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Binary suprasegmental features and transformational word-accentuation rules

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Ralph Vanderslice  and
Peter Ladefoged
Ralph Vanderslice
Affiliation:
Hunter College of the City University of New York
Peter Ladefoged
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
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Abstract

This paper demonstrates that the rules of the transformational stress cycle can be rewritten and simplified by substituting binary suprasegmental features for degrees of stress. The new prosodic features proposed for English are: (1) heavy, (2) accent, (3) intonation, (4) cadence, (5) endglide, and (6) emphasis. This binary suprasegmental feature system accounts for the grammar-expounding prosodic distinctions of English in an intuitively satisfying way; it factors out accentual and intonational phenomena conflated in ‘stress’; and it incorporates linguistically significant generalizations about the syntactic conditioning of prosodic patterns. In addition, it explains rhythmic and stylistic variations disregarded by previous stress rules; and it allows revision of the stress cycle in ways which enhance its economy and explanatory power while retaining its insights and concinnities.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , December 1972 , pp. 819 - 838
Copyright
Copyright © 1972 by Linguistic Society of America

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