问题：

What are suprasegmental features? How do the major

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答案：

A suprasegmental feature refers to the phonemic features that occur above the level of sound segment. The major suprasegmental features in English include word stress sentence stress tone and intonation. The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning. For example a shift of stress may change the part of speech of a word from a noun to a verb although its spelling remains unchanged. Tones are pitch variations which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords. Pitch variations can distinguish meaning just like phonemes. When pitch stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation they are collectively known as intonation. Intonation plays an important role in the conveyance of meaning in almost every language especially in a language like English. Asuprasegmentalfeaturereferstothephonemicfeaturesthatoccurabovethelevelofsoundsegment.ThemajorsuprasegmentalfeaturesinEnglishincludewordstress,sentencestress,tone,andintonation.ThelocationofstressinEnglishdistinguishesmeaning.Forexample,ashiftofstressmaychangethepartofspeechofawordfromanountoaverbalthoughitsspellingremainsunchanged.Tonesarepitchvariations,whicharecausedbythedifferingratesofvibrationofthevocalcords.Pitchvariationscandistinguishmeaningjustlikephonemes.Whenpitch,stressandsoundlengtharetiedtothesentenceratherthanthewordinisolation,theyarecollectivelyknownasintonation.Intonationplaysanimportantroleintheconveyanceofmeaninginalmosteverylanguage,especiallyinalanguagelikeEnglish.