STUDENT’S NAME: Kawa Izaddin Omar

Kurdistan Region -Iraq

STUDENT’S CODE: ENG@RVO787Q
Ministry of Higher Education &
Scientific research DEPARTMENT: English

Cihan University – Duhok YEAR /STAGE: First year

Department SUBJECT: pronunciation

ACADEMIC YEAR (20 - 20 )

ATTEMPT ( )

SEMESTER ( )

GRADES
HEAD EXAMINATION
LECTURES
NO. DEPARTMENT COMMITTEE
SIGNATURE
MARKS WRITTEN SIGNATURE SIGNATURE

TOTAL
 Stress in English

A Report Submitted to the Scientific Committee in Department of English

language as Partial Requirements for Pronunciation

2020 A.D. 2720 K. 1441 A.H

 TABLE OF CONTENTS
CONTENTS PAGE
ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………....……... I
INTRODUCTION ……………………………………….…………....…. 2
English stress……………………………………………….…,,,,…...... 3
What is Word Stress?………..……………………………….……… 6

Word stress rules …………………………………………….……….. 7

References……………………………………………………... 10
 ABSTRACT

English has become necessary for everyday affairs of modern world. It just happens
thatthe spoken English has assumed a far greater role than it did ever before in the
field of tourism,trade and commerce, or education. However, a great
number of English learners are oftenmisunderstood while conducting a
conversation and it happens simply due to the lack ofcomprehending
word stress. Learners of English obvioiusly need to understand about syllablesand
sentence stress. Stress is an important feature of English pronunciation and
to become apowerful communicator of English one needs proficiency while using
different stress patterns inhis communication. Word stress is crucial in
English pronunciation. It can be called agrammatical device in English. A
part of the meanings of a word depends on stress. It serves tomark the function
of words in spoken English. Word stress is an imperative part of
Englishlanguage learning, both in terms of comprehending spoken
English and increasing oralintelligibility. However, word stress often causes
problem for learners of English. It can often bea difficult area for learners of
English to master successfully. Therefore, the main objectives of this article
is to enable the learners of English torecognize and be familiar with
word stress; to recognize the importance of word stress inEnglish; to
identify affixes in English; to identify stress patterns and be able to
stress wordsaccurately which will help learners to understand and be understood
more easily.

Key words : syllable, stress. English. word

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 Chapter One
Introduction

Many of English learners continue to struggle with speaking and have

difficulty beingunderstood by native English speakers. One of the reasons is that
they have not taken the time tostudyword stress seriously.Second languages
learners often struggle to stress wordsappropriately in English. Word
stress is something that students should study if they wish tospeak English
well. It is an essential part of learning English because it is a major component
ofthe English language. Some languages have little or no stress, while most
have some stress. However, English is a heavily stressed based
language. Unfortunately, the majority of ESLteachers and students ignore the
necessity to practice word stress. This article presents an overview of what word
stress is. It discusses a few rules to followfor word stress which in return
will give the learners better capability in conducting
goodcommunication.

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 Chapter Two
English stress

1-The nature of English Stress: Roach (2009:73) defines stress as the

degree of force used in the pronounciation of a certain syllable. Gimson
(1989:228) refers to stress as a capcity of the pronunciation for the speaker
and the higher sound for the listener. There is a strong relationship
between stress and syllable. Lodge (2009:76) points out that a stressed
syllable is produced with strong energy which makes it unique. Gussenhoven
and Jacobs (2011:32)also argue that a stressed syllable appears in any
words as more prominent than other syllables in the same word.In addition,
stress is also defined from two perspectives : production and perception
(Roach, 2009 : 73). Al-Hmash ( 1984 : 93) also defines stress from the point
ofview of the speaker as an effort used in the production of the sound of the
syllable and from the view point of listener, stress is the loudness of the
specific sound by comparing it with another sound near it.

Stress is a special feature which is restricted by a number of phonetic factors that

enable to select a stressed syllable from unstressed one near it
(McMahon,2002:118). Concerning the previous point, Roach (2009:73)
indicates that the essential characteristic of stressed syllable is prominence. Roach
(ibid:74) points out that this prominence is affected by four important factors :
1.Loudness is a component of stressed syllable. Stresses syllables are all
louder than unstressed ones. This is a direct result of speech production
factors.

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2.Length is one of the affective component in the prominence. A stressed syllable
has a longer duration and strong vowels than unstressed syllable.

3.Pitch is a very important part of perceptual characteristic of speech sound. Each

syllable of the word is produced either as low or high pitched. Stressed syllable is
resulted as higher pitch which makes it prominent.

4.Vowel quality is one of the affective part in determining the prominence of

stressed syllable. Stressed syllable contains a vowel that is different from other
syllables around it. So that, the prominence of stressed syllable can be showed by
comparing it with other syllables near it. Roach (ibid)states that prominence is
made by those four factors in combination and may be made by only one or
two of them.

2.Levelsof stressIn: English language there are only three main levels
of stress. Ashby (2011:161) asserts that there are only three
possibilities in recognizing stress : primary stress, secondary stress and
unstressed. Ashby (Ibid) claims that these stresses are enough to play
two main roles—they show the features of the word itself (word
stress) and theyalso show the points in the word which may carry the
important information when the word is used in longer utterance
(sentence stress). Roach (2009:75) refers to the fourth level of stress
which is Tertiary. Tertiary level is rare in English language.

2.1.Primary Stress: When we pronounce certain words, we put stress on

certainsyllables. There are some syllables which are very prominent and
strong due to the effect of stress. Primary stress represents the maximal
prominence of the syllable in a word ( Collins and Mess, 2013:306). Roach

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(2009:75) mentions that primary stress is on the strongest syllable in a word which
appears to be more prominent than other syllables. Primary stress canbe marked
with a vertical mark [ '] placed above and in front of the syllable ( Collins and
Mess, 2013:131). Examples :Father / ˈfɑːðə / About / əˈbaʊt / Receive / rɪˈsiːv /

2.2.SecondaryStress:In long words ofmore than one syllable, a typeof stress

can be observed, that isweaker than primary stress (strong). Gussenhoven and
Jacobs (2011:32) state that IPA marking for secondary stress is [,] to be
placed before the syllable concerned.Examples: Photography /fəˈtɒgrəfi /

Anthropology / ˌænθrəˈpɒləʤi / Organization / ˌɔːgənaɪˈzeɪʃən /

2.3.Unstressed: This involves a non-prominent syllable. This level of

stressisoftenthe weakersyllable in a word in that itcontainsthe short vowel /ə/.
Unlike primary and secondary stress, unstressed level is left unmarked.Examples:
Open / 'əʋpən/ Announcer /ə'naʋnsər/ Programmer/ 'prəʋgræmər/

3.Placementof: stress Roach divides the languagesof the world into twogroups on
the basis of placement of the stress. The first group contains languages
which have fixed place for the stress in words like,French language in
which the last syllable is usually stressed. Thesecond group contains
languages in which there is no fixed place for stress in words.For example, in
English language there is a difficulty to predict the placement of word
stress(2009:76).

4. Stress and Meaning: There is a strong relationship between the placement

of stress and the meaning. However, Gill (n. d) mentions that there are
words of two-syllable in which the placement of stress does not only affect their
syntactic category,but theirmeaning as well, for example,there is a huge difference
in meaning between ('address vs. add'ress ) and ('contentvs. con'tent ).

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 Chapter Three
What is Word Stress?
In many languages such as in English, all the syllables in multisyllabic words
are notequally stressed (spoken with some kind of a force or strength)
when they arepronounced. WORD-STRESS is also sometimes referred to as
WORD ACCENT. In English, we do not say each syllable with the same force or
strength. This means thatone part of a certain word is said louder and longer than
other parts of the same word. In one word, we accentuate ONE syllable. We
sayone syllable veryloudly (big, strong,important) andall the other syllables
veryquietly. The syllable which is pronounced with greater force is called
thestressed syllable. Yo ucan also call it theaccented syllable. "Accent" in this case
means "emphasis". English has its typical WORD-STRESS pattern. It is
something that is completely natural for English speakers, but something
ESLstudents can learn from practicing their conversational skills and by
learning the rulesfor using word stress.

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Word stress rules.
1.Two-Syllable nouns and adjectivesIn most two syllable nouns and adjectives,
the first syllable takes on the stress. Examples:SAM-ples CAR-ton Col-or
-ful RAI-ny
2. Two-Syllable verbs and prepositionsIn most two syllable verbs and
prepositions, the stress is on the second syllable. Examples:re-LAX Re-CEIVE
di-RECT a-MONG.
More about word stress on two-syllable words
About 80% or so of two-syllable words get their stress on the first syllable.
There are of course, exceptions to this rule, but very few nouns and adjectives get
stress on their second syllable. Verbs and prepositions usually get stress placed on
the second syllable, but there are exceptions to this too. a-SIDE be-
TWEEN.
3.Three-Syllable wordsFor three syllable words, look at the word ending (the
suffix), using the following as your guide.
4.Words ending in er, or, ly For words ending with the suffixes er, or, or ly, the
stress is placed on the first syllable.
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Examples:DI-Rect/DI-rec-tor OR-der/OR-der-ly MA-nage/MA-nag-er
5.Words ending in consonants and in y If there is a word that ends in a
consonantor in a y, then the first syllable gets the stress. Examples:RA-ri-ty
OP-ti-mal GRA-di-ent CON-tain-er
6.Words with various endings Take a good look at the list of suffixes below
(suffixes are word endings).Your stress is going to come on the syllable right
before the suffix. This applies to words of all syllable lengths.

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Examples: able: ADDable, ARable, DURableary: PRIMary, DIary,
liBRarycial: juDIcial, nonSOcial
7. Words ending in ee, ese, ique, ette Words that use the suffix ee, ese, eer, iqueor
ette, have the primary stress actually placed on the suffix. This applies to words of
all syllable lengths. Examples:ee: agrEE, jamborEE, guarantEEeer: sightsEER,
puppetEERese: SiamESE, JapanESE, cheese
8.Prefixes Usually, prefixes do not take the stress of a word. There are a few
exceptions to this rule, however, like: un, in, pre, ex and mis, which are all stressed
in their prefix. Examples:ex: e-XAM-ple, ex-pla-NAtion, e-XAM-inein: IN-side,
IN-efficient, IN-terest
9.Stress on the second from the end syllable You put stress on the second
syllable from the end of the word, with words ending in ic, sion and tion.
Examples: i-CON-ic Hy-per-TEN-sion Nu-TRI-tion
10.Stress on the third from end syllable You put stress on the third from end
syllable with words that end in cy, ty, phy, gyand al. Examples:de-mo-CRA-cy
TREA-ty Ge-O-graphy
11. Word stress for compound words
A. Compound noun
A compound noun is a noun made out of two nouns in order to form one word. In a
compound noun, the first word usually takes on the stress. Examples:SEA-food
ICE-land TOOTH-paste
B. Compound adjectives
A compound adjective is an adjective composed of at least two words. Often,
hyphens are used in compound adjectives. In compound adjectives, the stress is
placed within the second word. Examples:ten-ME-terrock-SO-lidFif-teen-MI-nute

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12. Phrasal verbs Phrasal verbs are words made from a verb and preposition. In
phrasal verbs, the second word gets the stress (the preposition). Examples:Black
OUTbreak DOWN look OUT
13.Proper nouns Proper nouns are specific names of people, places or things. For
example: Jeniffer, Spain, Google. The second word is always the one that takes the
stress Examples:North DAKOTA Mr. SMITHApple INCORPORATED
14. Reflexive pronouns Reflexive pronouns show that the action affects the
person who performs the action. For example: I hit myself. The second syllable
usually takes the stress. Examples:my-SELFThem-S E LV ESOur-S E LV ES
15. Numbers If the number is a multiple of ten, the stress is placed on the first
syllable. Examples:TENFIF-ty ONE-hundred

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REFERENCES:
1- Ajhaz Gilani, Syed (1996).Study of Stress: A Paralinguistic Feature of English Speech______Kashmir
Journal of Language Research, volume 2, NovemberCruttenden, Allan (2001).Gimson's
Pronunciation.OUP.

2- Jones, Daniel (1980).The Pronunciation of English.CUP.

3- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX1rrFh4OZw

4- https://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/word-stress-2.Htm

5- Essberger,J. (1998) http://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/word-stress-rules.htmJones, D.(1986). The

pronunciation of English. Cambridge. Univeresity of cambridge.

6- Kenworthy, J.(1989). Teaching English Pronunciation. Longman.

7- Beare, K.(2018, February 1). Pronunciation: changing Meaning throught word stress. Retrieved February
20, 2018, from ThoughtCo.: www.thoughtco.com/pronunciation-changing-meaning-word-stress-1209026

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