Word stress
What is word stress?
Word stress is the greater force or prominence given to one syllable in a word, making it louder, longer, and higher in pitch than the others.
When and where was the Prague School founded?
The Prague School was founded in 1926 in Czechoslovakia by linguists such as Nikolai Trubetzkoy and Roman Jakobson.
What are the two standard types of English pronunciation?
Received Pronunciation (RP) in the United Kingdom and General American (GA) in the United States.
What is intonation?
Intonation is the variation of pitch in spoken language used to express meaning, emotion, or grammatical function.
How many degrees of stress are there in English?
There are three degrees of stress: primary, secondary, and weak (unstressed) stress.
What was the main principle of the Prague School in phonology?
It introduced the functional (distinctive) theory of phonemes, focusing on how sounds serve to distinguish meaning.
What is the main feature of RP compared to GA?
RP is non-rhotic (the final “r” is not pronounced), while GA is rhotic (the “r” sound is pronounced in all positions).
What are the main types of tone movement in English intonation?
Falling, rising, fall-rise, and rise-fall tones.
What are the main factors that determine the position of word stress in English?
Stress position depends on the word’s structure, origin (native or borrowed), and the presence of certain suffixes or prefixes.
What was the main idea of the American (Bloomfieldian) school?
The American school emphasized distributional phonology, analyzing sounds by their positions and environments in speech rather than their meaning.
What are some other standard forms of English pronunciation around the world?
Australian English, Canadian English, New Zealand English, Indian English, and Nigerian English are examples of regional standards.
What is the main function of the falling tone?
The falling tone indicates completeness, certainty, or finality, often used in statements and wh-questions.
What is the difference between fixed and free stress languages, and which type is English?
In fixed-stress languages (like French), stress always falls on the same syllable; in free-stress languages (like English or Russian), stress can fall on any syllable depending on the word.
What is the main contribution of the British School to phonology?
The British school, represented by Daniel Jones and later J.R. Firth, developed phoneme theory, Received Pronunciation (RP), and introduced prosodic analysis, studying stress and intonation as part of phonology.
What are the main phonetic differences between RP and GA? (in an example)
RP: /ɒ/ in hot, GA: /ɑː/ in hot.
RP: long /ɑː/ in bath, GA: short /æ/.
RP: /juː/ in news, GA: /uː/ (noos).
GA pronounces r in all contexts.
What is the difference between nuclear tone and pre-head tone in intonation structure?
Nuclear tone: the main pitch movement on the last stressed syllable of an intonation group.
Pre-head tone: all unstressed syllables before the first stressed one in the tone unit.