Word Stress

Word stress (word accent) is greater prominence given to one or more syllables in a word.

Stressed and unstressed syllables differ in quantity (length) and quality. They are longer when stressed and carry vowels of full formation. When unstressed, they undergo reduction and become shorter.

Word stress should be considered from the point of view of:

1. its place in a sentence;

2. its degree.

There are two degrees of word stress in English:

1. primary or strong (marked above the syllable);

2. secondary or weak (marked under the syllable).

The place of word stress depends on the quantity of syllables in a word.

Accented types of words

1. Monosyllabic, disyllabic and trisyllabic words are stressed on the first syllable, e. g. phoneme, palate, prefix, pronoun, family, enemy, imitate, colony.

Note 1. In three-syllable words the stressed vowel is mostly read according to the second type of the syllable, e. g. family.

Note 2. In words with inseparable prefixes the stress falls on the syllable next to the prefix: begin, prepare.

2. Most four-syllable words have the stress laid on the third syllable from the end, e. g. political, experiment, historical, geology.

3. Compound nouns are stressed on the first component, the second though unstressed has a vowel of full formation, e. g. blackboard //.

Exceptions: arm-chair, ice-cream, tape-recorder.

4. Polysyllabic words have the primary stress on the third syllable from the end and the secondary stress on the second pretonic syllable, e. g. university, assimilation, possibility.

5. The following groups of words have two primary stresses:

• numerals (from 13 to 19): fourteen;

• compound adjectives: well-known, good-looking;

• composite verbs: get up, sit down, put on;

• words with separable prefixes:

1. implying negation: un-, in-, il-, ir-, non-, dis-, e. g. unknown, inaccurate, irregular, non-aggressive, disbelief, illiterate;

2. prefixes implying assistance: sub-, vice-, e.g. subtitle, vice-minister;

3. prefixes with different meanings: mis- - meaning ‘wrong’ (misunderstand); over- - meaning ‘too much’ (overtired); pre- - meaning ‘before’ (pre-revolutionary); inter- - meaning ‘among’, ‘between’ (international); anti- - meaning ‘against’ (antiwar).

Note. Words listed under group 5 undergo variations in stress. In utterances they lose one stress or the other. When they are used attributively, the second stress is lost; when used predicatively, the first stress is lost:

Attributively Predicatively

Fourteen years. He’s fourteen.

A hard-working boy. The boy is hard-working.

A well-planned house. The house is well-planned.

A well-bred man. The man is well-bred.

English Intonation. Its Components.

The sentence possesses definite phonetic features. Each feature performs a definite task, and all of them work simultaneously. Thus,

1. Sentences are usually separated from each other by pauses. If necessary, the sentence is subdivided into shorter word groups according to sense; these are called sense groups, or syntagms.

2. The pitch of the voice does not stay on the same level while the sentence is pronounced; it fluctuates, rising and falling on the vowels and voiced consonants. The fluctuations of the voice pitch are called speech melody.

3. The word that is most important for the meaning of the sentence, i. e. the word acting as its semantic centre, is made prominent by stress and a special moving tone.

4. Other words, also essential for the meaning, are stressed but the pitch of these words remains unchanged.

5. Form words, performing grammatical functions (such as articles, prepositions, auxiliary, modal and link verbs) are usually left unstressed; they are mostly pronounced in their reduced (weak) forms.

6. Connected English speech comes as a series of closely knit groups of words, each group containing only one stressed syllable. The stressed syllables occur at approximately equal intervals of time. This interrelationship of stress and time makes rhythm.

7. The rate of speech is not constant, but is made to suit the semantic weight of each sense group of the utterance.

8. The timbre of the voice changes in accordance with the emotions experienced by the speaker.

All the phonetic features of the sentence enumerated above (speech melody, sentence stress, tempo, rhythm, pauses and timbre) form a complex unity, called intonation.

The most important components of intonation from the linguistic point of view are speech melody, sentence stress, and rhythm.