word accent
Definition
Noun: The pattern of stress or emphasis placed on one or more syllables within a single, multi-syllable word. It is also known as lexical stress.
Usage
"Word accent" refers to the phonological feature that makes a particular syllable in a word sound louder, longer, or higher in pitch than the others. This stress pattern is a fixed part of a word's pronunciation and is crucial for correct spoken English.
Examples
- The word accent in "photograph" is on the first syllable: PHO-to-graph.
- Changing the word accent can change the word's meaning or part of speech, as in the noun "RE-cord" versus the verb "re-CORD".
- Linguists study the word accent patterns of different languages.
Advanced Usage
- Contrastive Word Accent: In some languages, word accent can distinguish between otherwise identical words. While less common in English, it can be seen in pairs like "IN-sight" (noun) vs. "in-SIGHT" (verb, archaic).
- Variable Word Accent: In certain English words, the primary stress can shift depending on the surrounding words in a sentence, often for rhythmic reasons (e.g., "He's an UN-known" vs. "an un-KNOWN quantity").
Variants and Related Words
- Lexical Stress: A direct synonym for "word accent".
- Primary Stress: The strongest emphasis in a word's accent pattern.
- Secondary Stress: A weaker but still noticeable emphasis on another syllable within the same word (e.g., the third syllable in "en-cy-clo-pe-di-a").
- Sentence Stress or Prosodic Stress: The emphasis on certain words within a phrase or sentence, which is different from the fixed word accent.
Synonyms
- Lexical stress
- Word stress
Related Concepts
- Phonology: The study of sound systems in language, which includes word accent.
- Meter: The rhythmic pattern in poetry, which is often based on word accents.
- Intonation: The rise and fall of the voice in speaking, which operates at the sentence level, above word accent.
Noun
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the distribution of stresses within a polysyllabic word
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