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Binomials and pitch accent
NQMIAES
AND
arpry, yet never always say Joart a t just sounds smoother” 2). J is article on “irreversible binomials the order of odds asd mds, back artd for iel poses two questions. After noting (149) that “Modern English displays a very marked partiality to short plus ong : either monoable plus (normally paroxytonic) disyllable, or two monosyllables equal size”, he goes on to ask, apropos of bright artd shiny (note “Does the fact that the latt bles recommend it for the position of And in reference to cases like pots and pans he says (note ), “Where the number of phonemes is equal, does the phr .ietic duration of contrastable sounds merit separate consideration?” I offer evidence that the answer to both questions is yes, and that the reason for it is a practical one. inomials are affected b:y what believe is a general tendency in to have prominent syllables flanked by subdued ones. This seems to be a requirement of prominence itself. The verbal population ic as most societies; it needs peons to give status to have shown elsewhere e), and will merely summarize not flanked by unacsentable ones, ow the unaccentables work may be
from -0rvyor on relaelated or as ledge the help. of Seymour Chatman, Pauline axshall, arold Tarter in administering the tests for this paper “Linguistics and poetics”, Style in ass. ; 1960), pp. 356-357. pp. 113-160. rnb~~~~t~esin pitch accent”, to appear in olrd.
Language (Cam-
en
as open an-3 sonoro the second: since len
fulfilled, but we
36
e question of accent to t air. The first member has a built-in un , which automatic eets the first condition. alkiel’s exampl gives ten that are e and obvious fact hong and beautiful friendship g and bitter ( olitical factor) s-and-arrows proje,ct nd frisky pups
drum-and-bugle furred and feat up-and-coming
corps
of these the binomial ends in one or more unaccentable s 5 additional examples that could alkiel’s text contains, +ssim, be adnominal. but are not expressly shown to be. All but four have unaccentables, and of these, three end in voiced cont. ise. The fo a& torn, peaches and cream, ozct, one of those exarly, like early and la le that ‘“can most invariably accounted for by erful constellations of special circumstances” alkiel, 150) &). ry effect of the binomials is what we are intereste i¬ the listener’s recollection of tightly memorized forms, the be binomials tha; are original or at least not highly ith this in mind prepared the following set of stimulus ch was administered as a test to a class of 17 underTMr votes are given after each sentence: n
1 : black and sooty, b e and silver, sap and P.sty, cloak and dagger, drawn ous, fat and ficls nd sassy, fine and dandy, , full ami etpal, gay and laugh&g, grim ati weary, high alad handsome, high and mighty, hot and bothered, hot attd eavy, hot and spicy, lean ami lanky, lofig and lazy, low and lmaely, azvied m widowed, #&zin and fancy, poor but hoNest, @re and simple, voldgh and slick and salty, slow and ste straight and rtarrrow tested, tme and trzrsty, ma ~~n~~g, Id a woolly.
of each pair, the 1. a.
b. 2. a. .
3. a. b. 4. a. . . a. I. 6. P: b. 7. a. b. 8. a. b. 9. a. b. 10. a. b. 11. a. b.
were came a loud and noisy company! 96.
at senseless an
“5. a. b. 16. a. b. She’s such a shy and thou 17. a. b.
ed to know whether li naccentable,
i.e., does not itself begin wit
dpoint of pitch accent, more than one une between accented ones at best gives an extra ety and at worst does no more than create a slight redu hermore, to the extent that adnominals as a class are required to do service before all nouns, they tend to adjust themselves to noun stress, which is on the initial syllable, an unaccentable syllable before that stress; stringent requirement will quirement is relaxed. Nevertheless, wit e proportions should change. To get a rewrote the first test altering only t Q#WQ&W~,water became Atlantic, @wo is was tried on a diffe nt undergradu sponses folio (I list the noun only; the reference for having the paroxytone the he*second, the oxytone) :
explanation, II 2-t ravine, 11-2 young lady, 1 I-Sahara, 13-O arnin f
i~str~ctiQ~s were t th the non-oxytonic r that form, the second t members of the binomial
6. 7. CI.
9. IO. Il. r2. 13.
e chairman’s statement was as a depressing countryside, ore expressive and
ble ,
endings that ought a vowel, (2) a voiced continuant, (3) a voiced stop or affricate, an unvoiced continuant , (5) an unvoiced stop or affricate 6). These uld be paired against one another.
pairs makes nonl;ense inistered to three classes of three
-
-
re are of c4.W
~~te~e~~a,te steps. Among the vowels, for example, relevant to -vack) s~~~~ya ass over it here.
ade
bliz and blit 7. I don’t like to have to de and jore matters so f
13 15
et’s have less of this sense.
d and drin non17 11
drin an ide ite
11
10. e nonsense of yours. 11.
e at us e
an
12 16
1
and sarve accent gtve
1
31 bllye and blyme
1
3 22
3
33 6
1
3
37 3 3 2 2 3
.
,
ajo
ass
tC
ficant that the n-me mature t
not even nonsense wor
and
a difference of eory to account for Nos. 2
orn the over-all fi
one is preferred, where it does not have to
ore than coinci-
AND
arpry, yet never always say Joart a t just sounds smoother” 2). J is article on “irreversible binomials the order of odds asd mds, back artd for iel poses two questions. After noting (149) that “Modern English displays a very marked partiality to short plus ong : either monoable plus (normally paroxytonic) disyllable, or two monosyllables equal size”, he goes on to ask, apropos of bright artd shiny (note “Does the fact that the latt bles recommend it for the position of And in reference to cases like pots and pans he says (note ), “Where the number of phonemes is equal, does the phr .ietic duration of contrastable sounds merit separate consideration?” I offer evidence that the answer to both questions is yes, and that the reason for it is a practical one. inomials are affected b:y what believe is a general tendency in to have prominent syllables flanked by subdued ones. This seems to be a requirement of prominence itself. The verbal population ic as most societies; it needs peons to give status to have shown elsewhere e), and will merely summarize not flanked by unacsentable ones, ow the unaccentables work may be
from -0rvyor on relaelated or as ledge the help. of Seymour Chatman, Pauline axshall, arold Tarter in administering the tests for this paper “Linguistics and poetics”, Style in ass. ; 1960), pp. 356-357. pp. 113-160. rnb~~~~t~esin pitch accent”, to appear in olrd.
Language (Cam-
en
as open an-3 sonoro the second: since len
fulfilled, but we
36
e question of accent to t air. The first member has a built-in un , which automatic eets the first condition. alkiel’s exampl gives ten that are e and obvious fact hong and beautiful friendship g and bitter ( olitical factor) s-and-arrows proje,ct nd frisky pups
drum-and-bugle furred and feat up-and-coming
corps
of these the binomial ends in one or more unaccentable s 5 additional examples that could alkiel’s text contains, +ssim, be adnominal. but are not expressly shown to be. All but four have unaccentables, and of these, three end in voiced cont. ise. The fo a& torn, peaches and cream, ozct, one of those exarly, like early and la le that ‘“can most invariably accounted for by erful constellations of special circumstances” alkiel, 150) &). ry effect of the binomials is what we are intereste i¬ the listener’s recollection of tightly memorized forms, the be binomials tha; are original or at least not highly ith this in mind prepared the following set of stimulus ch was administered as a test to a class of 17 underTMr votes are given after each sentence: n
1 : black and sooty, b e and silver, sap and P.sty, cloak and dagger, drawn ous, fat and ficls nd sassy, fine and dandy, , full ami etpal, gay and laugh&g, grim ati weary, high alad handsome, high and mighty, hot and bothered, hot attd eavy, hot and spicy, lean ami lanky, lofig and lazy, low and lmaely, azvied m widowed, #&zin and fancy, poor but hoNest, @re and simple, voldgh and slick and salty, slow and ste straight and rtarrrow tested, tme and trzrsty, ma ~~n~~g, Id a woolly.
of each pair, the 1. a.
b. 2. a. .
3. a. b. 4. a. . . a. I. 6. P: b. 7. a. b. 8. a. b. 9. a. b. 10. a. b. 11. a. b.
were came a loud and noisy company! 96.
at senseless an
“5. a. b. 16. a. b. She’s such a shy and thou 17. a. b.
ed to know whether li naccentable,
i.e., does not itself begin wit
dpoint of pitch accent, more than one une between accented ones at best gives an extra ety and at worst does no more than create a slight redu hermore, to the extent that adnominals as a class are required to do service before all nouns, they tend to adjust themselves to noun stress, which is on the initial syllable, an unaccentable syllable before that stress; stringent requirement will quirement is relaxed. Nevertheless, wit e proportions should change. To get a rewrote the first test altering only t Q#WQ&W~,water became Atlantic, @wo is was tried on a diffe nt undergradu sponses folio (I list the noun only; the reference for having the paroxytone the he*second, the oxytone) :
explanation, II 2-t ravine, 11-2 young lady, 1 I-Sahara, 13-O arnin f
i~str~ctiQ~s were t th the non-oxytonic r that form, the second t members of the binomial
6. 7. CI.
9. IO. Il. r2. 13.
e chairman’s statement was as a depressing countryside, ore expressive and
ble ,
endings that ought a vowel, (2) a voiced continuant, (3) a voiced stop or affricate, an unvoiced continuant , (5) an unvoiced stop or affricate 6). These uld be paired against one another.
pairs makes nonl;ense inistered to three classes of three
-
-
re are of c4.W
~~te~e~~a,te steps. Among the vowels, for example, relevant to -vack) s~~~~ya ass over it here.
ade
bliz and blit 7. I don’t like to have to de and jore matters so f
13 15
et’s have less of this sense.
d and drin non17 11
drin an ide ite
11
10. e nonsense of yours. 11.
e at us e
an
12 16
1
and sarve accent gtve
1
31 bllye and blyme
1
3 22
3
33 6
1
3
37 3 3 2 2 3
.
,
ajo
ass
tC
ficant that the n-me mature t
not even nonsense wor
and
a difference of eory to account for Nos. 2
orn the over-all fi
one is preferred, where it does not have to
ore than coinci-