Utterance stress

Words grouped into an utterance are not equally important. Depending on the context or the communication situation some words appear to contribute more information than others. Those that are semantically more impor­tant are made prominent. The special prominence given to one or more words in an utterance is called utterance stress.

Stress is part of the phonetic structure of the word. We always know the place of stress in a word. When the word is made prominent in an utterance, stress becomes a feature of the utterance.

The means, with the help of which the special prominence is achieved and the effect of stress is produced, are variations of pitch, loudness, length and quality. Acoustically, utterance stress is determined by variations of frequency, intensity, duration and formant structure.

The role of each of these acoustic parameters in creating the effect of ut­terance stress has been studied experimentally by a number of phoneticians in this country and abroad. It appears that frequency is more effi­cient in determining stresses in an utterance than intensity. Duration also appears to play a greater role than intensity.

As a rule the effect of utterance stress is created not by a single acoustic parameter but by a certain interaction of different parameters.

The subsystem of utterance stress in English includes three basic functio­nal types: nuclear stress, non-nuclear full stress and partial stress.

The main difference between these three types of stress is the difference in how the syllables that bear them are marked. The nuclear syllable is in most cases marked by a kinetic tone and is, therefore, perceived as the most pro­minent. Non-nuclear fully stressed syllables are more often marked by static tones. Both are pitch prominent, both initiate tones. Partially stressed syllab­les are not pitch prominent, they do not initiate tones and their pitch charac­teristics depend on the pitch pattern of the preceding fully stressed syllables.

Each of the above three types of stress has functionally significant degrees depending on the modal—stylistic factors of speech. Thus, stresses in emphatic speech are stronger than those in unemphatic speech.

The distribution of stresses in an utterance depends on several factors. G. Torsuyev points to the following factors: semantic, grammatical and rhythmical.

The crucial factor in determining the location, type and degree of stress in an utterance is the semantic factor, i.e. the meaning which the utterance is intended to convey. The semantic centre of the utterance is singled out by the nuclear stress (or primary accent). This type of stress is opposed to the non-nuclear stresses by its greatest semantic importance. In their turn non-nuclear full stresses signal greater semantic value of the words than partial stresses.

Notional words, due to their function in the language, are usually stressed in an utterance. Form words are likely to be unstressed. But in special conditions, when they are semantically important, form words may be­come stressed, e.g. "It is 'not at 'all interesting". - "It is interesting". On the other hand notional words, if the meaning requires, may become unstressed, e.g.

The grammatical structure of the utterance also determines its accentual structure. For instance, the inverted word order requires stress on the auxiliary verb.

The distribution of stresses in an utterance is also affected by the rhyth­mical laws of the English language. Due to the rhythmical organization of the utterance notional words may be unstressed, and form words, on the contrary, may be stressed.

The semantic, grammatical and rhythmical factors are closely connected with one another, the semantic factor being the main one.

Stresses in an utterance fulfill the same three functions as other compo­nents of prosody - constitutive, distinctive and identificatory. In their con­stitutive function stresses form the utterance by integrating words. They form the accentual structure of the utterance, which is the basis of its rhythm and part of its prosodic structure. While integrating words into utterances, stresses of different hierarchy segment the speech continuum into rhythmic (accentual) units, intonation groups and utterances, and delimit them one from another thus carrying out the segmentative and delimitative functions. The distinctive function of stresses manifests itself in differentiating utterances as to their meaning, which is conditioned by the position and type of stress. E.g. Don't you 'find it /difficult" and Don't /you find it difficult?" The opposition of degrees of utterance stress carries out a modal—stylistic function.

In its identificatory function utterance stress provides a basis for the hearer's identification of the important parts of the utterance and for his understanding of the content.