Word Stress (lecture 4)

1. Word Stress

WORD STRESS
Lecture 4

2. Plan

General Notes on Word Stress.
Types of Word Stress.
Degrees of Word Stress.
Placement of Word Stress.
Common Rules of Word Stress in English.
Functions of Word Stress.

3. The Nature of Word Stress

4. The Nature of Word Stress

Word Stress
is a greater degree of prominence of a
syllable or syllables as compared to the
other syllables of the word

5. The Nature of Word Stress

Scientists about Word Stress:
D. Jones: Word Stress is the degree of force, which is
accompanied by a strong force of exhalation and
gives an impression of loudness.
A. C. Gimson: English word stress or accent is a
complex phenomenon, marked by the variations in
force, pitch, quality and quantity.

6. The Nature of Word Stress

Scientists about Word Stress:
B. A. Bogoroditsky: Stress as an increase of energy,
accompanied by an increase of expiratory and
articulatory activity.
S. F. Leontyeva: Word stress can be defined as the
singling out of one or more syllables in a word, which is
accompanied by the change of the force of utterance,
pitch of the voice, qualitative and quantitative
characteristics of the sound which is usually a vowel.

7. The Nature of Word Stress

The effect of prominence of the stressed syllable is
achieved by a number of phonetic parameters:
Pitch
Loudness
Length
Vowel Quality
These 4 factors usually work together in combination,
but they are not equally important. The strongest effect
is produced by pitch and length.

8. The Nature of Word Stress

In the stressed syllable:
the
force of utterance is greater, which is
connected with more energetic articulation;
the pitch of the voice is higher, which is connected
with stronger tenseness of the vocal cords and the
walls of resonance cavity;
the quantity of the vowel is greater, the vowel
becomes longer;
the quality of the vowel is different (in unstressed
syllables it is usually narrow).

9. The Nature of Word Stress

Word Stress
is singling out of one or more syllables in a word,
which is accompanied by the change of the force of
utterance, pitch of the voice, qualitative and
quantitative characteristics of the sound, which is
usually a vowel.

10. Types of Word Stress

11. Types of Word Stress

We distinguish the following types of Word Stress:
dynamic (force) stress is achieved by greater force
with which the syllable is pronounced (Russian,
English, French, German);
musical (tonic) stress is achieved through the
change of pitch/musical tone (Japanese, Korean);
quantitative stress is achieved through the changes
in the quantity of the vowels, which are longer in
the stressed syllables (Russian);
qualitative stress is achieved through the changes
in the quality of the vowel (Russian).

12. Types of Word Stress

English Word Stress
is traditionally defined as dynamic, but in fact,
the special prominence of the stressed syllables is
manifested not only through the increase of
intensity, but also through the changes in the
vowel quantity, consonant and vowel quality
and pitch of the voice.

13. Degrees of Word Stress

14. Degrees of Word Stress

The syllables in a word are characterized by different
degrees of prominence. There are as many degrees
of stress in a word as there are syllables.
-
In English there are 3 degrees of stress:
primary (strong, main, principal);
secondary (half-stressed, half-strong);
weak (unstressed).

15. Degrees of Word Stress

-
-
In American English there are 4 degrees of stress:
primary (strong, main, principal);
secondary (half-stressed, half-strong);
tertiary (on the last but one syllable in the words
with suffixes -ary, -ory, -ony: ´dictioˏnary.
weak (unstressed).

16. Degrees of Word Stress

In transcription stress is indicated by placing the
stress mark before the symbol of the first sound of
the stressed syllable.
Primary stress is marked by a raised short vertical
stroke and secondary stress is marked by a lowered
one:
examination [ɪgˏzᴂmɪ´neɪʃ(ǝ)n]

17. Placement of Word Stress

18. Placement of Word Stress

According to its placement in a word,
stress can be:
fixed
free
shifting

19. Placement of Word Stress

Fixed
(the position of the word stress is always the same,
it is restricted to a particular syllable):
in French (the last syllable),
in Finnish and Czech (the first syllable),
in Polish (the last but one syllable).

20. Placement of Word Stress

Free
(the location of the word stress is not
confined to a specific position,
it can fall on any syllable of the word):
English, Russian, Italian, Greek, Spanish, etc.

21. Placement of Word Stress

Shifting
(the word stress can change
its position in different forms
of the word and its derivatives):
´music - mu´sician

22. Placement of Word Stress

To define the position of word stress
it is necessary to take into account
a number of factors:
phonological structure of the syllable;
the number of syllables in a word;
morphological factor;
the part of speech the word belongs to;
the semantic factor.

23. Placement of Word Stress

The phonological structure of the syllable is
related to the status of a particular syllables in
terms of the degree of sonority.
The sounds that possess a greater degree of sonority
contribute to the greater prominence of the syllable.
A syllable is strong when it contains a long vowel or
a diphthong or a short vowel followed by two
consonants:
a´rrive - de´velop

24. Placement of Word Stress

The number of syllables in a word influences the
number of stresses and the position of stress.
There are stress patterns typical of two-syllable
words, three-syllable words and so on.
In multi-syllable words there appears secondary
stress.

25. Placement of Word Stress

Morphological factor shows that in complex
words the placement of stress depends on the type
of suffix.
Suffixes are divided into:
stress-neutral (which do not affect the stress
placement in the stem);
stress-fixing (which influence stress in the stem);
stress-attracting (which carry stress themselves).

26. Placement of Word Stress

stress-neutral (-al, -able, -en, -ful, -ing, -ish, -less, ness, -ly, -ment):
´comfort – ´comfortable;
stress-fixing (-ion, -ic, -ity, -ial, -ive):
´curious - curi´osity;
stress-attracting(-ade, -eer, -ee, -esque, -ette, -ain):
ˏrefu´gee, ˏciga´rette.

27. Placement of Word Stress

The grammatical category the word belongs to:
´contrast – to con´trast
´habit – ha´bitual
´music – mu´sician
´insult – to in´sult
´record – to re´cord
´present – to pre´sent

28. Placement of Word Stress

The semantic factor (for compound words and
words with the so-called separable prefixes).
The majority of such words have two equally strong
stresses, both stressed parts are considered to be of
equal semantic importance:
compound adjectives: ´hard-´working, ´blue-´eyed,
verbs with post positions : ´sit´down, ´take´off,
numerals from 13 to 19: ´ four´teen, ´six´teen.

29. Common Rules of Word Stress

30. Common Rules of Word Stress

Two-syllable words (verbs, adjectives, adverbs):
the second syllable is stressed if it contains a long vowel
or a diphthong, or if it ends with more than one consonant:
a´pply, a´ssist. But! ´honest.
the first syllable is stressed if the final syllable contains
a short vowel and one (or no) final consonant: ´enter, ´open.
Two-syllable words (nouns):
the first syllable is stressed if the second syllable
contains a short vowel: ´money;
the second syllable is stressed if the second syllable
contains a long vowel or a diphthong: es´tate.

31. Common Rules of Word Stress

Three-syllable words (verbs):
the last but one syllable is stressed if the last syllable
contains a short vowel and ends with one consonant:
de´termine.
the final syllable is stressed if it contains a long vowel or
a diphthong, or ends with more than one consonant:
enter´tain.

32. Common Rules of Word Stress

Three-syllable words (nouns, adjectives):
the middle syllable is stressed if the syllable preceding
the final syllable contains a long vowel or a diphthong, or if
it ends with more than one consonant:
di´saster;
the first syllable is stressed if the final syllable contains
a short vowel and the middle syllable contains a short
vowel and ends with not more than one consonant:
´cinema
´insolent

33. Common Rules of Word Stress

Words with prefixes:
in words with prefixes the primary stress typically falls
on the syllable following the prefix:
im´possible, re´call ;
in words with prefixes with their own meaning, the place
of secondary stress is on the prefix:
ˏex-´minister.
in prefixal verbs which are distinguished from similarly
spelt nouns and adjectives, the second syllable is stressed:
to in´crease – ´increase.

34. Common Rules of Word Stress

Words with suffixes:
suffixes -esce, -esque, -ate, -ize, -fy, -ette, -ique, -ee, -eer,
- ade have stress on themselves or the preceding syllable:
ˏmari´nade, ˏspecia´lize;
suffixes -ical, -ic, -ion, -ity, -ial, -cient, -iency, -eous,-ual,
-uous, -ety, -itous, -ive, -ative, -itude, -ident, -inal, -wards
have stress on the preceding syllable:
eco´nomic, ma´jority.

35. Common Rules of Word Stress

Words of 4 or more syllables:
The
stress is on the antepenultimate syllable (third
from the end):
e´mergency
his´torical

36. Common Rules of Word Stress

Compound words:
The first element is stressed when:
Compounds are written as one word: ´bedroom.
Nouns are compounded of a verb and an adv.:´make-up.
The second element is stressed when:
Food items have the first element which is of a material
used in manufacturing the whole: ˏapple ´tart.
Parts of the house are implied: ˏfront ´door.

37. Common Rules of Word Stress

Compound words:
The second element is stressed when:
Adjectives with past participle characterize people:
ˏthick-´skinned.
Nouns ending in -er, -ing are followed by adverbs:
ˏpasser´by.
The first element of compounds is a number:
second-´class, three -´wheeler.
Compound function as an adverb:
head-´first.

38. Common Rules of Word Stress

The most common types of English stress pattern
´_ _
(´after)
_´_
(be´fore)
´_ _ _
(´family)
_´_ _ (im´portance)
Some words have 2 variants of stress:
ki´lometer – ´kilometer

39. Functions of Word Stress

40. Word Stress

Functions
Constitutive
Recognitive
Distinctive

41. Functions of Word Stress

The constitutive function:
word stress organizes the syllables into a word
The recognitive (identicatory) function:
word stress makes it possible to identify and recognize
a word in the chain of speech.
The distinctive function:
word stress is capable of differentiating the meaning
of words or their forms: ´import - im´port.

42. Questions:

What is WORD STRESS?
What types of word stress do you know?
How does stress perform constitutive, distinctive
and recognitive function?
What is the terminology suggested by different
authors to distinguish between different degrees of
word stress?
What factors determine the place of word stress?

43. Literature

1. Леонтьева С.Ф. Теоретическая фонетика современного английского
языка (на англ. яз.) /С.Ф. Леонтьева.- М., 2002. – 336 с.
2. Соколова М.А. Практическая фонетика английского языка /М.А.
Соколова. – М.: Гуманит. изд. центр ВЛАДОС, 1997. – 384 с.
3.O’Connor L.D. Phonetics /L.D. O’Connor. Penguin, 1977.
4.Sokolova M.A. English Phonetics. A theoretical course /M.A. Sokolova. M.,
1996. – 286 p.
5.Vassilyev V.A. English Phonetics: A theoretical Course /V.A. Vassilyev. M.,
1980. – 323 p.

44. Thank you for your attention!