Cuadernos de la Facultad Colecci6n MONOGRAFIA TEMATICA 2000 Ne 16 WORD STRESS AND SENTENCE ACCENT Héctor Ortiz-Lira Faculiad de Historia, Geografia y Letras PROYECTO: “Innovacion y mejoramiento integral de la Formacién Inicial Docente" UNIVERSIDAD METROPOLITANA DE CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIONUNIVERSIDAD METROPOLITANA DE CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACION FACULTAD DE HISTORIA, GEOGRAFIA Y LETRAS CUADERNOS DE LA FACULTAD Decana: Carmen Balart Carmona Secretaria Ejecutiva: Irma Césped Benitez COMITE EDITORIAL * Carmen Balart Carmona Departamento de Castellano * Guillermo Bravo Acevedo Departamento de Historia y Geografia Irma Césped Benitez Departamento de Castellano * Lenka Domie Kuscevie Departamento de Historia y Geografia + Samuel Feméndez Saavedra Departamento de Inglés + Giuseppina Grammatico Amari Centro de Estudios Clésicos * ‘Nelly Olguin Vilches Departamento de Castellano + Ivan Salas Pinilla Centro de Estudios Clasicos * Silvia Vyhmeister Tzschabran Departamento de Alemén © René Ziifiiga Hevia Departamento de Francés La correspondencia debe dirigirse a la Secretaria Administrativa de la Facultad de Historia, Geografia y Letras, Avenida José Pedro Alessandri 774, Nufioa, Santiago de Chile. Fono-Fax (56-2) 241 27 35. E-mail:cbalart@umce.cl Impreso en LOM 2000 Diagramacién: Eduardo Polanco Rumié Se prohibe toda reproduccién total o parcial por cualquier medio escrito 0 electrénico sin autorizacién escrita del Decano de la Facultad de Historia, Geografia y Letras,UNIVERSIDAD METROPOLITANA DE CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACION FACULTAD DE HISTORIA, GEOGRAFIA Y LETRAS DEPARTAMENTO DE INGLES § ————__________ CONTENTS FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF THE THEORY OF PROMINENCE .... Ll Introduction... ae 12 Prominence.... 12.1 Piteh.. Loudness... Length .. 1.24 Quality 13 Stress and accent. 4 Accent and prominence... 1.3 Degrees of word stress 1.6 Word stress notation... 17 Stress shit... : : STRESS IN ENGLISH SIMPLE WORDS....... Introduction... a Word stress and syllable patterni Word stress and suffixation Word stress and grammatical category... Word stress in RP and American English. Alternative stress patterns... Word stress patterns 2.7.1 Two-syllable words 2.7.2 Three-syllable words 2.7.3 Four-syllable words 2.7.4 Five-syllable words 2.7.5 Six-syllable words 2.7.6 Seven-syllable words ‘STRESS IN ENGLISH COMPOUND WORDS. 3.1 Introduction Terminology... Compound word stress and EFL dictionaries Labels for stress in compounds and collocations. Single stress in compounds and collocations... 3.5.1 RECord player: BOOKshop.... RaINdrop : a WIRE-tapping, TIME-consuming watKing stick, LENDing library BLACKboard, B4LDhead...... MOTH-eaten, ¥-shaped HOMESICK... CooKbook, D4Ybreak.... TAKE-off. BACK ground OXford Street, DEANSgate - MiscellaneousDouble stress in compounds and collocations 3.6.1 3.6.2 3.63 3.6.4 3.6.5 COMpact DISC, SECond-HAND. 3.6.6 BRAND-NEW. 3.6.7 OLD-FASHioned. 3.6.8 HAM-FiSTed, HOME-MADE .. 3.6.9 ROLLing STONE. DARK BLUE Go0D-LooKing 6.12 Miscellaneous.. 3.7 Three-word compounds. 4.2 Nuclear accent 43° Nuclearity 44 Nucleus placement theories 4.4.1 The traditional model. 4.4.2 The syntactic model 44.3. The semantic model. 44.4 The focal model 4.44.1 Broad and narrow focus. 44.4.2 Advantages of the focal approach. 4.4.4.3 Newnes and givenness.. 4.4.4.4 Nucleus placement and givenness .. 4.4.4.5 Exceptions to LLI rule 4445.1 Event sentences 4445.2 Nounstinfinitives : 4.44.5.3 Wh-questions ending with a verb, 4.44.54 Final relative clauses 4.445.5 — Nounstadjectives/participles 4.44.5.6 Transitive verbstobject+verbal particle. 4.4.4.5.7. Indirect questions 4.44.5.8 Subject+passive vert 4445.9 Objects of general reference 44.45.10 Final vocatives.sunennn 44.45.11 Final reporting clauses 4445.12 Final adverbials i 4.44.5.13 Other patterns in broad and narrow focus Notes, REFERENCES PRACTICE MATERIAL ..Word stress and sentence accent Ane PRESENTATION The materials contained in this booklet have been designed 10 meet the needs of the students who ae taking the last courses in English Phonetics at teacher-training college level. We intend to offer the latest theory available in a way which is accessible 10 students, together with plenty of practice material for marking and reading. This booklet is divided into four ‘main sections. In the first, an analysis is carried out of the basic notions related 10 prominence; in the second, the problem of stress in simple words is revisited; the third addresses the topic of stress in compounds, and in the fourth, postlexical (or sentence) accentuation is examined in detail. We are aware that the students’ success in ‘maners of prosody is particularly influenced by their mother tongue, and that is why constant comparison with Spanish is made, in an effort to point cour differences and similarities. A final appendix contains practice ‘material for users to analyse and mark. This, together with the examples in the chapters, represents the largest collection of data on the subject ever published for EFL purposes. A key to the exercises together with a cassette containing the majority of the examples in the text are available from the author on request. PRESENTACION El material de este cuaderno ha sido disentado con el fin de satisfacer las necesidades de los alumnos de los tiltimos cursos de fonérica inglesa a nivel universitario. Es nuestro pro- POsito ofrecer los mds recientes contenidos tedricos de una manera que resulte accesible a los alumnos, ademas de abundante material para practicar lectura y ejercitar marcacién. Eltrabajo estd dividido en cuatro secciones. En la primera, se analizan las nociones bdsicas relacionadas con prominencia; en la segunda, se revisa el tema de la acenuacién en palabras simples; la tercera pare desarrolla la acentuacién de palabras compuestas, y la quanta examina en dewalle ‘ha ‘acentuaciGn contextual. Estamos cons- cientes de que la lengua materna ejerce Particular influencia sobre los resul- tados que logran los alumnos en materia de prosodia y es por eso que, enun esfuerzo por resakar diferencias y similitudes entre las dos lenguas, se recurre a constantes comparaciones con el castellano. El apéndice al final del texto contiene material de prictica para ser analizado y marcado. Este, junto con los ejemplos de los capitulos, representa el mayor corpus publicado para propositos de ensenanza. Existe una clave para los ejercicios y una grabacién en casete de la mayoria de los ejemplos, las cuales pueden ser solicitadas al autor.\ Mord res and sentence sccent Seance ecamccmmmmancee (7) 1 Fundamental concepts of the theory of prominence 1.1 INTRODUCTION In this opening chapter we shall look at various concepts which are central toa theory of soomeeee seins includes an analysis of notions such as stress, accemt and prominence. a and finally a re-examination of stress shift. Since we are catering for leamers whoee Mewes asus is Spanish, constant reference to similar problems in that language is included in vos discussion. 1.2. PROMINENCE ‘The first ask we must embark upon is to elucidate the distinction between the notions Responsible for highlighting portions of utwerance. We shall begin by analysing the most basic of the concepts, that of prominence.’ te ates cam be described and defined in articulatory, acoustic and auditory tenne ie, Se the point of view of the person (speaker) who produces prominence, Row ie physical viewpoint (that is, sound wave behaviour), and from the listener's angle (i.e. the way he and consepeenmence) In the EFL situation acoustic criteria seem to be of limited applicoiing and consequently we shall concentrate on the production and, more Particularly, on the 1.2.1) Price Differences in pitch are produced at the vocal folds: the tenser the vocal folds, the faster they vibrate, and the higher the nove that is produced -an.artculatory characterisation, But Se cannot actually feel our vocal folds vibrating faster or slower. What we hear me higher or lower note. So articulatory pitch depends mainly on the tension and consequent rate of Cibration of the vocal folds. Auditorily. it is that property of @ sound, in ome oe which it can be placed on a scale running from high to low. 1.2.2 LoupNess From an articulatory point of view, loudness is caused by greater muscular energy and breath force. Auditoily, itis defined a5 that propery of a sound which seer us, using nly Out ears, o place it on a scale going from loud to soft. So the speaker ele ts feature 3m one way ~extra energy— and the listener hears it in another way ~exira loudnessHéctor Ortiz Lira ._TTTE.CO€, COATT ToT TTT TTT 1.2.3 LENGTH { Itis not necessary for our purposes to define length from the point of view of the person who produces it. Auditorily, iis that property of a sound which enables us, using only our ears, to place it on a scale that goes from long to short. 1.2.4 QUALITY Articulatorily, quality depends on the shape of the cavities or resonators (mainly the mouth), whose function is to modify ~sometimes amplify, sometimes suppress the almost inaudible note produced at the vocal folds (commonly known as “voice” but-more appropriately, vocal fold vibration). Auditorily, quality is defined as that feature in terms of which two sounds, similarly presented and having the same pitch, loudness and length, are still perceived as different; we say that [z] and [a] for instance, differ in terms of quality. In English, syllables containing [9], [i], [u] and syllabic consonants are normally perceived as weak; two vowels, [1] and [u], play'a dual role, and the rest are strong. Another way of referring to these two types of vowels is full and reduced. The following table summarizes the auditory correlates of prominence, e.g. Correlates Syllables PITCH high ++ low LOUDNESS Joud = ++ soft LENGTH long = + short QUALITY strong ++ weak oS If we analyse the title of this chapter from the point of view of prominence, we will most probably conclude that there are four syllables which stand out from the rest. Here we show ~ them in small capitals, e.g. FUNdamental CONcepts of the THEOry of PROMinence. These four syllables are made prominent mainly because they contain strong vowel sounds produced with relatively greater loudness and, more important, with pitch movement of contrast.” In sum, all four elements can play a part in making a syllable stand out over the rest. They do not all play an equally important part, though, nor are all four always present together. In the example above there are also eight non-prominent syllables. These are, from left to right, -da, -tal, of, the, -ry, of, -in-, -ence, all of which consist of weak vowels or, in the case of -tal, absence of vowel. There are two syllables which are more prominent than the eight weak ones, but less prominent than the first four we analysed, e.g. -men- and -cepts. These two contain the strong vowel [e], and it is fairly possible that in a normal reading of the utterance, a native speaker would identify syllable -men- with some kind of a ‘rhythmic beat’, i.e. a’ combination of extra loudness and length. The really prominent syllables are so identified because they display the most decisive of the elements producing prominence —pitch contrast. There is 2 notation system called ‘interlinear tonetic’, which is a type of narrow transcription for intonation in which each syllable is represented by a dot: a large dot indicates a prominent syllable; 2 small dot, 2 non-prominent one. Since the upper line corresponds to the speaker's top pitch range and the bottom line to his boom pitch range, itWord stress and sentence accent cnc maNcRnteainannaccaanonmnnenmmmmnnnnan (TT) follows that the pitch of each individual syllable, prominent and non-prominent, can be shown. In the following diagram the size and hight of each syllable indicator represent only relative values, e.g. (1.1) fandament! konsepts ov 60 Grori ov prommons 1.3. STRESS AND ACCENT ‘The labels stress and accent have a long tradition in prosodic studies but it is only since the beginning of the seventies that the majority of phoneticians have come to agree on the notions they refer to. Whereas prominence is exclusively a phonetic notion ‘used to refer to the general distinctiveness of an utterance of any length’ (Crystal, 1969: 120),. stress and accent have phonological status. In this booklet we are also using prominence as a blanket term which covers all phenomena related to the highlighting of syllables in words and of ‘words in longer utterances; hence the tile of the chapter. Important differences can be established between stress and accent. In the first place, stress is a feature of the word, a lexical abstraction or a decontextualised form which becomes concrete realisation only if the word gets an accent in an utterance: hence, accent is a feature of the utterance, ie. a concrete, contextualised category. This makes accent an observable phenomenon, as opposed to stress, which is merely analytical. To sum up, stress is a potential for accent and accent is an exponent of stress. Let us explain the above in practical terms. Dictionaries give every word of two or more syllables a stress mark; each stress pattem represents not only an entry in the dictionary but also an entry in our mental lexicon, ie. each word is stored in our mind in the form of a pattem of sounds (ie. a phonemic pattem) and a pattem of prominences (i.e. a stress pattern); in more technical terms, stress is a phonological property of words.> Stresses in words, however, cannot guarantee that the word will get an accent in a particular context, since this will depend on two main factors the rhythmic structure of the utterance, as will be explained in §1.7- and pragmatic-discoursal principles, which regulate accentuation according to (i) word classes content words are much more accentable than structural words, (ii) the information structure of the unerance (roughly, words representing new information get an accent while those conveying given information tend not to), and (ii) language specific rules which, in the case of English, assign more accents to nouns than to verbs in particular constructions. (See chapter 4.) Monosyllables are never shown bearing stresses in dictionaries. This does not mean that they do not have a stress but simply that showing the stress on the only syllable available would be redundant. This explains why an unstressed dictionary form may very well need an accent in a given context, as is the case in STRESS and ACcent have been NEAR S¥Nonyms for a LONG TIME, where a normal reading would assign accent to four monosyllabies.Héctor Ortiz Lira (F) wisn ftiommmsnnasninmnaTn ‘The fact that words make use of pitch contrast in utterances in order to convey prominence -a feature they do not display at lexical, decontextualised level has made Various authors differentiate between stress and accent according to which of the correlates of prominence is the most dominant feature. Therefore, they define accent as a feature of prominence whose main perceptual component is pitch change; this has originated the tem itch accent’, widely used in modern descriptions; by way of contrast, they define stress_as 2 featur of prominence in which the dominant perceptual component is loudness. According to this view, in (1.1) the first three prominent syllables bear stress, and the last, accent. Followers of this view are A.C. Gimson (1962), Crystal (1969), Lehiste (1970), O'Connor & Amold (1973), and Cruttenden (1997). 1.4. ACCENT AND PROMINENCE ‘As was pointed out earlier, the most easily perceived type of prominence is pitch prominence signalled by changes in pitch; but since pitch contrast also happens to be the nain indicator of accent, the two phenomena, accent and prominence, are often confused in certain contexts. In this section we shall atteript to point out the danger implied and clear up this confusion. There are three main places in an intonation group* where pitch prominence can be confused with pitch accent. The first occurs just after the last (nuclear) accent, particularly if the prominent syllable is said on a relatively high pitch, e.g. some in example (1.2), or if it performs a rising pitch movement after an accented fall, e-g. does in (1.3). In inteclinear notation, prominent syllables are marked as 0, e.g. (1.2) dju wont sam (1.3) bobi daz °o . \ Confusion between accent and prominence in this position is the most troublesome of all, since the major part of the meaning of the whole utterance is conveyed by the portion beginning at the last accent (technically known as ‘nuclear tone’). What is crucial in our theory is that neither of these prominent syllables is accented because they do not initiate pitch contrast, but simply complete it some completes a rise and does, the rising end of a Tall-rise. We shall say that a syllable is accented when it begins pitch contrast. As can be seen jn the interlincar representation of examples (1.2) and (1.3) (contextualised below as (1.4) and (1.5), respectively), the last accents -WANT and BOB-~ are actually beginning pitch movement: the former, a movement ‘up-from’ and the latter, a movement “down-from’. Spanish leamers often mistake prominent syllables for accented ones at the end of utterances, particularly when a rising tone is involved, which results in an unmistakable sign of foreign accent, cf. (1.4) These grapes are deLicious. D'you WANT some? (*D’ you want SOME?) (1.5) A: Nobody ever WRITES to her. B: BOBby does. (*Bobby DOES.) ‘Ambiguity between accent and prominence can also take place before the first accent inWord strts and semenceoccent Lo the intonation-group, in the setch of utterance technically known as ‘pre-head’, and it involves words which are of the unaccentable type and usually ‘take weak-form pronunciations, e.g. pronouns, auxiliary verbs, conjunctions, ete., as in (1.6) tt dgost didnt oks: ta mi Here the syllables it just are prominent but unaccented. The first pitch accent is realised as a ‘step-down’ on did and the nuclear accent -cur, as a movement ‘down-from'. In normal circumstances, the first two syllables would be very near the ‘baseline’, i.e. slightly above the bottom pitch. (This high, though unaccented, stretch of uterance conveys an emphatic effect.) Examples such as There are NO possibilities! [Sore nou posobtlatiz/ and You'd've THOUGHT it was Feasible! /jud av Bo:t 1 waz fi:zabl/ can be said with a pitch pattern very similar to that in (1.6), particularly if a protesting overtone was to be attached: both can begin with two high (therefore prominent), unaccented syllables. Finally, ambiguity between prominence and accent can occur when the first pitch accent, Which indicates the beginning of the ‘head’ °, and the last pitch accent, which is the nucleus, form a sequence of level tones, either high or low. The accentual status of any other Prominent syllables occurring between these two accents will be obscured by the absence of Pitch contrast, as is the case of the syllables ask- and who's in It's NO good ASKing WHO'S 10 BLAME, Some authors refer to these syllables as “tertiary stresses’, since stresses do not involve pitch prominence. In the present analysis we shall leave the question unsolved and refer to these syllables as either accented or prominent. Fortunately, in this position in the intonation-group, the neutralisation of the contrast does not have any practical effect, e.9. (1.7) tts nau gud a:skin hu:z to blem ‘The pitch accents in a head such as that in example (1.1), sometimes referred to as ‘stepping head’, form a series of steps-down in which they do in fact initiate 2 movement and will be considered accents. In summary, (i) not all prominent syllables are accented, and (ii) the majority of accented syllables are. prominent, though ~given the phonological status of accent- it is perfectly Possible to find accented syllables which are perceived as non-prominent and, inexteme cases, accented syllables which are hardly perceived at all, e.g. the gesture which realises the First accented syllable in Jones’ much quoted uterance Thank you pronounced [kkju] (1956: 245). The formulaic overtone implied by syllable shank starting a rising movement from a rather low pitch makes the listener perceive only the second, prominent syllable, you Gones said there was a subjective stress on the first double consonant.) This solution posesHéctor Ortiz Lira () womtnenaniannenlSh Saco another problem for the identification of accent, that of the ‘subjective effort’ hypothesis. The view is disputed by phoneticians who deny the possibility of considering syllables which are not perceived by the listener. We can think of similar pattems in Spanish, c.g. Claro! as an answer implying the obvious, with a very low, voiceless first syllable. The {nterlinear notation of the English utterance shows a prominent syllable only, e.g. (1.8) k kju ° ‘The native speaker and listener do not always depend on the same clues as the foreign student for the perception of accent. When two native speakers communicate, they are sharing the same linguistic code, and consequently will make judgements based not on what they acwally hear, but on what they know they should hear. From this point of view, the native listener's perception of accent is subjective as it is influenced by his previous Knowledge of the language. He normally knows where accent is and will seldom confuse it with prominence: This type of confusion may lead to ambiguity. 1.5 DEGREES OF WORD STRESS ‘The question of how many levels of stress can be distinguished in English words is not without problems. The same can be said of Spanish, for that matter. Spanish speakers are normally aware of the existence of one syllable in every word (of more than one syllable) which they identify as accented: this is the syllable carrying primary stress. The existence of other (secondary) stresses in relatively longer words is an aspect of Spanish phonology native speakers tend not to be aware of, and one on which linguists do not fully agree. The existence of at least two degrees of stress in certain English words of two or more syllables is an issue more firmly settled. The traditional American school of prosody accounts for four degrees ~primary, secondary, tertiary and weak (e.g. Trager & Smith, 1951: 37). Chomsky & Halle (1968: 16) speak of primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary o zero. In the British school, Kingdon (1958) recognises the existence of three degrees -primary, secondary and weak or unstressed. The latest version (1989) of the IPA (international Phonetic Association) alphabet provides marks for two degrees only, primary and secondary. Of the two pronouncing dictionaries published in Britain in the 90°s, LPD (Wells, 1990: 683) recognizes three main degrees of stress (primary, secondary and tertiary) plus two further degrees, which are typical of syllables carrying no stress marks but which have a strong vowel (fourth degree) and a weak vowel (fifth degree). Although EPD (Jones, Roach & Hartman, 1997: xii) recognizes three levels, it finally sticks to only two in order to avoid unnecessary complexity. Roach (1991) operates with three ~primary and secondary Stress and prominent syllables. Lastly, GPE (Gimson & Crutienden, 1994) distinguishes four degrees -primary, secondary, full vowel and reduced vowel, but at citation level, however, it operates with only two marks, one for primary and one for secondary. ‘The following table shows the various levels of word stress according to GPE (1994), LPD (1990) and the present author:Word stress and sentence accent LATA GPE LPD This_work 1 primary stress primary stress primary stress 2 secondary stress secondary stress secondary stress 3 full vowel tertiary siress prominent syllable 4 reduced vowel strong vowel non-prominent syllable 3 weak vowel Only two degrees of stress will be accounted for and consequently marked in the Present analysis. These two stresses have phonological status, Le. their distubution 1h ae word, together with the phonemic pattem ~that is, each word taken as a sequence of phonemes and mental eget the phonological information with which the lexical item 19 recorded ann muta {exicon. The other two types of syllable, prominent and non-prominecs nes ‘mere phonetic categories and are left unmarked. A syllable is prominent wher i conate strong Howel or displays (but does not initiate) some kind of pitch movenene performs a thythmic beat. Detween them in stiedy phonetic terms and say that one is stronger (or weaker) than the Gites, characterisation in perceptual terms is, however, subjective and labre we od Us into difficulty. The following diagram shows the possible correlations starting from the least marked (ie. ‘normal’) contexts; ~> means ‘can be realised as", e.g. Lexical level Contextual level primary stress ~ nuclear accent, prenuclear accent, unaccented syllable in pre-head and tail; secondary stress ~ prenuclear accent, unaccented syllable in pre-head and tail, nuclear accent in contrastive contexts: prominent syllable unaccented syllable in pre-head and tail, nuclear accent in very contrastive contexts; Don-prominent syllable _-» _unaccented syllable in pre-head and tail. 6 1.6 WORD STRESS NOTATION them show primary stresses only, while others show primary ave! secondary stresses; some otions are of a more phonological nature, whereas others, marc phonetically biased, indicate the pitch movement which normally accompanies strewe syllables —asually a falling tone on the last, primary stress. The following are the mos eens types:Héctor Ortiz Lira TTI TOT TAT ATT TTTATTAAANNN 1.6.1 The syllable carrying primary stress is capitalised; the secondary stress is left unmarked, e.g. pronunciAtion, BAby sitter, plum PUDding 1.6.2 The stressed syllable is underlined; either the primary only or both, primary and secondary stresses, can be shown, e.g. pronunciation, pronunciation, baby sitter, plum pudding, plum pudding 1.6.3 The stressed syllables are assigned numbers, 1 for primary, 2 for secondary, etc.; other numbers can be used to indicate further degrees of stress, e.g. baby sitter, plum pudding, brand-new car, elevator operator 1.6.4 Stress marks are placed cither before or on top of each syllable bearing the stress; several sub-systems can be identified, among which the system that uses " for primary stress and , for secondary is the most widespread in EFL dictionaries and other reference books produced in the UK; these marks have been recommended by the IPA for over 70 years. The tonetic-stress marking system invented by Kingdon (1939) continues to be the most widely used in intonation courses produced in Britain, e.g. 1.6.4.1 (' =primary, , =secondary,, =tertiary) ,decon, tami'nation, ‘baby sitter, ‘baby ,sitter, ‘baby, sitter 1.6.4.2. (> =primary, ' =secondary) "decon' aby sitter, plum ‘pudding, ‘plum “pudding ‘decon'tami nation, 1.6.4.3 ¢ =primary,' =secondary,, =tertiary) ‘decon tam? nation, ‘ele, vator 'ope,rator, “black board ‘rubber 1.6.4.4 (’=primary, * = secondary, * = tertiary) décontamindtion, White House, white hOuse (=not a brown one), élevator éperator 1.6.5 All syllables are accounted for in ‘interlinear notation’ -a sort of pictorial, narrow transcription indicating stresses/accents and pitches. The conventions are as follows: a large tailed dot = primary stress; a large filled dot = secondary stress; a large empty dot prominent syllable; a small dot = non-prominent syllable. This transcription was originally invented to show intonation, but at this point we shall use it to indicate word stress. In (1.9), ‘two words are transcribed with their citation pronunciation, which normally implies falling intonation —first with tonetic-siress marks and then in interlinear notation, e.g. (1.9) ‘dispa:t'mentl 0% 1.6.6 (e =primary, # = secondary, o = prominent,Word stress and sentence accent aM sometimes referred to as ‘tadpole’, is a simplification of the interlinear notation; it accounts for all four types of syllable with no indication of pitch movement, e.g. brand-new car @ 0 & differentiate @+ e+ 0 In this work we shall normally use the tonetic stress marking system, a sort of broad wanscription which fulfills two roles: it displays accentuation by presence and_pitch movement according to the shape of the mark; as explained before, prominence is left unmarked. The pictorial nature of the notation, which makes it relatively easy to interpret, together with the economy represented by the small number of marks it consists of, explain why the system has been successfully adopted in various intonation courses. The use of ” for primary stress shows the normal association of this stress with a falling nuclear tone, typical of citations forms. For instance, the citation pronunciation of the word deparmentat /'dizpart'mentl/ contains all four levels of prominence/stress. If we number the syllables from 1 (efi) to 4 (right) we find that syllable 1 bears secondary stress: syllable 2 is prominent; syllable 3 has primary stress, and syllable 4 is non-prominent. Notice, however, that in the citation pattem of the phrase departmental meeting /'dixpa:tment! “mi:tm/ the syllable starting pitch contrast is no longer the third syllable, but the first. This phenomenon is explained in the next section. 1.7 STRESS SHIFT By definition, a syllable bearing primary stress is the one which normally initiates pitch Contrast; a secondary stress is less likely to be pitch contrast initiator, but it can certainly play that role when the thythmic pressure of the context (i.e. the neighbouring prominences) causes the redistribution of stresses called ‘stress shift’. This change of roles is the result of the tendency in English to separate strong, primary stresses by weak, unstressed syllables. ‘A similar tendency is not unknown in Spanish. The problem is that there is still a fairly amount of research to be done in order to identify the accentual behaviour of double-stressed items which reverse their stress patterns in a way similar to English when used in connected speech. This would explain why a word such as 'veinti “cuasro, with two potential stresses, becomes 'veinticuairo “mil, and why the question ;Estds de acuerdo? can either get the answer Abso 'luta ‘mente or Abso 'lutamente de acuerdo. This tendency towards stress shift ‘seems more noticeable in English than in Spanish. The pressure exerted by adjacent stresses in Spanish, for instance, would make an English speaker say the names ‘Ivdn “Torres and ‘Fidel *Castro, rather than the normal Spanish patterns J 'van “Torres and Fi ‘del “Castro Other pantems, of the BBC type ~1'bi: bit “siv, "be be “se/-are the same. in both languages, e.g. JVC, KLM, FBI, etc. Stress shift in English affects both simple and compound words whose citation pattern consists of a secondary stress followed by a primary stress in the same word. This double- stress pattem, however, accommodates 10 the pattem of stresses which precede and follow in the text, in such a way that stresses on consecutive (or almost consecutive) syllables are avoided. For instance, the accentuation of the phrase preconceived ideas comes from the citation pattems ‘precon'ceived + ideas, The resulting pattem is, however, ‘preconceived F deas, in which syllable pre-, originally carrying secondary stress, becomes the only pitch movement initiator in the word, and the original primary stress, -ceived, becomes » mere thythmic beat for which there is no mark available in our system. ’ (In other notation systems a mark is provided for these prominent syllables.) This stress pattem reflects theHéctor Ortiz Lira NTTTTET_ETET TTT TNA attibutive function of the adjective, i.e. the adjective premodifies the head of the NP. In Your i 'deas are precon ‘ceived the adjective is predicative, ie. itis part of the predicate, and consequently it is the secondary stress on pre- which is lost. Other examples with double- stressed simple words are, e.g. (1.10) citation forms: ‘atmos ‘pheric, ‘audiovisual, ‘auto “matic attributive use: ‘Let's di'scuss ‘atmospheric “pressure "Why not ‘use ‘audiovisual “aids We 'made the 'trip on ‘automatic ‘pilot predicative use: The ‘music was ‘highly atmos ‘pheric The ‘system we use is audio visual The ‘process is ‘fully auto™matic Double-stressed compounds can also be subject to stress shift when used as adjectives or adverbs, either attributively or predicatively, e.g. (1.11) citation form: ‘double “decker attributive use: 'Double-decker ‘buses are ‘typically “British predicative use: I ‘love double-“deckers (1.12) citation form: ‘second-hand attributive use: I’m ‘talking about ‘second-hand “furniture predicative use: The ‘books were ‘bought second- "hand (1.13) citation form: —'well-“formed attributive use: "This is ane 'xample of a ‘well-formed “sentence redicative use: ‘Sentences ‘must be well-formed Similarly, proper names and names represented by initials can also undergo stress shift in the same conditions, e.g. (1.14) citation form: ‘Piccadilly attributive use: _ 'Let’s 'go to ‘Piccadilly *Circus predicative use: She ‘lives near Piccadilly (1.15) citation form: 'C ‘D attributive use: The ‘new 'version’s on ‘CD “Rom predicative use: I ‘have iton C“D Stress shift also affects phrasal verbs, the citation patterns of which consist of two stresses, ¢.g. (1.16) citation form: — ‘come “out auributive use: The ‘pictures ‘came out ~wellccc predicative use: ord gress ond sentence acen Ce manana The ‘pictures ‘didn't come “out ‘A small group of single-, late-stressed adjectives, exhibit a similar tendency. Their predicative patter is the same as their citation pattem ', ¢.g. citation forms: attributive use: (1.17) (1.18) _ predicative use: ex*cess, com pact, di ‘rect We ‘had 10 ‘pay ‘excess “baggage Td ‘like to ‘buy her a ‘compact “disc A ‘wansitive ‘verb takes a ‘direct “object I'ma 'fraid he ‘smokes to ex*cess The ‘new ‘flat is ‘very com‘pact We ‘went to the ‘beach di*rect The above also occurs in a number of single-stressed place names, e.g. (1.19) citation forms: attributive use: predicative use: Ber*lin, Bel’fast ‘When was the ‘Berlin “Wall knocked down? He ‘lives on ‘Belfast “Avenue We ‘went through ‘East Ber*lin The ‘capital of ‘Northern ‘Ireland's Belfast Finally, short phrases containing two stresses and which combine with further stressed material can also be affected by stress shift, e.g. (1.20) (1.21) (1.22) (1.23) (1.24) (1.25) (1.27) ‘much “more + at*tention (1.28) far “less + ex*citing (1.29) ‘quite a “bit + “older (1.30) ‘very “little + time ‘very ‘warm + ‘welcome = ‘fairly “new + creation "good “night + kiss a ‘hard “day + night a ‘lot “more + rain a ‘lot “less + “money (1.26) ‘not “very + much a ‘very warm ‘welcome a ‘fairly new cre “ation @ ‘good night “kiss a a ‘hard day's “night "lot more rain "lot less “money ‘not very “much ‘much more at*tention {far less ex*citing ‘quite a bit “older ‘very little ~timeHéctor Ortiz Lira CMCC ATTA TATA 2. Stress in English simple words 2.1 INTRODUCTION “The first thing that needs to be clarified is to state what we understand by simple word, Swrictly speaking, a simple word is one which is made up of a single grammatical unit called Stem, Cg photograph, judge, Derivatives such as photography, photographic and pre- judgement are not, technically speaking, simple words, but complex, because they contain ‘affixes (either prefixes and/or suffixes). For EFL purposes, however, it will be better to consider all three examples as simple ‘words. Stress in compounds will be dealt with in chapter 3. ‘The second aspect is related to the way in which Spanish speakers can lean English stress patierns. The two main views on the subject are that }) the rules that govern English Srese placement in words are so complicated, that students had bener learn the pater of Sach word as they leam the word itself, (i) the leamer should keep in mind the most Common rules that predict stress placement in words and apply them whenever necessary; these are phonological rules, which establish relationships between phonemic patterning and suress (in §2.2 stress is related to English vowels), and morphological rules, which indicate the relationship between suffixes and stress (see §2.3) and also between grammatical class land stress, e.g. ‘progress (noun)~ pro “gress (verb; see §2.4). A further rule, which has to do with etymology, predicts stress placement according to whether the word is, for instance, Of Germanic, Greek or Latin origin. However, given that our students of English are, on the Sshole, not familiar with diachronic studies, we shall not take up this analysis. Finally, = Special difficulty is met with stress variation —the stress pattem of a few words depends on $PStish vs. American preference and, furthermore, RP speakers sometimes vary in the stress pattem they use, the result being that a few words have alternative patiems (see §2.5 and §2.6, respectively.) Spanish speakers are recommended to make use of as, many different types, of information as possible in order to predict stress placement in simple words. They. should also be aware of the large number of exceptions to the rules. Rules and main exceptions are analysed in the next sections.” 2.2 WORD STRESS AND SYLLABLE PATTERNING ‘The English phonological vowel system may be said to consist of two separate subsystems, strong and weak, each one correlating with syllable stress. Thus, whereas stresced syllables can only have strong vowels, unstressed syllables can be made up of either Strong or weak vowels. In the table below, the column ‘sessed’ indicates what vowel phonemes can get a sess in English syllables; the last two columns indicate what vowels rake syllables either *prominent’ or ‘non-prominent’. The following conclusions may be drawn from the table: (Any vowel apart from /2, i, w/ —the so-called ‘unstressable vowels’- may occur with either a primary or secondary stress; /i, w/ are not to be confused with /it, wi, e.g. bikini fbr kimi. The rest of the vowels may be stressed or unstressed.Word stress and sentence accent meetin seconormaanene (31) (ii) All long vowels and cenain short vowels always make syllables prominent; this means that they are inherently prominent. Gii) /1, v/ belong to both subsystems. For instance, in the word minimum /’mmrmom/, JW plays the part of a strong vowel in syllable 1 and a weak vowel in the next syllable. Syllables containing /t, u/ are prominent if they are stressed; this is because these vowels do not have inherent prominence. The last four types of syllables are always considered non- prominent. Stressed prominent _non-prominent Strong vowels (long): iz . . a: . . 3: . . u: . . 7 . . all diphthongs : : Strong vowels (short): 1 a () e . . . : . > . : v . @) a . . Weak vowels: i : 1 . v . u . a . syllabic consonants : ee Other rules help predict stress in words depending on the phonological structure of the syllable involved. For instance, in the verbs supply, prefer, explain, etc., the stress coincides with a long vowel, whereas in vary, differ, etc., the final short vowels are unstressed. Something similar occurs with the ‘nouns control, desire, debate, on the one hand, and with story, metre, apricot, on the other. Still other rules are based on the number of syllables and final consonants a word has. This type of information is probably the mostHéctor Ortiz Lira (2) ws nementommennunn Si A sunnanmsrasenm complicated to remember, but experience has shown that the task is made easier if a more meaningful element is brought into the discussion. For instance, a comparison of long Spanish cognate words with the corresponding English forms may help leamers ‘ix strese patterns in their minds, e.g. English verb forms ending in -ate(d), -ify (-ified), -ise(d), ete, and Spanish forms in -ar, -ado, etc. bring out marked differences, as in (2.1) ‘complicate, “complicated compli “car, compli *cado decorate, “decorated deco” rar, deco rado modify, “modified modifi car, modifi~cado satisfy, “satisfied satisfa “cer, satis “fecho “organize, “organized organi ~zar, organi *zado “realise, “realised realizar, realizado In general, English three-syllable words have a strong tendency to bear stress on the antepenultimate syllable. ‘° In the next section, the influence of suffixes on word stress is looked at in greater depth. 2.3 WORD STRESS AND SUFFIXATION Word stress is partly predicted from morphology. This means that the addition of suffixes will determine stress placement according to Whether the suffix leaves the stem Patter unaltered, or whether it atracts stress towards itself, or shifts it to the preceding syllable. The following are among the most productive examples: 2.3.1 SUFFIXES NOT AFFECTING STEM STRESS -able, -ible rely, re liable; “notice, “noticeable; divide, divisible ful ‘plenty, “plentiful; for “get, for gerful -less “colour, “colourless; re*gard, regardless oly ‘passionate, “passionately; “separate, “separately -ment “manage, “management; de velop, de “velopment -ness de*cisive, decisiveness; “arbitrary, “arbitrariness Exceptions: admire, “admirable; compare, “comparable; pre-fer, “preferable elect, “eligible; ne glect, “negligible. Also intelligible 2.3.2 SUFFIXES ATTRACTING STRESS -ee ad" dress, 'address‘ee; “interview, ‘interview’ ee ~ese “journal, ‘journal “ese; Ja‘pan, ‘Japanese ete disc, diskette; “laundry, ‘launder etre 2.3.3 SUFFIXES REJECTING STRESS The following suffixes reject stress to the immediately preceding syllable, e.g. i artist, ar tistic; economy, ‘economic oblige, ‘obli~ gation; in’spire, 'inspi ‘rationMord szes and sentence accent cance comemmneenmnanncsce (B) -ity “curious, ‘curiosity; “solemn, so'lemnity Exceptions: “Arab, Arabic. Also @ rithmeric, catholic, “lunatic, “politic, “rhetoric Leamers are well-advised to pay attention to the rules governing the so-called ‘stress alterations’ resulting from the addition of affixes to stems so as t0 form related words: The application of phonological rules may cause changes in both the pattern of phonemes and stress placement. An examination of the correspondence between phoneme and Spelling reveals that vowels vary with stress. These rules may provide students with further clues to predict stress patterns. In the following examples, the tadpole notations do not indicate prominent, unstressed vowels, as in diplomar /“drplome/, e.g. (2.2) (+) + (me) + rw) diplomat diplomacy diplomatic photograph photography photographic benefit beneficence beneficial democrat democracy democratic politics political politician competence competitor competition (2.3) Ge) 7 (erm) explain explanation compete competition incline inclination derive derivation repeat repetition invite invitation 2.4 WORD STRESS AND GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY Stress placement may distinguish between certain nouns and adjectives, on the one hand, and verbs, on the other, most of which are two-syllable words with identical spellings and identical or similar phonemic patterns. This is one of the easiest rules for the prediction of stress placement which leamers can put into practice. All they have to remember is ther nouns and adjectives take stress on the first syllable and verbs on the second. Notice that similar rule operates in the Spanish noun “1érmino and the adjective “iiltimo and the Serresponding verbs ter mino, termi‘nd, ul timo, ulti “mo. In this section we shall examine 40 of the most common pairs. In the majority of cases, the unstressed syllable of the vers Contains a weak vowel (e.g. suspect /sa°spekU, contest /kan"test/, but this tendency is not So strong with nouns and adjectives, since the unstressed syllables of these words are Prominent, e.g. /kontest/, /saspekt, as can be seen in: (24) accent annex atribute conduct conflict. contest. contract contrast convert convict decrease defect desert. ~—_escort exploit export —exaract_— frequent object. perfect. permit pervert’ present produce progress project protest rebel record subject’ survey suspectHéctor Ortiz Lira VETTE TTT TAN Ina few cases it is only the stress pattem which distinguishes between noun and verb, as in the pair /impott/ (n.) ~ /im'po:t/ (v.). Similarly: (2.5) dictate digest discount increase — insult. torment —_ transport 2.5 WORD STRESS IN RP AND AMERICAN ENGLISH ‘There is noticeable variation in stress placement between British and American English particularly in words of French origin. In general, the tendency here is for Americans to place the primary stress on the last syllable, following a more ‘French’ pronunciation, so to speak, whereas the British prefer an early stress. The following is a list containing the most ‘common examples of two-, three-, and four-syllable words. They are mostly nouns, with a few adjectives, e.g. 2.5.1 TWO-SYLLABLE WORDS RP ~ AmE @> () ballet, beret, brochure, café, cliché, collage, coupé, crochet, debris, detail, gateau, glacé, paté, plateau, précis, premiére, sachet, vaccine; a) @>) Verbs in -ate: dictate, donate, locate, migrate, vibrate, etc.; moustache, stewardess, trachea; 2.5.2. THREE-SYLLABLE WORDS Ge) (@-@) attaché, fiancé(e); @+) (e+) cabaret, emigré, matinée, protégé, resumé; (ere) (@ +) cigarette, magazine, margarine, souvenir; 2.5.3 FOUR-SYLLABLE WORDS +) advertisement laboratory aluminium A further difference between British and American English involves presence or absence of vowel reduction in the suffix of a few words ending in -ary, -ery, -ory, -ony, -berry with primary stress either on the antepenultimate or earlier syllabie. Whereas the British version favours elision of schwa, the American version prefers a strong vowel, which some views identify with secondary or tertiary stress. We shall say the difference does not imply stress but merely prominence, e.g. (2.6) RP - AmE secretary, library 'sekratri, “latbrif [sekrateri, “latbreri/ monastery, cemetery ['monostri,"semotri/ _monesteri, “semateri/accent Word srt and sentence scant ween (3) territory, category —_Fterotri, “kaetogri/ Pterato:ri, “kaetogozri/ testimony, matrimony testimani, “‘matrimeni/ /testimouni, ‘metrimouni/ strawberry, blackberry Pstro:bri, blekbri/ _strotberi, “‘blaekberi/ 2.6 ALTERNATIVE STRESS PATTERNS There are a number of words with optional stress patterns, the most common of which students should be aware of, in order not to discard the options they have not adopted as incorrect. In most cases preference is due to generation differences among RP speakers. The list below contains some of the most representative examples, with the recommended option first, following the information given in the current pronunciation dictionaries. The following notations do not account for prominent syllables, e.g. 2.6.1 ‘TWO-SYLLABLE WORDS @-) ~ (mw) adult, brochure, bureau, contact (v.), decade, defect (n.), detail, finance, meanwhile, mishap; Ge) ~ ws bouquet, elsewhere, ice cream, regime, research, terrain, weekend: 2.6.2 THREE-SYLLABLE WORDS Ge) ~ (+) dispuant, exquisite, uprising: +) = bw Sonorous, uprising; (re) ~ (+s) registrar, souvenir, submarine; (+5) ~ (@+@) caravan, discothéque, kerosene; 2.6.3 FOUR-SYLLABLE WORDS (++) ~ Gms) controversy, exigency, formidable, kilomerre; Gers) ~ (++) applicable, contribute, demonstrable, despicable, disputable, explicable, hospitable, metallurgy nomenclature; j@- ~ (e+) television ) 2.6.4 FIVE-SYLLABLE WORDS ( 5) ~ ees) momentarily, necess arity 2.7 WORD STRESS PATTERNS ‘The main stress patterns in their citation forms are illustrated in the next section, The following principles are worth mentioning, e.g. @ Every word has one, and onty one, primary stress, (i) Secondary stresses (normally one, less frequently two) always precede, and never