What factors determine the place and different degree of word stress

Lecture 5

General Notes on Word Stress.
Types of Word Stress.
Degrees of Word Stress.
Placement of Word Stress.
Common Rules of Word Stress in English.
Functions of Word Stress.

Word Stress
is a greater degree of prominence of a syllable or syllables as compared to the other syllables of the word

Scientists about Word Stress:
D. Jones: Word Stress is the degree of force, which is accompanied by a strong force of exhalation and gives an impression of loudness.
A. C. Gimson: English word stress or accent is a complex phenomenon, marked by the variations in force, pitch, quality and quantity.

Scientists about Word Stress:
B. A. Bogoroditsky : Stress as an increase of energy, accompanied by an increase of expiratory and articulatory activity.
S. F. Leontyeva : Word stress can be defined as the singling out of one or more syllables in a word, which is accompanied by the change of the force of utterance, pitch of the voice, qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the sound which is usually a vowel.

The effect of prominence of the stressed syllable is achieved by a number of phonetic parameters:
Pitch
Loudness
Length
Vowel Quality
These 4 factors usually work together in combination, but they are not equally important. The strongest effect is produced by pitch and length.

In the stressed syllable:
the force of utterance is greater, which is connected with more energetic articulation;
the pitch of the voice is higher, which is connected with stronger tenseness of the vocal cords and the walls of resonance cavity;
the quantity of the vowel is greater, the vowel becomes longer;
the quality of the vowel is different (in unstressed syllables it is usually narrow).

Word Stress
is singling out of one or more syllables in a word, which is accompanied by the change of the force of utterance, pitch of the voice, qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the sound, which is usually a vowel.

We distinguish the following types of Word Stress:
dynamic (force) stress is achieved by greater force with which the syllable is pronounced (Russian, English, French, German);
musical (tonic) stress is achieved through the change of pitch/musical tone (Japanese, Korean);
quantitative stress is achieved through the changes in the quantity of the vowels, which are longer in the stressed syllables (Russian);
qualitative stress is achieved through the changes in the quality of the vowel (Russian).

English Word Stress
is traditionally defined as dynamic, but in fact, the special prominence of the stressed syllables is manifested not only through the increase of intensity, but also through the changes in the vowel quantity, consonant and vowel quality and pitch of the voice.

The syllables in a word are characterized by different degrees of prominence. There are as many degrees of stress in a word as there are syllables.
In English there are 3 degrees of stress :
primary (strong, main, principal);
secondary (half-stressed, half-strong);
weak (unstressed).

In American English there are 4 degrees of stress :
primary (strong, main, principal);
secondary (half-stressed, half-strong);
tertiary (on the last but one syllable in the words with suffixes -ary, -ory, -ony : ´ dictio ˏ nary.
weak (unstressed).

In transcription stress is indicated by placing the stress mark before the symbol of the first sound of the stressed syllable.
Primary stress is marked by a raised short vertical stroke and secondary stress is marked by a lowered one:
examination [ɪg ˏ zᴂmɪ ´ neɪʃ(ǝ)n]

According to its placement in a word,
stress can be:
fixed
free
shifting

Fixed
(the position of the word stress is always the same,
it is restricted to a particular syllable):
in French (the last syllable),
in Finnish and Czech (the first syllable),
in Polish (the last but one syllable).

Free
(the location of the word stress is not
confined to a specific position,
it can fall on any syllable of the word):
English, Russian, Italian, Greek, Spanish, etc.

Shifting
(the word stress can change
its position in different forms
of the word and its derivatives):
´ music — mu ´ sician

To define the position of word stress
it is necessary to take into account
a number of factors :
phonological structure of the syllable;
the number of syllables in a word;
morphological factor;
the part of speech the word belongs to;
the semantic factor.

The phonological structure of the syllable is related to the status of a particular syllables in terms of the degree of sonority.
The sounds that possess a greater degree of sonority contribute to the greater prominence of the syllable. A syllable is strong when it contains a long vowel or a diphthong or a short vowel followed by two consonants:
a ´ rrive — de ´ velop

The number of syllables in a word influences the number of stresses and the position of stress.
There are stress patterns typical of two-syllable words, three-syllable words and so on.
In multi-syllable words there appears secondary stress.

Morphological factor shows that in complex words the placement of stress depends on the type of suffix.
Suffixes are divided into:
stress-neutral (which do not affect the stress placement in the stem);
stress-fixing (which influence stress in the stem);
stress-attracting (which carry stress themselves).

stress-neutral (-al, -able, -en, — ful, — ing, — ish, -less, — ness, — ly, — ment ):
´ comfort – ´ comfortable ;
stress-fixing (-ion, — ic, — ity, — ial, — ive ):
´ curious — curi ´ osity ;
stress-attracting (- ade, — eer, — ee, — esque, — ette, — ain ) :
ˏ refu ´ gee, ˏ ciga ´ rette.

The grammatical category the word belongs to:
´contrast – to con´trast
´habit – ha´bitual
´music – mu´sician
´insult – to in´sult
´record – to re´cord
´present – to pre´sent

The semantic factor (for compound words and words with the so-called separable prefixes).
The majority of such words have two equally strong stresses, both stressed parts are considered to be of equal semantic importance:
compound adjectives: ´ hard- ´ working, ´ blue- ´ eyed,
verbs with post positions : ´ sit ´ down, ´ take ´ off,
numerals from 13 to 19: ´ four ´ teen, ´ six ´ teen.

Two-syllable words (verbs, adjectives, adverbs):
the second syllable is stressed if it contains a long vowel or a diphthong, or if it ends with more than one consonant: a ´ pply, a ´ ssist. But! ´ hone st.
the first syllable is stressed if the final syllable contains a short vowel and one (or no) final consonant: ´ enter, ´ open.
Two-syllable words (nouns):
the first syllable is stressed if the second syllable contains a short vowel: ´ money ;
the second syllable is stressed if the second syllable contains a long vowel or a diphthong : es ´ tate.

Three-syllable words (verbs):
the last but one syllable is stressed if the last syllable contains a short vowel and ends with one consonant: de ´ termine.
the final syllable is stressed if it contains a long vowel or a diphthong, or ends with more than one consonant: enter´tain.

Three-syllable words (nouns, adjectives):
the middle syllable is stressed if the syllable preceding the final syllable contains a long vowel or a diphthong, or if it ends with more than one consonant:
di ´ saster ;
the first syllable is stressed if the final syllable contains a short vowel and the middle syllable contains a short vowel and ends with not more than one consonant:
´ cinema
´insolent

Words with prefixes:
in words with prefixes the primary stress typically falls on the syllable following the prefix:
im ´ possible, re ´ call ;
in words with prefixes with their own meaning, the place of secondary stress is on the prefix:
ˏ ex- ´ minister.
in prefixal verbs which are distinguished from similarly spelt nouns and adjectives, the second syllable is stressed:
to in ´ crease – ´ increase.

Words with suffixes:
suffixes -esce, -esque, -ate, -ize, -fy, -ette, -ique, -ee, -eer, — ade have stress on themselves or the preceding syllable:
ˏ mari ´ nade, ˏ specia ´ lize ;
suffixes -ical, -ic, -ion, -ity, -ial, -cient, -iency, -eous,-ual, -uous, -ety, -itous, -ive, -ative, -itude, -ident, -inal, -wards have stress on the preceding syllable:
eco ´ nomic, ma ´ jority.

Words of 4 or more syllables:
The stress is on the antepenultimate syllable (third from the end):
e ´ mergency
his ´ torical

Compound words:
The first element is stressed when:
Compounds are written as one word : ´ bedroom.
Nouns are compounded of a verb and an adv.: ´ make-up.
The second element is stressed when:
Food items have the first element which is of a material used in manufacturing the whole : ˏ apple ´ tart.
Parts of the house are implied : ˏ front ´ door.

Compound words:
The first element is stressed when:
Adjectives with past participle characterize people :
ˏ thick- ´ skinned.
Nouns ending in -er, -ing are followed by adverbs :
ˏ passer ´ by.
The first element of compounds is a number:
second- ´ class, three — ´ wheeler.
Compound function as an adverb :
head- ´ first.

The most common types of English stress pattern
´_ _ (´after)
_´_ (be´fore)
´_ _ _ (´family)
_´_ _ (im´portance)
Some words have 2 variants of stress:
ki ´ lometer – ´ kilometer

Изображение слайда

The constitutive function:
word stress organizes the syllables into a word
The recognitive ( identicatory ) function:
word stress makes it possible to identify and recognize a word in the chain of speech.
The distinctive function:
word stress is capable of differentiating the meaning of words or their forms: ´ import — im ´ port.

What is WORD STRESS?
What types of word stress do you know?
How does stress perform constitutive, distinctive and recognitive function?
What is the terminology suggested by different authors to distinguish between different degrees of word stress?
What factors determine the place of word stress?

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Соколова М.А. Практическая фонетика английского языка /М.А. Соколова. – М.: Гуманит. изд. центр ВЛАДОС, 1997. – 384 с.
O’Connor L.D. Phonetics /L.D. O’Connor. Penguin, 1977.
Sokolova M.A. English Phonetics. A theoretical course /M.A. Sokolova. M., 1996. – 286 p.
Vassilyev V.A. English Phonetics: A theoretical Course /V.A. Vassilyev. M., 1980. – 323 p.