Notion of an accent in linguistic studies

Abstract

The given article introduces the main areas of studying an accent. Particular attention is given to the field of linguistics, phonetics, and phonological research where an accent is not only a characteristic of an individual but also a bearer of distinctive features of the foreign speech. These features include differences on various language levels such as phonological, morphological, lexical, syntactical. The linguistic and non-linguistic phonetic features are illustrated. The peculiarities in pronunciation, which include melodic arrangements of utterances, rhythmical and structural organisation of the sentence, pausation, articulations in addition to vowels' and consonants' production and their interaction in speech are described as related to linguistic features. Non-linguistic features are connected with the personality of a speaker, the listener, the situation of speech and the context. The article presents a short outline of the criteria to measure a foreign-accented speech.