Stress

A huge and special role in Russian linguistics is played by stresses, which indicate not only the changing intonation in what has been said, emphasizing the main and secondary, but also completely change the meaning of what was spoken, as well as recorded or printed subsequently - both in a single word and in the whole sentence ^[3] .

How stress is manifested in the speech flow is highly dependent on the language. In some languages, stressed syllables have a higher or lower tone than unstressed - this is the so-called tonal, or musical stress. In other languages, they can stand out in a higher or lower tone compared to surrounding syllables (tone deviation) depending on the type of sentence. There is also dynamic (noisy, power) stress, qualitative (qualitative) stress (lack of vowel reduction) and quantitative stress (quantitative - increasing the length of sound, known in musical theory as agogic). Accent may have several of these characteristics at the same time. In addition, stress can be implemented to varying degrees on different words in one sentence; in some cases, the difference between the acoustic signals of stressed and unstressed syllables may be minimal.

In English, the emphasis is most expressed in the focal words of the sentence, distinguished by meaning. Consider, for example, the dialog:

“Is it brunch tomorrow?” (Will there be brunch tomorrow?)

“No, it's dinner tomorrow.” ( No, it's dinner tomorrow .)

The accent-related acoustic difference between syllables in the word tomorrow will be small compared to the difference between the syllables of the highlighted word dinner . In these distinguished words, stressed syllables, such as din in the word din ner , are pronounced louder and longer ^{[4] [5] [6]} . In addition, they may have different base frequencies or other characteristics. Vowels of an unstressed syllable are usually closer to neutral in quality ( “seam” ), while stressed vowels are reduced less. On the contrary, in Spanish, stressed and unstressed vowels are characterized by the same quality - unlike English, in Spanish there is no reduction of vowels.

(Many works emphasize the importance of tone changes and shifts in stressed syllables, but this statement has little experimental evidence. However, most experiments are not directly aimed at identifying the tone of speech, which is a subjectively perceived quantity. Usually, when conducting experiments, the basic speech frequency is estimated , which is measured objectively and strongly correlates with tone, but does not quite coincide with it.)

Currently, research is ongoing on the possibility of realizing stress in tone languages , and some models close to stress have already been discovered in the Chinese dialect of putonghua . They are realized as an alternation of syllables in which tones are expressed explicitly, with a relatively large shift in the base frequency, with syllables where tones are expressed “carelessly”, usually with a small frequency shift.

It is often believed that stressed syllables are pronounced with more force than unstressed syllables. However, studies have shown that although dynamic stress is accompanied by a greater respiratory effort, it does not entail more effort on the vocal apparatus.

English is a rhythmically stressed language, that is, stressed syllables are separated from each other in speech at regular intervals, and unstressed syllables are reduced so that this rhythm is observed. Other languages ​​have the rhythm of syllables (for example, Spanish) or pestilence (for example, Japanese ), where syllables or pestilences are pronounced at a strictly constant pace regardless of the stress.

Some languages ​​have a fixed accent . This means that the stress always falls on a certain syllable, as in Finnish , Hungarian and Latvian (the stress is always on the first syllable), Quechua , Polish and Esperanto (the stress is always on the last but one syllable) or in Macedonian (the stress on the third syllable is from the end), Kazakh (on the last syllable). In other languages, stress can fall on different syllables, but its place is predictable, as in Latin (where stress is due to the structure of the penultimate syllable). Such languages ​​are called regular stress languages.

It is sometimes believed that in the words of the French language the stress falls on the last syllable, but in fact in French there is no verbal stress at all. The French language is more likely to have such prosody, in which the last or penultimate syllable of a chain of words is stressed. This chain can be equal to a simple sentence or syntagma. Nevertheless, with an isolated utterance of a word, it receives the fullness of prosodic properties, and hence the emphasis as well.

In Russian , as well as in languages ​​such as English, Italian and Spanish, the place of emphasis (at least in part) is unpredictable. Rather, it is lexical: it is part of the word, and it must be remembered, although in some cases its place is indicated spelling, as, for example, in Spanish and Portuguese . In such languages, words- homophones can differ only in the place of stress (for example, incite and insight in English), so stress can be a grammatical means.

To some extent, the English language uses this tool in verb-noun pairs, such as a récord and to recórd, where in the verb the stress falls on the last syllable, and in the corresponding noun on the first. In addition, these words are divided into syllables in different ways during the transfer: a réc-ord and to re-córd. In German, this happens in words with certain prefixes (for example, úm-schrei-ben (rewrite) and um-schréi-ben (rephrase). In Russian, this phenomenon is often associated with the declension of some nouns (earth - singular genitive; earth) - the nominative case is plural), or with the conjugation of verbs (koryte - smoke), and can be meaningful (paryu - paryu).

Often dialects are distinguished by the place of stress, such as, for example, British and American English.

Often during the evolution of a language, stressed and unstressed syllables behave differently. For example, in Romance languages, in most cases, the original Latin short stressed vowels / e / and / o / switched to diphthongs. Since stress affects verb conjugation, this has led to the appearance of verbs with alternating vowels in Romance languages. For example, the Spanish verb volver has the form volví in the past tense, but vuelvo in the present (see Spanish irregular verbs ). In Italian, the same phenomenon exists, but / o / alternates with / uo / there. The spread of this phenomenon is not limited to verbs: for example, Spanish viento (wind) vs. ventilación (ventilation), from Latin ventum.

The reverse process is also observed when some historical changes affect the place of stress. For example, in the Russian language over the past hundred years, there has been a process of transferring stress to the root or to the beginning of a word, as its most significant parts, which carry the main semantic load. For example, roll , call , salt, and other verbs to -it in all forms, except for the first person singular of the present and future tense ( cod , cod , cant , kat ; show , show , etc.). Linguists explain this trend by the fact that over the past hundred years the pace of our life has accelerated significantly and entailed an acceleration of speech, therefore, such changes in stress allow us to more effectively capture the meaning of what we hear ^[7] .

In some languages, primary and secondary stress are distinguished. It is traditionally believed that the English language has two stress levels, as, for example, in the words cóunterfòil [ˈkaʊntɚˌfɔɪl] and còunterintélligence [ˌkaʊntɚ.ɪnˈtɛlɪdʒəns], and in some works it was even said that it has four stress levels, but these studies often contradict each other.

Phonetists such as Peter Ladefoged believe that these different stress levels are just a phonetic feature, not phonemic stress itself. They indicate that the alleged secondary stress is often not characterized by increased respiratory activity, usually associated with stress. According to their analysis, a syllable in English can be either stressed or unstressed, and unstressed, in turn, can be reduced or not. This is all that is needed for phonemic analysis. In addition, the last stressed syllable in an ordinary intonation unit receives additional intonation or “tonic” stress. (Intonation stress can occur elsewhere to indicate contrast or other prosodic effects.) This combination of lexical stress, prosody of the end of the syntagma or sentence, as well as reduction of some unstressed vowels gives the impression of several levels of phonetic stress:

• Lexical stress
  1. In combination with tonic stress: a syllable under both lexical and prosodic stress in Ladifougid's study corresponds to primary stress in the traditional sense.
  2. Without tonic stress: a syllable that is only under lexical stress corresponds to secondary stress in the traditional sense.

• Without stress
  1. On an unreduced vowel: an unstressed syllable with an unreduced vowel corresponds to secondary stress in the traditional sense or stress of the third level in a more detailed description.
  2. On a reduced vowel: an unstressed syllable with a reduced vowel is considered unstressed or has a fourth-level accent.

Thus, in the phonemic transcription of English words, in which reduced vowels are denoted by the “ seam ” symbol, only one symbol is needed to indicate stress. For example, in the word cóunterfòil emphasis falls only on the first syllable: /ˈkaʊntɚ.fɔɪl/; the last syllable is unstressed, but the vowel in it is not reduced. (Usually, the unstressed diphthong oi is not reducible in English.) In the word còunterintélligence, both marked syllables are stressed: /ˈkaʊntɚ.ɪnˈtɛlɪdʒəns/. The seeming differences in stress are due to prosodism and appear when the words are pronounced in isolation, how this is done (funny as it may sound) when voicing a word for transcription. These differences disappear when the word is transferred to a non-final position, for example, as in the phrase “counterintelligence operations are going well”, where only the word “main” stress falls on the word well. (In the speech of some native speakers, the first syllable of the word counterintelligence may be unstressed but unreduced: /kaʊntɚ.ɪnˈtɛlɪdʒəns/. Unstressed diphthong ou / ow is usually not reduced in English.

There are various systems for designating stress and syllable.

• In Russian, stress is indicated by an acute accent over the vowel of the syllable: speak. Typically, a letter of emphasis is affixed only when necessary to make sense or to emphasize logically: I know that you know - I know what you know; You look - and look; ... in larger quantities .... In dictionaries and other educational literature (including children's books), stress can be indicated more often or even everywhere. In the dictionaries, along with the main stress, secondary (secondary) stress can also be noted, for this, gravel is used: o- green. Sometimes, usually due to technical limitations, the capital letter "... in large quantities ..." or italics ("in large quantities ...") ^{[8] [9] [10] [11] is} used to indicate stress. The letter ё is never stressed, since the writing ё almost always implies an emphasis (except for some borrowings and compound words: " shojo ", "three-story"). If the writer does not use the letter e sequentially, then its use is similar to using the accent mark.
• In the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), the main stress is indicated by a vertical bar at the top of the syllable, and the secondary one by a vertical bar below: [sɪˌlæbəfɪˈkeɪʃən] or / sɪˌlæbəfɪˈkeɪʃən / (from syllabification ).
• In English, accent is not indicated in regular letters. In some dictionaries that do not use the standard MFA, the accent is indicated by a stroke after the stressed syllable: / si-lab′-ə-fi-kay′-shən /. Instead of using the phonetic alphabet, many reference publications use a variety of phonetic transcription systems “English to English” (for more details see Pronunciation respelling for English ), in which the accent is indicated in bold or in capital letters: si- lab -if-i- kay -shun or si- LAB-if-i-KAY-shun.
• In the Spanish (Castilian) language , as well as in some other closely related languages ​​of Spain , which borrowed Castilian spelling, there are clear rules for determining the position of stress in polysyllabic words: the penultimate syllable, if the word ends in a vowel, “n” or “s”, and the last syllable if the word ends in other consonants; in such cases, the stress on the letter is not graphically indicated. In all cases of deviations from these rules, stress is necessarily indicated by the sign “ acute ” over the vowel of the syllable: bésame, corazón. The accent mark is also indicated if necessary to break the diphthong : “biología” (biology), “oír” (hear), or to distinguish homophones (“cómo” (how?), “Como” (like, like); “sé” (I know ), “Se” (reflexive pronoun), etc.).
• In Italian, the rules for determining the position of an accent are rather complicated, but in a letter the accent is usually indicated only on the last syllable, the sign “ acute ” for closed sounds or “ gravis ” for open sounds (despite the fact that there is no significant contrast of vowels in openness / closure in Italian ) The sign of an acute or grave is also indicated for distinguishing homophones : dà he (a) gives da from, sì and si-s , and in rare cases, if necessary, break the diphthong : capìi [ka.'pi.i] .
• In Dutch, a special accent designation is usually made using the accent in the vowel (or, in the case of diphthong, in the first two vowels) of the stressed syllable. Compare achterúítgang (deterioration) and áchteruitgang (black exit).
• In the Greek language, all polysyllabic words are written with an acute accent over the vowel of the stressed syllable (if this vowel is denoted by a digraph, the accent is placed on the second of the letters). The act is also used to distinguish some monosyllabic homograph words, for example, η (definite article) and ή ("or"); here, of course, the stress in both words is the same.

In Russian, an stressed vowel differs from an unstressed vowel in strength, quantity, and quality; there is no tonic stress (but the pitch may change at the moment of stress). On average, stressed vowels are 1.5-2 times longer than unstressed vowels.

Emphasis can stand on any syllable and any part of the words ( gold , swamp , milk ); in different grammatical forms of one and the same word, stress can pass from one syllable to another ( foot - foot , received - accepted ); many poets of the 19th century used such techniques. Nevertheless, there are certain patterns: for example, in Russian (unlike the contemporary Church Slavonic close to it), the ending “-th” / “-th” cannot be stressed , which leads to the widespread mispronunciation of some monastic names, which in church use are traditionally pronounced in accordance with Church Slavonic orthoepy (for example, the accent in the name Alexis will be instinctively inclined to Russian to shift to the second syllable).

Some complex words, as well as words with the prefixes anti- , inter- , near- , counter- , super- , super- , ex- , etc. can have, besides the main, side (or secondary ) stress . Side stress is usually in order first (closer to the beginning of the word), and the main second (closer to the end of the word): oath -crime , aircraft construction , near-earth , vice-president .

Also, in all words where the letter ё is present, the emphasis necessarily falls on it. The exceptions are borrowed (e.g. amoebiasis ) and complex, compound words (e.g. three-tiered).

In the Russian language there are no uniform rules of stress, to clarify the accepted and acceptable options for a particular word form, you can refer to orthoepic dictionaries or specialized stress dictionaries ^[12] .

The evolution of stress rules in Russian

According to the studies of Baudouin de Courtenay , in ancient Slavic there were quite clear rules for stress. ^[13]

• Each morpheme (prefix, root, suffix, ending) can be self-shock (or type a ), right-shock (or type b ) and unstressed (or type c ).
• Unit of stress - a word with prepositions, unions, particles. In this case, the auxiliary words before the word are always unstressed, after the word - always self-shock.
• In Old Russian there were also reduced vowels (they are usually denoted by the letters b and b ). They were strong and weak; the latter is always weak. If before the weak reduced there is another reduced, that will be strong . The weak reduced now disappeared, the strong turned into o and e ( horse → end , horse → end ).
• We find the first shock morpheme. If it is self-percussive - stress on it, if right-hand - on the syllable to the right.
• But if the stress falls on the weak reduced - we shift it to the left.
• If all morphemes are unstressed, the emphasis is on the first not weak syllable.

For example, the root of the hands is unstressed, the ending is self-shock, the ending is y and the pretext is unstressed, and the hand , hand , hand , hand comes out .

The current emphasis is shifting to other, more complex rules, while some words work according to the old rules, others according to the new ones. Hand and hand phrases mean very different things. Unconditionally stressed morphemes appeared - for example, the suffix -is- ( happy ^[14] ). Emphasis has taken on the function of distinguishing between cases - the wife has broken up into wives (rp singular) and wives (ip plural). In the words on -er / -ёr, stress makes it clear whether this is a mechanism or a person: a rope starter , a starter with a flag .

• Accent mark
• Accent in the Indo-European language

• Accent // Big Russian Encyclopedia. Volume 32. - M. , 2016 .-- S. 675—676.
• Phrasal accent // Big Russian Encyclopedia. Volume 33. - M. , 2017 .-- S. 528.
• Bulich S.K. Accent, in grammar // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 t. (82 t. And 4 ext.). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Maggid D. G. Stress // Jewish Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron . - SPb. , 1908-1913.
• Rozental D. E. , Dzhandzhakova E. V., Kabanova N. P. § 240. Russian verbal stress // Handbook of spelling, pronunciation, literary editing . - M .: CheRo, 1999. Archived December 29, 2006 on the Wayback Machine
• Zaliznyak A. A. Old Russian stress: General information and dictionary. M .: Languages ​​of Slavic culture, 2014, 728 p.