Pronunciation of Prefixed Words in Speech: The Importance of Semantic and Intersubjective Parameters

The pronunciation of prefixed words in English has often been defined in terms of morphology only (see for instance Guierre [1979], Fournier [1996] or Guyot-Talbot [2003]) as follows: a separable prefix bears primary or secondary stress according to its syntactic category whereas an inseparable prefix is unstressed and its vowel is reduced. This definition appears to be unsatisfactory as far as the pronunciation of prefixed words in normal speech is concerned. Other parameters have yet to be taken into account. Based on the acoustic analysis of an oral corpus drawn from the radio (BBC Radio 4 for British English and National Public Radio for American English), this paper investigates the pronunciation of prefixed words taking into account not only morphophonology but also the semantic relationship between the two elements of the word (prefix and root) and the linguistic and extralinguistic contexts in which the prefixed words are uttered. For instance, we shall show that the relationship between the speaker and his/her co-speaker especially in cases of explicit or implicit contrast, of focalization, etc.– have an impact on the pronunciation of prefixed words in normal speech. The prefix may then bear not only word stress but also pitch accent and be prominent in discourse depending on the speaker’s intention