accentual

/æk'sentjuəl/

Thân thiện

An English teacher marks the accentual pattern of a poem on the chalkboard.

Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Pertaining to accent or stress: Relating to or characterized by accent, especially in pronunciation or poetic meter.
   • Based on stress in verse: Describing a metrical system in poetry where the rhythm is determined primarily by the number and pattern of stressed syllables, rather than by the number of syllables or their length (quantity).

Examples of Usage

• General Use (pertaining to accent):

  • The accentual patterns of English differ from those of French.
  • Linguists study the accentual features of a language.

• Poetic/Literary Use (stress-based meter):

  • Old English poetry, like Beowulf, is accentual.
  • He writes in a strong, accentual verse form.

Advanced Usage

• Accentual-syllabic verse: A metrical system that considers both the number of syllables and the pattern of stresses in a line. This is distinct from purely accentual verse.
  • While Shakespeare's iambic pentameter is accentual-syllabic, some folk poetry is purely accentual.

Variants and Related Words

• Accent (n): A distinctive mode of pronunciation; emphasis or stress on a syllable.
• Accentuate (v): To emphasize or stress.
• Accentuation (n): The act of accentuating; patterns of stress.

Synonyms

• Stress-based
• Tonic (in specific linguistic or poetic contexts)

Antonyms

• Quantitative (referring to verse based on syllable length, as in classical Latin poetry).
• Syllabic (referring to verse based solely on the number of syllables per line).

Học thuật

Adjective

1. (of verse) having a metric system based on stress rather than syllables or quantity
   • accentual poetry is based on the number of stresses in a line
   • accentual rhythm
2. of or pertaining to accent or stress