Which term best describes the study of features such as stress, rhythm, and intonation?

• A. Lexicon
• B. Phonemes
• C. Suprasegmentals
• D. Morphemes

Answer: (C)

Stress, rhythm, and intonation are features that operate over sequences of sounds rather than single phonemes. They belong to suprasegmentals, the aspect of linguistics that studies how speech melody, emphasis, and timing shape meaning and tone across phrases and sentences. Stress highlights particular syllables, rhythm is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that gives a language its characteristic flow, and intonation tracks the rise and fall of pitch to signal questions, statements, or attitudes. This area is distinct from lexicon (vocabulary), phonemes (the smallest sound units), and morphemes (the smallest meaningful units). So suprasegmentals best describes the study of these features.