STUDY OF ENGLISH

STRESS AND
INTONATION
STRESS

In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis

that may be given to certain syllables in a word.
The term is also used for similar patterns of
phonetic prominence inside syllables.
Understanding Syllables
To understand word stress, it helps to understand
syllables. Every word is made from syllables.
Each word has one, two, three or more syllables.

Word Number of
syllables

Dog Dog 1
Quiet Qui.et 2
Expensive Ex.pen.sive 3
Interesting In.ter.est.ing 4
Unexceptional Un.ex.cep.tion.al 5
Prominence:

A syllable might be more

prominent by differing from the
surrounding syllables in terms of:
 loudness
 pitch
 length
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)

For some words, changing which syllable

is stressed can change the meaning of a word.
 In English, stress is most dramatically realized on focussed
or accented words. For instance, consider the dialogue
 "Is it brunch tomorrow?"
 "No, it's dinner tomorrow."
In it, the stress-related acoustic differences
between the syllables of "tomorrow" would be small
compared to the differences between the syllables of
"dinner", the emphasized word. In these emphasized words,
stressed syllables such as "din" in "dinner" are louder and
longer. They may also have a different fundamental
frequency, or other properties. Unstressed syllables
typically have a vowel which is closer to a neutral position,
while stressed vowels are more fully realized.
CONTRASTIVE STRESS

 In contrastive contexts, any lexical item in an utterance

can receive the tonic stress provided that the contrastively
stressed item can be contrastable in that universe of
speech. No distinction exists between content and function
words regarding this. The contrasted item receives the
tonic stress provided that it is contrastive with some
lexical element (notion.) in the stimulus utterance.
Syllables that are normally stressed in the utterance almost
always get the same treatment they do in non-emphatic
contexts.)
EXAMPLES
Consider the following examples:
a) Do you like this one or THAT one?

b) b) I like THIS one.

Many other larger contrastive contexts (dialogues) can be found or
worked out, or even selected from literary works for a study of
contrastive stress. Consider the following:
 She played the piano yesterday. (It was her who...)
 She played the piano yesterday. (She only played (not.

harmed) ...)
 She played the piano yesterday. (It was the piano that...)
 She played the piano yesterday. (It was yesterday..)
NEW INFORMATION STRESS
 In a response given to a wh-question, the information
supplied, naturally enough, is stressed,. That is, it is
pronounced with more breath force, since it is more
prominent against a background given information in the
question.
 a) What's your NAME

b) My name's GEORGE.
 a) Where are you FROM?

b) I'm from NEW YORK.

 a) Where do you LIVE

b) I live in BRAZIL.
 a) When does the school term END

b) It ends in MAY.
 a) What do you DO

b) I'm a STUdent.  
TIMING:

English is a stress-timed language; that is, stressed

syllables appear at a roughly constant rate, and non-
stressed syllables are shortened to accommodate this.

PLACEMENT:
English does this to some extent with noun-
verb pairs such as a récord vs. to recórd, where
the verb is stressed on the last syllable and the
related noun is stressed on the first; record also
hyphenates differently: a réc.ord vs. to re.córd.
DEGRESS OF STRESS:
Primary stress:
 It is the stronger degree of stress.
 Primary stress gives the final stressed syllable.
 Primary stress is very important in compound words.

Secondary stress:
It is the weaker of two degrees of stress in the pronunciation of a
word.
Secondary stress gives the other lexically stressed syllables in a
word.
Secondary stress is important primarily in long words with several
syllables
TWO WORD STRESS

 Knowing when and where to stress the words you use is very important for
understanding, and therefore, as part of a good accent. A clear example is that of
stress in two word expressions.

 According to whether it is an ordinary two-word expression or a special, set

expression, the place of the stress changes. In an ordinary expression the two words
are used to describe something like a "white HOUSE" (meaning a house that is
painted white, and not blue or gray). In this case the most important note is the
noun because we are talking about a house that happens to be white.
 But sometimes short two word expressions are set or
"consecrated", (that is, they mean something special)
and have to be made different from similar expressions.
One example is "the WHITE house" where Mr. Obama
lives. In this case, the emphasis is on the adjective
because we are more interested in stressing that it is the
house that is known because it is white.
 It will be useful for you to be aware of both types of two word
expressions. Here is a list of a few that will get you thinking and
give you some practice in identifying them and using them
correctly. Underline the syllable that is stressed, and write a brief
explanation, for both uses of each phrase. I start the exercise
with two examples. You do the rest. Make sure you say the
phrases OUT LOUD!
 white HOUSE
House painted white
 LIGHT bulb
Shines with electricity
 Light BULB
A bulb that is not heavy
NOTATION:

Different systems exist for indicating syllabification and stress.

 In IPA, primary stress is indicated by a high vertical line before
the syllable, secondary stress by a low vertical line. Example: [sɪ
ˌlæbəfɪˈkeɪʃən] or /sɪˌlæbəfɪˈkeɪʃən/.

 In English dictionaries which do not use IPA, stress is typically

marked with a prime mark placed after the stressed syllable: /si-
lab′-ə-fi-key′-shən/.z
RULES OF WORD STRESS IN ENGLISH

There are two very simple rules about word stress:

 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.

 We can only stress vowels, not consonants.

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. Often we hear someone speaking with
perfect grammar, and perfect formation of the sounds of
English but with a little something that gives them away as
not being a native speaker.
Intonation – the rise and fall of pitch in our voices – plays

a crucial role in how we express meaning.

INTONATION CONTOURS IN ENGLISH

Not all rises and falls in pitch that occur in the course of an English phrase
can be attributed to stress. The same set of segments and word stresses can
occur with a number of pitch patterns. Consider the difference between:
 You're going. (statement)
 You're going? (question)
The rise and fall of pitch throughout is called its intonation contour.
 English has a number of intonation patterns which add conventionalized
meanings to the utterance: question, statement, surprise, disbelief, sarcasm,
teasing.

An important feature of English intonation is the use of an intonational accent

(and extra stress) to mark the focus of a sentence. Normally this focus accent
goes on the last major word of the sentence, but it can come earlier in order to
emphasize one of the earlier words or to contrast it with something else.
TONE

 A unit of speech bounded by pauses has movement, of music

and rhythm, associated with the pitch of voice. This certain
pattern of voice movement is called 'tone'. A tone is a certain
pattern, not an arbitrary one, because it is meaningful in
discourse. By means of tones, speakers signal whether to refer,
proclaim, agree, disagree, question or hesitate, or indicate
completion and continuation of turn-taking, in speech.
CROSS-LINGUISTIC DIFFERENCES

People have a tendency to think of intonation as

being directly linked to the speaker's emotions. In fact, the
meaning of intonation contours is as conventionalized as any
other aspect of language. Different languages can use
different conventions, giving rise to the potential for cross-
cultural misunderstandings. Two examples of cross-linguistic
differences in intonation patterns: