ABSTRACT
Words are made up of phonemes as shown by meaningful contrasts, e.g. the /t/ and /d/ contrast in writer /raitə/ and rider /raidə/. In polysyllabic words, words have an additional identity determined by the relationship of their parts. Thus writer and rider have a pattern consisting of a strong syllable followed by a weak syllable. But in the case of return /ri`tn/ the pattern is reversed: we have a weak syllable followed by a strong syllable. The identity of return compared with writer and rider depends not only on the different sequence of phonemes but also on the different patterns produced by the varying prominence of their syllables. The syllable or syllables of a word which stand out from the remainder are said to be accented, to receive an ACCENT.
