From: Randall Buth (ButhFam@compuserve.com)
Date: Thu Jan 31 2002 - 11:55:47 EST
TW MICAHL
CAIREIN
EGRAYAS
>- accentuation ... provides a uniform pronunciation model.
>I agree. But does it indeed serve the latter purpose?
>...I would say the answer is almost certainly no.<
Yes, it does serve the latter purpose.
Pragmatic information pitch contours on whole sentences
(=intonation patterns)
do not directly change the placement of word level stress. Your examples
of different ways to read the same written sentence merely show that a
writing system is incomplete. (E.g. Notice that 'incomPLETE', or any
of the above English words, keep the same syllable accented
regardless of whether in a question sentence or indicative.)
The Greek accents merely provide uniform WORDSTRESS placement,
though they do not show whether to read as a question or imperative
KAI TA LOIPA.
KERDHQH'SONTAI would not normally allow other syllables to receive the main
accent, unless perhaps in a teaching situation where the teacher
points out a syllable that needs to be changed in spelling or speech, or as
a
special illustration. (In which case it has momentarily become a neologism
and a quasi-noun.)
Having said that, please understand that the exact pitch contour on
KERDHQHSONTAI would be expected to be different in the different
Greek contexts. It's just that -QH- would retain the main stress point.
ERRWSO
Randall Buth
www.biblicalulpan.org
---
B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [jwrobie@mindspring.com]
To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-327Q@franklin.oit.unc.edu
To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:37:17 EDT