The Importance of Stress in Detecting Meaning

Abstract

Abstract:
In this paper we tackle an essential component in language studies, which has always attracted our attention, especially that it did not get the attention it deserved in the scholarship despite its importance in linguistic communication, and its crucial role in determining the overall meaning and clarifying the speaker’s intended message. We are referring to the concept of accentuation/stress that is classified within the realm of phonology, as a suprasegmental feature (prosody.) The importance of this paper resides in its aim to identify the importance of accentuation/stress in speech performance, its levels and degrees, and also its relationship with other phonetic features ( such as intonation for example) while specifying its linguistic functions.