Ministry of higher and secondary specialized

1.2. Place of word stress in English (Free and fixed stress)

As A.Abduazizov said that Languages can differ with word stress placem ent and degrees of it. A ccording to the position of stress in words and word

forms, word accent m ay be free (or shifting) and fixed (or constant). As to A.C. Gimson: «The accentual pattern of English words is fixed, in the sense that the m ain accent always falls on a particular syllable of any given word, but free in the sense that the main accent is not tied to any particular situation in the chain of
syllable, constituting a word, as it is in som e languages»1. Thus,
word accent in English may be regarded free if we take all words
in which any syllable can receive stress. E. g. 'water, 'common
(the first syllable is stressed), be'come, mis'spell (the second syllable is stressed), after'noon (the third syllable is stressed while the first receives secondary and the second receives the tertiary stress), 'all-'round (both syllables are stressed), represen ’tation (the fourth syllable is stressed) etc. If we take a separate word, it is noticeable that stress replacem ent in it is fixed and cannot be shifted to any other syllable of a m onosyllabic, disyllabic and polysyllabic word. E. g. albout,
a'bility, 'up-to-date, uni'versal, con'tain etc. Word-stress in Russian is both free and shifting as it falls on any syllable of words and word form s and m ay shift from one syllable to another in different gram m atical form s o f words. E. g. голова, голову, письмо, пи'сьм а, высокий, высок, вы 'ш е, ноги,
ноги'. In Uzbek word stress is free as it m ay fall on any syllable. E.
g. deraza «a window», rels «rails», qonun «a law», sekretar «secretary» etc. Word stress in Uzbek has becom e free as a result of language contacts which is observed in the cited exam ples. In the Turkic languages, particularly in Uzbek,
word stress usually falls on the final syllable. Turkic languages are regarded as agglutinative, i.e. word forms may take from one to six suffixes. For
example, the word bola «a child» may have four suffixes as bolalar-i-miz-ga «for our children», in the word form ishqi-boz-li-gimiz-dan «as we like» there are six different suffixes. In these examples word stress tends to be at the end of the word form and very often the last syllable receives stress.
Many languages have dominant initial or final syllable
stress. Turkic languages have heavy syllables in word final position and in order to combine such «heavy» syllables (or suffixes) into a single word form the final stress is very important. Besides, there is historical evidence that long vowels, which had been stressed, was being lost in Uzbek and short vowels began to be
used in all words. As a result of this historical change, final stress
was generalized in all words of Turkic origin. As to borrowings
from other Ianguages, they brought foreign accentual patterns and
prosodic rules which influenced to make the placement of word
stress in Uzbek free.
Different authors distinguish from three to five degrees) of
word stress in English. The British linguists distinguish three degrees of word stress: prim ary O, secondary (,) and weak (unstressed)1. Most American linguists distinguish four degrees of word stress in English: primary O , secondary ( J , tertiary О and weak (v)2 but the terms and marks used to indicate the degrees of word stress are also different. For example, they use the terms main, lowered main, medium and weak degrees of stress and also full stress3, half stress, weak stress distinguishing three degrees4. Probably, it is possible to differentiate more than three degrees of word stress in English polysyllabic words. Though listeners cannot perceive five or more degrees of word stress (as D.
Jones and A.C. Gimson have admitted them), theoretically such
degrees of stress may be important only for some polysyllabic
words. Practically the human ear can distinguish three degrees of
stress.
N. Chomsky and M. Halle distinguish five degrees of word
stress in EngUsh and emphasize «... that the major stress contours
are determined by the operation of a transformation cycle»1. By
the latter cycle they mean both the placement of main stress and
stress contours (secondary, tertiary, fourthiary, weak) within initial medial and final positions of words and vowel reduction.
Transformational-generative phonology attempts to distinguish at
least four and five or more degrees of stress and to suggest the
predictable stress placement rules. Their description is in sharp
disagreement with the statements in most textbooks, which, like,
D. Jones have been teaching that, generally speaking, there are no
rules determining, which syllable or syllables of polysyllabic
English words bear the stress2. They regard that the location of
the stress can be determined automatically, for example, the location of primary stress in a word is closely correlated with the distribution of tense (long vowels and diphthongs) vowels. The other degrees of stress may depend on the distribution of lax (short) vowels. Thus, EngUsh has a complex system of stress contours.
For the description of word stress in English three degrees of
stress (primary, secondary and weak) may be sufficient which are
both theoretically and practically important.
Three degrees of word stress may be distinguished in Russian: main (основное /'/), accessory (побочное /,/) and weak (unstressed). E.g. водонепроницаемый, аэронавигация, стометровый, драмкружок3.
We distinguish four degrees of word stress in Uzbek: primary /'/ secondary /,/ tertiary /7 and weak, e. g. uylarimizda «at
our house», kutubxona «library», studentlar «students» etc. Recent experimental investigation proves the correctness of this idea as to Uzbek4.
The placement and degrees of word stress in Uzbek depend
on the syllabic structure of words. Different degrees of word
stress may fall on any syllable o f a polysyllabic word. Prim ary stress cannot be shifted from one syllable to another in m ost E nglish words o f G erm anic origin though som e suffixes may be added (e. g. heauty, teau tifu l, teau ti-fu ln ess, ’beautifully). On the contrary, in U zbek w ord stress can be shifted from syllable to syllable, e. g. ko'z «eye», ko'zi «his (or her) eye», ko'zlar
«eyes», ko'zlarga «to eyes», ko'zlarimizga «to our eyes». Som e linguists do not distinguish word stress from sentence stress, as a result of which they distinguish four or m ore degrees of stress interdependent w ith tone. For example, R. Kingdon suggested the following four degrees of stress: 1) full (kinetic) stress; 2) full static (atonic) high level stress; 3) partial static (low-level) stress
and 4) absence o f stress1. P. Ladefoged distinguishes stress tonic
accent when he speaks o f the com bination of stress, intonation
and vowel reduction. He notices the existence of tonic accent in
the words explain, exploit (in the second syllable), exploitation,
explanation (in the third syllable). As to stress placem ent which
coincides with the position of tonic accent and in the word exploitation, explanation the first and third syllables are stressed2. A lthough both authors give four levels o f stress in English which are possible in polysyllabic words but do not explain the relationship betw een stress and pitch.
According to its placement in a word, stress can be fixed and free. In languages with a fixed stress, the position of the word stress is always the same. It is restricted to a particular syllable in a multisyllabic word. For example, in French word stress is normally fixed on the last syllable of the word, in Finnish and Czech it falls on the first syllable, in Polish it falls on the last but one syllable.
In languages with a free stress, its location is not confined to a specific position. It can fall on any syllable of the word. The number of languages with free word stress is relatively small: English, Russian, Italian, Greek, Spanish and some others.
In English (as well as in Russian) the word stress is not only free, but it is also shifting, which means that it can change its position in different forms of the word and its derivatives ('music – mu'sician). To define the position of word stress in each individual word it is necessary to take into account a number of factors:
− phonological structure of the syllables;
− the number of syllables in the word;
− morphological factor (whether the word is simple, complex or
compound);
− the part of speech the word belongs to (noun, verb, adjective, etc.).
1) The phonological structure of the syllable is related to the status of a particular syllable in terms of the degree of sonority. The sounds that possess a greater degree of sonority contribute to the greater prominence of the syllable. A syllable is considered to be strong when it contains a long vowel or a diphthong or a short vowel followed by two consonants. For example, in English verbs the stress falls on the last syllable if it is strong and on the last but one syllable if the last one is weak (aʹrrive - deʹvelop).
2) The number of syllables in a word influences the number of stresses and to a certain extent the position of stress. There are stress patterns typical of two-syllable words, three-syllable words and so on. In multi-syllable words there appears secondary stress.
3) Morphological factor shows that in complex words the placement
of stress depends on the type of suffix. Suffixes are divided into those
which do not affect the stress placement in the stem (stress-neutral), those
which influences stress in the stem (stress-fixing) and those which carry
stress themselves (stress attracting).
In the words with stress-neutral suffixes the stress remains on the same syllable in the stem (reʹfuse - reʹfusal, ʹcomfort - ʹcomfortable). This group of suffixes includes: -al, -able, -en, -ful, -ing, -ish, -less, -ness, -ly, - ment, and others. Stress-fixing suffixes (-ion, -ic, -ity, -ial, -ive) determine the placement of stress on a particular syllable of the stem and attracts stress to the syllable that precedes them, i.e. the last syllable of the stem (ʹcurious - curiʹosity). Stress attracting suffixes include such suffixes as - ade, -eer, -ee, -esque, -ette -ain (ˏrefuʹgee, ˏcigaʹrette). But in some cases this factor is to be considered together with another one – the number of syllable in a word. For example, the verbal suffix -ate is stress attracting in the words containing two syllables (migʹrate), and in words containing more than two syllables it is stress-fixing: it fixes the stress on the third syllable from the end (comʹmunicate).
Compound nouns contain more than one root or more than one
word, but they function as one word. The rules of word stress in such
words will be presented later in the text.
4) The fourth factor to be considered is the grammatical category the word belongs to. The influence of this factor can be illustrated by the pairs
of words, in which adjectives and nouns are contrasted to verbs: ʹinsult – to
inʹsult, ʹrecord – to reʹcord, ʹpresent – to preʹsent.
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.
Somewhat more than half of the languages in our sample have fixed stress. By this we mean that stress is located on the same syllable in each word. The location is independent of the weight (usually quantity) of the syllables in the word and is determined with reference to a word edge only. Among the languages with fixed stress, we distinguish six different types. Thus, Map 14A shows the seven values given in the feature-value box:

A fairly large number of languages have initial stress. An example is Cahuilla (Uto-Aztecan; California): ˈñaʔaˌčeh ‘sit down’, ˈneñukum ‘female cousins’.

A few languages have stress on the second syllable. An example is Mapudungun (Araucanian; Chile and Argentina): t̪iˈpanto ‘year’, eˈlumuˌyu ‘give us’.Only one language in our sample, Winnebago (Siouan; Illinois), exhibits stress on the third syllable: hochiˈchinik ‘boy’, waghiˈghi ‘ball’ (see also Hayes 1995).
An example of a language with antepenultimate stress is Paumarí (Arauan; Amazonas, Brazil): raˈbodiki ‘wide’, oniˈmanari ‘seagull’.
Penultimate stress is again fairly common. A language with this pattern is Djingili (West Barkly; Northern Territory, Australia): biˈaŋga ‘later’, ˌŋuruˈala ‘we all’.
A language that exhibits ultimate stress is Weri (Trans-New Guinea; Morobe, Papua New Guinea): uˌluaˈmit ‘mist’, ˌakuˌneteˈpal ‘times’.
Thus, Stress in English is often said to be “fixed and free”, by which is meant that for each word it is fixed, but that there is no fixed position in the word where it must occur, unlike Czech, Finnish or Hungarian, for instance, where it is invariably on the first syllable of a word, or Polish, where it is (with very few exceptions) on the penultimate. However, the ‘fixed’ part of this statement has to be hedged around with all sorts of caveats. The stress placement on individual words can change over time, and one of the most frequent complaints made by older people about ‘the young’, is that they mispronounce words by putting the stress in the wrong place.
For most of the twentieth century, there was an argument over the placing of the primary stress in controversy: should it be on the first or second syllable? Advocates of initial stress claim that as it comes from the Latin CONTRA and VERSIA, clearly this is the ‘right’ place to put it. Unfortunately, etymology is never a safe argument to use. If we take the series photograph, photography, photographic, photogravure, the primary stress moves progressively later through the word: first, second, third, and fourth syllable (or, starting from the end: antepenultimate, antepenultimate, penultimate, final), and yet they all begin with the Greek-origin prefix photo-.
Stress has been shifting like this for a very long time. Balcony was, until the middle of the 19th century, stressed on the second syllable. Vagary and quandary were shown in dictionaries until well after the 2nd World War as being stressed on the second syllable, although it is difficult to find even very elderly people who don’t smile if you suggest this pronunciation to them. Decade is another word that has changed: from /ˈdekəd/ in the early 20th century to /ˈdekeɪd/ (my pronunciation) and now more and more often /dəˈkeɪd/
The cases of balcony, vagary and quandary suggest that the Germanic tendency to stress initial syllables is working here, but controversy and decade show an opposite movement – perhaps in these instances treating the first syllable as an unstressed prefix. Integral, /ˈɪntəgrəl/ is also moving to /ɪnˈtegrəl/. Likewise preferable and combatant. Other examples, such as contribute, distribute, may indicate that the Germanic pull is stronger than that of the prefix (initial stress is taking over from the traditional 2nd syllable stress), but if that is so, what are we to make of communal, where second syllable stress is increasing in frequency (the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary gives a ratio of 68% to 32% in favour of initial stress for British speakers, but that was in 1990 – the newest edition repeats the figures, although I suspect, on no evidence apart from my own ears, that it is now nearer 50-50).
Many nouns are traditionally distinguished from the identically spelt verb by stressing the two differently. For example contrast (initial stress – noun; final stress – verb). But there are also many cases where there is traditionally no stress difference (e.g. practice/practise, where the spelling does not affect the pronunciation; and dispute – 2nd syllable stress in both noun and verb). These patterns are also changing: the dispute type is joining the contrastive stress group (again 68% to 32% preference for the traditional pattern according to LPD), while the contrastive group is losing the contrast by stressing the first syllable in both noun and verb (e.g. import and export).