LEXICAL STRESS Stressed syllables are more salient perceptually than unstressed syllables.

. The perceived prominence of stressed syllables results from increased duration (greater length), higher pitch (higher rate of vocal fold vibration) and greater loudness (greater acoustic intensity mainly due to increased subglottal pressure). Although English word-stress assignment is difficult to predict, it is important to note a number of strong tendencies and robust generalizations that enable a native speaker to correctly place the stress on any English word. Stress assignment is sensitive to three factors: 1. The syntactic category of the word 2. Syllable weight 3. Morphological structure 1. The syntactic category of the word (a) Lexical words are stressed. Grammatical words are usually unstressed. (b) Nouns behave differently from verbs and adjectives (assuming they are all morphologically simple). Whereas nouns tend to be stressed on the 1st or 2nd syllable, verbs and adjectives tend to be stressed on the last or penultimate syllable. (c) In noun-verb homographs nouns tend to have stress on the first syllable and verbs on the last syllable (cnduct-condct, trnsport-transprt, sbject-subjct, rcord-recrd) 2. Syllable weight Heavy syllables tend to be stressed but only when occupying certain positions in the word: in nouns, it is the penultimate syllable that is stressed (if heavy), wheras in verbs and adjectives it is the final syllable (if heavy). Word-final consonants are EXTRAMETRICAL, i.e. they do not count for the purpose of word-stress assignment. For example, the second syllable of credit is light because the final plosive consonant is extrametrical. Classify the following syllables: ........... ........... Light Syllables (Short Vowel + No Coda): V. ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... Heavy Syllables (Short Vowel + C(s)) (Long Vowel or Diphthong + No Coda) (Long Vowel or Diphthong + C(s)) R C [xe # ]# [ N x x ] [ R N x C x ] [ R N x C x [xe # ]# ........... VC. VV. VVC.

R N x [ ] [

R N x

Word stress assignment rules Nouns Stress the penultimate if heavy; otherwise, stress the antepenultimate. Stress on penultimate syllable

Verbs and Adjectives Stress the final syllable if heavy; otherwise, stress the penultimate. Stress on final syllable

Stress on antepenultimate syllable

Stress on penultimate syllable

Classify the following nouns, verbs and adjectives: America frantic apartment edit asterisk obscene deny disaster 3. Morphological structure

divine agenda camera promise

Word-stress assignment generalizations in 1 and 2 above apply to morphologically simple words only, since word-stress assignment in morphologically complex is conditioned by the effect of affixation. Inflectional suffixes (-ing, -ed, -s) do not affect the stress pattern of words. Derivational affixes (prefixes and suffixes) may affect the stress pattern of words. Prefixes Usually unstressed: prevent, become Primary stress if full lexical meaning (re-, pre-, post-, pro-, anti-, half-, ex- ): re-write, post-natal, ex-chairman Secondary stress if negative prefix (unless followed by a stressed syllable, in which case the prefix will not be stressed): dsobi, vs. disrder, ncondtional vs. uncmmon Suffixes Type 1 (stress neutral): largely of germanic origin (-s, -ed, -ing, -ful, -er, -ish, -oid, -cy, ty, -ism, -ist, -ize): murderer, yellowish, wonderful, happily, happiness, delivery Type 2 (stress on suffix): largely of French origin (-ee, -eer, -escent, -esque, -ette, -ique, -oon, -ese, -ade): refugee, picturesque, saloon, technique. Type 3 (stress-shifting): largely of romance origin ( -ic, -ical, -ics, -tion, -ity, -ial, -ive, ious, -eous, -graphy): economic, political, elevation, valitity, advantageous. Compounds Compound nouns usually have a single stressed syllable on the first element and the second element of the compound is unstressed: blckboard, grenhouse (exceptions: selfpty, district cuncil, chrstmas pdding, retrn tcket). Word groups (syntactic units) have as many stressed syllables as lexical items they consist of: blck bard, gren huse.