Word stress

1. Word stress

WORD STRESS
B Y F I L I M O N O VA A . E L E N A

2.

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 or word stress.
• D. Jones gives a similar explanation of stress
and its nature. "Stress may be described as
the degree of force with which a sound or
syllable is uttered. It is essentially a
subjective action. A strong force of utterance
means energetic action of all the articulating
organs; it involves a strong 'push' from the
diaphragm and consequently strong force of
exhalation; this generally gives the objective
impression of lоudness."

3. HOW can we increase prominence?

HOW CAN WE INCREASE
PROMINENCE?
by pronouncing the stressed syllable.
(a) on a different pitch or with a change of pitch direction in
it
(b) with greater force of exhalation and greater masculine
tension. + an increase in the length of the sounds in
the stressed syllable, especially its vowel, and by
pronouncing the vowel very distinctly (without
reduction)
E.g. [ın’fınıtıv]
• .

4. functions of word stress

FUNCTIONS OF WORD STRESS
• constitutive function.
• identificatory (or recognitive)
• distinctive function.
e.g. 'import-import, ' billow - be'
low.

5. expiratory stress theory

EXPIRATORY STRESS THEORY
The strongest syllable in a word (the stressed
syllable) is made more prominent than the
others by means of a stronger current of air, by
a stronger expiration.
Other linguists have pointed out that not only is
the force of exhalation greater in a stressed
syllable, but that the articulation of the syllable
is more energetic. Consequently, the term
“expiratory” has often been replaced by the
term "dynamic".

6. degrees of word-stress

DEGREES OF WORD-STRESS
What are stressed syllables?
What are unstressed syllables?

7.

Primary
Secondary
Weak

8.

strongly stressed syllables, weakly stressed syllables and
unstressed syllables
Prof. D. Jones shows that there are five
degrees of stress in the word opportunity.
• the phenomenon of level stress
• words with primary and secondary stress
• polysyllabic words with two primary and
one secondary stress

9. principles of dynamic stress, musical stress, qualitative stress and quantitative stress

PRINCIPLES OF DYNAMIC STRESS,
MUSICAL STRESS, QUALITATIVE STRESS
AND QUANTITATIVE STRESS
A.Gimson, the effect of prominence is achieved by any or all of four
factors: force, tone, length and vowel colour.
The DYNAMIC STRESS implies greater force (greater muscular
energy) with which the syllable is pronounced.
(English, German, French, Russian)
G.P. Torsuyev makes the supposition that the MUSICAL STRESS
belongs to the sphere of sentence-stress since it is not inherent in the
structure of an English word. The musical factor in word-stress cannot
be observed and analysed without the influence of intonation.
The QUANTITATIVE PRINCIPLE of stress in its pure form manifests
itself by a longer pronunciation of vowels in stressed syllables;
unstressed vowels are short.
The QUALITATIVE PRINCIPLE, in its extreme form, is based on the
fact that vowels of full formation are a feature of stressed syllables
only, and cannot occur in unstressed positions. Vowels in unstressed
syllables are weakened and reduced to a greater or lesser degree.

10. free stress, fixed stress and with no word-stress languages

FREE STRESS, FIXED STRESS AND
WITH NO WORD-STRESS
LANGUAGES
• The term "free" stress - the position of stress is not fixed
to a particular syllable in all words
(Russian: насыпь, довольство, переход, организация,
телевизионный)
• In languages with fixed stress, the position of stress is
the same in all words
(Lettish - the stress falls on the first syllable).
• Some languages have no word-stress. When a group of
words is pronounced, all the words in this group are
unstressed, and only the final syllable is stresse
(French)

11. constant and shifting accent

CONSTANT AND SHIFTING ACCENT
• constant accent (wonder wonderful,
wonderfully)
• shifting accent (Ber’lin – ‘Berlin streets;
un’known - an ‘unknown writer)
• Germanic origin: the first syllable (Norman
French and French borrowings earlier than
the 16th century)
• French borrowings: the last syllable

12.

• “Strong” prefixes
• Compound adjectives Phrasal
verbs
• Words with particular prefixes
or suffixes, e.g. ‘trus’tee,
‘Chi’nese, ‘i’llegal.
• Numerals from 13 to 19
• Words with separable prefixes

13. typology of accentual structure of English words by G.P.Torsuev

TYPOLOGY OF ACCENTUAL STRUCTURE
OF ENGLISH WORDS BY G.P.TORSUEV
• according to the number of stressed
syllables, their degree or character (the
main and the secondary stress
• accentual types and accentual structures
are closely connected with the
morphological type of words, with the
number of syllables, the semantic value of
the root and the prefix of the word

14.

15. basic rules of English word accentuation:

BASIC RULES OF ENGLISH WORD
ACCENTUATION:
1) In most disyllabic words the accent falls on the initial syllable: ready,
mother, colour,
2) In disyllabic words with a prefix which has lost its meaning the
stress falls on the 2nd syllable, that is to say, on the root syllable, e.g.
become, begin, pronounce.
3) In disyllabic verbs ending in –ate, -ise, - -ize, -fy the stress falls on
the last syllable, e.g. dictate, surprise.
4) In most words of three or four syllables the accent falls on the third
syllable from the end of the word, e.g. cinema. The accent falls on the
third syllable from the end of the word before the following suffixes:
-logy (psychology), -logist (biologist), -graphy (geography), -grapher
(geographer),
-cracy (democracy)

16.

5) The accent falls on the second syllable from the end of the word
before the following suffixes:
-ian (physician), -ience (experience), -ient (expedient), -cient
(efficient), -al (parental), -ial (essential), -ual (habitual), -eous
(courageous), -jous (delicious), -iar (familiar)
6) Most words of more than four syllables have two stresses primary
(nuclear) and secondary. The primary stress falls either on the third
or the second syllable from the end.
7) In most words the secondary stress falls on the syllable separated
from the nuclear syllable by one unstressed syllable, e.g.
recognition, occupation, academician, governmental.
8) In many derivative nouns the secondary stress falls on the same
syllable which has the primary stress in the original word, e.g.
peculiar - peculiarity.

17. Thank you for attention!

THANK YOU FOR
ATTENTION!