Functions of syllable

1. Constitutive function. The syllable forms language units of greater magnitude, that is words, morphemes, and utterances.

2. Distinctive function. The syllable is characterized by its ability to differentiate words and wors-forms. Word stress

I. The stress in the isolated words is termed as word stress. The stress in the connected speech is turned as a sentence stress.

The auditory impression of word stress is that of prominence and on the auditory level the effect of prominence is produced by a greater degree of loudness, greater length of the stressed syllables some modifications in its pitch and quality.

On the acoustic level the effect of prominence is achieved by following acoustic parameters.

• intensity;

• duration;

• frequency (fundamental);

• formed structure.

Word stress (WS) is the singling out of one or more syllables in a word which is accompanied by the change of the force of utterance, pitch of the voice, qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the sound, which is usually a vowel.

In different languages one of the factors constituting the word stress is usually more significant then the others.

1. Dynamic or force stress – if special prominence in a stressed syllable or syllables is achieved by the greater force of articulation, which results in greater loudness on the auditory level and greater intensity on the acoustic level. English, German, French, Russian and all European languages have this stress.

2. Musical or tonic. If special prominence in a stressed syllable is mainly achieved through the change of pitch or musical tone. It is observed in the oriental languages. The meaning of the words in these languages depends on the pitch levels of these syllables. In Scandinavian languages the stress is both dynamic and musical

3. Quantitative. If special prominence in the stressed syllables is achieved through the changes in the quantity of the vowels which are longer in the stressed syllables than in unstressed ones. Ukrainian and Russian WS is considered to be mainly quantitative. In English the quantitative component of word stress is not very important because of the non-reduced vowels in the unstressed syllables, which sometimes occur in English words.

4. Qualitative type of stress is achieved through the changes on the quality of the vowel under stress. It is distinguished because in many languages the quality of vowels in stressed syllables differs greatly of the quality of vowels in unstressed syllables.

English word stress is of a complex nature

• dynamic

• quantitative

• qualitative

Ukrainian word stress is considered to be primarily quantitative and secondary qualitative and dynamic.

II The opinions of the phoneticians differ as to how many degrees of stress are linguistically relevant in word. They are linguistically relevant because they help to differentiate the meanings of English words.

1. The British linguists (Johns and Kindong) and Russian (Vassiliev) consider that there are 3 degrees of word stress in English

• primary or strong

• secondary or partial

• weak unstressed syllables

2. American linguists (Glisson, Hill) distinguish 4 degrees of word stress:

• primary

• secondary tertiary

• weak

Secondary stress occurs before the primary stress while tertiary stress occurs after the primary stress. The difference between secondary and tertiary stress is very subtle and subjective. The criteria is very vague. In General American a tertiary stress effects suffixes of nouns: -ary, -ory, -ony and suffixes of verbs : -ate, -ize, -y which are considered unstressed in Received Pronunciation.

'Terriֽtory, 'dictioֽnary, 'orgaֽnize

Tertiary word stress can be taken for a variant of the secondary word stress because there are no words in English of which depend on whether they have secondary or tertiary stress. That is why the stress patterns of English words can be defined as 3 degrees of stress: primary, secondary, weak.

The British conception of 3 degrees is accepted as a teaching law. In Russian and Ukrainian word stressed system there are only 2 degrees – primary and weak.

III. Stress can be fixed and free . In languages with the fixed stress the place of stress is limited to a particular syllable in a multi syllable word. In Finnish, Czech and Slovak the stress always falls on the first syllable. In Italian, Welsh it is on the one but last syllable. In French and Turkish the stress falls on the last syllable.

In languages with a free stress its place is not confined to a specific position in a word.

In English Russian Ukrainian word stress is free. That is it may fall on any syllable in a word.

Besides the word stress in the English, Ukrainian and Russian is not only free but it’s also shifting and it performs the semantic function of differentiating lexical units , parts of speech and grammatical forms:

'Contrast - con'trast

Though English stress is free there are certain factors or tendencies that determine the place and different degree of word stress.

Vassiliev describes them as follows:

• recessive tendency

• rhythmic tendency

• retentive tendency

• semantic factor

1. According to the recessive tendency stress falls on the first syllable which is generally the root syllable . It can be of 2 subtypes:

Unstriked – is observed in the native English words and in the assimilated French borrowings having no prefix. ('mother, 'daughter, 'colour, 'restaurant).

Restricted – is characterized by placing the word accent on the root of the word if this word has a prefix which has lost its meaning (be'come, be'gin, a'way)

2. Rhythmical tendency results in alternating stressed and unstressed syllables. It caused the appearance of the secondary stress in multy-syllabic words

ֽOrgani'zation

ֽRevo'lution

According to the rhythmical tendency primary stress is on the third syllable from the end in 3 and 4 syllable words.

'Cinema

'Situate