Accent is the
emphasis placed upon a syllable in pronunciation. The term is often used as a
synonym for 'stress', although some theorists prefer to use 'stress' only for
metrical accent. Three kinds of accent may be distinguished, according to the
factor that accounts for each:
1. Etymological accent (or 'word accent') is the
emphasis normally given to
a syllable according to the word's derivation or
morphology. 2. Rhetorical accent (or 'sense accent') is allocated according to the relative importance of the word in the context of a sentence or question.
3. Metrical accent (or stress) follows a recurrent pattern of stresses in a verse line.