Abstract

Word stress is one of the most important elements in phonology, accompanied by segmental phonemes to express certain meaning of vocabulary, grammar, etc. Although both English and Chinese belong to free stress languages, most of the English words are polysyllabic, and their compositions are complicated, besides, its vocabulary is mixed with a large number of foreign words, thereby causing the complexity and irregularity of the English word stress patterns. In contrast, most words in Sichuan dialect are disyllabic and only some are trisyllabic or more than three syllables, thus the word stress patterns in Sichuan dialect are much simpler than English. In addition, judging from the functions of word stress, it plays a more important role in English than in Sichuan dialect, which can not only distinguish meanings, differentiate compound words from adjective phrases, but also discriminate the part of speech of some disyllabic words with the same spelling. This article will make a comparative study on the word stress between English and Sichuan dialect from their natures, patterns and functions, and summarize the similarities and differences of them. It aims to be of helpful to students in dialect area in learning English pronunciation and help them avoid misplacing word stress in communication.

Highlights

  • IntroductionStress is a very important part in the phonetic structure of English, and it has the function of distinguishing

  • Stress is a very important part in the phonetic structure of English, and it has the function of distinguishingHow to cite this paper: Ma, C.D. and Tan, L.H. (2015) Comparison on the Word Stress Patterns and Functions between English and Sichuan Dialect

  • If they function as a noun modifier, there is only one stress on the first element: an 'absent-minded professor, a 'hand-made present e) Compound words with three elements may have their stress either on the first or second elements: hot-'water-bottle, high-'water-mark, 'light-house-keeper But if the compound noun consist of a preposition or a article, the stress falls on the content word. 'father-in-'law, com'mander-in-'chief Words in English are usually polysyllabic

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Summary

Introduction

Stress is a very important part in the phonetic structure of English, and it has the function of distinguishing. (2015) Comparison on the Word Stress Patterns and Functions between English and Sichuan Dialect. H. Tan meanings or part of speech in the words or phrases with the same phonemes. Chinese is a tone language and stress does not play so important a part as it does in English, but it has the function of distinguishing meanings. The basic characteristics of English and Chinese stress are the same, and they both rely on the four factors: the sound intensity, duration, pitch and timbre to play a role in distinguishing meanings. In Chinese, the most important factor is duration, and intensity is the least As for their functions, stress can distinguish compound nouns from phrases both in English and Chinese, but stress does not distinguish part of speech of words in Chinese. There isn’t any research regarding the comparison on the word stress patterns and functions of the two languages

The Features of the Word Stress Patterns in English
The Functions of Word Stress in English
The Features of the Word Stress Patterns in Sichuan Dialect
The Functions of Word Stress in Sichuan Dialect
Similarities
Differences
Conclusions

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