Unit 10: STRESS IN SIMPLE WORDS

What is stress ?

10.1 The nature of stress

Unit 10: STRESS IN SIMPLE WORDS

The nature of stress

 All stressed syllables are more prominent than unstressed
syllables. Four different factors are important:
1. Stressed syllables are louder than unstressed syllables;
(loudness)
2. The length of syllables; If one syllable is longer than the
others there is quite a strong tendency to hear it as stressed;
3. The pitch of the syllable: pitch in speech is related to the
frequency of vibration of the vocal cords and to the musical
notion of low- and high-pitched notes;
4. A syllable will tend to be more prominent if it contains a
vowel that is different in quality from neighboring vowels
Unit 10: STRESS IN SIMPLE WORDS
(i.e., look at vowels against vowels encountered in weak
syllables)
Example:
Unit 10: STRESS IN SIMPLE WORDS
Unit 10: STRESS IN SIMPLE WORDS
10.2 Levels of stress
The 3 Levels Of Syllable Stress In English
1.  Primary Stress:  The syllable with the Primary Stress is the loudest and
longest syllable in a word. It has a very noticeable change in pitch on the
vowel. In one-syllable words, that one syllable gets the primary stress.

Examples:

“blue” = /BLUUU/

“ten” = /TEHN/

The only exceptions to this rule are a handful of function words like “the”
which are usually unstressed or reduced.

2.  Secondary Stress:  These are the syllables that are stressed, but not as
much the primary stress, so they are loud and long with a change in pitch,
but not as loud or as long as the syllables that get the primary stress. The
change in pitch on the vowel is not quite as noticeable.

Example:

“disappear” = /DIH-suh PEEER/ (syllable with secondary stress is underlined)

3.  Level 3 is the completely Unstressed Syllable:  These are the syllables

that have no stress at all so we rush through them and shorten them so much
that the vowel in the syllable is almost completely gone.   The change in
pitch on the vowel is barely noticeable, but it is there.

Example:

“prepare” = /pruh-PAIR/ (unstressed syllable is underlined)

It’s the contrast between all these different levels of loudness, duration, and
pitch that creates the rhythm of English.
Unit 10: STRESS IN SIMPLE WORDS
If you encourage your students to practice with this in mind, their timing and
rhythm will be more familiar to what the listener expects so speech will be
more easily understood. Also, having some variety in loudness, duration, and
pitch makes a person a more interesting and powerful speaker.

Even if your student still has an accent, that’s fine… accents are definitely not
a bad thing!!!  But remember the goal of accent modification or pronunciation
training.  We want to eliminate the confusion and frustration that our
students experience when they not easily understood.

Improving the rhythm of speech by learning and practicing all 3 Levels of

Stress will help all of your students sound better.

10.3 Placement of stress within the word.

1.Rules for placement of stress

 In spite of having some exceptions there are some rules.

 Whether word is morphologically simple or complex
(containing one or more affixes) or of being a compound
word.
 What the grammatical category of the word is. :noun, verb,
adjectives)
 Number of the syllables
 Phonological structure of the syllables
2. Strong and weak syllables
Two basic categories of syllables
1. Strong syllasbles:
Unit 10: STRESS IN SIMPLE WORDS
In phonology, a heavy or strong syllable is considered
to be with a branching rhyme, i.e. one that has a long
vowel or diphthong nucleus or a vowel followed by a
coda
2. Weak syllables
In weak syllable, the vowel tends to be shorter, of lower
intensity (loudness), and different in quality. For
example, the word 'data' /deitə/ whose the
second syllable is weak and shorter than the first one.
It is less loud as well.
One important thing is that only strong syllasbles
can be stressed. Weak syllables are always
unstressed.
3. Stress in two syllable words

In two syllable words either the first or not the

second syllable will be stressed not the both.
1. Verb:
A: If the second syllable of the verb is a strong then this
second syllable will be stressed. For example apply, arrive,
assist, attract.
B: If the final syllable is weak then first syllable is stressed.
For example: enter, envy, open, equal.
Unit 10: STRESS IN SIMPLE WORDS
2-Adjectives:
Same rule will be applied for two syllable adjectives also.
For example: lovely, divine, even, correct, hollow, alive.

3-Nouns:
Nouns require a different rule. If the second syllable
contains a short vowel then stress will usually come on the
first syllable otherwise it will be on the second syllable.
For example: money, design, product, larynx, balloon.
4-Adverbs and prepositions: Adverbs and
prepositions seem to behave like verbs and adjectives.

Three syllable words:

1-verbs:
A - In verbs if the final syllable is strong it will be stressed
e.g. entertain, resurrect.

b - If the last syllable is weak then it will be unstressed and

stress will be placed on the preceding syllable if that
syllable is strong.

For example encounter, determine.

C - If both the second and third syllables are weak then the
stress falls on the initial syllable e.g. parody.
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2-Nouns+3-Adjectives(same rules of stress)
A - If the final syllable is weak or ends with әu sound then
it is unstressed.

B- If the syllable preceding this final syllable is strong then

the middle syllable will be stressed,potato,disaster
synopsis.

C - If the second and third syllables are both weak then the
first syllable is stressed like: quantity, emperor, cinema,
custody.
 Conclusion:
English pronunciation depends on stress to a great deal.
In order to become a powerful communicator of English
we must learn all the rules of stress mentioned earlier.
English is a language that borrowed words from 8000
languages of the world. All rules regarding the stress
patterns of these languages are impossible to learn
however if we learn some basic rules we can improve a lot.
So learning of stress leads us to better communication.

PLACEMENT OF STRESS WITHIN SIMPLE

WORDS
Unit 10: STRESS IN SIMPLE WORDS
Summarized from lecture 5 (Stress) of Phonetics slides at FELTE_VNUH
SIMPLE WORD Characteristics Stressed on Examples
STRESS
1. TWO SYLLABLE
WORDS
1.1.Two-syllable verbs a. 2nd syllable contains short 1st syllable +worry, open,
vowel AND ends no more than enter…
one consonant. 2nd syllable
b. 2nd syllable contains long +Succeed, provide,
st
vowel/a diphthong/ ends more 1 syllable protest
than one consonant.
c. 2nd syllable contains /ou/ +Follow, borrow
1.2.Two-syllable nouns a. 2nd syllable contains short 1st syllable +money, office,
vowel 2nd syllable surface.
b. Otherwise, it is on the +hello, canoe,
balloon.
1.3.Two-syllable Same as the two-syllable verbs’
adjectives rules
1.4.Two-syllable Seem to behave like two-syllable
prepositions and adverbs verbs’ and two-syllable
adjectives’ rules.
2.THREE-
SYLLABLE
WORDS
2.1.Three-syllable verbs a. 3rd syllable contains short 2nd syllable +encounter,
vowel AND ends with no more determine
than 1 consonant 3rd syllable
b. 3rd syllable contains long +entertain,
vowel/ a diphthong/ends with recommend,
more than one consonant
2.2.Three-syllable nouns a. 3rd syllable contains short +potato, disaster,
vowel/ [ou]unstressed. advantage.
2nd contains long vowel/ a 2nd syllable
diphthong/ends with more than
one consonant
b. 3rd syllable and 2nd syllable 1st syllable +library, quality,
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contains short vowel AND ends company, cinema.
with no more than one
consonant3rd and 2nd syllable
are unstressed. 1st syllable +exercise, attitude,
c. 3rd syllable contains long paradise.
vowel/ a diphthong/ ends with
more than more than one
consonant.
2.3.Three-syllable Seem to need the same rules as
adjectives three-syllable nouns