The Accentual Structure of English The greater degree of special prominence given to one or more syllables as compared with

that of the other syllable or syllables in one and the same word is known as word accent. When the inherent prominence of one speech sound, especially a vowel, is equal to or greater than that of the other sounds in the same word, the accent given to the syllable containing this sound increases its prominence. For instance, in the word /instikt/ both [i]-sounds have equal inherent prominence but the actual, accentual prominence of the first [i] is greater than that of the second. Therefore this word is said to be accented on the first syllable. Monosyllabic words pronounced as vocabulary items in isolation are considered to have word accent. Types of word accent are distinguished first of all according to the articulatory means by which it is effected. One of such means is the pronunciation of a syllable in a word with that of the other syllables of the same word. Word accent effected by this means is called dynamic, or force, stress. A syllable can be made specially prominent by uttering it on a different pitch level or with a different pitch direction than the other syllable or syllables of the word. Word accent effected by this means is called musical, or pitch, or tonic. A syllable becomes more prominent when its vowel is pronounced longer than another vowel or other vowels of the same tamber or historical length in the unstressed position in the same word or in other words of the language. Word accent by this means is called quantitative. Qualitative accent is effected by preserving unobscured the quality of the vowel phoneme in the accented syllable. It is generally believed that each of the existing languages has either force stress or pitch accent or both at the same time as principal phonologically relevant types with the remaining types as concomitant or incidental ones. Word accent in European languages, as English, French, Russian, is traditionally considered to be predominantly dynamic, with different degrees of the force of uttering a stressed syllable. From a purely phonetic point of view a polysyllabic word has as many degrees of stress as there are syllables in it. 2 5 3 6 1 7 4 /indivizibiliti/, where 1- is the strongest syllable, 2 is the second strongest, etc. They distinguish three degrees of word-stress. The strongest stress is called primary, the second strongest secondary, while the rest degrees of stress are grouped together under the cover term of weak stress. The syllables bearing either primary or secondary stress are termed stressed , while syllables with weak stress are called unstressed. Different linguists designate by different terms the same degrees of stress and sometimes allocate different degrees of stress to the same syllable. Some write that English stress can completely described in form of four contrasting grades: loud, reduced loud, medial and weak. The others distinguish primary stress, secondary, tertiary and weak. The contradiction is due to the fact that they do not discriminate between word accent, phrase accent and sentence accent. The factors determining the degree of stress, or accent, which a word has in a sentence are more varied

than the factors determining the degree of stress in a word pronounced in isolation. The semantic factor determines the position of logical stress. The pitch pattern of a word or a free word combination in a sentence is also determined by the presence of stressed syllables before or after it and by the speakers emotion. Different types of word accent are distinguished not only according to its nature or degree, but also according to its position, place or incidence. From this point of view two types of word accent are distinguished: (1) fixed and (2) free. Within free word accent two subtypes are distinguished on morphological grounds: (1) constant accent and (2) shifting accent. A constant accent is one which remains on the same root. For instance, such case forms wonder, wonderful, wonderfully. A shifting accent is one which falls on different grammatical forms of a word or in different derivatives from one and the same root. This term is also referred to the word accent which is shifted from one syllable to another or used in reference to one of the two word accents which is retained while the other one disappears under the influence of the rhythm of word combinations: Berlin [blin], but Berlin streets [blin strits]. Word accent in English is free but the freedom of its incidence is restricted by certain tendencies which make the incidence of word more predictable. The first and the oldest tendency is the recessive one, which is characteristic of all Germanic languages. It has two subtypes unrestricted and restricted. The first falls on the initial syllable, provided it is not a prefix which has no referential meaning now. It is this accent which is observed in the great majority of native English words of this type, e.g. father, mother, wonder, husband, etc. Restricted recessive stress falls on the root of native English words with a prefix which has no referential meaning now, e.g. among, before, forget, withstand, etc. Disyllabic and trisyllabic French words underwent in English what is known as accentual assimilation. The accent in them originally fell, as in Modern French, on the last syllable, but under the strong influence of the native English tendency to recessive stress it began to shift gradually to the initial syllable. In Modern English all the disyllabic and trisyllabic words have only recessive stress, e.g. colour, marriage. Borrowed words with prefixes which have no referential meaning now have restricted recessive stress, e.g. conduct, produce, surprise. The presence in English of a great number of short words has caused the development of one more tendency in the incidence of word accent. This is the so-called rhythmic tendency, while the accent determined by it is called rhythmical. The result of this tendency is that the overwhelming majority of three- and four-syllable words with one accent are stressed on the third syllable from the end. The accentuation of words ending in the suffix ion with its variants -sion, -tion is akso rhythmical in its origin and has developed in the same way as the accentuation of the words like radical, family. Strictly speaking, the stress in these words is rhythmical only in its origin, because in present-day English there is no rhythmical alteration of a stressed syllable with an unstressed one in such words, e.g. family, colony, although the final syllable still remains stronger than the preceding one. In order to reflect the historical origin of this stress it may be called historically, or diachronically, rhythmical. A relatively small group of English words have interidiolectal (individual) free

accentual variants both in RP and GA. Thus, some people say hospitable (with recessive stress), whereas others say, equally correctly, hospitable; formidable and formidable. The tendency arose to keep the accentual pattern, and the pronunciation in general, of newly borrowed words the same as they were in the language they from which they were borrowed. The reason for this lay in the new channels through which borrowings began to be made not by people from the actual speakers of the strange language in the process of everyday contacts with them, as the case was during the Norman Conquest, but second-hand, so to speak, through the educated members of the nation who knew foreign languages. There is a third tendency clearly distinguishable in English word accentuation. It is a manifestation of constant accent in word derivation. This tendency is called retentive. It is the tendency to retain the accent in a derivative on the same syllable on which it falls in the original, parent, word, i.e. the word from which a derivative is immediately formed. person personally. The difference between constant and retentive accent consists in that rhe former remains on the same syllable in all the grammatical forms of a word or in all the derivatives from one and the same root, whereas retentive stress in a derivative falls on the same syllable on which it falls in the parent word, while in other derivatives from the same root it may be shifted: person-personal-personality. Like the recessive tendency, the retentive tendency is in conflict with the rhythmic one. In some words the outcome of the struggle is that the retentive tendency counteracts and cancels the rhythmic one, in others the opposite is the case. the rhythmic tendency wins in those cases when the result of the retentive tendency would be the occurence of two stressed syllables in succession, which is quite contrary to the rhythmic tendency. For example, the noun from converse should, according to the retentive tendency, have the secondary stress on the vowel [ ]but since this would contradict the rhythmic tendency, the secondary stress is shifted to the preceding syllable. A peculiar feature of English is the existence in it of certain categories of words in whose accentuation the crucial determining factor is the semantic one. These are words with the so-called separable prefixes, i.e. those which have a distinct referential meaning of their own, and compound words. The majority of these classes of words have two equally strong stresses, the so-called double-stress, or even (level) stress. 1. Both stressed parts of such words are considered to be of equal semantic importance, and this semantic factor even cancels the rhythmic tendency in word accentuation, with the result that two stressed syllables may occur in succession in such words. The classes of double-stressed English words are: 2. Words with certain prefixes, such as unknown, underpay, overestimate , etc. 3. Compound adjectives like dark-haired, well-dressed, dark-green; 4. Compound verbs with preposition-like adverbs of the type of sit down, get up; 5. Numerals from 13 to 19, in which the semantic importance of stressing the suffix -teen [-ti:n] consists in opposing it to the unstressed suffix ty and thus distinctly differentiating from each other numerals with the suffixes

teen and -ty coinciding in the first component: fifteen-fifty; 6. Compound numerals like twenty-one, thirty-two; 7. A small number of compound nouns consisting of two elements, of which the second element is felt to be of special importance: eye-witness [ai witnis]. But the rhythmic tendency becomes operative again when words with even, or double, stress occur in free word combination. In such cases the mutual repulsion of two stressed syllables, so characteristic a result of English speech rhythm cancels the powerful influence of the semantic factor. The first stress of a double-stressed word disappears when an immediately or closely preceding word requires stress; the second stress is lost when the following must be stressed: good-looking [gud luki], but very good-looking [veri gud luki]. But, strictly speaking, in such cases we have not word-stress, but phrase- and sentence-stress. In addition to double-stressed compound nouns, English has a much greater number of two-component compound nouns with single stress, or unity stress: Newcastle [nju:ka:sl], greenhouse [gri:nhaus], flute-player [flu:tplei]. Word accent must analyzed from functional point of view. The first function is constitute, which manifests itself in the fact that every word has word accent, the soul of a word. In the case of a disyllabic or a polysyllabic word the constitutive function of word accent consists in creating the shape of such a word as a pattern of relationships among its syllables in the matter of force, pitch, quality and quantity. The second function of word accent, its position and degree, is the distinctive one. This function makes word accent a separate, prosodic phonological unit which may be called word accenteme. The number of word accentemes in a language with free word accent is determined by the number of the latter's distinctive degrees. The third function of word accentemes, like that of any other phonological unit, is identificatory, or recognitive. It consists in the correct accentuation of words, which facilitates their recognition and comprehension. If, however, the accentual pattern of words is distorted, the listeners attention is distracted from the contents of speech to its unusual form, and the normal process of communication is hampered. Misplaced stresses are the commonest causes of a foreign accent in speech and they do not only hamper understanding but often produce a comic impression. Russian learners of English must be careful to use not only primary stresses correctly, but also secondary ones, because secondary stresses are very rare, weak and often optional in Russian and the learners are apt to omit them in English. It is necessary to remember that in each five- or six-syllable English word with the primary stress on the third syllable from the end there must be secondary stress on the second or third pretonic syllable: nuncipro ation

Contents Introduction I. The nature of English Word Stress II. Types of English Word Stress

III. Word Stress tendencies IV. Word Stress functions V. Variation in word stress VI. English Word Stress - Does It Really Matter? Conclusion References

Introduction Word stress is not used in all languages. Some languages, Japanese or French for example, pronounce each syllable with eq-ual em-pha-sis. Other languages, English for example, use word stress. Word stress is your magic key to understanding spoken English. Native speakers of English use word stress naturally. Word stress is so natural for them that they don't even know they use it. Non-native speakers who speak English to native speakers without using word stress, encounter two problems: 1. They find it difficult to understand native speakers, especially those speaking fast. 2. The native speakers may find it difficult to understand them. So, in this report we will focus our attention on the accentual patterns of English words. The 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. The correlation of varying prominences of syllables in a word is understood as the accentual structure of the word or its stress pattern.

I. The nature of English Word Stress Any word spoken in isolation has at least one prominent syllable. We perceive it as stressed. Stress in the isolated word is termed ws, stress in connected speech is termed sentence stress. Stress indicated by placing a stress mark before the stressed syllable: Stress is defined differently by different authors. B. A. Bogortsky, for instance, defined stress as an increase of energy, accompan by an increase of expiratory and articulatory activity. D. Jones fined stress as the degree of force, which is accompanied by a stress force of exhalation and gives an imdivssion of loudness. H. Sweet stated that stress is connected with the force of breath. Later, however P. Jones wrote, that stress or prominence is effected by inherent sonority, vowel and consonant length and by intonation. A. C. Gison also admits that a more prominent syllable is accompanied pitch changes in the voice, quality and quantity of the accented sounds.[2;179] In disyllabic and polysyllabic words different syllables possess different degrees of special prominence in different positions in relation to the beginning, middle and end of words. Word stress (WS) 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. The analysis of WS can be carried out according to the following parameters: (i) the nature of English word-stress; (ii) its degree and syllabic location; (iii) its functions; (iv) basic stress patterns of the English words.[3;171] If we compare stressed and unstressed syllables in the two contract, we may note that in the stressed syllable: (a) the force of utterance is greater, which is connected with more energetic articulation; (b) the pitch of the voice is higher, which is connected with stronger tenseness of the vocal cords and the walls of the resonance chamber (c) the quantity of the vowel is greater, a vowel becomes longer; (d) the quality of the vowel !& in the stressed syllable is different from the quality of this vowel in the unstressed position, in why it is more narrow than. On the auditory level a stressed syllable is the part of the word which has a special prominence. It is produced by a greater loud and length, modifications in the pitch and quality. Their physic correlates are: intensity, 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 s tables in a word, which is accompanied by the change of the force 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 mo important feature different types of word stress are distinguished different languages. If special prominence in a stressed syllable or syllables achieved mainly through the intensity of articulation, such type stress is called dynamic, or force stress.[2;179] Stress can be studied from the point of view of production and of perception. While producing stressed syllables, speakers use more muscular energy than they do for unstressed syllables. From the perceptual point of view, stressed syllables are recognized as stressed because they are more prominent than unstressed syllables. Phoneticians claim that at least four different factors are important in making a syllable prominent:

1) listeners seem to feel stressed syllables louder than unstressed; thus loudness is a component of WS (Peter Roach explains that if one syllable in a sequence of identical syllables, e.g. ba:ba:ba:ba:, is made louder than the others, it will be heard as stressed); 2) 2) if one of the syllables in the above-given nonsense word is made longer, that syllable is heard stressed, so the length of the syllables is another important factor in making prominence; 3) every syllable is said on some pitch (related to the frequency of vibration of the vocal cords which is an essential perceptual characteristic of speech) . If one syllable is said with high pitch as compared to the others then it will be heard as stressed; 4) a syllable can be heard prominent if it contains a vowel that is different in quality from neighbouring vowels. If one of the vowels in the nonsense word is changed, the odd syllable: will be heard as stressed. The phonetic manifestation of stress varies from language to language. Indifferent languages one of the factors constituting word stress is usually more significant than the others. According to the most salient feature the following types of word stress are distinguished in different languages: 1) dynamic or force stress if special prominence in a stressed syllable(syllables) is achieved mainly through the intensity of articulation; 2) musical or tonic stress if special prominence is achieved mainly through the change of pitch, or musical tone. 3) quantitative stress if special prominence is achieved through the changes in the quantity of the vowels, which are longer in the stressed syllables than in the unstressed ones. 4) qualitative stress if special prominence is achieved through the changes in the quality of the vowel under stress. Vowel reduction is often used as a manipulation of quality in unstressed syllables. II. Types of English Word Stress Types of English word stress according to its degree. One of the ways of reinitiating the prominence of syllables is manipulating the degree of stress. There is controversy about degrees of WS in English and their terminology. Strictly speaking, polysyllabic word has as many degrees of stress as there are syllables in it. Designating strongest syllable by 1, the second strongest by 2, etc., we may redivsent the distribution Jesses in the following examples: examination indivisibility igzeminein indivizibiloti 32415 2536174 But from a linguistic point, i.e. for the purposes of differentiating words from each and identifying them, the fourth, the fifth and other degrees of lexical stress are redundant English, while the distinctive and recognitive relevance of the third degree of stress is a objective point. The majority of British phoneticians (D. Jones, Kingdon, A. C. Gimson among them) and Russian phoneticians (V. A. Vassilyev, Shakhbagova) consider that there are three degrees of word-stress in English: primary the strongest secondary the second strongest, partial, and weak all the other degrees. The syllables bearing either primary or secondary stress are termed stressed, while syllables with weak stress are called, somewhat inaccurately, unstressed. American linguists stingiest four degrees of word stress, adding the so-called tertiary stress . Contrary stress differs from tertiary

that it usually occurs on the third or fourth div-tonic syllable, and tertiary is always post-tonic, e.g. administrative, dictionary. category.[3;173] 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. Russian word stress is not only dynamic but mostly quantitative and qualitative. The length of the Russian vowels always depends on the position in a word. The quality of unaccented vowels in Russian may differ greatly from the quality of the same vowels under stress. Stress difficulties peculiar to the accentual structure of the English language are connected with the vowel special and inherent prominence. In identical positions the intensity of English vowels is different. The highest in intensity is /a/, then u:, u, e, u, The quantity of long vowels and diphthongs can be divserved (a) divtonic and (b) post-tonic position. All English vowels may occur in accented syllables, the only exception is /, which is never stressed. English vowels /i, u, u/ tend to occur in unstressed syllables. Syllables with the syllabic m, n/ are never stressed. Unstressed diphthongs may partially lose their glide quality. In stressed syllables English stops have complete closure, fricatives have full friction, features of forties/lenis distinction are clearly defined. Stress can be characterized as fixed and free. In languages with fixed type of stress the place of stress is always the same. In English and Russian word-stress is free, that is it may fall any syllable in a word: a) idea sarcastic archaic b) placard railway Stress in English and in Russian is not only free but also shifting. In both languages the place of stress may shift, which helps t0 differentiate different parts of speech, e.g. linsultto inlsult, importto imiport. When the shifting of word-stress serves to perform distinctive function, V. Vassil. Stress performs not only distinctive function, it helps to constitute and recognize words and their forms (constitutive and recognitive functions). Strictly speaking, a polysyllabic word has as many degrees of stress as there are syllables in it. American and English phoneticians give the following pattern of stress distribution in the word examination. They mark the strongest syllable with primary accent with the numeral 1, then goes 2, 3, etc.[2;180] English 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. Most words of more than four syllables have 2 stresses: primary (nudivfixes and entry. The primary stress falls either on the third or the second syllable from the end and the secondary stress falls on the syllable separated from the nuclear syllable by one unstressed syllable: proition, recog ition, etc. The place of word-stress in English compound words principally derewrite on the semantic factor, i. e. the element which determines the mean-of the whole compound has a primary stress. But most of the compound possess the nuclear stress on the l element: bookcase, diligence etc, whereas compound adjectives have, as a rule, primary stress on element of the compound well?oiown, ibsent-- jinded, etc.[1;34] III. Word Stress tendencies

In spite of the fact that word stress in English is free, there are certain factors that determine the location and different degree of it. Prof. V. A. Vassilyev describes them as follows: the recessive tendency; the rhythmic tendency; the retentive tendency and the semantic factor The first and the oldest of the English lexical stress tendencies (characteristic of all Germanic languages) known as the recessive tendency originally consisted in placing lexical stress on the initial syllable of nouns, adjectives and verbs derived from them and on the root syllable of words which belonged to other parts of speech and had a divfix. In most cases divfixes lost their referential meaning since then, with the result that recessive stress in divsent-day English of two subtypes: 1) unrestricted: when stress falls on the initial syllable, provided it is not a divfix which has no referential meaning. A great majority of native English words of Germanic origin are stressed this way: father mother husband, wonder 2) restricted: when stress falls on the root of the native English words with a divfix which has no referential meaning now: among, become, before,fo,get, etc. It is this tendency that determined the incidence of stress in a huge number of disyllabic and trisyllabic French words which had been borrowed into English until the 1 5th century (during and after the Norman Conquest). The divsence in English of a great number of short (disyllabic and trisyllabic) words defamed the development of the so-called rhythmic tendency which results in alternating stressed and unstressed syllables. Borrowed polysyllabic words developed a secondary stress on the syllable separated from the word-final primary stress by one unstressed syllable. These words began to be pronounced, in isolation, on the model of short phrases in which a stressed syllable alternates with an unstressed one: pronunciation. The retentive tendency consists in the retention of the primary stress on the parent word: person personal, or more commonly the retention of the secondary stress on the parent word: personal 1personalily. The difference between constant accent and retentive stress consists in that the former remains on the same syllable in all the g forms of a word or in all the derivatives from one and the same root, whereas retinal, stress in a derivative falls on the same syllable on which it falls in the parent word, while i other derivatives from the same root it may be shifted e.g.: personal . There are certain categories of English words stressing of which is determined the semantic factor, e.g. compound words and words with the so-called separable divfix The majority of such words have two equally strong stresses, both stressed parts considered to be of equal semantic importance, with the semantic factor thus canceling rhythmic tendency in word stressing, e.g. compound adjectives: hard-working, blue-eyed, verbs with post positions sit down, take off numerals from 13 to 19:fourteen, sixteen. It should be noted that the rhythmic tendency becomes operative when such work occur in sentences and the first stress of a double-stressed English word disappears in an immediately or closely divceding word requires stress: a very good-looking girl.[3;175] IV. English Word Stress functions In discussingaccentual structure of English words we should turn now to the functional aspect of word stress. Word stress in a language performs three functions.

I. Word stress constitutes. a word, it organizes the syllables of a word Into a language unit having a definite accentual structure, that is a pattern of relationship among the syllables; a wok4 does not exist without the word stress. Thus the word stress forms the constitutive function. Sound continuum become phrase when it is divided into units organized by word stress into words. II. Word stress enables a person to identify a succession of syllables as a definite accentual pattern of a word. This function of word stress is known as identificatory (or recognitive). Correct accentuation helps the listener to make the process of communication easier, whereas the distorted accentual pattern of words, misplaced word stresses divvent normal understanding. Ill. Word stress alone is capable of differentiating the meaning of words or their forms, thus performing its distinctive function. The accentual patterns of words or the degrees of word stress and their positions form oppositions, e.g. import import, billow below. Word stress in a language performs the following functions: 1. The CONSTITUTIVE function: it organizes the syllables of a word into language unit having a defmite accentual structure, i.e. a pattern of relationship among th syllables. The word does not exist as a lexica unit without word stress. J. Layer holds the view that lexical stress shows a culminative function: being characteristic property of the word, it is thought to help the listener to judge how many individual words the speaker has produced in a given utterance. 2. The IDENTIFICATORY function: correct lexical stress enables the listener to decode the information in verbal conimuriication adequately, while misplaced word stresses divvent understanding. 3. The DISTINCTI YE/CONTRAST WE function: word stress alone is capable of differentiating the meanings of words or their forms. It should be mentioned though that most words in most languages that use word stress linguistically do not possess minimal pairs based on stress. But still there are about 135 pairs of words of identical orthography in English which could occur either as nouns (with stress on the penultimate syllable) or as verbs (with stress on the final syllable), with a very small number of cases the location of lexical stress alone being the differentiating factor: import (noun) import (verb), insult (noun) insult (verb).[4;130] V. Variation in word stress The stress patterns of some English words are liable to variations of different kinds. There is free variation of stress location due to some rhythmic and analogical divssures, both of which entail in addition considerable changes of sound pattern in words[3;182], e.g. 1) in some words of three syllables, there is variation between---and- patterns: deficit, integral (adj), exquisite. 2) similarly, in words of four syllables, there is variation between first and secon syllable stressing: hospitable, formidable, despicable. Pronunciation patterns of such words due to the variation in stress placement have the status of alternative pronunciation forms which occur in educated usage. Cases of variable stress placement caused by the context is known as stressshift. When a word of several syllables has a stress near the end of thc word, and is followed by another word with stress near its beginning, there is a tendency for the stress in the first word to move nearer the beginning if it contains a syllable that is capable of receiving stress, e.g. the word academic in isolation usually has the stress or the penultimate syllable /-dem-/. However, when the word year follows, the stress often found to move to the first syllable /k-/; the whole phrase academic year will have the primary stress on the word year, so the resulting stress pattern will

be academic year. In isolation, we say fundamental and Japanese with primary stress on ment and -nese, in connected speech these words may have a different pattern: greater stress on fund- and Jap-. VI. English Word Stress - Does It Really Matter? Yes and No. Yes, if you are a non-native speaker speaking to a native English speaker. No, if you are a non-native English speaker speaking to another non-native speaker. English language teaching theory has traditionally been based on native English forms, more specifically British and American English varieties. In today's international community however, where more than 1 billion non-native English speakers use English as a lingua franca, teaching theory is changing to focus on English as an International Language (EIL). According to linguist Jennifer Jenkins' research on the English language, there are certain factors in English pronunciation that can influence the degree of intelligibility between a speaker and listener. Word stress is one of these factors if you are speaking with a native English speaker, but Jenkins has found that when two non-native speakers interact in EIL, word stress has little influence on intelligibility. So why are native speakers so stressed about word stress? Stress indicates identity Anyone who has ever zapped between BBC and CNN has probably noticed the differences between standard British and standard American word stress. It has caused quite a CONtroversy (US), or should I say, "conTROVersy" (UK). To a native English speaker, a certain word stress is considered appropriate or inappropriate depending on where the person is from. "Inappropriate" word stress can really rub listeners the wrong way because it deviates from their norm and indicates that the speaker is an "other" - an outsider. This can be quite FRUStrating (US)/frusTRATing (UK) for the non-native speaker who is just trying to get his point across. After hours spent in a language LABoratory (US), or laBORatory (UK) if you divfer, non-native English speakers are still at a loss when it comes to speaking to native speakers internationally. "So which variety is correct?" This is the most common question. Answer: "It depends who you ask!" Stress indicates different meanings of identical words In one case however, word stress can cause problems whether you are a native speaker or nonnative speaker of English: words which are spelled the same, but have different meanings (and different word stress). Word stress can also differentiate a word's part of speech - more specifically whether the word is a noun or a verb. There are many examples of words which in their noun form take their stress on the first syllable, but in the verb form are stressed on the second syllable. Say the following words out loud: PROgress - proGRESS, OBject - obJECT, REcord - reCORD. We would never say, "She wants to REcord a REcord one day," but rather, "reCORD a REcord." Unfortunately this isn't a blanket rule, and there are plenty of English words which sound the same both as verbs and as nouns: travel, picture, promise and visit are a few examples. So what is the non-native English speaker to do? Sticking to the form you are most comfortable with. Communication is a two-way street with compromise and understanding at both ends. If you meet people who can't accept the way you speak, then they're probably not worth speaking with anyway!

Conclusion Stressed words are the key to excellent pronunciation and understanding of English. Word stress is not an optional extra that you can add to the English language if you want. It is part of the language! English speakers use word stress to communicate rapidly and accurately, even in difficult conditions. If, for example, you do not hear a word clearly, you can still understand the word because of the position of the stress.

References 1. .., .. .- :,2005.-71. 2. . . : . . . . .2- .,. .-.:.,1988-271. 3.. . : . . , 2009. 232 . 4. : . - . ./. . , . . i, . . , . . . . . , 1996. . 247256.