English prosody

Suprasegmental features

1. Accentuation in short strings

In sequences of short strings of connected speech, some words are emphasised more than other words.

The reasons for this are what we might call natural sentence stress or rhythm.

Another reason involve semantic criteria - some words are more important than others in terms of the meaning that is being communicated.

Another reason relate to the context or the circumstances of the speech act or communication.

Another reason may be the emotional state of the speakers.

Obviously, to communicate effectively, a speaker must know which words in the string to accentuate, apart from knowing how each syllable is accentuated.

A knowledge of word stress does not lead automatically to a knowledge of sentence accentuation.

Whereas as an isolated element in the utterance a word may be accentuated in a specific way, when that word is part of a string, the same speaker may give that word a different accentuation pattern.

In general, content words, i.e. semantically-loaded words, e.g. nouns, main verbs, adjectives and adverbs, are likely to be accented in an utterance.

On the other hand, structural words, e.g. auxiliary verbs, personal / reflexive / relative pronouns, prepositions, articles, possessive adjectives and conjunctions, are likely to be unaccented.

However, some structural words are frequently accented, e.g. demonsatrative and possessive pronouns, interrogative words, negative and anomalous verbs, modal verbs.

However, when dealing with the accentuation of strings, one can never be prescriptive but only descriptive.

You can never say that a certain utterance is always accentuated in a certain way, i.e. being prescriptive.

You can only say that when a specific utterance was spoken by a specific speaker, it was accentuated in a certain way.

In fact, no two utterances are ever accentuated exactly in the same way.

Thus, the study of accentuation is a descriptive study, not prescriptive.

There are certain variables that make this true.

The same utterance may be uttered by different speakers.

The same utterance may be uttered by the same speaker but in a different context.

Another factor would be the emotional state of the speaker, which can make accentuation patterns vary even within the same utterance.

So, one can never be dogmatic.

Nevertheless, there are some criteria that we can use to study accentuation patterns in general terms.

One of the aspects we can study is the direction of pitch movement, which can be analysed once we have already identified the primary accents contained within the uttered string.

Another aspect is the range of pitch movement on the primary accented syllable, i.e. narrow band or wide band.

So, the first task in any analysis is to identify the primary accented syllable, and then to determine the direction and range of the pitch movement.

2. Rhythm

Accentuation in short strings depends on the natural rhythm of the language, and this leads to the study of intonation (changes of pitch range and direction).

The second aspect in any analysis is the natural rhythm of the language and the modifications that occur during the utterance.

English is what is called a stress-timed language, which means that the natural segmentation of the elements depends on the differentiated changes of air pressure in the vocal tract.

Stressed syllables will always be separated by unstressed or unaccented syllables.

Other languages can be syllable-timed.

In syllable-timed languages, each syllable is produced on one chest pulse, so that each syllable is of equal duration and equal stress.

It is sometimes difficult for syllable-timed language (e.g. Castilian) speakers to get used to stress-timed language (e.g. English) speakers.

Pitch direction

Pitch direction in strings in strings is indicated using diacritics which signal pitch direction on primary-accented syllables.

List of diacritics for pitch direction in strings

The following diachritics mark pitch direction on primary accented syllables.

[ ] rising pitch movement

[ ] falling pitch movement

[ ] falling-rising pitch movement

e.g.

'Do |	you |	'al |	ways |	'have |	to |	'speak |	with |	your |	'mouth |	full?
+	-	+	-	+	-	+	-	-	+	+

By means of chest pulses, we generate bursts of increased air pressure in the vocal tract, viz.

chest pulse > relaxation > chest pulse > relaxation > chest pulse > relaxation > ...

These chest pulses are used to produce syllables.

Each syllable has approximately equal duration which affects the periodicity of the utterance, that is, the rhythm.

In an anatomical sense, a syllable-timed rhythm is a more natural rhythm than a stress-timed rhythm.

There is an alternative type of pulse, which we call "stress pulse."

Stress pulses are a method for controlling air pressure by means of which some syllables are given more emphasis than others, such that the intervening syllables, i.e. those between the stressed ones, are of reduced duration and usually centralised.

In a sense, this is a mental organisation of stress patterns - a mentally-controlled activity.

In English, there are many ways of accentuating sentences.

e.g.

'Don't |	'go |	there |	un |	til |	'Sa |	tur |	day |	mor |	ning
+	+	-	-	-	+	-	-	+	-
pulse	pulse				pulse			pulse
stress	stress				stress			stress

There is reduced compression between stressed syllables.

Rhythm is the perceived regularity of prominent units in speech.

Rhythm is a question of perception.

In English there is a real anarchy in stress.

Some rules of accentuation

1. Sequence of three content words

In a sequence of three content words, the second will lose its stress if not more than 2 syllables.

e.g.

a |	'nice |	old |	man
-	+	-	+

I	'can't	speak	Chi	nese
-	+	-	-	+

If the second word is longer than two syllables, it will retain its stress

a 'nice 'comfortable chair

- + + - - +

I 'can't speak Chinese

- + - - +

I 'can't trans'late Chinese

- + - + - + (The most regular pattern you can expect in English.)

2. Phrasal verbs

There are two main divisions:

Transitive - It can take an object.

a.Transpositional

b.Non-transpositional

Intransitive - It can't take an object.

a. Transitive transpositional phrasal verbs

Transitive phrasal verbs in a sentence which includes a direct object (when we speak) will adopt different accentuation patterns according to whether the particle of the phrasal verb is transposed or not, and if it is, according to whether the direct object is a full noun or a pronoun. If it is a pronoun, it has to be transposed to the end of the sentence.

e.g. 'turn off the tap

+ - - +

'turn the tap off

+ - + -

'turn it off

+ - +

b. Intransitive phrasal verbs

In intransitive phrasal verbs, both the verb stem and the particle are normally stressed.

e.g. 'come in

+ +

'go a way

+ - +

However, if the verb stem is preceded by another stressed word, then the verb stem can lose its stress.

e.g. You 'can't come in

- + - +

'Wake up // He 'soon woke up

+ + - + - +

Alternatively, if we put a stressed word at the end of the sentence, this will alter the accentuation pattern on the verb stem and particle.

e.g. You can 'come in now

- - + - +

He 'woke up early

- + - + -

3. Double-accented compound (Depending on the context, double- accented compounds can undergo a variation in the accentuation pattern, depending on the stress status of words close to them in the utterance.)

e.g. 'weekend

'during the weekend

+ - - - +

a 'weekend party

- + - + -

Some words may also change according to usage.

e.g. on 'Friday after,noon (noun)|

+ + - - - + | semantic usage

an 'afternoon concert (adj)|

- + - - + - |

He 'often interrupted

- + - - - + -

An 'interrupted visit

- + - - - + -

be + complement:

e.g. she is 'good-looking

- - + + - (the complement is double-accented)

She's 'very sweet-tempered

- + - - + - (it varies with the intensifier)

If you use the adjective attributely, i.e. you place it next to a noun, then it loses its primary accent.

e.g. a 'good-looking girl

- + - - +

Alternatively, if you use the double-accented adjective predicatively, i.e. if it is part of the predicate, then it loses its secondary accent.

e.g. I 'find her good-looking

- + - - + -

4. Place names:

In 'Hyde Park Corner

- + - + -

On 'Piccadilly Circus

- + - - - + -

'opposite Hyde Park

+ - - - +

she 'lives near Piccadilly

- + - - - + -

5. Single-accented compounds (There are some single-accented words which may undergo rhythmical modifications in certain contexts.)

e.g. excess

He 'eats in excess

Did you pay 'excess luggage?

hello

He said hello

6. Foreign words

e.g. 'Japanese as an adjective:

but:

a 'Japanese picture

a 'Japanese lesson

Accentuation and usage

Accentuation patterns in general depends on usage. The objective of the communication can dictate certain accentuation patterns. For example, in the area of announcements there are fairly well established accentuation patterns: public address, railway station, airport, sports stadium.

In announcements, the tendency is for the topic noun to be stressed and not the following content word.

e.g. There are 'no trains today.

The same happens in simple statements:

e.g. I'm doing English this year.

The phone's ringing.

As for the usage of names of places, the constant reference establishes the accentuation pattern:

e.g.

Oxford Street

Regent Street

'Oxford Circus

'Regent's Park

Victoria Street

Vic'toria Station

EMPHASIS AND CONTRAST

Accentuation patterns can be used to signal emphassis or contrast. The first category is when structural words are accented for emphasis:

e.g. You were 'driving fast (non-emphatic)

You were driving fast (emphatic)

'Come in (non-emphatic)

Do come in (emphatic)

Explicit contrast is when two ideas are juxtaposed by contrast.

e.g. I didn't 'say Oxford Street, I 'said Oxford Road.

In this case, the elements or the concepts which are explicitly contrasted -street and road- attract the primary accent, whereas the rest of the elements lose their accents or are left unaccented.