terminology: syntactic accent

[Hans-Heinrich Lieb]

Dear Sebastian Drude,

"sentence stress" (also used by Bolinger 1958) is indeed the closest informal 
equivalent to "syntactic accent", which may not be widely used outside IL 
(but note that "sentence stress" does not allow for a plural). However, "word 
stress" is less frequent than "word accent" (Bolinger: "word-level stress"). 
I chose to use "accent" in either case. "Sentence accent" (similarly, 
"Satzakzent") is misleading because it appears to be used mainly for 'non-
contrastive' accentuation. Hence, my "syntactic accent(s)". The restricted 
use of "sentence accent" should be retained. My proposal for informal use 
that is not misleading: "sentence accentuation" instead of "sentence stress".

Best regards,

Hans-Heinrich Lieb

  

Date sent:      	Thu, 22 Nov 2007 16:46:31 +0100
Send reply to:  	Discussion of topics in Integrational Linguistics
             	<IL-LIST at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
From:           	Sebastian Drude <sebadru at ZEDAT.FU-BERLIN.DE>
Subject:        	terminology: syntactic accent
To:             	IL-LIST at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG

> Dear colleagues,
> 
> 
> I am sorry that I had and have no time to get into the very interesting
> debate about participles, the passive and valency.
> 
> Nevertheless, may I seek for help with respect to another topic?
> Recently I was confronted several times with the fact that the term
> "syntactic accent" is not generally known or used, and usually is not
> even intuitively understood by other linguists.  So I understand that
> this is not a traditional term that the Integrational Theory
> reconstructs?  Or was it introduced and used only or mainly by Bolinger,
> and that approach did not make it in general textbooks or linguistic
> dictionaries?  Does the same hold for German ""Satzakzent"?
> 
> Anyway, my pragmatic question is: When I want to say "syntactic accent"
> in a general paper not directed to an IL audience, which more widespread
> term would you recommend me to use; what is closest to the IL conception?
> I most often find "Sentence Stress", but find it misleading...
> What about "sentence accent"?
> 
> Thank you in advance for your help, and best wishes from Belém,
> 
> Sebastian (Drude)
> 
> 
> References:
> Bolinger, Dwight L., 1958. "A theory of pitch accent in English".
> Word 14: 109-149.
> 
> Lieb, Hans-Heinrich, 1984a. "A method for the semantic study of
> syntactic accents". In: Dafydd Gibbon, and Helmut Richter (eds).
> Intonation, accent and rhythm: Studies in discourse phonology. Berlin;
> New York: de Gruyter. 267–282.
> 
> In Lieb 1983b, there is a reference as "forthcoming b":
> "Accent and meaning. A study of syntactic accents, stress, and rythm,
> with special reference to German"
> I cannot find this in the IL-Bibliography, is there a possibility to
> read the manuscript?
> 
> 
> PS: For instance, I am writing a paper about the Awetí Orthography, and
> there I explain very shortly (rough translation from Portuguese to English):
> 
> "By lexical accent we understand here the saliency of a syllable in a
> phonological word, indicating its capacity to carry a syntactic accent
> (such as a contrastive accent)."  or: "... that a syntactic accents
> manifests itself on that syllable (...).".
> 
> [[Por acento tônico, entendemos, aqui, a saliência de uma sílaba dentro
> de uma palavra fonológica, indicando sua capacidade de nela se
> manifestar um acento sintático (como um acento contrastivo).]]
> 
> All readers would criticize or make a comment of lack of understanding
> on "syntactic accent", and this has happened in other occasions before.
> 
> 
> -- 
> | Sebastian Drude (Linguist)
> | Sebastian.Drude at fu-berlin.de & Sebastian.Drude at googlemail.com
> | http://www.germanistik.fu-berlin.de/il/pers/drude-en.html



—————————————————————————————————————————————————————

 Prof. Dr. Hans-Heinrich Lieb
 FREIE UNIVERSITÄT BERLIN
 FB Philosophie und Geisteswissenschaften
 Institut für Deutsche und Niederländische Philologie
 Habelschwerdter Allee 45
 14195 BERLIN

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————
 lieb at zedat.fu-berlin.de
 Sekretariat (030) 838-54233
 www.germanistik.fu-berlin.de/il/lieb.html
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————