4. Read the following sentences, paying attention to prepositions before final pronouns. The prepositions may have no stress, but they are used in their strong forms:

1. Here’s an apple for you.

2. Take some water with it.

3. Let me carry it for you.

4. William explained it to me.

5. Have a drop of tonic with it.

6. It was a big chance for him.

7. I paid in cash. They insisted on it.

8. Will you run though these accounts for me?

9. This is a big car. There’ll be room enough for all of us in it.

10. You’re just the person we’ve been looking for.

11. Here’s your bread. Put some butter on it.

Section 4 accentual sructure of english words

Word stress

Word stress is a greater prominence of one or more syllables in a word as compared with the other syllable or syllables in the same word.

In the English language the stress is free. It means that in different words the accent falls on different syllables.

It is necessary to know the basic rules of English word accentuation to avoid making accentual mistakes.

1. In most disyllabic words the accent falls on the initial syllable: 'ready, 'dinner, 'mother, 'colour.

In disyllabic words with a prefix which has lost its meaning the stress falls on the second syllable, that is on the root syllable: be'come, be'gin, pro'nounce, assist, repair, afraid, elect.

In disyllabic words ending in – ate, -ise,- ize,- fy the stress falls on the last syllable: dic'tate, sur'prise, de'fy.

2. In most three- or four- syllable words the accent falls on the 3rd syllable from the end:

'family, 'cinema, 'factory, 'demonstrate, 'recognize, 'quality (3-syllable words).

ge'ography, de'mocracy (4-syllable words).

Exception: 'ordinary, 'regularly (in 4- syllable words the stress falls on the 1^st syllable).

ex'perience, e'fficient, de'licious (in 3-syllable words the stress falls on the 2^nd

syllable)

refu'gee, employ'ee, engi'neer (in 3-syllable words the stress falls on the 3^rd syllable)

3. Most words of more than four syllables are of French origin and have two stresses: primary (nuclear) and secondary (weak) : _ﺍedu'cation, pro_ﺍnunci'ation, or_ﺍgani'zation, a_ﺍcade'mician, _ﺍfunda'mental.

4. Some English words have two primary stresses. Most of English words which have two primary stresses are formed with prefixes and suffixes. One of two primary stresses falls on the root syllable, the other on the prefix.

The following words have two primary stresses when they are used separately and in a slow speech:

a) numerals from 13 to 19.

b) words with separable prefixes , such as:

-un, -dis, -non, -in, -il, -im, -ir (negative prefixes): e.g. 'non- 'final, 'ir 'regular

-ex meaning “former”: e.g. 'ex-'minister, 'ex-'wife.

-re denoting “ repetition”: e.g. 're'organize, 're'write

-under denoting “subordination, assistance, insufficiency”: e.g. 'under-'secretary, 'under'estimate, 'under-'production.

Mind also some other prefixes with separable meaning which are stressed:

-anti (meaning “contrary to”): e.g. 'anti'war, 'anti'septic.

-sub (meaning “subordinate, assistant”): e.g. 'sub-'librarian, 'sub-'editor.

-inter (meaning “among”): e.g. ' inter'national, ' inter'change.

c) composite verbs: to 'get 'up, to 'give a'way.

d) compound adjectives, if both parts are equally significant, e.g. 'well-'known, 'good-'looking. If not, only the first part is stressed, eg. 'child-like, 'spring-like, 'oval-shaped.

e) compound nouns have, as a rule, only one stress on the first syllable: e.g. 'railway, 'snowman, 'dressing-table. Double-stressed compound nouns are comparatively rare: e.g. 'ice-'cream, 'arm-'chair, 'tea-'pot, 'gas-'stove, 'absent- 'mindedness. These words should be learned individually.

All words with two strong stresses are subjected to the influence of English rhythm in connected speech. The first stressed element is weakened if it is preceded by another stressed syllable or the second stress is lost if it is followed by a stressed syllable. Look at the examples: A 'good-natured 'woman. The 'mother’s ex'tremely good-'natured. He 'puts it 'on. 'John put his 'coat on.

Shift of stress

A large group of words, which may be used either as nouns or verbs, have a difference in stress to indicate the difference in meaning. In all these cases, the noun is accented on the first syllable, the verb on the second. Look at the examples: a concert ['kOnsqt] – согласие, to concert [kqn'sWt]- договариваться. Shift of stress in the verb causes the reduction of the vowel in an unstressed syllable. The difference in stress is also observed in homonymous words and word combinations: e.g. ' bluebottle – василек and 'blue ' bottle – синяя бутылка; ' blackbird –дрозд and ' black ' bird – черная птица.

Shift of stress is also observed in derivatives. The addition of one of the following suffixes –tion, -sion, -ic, -ical, -ity may result in a shift of stress: e.g. to contribute [kqn'tribjHt] – contribution [_ﺍkqntri ' bjHSn]; economy [i'kOnqmi] - economic [_ﺍekq'nOmik]. Moreover, words with these suffixes acquire two stresses: primary and secondary.

However, in many words with added suffixes, the new form is stressed on the same syllable as was the basic word: e.g. to abandon [q 'bxndqn] – abandonment [q'bxndqnment], adventure [qd 'venCq] - adventurous [qd 'venCqrqs].

Sentence stress

English is considered a stress-timed language (тактированный по ударению) while many other languages (French, Spanish, Italian) are considered syllabic or syllable-timed languages (тактированный по слогу). What does that mean? It means that, in English, they give stress to certain words while the other words are quickly spoken. In other languages each syllable receives equal importance.

Many speakers of syllabic languages do not understand why the English people speak quickly swallowing a number of words in a sentence. While in syllabic languages each syllable has equal importance and therefore equal time is needed, English, however, spends more time on specific stressed words which are called notional or content words while quickly gliding over the other, less important, words which are called form words or function words. This phonetic phenomenon is called sentence stress. Let us look at a simple example: the modal verb “can”. When we use the positive form of “can’ we quickly glide over the can and it is hardly pronounced because it is unstressed:

They can come on Friday.

On the other hand, we use the stressed negative form “can’ t” to stress the fact that it is the negative form :

They can’t come on Friday.

As you can see from the above example the sentence ”They can’t come on Friday” is longer than “They can come on Friday” because both the modal “can’t” and the verb “come” are stressed. All the form words are not stressed and they are pronounced rather quickly. Stressed words or notional words are the key to excellent pronunciation and understanding of English.

Sentence stress is a greater prominence of the notional words in a sentence. The notional words are: nouns, notional verbs, negative forms of auxiliary verbs (don’t, can’t etc.), adjectives, adverbs, pronouns: demonstrative (this, that, these, those), absolute form of possessive pronouns (mine, yours, his etc.), emphatic pronouns (myself, yourself etc.), indefinite pronouns and indefinite quantitative pronouns (all, each, every, either, neither, both, some, any, no, much, many, a few, other, another etc.), interrogative words (what, why, who, where etc.) , numerals, interjections, two-syllable prepositions. Look at the example:

I’m 'sending you 'two 'tickets for the 'theatre.

However, in the flow of speech under the influence of rhythm notional words often lose their stress:

e.g. I 'don’t think I 'can.( the verb “think” loses its stress).

Study the following information on sentence stress:

1. In the combinations 'so on, ' so forth the first element is stressed. 2. Conjunctions ( as, since, when, after, before, provided, if, unless, until) are stressed when they are used initially and there is no a stressed syllable followed it: e.g. 'If I 'do this…but When 'winter ' comes…..

3. The comparative construction as…as is never stressed. The stress falls on the adjective.

e.g. He is as 'cool as 'cucumber.

Logical stress

Logical stress is the singling out of the word which seems to be the most important in the sentence. Thus, a new utterance with a new semantic centre is created. Compare these three sentences pronouncing words in bold with greater prominence: Take this book! Take this book! Take this book!

Logical stress expresses something new to the listener, contrast or some kind of importance the speaker attaches to the word. Any word in a sentence may be logically stressed. A word which is made prominent by the logical stress may stand at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of a sentence.