Metrical phonology is one of the basic areas that
mark the difference between Giegerich’s and Gimson’s account of stress. It is
an aspect of phonologically established stress that accounts for certain stress
assignment that could not be accounted for by other phonological criteria for
stress placement. Syllables are grouped into feet and the first syllable in a
foot bears the primary stress. Kangaroo
has two feet because it has two stressed syllables; the initial syllable takes
the secondary stress while the final one takes the primary stress. The
penultimate syllable is not stressed. Metrical structures are basically
hierarchical, every level most be adequately represented.
Giegerich says that Metrical phonology “is the
basic vocabulary of a rather versatile notational system for all kinds of
prominence phenomena in phonology”. Below are the metrical structures for camera, pity and bit.
Metrical phonology is a concept in generative
phonology, for this reason, Gimson does not include it in his account of
stress. He does not emphasize the various degrees of stress from word level to
foot level. However he acknowledges that not all the stressed syllables in a
polysyllable utterance have the same prominence thereby necessitating the need
to observe primary, secondary and unstressed syllables.
Giegerich uses metrical phonology to account for
the placement of stress at the foot level showing how primary and secondary
stress can be displayed in a tree. Bamboo for instance has two syllables and
two feet because it has two stressed syllables (primary and secondary). Happy
has only one bisyllabic foot.
The problem that metrical phonology attempts to
solve is a situation where words like pity
and elite are stressed on the initial
syllable. The initial syllables in the above words are not heavy, how then can
we account for their stress placement.
Feet
Giegerich explains that stress is not only meant to
differentiate words but also to maintain rhythm in connected speech as English
is a stressed timed language, stresses occur at regular intervals. It strives
to achieve isochrony (equality in time). In an isochronous utterance, stress
marks the syllable that begins a foot. The segments of an utterance are
organised into syllables and syllables
into feet.
Giegerich establishes the foot level rule of stress
where he says that if the final syllable is heavy, assign a foot to it.
Example, bamboo
If the penultimate syllable is initial and heavy,
assign a foot to it.
Rules of stress
Geigerich introduces two rules of stress, word
level and foot level rules. These are rules that determine the form of metrical
structures, and they are divided into two.
Foot level Rules
This rule assigns feet to syllables and determine what syllable bears
stress. It considers syllable weight and morphological and syntactic
information.
For assignment of foot in nouns
1.
Assign a foot
to final syllable if it is heavy, has a long vowel, eg July or is an exceptional noun. Cadet
belongs to the exceptional group.
2.
Assign a
bisyllabic foot to the penultimate syllable if it is heavy and initial, e.g. aroma.
3.
Assign a foot
to the penultimate syllable if it is initial and heavy, e.g. textile.
4.
Assign a
maximal bi- or trisyllabic foot to any remaining string of syllables from right
to left, and ensure that the word has at least one foot e.g. America.
Word level rule
This rule assign structure above the foot level and
thereby tells the difference between primary and secondary stresses. It ensures
that every word is represented by a single node.
Example
Word Prominence Rule (or Lexical Category Prominence
Rule)
When we have a pair of sister nodes [N1 N2], N2 is strong:
1.
if it
branches above syllable level.
2.
if the word
is foreign
3.
if it is an
exceptional noun
4.
if the word
is a verb.
At the foot level, he says that all branching foot
structures are left-strong; that is the nodes at the right are weak.
Gimson observes that for purpose of numerous
exceptions, it will be difficult to restrict stress placement to any specific
rules. However, there are tendencies for prediction of stress, one of which is by
identifying strong syllable. Strong syllables according to him have long vowels
or diphthong or a short vowel plus two consonants. Strong syllables usually
take stress.
He also observes that the division of words into
roots and affixes can be used in predicting stress. He adds that roots are
usually stressed but affixes are usually not.
Word class is another area that can be used to
determine word stress as said by Gimson. This means that the class of a word
determines how the word will be stressed. Verbs are stressed on the final
syllable if the syllable is strong, e.g. relate,
arrive etc. The penultimate syllable
is stressed if the final is not stressed, e.g. whisper, punish, worship
etc.
In adjectives, the final syllable is stressed if it
is accented, e.g. mature, secure afraid.
If not so, stress falls on the penultimate syllable or on the antepenultimate
syllable, e.g. neutral, necessary,
dangerous etc.
In nouns, a strong final syllable is optionally
stressed, e.g. i dea, ma chine.
Otherwise, the penultimate or antepenultimate (if the penultimate has a reduced
vowel) syllable is stressed, e.g. tomato,
potato, moment etc.
Stress beyond word level
This refers to stress allocation above the word
level. In a connected speech, some syllables tend to be more prominent than
others. The accentual pattern of connected speech is largely dependent on the
intended meaning of the utterance.
Giegerich says that the concept of primary and
secondary levels of stress applys at the sentence and phrase levels. He uses
the term isochrony to explain that intervals between stressed syllables have
equal time. Isochrony helps to achieve rhythm in speech. Gimson says that
rhythm is enabled by stress timing. An equal amount of time is said to be taken
between each two stressed syllables and between the last stressed syllable and
the end of the utterance. Example:
They | couldn’t have | chosen | a bet|ter time for
| their holiday.
Another area of English speech that Giegerich shows
interest in is eurhythmy. This attempts to achieve perfect rhythm by the
alternation of strong and weak syllables in a way that makes speech more pleasant
than just a matter of communication.
When the
boys come out to play this
statement illustrates eurhythmy.
Intonation
The two scholars have used different marking to show the contouring
structure of stress in a phrase. Giegerich shows intonation the stress pattern
by using an unbroken line that goes up or down as it indicates the various
levels of stress.
a.
a blackbird b. a
blackbird?
c.
a black bird d. a
black bird?
Gimson uses dots or
circles to show the stress in a string of words.
a.
a blackbird b. a
blackbird?
c a black bird d. a
black bird?
The two notations used by these scholars show that
primary stresses have changing pitch. Gimson adds that pitch change has three
functions.
1.
It signals
the division of utterances into intonational phrases.
2.
It signals
syllables with primary and secondary accent.
3.
The shape of the tunes produced by pitch
changes can carry various types of meaning.
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