Lecture 5
Stress
• Definition
• Types of stress
• Nature of stress
• Placement of stress within words
• Simple words
• Derived words
• Compound words
• Word class pairs
• Strong form and weak form
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Definition
• Stress is an extra force exerted on a particular syllable
or a particular word in spoken language. The stressed
syllable or word is said with greater energy, and stands
out in a word, phrase or sentence. Examples:
father
information
John bought a new car yesterday
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Types of stress
1.
Word stress: is an extra force put on a particular
syllable of the word. It is usually fixed. For example:
invite
2.
entertain
Sentence stress: is an extra force put on a particular
word in a sentence. Sentence stress is not fixed. It
depends on the speaker’s feelings and attitudes and
the message that he wants to get across to the
listener. For example:
John bought a new car yesterday.
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The nature of stress
•
We can study stress from the point of view of production
and perception.
1.
From the production point of view, the production of
stress is generally believed to depend on the speaker’s
using more muscular energy than for unstressed
syllables.
2.
From the perception point of view: all stressed syllables
have one characteristic in common, and that is
prominence. At least four factors make a stressed
syllable prominent: loudness, length, pitch and vowel
quality. Generally, these four factors work together in
combination though syllables may sometimes be made
prominent by means of only one or two of4 them.
Levels of stress
1.
Primary stress (tonic/nuclear): is the strongest type of
stress. It is marked by a small vertical line high up just
before the syllable it relates to.
2.
Secondary stress (non-tonic): it is weaker than
primary stress, but stronger than unstressed syllables. It
is usually found in words of four or five syllables. It is
represented in transcription with a low mark. For
examples:
photographic
economical
anthropology
nationality
3. Unstressed: can be regarded as being the absence of
any recognizable amount of prominence.
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Placement of stress within words
•
In order to decide on the stress placement, it is
necessary to make use of some or all of the following
information.
a.
Whether the word is morphologically simple or
complex.
(whether the word is a simple, derived or compound
word).
a.
The grammatical category to which the word belongs.
b.
The number of syllables in the word.
c.
The phonological structure of the word.
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Simple word stress
1.
Two syllable words
a. Verbs
b. Adjectives
c. Nouns
d. Adverbs and prepositions
2. Three syllable words
a. Verbs
b. Nouns
c. Adjectives
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Two-syllable verbs
a. If the second syllable of the verb contains a long
vowel or a diphthong or it ends with more than
one consonant, that second syllable is stressed.
E.g.
•
provide
protest
contain
agree
More examples: select, arrest, design, inform,
invent, prefer, depend, occur, succeed, deny,
apply, record, invite.
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b. If the second syllable contains a short vowel and
ends with one or no consonant, the first syllable is
stressed. Examples:
•
enter
worry
travel
open
More examples: menace, settle, marry, differ,
equal, answer.
c. The final syllable is also unstressed if it
contains /@U/. Examples:
follow
borrow
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Two-syllable Adjectives
• Two syllable adjectives are stressed according to
the same rules as verbs. Examples:
correct
major
polite
complete
heavy
happy
sincere
precise
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Two-syllable Nouns
a. If the second syllable contains a short vowel, the
stress will be on the first syllable. Otherwise, it will
be on the second syllable.
money
reason
office
larynx
estate
balloon
autumn
affair
delight
pocket
canoe
surface
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Notes
• Other two-syllable words such as adverbs and
prepositions seem to behave like verbs and
adjectives. Examples:
beyond
never
seldom
behind
again
very
before
after
except
across
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Three-syllable verbs
a.
b.
If the last syllable contains a short vowel and ends
with not more than one consonant, the last syllable
will be unstressed, and stress will be placed on the
second syllable.
encounter
determine
abandon
remember
If the final syllable contains a long vowel or a
diphthong, or ends with more than one consonant,
the final syllable will be stressed.
entertain
introduce
intervene
recommend13
Three-syllable Nouns
a.
If the final syllalbe contains a short vowel or /@U/, it
is unstressed. If the second syllable contains a long
vowel or a diphthong, or it ends with more than one
consonant, the second syllable will be stressed.
potato
disaster
cathedral
advantage
b. If the final syllable contains a short vowel and the
second syllable contains a short vowel and ends with
not more than one consonant, both the final and
middle syllalbes are unstressed, and the first syllable
is stressed.
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c.
quantity
cinema
enemy
alphabet
animal
company
antonym
character
If the final syllalbe contains a long vowel or a
diphthong or it ends with more than one consonant,
the stress will usually be placed on the first syllable.
paradise
exercise
architect
marigold
photograph
attitude
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Three-syllable Adjectives
• Three-syllable adjectives seem to need the same
rules as Nouns to produce stress pattern such as:
opportune
insolent
possible
derelict
important
absolute
enormous
similar
accurate
popular
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Complex word stress
• Derived words
• Stress on the affix
• No change in stress placement
• The stress remains on the stem but is shifted to
a different syllable.
• Compound words
• Primary stress on the second element
• Primary stress on the first element.
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Stress in derived words
•
The affixes will have one of three possible effects on
the word stress.
1.
The affix itself receives primary stress.
circle
semi-circle
employ
employee
person
personality
Portugal
Portugese
cigar
cigarette
picture
picturesque
mountain
mountaineer
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2.
The word is stressed as if the affix were not there.
comfort
comfortable
marry
marriage
refuse
refusal
wide
widen
wonder
wonderful
amaze
amazing
red
reddish
power
powerless
punish
punishment
poison
poisonous
glory
glorify
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3. The stress remains on the stem, not the affix, but
is shifted to a different syllable.
advantage
advantageous
proverb
proverbial
climate
climatic
injure
injurious
tranquil
tranquility
photograph
photographer
economy
economical
equator
equatorial
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Compound words
a.
If the first word/part of the compound is in a broad
sense adjectival, the stress goes on the second
element with a secondary stress on the first.
loudspeaker
full moon
fast food
new moon
open hearted
ill mannered
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b.
If, however, the first element is, in a broad sense, a
noun, the stress goes on the first element.
car ferry
tea cup
suitcase
bottle feed
boatpeople
farm house
airplane
bodyguard
bedroom
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Word class pairs
• In English, there are pairs of two syllable words with
identical spelling which differ from each other in stress
placement, apparently according to word class. The
rule is as follows: The stress will be placed on the
second syllable if the word is a Verb, but on the first
syllable of the Noun or Adjective.
abstract
abstract
conduct
conduct
contrast
contrast
desert
desert
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escort
escort
export
export
import
import
insult
insult
object
object
perfect
perfect
permit
permit
present
present
produce
produce
rebel
rebel
record
record
subject
subject
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Strong and weak forms
• There are certain well-known English words that can be
pronounced in two different ways which are called strong
form and weak form.
I like that
I hope that you are fine
• It is possible to use only strong forms in speaking, and
some foreigners do this. Usually, they can still be
understood by other speakers of English, so why is it
important to learn how weak forms are used?
a. Most native speakers of English find an ‘all-strong-form’
pronunciation unnatural and foreign sounding, somethings
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that most learners would wish to avoid.