The Principle of Linguistic Economy and Emphasis in English

抄録

This paper recognizes “The old idea of sound patterns being the outcome of a competition between the demands of the speaker and the hearer – maximizing articulatory ease vs. the distinctiveness of contrast” (Côté, 2000, p. 154) and indicates that linguistic economy applies to primary stress shift for emphasis in certain English words. The speaker’s expressive need sometimes motivates the process of stress shift for emphasis cross-linguistically, which is also referred to as “climax” (Bolinger, 1978, p. 486; Bolinger, 1980, p. 42). As a result of climax, the addressee can grasp messages more clearly and precisely than otherwise; however, climax causes the speaker to expend more time and effort in producing intended effects as such. Our survey findings show eight hitherto unrecorded words that can undergo the target shift as a marker of emphasis as in awesóme and horrór, resulting in alteration in the vowel and rhythmic patterning (henceforth, a vowel in bold attracts the primary stress). This study addresses the potential room for formal research into phonological rules that allow the target shift.