Lecture 5

Stress
Definition

Types of stress
Nature of stress
Placement of stress within words
Simple words
Derived words

Compound words
Word class pairs
Strong form and weak form

Definition
Stress is an extra force exerted on a particular syllable
or a particular word in spoken language. The stressed

syllable or word is said with greater energy, and stands

out in a word, phrase or sentence. Examples:
father /f/

information

/f/
John bought a new car yesterday

Types of stress
1.

Word stress: is an extra force put on a particular

syllable of the word. It is usually fixed. For example:
invite

2.

entertain

Sentence stress: is an extra force put on a particular

word in a sentence. Sentence stress is not fixed. It

depends on the speakers feelings and attitudes and
the message that he wants to get across to the
listener. For example:
John bought a new car yesterday.

The nature of stress

We can study stress from the point of view of production

and perception.

1.

From the production point of view, the production of

stress is generally believed to depend on the speakers
using more muscular energy than for unstressed
syllables.

2.

From the perception point of view: all stressed syllables

have one characteristic in common, and that is
prominence. At least four factors make a stressed
syllable prominent: loudness, length, pitch and vowel
quality. Generally, these four factors work together in
combination though syllables may sometimes be made
prominent by means of only one or two of them.
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Levels of stress
1.

Primary stress (tonic/nuclear): is the strongest type of

stress. It is marked by a small vertical line high up just
before the syllable it relates to.

2.

Secondary stress CACH DANH TRONG AM THU

CAP (non-tonic): it is weaker than primary stress, but
stronger than unstressed syllables. It is usually found in
words of four or five syllables. It is represented in
transcription with a low mark. For examples:
photographic

economical

anthropology

nationality

3. Unstressed: can be regarded as being the absence of

any recognizable amount of prominence.
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Placement of stress within words

In order to decide on the stress placement, it is

necessary to make use of some or all of the following
information.

a.

Whether the word is morphologically simple or

complex.

(whether the word is a simple, derived or compound

word).
a.

The grammatical category to which the word belongs.

b.

The number of syllables in the word.

c.

The phonological structure of the word.

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Simple word stress

1.

Two syllable words

a. Verbs
b. Adjectives
c. Nouns

d. Adverbs and prepositions

2. Three syllable words
a. Verbs
b. Nouns
c. Adjectives
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Two-syllable verbs
a. If the second syllable of the verb contains a long
vowel or a diphthong or it ends with more than
one consonant, that second syllable is stressed.
E.g.

provide

protest

contain

agree

More examples: select, arrest, design, inform,

invent, prefer, depend, occur, succeed, deny,
apply, record, invite.

b. If the second syllable contains a short vowel and

ends with one or no consonant, the first syllable is
stressed. Examples:

enter

worry

travel

open

More examples: menace, settle, marry, differ,

equal, answer.

c. The final syllable is also unstressed if it contains

/@U/. Examples:
follow

borrow
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Two-syllable Adjectives
Two syllable adjectives are stressed according to
the same rules as verbs. Examples:
correct

major

polite

complete

heavy

happy

sincere

precise

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Two-syllable Nouns
a. If the second syllable contains a short vowel, the
stress will be on the first syllable. Otherwise, it will
be on the second syllable.
money

reason

office

larynx

estate

balloon

autumn

affair

delight

pocket

canoe

surface

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Notes
Other two-syllable words such as adverbs and
prepositions seem to behave like verbs and
adjectives. Examples:
beyond

never

seldom

behind

again

very

before

after

except

across
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Three-syllable verbs
a.

b.

If the last syllable contains a short vowel and ends

with not more than one consonant, the last syllable
will be unstressed, and stress will be placed on the
second syllable.
encounter

determine

abandon

remember

If the final syllable contains a long vowel or a

diphthong, or ends with more than one consonant,
the final syllable will be stressed.
entertain

introduce

intervene

recommend

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Three-syllable Nouns
a.

If the final syllalbe contains a short vowel or /@U/, it is

unstressed. If the second syllable contains a long
vowel or a diphthong, or it ends with more than one
consonant, the second syllable will be stressed.
potato

disaster

cathedral

advantage

b. If the final syllable contains a short vowel and the

second syllable contains a short vowel and ends with
not more than one consonant, both the final and
middle syllalbes are unstressed, and the first syllable
is stressed.
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c.

quantity

cinema

enemy

alphabet

animal

company

antonym

character

If the final syllalbe contains a long vowel or a

diphthong or it ends with more than one consonant,
the stress will usually be placed on the first syllable.
paradise

exercise

architect

marigold

photograph

attitude
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Three-syllable Adjectives
Three-syllable adjectives seem to need the same
rules as Nouns to produce stress pattern such as:
opportune

insolent

possible

derelict

important

absolute

enormous

similar

accurate

popular

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Complex word stress

Derived words
Stress on the affix
No change in stress placement
The stress remains on the stem but is shifted to
a different syllable.

Compound words
Primary stress on the second element
Primary stress on the first element.
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Stress in derived words

The affixes will have one of three possible effects on

the word stress.

1.

The affix itself receives primary stress.

circle

semi-circle

employ

employee

person

personality

Portugal

Portugese

cigar

cigarette

picture

picturesque

mountain

mountaineer
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2.

The word is stressed as if the affix were not there.

comfort

comfortable

marry

marriage

refuse

refusal

wide

widen

wonder

wonderful

amaze

amazing

red

reddish

power

powerless

punish

punishment

poison

poisonous

glory

glorify

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3. The stress remains on the stem, not the affix, but

is shifted to a different syllable.
advantage

advantageous

proverb

proverbial

climate

climatic

injure

injurious

tranquil

tranquility

photograph

photographer

economy

economical

equator

equatorial

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Compound words
a.

If the first word/part of the compound is in a broad

sense adjectival, the stress goes on the second

element with a secondary stress on the first.

loudspeaker
full moon
fast food
new moon

open hearted
ill mannered
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b.

If, however, the first element is, in a broad sense, a

noun, the stress goes on the first element.
car ferry
tea cup
suitcase
bottle feed

boatpeople
farm house
airplane
bodyguard
bedroom
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Word class pairs

In English, there are pairs of two syllable words with
identical spelling which differ from each other in stress

placement, apparently according to word class. The

rule is as follows: The stress will be placed on the
second syllable if the word is a Verb, but on the first

syllable of the Noun or Adjective.

abstract

abstract

conduct

conduct

contrast

contrast

desert

desert
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escort

escort

export

export

import

import

insult

insult

object

object

perfect

perfect

permit

permit

present

present

produce

produce

rebel

rebel

record

record

subject

subject

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Strong and weak forms

There are certain well-known English words that can be
pronounced in two different ways which are called strong
form and weak form.
I like that
I hope that you are fine
It is possible to use only strong forms in speaking, and
some foreigners do this. Usually, they can still be
understood by other speakers of English, so why is it
important to learn how weak forms are used?
a. Most native speakers of English find an all-strong-form
pronunciation unnatural and foreign sounding, somethings
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that most learners would wish to avoid.

 More importantly, speakers who are not familiar with the

use of weak forms are likely to have difficulty
understanding speakers who do use weak forms. Since
practically all native speakers of English use them,
learners of the language need to learn about these weak
forms to help them understand what they hear.
Almost all the words which have both a strong and weak
form belong to a category that may be called grammatical
words such as auxiliary verbs, prepositions,
conjunctions... It is important to remember that there are
certain contexts in which only the strong form is
acceptable, and others where the weak form
pronunciation is the normal.
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The strong form is used in the following cases:

a.

When the word occurs at the end of a sentence.

What are you looking at?

I am looking at my pictures.
Where are you from?
I am from Vietnam
b.

When a weak form word is being contrasted with

another word.
The letter is from him, not to him.
He likes her, but does she like him?
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A similar case is what we might call a co-ordinated

use of prepositions.
I travel to and from London a lot.

A work of and about literature.

c.

When a weak form word is given stress for the

purpose of emphasis.

You must marry me

I have to go
You must choose us or them.
d.

When a weak form word is being cited or quoted

You shouldnt put and and the end of a sentence. 28