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Blackbirds and blue whales: stress in English A+N constructions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2020

LAURIE BAUER Open the ORCID record for LAURIE BAUER [Opens in a new window]
LAURIE BAUER*
Affiliation:
Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington 6140, New Zealand laurie.bauer@vuw.ac.nz
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Abstract

In this article various constructions of English with the form A + N are considered, with particular reference to stress patterns. It is shown that there are several such patterns, and that stress patterns do not correlate with fixed effects. It is also argued that a simple division between compound and phrase does not seem to provide a motivation for the patterns found. The patterns seem to be determined partly by factors which are known to influence stress patterns in N + N constructions, and partly by lexical class, though variability in which expression belongs to which class is acknowledged. It is concluded that this is an area of English grammar that needs further research.

Keywords

compoundadjectiveEnglishstress
Type
Research Article
Information
English Language & Linguistics , Volume 25 , Special Issue 3: Spoken language in time and across time , September 2021 , pp. 581 - 600
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

I should like to thank my colleagues who agreed to take part in the pilot test mentioned in section 5, and the anonymous referees for ELL.

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