Word stress theoretical phonetics

English words have certain patterns of stress which you should observe strictly if you want to be understood. The best way to learn English stress is to listen to audio materials and to repeat them after the speaker. The links on the entrance pages of the sections Phonetics, Phrases, and Vocabulary lead to the sites that offer useful listening materials, including sounds, syllables, words, sentences, and conversations. An overview of typical English patterns of word stress in this material will help you to recognize and understand word stress when you work with listening materials. It will also be helpful to listen to examples of word stress in Listening for Word Stress (AmE) in the section Phonetics.

Note: Main stressed syllable in the word is indicated by capital letters in this material, for example, LEMon. In words with two stresses, capital letters with a stress mark before them show the syllable with primary stress, and small letters with a stress mark before them show the syllable with secondary stress, for example, ‘eco’NOMics.

General guidelines on word stress

Generally, common English nouns, adjectives, and adverbs are more often stressed on the first syllable than on any other syllable. Verbs with prefixes are usually stressed on the second syllable, i.e., on the first syllable of the root after the prefix. English words can’t have two unstressed syllables at the beginning of the word; one of these syllables will be stressed. If a word has four or more syllables, there are usually two stresses in it: primary stress (strong stress) and secondary stress (weak stress). Also, secondary stress may be present (in addition to primary stress) in shorter words in the syllable in which the vowel sound remains long and strong.

Prefixes are often stressed in nouns and less often in verbs. Suffixes at the end of the word are rarely stressed, except for a few noun, adjective, and verb suffixes that are usually stressed: rooMETTE, ‘ciga’RETTE / ‘CIGa’rette, Chi’NESE, ‘SIGni’fy, ‘ORga’nize, ‘DECo’rate. In longer derivative words, stress may fall on a suffix or prefix according to typical patterns of word stress. Endings are not stressed.

Stress in derivatives

Stress in a derivative may remain the same as in the word from which it was derived, or it may change in a certain way. When nouns are formed from verbs, or verbs are formed from nouns, the following patterns of stress often occur.

The same stress:

deNY (verb) – deNIal (noun)

ofFEND (verb) – ofFENCE (noun)

reVIEW (noun) – reVIEW (verb)

PREview (noun) – PREview (verb)

HOSpital (noun) – HOSpitalize (verb)

Shift of stress:

preSENT (verb) – PRESent (noun)

reFER (verb) – REFerence (noun)

exTRACT (verb) – EXtract (noun)

inCREASE (verb) – INcrease (noun)

OBject (noun) – obJECT (verb)

Other parts of speech derived from nouns and verbs have the following typical patterns of stress.

Adjectives are usually stressed on the first syllable or repeat the stress of the nouns from which they were derived: fate (noun) – FATal (adj.); COLor (noun) – COLorful (adj.). But stress may change in longer derivative adjectives: METal (noun) – meTALlic (adj.); ATHlete (noun) – athLETic (adj.); geOLogy (noun) – ‘geo’LOGical (adj.); ARgument (noun) – ‘argu’MENtative (adj.).

Adverbs are usually stressed on the first syllable or repeat the stress of the adjectives from which they were derived: ANgry – ANgrily; WONderful – WONderfully; FOOLish – FOOLishly; athLETic – athLETically.

Gerunds and participles repeat the stress of the verbs from which they were formed: forGET – forGETting – forGOTten; CANcel – CANceling – CANceled; ‘ORga’nize – ‘ORga’nizing – ORganized.

Typical patterns of stress

Let’s look at typical examples of stress in English words. Main factors that influence stress are the number of syllables in the word, and whether the word is a noun, an adjective, or a verb.

ONE-SYLLABLE WORDS

One-syllable nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are stressed on the vowel sound in the word. Note that a diphthong is one complex vowel sound that forms only one syllable. A diphthong is stressed on its first main component.

book, cat, rain, boat, crow, chair

read, burn, touch, choose, laugh, hear

new, bright, large, short, clear, loud

late, fast, soon, now

TWO-SYLLABLE WORDS

Two-syllable nouns

Two-syllable nouns are usually stressed on the first syllable.

TEACHer, STUDent, CARpet, LESson

REgion, ILLness, STATEment, CITy

CONvict, INcrease, INstinct, OBject

PERmit, PRESent, PROject, SYMbol

Nouns may be stressed on the last syllable if there is a long vowel sound or a diphthong in it. Words of foreign origin (especially words of French origin) may be stressed on the last syllable.

trainEE, caREER, deLAY, conCERN

poLICE, hoTEL, beRET, rooMETTE

Two-syllable adjectives

Two-syllable adjectives are usually stressed on the first syllable.

FUNny, LOCal, USEful

FOOLish, NATive, CAREless

Some adjectives are stressed on the last syllable if there is a long vowel sound or a diphthong in it.

abSURD, comPLETE, exTREME, moROSE

If there is a prefix in an adjective, stress often falls on the first syllable of the root after the prefix.

inSANE, imMUNE, enGAged

unWELL, unKNOWN

Two-syllable verbs

Two-syllable verbs are usually stressed on the second syllable, especially if the first syllable is a prefix.

adMIT, apPLY, beGIN, beLIEVE

comBINE, conFIRM, deNY, deSERVE

disLIKE, misPLACE, exPLAIN

forBID, forGET, igNORE, inVITE

oBEY, ocCUR, perMIT, prePARE

proPOSE, purSUE, reCEIVE, rePLY

supPLY, surPRISE, unDO, unLOCK

But there are many verbs that are stressed on the first syllable.

HAPpen, CANcel, PRACtice

ANswer, OFfer, MENtion

FOLlow, BORrow, PUNish

THREE-SYLLABLE WORDS

Three-syllable nouns

Three-syllable nouns are usually stressed on the first syllable.

POLitics, GOVernment, GENeral

INterest, GRADuate, CONfidence

But many nouns, especially those derived from verbs with prefixes, have stress on the second syllable.

apPROVal, conFUSion, conSUMer

corRECTness, eLECtion, diRECtor

Some nouns have primary stress on the last syllable if there is a long vowel sound or a diphthong in it.

‘engi’NEER, ‘refu’GEE

Three-syllable adjectives

Three-syllable adjectives are usually stressed on the first syllable.

GENeral, DELicate, EXcellent

WONderful, FAVorite, CURious

Some adjectives have one more stress on the last syllable if there is a long vowel or a diphthong in it.

‘OBso’lete / ‘obso’LETE

‘Vietna’MESE, ‘Portu’GUESE

Some adjectives do not repeat the stress of the noun from which they were derived and are stressed on the second syllable.

geNERic, symBOLic, inSTINCtive

Three-syllable verbs

Three-syllable verbs often have primary stress on the first syllable (even if it is a prefix) and secondary stress on the last syllable (which is often a verb suffix).

‘ORga’nize, ‘MODer’nize

‘SIGni’fy, ‘SPECi’fy

‘COMpen’sate, ‘DECo’rate

‘COMpli’ment, ‘CONsti’tute

But many verbs, especially those with prefixes, have stress on the second syllable.

conTINue, conSIDer, reMEMber

If the prefix consists of two syllables, its first syllable usually gets secondary stress.

‘under’STAND, ‘decom’POSE

‘contra’DICT, ‘corre’SPOND

FOUR OR MORE SYLLABLES

Long nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs usually have two stresses: primary stress and secondary stress. But there are some long words with only one stress. There are four patterns of stress in long words.

Only one stress: on the first syllable

Nouns:

ACcuracy, DELicacy

Adjectives:

INteresting

Only one stress: on the second syllable

Nouns:

inTOLerance, geOMetry, aMERica

simPLICity, moBILity, teLEpathy

acCOMpaniment

Adjectives:

sigNIFicant, mysTErious, traDItional

inTOLerable, unREAsonable, noTOrious

Verbs:

acCOMpany

Two stresses: on the first and third syllable

This is a very common stress pattern in long words in English.

Nouns:

‘eco’NOMics, ‘infor’MAtion

‘consti’TUtion, ‘repe’TItion

‘coloni’ZAtion, ‘multipli’CAtion

Adjectives:

‘aca’DEMic, ‘geo’METrical

‘inter’NAtional, ‘cosmo’POLitan

‘capita’LIStic, ‘conver’SAtional

‘PAtro’nizing

Two stresses: on the second and fourth syllable

Nouns:

con’side’RAtion

in’vesti’GAtion

con’tinu’Ation

Adjectives:

ex’peri’MENtal

in’compre’HENsible

Verbs:

i’DENti’fy, in’TENsi’fy

in’TOXi’cate, ac’CUmu’late

com’MERcia’lize, a’POLo’gize.

Ударение в слове

Английские слова имеют определённые модели ударения, которые нужно строго соблюдать, если вы хотите, чтобы вас понимали. Лучший способ изучить английское ударение – слушать аудиоматериалы и повторять их за диктором. Ссылки на входных страницах разделов Phonetics, Phrases и Vocabulary ведут на сайты, которые предлагают полезные материалы для прослушивания, включая звуки, слоги, слова, предложения и разговоры. Краткий обзор типичных английских моделей ударения в данном материале поможет вам узнавать и понимать ударение в словах, когда вы работаете с материалами для прослушивания. Также будет полезно прослушать примеры ударения в материале для прослушивания Listening for Word Stress (AmE) в разделе Phonetics.

Примечание: Главный ударный слог в слове указан заглавными буквами в данном материале, например, LEMon. В словах с двумя ударениями, заглавные буквы со значком ударения перед ними показывают слог с главным ударением, а маленькие буквы со значком ударения перед ними показывают слог с второстепенным ударением, например, ‘eco’NOMics.

Общие рекомендации по ударению в словах

В целом, употребительные английские существительные, прилагательные и наречия чаще ударяются на первом слоге, чем на любом другом слоге. Глаголы с приставками обычно имеют ударение на втором слоге, т.е. на первом слоге корня после приставки. Английские слова не могут иметь два неударных слога в начале слова; один из этих слогов будет ударным. Если в слове четыре или более слогов, то в нём обычно два ударения: главное ударение (сильное ударение) и второстепенное ударение (слабое ударение). Также, второстепенное ударение может присутствовать (в дополнение к главному ударению) в более коротких словах в слоге, в котором гласный звук остается долгим и сильным.

Приставки часто ударные в существительных и реже в глаголах. Суффиксы в конце слова редко ударные, за исключением нескольких суффиксов существительных, прилагательных и глаголов, которые обычно ударные: rooMETTE, ‘ciga’RETTE / ‘CIGa’rette, Chi’NESE, ‘SIGni’fy, ‘ORga’nize, ‘DECo’rate. В более длинных производных словах ударение может падать на приставку или суффикс согласно типичным моделям ударения в слове. Окончания не ударные.

Ударение в производных словах

Ударение в производном слове может остаться таким же, как в слове, от которого оно образовано, или оно может измениться определённым образом. Когда существительные образуются от глаголов, или глаголы образуются от существительных, часто возникают следующие модели ударения.

Одинаковое ударение:

deNY (глагол) – deNIal (существительное)

ofFEND (глагол) – ofFENCE (существительное)

reVIEW (сущ.) – reVIEW (глагол)

PREview (сущ.) – PREview (глагол)

HOSpital (сущ.) – HOSpitalize (глагол)

Смещение ударения:

preSENT (глагол) – PRESent (существительное)

reFER (глагол) – REFerence (сущ.)

exTRACT (глагол) – EXtract (сущ.)

inCREASE (глагол) – INcrease (сущ.)

OBject (сущ.) – obJECT (глагол)

Другие части речи, образованные от существительных и глаголов, имеют следующие типичные модели ударения.

Прилагательные обычно ударные на первом слоге или повторяют ударение существительных, от которых они были образованы: fate (сущ.) – FATal (прилаг.); COLor (сущ.) – COLorful (прилаг.). Но ударение может меняться в более длинных производных прилагательных: METal (сущ.) – meTALlic (прилаг.); ATHlete (сущ.) – athLETic (прилаг.); geOLogy (сущ.) – ‘geo’LOGical (прилаг.); ARgument (сущ.) – ‘argu’MENtative (прилаг.).

Наречия обычно ударные на первом слоге или повторяют ударение прилагательных, от которых они были образованы: ANgry – ANgrily; WONderful – WONderfully; FOOLish – FOOLishly; athLETic – athLETically.

Герундий и причастия повторяют ударение глаголов, от которых они были образованы: forGET (забывать) – forGETting – forGOTten; CANcel (отменять) – CANceling – CANceled; ‘ORga’nize (организовать) – ‘ORga’nizing – ORganized.

Типичные модели ударения

Давайте посмотрим на типичные примеры ударения в английских словах. Главные факторы, которые влияют на ударение – количество слогов в слове и является ли это слово существительным, прилагательным или глаголом.

ОДНОСЛОЖНЫЕ СЛОВА

Односложные существительные, глаголы, прилагательные и наречия имеют ударение на гласном звуке в слове. Обратите внимание, что дифтонг – это один сложный гласный звук, который образует только один слог. Дифтонг имеет ударение на своём первом главном компоненте.

книга, кот, дождь, лодка, ворона, стул

читать, гореть, трогать, выбрать, смеяться, слышать

новый, яркий, большой, короткий, ясный, громкий

поздний / поздно, быстрый / быстро, скоро, сейчас

ДВУСЛОЖНЫЕ СЛОВА

Двусложные существительные

Существительные из двух слогов обычно ударные на первом слоге.

учитель, студент, ковер, урок

район, болезнь, утверждение, город

осужденный, увеличение, инстинкт, предмет

пропуск, подарок, проект, символ

Существительные могут иметь ударение на последнем слоге, если в нём долгий гласный звук или дифтонг. Слова иностранного происхождения (особенно слова французского происхождения) могут иметь ударение на последнем слоге.

стажер, карьера, задержка, забота

полиция, гостиница, берет, одноместное купе

Двусложные прилагательные

Прилагательные из двух слогов обычно ударные на первом слоге.

смешной, местный, полезный

глупый, родной, беззаботный

Некоторые двусложные прилагательные могут иметь ударение на последнем слоге, если в нём долгий гласный звук или дифтонг.

абсурдный, полный, крайний, угрюмый

Если в прилагательном есть приставка, то ударение часто падает на первый слог корня после приставки.

безумный, имеющий иммунитет, занятый

нездоровый, неизвестный

Двусложные глаголы

Глаголы из двух слогов обычно ударные на втором слоге, особенно если первый слог – приставка.

допускать, применять, начинать, верить

соединять, подтвердить, отрицать, заслуживать

не любить, положить не на место, объяснять

запрещать, забывать, игнорировать, приглашать

подчиняться, возникать, разрешать, подготовить

предлагать, преследовать, получать, ответить

снабжать, удивлять, аннулировать, отпереть

Но есть много глаголов, которые имеют ударение на первом слоге.

случаться, отменить, практиковать

отвечать, предлагать, упоминать

следовать, заимствовать, наказывать

ТРЕХСЛОЖНЫЕ СЛОВА

Трехсложные существительные

Существительные из трёх слогов обычно имеют ударение на первом слоге.

политика, правительство, генерал

интерес, выпускник, уверенность

Но многие существительные, особенно образованные от глаголов с приставками, имеют ударение на втором слоге.

одобрение, замешательство, потребитель

правильность, избрание, директор

Некоторые существительные могут иметь главное ударение на последнем слоге, если в нём долгий гласный звук или дифтонг.

инженер, беженец

Трехсложные прилагательные

Прилагательные из трёх слогов обычно имеют ударение на первом слоге.

общий, деликатный, превосходный

чудесный, любимый, любопытный

Некоторые трёхсложные прилагательные имеют ещё одно ударение на последнем слоге, если в нём долгий гласный звук или дифтонг.

вышедший из употребления

вьетнамский, португальский

Некоторые прилагательные не повторяют ударение существительного, от которого они были образованы, и ударяются на втором слоге.

видовой, символический, инстинктивный

Трехсложные глаголы

Глаголы из трёх слогов часто имеют главное ударение на первом слоге (даже если это приставка) и второстепенное ударение на последнем слоге (который часто глагольный суффикс).

организовать, модернизировать

означать, уточнять

компенсировать, украшать

делать комплимент, составлять

Но многие глаголы, особенно те, которые с приставками, имеют ударение на втором слоге.

продолжать, рассмотреть, помнить

Если приставка состоит из двух слогов, её первый слог обычно получает второстепенное ударение.

понимать, разлагаться

противоречить, соответствовать

ЧЕТЫРЕ ИЛИ БОЛЕЕ СЛОГОВ

Длинные существительные, прилагательные, глаголы и наречия обычно имеют два ударения: главное и второстепенное ударение. Но есть некоторые длинные слова только с одним ударением. В длинных словах четыре модели ударения.

Только одно ударение: на первом слоге

Существительные:

точность, утончённость

Прилагательные:

интересный

Только одно ударение: на втором слоге

Существительные:

нетерпимость, геометрия, Америка

простота, мобильность, телепатия

аккомпанемент

Прилагательные:

значительный, таинственный, традиционный

невыносимый, неразумный, печально известный

Глаголы:

сопровождать

Два ударения: на первом и третьем слоге

Это очень распространённая модель ударения в длинных словах в английском языке.

Существительные:

экономика, информация

конституция, повторение

колонизация, умножение

Прилагательные:

академический, геометрический

международный, космополитический

капиталистический, разговорный

покровительственный

Два ударения: на втором и четвертом слоге

Существительные:

рассмотрение

расследование

продолжение

Прилагательные:

экспериментальный

непонятный / непостижимый

Глаголы:

идентифицировать, усиливать

опьянять, накапливать

превращать в источник прибыли, извиняться.

2. Types and degrees of the word stress

3. Functional approach to word stress

Accent
– ударение

Accentuation
– постановка
ударения

To
derive
– происходить,
возникать

Derivation
– словопроизводство

To
‘alternate – чередовать

To
retain – удерживать

To
denote – обозначать

‘prefix
– приставка

The
sequence of syllables in a word is not pronounced identically. The
syllables which are uttered with more prominence than the other
syllables of the word are set to be stressed (accented). Stress is a
greater degree of prominence which is caused mainly by pronouncing
the stress syllable on a different pitch, with a change of it, with
greater force of exhalation with greater muscular tension. The
greater force of articulation is accompanied by an increase in the
length at the sound, especially vowels. Vowels are never reduced in
stress.

The
nature of WS, the interrelation of its components is still a problem.
There is a terminological confusion in discussing the nature of WS.
Stress is defined differently by different linguists. Богородецкий
defined stress as an increase of energy, accompanied by an increase
of expiratory and articulatory activity. Denial
Jones
defined stress as a degree of force, which is accompanied by strong
force of exhalation and gives an expression of loudness. Later he
wrote that “stress or prominence is effected by inherent sonority,
vowel and consonant length and by intonation”. Henry
Smith
stated that stress is connected with a force of breath. Jimson
admits that a more prominent syllable is accompanied by pitch changes
in the voice of quality and quantity of the accented sound.
(‘contract,
to contr’act).
We may note that in the stress syllable the force of utterance is
greater which is connected with more; the pitch of the voice is
higher, which is connected with stronger tenseness of the vocal
force; the quantity of the vowel “a”
in the verb is greater, the vowel becomes longer; the quality of the
vowel “a”
in an unstressed position is more narrow.

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, quantitative characteristics of a
sound which is normally a vowel.

In
different languages one of the factors constituting the word stress
is normally more significant than the others. If special prominence
in a stress syllable is achieved mainly through intensity of
articulation it is called dynamic (forced) stress (traditionally in
English). The
majority of British phoneticians distinguish 3 degrees of word
stress:

The
strongest stress – primary
stress

In
polysyllabic words – secondary
stress

Other
– weak
stress

The
syllables bearing either primary or secondary stress are called
stressed, while syllables with weak stress are called unstressed.
Besides different types of word stress are distinguished according to
their position. From this point of this there are 2 types: fixed
and
free.
In languages with fixed word stress the main stress falls on a
syllable which occupies in all the words of the language one and the
same position in the relation to the beginning or the end of the word
(French). In the Czech language the main stress falls on the initial
syllable of each word. Russian word stress may be characterized as
free as it may fall on the first, second, third, fourth syllable as
well as on the last. (ёлка,
поросёнок,
лапша,
крокодил).
Word
stress in English language is free, but its “freedom” is
restricted (ограничен)
by certain tendencies. There are certain factors that determine the
place and even degree of word stress:

1. The
   oldest is known to be recessive (отступать).
   It consists in gradual on the first syllable. This tendency consists
   in placing the accent on the initial syllable oа
   nouns, adjective and verb and on the root syllable of words which
   belong to other parts of speech and have a prefix. In most cases
   these prefixes have lost their meanings. Recessive stress is of 2
   types:

   1. Unrestricted
      falls on the initial syllable. It is observed in the majority of
      native English words of this type. (mother,
      father, husband, wife)

   2. Restricted
      falls on the root of native English words with a prefix, which has
      no meaning. (begin,
      apart)

2. Rhythmical
   tendency. Rhythm is alternation of stress and unstressed syllables.
   The recessive and rhythmical tendencies didn’t determine the
   position of stress in English words which were borrowed from the
   French language. In these words the accent has remained on the final
   syllable as in French.

police,
machine, garage

1. A
   manifestation of constant accent in word derivation. We are speaking
   of the retentive tendency. This is the tendency to retain the accent
   in a derivative on the same syllable on which it falls in the
   original or parent-word. The retentive tendency manifests itself in
   the retention of the primary accent of the parent word.

‘person
— ‘personal

‘reason
— ‘reasonable

‘interest
— ‘interesting

‘change
— ‘changeable

1. Semantic
   tendency determines accentuation in certain categories of words.
   These are words with the so-called separable prefixes and compound
   words. The majority of these classes of words have two equally
   strong stresses – the so-called double-stress. Both parts of such
   words are considered to be of equal semantic importance.

   1. Words
      with certain prefixes (underestimate,
      unknown)

   2. Compound
      adjectives (Well-bressed,
      blue-eyed, hard-working, easy-going)

   3. Compound
      verbs with preposition like adverbs (sit
      down, get up, take off, put on)

   4. Numerals
      (from 13 to 19)

   5. Compound
      numerals (41, 22…)

   6. When
      compound noun denote a single idea it’s only 1 stress.
      (‘walking-stick)

The
rhythmic tendency is very strong in modern English, because in fluent
speech words with 2 stresses can be pronounced with one stress under
the influence of rhythm. A small group of English words which have
free accentual variants. By free accentual variants we mean different
but orthoepically equally correct accentuation which must be
distinguished from unorthoepic accentuation used in local dialects or
professional jargons or simply by uneducated people. (творог
– творог
are equally correct, but компАс,
рапОрт
are pronounced by sailors only).

Word
stress performs 3 functions:

1. A
   constitutive function.
   It constitutes a word, it organizes the syllables of a word into a
   language unit having a definite accentual structure.

2. A
   recognitive function.
   It consists in a correct accentuation of words which facilitates
   their recognition and comprehension, because misplaced word stress
   betrays (выдавать)
   a foreign accent; do not only hamper understanding but very often
   produce a comic impression. Word stress enables a person to
   identify a succession of syllables as a definite accentual pattern
   of a word. It is just correct accentuation to make a listener to
   make a process of communication easier. Misplaced word stress
   prevent from normal understanding.

3. Distinctive
   function
   meaning that word stress is capable of differentiating the meaning
   and forms of words. The opposition of the primary stress can
   differentiate parts of speech. Similar expressions can be found in
   Russian.

Nouns	Verbs
‘conduct	con’duct
‘export	ex’port
‘subject	su’bject
‘insult	in’sult

Similar
examples can be found in Russian:

‘молодец
— моло‘дец

‘атлас
— ат’лас

‘здорово
– здо‘рово

‘замок
— за‘мок

The
opposition of the secondary stress to the absence of stress of it is
also distinctive.

to ¸re’cover (to do sth again)



to re’cover (to get well)

In
conclusion: be careful in using not only primary stress but also
secondary stress in English polysyllabic words.

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Stress in phonetics, In linguistics , and particularly in phonology , emphasis or accent is the relative emphasis or prominence given to a particular syllable in a word or to a particular word in a phrase or sentence . This emphasis is usually caused by properties such as increased vowel volume and length, full vowel articulation , and changes in pitch. The terms emphasis and accentare often used synonymously in this context, but are sometimes differentiated. For example, when emphasis is produced only through tone, it is called pitch accent, and when produced only through length, it is called quantitative accent . ^[3] When caused by a combination of several intensified properties, it is termed accented or dynamic accent ; English uses what is called a variable stress accent .

Since accent can be perceived through a wide range of phonetic properties , such as volume, vowel length, and pitch (which are also used for other linguistic functions), it is difficult to define accent phonetically alone.

The emphasis placed on syllables within words is called word stress . Some languages ​​have fixed stress , meaning that the stress in virtually any multisyllabic word falls on a particular syllable, such as the penultimate (e.g. Polish ) or first (e.g. Finnish ) syllable. Other languages, such as English and Russian , have lexical accent , whereby the position of the accent in a word is not predictable in this way, but lexically encoded. Sometimes more than one level of stress, such as primary stress and secondary stress, can be identified. Stress in phonetics

Stress is not necessarily a feature of all languages: some, such as French and Mandarin , are sometimes analyzed as lacking lexical emphasis.

The accent placed on words within sentences is called sentence accent or prosodic accent . This is one of the three components of prosody , along with rhythm and intonation . It includes phrasal stress (the standard emphasis of certain words in sentences or sentences ) and contrastive stress (used to highlight an item, a word, or part of a word, which is given a specific focus).

There are several ways in which stress manifests itself in the flow of speech, and this depends to some extent on which language is being spoken. Stressed syllables are often higher than unstressed syllables and may have a higher or lower pitch . Sometimes they can also be pronounced longer . Sometimes there are differences in the place or form of articulation – in particular, vowels in unstressed syllables may have a more central (or ” neutral “) tone.”) articulation, while those in stressed syllables have a more peripheral articulation. Tension can be perceived to varying degrees in different words in a sentence; sometimes the difference between the acoustic signals of stressed and unstressed syllables is minimal.

WORD STRESS

The first thing you need to do when checking the pronunciation of a word in the dictionary is to see which syllable is stressed. this is called word stress in English. Stress in phonetics

Not all languages ​​have stressed syllables and therefore many students tend to neglect this aspect and do not check it out. Some people naturally emphasize the last syllables, while others always emphasize the first. This is how our mother tongue can affect our English and it is a common mistake. This is the main reason why you are still speaking with a foreign accent! In English, however, word stress varies widely and contributes greatly to the understanding of a word.

It may even happen that, if we articulate a word incorrectly, but still emphasize the correct syllable, our interlocutor will understand us . Whereas, if we articulate too much and completely neglect the stress of words, it will make them difficult to understand.

In phonetics, the word stress is shown by this symbol (which looks like an apostrophe) : '. It is placed before the stressed syllable. Here are some examples of common words that students tend to mispronounce:

• ACtion /‘æk·ʃən/
• OPtion /ˈɑp·ʃən/
• SIlence /ˈsaɪ·ləns/
• diRECtion /dɪˈrɛk·ʃən/

In English, the word stress can sometimes be the only difference between a noun and a verb. Compare:

• RECord /ˈɹɛk·ɝd/ (like a world record)
• to reCORD /ɹɪˈkɔɹd/(make a recording of something)

We can see that the word stress has an impact not only on the intonation, power and length of a syllable, but also on its articulation. Stress in phonetics

The word stress can also be the only difference between an adjective and a verb:

• PERfect /ˈpɝ·fɪkt/= perfect, impeccable
• to perFECT /pɝˈfɛkt/= to make perfect

Because it is such an important topic in English pronunciation, we are preparing an entire article on the rules for the word stress.

Articulation

Breaking down a word to analyze each of its sounds is essential for learning to pronounce it well. Focus on sounds that don’t exist in your own language, as these will tend to be the most difficult. Discover our infographic of all American English sounds !

When we take the time to identify the sounds in English that don’t exist in our own language, it reduces the risk of making an embarrassing mistake! This can be the difference between asking for a bigCoke(the fizzy drink) and order a bigcock(penis).

For example, I was not aware of the existence of the so-called sound TH for years until I learned about the International Phonetic Alphabet (or the IPA). This means that I had spent about 8 years speaking English without even knowing all of its sounds… quite embarrassing, I know. But you can learn from my mistakes!

In short, the analysis of the sounds that make up words is a fundamental step in their studies. Let’s take an example with the word “thought /θɔt/“. Stress in phonetics

We can immediately see that the pronunciation of this word is very different from its spelling, so let’s take a closer look:

• We see that it is composed of three phonemes:
  • /θ/;
  • /ɔ/; and
  • /t/
  • while the GHit’s silent.
• Of all these, the one that does not exist in most languages ​​is“θ”!

This type of word-breaking exercise is called chunkingand is the basis for good learning. It allows you to understand how English is actually pronounced and to start speaking it with a better accent and, therefore, with more confidence.

So focus your efforts on these sounds, don’t be afraid to overdo it at first until you get used to it. Over time, it will become a habit and you will be able to pronounce even the most difficult words!

How to learn WORD STRESS?

 You can learn WORD STRESS in two ways.

The first is listening to the words. So when your teacher or a friend who knows English speaks a new word, pay attention to how the word is pronounced. Repeat the pronunciation of the word and this way you will naturally learn which syllable is stressed. Stress in phonetics

Another way for you to learn WORD STRESS is with the help of a dictionary. It may seem strange, but all the information you need about the pronunciation of a word is present in a good dictionary, whether physical or online.

SENTENCE STRESS 

Sentence stress is the term used to refer to the phenomenon in which a particular word is said more emphatically within a sentence.

This means that in English, a sentence is not spoken robotically, word for word, like the following example:

• Marcia didn’t buy the red dress.

If spoken mechanically the sentence is meaningless. It is empty, strange, tasteless. It is just a simple repetition of words in sequence.

In a natural chat, we can emphasize one word or another in the sentence and thus communicate different things. That is, depending on the word we emphasize, we will communicate an idea in a very different and clearer way.

In short, this thing of emphasizing a word in a sentence is what we call sentence stress .

Sentence Stress in Practice

Listen to the way each sentence below is said. See how this actually works in practice.

1. Marcia didn’t buy the red dress.
2. Marcia didn’t buy the red dress.
3. Marcia didn’t buy the red dress.
4. Marcia didn’t buy the red dress.
5. Marcia didn’t buy the red dress.
6. Marcia didn’t buy the red dress .

At each moment, the word spoken more intensely changes the meaning of the central idea being communicated:

1. I’m talking about Marcia. I’m not talking about Carol, Fátima or Patricia… I’m talking about Marcia.
2. What I’m saying is that she didn’t. She took the dress, looked at it, tried it on, but didn’t buy it.
3. She won the dress. She stole the dress. She found the dress on the street. Don’t even think she bought it, because that wasn’t it. She got the dress by other means. Stress in phonetics
4. It wasn’t the red dress she wanted so badly, but it was another red dress that was in the store.
5. There was no more red, so she bought the pink, the white, the blue, the black, the lilac, the yellow… Anyway, it was a dress of another color.
6. She bought the red miniskirt, the red shirt, the red top; but not the red dress.

That’s how it is in English. There’s no way to escape! The main word of the sentence – the one that carries the central meaning of what is being said – will always be said in a stronger, more intense, emphatic way.

Depending on the word being emphasized within the sentence, the meaning ( the idea expressed ) may change completely.

The importance of SENTENCE STRESS

You’ve certainly reached a point in your English learning where you’ve heard about sentence stress. This subject usually comes into play when we are studying the pronunciation of the English language . So, let’s understand what sentence stress is.

For starters, remember that when we learn an English word, we have to learn a number of things about it: meaning, usage in the proper context, pronunciation, spelling , etc. Stress in phonetics

We also have to learn how the word is pronounced correctly. This means learning what the stressed syllable of the word is.

This stressed syllable thing is known in English as word stress . The syllables in bold in the words below indicate which syllable is stressed in each of them:

• im by tant /ɪmˈpɔrtnt/
• po lice  /pəˈlis/
• com pu have /kəmˈpjutər/
• communication / kəˌmjunɪˈkeɪʃn /
• in teresting /ˈɪntrəstɪŋ/
• di fference /ˈdɪfrəns/
• Brazil / brəˈzɪl  /

Learning which syllable is stressed in a word is very important. So you will correctly pronounce the words you are learning. However, when learning English a much more important thing than learning word stress  is learning what we call  sentence stress .

This sentence stress is fundamental in communicating in English. This should be taught to entry-level students from the first day of class. After all, this helps us to develop listening and also to speak more clearly.

Written English vs Spoken English

When we see a written sentence we can understand what it means because of the words and grammatical structure used. But as far as sentence stress is concerned , we can’t say what it really means. Because, only listening to it in a natural context will we know what the person really wants to communicate. Let’s take the sentence below as an example:

• My older brother studied English years ago.

We can easily interpret the sentence as “ My older brother studied English years ago ”. However, in a real context depending on the word being emphasized the meaning will change.

To practice this, you can read the above sentence mechanically, without emotion, word for word. That way, you’ll notice that you’re not using any sentence stress .

Then you can read the same sentence emphasizing ( speaking more emphatically ) one word at a time. In addition, you can also imagine the meaning conveyed by emphasizing each word.

For example, read the sentence above emphasizing only the word “ my ”: MY older brother doesn’t study English . Then imagine what is actually being communicated by saying the sentence in this way: I am not referring to my brother, but to someone else’s brother.

Word Stress in English

CONTENTS

1. The nature of Word Stress in
English

.1 Origins of the Word Stress
and the notion of Accent

.2 Types of English Word
Stress2. Place of Word Stress in English

.1 Functions of Word Stress

.2 English accentuation
tendencies

word stress accent vowel

INTRODUCTION

«major part of second language
learners seem to reach adequate proficiency in the spheres of morphology and
syntax, still they have difficulty reaching the same proficiency level in the
fields of phonology and phonetics. Native speakers who are competent users of
the language absolutely know in what way to say a word, know how to pronounce
it. The difficulty attaining the same level as native speakers is found within
the results of interference of the mother tongue with English. The interference
of native Russian as the mother tongue is obscure in learners of English, but
not just in grammar aspect, also in pronunciation and it can be shown in the
comparative display of the word stress that this paper is partly about.this
course paper our attention will be focused on the accentual patterns of English
words. The sequence of syllables in the word is pronounced not even close or
identically. One syllable or syllables that are uttered with some prominence
than the other syllables in the very word, are meant to be stressed or in other
words accented. The correlation of prominences of different syllables in a word
is totally understood as the accentual (stress) structure of the word or its
(accentual) stress pattern.English and Russian linguists worked over the
question of word stress in English as the unique phenomenon. According to D.
Crystal the terms «… heaviness, sound pressure, force, power, strength,
intensity, amplitude, prominence, emphasis, accent, stress» tend to be used
synonymously by most writers. According to G.P. Torsuev the notions
«stressed» and «prominent» should not be used as the
synonyms. The effect of prominence, states the linguist, is made by some
phonetic features of sounds, which have nothing to do with the actual word or
sentence stress.

The actuality
of the investigation may be argued by the fact that nowadays the great
attention is paid to the research of accentual structure of English words.
Because stress or accent fulfill enormous functions of formation words and
compound words. The main aim of the course paper is to clarify types of
stress, places and degrees of word stress, factors and functions of word
stress.

CHAPTER 1. The nature of Word stress
in English

1.1 Origins of the
Word Stress and the notion of Accent

spoken language has a unique
division into segments like vowels and consonants. As we utter them, we make
use of wide range of tones of voice. The speech features that are higher than
the sound segments are length, stress, pitch, intonation, rhythm and juncture.
Here we are describing the nature of word stress.sequence of syllables in the
word is not pronounced identically. The syllable or syllables which are uttered
with more prominence than the other syllables of the word are said to be
stressed or accented. Stress in the isolated word is termed word stress; stress
in connected speech is termed sentence stress.first we have to find out the
meaning of the notions: word stress, intonation, accent. «Different
authors define stress differently. B.A. Bogoroditsky, for instance, defined stress
as an increase of energy, accompanied by an increase of expiratory and
articulatory activity. D. Jones defined word stress as the degree
of force, which is accompanied by a strong force of exhalation and gives an
impression of loudness. H. Sweet also stated that stress, is connected
with the force of breath. According to A.C. Gimson, any or all of four factors
achieve the effect of prominence: force, tone, length and vowel color.native
English listeners, the most important syllable in a word is the stressed
syllable, the primary cue for identifying the word. This makes stress the most
important pronunciation topic. In addition, the characteristics of stressed and
unstressed syllables in single words are mirrored in rhythm. Word stress
is described as a communicatively important pronunciation topic, bridging the
continuum between segmentals (consonants and vowels) and suprasegmentals
(rhythm and intonation)» [20; 17].A.M. suggested another description. He
states that «the word stress can be defined as the singling out of
one or more syllables in а word, which is accompanied by the change of the
force of utterance, pitch of the voice, qualitative and quantitative
characteristics of the vowel sound» [4].the most full and correct
definition can be found in the Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. «A
term used in phonetics to refer to the degree of force used in producing a
syllable. The usual distinction is between stressed and unstressed syllables,
the former being more prominent than the latter (and marked in transcription
with a raised vertical line, [c]. The prominence is usually due to an increase
in loudness of the stressed syllable, but increases in length and often pitch
may contribute to the overall impression of prominence. In popular usage,
‘stress’ is usually equated with an undifferentiated notion of ‘emphasis’ or
‘strength’» [13; 454].notion of stress is supposed to close enough to the
meaning of intonation. Still there exists a huge difference. The difference
between stress and intonation is that » …stress is the relative loudness
of parts of speech where intonation is the variation in the pitch of different
parts of speech. Linguists generally believe that there are about 3 to 4 levels
of stress in the English language. In most cases, stress does not really change
the meaning of words and is more or less associated with the dialect or accent
being used» [8; 138]. There are some cases where this assumption is not
valid — see the table 1.1.

1.1. Examples in
English, where the stress changes the meaning of the word

Loudness has an inherent pitch
component, stress, as the relative loudness, sometimes has an added pitch
variation. This extra pitch variation is called a pitch accent. An
example of a language, which contains a pronounced level of pitch accent is
Turkish. Pitch variations are used to change the stress level of a word mostly
due to rhythmic constraints imposed by the language.long as we are discussing
the notion of accent, it is reasonable to define its meaning. Accent was
originally a loan translation from Greek into Latin (a loan translation is when
each constituent of a compound in one language is translated into its
equivalent in another, and then reassembled into a new compound). » … Greek
prosōidíā (whence English
prosody) was formed from pros ‘to’ and
ōidé ‘song’ (whence English ode);
these elements were translated into Latin ad ‘to’ and cantus ‘song’ (whence
English chant, cant, cantata, canticle), giving accentus. The notion
underlying this combination of ‘to’ and ‘song’ was of a song added to speech —
that is, the intonation of spoken language. The sense of a particular mode of
pronunciation did not arise in English until the 16th century» [6; 4].the
Britannica Encyclopedia exists the following meaning of the accent notion.
» … in phonetics, that property of a syllable which makes it stand out in
an utterance relative to its neighboring syllables. The emphasis on the
accented syllable, relative to the unaccented syllables may be realized through
greater length, higher or lower pitch, a changing pitch contour, greater
loudness or a combination of these characteristics» [10;54].

«The emphasis which makes a
particular word or syllable stand out in a stream of speech — one talks
especially of an accented sound/word/syllable, or the accent(ual) pattern of a
phrase/sentence. The term is usually found in a discussion of metre (metrics),
where it refers to the ‘beats’ in a line of poetry — the accented syllables, as
opposed to the unaccented ones. But any style of spoken language could be
described with reference to the relative weight (accentuation) of its
syllables: one might talk of the ‘strongly accented’ speech of a politician,
for instance., accent is not solely a matter of loudness, but also of pitch and
duration, especially pitch: comparing the verb record (as in I’m
going to record the tune) and the noun (I’ve got a record),
the contrast in word accent between re`cord and `record is made by the
syllables differing in loudness, length and pitch movement. The notion of pitch
accent as also been used in the phonological analysis of these languages,
referring to cases where there is a restricted distribution of tone within
words (as in Japanese). A similar use of these variables is found in the notion
of sentence accent (also called ‘contrastive accent’). This is an
important aspect of linguistic analysis, especially of intonation, because it
can affect the acceptability, the meaning, or the presuppositions of a
sentence, e.g. He was wearing a red hat could be heard as a response to
Was he wearing a red coat?; whereas He was wearing a red hat would
respond to Was he wearing a green hat? The term stress, however,
is often used for contrasts of this kind (as in the phrases ‘word stress’
and ‘contrastive stress’). An analysis in terms of pitch accent is also
possible.total system of accents in a language is sometimes called the
accentual system, and would be part of the study of phonology. The coinage
accentology for the study of accents is sometimes found in European
linguistics. (3) In graphology, an accent is a mark placed above a letter,
showing how that letter is to be pronounced. French accents, for example,
include a distinction between é,
è and ê.
Accents are a type of diacritic» [13; 4].linguists believe that syllabic
and lexical accents do not change the meaning of words in English. However, we
know that syllabic and lexical accents are also components of linguistic
stress along with other concepts such as syllabic and lexical sonority
variations and metrical variations. In those regards, since syllabic stress
does change the meaning of words in English, then so do accent.

1.2 Types of
English Word Stress

has various domains: the word, the
phrase, the sentence. Word accent (also called word stress or lexical stress)
is a part of the characteristic way in which a language is pronounced. Given to
a particular language system, word accent may be:

.        Fixed (like in Welsh);

.        Predictable (e.g. in
French, where it occurs regularly at the end of words, or in Czech, where it
occurs initially);

.        Movable, as in English,
which then leaves accent free to function to distinguish one word from another
that is identical segmentally (e.g. the noun permit versus the verb to
permit).types of word stress are distinguished not only according to its
physical (acoustic) nature and degree, but also according to its position in
different words of the language. «From this point of view two types of
word stress are distinguished: fixed and free.)        In languages with fixed
word stress the position of stress is the same in all the words. For
instance, in Czech and Lettish the main stress falls on the first syllable of
each word and grammatical form of а word; in French, stress is tied to the last
syllable of each word; in Polish, it falls on the prefinal syllable of all
words and their grammatical forms.)        In languages with free word
stress the primary stress may fall in different words on any syllable. For
example in Russian: к`омната,
раб`ота,
матем`атика,
преподав`атель,
машиностро`ение,
окн`о; in English: `mother, ig`nore, соn`sideÐration,
ciga`rette.

Within frее word stress two subtypes
are distinguished on morphological grounds: constant and shifting.

a.      А constant stress
is one which remains on the same morpheme in different grammatical forms of а
word or in different derivatives from one and the same root. For example:
«wonder — `wondering — `wonderful — `wonderfully.

b.      А shifting stress
is one which falls on different morphemes in different grammatical forms of а
word or in different derivatives from one and the same root,is also shifted
under the influence of rhythm. For instance, Ber`lin — `Berlin `streets,
Chi`nese — a `Chinese `lantern; un`known — an `unknown writer — The `writer is
`quite un`known., accent can be used at the phrasal level to distinguish
sequences identical at the segmental level (e.g. ‘light housekeeping’ versus
‘lighthouse keeping’ or ‘blackboard’ versus ‘black board’). Finally, accent can
be used at the sentence level to draw attention to one part of the sentence
rather then another (e.g. ‘What did you sign?’ ‘I signed a contract
to do some light housekeeping.’ versus ‘Who signed a contract?’ ‘I
signed a contract to do some light housekeeping.’)» [10; 54].the auditory
level a stressed syllable is the part of the word which has a special
prominence. It is produced by a greater loudness and length, modifications in
the pitch and quality. The physical correlates are: inten sity, duration,
frequency and the formant structure. All these features can be analyzed on the
acoustic level. «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. In different languages one of the factors
constituting word stress is usually more significant than the others. According
to the most important feature different types, of word stress are distinguished
in different languages.

) If special prominence in a
stressed syllable or syllables is achieved mainly through the intensity of
articulation, such type of stress is called dynamic, or force stress.

) If special prominence in a
stressed syllable is achieved mainly through the change of pitch, or musical
tone, such accent is called musical, or tonic. It is characteristic of the
Japanese, Korean and other oriental languages.

) If special prominence in a
stressed syllable is achieved through the changes in the quantity of the
vowels, which are longer in the stressed syllables than in the unstressed ones,
such type of stress is called quantitative.

) Qualitative type of stress is
achieved through the changes in the quality of the vowel under stress» [4;
51].word stress is traditionally defined as dynamic, but in fact, the special
prominence of the stressed syllables is manifested in the English language 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
viewpoint of phonology, the main function of stress is to provide a
means of distinguishing degrees of emphasis
or contrast in sentences (sentence stress),
as in The big man looks angry; the term contrastive stress is often used
for this function. Many pairs of words and word
sequences can also be distinguished using stress variation (lexical stress or
word stress), as in the contrast between
An increase in pay is needed and I’m going to increase his pay or
the distinction between `black `bird and `black-bird.analytical question here,
which attracted a great deal of attention in the middle decades of the
twentieth century, is how many degrees of stress need to be recognized in order
to account for all such contrasts, and to show the interrelationships between
words derived from a common root, such as `telegraph, tele`graphic and
te`legraphy.а purely phonetic point of view polysyllabic word has as many
degrees of prominence as there are syllables in it. А. С. Gimson gives the
following distribution of the degrees of stress in the word
«ехаmination»:most prominent syllable is marked by figure 1, the
second degree of prominence — by figure 2, then goes 3, and so on. However, not
all these degrees of prominence are linguistically relevant.majority of British
phoneticians distinguish three degrees of word stress in English:

.        primary (the strongest
stress),

.        secondary (the second
strongest) and

.        weak stress (аll the other
degrees of stress).syllables bearing either primary or secondary stress are
termed stressed, while syllables with weak stress are саlled, somewhat
inaccurately, unstressed.the American structuralist tradition, four such
degrees are usually distinguished, and analyzed as stress phonemes,
namely (from strongest to weakest):

(1) ‘primary’,

(2) ‘secondary’,

(3) ‘tertiary’ and

(4) ‘weak’.contrasts are, however,
demonstrable only on words in isolation, as in the compound elevator operator —
one of several such phrases originally cited to justify analyses of this kind.views
recognized different kinds and degrees of stress, the simplest
postulating a straight stressed v. unstressed contrast, referring to other
factors (such as intonation and vowel quality) to explain such sequences as
elevator operator. «In distinctive feature theories of phonology, the
various degrees of stress are assigned to the syllables of words by means of
the repeated application of rules (such as ‘lexical’, ‘compound’ and ‘nuclear’ stress
rules). Some analysts maintain there is a distinction to be made between
linguistic contrasts involving loudness (which they refer to as ‘stress’) and
those additionally involving pitch (which they refer to as «accent»).
All the examples given above, they would argue, are matters of accent, not stress,
because contrasts in pitch variation are normally involved. Similar problems
arise in the analysis of tone languages.the context of rhythm studies, the
notion of a stress-timed language is often cited, i.e. one where the stresses
fall at roughly regular intervals within an utterance. In analyzing such a
language in this way, the notion of silent stress is sometimes invoked. The
reason is to handle cases where the omission of a stressed syllable in
colloquial speech can none the less be ‘felt’; a regularly cited case in the
abbreviated version of thank you, which is said to be the unstressed
residue of an unspoken stressed + unstressed combination. A sequence of
syllables constituting a rhythmical unit, containing one primary stress, is
known as a stress group. In metrical phonology a stress-foot is a
string containing as its first element a
stressed syllable, followed by zero or more unstressed syllables symbolized by
Σ. The most prominent element in the stress foot is called the head. It
should be noted that ‘foot’, in this context, refers to an underlying
unit, whose phonetic interpretation varies according to the theoretical
approach., in this approach, is a rule, which eliminates stresses produced by
foot construction. When two stressed syllables are immediately adjacent, the
situation is described as stress clash. Speakers have a tendency to avoid
stress clash; for example, the word thirteen is normally stressed on the
second syllable, but in the phrase thirteen men, the stress shifts to
the first syllable» [13; 456].languages, stressed and unstressed syllables
differences can be distinguished by differences in length, pitch, loudness, or
vowel quality. As the chart below shows, English makes use of all these
distinctions. See table 1.2.

1.2.
Characteristics of levels of stress in words

CHAPTER 2. Place of word Stress in
English

.1 Functions of Word Stress

any phonological unit, word stress
performs three functions: constitutive, distinctive and identificatory.

.        «Word stress has а
constitutive function as it arranges syllables into а word by forming its
stress pattern. Without а definite stress pattern а word stops being а word and
becomes just а sequence of syllables.

.        Word stress has а
distinctive function because it helps to differentiate the meaning of words of
the same morphological structure. The opposition of the primary stress and weak
stress can differentiate the parts of speech, like:n — subject vn — object vn —
import vn — insult vn — export vn — progress vn — combine vn — conduct vn —
frequent vn — present voppositions may differentiate the actual meaning of the
some words:

`billow (naval term) — be`low
(down);

`artist — ar`tist.opposition of the
second primary stress to weak stress is also distinctive:

`re`cover (put a new cover on) —
re`cover (get well again);

`restrain (strain again) — re`strain
(keep in check).primary stress opposed to the secondary stress
can sometimes differentiate the meaning as well:

`recre`ation (creating anew) —
recre`ation (amusement).

А compound noun is differentiated
from а free word combination by the opposition of tertiary stress to primary
stress:

`black-board — `black `board;

`stong-box — `strong `box;

`goldfish — `gold `fish;

`blackbird — `black `bird., however,
the second component of such compound nouns is considered to have weak stress,
the distinctive function in such minimal pairs will be realized through the
opposition of weak stress (in the `compound) and рrimary stress.

2.2 English
accentuation tendencies

stress in English is free, but the
«freedom» of its position is regulated by four accentuation
tendencies as а result of its historical development. The first and the oldest
of them is the recessive tendency, according to which, stress falls on
the first syllable of а word which is generally the root syllable (`father,
`sister, `husband, `water, `window,` ready, `clever), or on the second syllable
in words which have а prefix of nо special meaning (bе`fore, bе`come, а`mong,
for`get, mis`take).recessive tendency is characteristic of words of
Germanic origin. It has also influenced many disyllabic and trisyllabic words
borrowed from French, (`colour, `marriage, `excellent, `garage, `ballet,
ab`stain, de`pend, ob`tain, sur`prise, re`main, pro`duce, com`pose). But:
ma`сhinе, tech`nique, ро`lice.second tendency is the result of the mutual
influence of Germanic and French accentual patterns. It is known as the rhythmic
tendency, which manifests itself in stressing the third syllable from the
end, (`family, `unity, in`tensity, ро`litical, а`bility, а`cademy, de`mocracy,
in`finitive, com`parison, i`dentify).stress is especially common for verbs with
the suffixes -аtе, -fy,

ize, (`situate, ar`ticulate,
`qualify, `organize).accentuation of words ending in the suffix —ion
with its variants —sion, -tion, -ation, is also rhythmical in its
origin. Nowadays stress falls on the prefinal syllable, but it used to be on
the third syllable from the end as the spelling still shows, (`nation,
ос`casion, о`pinion).in three and four syllable words is called historically,
or diachronically, rhythmical (`radical, ос`casion, i`dentity).words with more
than four syllables we often find the secondary stress, which falls on the
first or second syllable. It mау be called synchronically rhythmical stress
(ad`mini`stration, re`sposi`bility, `popu`larity, `physic`ology, `indi`visible,
etc).long polysyllabic words like `indi`visi`bility, `inter`conti`nental, `unfa`mili`arity,
`inter`com`muni`cation, the stress on the 3^rd (2^nd)
syllable from the end is diachronically rhythmical while the other two stresses
are synchronically rhythmical. There has been а constant struggle between the
recessive and the rhythmic tendencies, the outcome being threefold:

·        an accentual
compromise in words like enemy, cinema, recognize, diction(a)ry;

·        аdefinite victory,
in the great majority of words, for the rhythmic tendency, articulate, аcademy,
аbility, еÐхаmination,
visibility, Ðесоnomical;

·        аdefinite victory
for the recessive tendency in аsmall number of four- and five- syllable words,
(advocacy, candidature, cannibalism, rationalism, characterize).third, retentive,
tendency consists in the retention of the primary stress of the parent word
in the derivatives, person — personal. More commonly, it is retained in the
derivative as а secondary stress, possible — possibility, арpreciate —
ар`рrесiation, nation — `nationality.is one more tendency in English that
determines the place and the degree of word stress — the semantic tendency.
It consists in stressing the most important elements of compound words.
Compounds are words composed of two separable roots, which may be spelled as
one word, with а hyphen, or two separate words. Compound nouns usually have а
single stress on the first element, `birthday, `blacksmith, `apple tree,
`suitcase, `booking оffiсе, `Newcastle, `music-hall, gui`tar player (but not
`banjo player), `make up, etc.

In English there are words with two
primary stresses, because both of their elements are semantically
important. Неrе belong:

.        words with separable
(«strong») prefixes, (`re-`write, `vice-`president, `anti-`fascist,
`ex-`minister, `sub-`editor, `under`estimate, `over`burden); negative prefixes
(`disap`pear, `un`known, `irres`ponsible, `il`literate, `inar`tistic,
`non-`smoker, `misunder`stand. But: mis`take, im`possible, dis`courage;

.        numerals from
«`thir`teen» to «`nine`teen»;

.        compound numerals
(`twenty-`one, `ffty-`three, etc);

.        compound verbs, (to `give
`in, `get `uр, `take `оff, etc);

.        compound adjectives
(`well-`known, `blue-`eyed, `red-`hot; `first-`class, `good-`looking, etc).
But: `childlike;

.        а small number оf compound
nouns (`gas-`stove, `ice-`cream, `absent-`mindedness); But: `note-book, man`kind,
etc.nouns of three elements have а single primary stress on the second element
due to the rhythmic tendency (`hot`water`bottle, `waste`рареr`basket,
`lost`property`оffiсе, etc)., all the above-mentioned double-stressed words
lose one of the primary stresses in word соmbinations and sentences under the
influence of Еnglish rhythm:

(an `аbsent-minded `man — `sо absent
-ˎminded;`went up ˎstairs — I met her ˎupstairs;

CONCLUSION

·        Stress refers to
the relative perceived prominence of a unit of spoken language;

·        stress has
distinctive function in English (`produce — pro`duce);

·        the production of a
stressed syllable usually involves several aspects:

.        an increase of articulatory
force, increased rate of airflow, greater muscular tension in the articulators;

.        greater intensity, higher
pitch, and longer duration are typically involved;

·        we recognize
several degrees of stress — primary stress, secondary stress, and unstress;

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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современного английского языка, — М., Высшая школа., — 1986.

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О.О.
Theoretical phonetics: study guide for second year students, — Воронеж,
— 2007.

3.       Леонтьева С. Ф.
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CONTENTS

1. The nature of Word Stress in English

.1 Origins of the Word Stress and the notion of Accent

.2 Types of English Word Stress2. Place of Word Stress in English

.1 Functions of Word Stress

.2 English accentuation tendencies

word stress accent vowel

INTRODUCTION

«major part of second language learners seem to reach adequate proficiency in the spheres of morphology and syntax, still they have difficulty reaching the same proficiency level in the fields of phonology and phonetics. Native speakers who are competent users of the language absolutely know in what way to say a word, know how to pronounce it. The difficulty attaining the same level as native speakers is found within the results of interference of the mother tongue with English. The interference of native Russian as the mother tongue is obscure in learners of English, but not just in grammar aspect, also in pronunciation and it can be shown in the comparative display of the word stress that this paper is partly about.this course paper our attention will be focused on the accentual patterns of English words. The sequence of syllables in the word is pronounced not even close or identically. One syllable or syllables that are uttered with some prominence than the other syllables in the very word, are meant to be stressed or in other words accented. The correlation of prominences of different syllables in a word is totally understood as the accentual (stress) structure of the word or its (accentual) stress pattern.English and Russian linguists worked over the question of word stress in English as the unique phenomenon. According to D. Crystal the terms «… heaviness, sound pressure, force, power, strength, intensity, amplitude, prominence, emphasis, accent, stress» tend to be used synonymously by most writers. According to G.P. Torsuev the notions «stressed» and «prominent» should not be used as the synonyms. The effect of prominence, states the linguist, is made by some phonetic features of sounds, which have nothing to do with the actual word or sentence stress.

The actuality of the investigation may be argued by the fact that nowadays the great attention is paid to the research of accentual structure of English words. Because stress or accent fulfill enormous functions of formation words and compound words. The main aim of the course paper is to clarify types of stress, places and degrees of word stress, factors and functions of word stress.

The practical value of this course paper is that the practical results and conclusions can be used at the seminars on theoretical and practical phonetics and lexicology.conclusion all important deductions both of theoretical and of practical character conformably to the studying sphere of phonetics have been summed up and formulated.contains of English, Russian and American phoneticians and linguists, and information from the Internet» devoted to the theory of phonology, phonetics and intonation as such.

CHAPTER 1. The nature of Word stress in English

1.1 Origins of the Word Stress and the notion of Accent

spoken language has a unique division into segments like vowels and consonants. As we utter them, we make use of wide range of tones of voice. The speech features that are higher than the sound segments are length, stress, pitch, intonation, rhythm and juncture. Here we are describing the nature of word stress.sequence of syllables in the word is not pronounced identically. The syllable or syllables which are uttered with more prominence than the other syllables of the word are said to be stressed or accented. Stress in the isolated word is termed word stress; stress in connected speech is termed sentence stress.first we have to find out the meaning of the notions: word stress, intonation, accent. «Different authors define stress differently. B.A. Bogoroditsky, for instance, defined stress as an increase of energy, accompanied by an increase of expiratory and articulatory activity. D. Jones defined word stress as the degree of force, which is accompanied by a strong force of exhalation and gives an impression of loudness. H. Sweet also stated that stress, is connected with the force of breath. According to A.C. Gimson, any or all of four factors achieve the effect of prominence: force, tone, length and vowel color.native English listeners, the most important syllable in a word is the stressed syllable, the primary cue for identifying the word. This makes stress the most important pronunciation topic. In addition, the characteristics of stressed and unstressed syllables in single words are mirrored in rhythm. Word stress is described as a communicatively important pronunciation topic, bridging the continuum between segmentals (consonants and vowels) and suprasegmentals (rhythm and intonation)» [20; 17].A.M. suggested another description. He states that «the word stress can be defined as the singling out of one or more syllables in а word, which is accompanied by the change of the force of utterance, pitch of the voice, qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the vowel sound» [4].the most full and correct definition can be found in the Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. «A term used in phonetics to refer to the degree of force used in producing a syllable. The usual distinction is between stressed and unstressed syllables, the former being more prominent than the latter (and marked in transcription with a raised vertical line, [c]. The prominence is usually due to an increase in loudness of the stressed syllable, but increases in length and often pitch may contribute to the overall impression of prominence. In popular usage, stress is usually equated with an undifferentiated notion of emphasis or strength» [13; 454].notion of stress is supposed to close enough to the meaning of intonation. Still there exists a huge difference. The difference between stress and intonation is that » …stress is the relative loudness of parts of speech where intonation is the variation in the pitch of different parts of speech. Linguists generally believe that there are about 3 to 4 levels of stress in the English language. In most cases, stress does not really change the meaning of words and is more or less associated with the dialect or accent being used» [8; 138]. There are some cases where this assumption is not valid — see the table 1.1.

1.1. Examples in English, where the stress changes the meaning of the word

Loudness has an inherent pitch component, stress, as the relative loudness, sometimes has an added pitch variation. This extra pitch variation is called a pitch accent. An example of a language, which contains a pronounced level of pitch accent is Turkish. Pitch variations are used to change the stress level of a word mostly due to rhythmic constraints imposed by the language.long as we are discussing the notion of accent, it is reasonable to define its meaning. Accent was originally a loan translation from Greek into Latin (a loan translation is when each constituent of a compound in one language is translated into its equivalent in another, and then reassembled into a new compound). » … Greek pros?idí? (whence English prosody) was formed from pros to and ?idé song (whence English ode); these elements were translated into Latin ad to and cantus song (whence English chant, cant, cantata, canticle), giving accentus. The notion underlying this combination of to and song was of a song added to speech — that is, the intonation of spoken language. The sense of a particular mode of pronunciation did not arise in English until the 16th century» [6; 4].the Britannica Encyclopedia exists the following meaning of the accent notion. » … in phonetics, that property of a syllable which makes it stand out in an utterance relative to its neighboring syllables. The emphasis on the accented syllable, relative to the unaccented syllables may be realized through greater length, higher or lower pitch, a changing pitch contour, greater loudness or a combination of these characteristics» [10;54].

«The emphasis which makes a particular word or syllable stand out in a stream of speech — one talks especially of an accented sound/word/syllable, or the accent(ual) pattern of a phrase/sentence. The term is usually found in a discussion of metre (metrics), where it refers to the beats in a line of poetry — the accented syllables, as opposed to the unaccented ones. But any style of spoken language could be described with reference to the relative weight (accentuation) of its syllables: one might talk of the strongly accented speech of a politician, for instance., accent is not solely a matter of loudness, but also of pitch and duration, especially pitch: comparing the verb record (as in Im going to record the tune) and the noun (Ive got a record), the contrast in word accent between re`cord and `record is made by the syllables differing in loudness, length and pitch movement. The notion of pitch accent as also been used in the phonological analysis of these languages, referring to cases where there is a restricted distribution of tone within words (as in Japanese). A similar use of these variables is found in the notion of sentence accent (also called contrastive accent). This is an important aspect of linguistic analysis, especially of intonation, because it can affect the acceptability, the meaning, or the presuppositions of a sentence, e.g. He was wearing a red hat could be heard as a response to Was he wearing a red coat?; whereas He was wearing a red hat would respond to Was he wearing a green hat? The term stress, however, is often used for contrasts of this kind (as in the phrases word stress and contrastive stress). An analysis in terms of pitch accent is also possible.total system of accents in a language is sometimes called the accentual system, and would be part of the study of phonology. The coinage accentology for the study of accents is sometimes found in European linguistics. (3) In graphology, an accent is a mark placed above a letter, showing how that letter is to be pronounced. French accents, for example, include a distinction between é, è and ê. Accents are a type of diacritic» [13; 4].linguists believe that syllabic and lexical accents do not change the meaning of words in English. However, we know that syllabic and lexical accents are also components of linguistic stress along with other concepts such as syllabic and lexical sonority variations and metrical variations. In those regards, since syllabic stress does change the meaning of words in English, then so do accent.

1.2 Types of English Word Stress

has various domains: the word, the phrase, the sentence. Word accent (also called word stress or lexical stress) is a part of the characteristic way in which a language is pronounced. Given to a particular language system, word accent may be:

.Fixed (like in Welsh);

.Predictable (e.g. in French, where it occurs regularly at the end of words, or in Czech, where it occurs initially);

.Movable, as in English, which then leaves accent free to function to distinguish one word from another that is identical segmentally (e.g. the noun permit versus the verb to permit).types of word stress are distinguished not only according to its physical (acoustic) nature and degree, but also according to its position in different words of the language. «From this point of view two types of word stress are distinguished: fixed and free.)In languages with fixed word stress the position of stress is the same in all the words. For instance, in Czech and Lettish the main stress falls on the first syllable of each word and grammatical form of а word; in French, stress is tied to the last syllable of each word; in Polish, it falls on the prefinal syllable of all words and their grammatical forms.)In languages with free word stress the primary stress may fall in different words on any syllable. For example in Russian: к`омната, раб`ота, матем`атика, преподав`атель, машиностро`ение, окн`о; in English: `mother, ig`nore, соn`sideÐration, ciga`rette.

Within frее word stress two subtypes are distinguished on morphological grounds: constant and shifting.

a.А constant stress is one which remains on the same morpheme in different grammatical forms of а word or in different derivatives from one and the same root. For example: «wonder — `wondering — `wonderful — `wonderfully.

b.А shifting stress is one which falls on different morphemes in different grammatical forms of а word or in different derivatives from one and the same root,is also shifted under the influence of rhythm. For instance, Ber`lin — `Berlin `streets, Chi`nese — a `Chinese `lantern; un`known — an `unknown writer — The `writer is `quite un`known., accent can be used at the phrasal level to distinguish sequences identical at the segmental level (e.g. light housekeeping versus lighthouse keeping or blackboard versus black board). Finally, accent can be used at the sentence level to draw attention to one part of the sentence rather then another (e.g. What did you sign? I signed a contract to do some light housekeeping. versus Who signed a contract? I signed a contract to do some light housekeeping.)» [10; 54].the auditory level a stressed syllable is the part of the word which has a special prominence. It is produced by a greater loudness and length, modifications in the pitch and quality. The physical correlates are: inten sity, duration, frequency and the formant structure. All these features can be analyzed on the acoustic level. «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. In different languages one of the factors constituting word stress is usually more significant than the others. According to the most important feature different types, of word stress are distinguished in different languages.

) If special prominence in a stressed syllable or syllables is achieved mainly through the intensity of articulation, such type of stress is called dynamic, or force stress.

) If special prominence in a stressed syllable is achieved mainly through the change of pitch, or musical tone, such accent is called musical, or tonic. It is characteristic of the Japanese, Korean and other oriental languages.

) If special prominence in a stressed syllable is achieved through the changes in the quantity of the vowels, which are longer in the stressed syllables than in the unstressed ones, such type of stress is called quantitative.

) Qualitative type of stress is achieved through the changes in the quality of the vowel under stress» [4; 51].word stress is traditionally defined as dynamic, but in fact, the special prominence of the stressed syllables is manifested in the English language 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 viewpoint of phonology, the main function of stress is to provide a means of distinguishing degrees of emphasis or contrast in sentences (sentence stress), as in The big man looks angry; the term contrastive stress is often used for this function. Many pairs of words and word sequences can also be distinguished using stress variation (lexical stress or word stress), as in the contrast between An increase in pay is needed and Im going to increase his pay or the distinction between `black `bird and `black-bird.analytical question here, which attracted a great deal of attention in the middle decades of the twentieth century, is how many degrees of stress need to be recognized in order to account for all such contrasts, and to show the interrelationships between words derived from a common root, such as `telegraph, tele`graphic and te`legraphy.а purely phonetic point of view polysyllabic word has as many degrees of prominence as there are syllables in it. А. С. Gimson gives the following distribution of the degrees of stress in the word «ехаmination»:most prominent syllable is marked by figure 1, the second degree of prominence — by figure 2, then goes 3, and so on. However, not all these degrees of prominence are linguistically relevant.majority of British phoneticians distinguish three degrees of word stress in English:

.primary (the strongest stress),

.secondary (the second strongest) and

.weak stress (аll the other degrees of stress).syllables bearing either primary or secondary stress are termed stressed, while syllables with weak stress are саlled, somewhat inaccurately, unstressed.the American structuralist tradition, four such degrees are usually distinguished, and analyzed as stress phonemes, namely (from strongest to weakest):

(1) primary,

(2) secondary,

(3) tertiary and

(4) weak.contrasts are, however, demonstrable only on words in isolation, as in the compound elevator operator — one of several such phrases originally cited to justify analyses of this kind.views recognized different kinds and degrees of stress, the simplest postulating a straight stressed v. unstressed contrast, referring to other factors (such as intonation and vowel quality) to explain such sequences as elevator operator. «In distinctive feature theories of phonology, the various degrees of stress are assigned to the syllables of words by means of the repeated application of rules (such as lexical, compound and nuclear stress rules). Some analysts maintain there is a distinction to be made between linguistic contrasts involving loudness (which they refer to as stress) and those additionally involving pitch (which they refer to as «accent»). All the examples given above, they would argue, are matters of accent, not stress, because contrasts in pitch variation are normally involved. Similar problems arise in the analysis of tone languages.the context of rhythm studies, the notion of a stress-timed language is often cited, i.e. one where the stresses fall at roughly regular intervals within an utterance. In analyzing such a language in this way, the notion of silent stress is sometimes invoked. The reason is to handle cases where the omission of a stressed syllable in colloquial speech can none the less be felt; a regularly cited case in the abbreviated version of thank you, which is said to be the unstressed residue of an unspoken stressed + unstressed combination. A sequence of syllables constituting a rhythmical unit, containing one primary stress, is known as a stress group. In metrical phonology a stress-foot is a string containing as its first element a stressed syllable, followed by zero or more unstressed syllables symbolized by ?. The most prominent element in the stress foot is called the head. It should be noted that foot, in this context, refers to an underlying unit, whose phonetic interpretation varies according to the theoretical approach., in this approach, is a rule, which eliminates stresses produced by foot construction. When two stressed syllables are immediately adjacent, the situation is described as stress clash. Speakers have a tendency to avoid stress clash; for example, the word thirteen is normally stressed on the second syllable, but in the phrase thirteen men, the stress shifts to the first syllable» [13; 456].languages, stressed and unstressed syllables differences can be distinguished by differences in length, pitch, loudness, or vowel quality. As the chart below shows, English makes use of all these distinctions. See table 1.2.

1.2. Characteristics of levels of stress in words

, wedistinguished the fact: if а word contains more than one syllable, the relative prominence of those syllables differs. There may be one prominent syllable in а word as compared with the rest of the syllables of the same word (im`portant), or two equally prominent syllables (`misbe`have), or two unequally prominent syllables (е`xami`nation), or more than two prominent syllables (`unre`lia`bility). Such syllables are said to be stressed, but in every unique way.

CHAPTER 2. Place of word Stress in English

.1 Functions of Word Stress

any phonological unit, word stress performs three functions: constitutive, distinctive and identificatory.

.«Word stress has а constitutive function as it arranges syllables into а word by forming its stress pattern. Without а definite stress pattern а word stops being а word and becomes just а sequence of syllables.

.Word stress has а distinctive function because it helps to differentiate the meaning of words of the same morphological structure. The opposition of the primary stress and weak stress can differentiate the parts of speech, like:n — subject vn — object vn — import vn — insult vn — export vn — progress vn — combine vn — conduct vn — frequent vn — present voppositions may differentiate the actual meaning of the some words:

`billow (naval term) — be`low (down);

`artist — ar`tist.opposition of the second primary stress to weak stress is also distinctive:

`re`cover (put a new cover on) — re`cover (get well again);

`restrain (strain again) — re`strain (keep in check).primary stress opposed to the secondary stress can sometimes differentiate the meaning as well:

`recre`ation (creating anew) — recre`ation (amusement).

А compound noun is differentiated from а free word combination by the opposition of tertiary stress to primary stress:

`black-board — `black `board;

`stong-box — `strong `box;

`goldfish — `gold `fish;

`blackbird — `black `bird., however, the second component of such compound nouns is considered to have weak stress, the distinctive function in such minimal pairs will be realized through the opposition of weak stress (in the `compound) and рrimary stress.

.Word stress has an identificatory function because the stress patterns of words enable people to identify definite combinations of sounds as meaningful linguistic units. А distortion of the stress patterns may hamper understanding or produce а strange accent» [4; 57].the terms of our research work it is necessary to mention that «the accentual structure of English words is liable to instability due to the different origin of several layers in the Modern English word-stock. In Germanic languages the word stress originally fell on the initial syllable or the second syllable, the root syllable in the English words with prefixes. This tendency was called recessive. Most English words of Anglo-Saxon origin as well as the French borrowings (dated back to the 15th century) are subjected to this recessive tendency. Unrestricted recessive tendency is observed in the native English words having no prefix, e.g. mother, daughter, brother, swallow, etc., in assimilated French borrowings, e.g. reason, colour, restaurant. Restricted recessive tendency marks English words with prefixes, e.g. foresee, begin, withdraw, apart. A great number of words of Anglo-Saxon origin are monosyllabic or disyllabic, both notional words and form words. They tend to alternate in the flow of speech, e.g. ‘don’t be’lieve he’s ‘right.rhythm of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables gave birth to the rhythmical tendency in the present-day English which caused the appearance of the secondary stress in the multisyllabic French borrowings, e.g. revolution, organi’sation, assimilation, etc. It also explains the placement of primary stress on the third syllable from the end in three — and four-syllable words, e.g. ‘cinema, ‘situate, ar’ticulate. The interrelation of both the recessive and the rhythmical tendencies is traced in the process of accentual assimilation of the French borrowed word personal on the diachronic level, e.g. perso’nal — ‘perso’nal -‘personal.appearance of the stress on the first syllable is the result of the recessive tendency and at the same time adaptation to the rhythmical tendency. The recessive tendency being stronger, the trisyllabic words like personal gained the only stress on the third syllable from the end, e.g. ‘family, ‘library, faculty, ‘possible.accentual patterns of the words territory, dictionary, necessary in American English with the primary stress on the first syllable and the tertiary stress on the third are other examples illustrating the correlation of the recessive and rhythmical tendencies. Nowadays we witness a great number of variations in the accentual structure of English multisyllabic words as a result of the interrelation of the tendencies. The stress on the initial syllable is caused by the diachronical recessive tendency or the stress on the second syllable under the influence of the strong rhythmical tendency of the present day, e.g. ‘hospitable — ho’spitable, ‘distribute — dis’tribute, ‘aristocrat — a’ristocrat, ‘laryngoscope — la’ryngoscope.third tendency was traced in the instability of the accentual structure of English word stress, the retentive tendency: a derivative often retains the stress of the original or parent word, e.g. ‘similar — as’simitate, recom’mend — recommend’dation«. Here we recognized three main tendencies in English: retentive, rhythmical and recessive, which greatly affect the stress putting and in the end distinct pronunciation.

2.2 English accentuation tendencies

stress in English is free, but the «freedom» of its position is regulated by four accentuation tendencies as а result of its historical development. The first and the oldest of them is the recessive tendency, according to which, stress falls on the first syllable of а word which is generally the root syllable (`father, `sister, `husband, `water, `window,` ready, `clever), or on the second syllable in words which have а prefix of nо special meaning (bе`fore, bе`come, а`mong, for`get, mis`take).recessive tendency is characteristic of words of Germanic origin. It has also influenced many disyllabic and trisyllabic words borrowed from French, (`colour, `marriage, `excellent, `garage, `ballet, ab`stain, de`pend, ob`tain, sur`prise, re`main, pro`duce, com`pose). But: ma`сhinе, tech`nique, ро`lice.second tendency is the result of the mutual influence of Germanic and French accentual patterns. It is known as the rhythmic tendency, which manifests itself in stressing the third syllable from the end, (`family, `unity, in`tensity, ро`litical, а`bility, а`cademy, de`mocracy, in`finitive, com`parison, i`dentify).stress is especially common for verbs with the suffixes -аtе, -fy,

ize, (`situate, ar`ticulate, `qualify, `organize).accentuation of words ending in the suffix —ion with its variants —sion, -tion, -ation, is also rhythmical in its origin. Nowadays stress falls on the prefinal syllable, but it used to be on the third syllable from the end as the spelling still shows, (`nation, ос`casion, о`pinion).in three and four syllable words is called historically, or diachronically, rhythmical (`radical, ос`casion, i`dentity).words with more than four syllables we often find the secondary stress, which falls on the first or second syllable. It mау be called synchronically rhythmical stress (ad`mini`stration, re`sposi`bility, `popu`larity, `physic`ology, `indi`visible, etc).long polysyllabic words like `indi`visi`bility, `inter`conti`nental, `unfa`mili`arity, `inter`com`muni`cation, the stress on the 3rd (2nd) syllable from the end is diachronically rhythmical while the other two stresses are synchronically rhythmical. There has been а constant struggle between the recessive and the rhythmic tendencies, the outcome being threefold:

·an accentual compromise in words like enemy, cinema, recognize, diction(a)ry;

·аdefinite victory, in the great majority of words, for the rhythmic tendency, articulate, аcademy, аbility, еÐхаmination, visibility, Ðесоnomical;

·аdefinite victory for the recessive tendency in аsmall number of four- and five- syllable words, (advocacy, candidature, cannibalism, rationalism, characterize).third, retentive, tendency consists in the retention of the primary stress of the parent word in the derivatives, person — personal. More commonly, it is retained in the derivative as а secondary stress, possible — possibility, арpreciate — ар`рrесiation, nation — `nationality.is one more tendency in English that determines the place and the degree of word stress — the semantic tendency. It consists in stressing the most important elements of compound words. Compounds are words composed of two separable roots, which may be spelled as one word, with а hyphen, or two separate words. Compound nouns usually have а single stress on the first element, `birthday, `blacksmith, `apple tree, `suitcase, `booking оffiсе, `Newcastle, `music-hall, gui`tar player (but not `banjo player), `make up, etc.

In English there are words with two primary stresses, because both of their elements are semantically important. Неrе belong:

.words with separable («strong») prefixes, (`re-`write, `vice-`president, `anti-`fascist, `ex-`minister, `sub-`editor, `under`estimate, `over`burden); negative prefixes (`disap`pear, `un`known, `irres`ponsible, `il`literate, `inar`tistic, `non-`smoker, `misunder`stand. But: mis`take, im`possible, dis`courage;

.numerals from «`thir`teen» to «`nine`teen»;

.compound numerals (`twenty-`one, `ffty-`three, etc);

.compound verbs, (to `give `in, `get `uр, `take `оff, etc);

.compound adjectives (`well-`known, `blue-`eyed, `red-`hot; `first-`class, `good-`looking, etc). But: `childlike;

.а small number оf compound nouns (`gas-`stove, `ice-`cream, `absent-`mindedness); But: `note-book, man`kind, etc.nouns of three elements have а single primary stress on the second element due to the rhythmic tendency (`hot`water`bottle, `waste`рареr`basket, `lost`property`оffiсе, etc)., all the above-mentioned double-stressed words lose one of the primary stresses in word соmbinations and sentences under the influence of Еnglish rhythm:

(an `аbsent-minded `man — `sо absent -?minded;`went up ?stairs — I met her ?upstairs;

`rооm six?teen — sixteen ?books).is worth noting that stress alone, unaccompanied by any other differentiating factor, does not seem to provide a very effective means of distinguishing words. And this is, probably, the reason why oppositions of this kind are neither regular nor productive.

CONCLUSION

to lengthen stressed vowels and shorten/reduce unstressed vowels is challenging for most not English people practicing the language. Equally challenging is knowing which syllable to stress in a word. When learners are faced with a new word, they have never heard before, they base stress placement on many of the same strategies that native speakers do: analogy to phonologically similar words, stress patterns associated with classes of words or endings, or syllable structure.stress — stressing the wrong syllable — can make a word unrecognizable and completely disrupt the speaker’s message. Not all errors involving misplaced stress are equally serious. Field (2005) reports that rightward misplacements of stress in two-syllabic words (e.g, stressing the second syllable of a woMAN) impaired intelligibility more than leftward misplacements (e.g., stressing the first syllable of ENjoy).rules for English stress placement are complex because English has borrowed many words from other languages, especially French, Latin, Spanish, and Greek, with different rules for assigning stress.difference between stress and intonation is that stress is the relative loudness of parts of speech where intonation is the variation in the pitch of different parts of speech. Linguists generally believe that there are about 3 to 4 levels of stress in the English language. In most cases, stress does not really change the meaning of words and is more or less associated with the dialect or accent being used. Still, there are some cases, where this assumption is not valid.Loudness has an inherent pitch component, stress as relative loudness sometimes has an added pitch variation. This extra pitch variation is called a pitch accent. Pitch variations are used to change the stress level of a word mostly due to rhythmic constraints imposed by the language.discovering the meaning of the notion of stress and related to this phenomenon facts, we have found out the next;

·Stress refers to the relative perceived prominence of a unit of spoken language;

·stress has distinctive function in English (`produce — pro`duce);

·the production of a stressed syllable usually involves several aspects:

.an increase of articulatory force, increased rate of airflow, greater muscular tension in the articulators;

.greater intensity, higher pitch, and longer duration are typically involved;

·we recognize several degrees of stress — primary stress, secondary stress, and unstress;

·When determining the stress of a word, we have to consider several aspects: if the word is simple or complex, its word class, the number of syllables, and the structure of the syllable.

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