Unit 8 Stressed Syllables & Unstressed Syllables

Word Stress and Sentence Stress

Word Stress

1.Definition of stress : Stress may be defined as the degree of force or loudness with which a sound or syllable is articulated. Stress can be classified as word stress and sentence stress.
2.Classification of English words in phonetics : In phonetics , English words can be divided into three groups according to the number of syllables contained , they are : 1) monosyllables, 2) disyllables, 3) polysyllables. 3.Word stress: In every English word of two or more syllables at least one syllable should be articulated with more force or loudness than the rest, we call this phenomenon word stress.

4. Types of Word Stress : It is possible to distinguish many levels of stress, but from the practical point of view, it is sufficient to distinguish three principal kinds:
(1) Primary stress ----heavily stressed , usu. Marked with a vertical stroke on the upper left hand corner of a syllable carrying the stress. (2) Secondary stress ----stressed but subordinate to the primary stress , usu. marked with a vertical stroke on the lower left hand corner of a syllable concerned, as in |contri|bution. (3) Double stress /even stress----Certain English words have double stress or even stress. Double stress can be marked by a high vertical stroke before each of the stressed syllables, as in |fif|teen, |Ber|lin.

5. Stress placement: Every English word has a definite place for the stress and we are not allowed to change it . If we stress the wrong syllable, it spoils the shape of the word for an English hearer and he may have difficulty in recognizing the word . Although stress placement in English words is very complicated , we still can find some rules to observe:

A): General rules of stress placement for simple words : 1) For most English words of two syllables the stress usu. Falls on the first syllable. Common, nation, open, study , sorry . 2). For words of three or more syllables the stress usually falls on the third syllable from the end . Universe, article, relative, democracy, economy B): Compounds: 1) most compounds (esp. Nouns) bear primary stress on the first element.
sports-ground, bathroom; language teacher

2) Some compounds have double stress:

paper tiger, leather shoes, cotton cloth,

boiling water;

3) A very few compounds bear primary stress on the second element: With-out, mankind, whatever, myself, forever.

C): Rules for Derivatives: 1) For words of two or three syllables with one of the following prefixes, the stress usu. falls on the second syllable . arise , complain, awake , compress, asleep, complete; beside, before, believe; connect;

Consist, consult,

detect,

destroy,

decide;
display, discover, discuss; escape, establish , esteen; imply, imprison, impress; mistake misfortune, miscarriage;

Embrace, embody, employ ; Enlarge, enforce, enclose; Exclaim, excite, exclude; Incline, include, inform;

Observe, obstruct obtain;

per-, pre-, pro- sub-trans-

2) For words with one of the following suffixes the stress usually falls on the preceding syllable of the suffix. eous , -graphy, -ial, -,ian, -ic -ics, -ience, -ient, -ify, -ion, -ious, -ity, -ive: Courteous, biography, editorial, historian systematic phonetics, experience, sufficient, identity, perfection, ambition , curiosity, protective.

3) Words with the following suffixes do not change their stress placement .
-able, reasonable, forgetful, machinery, childish, childhood, bitterness, vigorous marriage, brotherhood, doubtless, glorify, proposal, deepen , confinement, clockwise , jealousy.

4) Some suffixes attract the primary stress onto themselves . In such cases there is usually a secondary stress on the first syllable if the stem word consists of more than one syllable. payee, employee, journalese, cigarette, picturesque.

5. Stress influence on meaning of words: A: There are some pairs of two-syllable words which are identical in spelling but differ from each other in stress placement, apparently according to word class . If it is an adjective,or noun, the stress falls on the first syllable; if it is a verb,stress falls on the second syllable. Some pairs possess the same or approximately the same meaning, but some pairs are semantically quite different. Absent, conduct, present, contract, import, object, increase, progress, decrease, rebel, record.

B: there are also several pairs of phrases, one of which is a single-stress compound, the other is formed by an adjective and a noun with two normal stresses or one falling on the second element. The meaning of such a pair is quite different. A few examples are: `greenhouse, green `house, `blackbird, black`bird,

darkroom, leatherjacket,

old girls,

bluebottle,

ginger bread.

How to pronounce word stress? When a syllable is stressed, it is pronounced longer in duration higher in pitch louder in volume

Sentence Stress in English

Sentence stress is the music of spoken English. Like word stress, sentence stress can help you to understand spoken English, especially when spoken fast. Sentence stress is what gives English its rhythm or "beat". You remember that word stress is accent on one syllable within a word. Sentence stress is accent on certain words within a sentence.

Most sentences have two types of word:

content words structure words Content words are the key words of a sentence. They are the important words that carry the meaning or sense. Structure words are not very important words. They are small, simple words that make the sentence correct grammatically. If you remove the structure words from a sentence, you will probably still understand the sentence.

Classification of sentence stress

Sentence stress can be classified into three types : sense stress, logical stress and emotional stress. 1) Sense stress Sense stress is very common phenomenon in connected speech . The distribution of such stresses is subject to the meaning that the speaker wishes to convey. In normal speech we put stress on words semantically important. Such words are called content words; the unimportant ones are called form words, they are unstressed. 2) Logical stress The distribution of logical stress is subject to the speakers will. The speaker puts stress on any word he wishes to emphasize. So a word logically stressed may stand at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of a sentence and it usually implies some idea of contrast. E.g.

``We heard Mary singing upstairs. ( Not they heard .) Sometimes the idea of contrast is clearly pointed out . E.g. I bought it for `you , not for `him . `They cant do it, but `we can . 3) Emotional Stress
Emotional stress is a special kind of stress. In spoken English when the speaker wants to show strong emotion , he can put strong stress on the word he wishes to emphasize. But such kind of stress doesnt imply any idea of contrast . The high falling tone should be used in speaking or reading aloud such stressed word. E.g. Its `` wonderful ! We suc``ceeded.

Rules for Sentence Stress in English

The basic rules of sentence stress are:

1. content words are stressed 2. structure words are unstressed 3. the time between stressed words is always the same