Written Test 2

Review
Applied Phonetics II
Francesca Bonfanti – Isadora Reynolds
 Prominence
Parameters and levels
Lexical Stress
Stress and syllable type
Test Degrees of word stress
Stress and grammar
Contents Stress and affixation
Compounds
Sentence Stress and Accent
Stress shift and weakening
Degrees of accent
Intonation phrases
Accent placement (LLI)
Broad and narrow focus
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Prominence
Parameters
 What is prominence? How is it achieved?

Pitch: vibration of Loudness: muscular

vocal folds energy and breath
force

Length: auditory Quality: amplifying

perception of or suppressing
amplitude compared audibility of a vowel
to neighboring
sounds

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Ortiz-Lira (2015) p. 7
 Levels of
Prominence

Ortiz-Lira (2015) p. 15 6
Lexical Stress
Syllable Type
Degrees of Stress
Stress Notation
Strong and Weak Syllables

Strong syllables contain Weak syllables contain

• Long vowels or diphthongs
• With or without a coda
• Short vowels
• With coda
• Schwa or neutralised vowels
• Schwa with or without coda
• Syllabic consonants
• Unstressed /ɪ, ʊ/
• No coda

Provide an example for each

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 PRIMARY
Every word has one and only one primary stress
Stressed syllables are the best candidates for accent
Broad: [ˈ]
Narrow:

SECONDARY

Degrees of Some words have one or more secondary stresses, always preceding the primary stress
Broad: [ˌ]
Narrow:

Stress and TERTIARY

Notation Strong syllables after which are not the primary or secondary stress
Broad: none
Narrow

ZERO
Unstressed or non-prominent
Broad: none
Narrow

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Lexical Stress
Stress and grammar
Stress and affixation
Compounds
 Certain words have the same spelling, but differ in
stress patterns

Stress and The contrast is between verbs and nouns/adjectives

Grammar Verbs: stress is placed in the second
syllable
• On most occasions, the unstressed syllable of a
Nouns/Adjectives: stress is placed in the
first syllable
verb will have a weak syllable

Examples:
Permit: /pɚˈmɪt/ vs /ˈpɝː.mɪt/ Rebel: /ˈrɛb.l̩/ vs /rɪˈbɛl/ 11
Stress and Affixation

Stress Preserving Stress Attracting Stress Fixing

• The primary stress remains • The suffix receives the • The primary stress shifts
in the root primary stress position and does not fall
• Normally, inflectional • Example: on either the stem nor the
morphemes are in this suffix
category • ˈStatue
• Statuˈesque • Also known as stress
• Prefixes usually do not repelling
affect the position of the
primary stress • Example
• Example: • ˈLegal
• ˈManage • Leˈgality
• ˈManageable

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 In two-word compounds, the main stress may be
placed in the first or second element

Single-stressed compounds: stress is placed in the

first element
Stress in • Normally these compounds have more specialised meanings
• Example: ˋwhiteboard
Compounds
Double-stressed: the main stress is placed in the
second element
• They tend to have more general meanings
• Example: ˈwhite ˋboard

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Single Stress Compounds Adjectives
• Noun + Participle: The noun is
usually the subject of participle
Nouns • ˋMoth-eaten
• Noun + Noun: the first noun is the object of the action,
the second is the agent Phrasal Verbs
• ˋrecord player • Verb + Preposition: a verb
• Noun + Verb in –ing: the noun is the object of the verb followed by a preposition
(e.g., at, for, from, of, to)
• ˋtime consuming
• ˋdream of
• Verb + Noun: the noun does not perform the action
• ˋwalking stick
Phrasal Verbs as Nouns
• Adjective + Noun: specialized meaning • Verb + Preposition/Adverb
• ˋblackbird • ˋbackup
• Adverb + Noun
• ˋbackground
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Double Stress Compounds

Nouns Numerical Phrasal Verbs

• Noun + Noun: • The “teens”: • Verb + Preposition/Adverb
manufacturer’s rule • ˈsix ˋteen • ˈDoze-ˋoff
• ˈapple ˋpie
• Compound numbers:
• The first noun makes • ˈtwentyˋfour
specific reference to the
second noun, organization,
time, or location, both
nouns are referents, proper
names, genitive cases

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Double Stress Adjectives
• Noun + Adjective: ˈBrand-ˋnew
• Adjective + Adjectival Noun: ˈOld-ˋfashioned
• Noun + Participle: ˈHome-ˋmade
• Adjective + Adjective: ˈDark-ˋblue
• Adjective + Verb –ing: ˈGood-ˋlooking
• Adverb + participle: ˈHalf-ˋopen

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Sentence Stress
and Accent
Sentence Shift and Weakening
Sentence Accent
Broad and Narrow Focus
Adjectival Compounds and Sentence Stress
• Double stressed adjectives are subject to stress shift in attributive
position (modifying a noun)
• Predicative: The ˈmovie was ˈbitter- ̀sweet
• Attributive: This was a ˈbitter-sweet ̀ending
• Single stressed adjectives do not undergo stress shift when placed in
attributive or predicative position
• Predicative: They were ˈleft ˋheartbroken
• Attributive: A ˈheartbroken ˋperson

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Stress Shift and Weakening
• Stress shift:
• When an adjective with a primary and secondary stress modifies a noun,
the main stress moves to the position of the secondary stress
• Citation form: /ˌʌndɚˈwelmɪŋ/
• Stress shift: /ˈʌndɚwelmɪŋ dɪˋsɪʒn̩ /
• Stress weakening:
• When a noun with a primary and secondary stress is modified by a
single-stressed adjective, the secondary stress is weakened
• Citation form: /ˌʌn.dɚˈsteɪt.mənt/
• Stress weakening: /ˈhɔːɹəbl̩ ʌndɚˋsteɪtmənt/

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 The primary prominence of the
utterance
Each intonation phrase will have
What is one, and only one, accent
Accent? Accent is realised through pitch,
but also loudness and length
Placement of accent depends on
context
Rhythm and Accent
• Patterns of rhythm in English are marked by the alternation of
stressed and unstressed syllables
• Content words are normally stressed, form words are normally
unstressed
• This alternation creates the rhytmic patterns that characterise
English
• The rhythm rule (though not very strict) indicates that speakers
will tend to avoid having several stressed syllables in close
proximity

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 PRIMARY
Main pitch prominence, nucleus
Broad: [ˋ]
Narrow:
SECONDARY
Subsidiary pitch prominence, sentence stress
Degrees of Broad: [ˈ]
Narrow:
Accent and TERTIARY
Notation Prominence produced by length and/or loudness
Broad: Unmarked before nucleus, [˳] after nucleus
Narrow

ZERO
Unstressed or non-prominent
Broad: none
Narrow

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Intonation Phrases
• Utterances in connected speech are normally divided into smaller units
(i.e., intonation phrases, tone groups, breath groups, etc.)
• Minor groups: marked by [ | ]
• E.g.: adverbials, vocatives, tag questions, non-defining relative clauses
• Major groups: marked by [ ‖ ]
• Full clauses, normally marked by periods, colons, semicolons, and question
and exclamation marks

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 Accent in English is normally
placed in the last content word:
the last lexical item rule (LLI)
Accent Certain grammatical structures
Placement create exceptions to this rule
E.g., final vocatives, single
stressed compounds, event
sentences, certain adverbials, etc.

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 Focus: directing the attention of the listener to a certain portion of the
utterance
Old information (shared by New information is
Accent is placed in the
the interlocutors) is normally the focal part of
element that receives focus
normally not in focus the utterance

Broad and
Narrow Broad focus: all the information in the utterance is new, the accent is
placed in the LLI

Focus
Narrow focus: focus is placed on a particular piece of information in the
utterances, which is not the LLI, for pragmatic purposes, e.g., contrast,
emphasis, etc.

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Thank you

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