Курсовая работа: Some problems of accentual structure in English

impress [‘impres] – [im’pres]

inlay [‘inlei] - [in’lei]

2: The second group where the shifting of the stress which

means the change of the accentual pattern of the word may be or may not be accompanied by the reduction of the vowel in the unstressed vowel, e.g.

transport [‘trænspo:t] – [træns’pot] or [trəns’pot]

3. The largest group of such pairs of words manifests the change of their accentual pattern together with the qualitative reduction of the unstressed vowel, e.g.

combine [ ‘kombain] – [kəm’bain]

contrast [‘kontra:st] – [kən’tra:st]

and many others.

Oppositions of accentual types of words are also observed as a concomitant factor in word-formation in addition to suffixation.

[‘_ _ _] – [,_ _ ‘_] e.g. ‘organize - ,organi’zation

[‘_’_ _ _] – [‘_,_ _ ‘_ _] e.g. ‘predis’pose – ‘pre,dispo’sition

[‘_ _ _] – [‘_ _ _ ‘_] e.g. ‘solemn – ‘solemni’zation

[,_ _ ‘_] – [‘_ _ ,_ _’_ _] e.g. ,incon’siderable – ‘incon,side’ration.

There is also a group of accentuation oppositions where compound nouns are opposed to free word combinations, e.g.

a ‘dancing-girl – танцовщица

a ‘dancing ‘girl – танцующаядевушка

As we have already mentioned the same distinctive function of word stress is observed in the Russian language, It differentiates words and their grammatical forms, e.g.

The words чýдная - чуднáя, безобрáзная - безóбразная are different lexical units, they differ in meaning. ,

The words зимы - зимы, беды— беды represent different, grammatical forms of the same lexical unit. Both in word-building and in word-formation the shifting of stress is accompanied by the qualitative reduction of the unstressed syllable. Word-formation with the help of the shifting of stress is quite common in
Russian as well as in English.

The accentual structure of words is actually very closely interrelated with their semantic value. By way of illustration we shall now analyse a fairly large class of words in English which are marked by two primary stresses (Accentual Type П). They are either compounds consisting of two semantically important,
stems or words with semantically relevant separable prefixes or the suffix -teen. The accentual pattern of this group of words is regulated by the meaningful weight of the elements of the compounds. Word stress establishes contrastive relationship of the elements and often creates opposition to comparable words.

Most of compound adjectives have two equal stresses as both elements in them are semantically important, e.g. 'absent-'minded, 'good-looking. ...

As soon as the significance of one of the elements of a compound adjective is weakened, its accentual pattern is changed. (Accentual Type I), e.g. 'spring-like, 'nymph-like, 'powder-like; 'oval-shaped,'bow-shaped.

The same tendency is observed in compound nouns: if their elements are semantically important both elements are equally stressed (Accentual Type П), e.g. 'north-east, 'north-'west, 'south-'west.

At the same time, as we very well know, most of compound nouns have one stress on the first element which is more significant than the second one. They are sometimes opposed to other compounds with the same second element, e.g. 'dining-room - 'bedroom — 'bathroom — 'living-room; 'shop-girl — 'ballet-girl.

Compound verbs have two equal stresses as their postpositions change the actual meaning of the verb itself as it is illustrated in the following example:.

What shall I do with it?

- 'Put it where it ,was.

- Put it ,on.