rd which is marked by word stress.the accentual structure of the word predetermines the arrangement of stresses In a phrase. At the same time the stress pattern of a phrase is always conditioned by the semantic and syntactical factors.words which usually become stressed in a phrase are notional words. They convey the main idea of ??the phrase, though any word including form words may be marked by sentence stress, if it has certain semantic value in the sentencemon character of word stress and sentence stress is also observed in their rhythmical tendency to alternate stressed arid unstressed syllables and pronounce them at approximately equal intervals.we should like to distinguish the notions of word stress and sentence stress.are first of all different; in their sphere of application as they are applied to different language units: word stress is naturally applied to a word, as a linguistic unit, sentence stress is applied to a phrase., the distinction of the rhythmic structure of a word and a phrase is clearly observed in the cases when the word stress in notional words is omitted in a phrase, e. g. don t think he is 'right.when the rhythmic structure of the isolated word does not coincide with that of a phrase, e. g.
Fifteen. Room Fifteen. Fifteen pages.in a speech chain the phonetic structure of a word obtains additional characteristics connected with rhythm, melody, and tempo. Though the sentence stress falls on the syllable marked by the word stress it is not realized in the stressed syllable of an isolated word but in a word within speech continuum. Since the spheres of word stress and sentence stress fall apart their functions are actually different. Sentence stress organizes a sentence into a linguistic unit, helps to form its rhythmic and intonation pattern, performs its distinctive function on the level of a phrase.
2.1 Degrees of stress and rhythmical tendency
There are actually as many: degrees of stress in a word as there are syllables. AC Gimson, for example, shows the distribution of the degrees of stress in the word examination. The opinions of phoneticians differ as to how many degrees of stress are linguistically relevant in, a word. The British linguists usually distinguish three degrees of stress in the word. The primary stress is the strongest, it is marked by number 1 in the, word examination, the secondary stress is the second strongest marked by 2. All the other degrees are termed weak stress. Unstressed syllables are supposed to have weak stress. The American scholars В. Bloch and G. Trager find four contrastive degrees of word stress, namely: loud, reduced loud, medial and weak stresses. Other American linguists also distinguish four degrees of word stress but term them: primary stress, secondary stress, tertiary stress and weak stress. The difference between the secondary and tertiary stresses is very subtle and: seems subjective. The criteria of their difference are very vague. The second pretonic syllables of such words as libe ration ,, recog nition are marked by secondary stress in RP, in General American they are said to have a tertiary stress. In GA a tertiary stress also affects the suffixes - оrу, - ary, - ony of nouns and the suffixes - ate, - ize, - y of verbs, which are considered unstressed in RP e. g. territory, cere, mony, dictio, nary, demonst, rate, orga, nize, simpli, fy. British linguists do not always deny the existence of tertiary stress as a tendency to use a tertiary stress On a post-tonic syllable in RP is also traced. However, the British conception of three degrees of word stress is accepted as the teaching norm.would like to point out right here that the accentual structure of English words is liable to instability due to the different origin of several layers in the Modern English wordstock. In Germanic languages ??the word stress originally fell on the initial syllable or the second syllable, the root syllable in the English words with prefixes. This tendency was called recessive. Most English words of Anglo-Saxon origin as well as the French borrowings (dated back to the 15th century) Arе subjected to this recessive tendency. Unrestricted recessive tendency is observed in the native English Words having no prefix, e. g. mother, daughter, brother, swallow, in assimilated French borrowings, e. g. reason, colour, restaurant. Restricted recessive tendency marks English words with prefixes, e, g, foresee, begin, withdraw, apart. A great number of words of Anglo-Saxon origin are moresyllabic or disyllabic, both notional words and form words. They tend to alternate in the flow of speech, e. g. I don t be lieve he s, right.rhythm of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables gave birth to the rhythmical tendency in the present-day English which caused the appearance of the secondary stress...
