BBN-ANG-141 foundations of phonology questions topic 9

1. What characteristics distinguish stress and accent?

stress is stable (unstressed vowels do not become stressed, stressed vowels do not become unstressed), accent is mobile (on one context one vowel of a word may be accented, in another context another one); stress is a lexical property of vowels, accent is assigned on rhythmic grounds

2. What is the tonic?

it is the most prominent stress and the last accent in a tone unit

3. How is vowel quality related to stress?

all vowels may be stressed, but only some of them ([i ə u ij əw uw]) may be unstressed, that is, [e a o ej aj aw oj] and the long monophthongs/R vowel are always stressed

4. What is the Stress Requirement?

it is the requirement that at least one vowel be stressed in any English word

5. What is the Early Stress Requirement?

it is the requirement that one of the first two vowels of an English word be stresed, that is, words cannot begin with two unstressed vowels

6. What is a "weak form"?

some function words (determiners, pronouns, conjunctions, auxiliaries, prepositions) have a strong form that is used when stressed, and a weak form that is used when unstressed, the weak form is not a phonological word, but a clitic: it forms a phonological word with the preceding or following word

7. How many stresses can a word contain?

as many as there are vowels in the word; stressed and unstresed vowels very often alternate, but it is possible to have only stressed vowels in a word containing two or three vowels

8. What is an accent clash?

accents are preferably evenly distributed, hence if a word has accent towards the end and the next word also has an accent, the accent of the first word may move towards the beginning, provided there is a stressed vowel available to be accented (thirtéen vs. thírteen mén, kangaróo vs. kángaroo párk, chicken-héarted vs. chícken-hearted héroes, etc.)

9. Which is the most common stress pattern for a two-syllable word?

a stressed vowel followed by an unstressed vowel: sw

10.What is the difference between a tone language and an intonation language?

pitch changes (tones) are used to distinguish lexical meaning in a tone language; in an intonation language tones are used to distinguish modalities, attitudes, (non)completeness, etc.

11.What are the parts of a tone unit?

the prehead (anything before the first stress); the head (from the first stress up to the tonic); the tonic (the last accent); the tail (anything after the tonic)

12.What are the most common tones in English?

the falling tone (or long fall), the high rising tone (or long rise), the low rising tone (or short rise), and the falling-rising tone (or fall-rise)