Languages are also differentiated according to the place of word
stress. The traditional classification of languages concerning
place of stress in a word is into those with a fixed stress and
those with a free stress. In languages with a fixed stress the
occurrence of the word stress is limited to a particular syllable
in a polysyllabic word. For instance, in French the stress falls on
the last syllable of the word (if pronounced in isolation), in
Finnish and Czech it is fixed on the first syllable, in Polish on
the one but last syllable. In languages with a free stress its
place is not confined to a specific position in the word. In one
word it may fall on the first syllable, in another on the second
syllable, in the third word — on the last syllable, etc. The free
placement of stress is exemplified in the English and Russian
languages, e.g. English: 'appetite - be'ginning - ba'lloon;
Russian: озеро - погода - молоко.
The word stress in English as well as in Russian is not only free
but it may also be shifting, performing the semantic function of
differentiating lexical units, parts of speech, grammatical forms.
In English word stress is used as a means of word-building; in
Russian it marks both word-building and word formation, e.g.
'contrast — con'trast; 'habit — habitual 'music — mu'sician; дома —
дома; чудная — чудная, воды — воды.
There are actually as many degrees of stress in a word as there are
syllables. 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. A.C. Gimson, for example, shows the distribution of the
degrees of stress in the word examination. The primary stress is
the strongest, it is marked by number 1, 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 B. 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 BrE, in AmE they are
said to have tertiary stress. In AmE tertiary stress also affects
the suffixes -ory, -ary, -ony of nouns and the suffixes –ate, -ize,
-y of verbs, which are considered unstressed in BrE, e.g.
'territory, 'ceremony, 'dictionary; 'demonstrate, 'organize,
'simplify.
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.
3. Functions and tendencies of the Englishstress
Word stress in a language performs three functions.
1. Word stress constitutes a word, it organizes the syllables of a
word into a language unit having a definite accentual structure,
that is a pattern of relationship among the syllables; a word does
not exist without the word stress Thus the word stress performs the
constitutive function. Sound continuum becomes a phrase when it is
divided into units organized by word stress into words.
2. Word stress enables a person to identify a succession of
syllables as a definite accentual pattern of a word. This function
of word stress is known as identificatoiy(у него так в лекции) (or
recognitive). Correct accentuation helps the listener to make the
process of communication easier, whereas the distorted accentual
pattern of words, misplaced word stresses prevent normal
understanding.
3. Word stress alone is capable of differentiating the meaning of
words or their forms, thus performing its distinctive function. The
accentual patterns of words or the degrees of word stress and their
positions form oppositions, e.g. 'import — im'port, 'billow —
below.
The accentual structure of English words is liable to instability
due to the different origin of several layers in the Modern English
word-stock. 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) are 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 monosyllabic or
disyllabic, both notional words and form words. They tend to
alternate in the flow of speech, e.g. 'don't be'lieve he's
'right.
The 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 in the multisyllabic
French borrowings, e.g. revolution, organi'sation, assimilation,
etc. It also explains the placement of primary stress on the third
syllable from the end in three- and four-syllable words, e.g.
'cinema, 'situate, ar'ticulate. The interrelation of both the
recessive and the rhythmical tendencies is traced in the process of
accentual assimilation of the French-borrowed word personal on the
diachronic level, e.g. perso'nal — 'perso'nal — 'personal.
The appearance of the stress on the first syllable is the result of
the recessive tendency and at the same time adaptation to the
rhythmical tendency. The recessive tendency being stronger, the
trisyllabic words like personal gained the only stress on the third
syllable from the end, e.g. 'family, 'library, faculty,
'possible.
The accentual patterns of the words territory, dictionary,
necessary in AmE with the primary stress on the first syllable and
the tertiary stress on the third are other examples illustrating
the correlation of the recessive and rhythmical tendencies.
Nowadays we witness a great number of variations in the accentual
structure of English multisyllabic words as a result of the
interrelation of the tendencies. The stress on the initial syllable
is caused by the diachronical recessive tendency or the stress on
the second syllable under the influence of the strong rhythmical
tendency of the present day, e.g. 'hospitable — ho'spitable,
'distribute — dis'tribute, 'aristocrat — a'ristocrat, 'laryngoscope
— la'ryngoscope.
A third tendency was traced in the instability of the accentual
structure of English word stress, the retentive tendency: a
derivative often retains the stress of the original or parent word,
e.g. 'similar — as'simitate, recom'mend — recommen 'dation.