The variability of compound stress in English: structural, semantic, and analogical factors

Identifikator: 11022/0000-0000-1F3C-C

Abstract

It is generally assumed that noun–noun (NN) compounds in English are stressed on the left-hand member (e.g. 'courtroom, 'watchmaker). However, there is a considerable amount of variation in stress assignment (e.g. silk 'tıe, Madison 'Avenue, singer-so´ngwriter), whose significance and sources are largely unaccounted for in the literature. This articlepresents an experimental study inwhich three competing hypotheses concerning NN stress assignment are tested. The stress patterns of novel and existing compounds, as obtained in a reading experiment with native speakers ofAmerican English,were acoustically measured and analyzed. The results show that there is indeed a considerable amount of variationin stress assignment, and that all three hypothesized factors, i.e. structure, semantics, and analogy, are relevant, though to different degrees. On a theoretical level, the findings strongly suggest that a categorical approach cannot be upheld and that probability andanalogy need to be incorporated into an adequate account of stress assignment in noun–noun constructions. The article also makes a methodological contribution to the debate in showing that experimental studies using pitch measurements can shed new light on theissue of variable compound stress. English Language and Linguistics

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Ingo Plag (2006): The variability of compound stress in English: structural, semantic, and analogical factors. Mind Research Repository. Identifier: 11022/0000-0000-1F3C-C.