STRESS IN PRONUNCIATION BY BUSUNGU JOSEPH

 

STRESS

v Linguistic stress is a prominence relation between syllables: certain syllables are longer, louder, higher-pitched, or more clearly articulated than those around them.

v Just as we can generally count the syllables in a word, we can generally pick out the syllable that’s most prominent:  phoNOlogy, PhoNEtics,  SYNtax

v Because stress is a prominence relation, stressed and unstressed syllables tend to alternate across the word

v In order for a syllable to be heard as prominent, it helps if it’s surrounded by non-prominent syllables.

TYPES OF STRESS

v There are two types of stress namely;

                               i.            Primary stress

                            ii.            Secondary stress

Primary stress

v This is a stress placed to strong syllables during pronunciation

v It is denoted by this mark  (‘)

v For example,

King /’kɪŋ/

Present /’preznt/

 

 

Secondary stress

v This is a stress placed on weak syllables especially in longer words which have more than three syllables.

v It is denoted by this mark (,)

v For example,

Education /,edjυ'keɪʃn/

About /,ə’bəυt

v Also it is applied in some shorter words

v Therefore, stress can be indicated by using stress mark or capitalizing the respective syllable depending on the demands of the question.

 

RULES FOR STRESS PLACEMENT

       i.            All monosyllabic words (words with one syllable) are automatically stressed at the beginning. For example,

ü  'go

ü 'strong

ü 'sing etc

   ii.            Stress in disyllabic words ( words with two syllables)

a.     If the word with two syllables is a noun, its stress falls on the first syllable. For example,

ü Report /'rɪpↄ:t/

ü Import /'ɪmpↄ:t/

ü Release /'rili:z/ etc

b.     If the disyllabic word is a verb, the stress is placed on the second syllable. For example,

ü Present /prɪ'zent/

ü Report /rɪ'pↄ:t/

ü Import /ɪm'pↄ:t/

ü Decide /dɪ'saɪd/

c.     If a disyllabic word is an adjective, its stress falls on the first syllable. For example,

ü Slender /'slendə/

ü Happy /'hӕpi/

ü Clever /'klevə/

  iii.            Words which end in –ic and -ion, they are stressed on the penultimate syllable (the second syllable from the end). For example,

ü Pragmatic /prӕg'mӕtɪk/

ü Fantastic /fӕn'tӕstɪk/

ü Bombastic /bɒm'bӕstɪk/

ü Magnetic /mӕg'netɪk/

ü Education /edjυ'keɪʃn/

ü Television /tele'vɪʒn/

NB: /ʒn/ and /ʃn/ are syllabic consonants. Hence, they are counted as syllables. At their midst is a place of schwa sound, it is not indicated because it is very weak, thus, there is no effect.

  iv.            Words ending in –cy, -ty, -phy, -gy and –al are stressed on the ante-penultimate syllable (the third syllable from the end), especially long words.  for example,

ü Democracy /dɪ'mɒkrəsi/

ü Geography /ʤɪ'ɒgrəfi/

ü Geology /ʤɪ'ɒləʤi/

ü Audacity /ↄ:'dӕsɪti/

ü Historical /hɪ'stɒrɪkl/ (kl is a syllabic consonant)

NB: the last syllable is called ultimate syllable

    v.            Stress on compound words

a.     In compound nouns, the stress falls on the first part. For example

ü Blackbird /'blӕkbᴣ:d/

ü Greenhouse /'gri:nhɑυs/

ü Bathroom /'bɑ:ɵru:m/

ü Classroom /'klɑ:sru:m/

b.     In compound adjectives, the stress falls on the second part. For example,

ü Bad-tempered /,bӕd'tempəd/

ü Old-fashioned /,əυl(d)'fӕʃnd/

c.     In compound verbs, the stress falls on the second part

ü Overflow /,əυvə'fləυ/

ü Overtake /,əυvə'teɪk/

ü Underperform /,Ʌndə'pᴣ:fↄ:m/

ü Crosscheck /,krɒs'tʃek/

ü Countercheck /,kɑυntə'tʃek/

 

TYPES OF STRESS SYSTEMS

      i.            Fixed stress system

v Languages in which stress is completely predictable are called fixed stress systems.

v Other fixed stress systems may pick out just one syllable in the word as especially prominent. In Farsi, stress is always on the initial syllable, in Turkish always on the last syllable, in Polish always on the second- to-last syllable.

v In these languages, the position of stress is specified, constant and permanent.

   ii.            Lexical stress system

v In other languages, stress is unpredictable: you just have to memorize which syllable gets stressed when you learn the word, in the same way you have to memorize whether it begins with [b] or [p]. This is called lexical stress. For example, Russian has a lexical stress system: if stress is placed on the first syllable, [duxi] means ‘spirits’; when the word is stressed on the second syllable, it means ‘perfume.’

v The words are stressed depending on the meaning you want to convey as seen the word “duxi” which have two meanings depending on the position of the stress.

v Hence, you cannot predict the position of stress in such languages.

iii.            Paradigmatic stress system

v  The third type of system is paradigmatic stress, in which the stress patterns depend on what part of speech a word is-for example, a noun or a verb.

v  The English system is mostly paradigmatic, with some unpredictable aspects. Generally, English verbs and adjectives follow one set of rules.

v  Thus, English has pairs of words that differ only in stress, where one word is a noun and the other a verb:

We reJECT {V}

The REject {N}

 

 reCORD {V}

The REcord {N}

 

 conVERT {V}

The CONvert {N}

 

inSULT {V}

With an INsult {N}

v In the above examples, all verbs are stressed on the second syllable while all nouns are stressed on the first syllable.

 

STRESS SHIFT

v In English, stress sometimes even moves around in order to accommodate an alternating pattern. In a word like sixteen, stress usually falls on the second syllable (How old are you? SixTEEN).

v But if you put the word next to one that begins with a strongly stressed syllable, and stress may shift back in order to maintain an alternating pattern (How long have you worked here? “SIXteen YEARS.)

v  A stress shift can be caused by some of derivational affixes added to the particular words

v Suffixes like –ic, -al, -ion etc, may cause a stress shift

v Look at the following examples;

MAGnet              magNEtic

GEOlogy             geoLOgical

Educate               eduCAtion

Edit                      eDItion