SENTENCE STRESS & WEAK FORM

I> Weak forms II> Sentence stress

I> Weak forms

Certain English words can be pronounced in two different ways: strong forms and weak forms. Weak forms are function words (do not have a dictionary meaning in the way that we normally expect nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs to have).

auxiliary verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns, determiners. They are more frequently pronounced in their weak forms.

*They are STRONG in the following cases: At the end of a sentence E.g.: I come from Paris. /ai km frm pris/ Where are you from?/we j fr4m/ When being contrasted with another word E.g.: The letters from him, not to him/ letz fr4m im not tu: im/ A co-ordinated use of prepositions E.g.: I travel to and from London a lot/ai trvl tu: n fr4m lndn l4t/ For the purpose of emphasis E.g.: You must give me more money/ju mst giv mi m0: mni/ Being cited or quoted E.g.: You shouldnt put and at the end of a sentence/j dnt pt nd t i end v sentns/ In negative form E.g.: I cant play tennis/ai knt plei tenis/

Grammatica l category

Function word

Weak form

Strong form

Example of weak form

the

Articles

(before consonants) i(before vowels)

(before consonants) n(before vowels)

i:

Shes the person I told you about

a, an

ei,n

Hes a doctor Shes an architect

and

n(d) nd (n after t,d,s,z, ) bt bt

Shes tall and fair

Conjunctions

but that

Shes here, but Juan isnt

t (as a rel t (aa a Shes the person that I like. pron & conj) demonst) That car belongs to me.

than

Shes older than you

his

iz(hiz at the hi:z beginning of a sentence) (before consonants) r(before vowels) h(r)when sentence-initial) j(before consonants) jr(before vowels) i h:

This is his book His book is here Ill give it to her later

her

your Personal pronoun s she he

j0:(r)

What does your boss think?

i:

Shes leaving tomorrow Where does he work?

i(hi at the hi: beginning of a sentence) wi ju im m s wi: ju: him em s

we you him them

We re going to do it later I love you Ill give it to him later Ill give it to them later

at for

t f(before consonants) fr(before vowels) frm v t(before consonants) tu(before vowels) z

t f0 (r)

Hes at work Hes gone for two weeks

from of Prepositions to

fr4m v tu:

She comes from England Thats the picture of my sister Shes already gone to work

as

As shes small, she cant attend

some
Indefinit e any adjective such s

sm
ni:/ni: s

sm
eni: s

Theres some butter in the fridge

Have you got any biscuits? Its not such a big deal, really.

can,could shall should must

kn, kd l (l) d (d) ms(before consonants) mst(before vowels)

kn,kd l d mst

Can you lend me some money? Well, what could I say? Shall I do it for you? Well, what should I have said? I must admit that I love you so much. You must do it. Would you like a coffee? Id like an ice cream. Ill do it. Thats what Im trying to say. Wheres he from? Where are you from? Thats where he was born.

would

d (wd at the wd beginning of a sentence) l m, m z, z, s wil m iz

will Verbs am is are was

(before consonants),r a: (r) (before vowels) wz wz

were
do

w(before consonants), w: ( r) wr (before vowels)

d(before consonants) du(before vowels) du:

Thats where my children were born.

Where do you live?

does

dz

dz

Where does she live?

have

hv, v, v

hv

Have you been to the bank? He will have left by now. Theyve gone.
Has she been away? The baby has swallowed a stone. Hes gone Had he done it? He had already gone. Hed already gone.

has

hz, z, z, hz s

had

hd, d, d

hd

there Adverb

(before consonants, final position) r(before vowels)

e(befor Theres a restaurant e around the corner. consonants Its over there. ) er(befor e vowels)

* Note:
That: -used as a relative pronoun and conjunction weak form E.g.: The price is the thing that annoys me prais iz i t n0iz mi -used as a demonstrative strong form E.g.: That girl is mine t g:l iz main Some: - used before uncountable nouns (an unspecified amount of) and before countable plural nouns (an unspecified number of) weak form E.g.: Have some more tea hv sm m0: ti: I have some dogs ai hv sm dgz - used before a countable singular noun (unknown individual) and in final position. strong form

E.g.: I think some boy broke the window ai ik sm b0i brk it Ive got some aiv g4t sm

There: - used as the formal subject weak form E.g.: There should be a rule d bi ru:l There is r iz - used as an adverb (demonstrative function) and in final position E.g.: There it is er it iz Put it there pt it e Must: - used in the meaning of obligation or duty: E.g.: You must try harder j ms trai ha:d He must eat more hi mst i:t m0: - used with the sense of forming a conclusion or deduction, and in final position E.g.: She left at 9:00, so she must have arrived here by now i left t 9:00, s i mst hv raid hi bai nau She certainly must i s:tntli mst

II> Sentence stress

English is stressed-timed, or isochronous stresses occur at regular intervals within connected speech, and the duration of an utterance (the amount of time it takes to say a sentence) is more dependent upon the number of syllables that receive stress, either major or minor (primary and secondary) than the total number of syllables. To achieve the regular stress intervals, unstressed syllables are made shorter, and the vowels often lose their pure quality, with many tending towards //, and others towards /i/ and // Isochronicity might be shown as in the following example. We start with a simple sentence ; we add syllables to it on each line, but the time it takes to say the utterance remains the same.

they LIVE they LIVE they LIVE theyve been LIVing theyve been LIVing theyve been LIVing

in an in a NICE in a LOVEly in a deLIGHTful in a deLIGHTful in a deLIGHTful

OLD OLD OLD OLD OLD vicTORian

HOUSE HOUSE HOUSE HOUSE COTTage COTTage

The occurrence of stresses remains regular, and unstressed syllables are squashed in between the stressed ones, being shorter and losing some purity of the vowel sound. There is also a strong contrast between stressed and unstressed syllables

Placement of stress in sentences 1. Content vs. function words

English words can be divided into 2 groups: content words and function words. Content words are those words that express independent meaning. Included in this group are: 1 nouns 2 main verbs 3 adverbs (always, very, almost,) 4 adjectives 5 question words or interrogatives (why, when, what,) 6 demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, those) 7 possessive pronouns (mine, yours, hers,) 8 not/negative contractions (cant, isnt,) 9 adverbial particles following phrasal verbs (take off, do away with,) Content words are usually stressed

Function words are words that have little or no meaning in themselves, but which express grammatical relationships. Function words include: 1 articles (a, an, the) 2 prepositions (at, to, of, ) 3 auxiliaries (will, have, forms of the verb be,) 4 personal pronouns (she, he, her, him, it, them, ) 5 possessive adjectives (my, her, his,) 6 demonstrative adjectives (this book, those chairs,) 7 conjunctions (and, or, as, that, ) 8 relative pronouns (that, which, who,) Function words are usually unstressed, unless they are to be given special attention or in final position.

2. Placement of main stress in sentences

-

While all content words receive major word stress, one content word within a particular sentence will receive greater stress than all the others major sentence stress. In most cases the major sentence stress falls on the last content word within a sentence. E.g.: 0 o 0 o 0 0 o o O Susan bought a new sweater at Creeds. o 0 0 o o O 0 I walked home in the rainstorm. 0 o 0 o o O o Peter likes your suggestion.

four levels of stress: major sentence stress, major word stress, minor word stress, and unstressed I walked home in the rainstorm.
unstressed

Unstressed

major word stress major sentence stress minor word stress

Rain is also called the tonic syllable which is the most stressed syllable in an utterance.

Emphatic stress: E.g.: 0 o o 0 o O -What did you buy at Creeds? o 0 o 0 O o o 0 -I bought a new sweater at Creeds 0 0 o o O o 0 o o 0 o -John lives in the block of flats on the corner, doesnt he? O o 0 o o O o o 0 o - No, he lives in the house on the corner

Contrasted stress E.g.: A: I heard you bought a new car. B: No, I bought a SECOND-HAND one. choice between alternatives, for example: E.g.: A: do you want the red one or the blue one? B: I take the BLUE one.