H isto rically, the recessiv e tendency co ntributed to preserv e
stress in certain p o sitio ns o f native w ord derivatives o f three or
fo u r syllables, e. g.
Ъ еа^у
-
Tieautiful - ЪеаиШиЦу - ЪеаиИ-
fulness, love - lovely - loveliness - loving.
T hus, to stress the root syllable o f a w ord is an ancien t ten
dency w hich cam e from the so ca lled by O. Jesp ersen «value-
stressing», i.e. to stress th at p art o f th e w o rd w hich w as o f great
est value to th e speak er and w hich th erefo re h e w anted the h earers
to n o tic e 1. T his ten d ency has b ecom e h ab itu al in G erm anic lan
guages and led to other con sequences o f interest. In E ng lish the
distinction betw een stressed and u nstressed syllables is m o re dis
tinct than in French and U zbek, in w hich nativ e w ords rec e iv e a
stress on the final syllable. E ng lish b o rro w ed a large n u m b er of
L atin and F ren ch w ords durin g the M id d le E n glish p erio d b u t the
adaptation o f these w ords to native accen tu al p atterns was a com
plicated process w hich co ntin u ed o ver several centuries. M any
French w ords, stressed on the final syllable, are now stressed on
the first sy llable, though this is o ften ascrib ed to the inability o f
the E nglish p eo p le to im itate the F ren ch accentuation. G radually
m ore and m o re F ren ch w ords h ad th eir accent shifted acco rding to
the E nglish p ro so d ic rules: valu e-stressin g , con trast o f accents
and rh yth m 2.
T here w ere a few w ords w hich received stress on the final
syllable, but it w as confined to verbs w ith p refix es, such as
arise,
believe, forget, understand.
Som e L atin and F ren ch verb s w ith
prefixes reta in e d stress on the last syllable acco rding to this ac
centual p attern, e. g.
ad'just, com'mit, con’nected, im’ply,
suffice, sur'vive.
T his ad ap tatio n o f fo reig n w ords to the native
stress rules is called an
accentual assimilation
(V .A . V assilyev).
In term s o f lan g u ag e contacts, this type o f phonetic interference
m ay be called an
accentual interference
b etw een Ianguages. T he
m ajority o f d isy llab ic and trisy llabic F ren ch w ords b o rro w ed by
E nglish have recessiv e accent as a resu lt o f this accentual in te r
ference. W e h av e already m ention ed the im p ortan ce o f the rh y th
m ic facto r in E n g lish w ord stress.
R hythm m eans th e reg u lar o ccurran ce o f som e p h o n etic fea
tures. A ccord ing to rh ythm ic structure, lan g u ag es m ay b e o f tw o
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