The Groundwork of English Stress Jos Ribamar de Castro.

Stress is the relative degree of force used by a speaker on the various syllables he is uttering.It gives a certain basic prominence to the syllables,and hence to the words,on which it is used,and incidentally assists in avoid monotony. WORD (or LEXICAL) STRESS is the relative degree of force used in pronouncing the different syllables of a word of more than one syllable. Examples: About Generation SENTENCE (or SYNTACTICAL) STRESS is the relative degree of force given to the different words in the sentence. Examples: I could hardly believe my eyes. Whats he talking about?

Types of stress Stress definitions PRIMARY is the strongest stress in a phrase.Every word spoken in isolation has primary stress on one syllable,the other syllables having one of the weaker stresses. SECONDARY is a kind of reduced primary,is not recognized by all analysists.It occurs only on major-stressed items that have entered into syntactic combinations.

TERTIARY is the intermediate stress recognized by all analysts of English in single words like football,and twoword phrases like fountain pen. WEAK is the level of least intensity.Most syllables spoken with weak stress are limited to certain vowels only, schwa and /I/ .

Stress shift `__ _ _ __`__ _ __ __ __`__ __ diplomat di plomacy diplo matic photograph photography photographic monotone monotony monotonic The chart above exemplifies the kind of alternations that can occur.All the words in the first column have the primary stress on the first syllable.When the noun-forming suffix -y occurs,the stress on these words

shifts to the second syllable.But as you can see on the third column,the adjectival suffix -ic moves the stress to the syllable immediately preceding it,which in these words is the third syllable.

Double stress in simple words (primary and secondary).

Secondary stress is chiefly needed in words having three or more syllables preceding the primary stress. Examples: vulnera`bility exami`nation responsa`bility

Difference in noun and verb through stress. The following pair of words are spelled the same but the stress on the nouns differs from that on the verbs. The nouns are stressed on the first syllable,lenghten the first syllable.The verbs are stressed on the second syllable,lenghten the second syllable.

Nouns `Concert `Conduct `Conflict `Contest `Contract `Contrast `Decrease `Desert `Digest

Verbs Con`cert Con`duct Con`flict Con`test Con`tract Con`trast De`crease Desert Di`gest

Vowel quality in stress shift. The change in accentual pattern is manifested mainmly by a shift in pitch prominence together with a related variation of quality.Often the qualitative change takes the form of a reduction of the unaccented vowel of the first element of the verbal form to schwa or /I/;less frequently,by a

reduction of the vowel in the second element of the noun/adjective form,e.g.: Noun/adjective `Absent `Concert `Present `Subject Verb Ab`sent Con`cert Pre`sent Sub`ject

Stress vs. Full vowel There is a tendency in English to reduce syllables adjacent to the stressed one,and to subsidiary stress on these at one remove from it. The semi- stressed syllable preserves its vowel quality.All we can say for certain is that the two phenomena are interdependent. A subsidiary stress favours the pronunciation of the

full vowel; a full vowel produces the impression of a subsidiary stress.

(from Maria Schubiger Vowel Quality in Unstressed Syllables in English Language Teaching. Volume XXI. Number 2. January,1967. OUP. p170).

EX pronunciation principles 1. Where EX has primary or secondary stress,it is pronounced /eks/. Examples: `exercise , `exodus, expo`s. 2. Where the stress falls on the second syllable,which begins with a consonant,EX is usually pronounced /Iks/

Examples: ex`claim,ex`press,ex`treme.

3. Where the stress falls on the second syllable which begins with a vowel, EX is pronounced /Igz/ . Examples: ex`act, ex`ist , ex`haust.

RE pronunciation rules 1. If the prefix means again, it has secondary stress and is pronounced /ri:/, eg: re`write , re-`sign. 2. If the prefix does not mean again,we must distinguish two different cases: a) Where RE has primary or secondary stress,it is pronounced /re/ , eg.: `recognize , re`collect. b) Where RE is unstressed,it is pronounced

/rI/ ,eg.: re`member re`flection re`flexion

The suffix -ATE pronunciation rules 1. If the word ending in ate has only two syllables,the stress falls on the last syllable if the word is a verb,eg.: cre`ate , dic`tate. 2. But the stress generally falls on the first syllable if the word is a noun or an adjective,eg.: `climate, `private.

3. If the word ending in ate has more than two syllables,the main stress will practically always fall on the third syllable from the end,eg.: `fortunate , `delicate. NOTE: when the ending is stressed,it is pronounced /eIt/: ; when unstressed it is nearly always /It/

A few adjectives are stressed on the second syllable: in`nate , or`nate,se`date. The noun debate is pronoun ced like the verb de`bate.

Phrases and compounds ing words 1. Smoking `room ( a room on fire that is smoking) `Smoking room ( a room where on may smoke) 2. Dancing `girl (a girl who is dancing) `Dancing girl ( a girl who dances professionally)
Note: Primary stress on 2nd element= action is in progress Primary stress on 1st element= attributive value to the second element

Noun- Past participle adjective (or adverb) Past participle Absent-`minded Well -`made Under-de`veloped Old-`fashioned
Note: The past participle usually reveives the primary stress

Noun Compounds a `darkroom (special room used in photography) Adjectival Phrases a dark `room (a room that is dark)
Note: Compound has a primary stress on the first element Adjectival has a primary stress on the second element

Another major function of stress in English is in cases where two word phrases form compounds such as: Nouns Phrasal verbs a `walkout to `walk out a `put-on to `put on
In these cases,there is a stress only on the first element of the compound for the nouns but on both elements of the phrasal verbs.

Introduction to sentence stress

As a general rule it may be said that the relative stress of the words in a sequence depends on their relative importance.The more important a word is,the stronger is its stress.The most important words are usually (in the absence of special emphasis) the nouns,adjectives,demonstrative and interrogative pronouns,principal verbs and adverbs.Such words are therefore generally strong stressed.

Content words are usually stressed. 1. Nouns : boy, book,etc. 2. Verbs: (not auxiliary/modal verbs) 3. Adjectives: old,beautiful,etc. 4. Adverbs : now,yesterday,etc. 5. Demonstratives: this,that,these,those 6. Interrogatives: who,when,why,etc. Function words are usually unstressed. 1. Articles: a, an , the. 2. Prepositions: to , of, in, etc. 3. Personal Pronouns : I, me , he , him,etc. 4. Possessive adjectives : my , his , your ,etc. 5. Relative pronouns : who , that , which ,etc. 6. Common conjuctions : and , but , as if ,etc.

7. ONE used as a noun substitute. 8. Auxiliary verbs : be , have , will, can , must , shall,etc. I was therefore led to the conclusion (which is contrary to opinions that have been expressed by some authorities) that a foreigners intelligibility may depend quite as much on correcting stressing as on correct intonation.In a strongly stressed language like English,where vowel quality is so frequently influenced by the presence or absence of stress,wrong stressing disguises words far more effectively than does wrong intonation. (Roger Kingdon)