Cover not available
Article published In:
Journal of Historical Linguistics
Vol. 10:3 (2020) ► pp.452–486

Stress in real time

The noun–verb stress contrast and the rhythmic context hypothesis in the history of English

| Universität Wien

This contribution reviews a series of studies by Kelly (and Bock), suggesting that stress preferences of English nouns and verbs for left-hand and right-hand stress patterns are partly a result of alternating rhythm in real utterances. This claim is tested on diachronic corpus data to verify its historical implications. By using verse evidence to calibrate stress values for historical word classes, the quantitative analysis confirms that distributional asymmetries regarding strong and weak syllables in the contexts of nouns and verbs have existed at least since Late Middle English. In addition, the claim that stem-final segments predict the likelihood of right-hand stress is not only confirmed but the effect is found to be independent of etymological origin.

Keywords: stress contrast, rhythmic alternation, Middle English, Early Modern English, statistical analysis, diachronic analysis, verse evidence, usage-based linguistics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The noun–verb stress difference in English
    • 2.1Pervasiveness of the noun–verb stress difference in the English lexicon
    • 2.2Linguistic interpretations of the noun–verb stress difference
    • 2.3The rhythmic context hypothesis
  • 3.An empirical study in three phases
    • 3.1Stress in Time revisited: Noun and verb stems in their utterance level contexts
      • 3.1.1Data and methods
      • 3.1.2Results
    • 3.2Noun and verb stems in their word level contexts
      • 3.2.1Data and method
      • 3.2.2Results
    • 3.3Final consonants as a predictor of iambic stress
      • 3.3.1Data and method
      • 3.3.2Results
  • 4.General discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 8 December 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhl.19030.hof
References
Arciuli, Joanne & Linda Cupples
2003 Effects of Stress Typicality during Speeded Grammatical Classification. Language and Speech 46:4.353–374. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006 The Processing of Lexical Stress during Visual Word Recognition: Typicality Effects and Orthographic Correlates. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 59:5.920–948. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baayen, R. Harald
2008 Analyzing Linguistic Data: A Practical Introduction to Statistics Using R. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Berg, Thomas
2000 The Position of Adjectives on the Noun–Verb Continuum. English Language and Linguistics 4:2.269–293. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Black, Maria & Shula Chiat
2003 Noun–Verb Dissociations: A Multi-Faceted Phenomenon. Journal of Neurolinguistics 161.231–250. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Burzio, Luigi
1994 Principles of English Stress. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bybee, Joan & Paul Hopper
2001 Frequency and the Emergence of Linguistic Structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bybee, Joan
2006 From Usage to Grammar. The Mind’s Response to Repetition. Language 821.711–733. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 Language, Cognition, and Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baayen, R. Harald, Richard Piepenbrock & Léon Gulikers
2001 WebCelex. Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. [URL] (15 Nov 2019).
Chomsky, Noam & Morris Halle
1968 The Sound Pattern of English. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Cooper, William & Stephen Eady
1986 Metrical Phonology in Speech Production. Journal of Memory and Language 251.369–384. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Croft, William
2000 Explaining Language Change: An Evolutionary Approach. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Denison, David
1985 The Origins of Completive up in English. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 861.37–61.Google Scholar
Dobson, Eric John
1957 English Pronunciation 1400–1600. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dresher, B. Elan & Aditi Lahiri
2005 Main Stress Left in Early Middle English. Historical Linguistics 2003: Selected Papers from the 16th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Copenhagen, 11–15 August 2003 ed. by Michael Fortescue, Eva S. Jensen, Jens E. Mogensen & Lene Schøsler, 75–85. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fischer, Olga
1992 Syntax. The Cambridge History of the English Language. Vol. II: 1066–1476 ed. by Norman Blake, 207–408. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fullwood, Michelle
2014 Asymmetric Correlations between English Verb Transitivity and Stress. Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 401.125–138. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, Adele
2006 Constructions at Work: The Nature of Generalizations in Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gries, Stefan
2009 Statistics for Linguistics with R: A Practical Introduction. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Guion, Susan G., J. J. Clark, Tetsuo Harada & Ratree P. Wayland
2003 Factors Affecting Stress Placement for English Nonwords Include Syllabic Structure, Lexical Class, and Stress Patterns of Phonologically Similar Words. Language and Speech 461.403–426. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Halle, Morris
1998 The Stress of English Words 1968–1998. Linguistic Inquiry 29:4.539–568. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Halle, Morris & Samuel J. Keyser
1971 English Stress: Its Form, its Growth, and its Role in Verse. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Hayes, Bruce
1982 Extrametricality and English Stress. Linguistic Inquiry 13:2.227–276.Google Scholar
1988 Metrics and Phonological Theory. Linguistics: The Cambridge Survey ed. by Frederick Newmeyer, 220–249. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hilpert, Martin
2013 Constructional Change in English: Developments in Allomorphy, Word Formation, and Syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hogg, Richard
1992 Phonology and Morphology. The Cambridge History of the English Language. Vol. I: The Beginnings to 1066 ed. by Richard Hogg, 67–167. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hutton, John
1998 Stress in Old English, giet ongean . Linguistics 36:5.847–885. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kastovsky, Dieter
1992 Semantics and Vocabulary. The Cambridge History of the English Language. Vol. I: The Beginnings to 1066 ed. by Richard Hogg, 290–408. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kelly, Michael H.
1988 Rhythmic Alternation and Lexical Stress Differences in English. Cognition 30:2.107–137. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1989 Rhythm and Language Change in English. Journal of Memory and Language 28:6.690–710. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1996 The Role of Phonology in Grammatical Category Assignments. Signal to Syntax: Bootstrapping from Speech to Grammar in Early Acquisition ed. by James L. Morgan & Katherine Demuth, 249–262. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Kelly, Michael H. & J. Kathryn Bock
1988 Stress in Time. Journal of Experimental Psychology 14:3.389–403.Google Scholar
Kiparsky, Paul
1977 The Rhythmic Structure of English Verse. Linguistic Inquiry 81.189–247.Google Scholar
1982 From Cyclic Phonology to Lexical Phonology. The Structure of Phonological Representations. Part 1 ed. by Harry van der Hulst & Norval Smith, 131–176. Dordrecht & Cinnaminson: Foris.Google Scholar
1997 Remarks on Denominal Verbs. Complex Predicates ed. by Alex Alsina, 473–500. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar
Lahiri, Aditi, Thomas Riad & Haike Jacobs
1999 Diachronic Prosody. Word Prosodic Systems in the Languages of Europe ed. by Harry van der Hulst, 335–422. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Laing, Margaret
2009 Orthographic Indications of Weakness in Early Middle English. Phonological Weakness in English: From Old to Present-Day English ed. by Donka Minkova, 237–315. Basingstoke & New York: Palgrave. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lass, Roger
1992 Phonology and Morphology. The Cambridge History of the English Language. Vol. II: 1066–1476 ed. by Norman Blake, 23–155. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2000 Phonology and Morphology. The Cambridge History of the English Language. Vol. III: 1476–1776 ed. by Roger Lass, 56–186. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Liberman, Mark & Alan Prince
1977 On Stress and Linguistic Rhythm. Linguistic Inquiry 8:2.249–336.Google Scholar
McCully, Christopher B.
1997 Stress, Survival and Change: Old to Middle English. Studies in Middle English Linguistics ed. by Jacek Fisiak, 283–300. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2002 Exaptation and English Stress. Language Sciences 24:3/4.323–344. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McCully, Christopher B. & Richard Hogg
1990 An Account of Old English Stress. Journal of Linguistics 261.315–339. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Minkova, Donka
1991 The History of Final Vowels in English: The Sound of Muting. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1996 Nonprimary Stress in Early Middle English Accentual-Syllabic Verse. English Historical Metrics ed. by Christopher B. McCully & John J. Anderson, 95–119. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
1997 Constraint Ranking in Middle English Stress-Shifting. English Language and Linguistics 11.135–175. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2008a Prefixation and Stress in Old English. Word Structure 11:21–52. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2008b Continuity or Re-Invention in Functional Stress-Shifting. Paper Presented at the 15th International Conference on English Historical Linguistics (ICEHL 15), University of Munich, 24–30 Aug. 2008.
2009 Inflectional Syncope vs. Epenthesis: Notes on the History of the Weak Preterite in English. Phonological Weakness in English: From Old to Present-Day English ed. by Donka Minkova, 316–346. Basingstoke & New York: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014 A Historical Phonology of English. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Monaghan, Padraic & Morten H. Christiansen
2008 Integration of Multiple Probabilistic Cues in Syntax Acquisition. Corpora in Language Acquisition Research: History, methods, perspectives ed. by Heike Behrens, 139–163. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mossé, Fernand
1991 [1952] Handbook of Middle English. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Patel, Aniruddh
2008 Music, Language, and the Brain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
PPCEME = Anthony Kroch, Beatrice Santorini & Lauren Delfs
2004 Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Early Modern English. Manual online: [URL] (15 Nov 2019).
PPCMBE = Anthony Kroch, Beatrice Santorini & Ariel Diertani
2010 Penn Parsed Corpus of Modern British English, 1st edition. Manual online: [URL] (15 Nov 2019).
PPCME2 = Anthony Kroch, Ann Taylor & Beatrice Santorini
2000 Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Middle English. 2nd ed. Manual online: [URL] (15 Nov 2019).
R Development Core Team
2016 R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria.Google Scholar
Ross, John R.
1973 Leftward, Ho! A Festschrift for Morris Halle ed. by Stephen R. Anderson & Paul Kiparsky, 166–173. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Selkirk, Elisabeth
1984 Phonology and Syntax: The Relation between Sound and Structure. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Sereno, Joan A. & Allard Jongman
1990 Phonological and form class relations in the lexicon. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 191.387–404. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sherman, Donald
1975 Noun–Verb Stress Alternation: An Example of the Lexical Diffusion of Sound Change in English. Linguistics 1591.43–71.Google Scholar
Smith, Jennifer
2017 Segmental noun/verb phonotactic differences are productive too. Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America. Vol. 11. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sonderegger, Morgan
2010/2016 Testing for Frequency and Structural Effects in an English Stress Shift. Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 361.411–425. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sonderegger, Morgan & Partha Niyogi
2010 Combining Data and Mathematical Models of Language Change. Proceedings of the 48th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, 1019–1029.Google Scholar
Wright, Joseph & Elizabeth M. Wright
1923 An Elementary Middle English Grammar. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

MINKOVA, DONKA & CHRISTOPHER B. McCULLY
2022. Special issue on verse structure and linguistic modelling: introductory notes. English Language and Linguistics 26:3 ► pp. 461 ff. DOI logo
MINKOVA, DONKA & Z.L. ZHOU
2022. Early metrical and lexicographical evidence for functional stress-shifts. English Language and Linguistics 26:3 ► pp. 533 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 17 may 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.