Functions of stress in English

Functions of stress in English

Ikromova Dilbarkhon Isomiddin kizi

Fergana region Uchkuprik district
English teacher school № 1


Annotation
The aim of the article is developing pupils’ speaking skills and giving instruction to young teachers different ways of putting stress in their speech and ways of putting the stress correctly.
Key words: stres accentual structure, relationship, prevent, notional words, phenomenon, rhythmical structure, syntagmatic stress, notional words, stressed and unstressed, translation, predetermines

Word stress in a language performs three functions:

1). Word stress constitutes a word, organizes the syllables of a word into a language unit having a definite accentual structure, that is a pattern of relationship among the syllables; a word doesn’t exist without the word stress. Sound continuum becomes a phrase when it is divided into units organized by word stress into word. It fulfills the constitutive function.
2). Word stress enables a person to identify a succession of syllables as a definite accentual pattern of a word. Correct accentuation helps the listener to make the process of communication easier, whereas the distorted accentual pattern of words, misplaced word stresses prevent normal understanding. This function is known as identificatory (or recognitive).
3). Word stress alone is capable of differentiating the meaning of words or their forms, thus performing its distinctive function. The accentual patterns of words or the degrees of stress and their positions form oppositions.
The word stress is closely interrelated with sentence stress. Sentence stress usually falls on the very syllable of the word which is marked by word stress. Thus the accentual structure of the word predetermines the arrangement of stresses in a phrase. At the same time the stress pattern of a phrase is always conditioned by the semantic and syntactical factors. The words that usually become stressed in a phrase are notional words. They convey the main idea of the phrase. For example,
In ˇthis "room │there are approximately ﺍ thirty students │that are 'taking 'notes during the /lecture/.
All the marked words bear the so-called sentence stressed proper. This stress falls on the lexical words. In all the three syntagma the last lexical words are stressed to signal the end of a signal. This stress is called syntagmatic stress.
The common character of word stress and sentence stress is also observed in their rhythmical tendency to alternate stressed and unstressed syllables and pronounce them at approximately equal intervals. Word stress is applied to a word, as a linguistic unit, sentence stress is applied to a phrase. The distinction of the rhythmical structure of a word and a phrase is clearly observed in the cases when the word stress in notional words is omitted in a phrase. For example,
I 'don’t think she is mistaken.
Or when the rhythmic structure of the isolated word does not coincide with that of a phrase. For example,
'Fourteen. 'Classroom Fourteen. 'Fourteen 'books.
. So in a speech chain the phonetic structure of a word obtains additional characteristics connected with rhythm, melody, and tempo. Though the sentence stress falls on the syllable marked by the word stress, it is not realized in the stressed syllable of an isolated word but in a word within speech continuum. Sentence stress organizes a sentence into a linguistic unit, helps to form its rhythmic and intonation pattern, performs its distinctive function on the level of a phrase.
Using literatures:

1. 
   Introductory Phonetics and Phonology by Linda I,1998
   
2. 
   A practical introduction to Phonetics by J.C. Catford,1999
   
3. 
   Principles of Experimental Phonetics by Norman J. Lass,1996