Accentuation

2/3/2015
Accentuation
Accentuation
"Global" versus "Analytical" stress
and related matters
The motives for accenting a word or syllable in English

include the following:
(1a) Highlighting of contrasts generallyoverrides all
other tendencies to assign deliberate, intended,
voluntary ("accentual") stress toa word or syllable.
We may define an accent (or 'accentual stress') as
oneconsciously and voluntarily accorded by a speaker to a
particular word or syllable. It shd be noted that a pitch
movement which is a latter element of a complex tone,
even if so delayed that it is effected on a subsequent
word, does not constitute an accent. Thus, in a discourse
where either the speaker or the person being spoken to
has very recently mentioned the compound word "ice
cream", when the speaker says "I `like ice cream " this
isnt perceived as an accenting of the word "cream". Such a
'tonetic' representation of the tones as we have just seen
may alternatively receive a 'tonological' representation
such as "I `like ice cream" where the Fall-Rise tone
selected by the speaker to attach to the compound word
"ice cream" (with perhaps for example a motive of
sounding not only positive but also, by adding the Rise,
agreeable) is not represented as split. This is in order to
convey that the tonetic splitting is due to choice of a
comfortable rhythm by the speaker not a desire to reaccent the re-occurring word "ice cream". The fact that the
Rise is delayed is signalled by the sign which indicates
in this O'Connor-&-Arnold type of notation the point to
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which the Rise has been postponed. If the notation "I

`like ice cream" were used without the disambiguating
sign it could be taken that the rise element of the FallRise tone applied toicerather than tocream.
(1b) The perhaps uniquely strong English-language
tendency to deny even asyllablewithina word (not just a
word) its normal stressing in favour of another syllable not
normally stressed but conveying or emphasising a
contrast is in general never revealed in the written
language. However, an extremely rare example of doing so
was to be seen in theJournals of Arnold Bennett(1954 p.
88) in which we find I saw few signs ... of suppressed
orexpressed excitement... where the writer conveys it by
italicisation of a prefix.
Other
examples
include:
Majorities
and
minorities.Middayis normally /md`de/ butmidnight/
mdnat/ yet either pattern may be reversed in
contrastive contexts.
A typical example of a usage in which a NNS (non-native
speaker of English) may fail to observe the custom of
highlighting semantic contrast occurs with the use of a
beginning like In my `country... when a contrast is
intended with another person's country. In such a situation
a native English-speaker would normally only say In `my
country... On the other hand NNSs offen fail to notice
that the stressing of A friend of mine, in spite of the
suggestion of contrastiveness thatmineseems to embody,
is usually idiomatically A `friend of mine and is rarely
found stressed A friend of `mineunless extreme direct
contrastiveness is involved as withYes he ìs a friend of
`mine | but I `didnt know he was afriend of `yours
`too.
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Accentuation
(2a)
Avoidance
of
Re-accenting
of
Reoccurrences.Amost powerful application of the "rule" of
highlighting of contrasts is seen operatinginversely when
speakersdenystress to a word etc which reappears quite
soon in a discourse. Thisavoidance of re-accenting of reoccurrencesie of words or even merely syllables which are
identical or constitute or embody exactly the same
reference is an only occasionally ignored 'rule' for native
English speakers. An example of a ordinarily unaccentable
syllable in fact usually being stressedwould be in citing
the title of a journalsuch asAlcohol and Alcoholìsm.
(2b) A syllable generally considered to completely
unstressable by most speakers may very occasionally be
heard accented eg It was an exciting and excita`ble /
ksat`bl/ performance.Another related accentual
possibility for English native speakers reverses this
pattern of retrospectively avoiding re-accenting. This
occurs as anticipatory avoidance of accenting the usual
syllable in a word in order to highlight an accentual
contrast with a subsequent word of a phrase. For example,
I've found myself beginning a sentence thus: One of the
ìrritations, but at the same time `fascinations, of the
traditional orthography of English... where the ordinary
accentuation
of
each
of
the
words irritation and fascination would be on a later
element as irri`tation andfasci`nation but, in order to
comply with the strong inclination to highlight the
contrast between the two words' initial syllables, I've
departed from those normal accentuations. This kind of
thing is a fairly common practice but entirely optional for
the speaker.
There is a convenient single expression for "the use of a word which
refers to, or is a substitute for, a preceding word or group of words"
(OED) namely 'anaphora'.
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In an exchange like "Wd you like tea or `coffee?" the

reply "I'd like `coffee,please" of course re-accents the
word 'coffee' but the 'rule' prohibiting re-accenting of reoccurrences is overridden by the need to accent 'coffee' for
the sake of contrasting 'coffee' with 'tea'.
(2c) Whole phrases may be given no accent if they contain
immediately repeated matter. For example a speaker who
has said "Theyll have nowhere to hide" may receive the
response Yes in`deed theyll have nowhere to hide with
the repeated "theyll have nowhere to hide" constituting
only an intonationaltail (all at a low level pitch) ie being
completely without an accent. This is another example of
where it would be possible to let the final word rise but
that final movement wd be perceived by native-English
speakersnotas an independent accentual Rise but as the
delayed completion of a Fall-Rise complex tone (and so
completely non-accentual). The tonetic notation Yes
in`deed theyll have nowhere to hide wd make the pitch
movement quite explicit but a tonological notation of the
type of expression that we exemplified above (such as
appeared in O'Connor-&-Arnold 1973) wd show a
sentence with exactly that set of pitches asYes in`deed
theyll have nowhere to hide making the non-accentual
value explicit by using the symbol to indicate where the
rise is to be understood to take place. In these notes
tonetic transcriptions are normally supplied, tonological
ones being resorted to only on occasions where a special
need seems to exist such as the preference in some cases
not to insert marks of complex tone completion within the
body
of
a
word,
eg
preferringoc`casionallytooc`casionally.
It's also possible for a second speaker to respond making
a long (low) prehead of the repeated words thus Theyll
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Accentuation
have nowhere to hide in`deed. This procedure avoids

having any accents in the repeated phrase by uttering the
whole of it at the same low level pitch.
(2d) In the same category as avoidance of re-accentuation
of words referring to or representing ideas, facts etc
already referred to, mentioned or "given" is the veto on
accenting words conveying ideas, facts and circumstances
already well known to both speakers including matters,
conditions etc of which both are fully aware such as the
state of the weather or the city or the situation of any sort
they are in. A type of example which at first might seem
unexpected would be`Look at the result. `Look at this
rubbish.
(3)Rhythmic preference
If an expression doesn't involve avoidance of re-accenting
of re-occurrences, the default tendency for speakers is
to stress the first and last suitable(ie more semantic'ly
charged, content-conveying not merely grammatically
functional)
words
or
syllables
in
any(intonational)phrase or sentence.
An effective example of this tendency has been provided
by John Maidment to show the operation of his proposed
'Early Onset Rule':He does 'represen(')tational`paintings.
Here the bracketed tone on the syllable which is the tonic
one in the lexical pronunciation of the adjective has
become optional.
Speakers may prefer to avoid intermediate stresses either
depending on how rapid they want to make the utterance
or in compliance with the rhythmic preference for stress
alternation as in 'Let me have a bit of something to
èat or 'Let me 'have a bit of 'something to èat in
which (i) all potential stresses between the first and last
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Accentuation
words are suppressed and (ii) the potential stress onbitis

suppressed: if it were employed it would produce a heavily
insistent suggestion. See also Division 4 of this
website where in Section 7 at Honorifics 139 other
examples are given ofALTERNATE STRESS PREFERENCE. See also
in the same Section 7 Prepositions at84.
4) Globalisation. The preference for an earliest or
earliest-and-latest
stressing
pattern
one
may
call globalisation,unifying or globalising, or simply
globalstress distribution.
At the word level this tendency to'globalisation'shows as
the inclination to give front stress to polysyllables and
compound words.
(5a)Analytical stress distribution
At the phrase level, English-speakers much more
frequently prefer analytical stress distribution with its
regular suppression of stresses on anaphoric expressions
such as initial articles likethis and final enclitic
pronounssuch asit.
A most striking, because so rare, example in which English
speakers practically all depart from their customary
analytical approach to take the unusual step of treating
globally a very common expression in which stress on the
contrastive word "own" would be normally expected
is'Mind your own `business.Contrast the more normally
accented synonymous 'Pay attention to your òwn
affairs and items like That's `my business. This example
is particularly remarkable because the more logical
alternative stressing *Mind your òwn business can be
said to be so unusual as to be virtually non-existent. This
is not true of similar expressions like It's none of our
`business which, however, can alternate with the more
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Accentuation
predictable stressing especially if it's softened by use of a

falling-rising tone vizIt's `none of òur b
usiness.
Another example of globalising rather than analysing
is Quote unquote to introduce a quotation rapidly: at a
more leisurely pace one's more likely to hear Quote
|ùnquote.
(5b) In the very special context of an "insistent" rising
head before a Fall climax tone the usual stressing practice
may be counteracted eg (i) Mind your own business.
(ii)It says smoking or non smoking.
Many expressions are just as likely to occur in either the
globalising or the analytical form eg the best of both
`worldsorthe best of `both worlds.Cf alsoI don't see it
in ` that light and I don't see it in that `light. The
preference in such cases may be due not to the avoidance
of re-stressing a word (or synonym for a word) but simply
that an idea is present in the consciousness of the
speaker. This can occur for example when the first
speaker has seemed to have treated a subject with
inadequate seriousness. Though no actual joke has been
made the response may just as possibly be It's no joking
`matter as the less English-specific type of stressing It's
`no `joking
matter. The same type of explanation
applies to expressions likeThere's no ()doubt a`bout

it which might be said when the speaker is confident of
disbelief on the part of the collocutor.
(6) The world's languages range between the two
extremes of greatly preferring global rhythmic structures
eg French and Spanish and favouring almost exclusively
analytical structures eg English and German. Most
languages seem to fall somewhere in between these two
extremes.
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(7a) It must be remembered that these are only strong

tendencies which in practice may be forsaken by the
individual speaker for a variety of reasons some of which it
is impossible to discover eg notably when they reflect
what is going on in the speaker's mind but is undeclared.
Even more notably, any word representing any idea, fact or
circumstance of which both speakers in a conversation are
fully aware may very often be denied an accent. Examples
of this might be the name of the place where they're
conversing or the climate, state of the weather or the
political situation. Such tendencies also occur commonly
to speakers of other languages but native speakers of
English are particularly intensely inclined to be affected by
such habits. Nevertheless, departures from such usual
practices amount to perhaps something like ten percent of
utterances for most speakers of English. Anyone who
listens out for such departures will be almost certain to
hear a number of them during the course of a day spent
listening to a variety of conversations, unscripted
broadcast speech and the like. It's a natural but
unfortunate consequence of the effects of pedagogical
accounts of the patterns of English intonation that
teachers are sometimes inclined to criticise departures
from their "rules" rather too harshly.
(7b)Some kinds of expression may show the tendency to
highlight contrast not strong enough to prevail over the
tendency to globalisation. This happens with eg the saying
to get the wrong end of the stick. This might well be
expected to climax onwrongorendbut it's climactic final
accent is usually placed onstick.Similarly one might have
expected the usual stressing to *the boot's on the òther
foot but in fact it's normally globalised to the boot's on
the other `foot.
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8) Another of the reasons for the departures may be that

the speaker has simply been subject to what, in regard to
non-prosodic features of speech, would simply be termed
a slip of the tongue. A peculiarity of speakers treatment
of such prosodic mistakes is that, unlike the way people
treat mistakes of articulation, which are very often
corrected by the speaker, it is only very rarely indeed that
one hears a repetition that amends the prosody of an
utterance just prosodically mis-managed. After all, there's
no recognised way in writing of correcting any aspect of
prosody other than word stressing by underlining,
italicising or capitalising the word in question. Any purely
pitch-pattern errors can hardly be represented in normal
writing at all. It's noteworthy also that people are
completely untroubled by having various prosodic features
removed or even replaced by something linguistically
quite inappropriate when they hear the words of a song,
tho the best and most satisfying settings are those that
most closely accord with the speech rhythms that would
be naturally used in merely saying the words.
9) Another factor one must bear in mind is that by
temperament one individual may be far more heedless
than another about prosodies in ordinary situations. In
circumstances where the speakers wish to speed up or
slow down or are influenced by distracting contexts or by
circumstances such as alcohol consumption the tendency
to depart from their normal prosodic practice is increased
sometimes even by at least partly losing the thread of
what they wish to say.
10)Animation Stresses. Certain stresses people use from
time to time may seem to be intended as inappropriate
ways of highlighting individual words when that is not the
purpose for which the speaker has adopted the stressing
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but rather as a device for increasing the intensity of a

whole expression (phrase, sentence etc). I long ago
proposed for such usages the term ANIMATION STRESSES. At
the word level, anomalous stresses that might be termed
"prosodic slang" are used by many speakers when
eg bra`vo, ra`ther,yip`pee etc are so stressed and by
some children (at public schools at least) saying a warning
shout asca`ve. The American usageposi`tivelymay well
be generally viewed as or at least have begun as an
accentual extravagance. That was possibly the perception
of it by people who first herd the adverb which is
canonically àbsolutely but has nowbecome in emphatic
use perfectly normal as abso`lutely. It's possible for an
"empty" word likethingormatterto be accented merely to
amplify the force of a sentence eg in It's not a good
`thing. A strong indication that the speaker is not truly
accenting a word in the normal sense of accentuation
occurs when a word likeitwhich can reasonably be said to
never be accented in a non-contrastive context is given a
major stress as inÌt's all right. The reader who turns to
Section 4.1 on this website can hear the actress (free to
choose her own prosodies) in Item 15 line 3 say " Ìts a
'pale `blue" [Cf our Blog032of 17 June 07.]
(11a) One should remember that persons reading aloud or
acting, and thus using not their own spontaneous choices
but prescribed wording, are very prone to prosodic
mistakes the more so the less their performance has
been prepared. I've been shocked on many occasions to
observe that the director of a play or film has allowed a
performer to employ a completely inappropriate prosody. I
cant remember any occasion when anyone has ever
indicated to me that they received such a shock, tho the
basis on which a dramatic performance is considered good
or not must often be in large part influenced by the
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aptness or otherwise of the actor's prosodic choices. For

the very rare phenomenon of a writer referring to such a
matter we have to turn again to the Journals of
ArnoldBennett(1954 p. 215 ed. F. Swinnerton) where he
mentioned of a Troupe of about 40 that Not one could
avoid the most elementary false emphasis. Thus Sylvia
May looking at a man asleep on sofa, 'Buthemay wake up'
(when there was no question of another man asleep)
instead of 'He may wake up' . Arnold Bennett was a
playwright and director of his own plays. Among very
numerous
examples
one
might
give
of
actors' inappropriate stressings there is, from the Orson
Welles film of Othello, She might lie by an
emperorsside(instead of the more effectiveShe might
lie by an èmperors side. In the film Ghandi the
doubtfully suitably stressed even if you `caused a good
deal of trouble was followed immediately by the grossly
inappropriate accentuation "Especially if you `caused a
great deal of trouble"where spontaneous speech would be
totally unlikely not to have an accent ondeal.
(11b)Certain kinds of inappropriate accentuations are very
commonly heard from newsreaders whose scripts often
contain synonymous references back to such things as the
names of cities at which the reader fails to de-accent the
synonym. For example A powerful bomb was set off at
X--- this morning | and a huge cloud of smoke still
hangs over the city. Here at city there is plainly no
reason for a suggestion of any contrast with another area
so it should not be accented or at least it should be denied
a full Fall. A weaker climax may occur with only a low fall
which may sound less grossly inappropriate but it still
doesnt sound completely normal. They may even reaccent a word on its repetition from being obliged to by a
badly written script. I've found that something like The
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water levels | have reached dangerous levels to be far

from uniquely clumsy. That type of expression can occur
in both spontaneousandscriptedspeech.
(12a) It's possible for a word to be accented twice in a
sentence because of semantic re-focusing eg because a
contrast of meaning is involved when the word re-occurs
in a different sense. This has been called anta`naclasis
(OED 'A figure of speech .. when the same word is repeated
in a different, if not in a contrary signification'.
Examples:
(i) If you `want to make good `coffee,|you must use
plenty of `coffee.
(The first coffee is the beverage, the second the beans or
powder.)
(ii)There are `palaces| and `palaces.(ie ordinary ones
& specially fine ones.)
(iii)It's not what she said | it was the way she said it.
The firstsaidrefers to the semantic content of the words
used, the second to to the manner of their delivery (It's
not`what she said... would have been a more explicitly
meaningful way of expressing the idea).
(iv) Boys 'will be boys. (ie young men inevitably exhibit
the behaviour of immature males)
(v)'Tolerance | is what 'makes 'Britain Britain. (ie makes
the country the kind of country it is) Tony Blair (December
2006)
(vi) Making the unmissable|unmissable. BBC slogan
advertising their postponed-listening facility by which a
broadcast that has not been able to be received at its
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Accentuation
original transmission time may be received by computer at

a time chosen by the user usually during the following
week. (2008)
(vii) Robert Burns referred to man's inhumanity
toman(people's cruelty to their fellow human beings)
(viii) See alsoPeople Speaking4.1.2 line 5 where 'Who was
that lady I saw you with last night?' receives the
reply 'That was no lady. That was my wife' This very old
joke
turns
on
semantic
re-focusing.
The
sense of lady intended by the first speaker is merely
'woman', but the sense its supposed to be taken as is
'woman of refinement'.
(ix)Dog eat dogis used to describe competition that is
as extreme as cannibalism. The first dog is elliptical for "a
dog"; the second is the customary reference to an animal
etc as foodstuff without any article.
(x) In Kingsley Amis'sLucky Jimthe eponym says that his
boss is "the lousiest Professor of History in history".
('History' ie the subject;'history' ie the period of time.)
(xi) It's the regular usage with items of botanical and
zoological nomenclature to give the generic name first
and the specific second accenting them both even when
the two require the same word. Compare Bellis
pe`rennis,Vulpes, `vulpes orGorilla, go`rilla.
(xii) One presumes that German speakers as well as
English speakers may well say that someone " ìsnt just
plain `Mr Stein | but `Dr `Dr Stein".
(12b) Note also: An eye for an eye |and a tooth for a
tooth. A bargain is a bargain (well-known proverbs
etc).
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Kinds of re-focusing etc can perhaps explain the following

also: Let bygones be `bygones. The blind leading
the`blind. People said it wouldn't sur`vive | but sur`vive it
has. If the worst()comes to the worst... Business
is business. Let's share and share a`like. Àmy,| being
Àmy | wouldn't a`gree. The only thing we have to
fear | is fear itself. Let's call a spade a spade.
There are cases where people seem to be rather vague or
inattentive about operating the "rule" as can be seen in
some common sayings. A `place for everything | and
everything in itsplaceis usually so accented. This
canbebut usually isn't accentedA `place foreverything
| and everythingin itsplace.
It's also possible for words to be accented on immediate
re-use in certain other situations such as when a speaker
echoes anothers words nominally at least for
confirmation, as in the following.
I want some `money. `Youre asking `me for money?
(You must be `mad. Ìm a `pauper. `You,| are `rich.)
(13) (i) Another type of re-accentuation within the same
phrase may occur when a word is repeated immediately for
emphasis eg: (a) big big job,dear dear (me),(a)long long
time,(a)lovely lovely day,many many times, (the) old old
story,a red red rose, never never say that, really really
beautiful,very very nice,etc.
(ii) Where a word is separated from its repetition by only a
particle, the word is regularly accented on both
occurrences. Examples include: again and again, for ever
and ever, an eye for an eye,arm in arm,back to back, blow
by blow, day by day, face to face, from ear to ear, from
strength to strength, heart of hearts,home from
home, hope against hope, inch by inch, more and
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more, neck and neck, night after night, on and on,

fromtime to time, wheels within wheels (also
possibly wheels withìn wheels). Note also expressions
likeShe keepsher()self to her`self.
In Parliament on 12 June 1990 MP Gerald Kaufman said
"The Government ... is isolated on |issue| after issue |
after issue."
(14) Although these "analytical" sentence stressing
tendencies observable in English-speakers are very strong
and may in some cases make a listener uncomfortable
about what was a speakers precise meaning or whether a
speaker has succeeded in expressing their meaning
properly etc, in regard to these rules, which as we say,
can be heard to be broken every day, EFL teachers need
not concern themselves unduly if they find themselves
baffled in their natural desire to understand what brought
about such infringements. On the other hand they should
not neglect to inform their more advanced students of the
spoken language of the existence of these overwhelmingly
often firmly followed patterns of behaviour to be found in
all the principle varieties of spoken English employed by
educated users.
(15) Finally, there are plenty of expressions in English that
contain accentuations which can hardly be explained on
logical principles what we are obliged to term
as accentuationidioms. Among the many examples one
could quote are the following:Its none of your `business,
Thats all there is `to it, Think nothingòf itetc. These are
only in a limited sense idioms because they can usually be
attributed to the speakers reacting not to a verbal
formulation by the interlocutor but to something that the
speaker perceives as indicated or adumbrated by the other
person. The word doubt may not have been used by a
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speaker but what has been said may be taken as

expressing dou't in our example above. As we've said, a
speaker may avoid accentuation of the word laugh not
because that word has occurred in the exchange but
because the interlocutor has laughed or even smiled (when
we have exaggeration by the speaker) eg in the
sentence Its no laughing `matter.There are some other
cases for which it's difficult to perceive a logical
explanation. For example, despite the usual powerful
feeling the speaker has that a contrast must be
highlighted, it is still idiomatic to stresseyes in the back
of one's `headwith no stress on back. As far as the EFL
user is concerned, it's advisable not to worry about such
items but to take them to be idioms. Getting them "wrong"
is in any case usually of very little consequence.
Despite our insistence that it's very possible for reaccenting of re-occurrences to sound very strange to the
ears of native English speaking people, almost any day one
may come across what can only be described as
completely unaccountable breaches of the 'rule' in fact
perhaps as often as in ten percent of situations where one
would expect it to be complied with. For a blatant
example, I dont think that it was bad acting or laxity of
direction that could be ascribed to the fact that the hugely
successful actor James Stewart in the amazingly popular
1958 Hitchcock film Vertigo answers his girl friend who
says Come
on! `Tell. withThere's
nothing
to
`tell.Unconvincing tho it may seem, the only suggestion
one can think of to explain such apparently 'unnatural'
linguistic behaviour is that it reflects some degree of
inattention to or alienation from the topic of her
utterance.
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2/3/2015

The motives for accenting a word or syllable in English

which the Rise has been postponed. If the notation "I

In an exchange like "Wd you like tea or `coffee?" the

have nowhere to hide in`deed. This procedure avoids

words are suppressed and (ii) the potential stress onbitis

predictable stressing especially if it's softened by use of a

applies to expressions likeThere's no ()doubt a`bout

(7a) It must be remembered that these are only strong

8) Another of the reasons for the departures may be that

but rather as a device for increasing the intensity of a

aptness or otherwise of the actor's prosodic choices. For

water levels | have reached dangerous levels to be far

original transmission time may be received by computer at

Kinds of re-focusing etc can perhaps explain the following

more, neck and neck, night after night, on and on,

speaker but what has been said may be taken as

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