Sentence Stress in English

Sentence stress is the music of spoken English. Like word stress, sentence stress can help you to understand spoken English, especially when spoken fast. Sentence stress is what gives English its rhythm or "beat". You remember that word stress is accent on one syllable within a word. Sentence stress is accent on certain words within a sentence. Most sentences have two types of word:

content words structure words

Content words are the key words of a sentence. They are the important words that carry the meaning or sense. Structure words are not very important words. They are small, simple words that make the sentence correct grammatically. They give the sentence its correct form or "structure". If you remove the structure words from a sentence, you will probably still understand the sentence. If you remove the content words from a sentence, you will not understand the sentence. The sentence has no sense or meaning. Imagine that you receive this telegram message:
Wil l yo u SE LL m y CA R becau se I'v e GON E t o FRAN CE

This sentence is not complete. It is not a "grammatically correct" sentence. But you probably understand it. These 4 words communicate very well. Somebody wants you to sell their car for them because they have gone to France. We can add a few words:
Wi ll yo u SE LL m y CA R becau se I'v e GON E t o FRAN CE

The new words do not really add any more information. But they make the message more correct grammatically. We can add even more words to make one complete, grammatically correct sentence. But the information is basically the same:

Content Words Wi ll yo u SE LL m y CA R becau se I'v e GON E t o FRAN CE.

Structure Words

In our sentence, the 4 key words (sell, car, gone, France) are accentuated or stressed. Why is this important for pronunciation? It is important because it adds "music" to the language. It is the rhythm of the English language. It changes the speed at which we speak (and listen to) the language. The time between each stressed word is the same. In our sentence, there is 1 syllable between SELL and CAR and 3 syllables between CAR and GONE. But the time (t) between SELL and CAR and between CAR and GONE is the same. We maintain a constant beat on the stressed words. To do this, we say "my" more slowly, and "because I've" more quickly. We change the speed of the small structure words so that the rhythm of the key content words stays the same.
syllables 2 Wi ll yo u SE LL 1 m y CA R 3 becau se I'v e GON E 1 t o FRAN CE.

t1

be

t1

Be

t1

beat

t 1

beat

Word Stress in English

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. In this lesson we look at the most important aspects of word stress, followed by a short quiz to check your understanding:

What is Word Stress?

In English, we do not say each syllable with the same force or strength. In one word, we accentuate ONE syllable. We say one syllable very loudly (big, strong, important) and all the other syllables very quietly. Let's take 3 words: photograph, photographer and photographic. Do they sound the same when spoken? No. Because we accentuate (stress) ONE syllable in each word. And it is not always the same syllable. So the shape of each word is different. click word to hear PHO TO GRAPH PHO TO GRAPH ER PHO TO GRAPH IC shape total syllables 3 4 4 stressed syllable #1 #2 #3

This happens in ALL words with 2 or more syllables: TEACHer, JaPAN, CHINa, aBOVE, converSAtion, INteresting, imPORtant, deMAND, etCETera, etCETera, etCETera The syllables that are not stressed are weak or small or quiet. Native speakers of English listen for the STRESSED syllables, not the weak syllables. If you use word stress in your speech, you will instantly and automatically improve your pronunciation and your comprehension. Try to hear the stress in individual words each time you listen to English - on the radio, or in films for example. Your first step is to HEAR and recognise it. After that, you can USE it! There are two very important rules about word stress:
1. One word, one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. So if you hear two stresses,

you have heard two words, not one word.) 2. The stress is always on a vowel.

Why is Word Stress Important?

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 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. Think again about the two words photograph and photographer. Now imagine that you are speaking to somebody by telephone over a very bad line. You cannot hear clearly. In fact, you hear only the first two syllables of one of these words, photo... Which word is it, photograph or photographer? Of course, with word stress you will know immediately which word it is because in reality you will hear either PHOto... or phoTO... So without hearing the whole word, you probably know what the word is ( PHOto...graph or phoTO...grapher). It's magic! (Of course, you also have the 'context' of your conversation to help you.) This is a simple example of how word stress helps us understand English. There are many, many other examples, because we use word stress all the time, without thinking about it.

Where do I Put Word Stress?

There are some rules about which syllable to stress. But...the rules are rather complicated! Probably the best way to learn is from experience. Listen carefully to spoken English and try to develop a feeling for the "music" of the language. When you learn a new word, you should also learn its stress pattern. If you keep a vocabulary book, make a note to show which syllable is stressed. If you do not know, you can look in a dictionary. All dictionaries give the phonetic spelling of a word. This is where they show which syllable is stressed, usually with an apostrophe (') just before or just after the stressed syllable. (The notes at the front of the dictionary will explain the system used.) Look at (and listen to) this example for the word plastic. There are 2 syllables. Syllable #1 is stressed. example phonetic spelling: dictionary A phonetic spelling: dictionary B

PLAS TIC /pls'tIk/ /'pls tIk/

Rules of Word Stress in English

There are two very simple rules about word stress:

1. One word has only one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. If you hear two

stresses, you hear two words. Two stresses cannot be one word. It is true that there can be a "secondary" stress in some words. But a secondary stress is much smaller than the main [primary] stress, and is only used in long words.) 2. We can only stress vowels, not consonants. Here are some more, rather complicated, rules that can help you understand where to put the stress. But do not rely on them too much, because there are many exceptions. It is better to try to "feel" the music of the language and to add the stress naturally. 1 Stress on first syllable Rule Most 2-syllable nouns Most 2-syllable adjectives 2 Stress on last syllable rule Most 2-syllable verbs example to preSENT, to exPORT, to deCIDE, to beGIN example PRESent, EXport, CHIna, TAble PRESent, SLENder, CLEVer, HAPpy

There are many two-syllable words in English whose meaning and class change with a change in stress. The word present, for example is a two-syllable word. If we stress the first syllable, it is a noun (gift) or an adjective (opposite of absent). But if we stress the second syllable, it becomes a verb (to offer). More examples: the words export, import, contract and object can all be nouns or verbs depending on whether the stress is on the first or second syllable. 3 Stress on penultimate syllable (penultimate = second from end) Rule Words ending in ic Words ending in -sion and -tion example GRAPHic, geoGRAPHic, geoLOGic teleVIsion, reveLAtion

For a few words, native English speakers don't always "agree" on where to put the stress. For example, some people say teleVIsion and others say TELevision. Another example is: CONtroversy and conTROversy. 4 Stress on ante-penultimate syllable (ante-penultimate = third from end)

Rule Words ending in -cy, -ty, -phy and -gy Words ending in al

example deMOcracy, dependaBIlity, phoTOgraphy, geOLogy CRItical, geoLOGical

5 Compound words (words with two parts) Rule For compound nouns, the stress is on the first part For compound adjectives, the stress is on the second part For compound verbs, the stress is on the second part example BLACKbird, GREENhouse bad-TEMpered, old-FASHioned to underSTAND, to overFLOW

stress
Stress is a large topic and despite the fact that it has been extensively studied for a very long time there remain many areas of disagreement or lack of understanding. To begin with a basic point, it is almost certainly true that in all languages some syllables are in some sense stronger than other syllables; these are syllables that have the potential to be described as stressed. It is also probably true that the difference between strong and weak syllables is of some linguistic importance in every language strong and weak syllables do not occur at random. However, languages differ in the linguistic function of such differences: in English, for example, the position of stress can change the meaning of a word, as in the case of import (noun) and import (verb), and so forms part of the phonological composition of the word. However, it is usually claimed that in the case of French there is no possibility of moving the stress to different syllables except in cases of special emphasis or contrast, since stress (if there is any that can be detected) always falls on the last syllable of a word. In tone languages it is often difficult or impossible for someone who is not a native speaker of the language to identify stress functioning separately from tone: syllables may sound stronger or weaker according to the tone they bear. It is necessary to consider what factors make a syllable count as stressed. It seems likely that stressed syllables are produced with greater effort than unstressed, and that this effort is manifested in the air pressure generated in the lungs for producing the syllable and also in the articulatory movements in the vocal tract. These effects of stress produce in turn various audible results: one is pitch prominence, in which the stressed syllable stands out from its context (for example, being higher if its unstressed neighbours are low in pitch, or lower if those neighbours are high; often a pitch glide such as a fall or rise is used to give greater pitch prominence); another effect of stress is that stressed syllables tend to be longer this is very noticeable in English, less so in some other languages; also, stressed syllables tend to be louder than unstressed, though experiments have shown that differences in loudness alone are not very noticeable to most listeners. It has been suggested by many writers that the term accent should be used to refer to some of the manifestations of stress (particularly pitch prominence), but the word, though widely used, never seems to have acquired a distinct meaning of its own. One of the areas in which there is little agreement is that of levels of stress: some descriptions of languages manage with just two levels (stressed and unstressed), while others use more. In English, one can argue that if one takes the word 'indicator' as an example, the first syllable is the most strongly stressed, the third syllable is the next most strongly stressed and the second and fourth syllables are weakly stressed, or unstressed. This gives us three levels: it is possible to argue for more, though this rarely seems to give any practical benefit

English Syllable and Stress

In my paper, I will discuss the English Syllable, phoneme, ways of identifying phonemes and the application of stress in English words. The area of linguistics that puts effort into the understanding the sounds of a language is Phonetics, a sub-category of Phonetics, which deals specifically with the ways sounds are organized into the individual languages and studies the subset of those sounds that constitute language and meaning, is Phonology. (Gussenhoven & Jacobs, 1998)

Phonologically talking the sounds are the phonemes. According to Rogers (2000) phonemes can be thought of as instructions for articulating speech-sounds, and so a phoneme can be described in terms of the behavior of the vocal apparatus that occurs when a physiologically normal speaker articulates his or her particular representation of the phoneme. Thus phonemes are the phonetic alphabet of the mind. That is, phonemes are how we mentally represent speech; how we store the sounds of words in our memory. The following two tables show phonemes of Modern English, the consonants and vowels.

Table 1. Modern English Consonants

Manner of Articulation

Point of Articulation
Velar /k/ /g/ . /h/ // . . .

Bilabial Labiodental Interdental Alveolar Alveopalatal Stops Voiceless /p/ . . /t/ . Voiced /b/ /d/ Affricates Voiceless . . . . /c</ Voiced /j</ Fricatives Voiceless . /f/ /s/ /s</ // Voiced /v/ /z/ /z</ // /m/ . . /n/ . Nasals Lateral Retroflex Semivowels . . /w/ . . . . . . /l/ /r/ . . . /j/

(Rogers, 2000)

Table 2. Modern English Vowels

Vowels
Front /i/ High Mid Low
(Rogers, 2000)

Diphthongs
Back /u/ /U/ /I/ /aI/ /aU/

Central

/I/ /e/ // // // /a/ /o/

//

How do we find out how people store the sounds of words in their memories? One way is looking for minimal pairs of words. Minimal pairs are pair of words which have different meanings and which are different in only one sound. If the words differ in meaning, the words may be stored in the memory differently. The difference between words is only one sound, so this difference will be also stored in the memory. In this way, the difference in sounds is significant, and the two sounds may both be phonemes. One example from English is:

[sp] and [zp]

Sip and zip are two different words in English. However, they are different only in their initial sound. So, the [s]/[z] difference is significant for English speakers. Therefore both [s] and [z] are stored in the memory. Thus, [s] and [z] become part of English mental alphabet.

Another way of identifying the phonemes is looking at the vowels between two consonants. One example is the case of [b_t]:

[bit] ("beat") /i/ [bt] ("bit") // [bet] ("bait") /e/ [bt] ("bet") // [bt] ("bat") // [but] ("boot") /u/ [bot] ("boat") /o/ [bt] ("bought") // (You may have [] here.) [bt] ("but") // As seen the vowel between the two consonants can ben distinctive semantically. They are mentally distinguishable, so they can be considered as different and distinct phonemes.

So what is a Syllable? First of all, if we have a look at the structural properties of syllable we observe that syllable consists of

a central peak of sonority (usually a vowel), and the consonants that cluster around this central peak.

The preceding consonant or consonants cluster is called the onset. For example, the b in the word bar is the onset. The consonant or consonant cluster which is following the following the peak of sonority is called the coda. For example, the rt cluster in the word art is the coda. The peak of sonority is called the nucleus. In the word bar a is the nucleus. The nucleus is a vowel in most cases, although the consonants [ r ], [ l ], [ m ], [ n ], and the velar nasal (the '//' sound) can also be the nucleus of a syllable.

Table 3. Structural Properties of the syllable. Parts - Onset Description Optionality Initial segment of aOptional

syllable Nucleus Central segment of aObligatory Coda syllable Closing segment of aOptional syllable

As seen in Table 3. English syllables require a nucleus, which is usually a vowel, and optionally onset or coda, which are usually consonants or consonant clusters. In case they have an onset, Engish Syllables may start with 1, 2 or 3 consonants. In English syllables, consonant clusters are not arbitrarily formed, their representation is as follows:

Consonant Cluster : 1) s+ (initial) p,t,k,f,m,n,w,l,y,r / s:pre-initial/others :initial

2) s+other consonants+ (post-initials) l,r,w,j =pre-initial+initial+post-initials

In the following words, the onset is in bold; the rest underlined. read flop strap The consonant clusters which constutute the coda are also not arbitrarily formed, they can be described as: any consonant except for h,r,w,j may be final consonant. There may be 2 kinds of Final Cluster : pre-final+final/final+post final, Pre-finals(m,n,nasal,l,s : bump,belt) / Post-finals (s, z, t, d, / / : bets,beds) Syllables of English can be open or closed, if a syllable ends with a vowel (i.e.CV, CVV) this is open syllable but if it ends with a consonant or a consonant cluster (i.e. CVC, VCC) this would be closed syllable. So, the structural formula for the English Syllable can be drawn as: Pre-initial + Initial + Post-initials -Vowel - Pre-final + Final+ Post-final or (C) (C) (C) V (C) (C) (C) (C) Onset Nucleus Coda , or

Onset + Rhyme (the rest of the syllable after the onset). Rhyme can be devided as nucleus + coda. One tree diagram exemplifying this phenomenon is :

Harley (2003) proposes thirteen rules to describe how English words are formed or framed. She describes this phenomenon through Phonotactics. She first defines phonotactics as the rules that describe possible sequences of sounds for forming English words. These rules are

1)

all phonological words must contain at least one syllable, and hence must contain at least one vowel.

2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8)

Sequences of repeated consonants are not possible. The velar nasal /ng/ never occurs in the onset of a syllable. The glottal fricative /h/ never occurs in the coda of a syllable. The affricates /ts/ and /dz/, and the glottal fricative /h/ do not occur in complex onsets. The first consonant in a two-consonant onset must be an obstruent.(p,t,k, d, f, g) The second consonant in a two-consonant onset must not be a voiced obstruent. If the first consonant of a two-consonant onset is not an /s/, the second consonant must be a liquid or a glide the second consonant must be /l/, /r/, /w/, or /j/

9)

Every subsequence contained within a sequence of consonants must obey all the relevant phonotactic rules.

10)

No glides in syllable codas.

11) 12)

The second consonant in a two-consonant coda cannot be /ng/, /d/, /r/, /3/. If the second consonant in a complex coda is voiced, the first consonant in the coda must also be voiced.

13)

When a non-alveolar nasal is in a coda together with a non-alveolar obstruent, they msut have the same place of articulation, and obstruent must be a voiceless stop.

14)

Two obstruents in a coda together must have the same voicing. (Harley, H. 2003)

English syllables are considered to be strong and weak, or heavy or light, the weak or light syllables are those which include schwa/i://u:/u /syllabic consonant(i.e. bottle,button). These syllables are not stressed.

Stress

Stress is defined as using more more muscular energy while articulating the words. When a word or a syllable in word is produced louder, more lenghty, with higher pitch or with more quality, it will be perceived as stressed. The prominence makes some syllables be perceived as stressed. Words including long vowels and diphthongs or ending with more than 1 consonant are stronger, heavier and stressed.

Feet or Foot is another prominent item which should be considered when stress is being discussed. Words are made up of rhythmic units called feet and these comprise one or more syllables. Feet represent the rhythmic structure of the word. In every foot, one of the syllables is more prominent or stronger than the others and it is called the strong syllable. It is the head of the syllable. The other syllables in the foot are the weak syllables. English is a left side

dominant language. It is a property of English that the leftmost branch is always associated with a full vowel. All reduced vowels will be in the nucleus of the right-handed syllables.

English Stress English stress is dependant on origin of words and the rhythmic factors ( heavy-light syllables). Words borrowed from Latin and other donor languages are stressed differently. In the case of Anglo-Saxon words the first syllable of the root is stressed. For example, in the following words the stress is in the first syllable, blossom, body, holy, never, unpack.

What are the ways in Determining the main stress in English? The steps to be taken in this process are, first: 1) remove inflectional suffixes and stress neutral suffixes,

then 2) if the word has two syllables, stress the first one.

The floowing words are examples for this two step process: donkey, exit, finger, bonus.

3)

If the words are of three syllables or more, determine whether the penult (the next to last syllable in a word ) is heavy or light. Following are examples of heavy and light syllables. Recruitment, entailment, detergent, escapist (heavy) Average, bungalow, regiment, resolute (light)

4)

If the penult is heavy, stress it. A, E, I,O,U and diphtong are long vowels. Spacious, spicy, ocean, rejoice are examples for this process.

5)

If the penult is light, stress the antepenult. As seen in ACtivate, MULtiply, reVItalize, VACcinate. (English Words, 2001)

Main stress falls on the penultimate syllable if it has a long vowel or is closed by a consonant; otherwise, main stress falls on the antepenultimate (the 3rd syllable of a word counting back from the end ) syllable.

The location of the stress depends on the distribution of heavy syllables, as well as location in the word. So, English makes distinction between heavy (long vowels, more prominent) and light (short vowels) syllables. Foot with one heavy syllable is stressed, however a foot with one light syllable is not stressed. (Dresher, B. E. 1999)

The

affixes

which

change

the

word

stress

are

various,

some

examples

are

-ain(entertain), -ette(cigarette,laundrette), -ion(perfection),

-ee(refugee,trainee), -ive(reflexive), -cal

-ese(Portugese,

Japanese),

-ique(unique), -ic(climatic),

-esque(picturesque), (political),

-ial(proverbial),

-ity(complexity),

-aire(millionaire),

-eer(mountaineer), -ian(Italian), -et(ballet), On the other hand, there are some other affixes which dont effect the distribution of stress, they are -able, -age, -al, -ful, -en, -ish, -ish, -like, -less, -ment, -wise, -y, -hood, -ship, -ness, -ing, -our etc.