 156.

2. Choose between the variants: a or b

1. The correlation of degrees of prominence of the syllables in a word forms:

1. the stress pattern of words

2. utterance stress

2. A constituent feature of the phonetic structure of a word taken in isolation:

1. utterance stress

2. word stress

3. A constituent feature of the phonetic structure of a spoken sentence:

1. utterance stress

2. word stress

4. Factors that condition the position of word stress are:

1. objective

2. subjective

5. The placement of utterance stress is conditioned by:

1. the orthoepic norm

2. the situational and linguistic context

6. The effect of prominence is achieved by changes in pitch level in … languages.

1. dynamic

2. tonic

7. English word stress is:

1. fixed

2. free

8. English word stress is of … nature.

1. complex

2. dynamic

9. The accentuation tendency to stress he third syllable from the end is …

1. rhythmic

2. recessive

10. What degree of word stress is not linguistically relevant and is not included into the British classification?

1. secondary

2. tertiary