STRESS AND

INTONATION
Focus word or words
 The
focus word (or words in some cases) is the
most important word in a sentence.

Why didn't you telephone?! I waited all day!

I didn't telephone because I was so busy. 

The focus word changes to make the message clear.

When saying the focus word, it's common to stress this word
more than the other content words. This may include raising
the voice, or speaking the word louder to add emphasis. 
 Exercises

1. What do you want to do this afternoon? I’m

bored!
2. I’m hungry. Let’s get some lunch.

3. Are you going to finish work or waste time?

4. Let’s get Italian food. I’m tired of Chinese.

 Definition

Stress
Stress is relative force which with a sound or
syllable is spoken

-The emphasis placed on the sound or syllable

spoken most forcefully in a word or phrase
 The realization of stress in English
In English, the three ways to make a syllable
more prominent are to make it:
• louder
• longer
• higher pitched (usually)

Example:

STUdent, imPOssible, toDAY, comPUter

Rules of Word Stress in English

1. One word has only one stress. (One word cannot

have two stresses. If you hear two stresses, you
hear two words. Two stresses cannot be in one
word. It is true that there can be a "secondary"
stress in some words. But a secondary stress is
much smaller than the main [primary] one, and is
only used in long words.
2. We can only stress vowels, not consonants.
 The Role of Suffix -ion
 For two syllable words with suffix -ion, the
stress is on the first syllable
 For three to four syllable words with the suffix
-ion, the second to the last syllable just before
the suffix receive word stress

Two Syllables Three Syllables

• NAtion • conDItion
• LOtion • soLUtion
• POtion • eMOtion
Stress and meaning
 When you are speaking English the words you
stress can change the underlying meaning of a
sentence.
 Let's take a look at the following sentence:

I said she might consider a new haircut.

What does it mean?

I said she might consider a new haircut.

I said she might consider a new haircut.

It was my idea

I said she might consider a new haircut.

Don’t you understand me?

I said she might consider a new haircut.

Not another person
I said she might consider a new haircut.
It’s a possibility

I said she might consider a new haircut.

She should think about i. It’s a good idea.

I said she might consider a new haircut.

Not just a haircut

I said she might consider a new haircut.

Not something else
 As you can see, there are many different ways
this sentence can be understood.
 In other words, the true meaning of the sentence
is expressed through the stressed word or
words.
 Intonation
In linguistics, intonation is the variation of pitch
when speaking. Intonation and stress are two
main elements of linguistic prosody. Intonation
is the "music" of a language, and is perhaps the
most important element of a good accent.
 Type of Intonation
• Rising Intonation means the pitch of the voice raises
over time [↗]. In sentence such as interrogative we
use rising intonation.
• Falling Intonation means that the pitch falls with time
[↘]. If it is a declarative or statements that use simple
assertions, our intonation is falling

You're going. (statement)

You're going? (question)

The rise and fall of pitch throughout is called its

intonation contour.
• Rising – falling intonation pattern.
This Pattern show limited agreement,
reservation, doubt or uncertainty.
e.g ; It’s possible.
You may be right.
If I am not mistaken.
Functions of intonation
• Attitudinal functions
Expresses our feeling,attitudes,emotions.
For example : Anger,Boredom,Gratefulness and so on
• Accentual function
The term accentual refers to accent.some writers
attach the word accent to stress.When it is said that
intonation has accentual function,it implies that the
placement of stress is somewhat determined by
intonation.
• For examples :
a) She was wearing a red dress (Normal placement)
b) She was not wearing a red dress│She was
wearing a green dress│
c) (Contrastive purpose placement )
 Grammatical Functions
The listener is better able to recognize the
grammer and syntax structure of what is being said
by using the information contained in the
intonation. For example :
a) The placement of boundaries between phrases,
clauses and sentences.
b) The difference between questions and statement.
 The Discourse Functions
Intonation can signal to the listener what is to be
taken as “new” information and what is already
“given”. For example :
a) │She went to scotland│
b) │He went to the drawing-room│