Lexical Stress and Semantic Range: A Comparative Componential Analysis of Pahari and English Words

Abstract

Stress is a unique feature in any language's phonology, serving various purposes. The study explores the function of lexical stress in Pahari by presenting a contrast between English and Pahari. In English, stress changes the syntactic category of the word; unlike English, the stress in Pahari not only changes the syntactic category but manages to put the lexical item in an entirely different semantic field with a sharp contrast of meaning. Documented data is insufficient for studying stress in Pahari, as it needs more established literature. Therefore, native Pahari speakers are the participants in exploring the phenomenon. Data analysis revealed that a stress shift in Pahari alters the entire organization of the lexicon in terms of a particular word as the word becomes representative of the different semantic fields. The feature distinguishes Pahari from English and many other languages where the stress changes only the syntactic category, not the semantic field; as a result, the lexical item carries the same conceptual field. An example of the change in the semantic field in Pahari is the word "mundi". Stress on the first syllable, /mʊndi/, will occupy the feature of the body part where it means ‘neck’. Stress on the second syllable /mʊnˈdi/ carries the feature of the remaining portion of the trunk of the chopped tree, where it means ‘tree stump’. The study presents a list of such words and their meanings through componential analysis (CA), indicating the same word with two different stress realizations stands for two different semantic fields. This prosodic feature of lexical stress in Pahari is similar the languages like Hebrew.