Masaryk University

Faculty of Arts

Department of English
and American Studies
English Language and Literature

Marek Bedn

Stress Patterns in English and Czech:

The Systems, the Conflicts and their Impact on Second
Language Education
Bachelors Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: PhDr. Kateina Tomkov, Ph.D.

2012

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently,

using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

Authors signature

Acknowledgement:
I would like to thank my supervisor PhDr. Kateina Tomkov, Ph.D. for her encouragement
and valuable advice and help.

Table of Contents
Introduction...............................................................................................................................5
1. What are Stress Patterns?....................................................................................................7
2. Notation..................................................................................................................................9
3. English Stress System.........................................................................................................10
3.1 Influence of Suffixes......................................................................................................15
3.2 Influence of Prefixes......................................................................................................17
3.3 Stress in Compounds.....................................................................................................19
3.4 Rhythm and Stress-Timing...........................................................................................23
3.5 Presence v. Absence of Stress and Influence on Vowel Quality.................................25
4. Czech Stress System and its Conflicts with English........................................................30
5. Grammar School Survey Analysis.....................................................................................33
6. Conclusion...........................................................................................................................41
Works Cited.............................................................................................................................43
Appendix 1...............................................................................................................................44
Resum.....................................................................................................................................45

1. Introduction
The main purpose of this thesis is to explore the topic of similarities and conflicts
between the English and Czech stress system and examining the impact of these on the second
language education. The issue of stress patterns and its importance will be first described on a
theoretical level, before proceeding to the practical section of the thesis testing via
recordings how or whether secondary school students recognize stress in a spoken text and are
able to identify stressing mistakes.
It is the authors goal to prove that the importance of adhering to correct stress patterns
should not be underestimated and should even be one of the main focuses of second language
teaching and learning. In second language education, especially on primary and secondary
schools, the emphasis is oftentimes placed on the correct pronunciation of words and
syllables, and the issue of correct stress placement within the word or within the sentence is
largely ignored. The primary purpose of second language education is, naturally, enabling the
student to successfully communicate in a foreign language. To this end, students of foreign
languages are taught grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation as these are seen as the main
contributors to the students ability to communicate intelligibly. The author, however, argues
that correct stress placement plays a vital role in speakers intelligibility, and that mastering
English stress patterns and eliminating incorrect stress placements taken from the mother
tongue should be among the primary goals of second language learning.
In his research the author made use of books dealing with theoretical aspects of stress
patterns in both of the chosen languages and has also conducted a survey with students of
English an unnamed secondary school. The results of the survey will subsequently be
analyzed in the practical section of the thesis to see how well students recognize English
stress and whether the current teaching system provides sufficient background in this area of
English language.
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As the theoretical background for this work, Erik Fudges English word-stress (1984)
and Roger Kingdons The groundwork of English stress (1958) will be used as the principal
sources as the The groundwork of English stress is suitable for the lay person and thus quite
useful for the majority of the cases covered in my work. Though it does provide valuable
explanations of phonetic issues, as well as definitions of various phonetic terms, its main
worth lies in its coverage of theoretical cases one might encounter and complete listing of all
possible stress patterns.
English word-stress (1984), which builds on Kingdons work to a certain extent,
functions perfectly as a background for studies on tone, intonation, stress and pitch, provides
explanations of the rules of stress placement and sufficient examples, and is therefore suitable
for a student wanting to venture into the area of phonetics for the first time. Due to its allencompassing, detailed and methodical approach, the majority of the theoretical section of
this thesis will be focused on introducing Fudges system to the reader. However, this system
will not be introduced in its entirety; emphasis will be put on transparent categorization and
rule sets, readability, and logical arrangement. Minor simplifications or omissions of the more
peripheral cases will be introduced only where necessary for better understandability to the
reader.

2.

What are Stress Patterns?

Before we can delve into the field of stress patterns in English and Czech, it is first

important to define what stress patterns and stress itself actually are. By Kingdons (1958)
definition, stress is the relative degree of force used by a speaker on the various syllables he
is uttering. It gives a certain basic prominence to the syllables, and hence to the words, on
which it is used, and incidentally assists in avoiding monotony. (p. 1) We differentiate two
types of stress: word stress and sentence stress. Word stress, as the name suggests, is the
placement of stress on certain syllables within a given word. Some words have no word stress
(mostly in the case of monosyllabic words) while others have multiple stresses, with varying
degrees of strength. Sentence stress on the other hand is the placement of stress on certain
words within a sentence. It does not necessarily have to coincide with word stress; indeed
some monosyllabic words may bear sentence stress if they are sufficiently important within
the sentence while some words with multiple syllables may be unstressed if they are quite
unimportant within the context of the sentence. Sentence stress mostly denotes emphasis and
importance: new or more important information within a sentence will generally bear stronger
stress than information that has already been mentioned in a previous sentence.
Stress itself comes naturally with speech. Native speakers acquire stress placement
habits during childhood, as it is one of the basic features of any given language. Small
children already have such mastery of correct stress placement that they can shift the sentence
stress from one word to another in order to emphasize what they are trying to say. In sentence
I want that cake, an extremely desperate or demanding child will most likely strongly
emphasize the word want within the sentence to signify how powerful the urge to acquire
the abovementioned pastry really is. Since stress is such a natural feature of speech, acquired
in the first years of ones life, it comes as very unnatural and confusing to a native speaker to
hear someone misplace stress when speaking the language. Stress is just as basic a feature of

speech as correct pronunciation, pauses, intonation etc. and can therefore greatly hinder ones
ability to be understood. Kingdon (1958) illustrates this perfectly on the case of a Germanspeaking student who, due to incorrect stressing, repeatedly received a train ticket to
Kensington even though he wanted to buy one to Camden Town (p. xi). In this case, the
student incorrectly pronounced the place name as single stressed, thus reducing the
prominence of the word Town sufficiently for the hearer to perceive it as ton.

3. Notation
Naturally, linguists all over the world wishing to study language from the phonetic
perspective required to develop their own system of notation to transcribe words, denote
rising and falling tones and mark varying degrees of stress within words and sentences. While
Kingdon and Fudge differ in terminology, they both use three basic stress marks to indicate
the placement of stress within a word, all of which are placed before the syllable they indicate
as bearing the given stress:
` which Kingdon (1958) calls the Kinetic Tone Mark (p. 4) indicates the placement of

the primary/main, i.e. the strongest stress in a word, as can be seen for example in a`bout,
`current or con`tribute.

which Kingdon (1958) calls the High Level Tone Mark (p. 4) represents the
secondary stresses within a word. There may be multiple instances of these within a word, but
they always must come before the primary stress as can be seen in encyclo`paedia or
un`ethical.
Lastly there is the symbol Low Level Tone Mark in Kingdon (1958, p. 5) which
indicates other syllables with a certain degree of prominence. These do not stand out in the
word, but usually can be recognized by the fact that they do not undergo vowel reduction.
This can often be used to differentiate between words which, if the reduction occurred, would
be impossible to distinguish in speech (e.g. `exorcise compared to `exercise).

4. English Stress System

The issue of stress patterns, that is, the arrangement of stressed and unstressed
syllables in the given word and the types of stresses used, in English is unfortunately
extremely complicated. Kingdon (1958) himself admits that the field of English word stress is
practically unexplored due to the fact that many believe it follows no rules whatsoever (p. xi).
This is caused mainly by the fact that the English vocabulary has been taken and combined
from Germanic and Romanic sources (Kingdon, 1958, p. 12). Regretfully for the English
language, Germanic languages have the tendency to place stress on the earlier syllables of a
word, whereas Romanic languages gravitate towards later word stress. Thus English stress is
being etymologically pulled in two different directions, tending towards having some sort of
full stress on one of the initial syllables while also being strongly influenced by presence of
various suffixes. While in English the alignment of word stress within a given word is usually
constant, the rules that the placement of word stress follows are highly complex as a result of
the languages mixed origin and are consequently difficult to understand for an English
learner (contrasting for example with Czech, Hungarian, Polish or Welsh, where the stress is
placed on a fixed syllable). Due to this complex and confusing system, English second
language teaching on primary and secondary schools only rarely focuses on the correct
placement of stresses, since it would generally mean that the students would have to
memorize the stress placement for each individual word without being told why it is placed
the way it is. Emphasis is thus put on the correct pronunciation of words, with the hope that
stress placement will be acquired with frequent use of the word in listening exercises and
conversations.
Because of the complexity of word stress placement patterns, there have been various
approaches to the explanation of the issue by various scholars. While Kingdon (1958)
approaches the issue more from a case-to-case point of view, and describes in-depth the

influence compounds, various prefixes and suffixes etc. on the placement of stress, Chomsky
and Halle (1968) reject his suffix-based explanation as unnecessary and take a more general
approach, deriving the placement of word stresses by the segmental makeup of a word
(division into clusters beginning with a vowel and ending before the next vowel,
differentiation of tense and lax vowels) as well as its internal structure, i.e. whether a word
can be divided into smaller parts and what relations hold between these. They develop a
cyclical principle, where certain rules apply in certain order first to the word root and then to
the next larger constituent until the cycle arrives at the end of the word. Thus in the word
theatricality, the primary stress is first applied to the first syllable of `theatre, then to
the`atrical, placing the primary stress on the antepenultimate syllable and reducing the other

stresses by one degree and finally to the antepenultimate syllable of theatri`cality, again
reducing the other stresses by one degree. Fudges approach (1984), the approach which will
be explained in greater detail in this chapter and its subchapters, takes a bit of both systems.
While it modifies Chomsky and Halles (1968) concept of tense and lax vowels, instead
applying the concept of strong and weak syllables, it rejects their cyclic principle and accepts
Kingdons (1958) suffix-based approach and his explanation of stress placement in compound
words. It is important to emphasize, however, that few of the rules introduced in this thesis
and in Fudges, or indeed any stress system are absolute: to most of them, there exists a
number of exception which will not be covered in this thesis due to the fact that, as exceptions
tend to, they cannot be systemized and must be learned one by one.
In the system described by Fudge (1984), the basic thing necessary to determine the
placement of stress within a word in Fudges system is to first find the stressable portion (SP)
of the word. The SP is what is left of the word once certain stress-neutral suffixes and prefixes
(i.e. suffixes and prefixes which do not influence stress placement) have been removed from
it. These suffixes include all inflectional suffixes i.e. plural form suffixes -s or -es and

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possessive forms -s in nouns, comparative -er and superlative -est in adjectives, 3rd person
singular -s, -es, past tense/participle -ed, past participle -en and present participle/gerund -ing
forms in verbs. In addition to these, forty-eight derivational suffixes are also excluded from
the SP. Twenty of these, however, are so called mixed suffixes (marked (m) in the list below)
meaning they can fall into different suffix categories in regards to stress placement depending
on the types of words they appear in. It is also important to note that certain suffixes, while
similar in form, may have differing meanings and therefore fall into different categories.
These shall be further specified in parenthesis. The complete list of stress-neutral suffixes is
as follows:
-able (m), -acy (m), -age (m), -al (stress-neutral in noun-forming use, e.g. peruse - perusal),
-ance (m), -ant (m) (noun-forming use; is stress-neutral only when coupled with a free stem
i.e. a stem that can stand by itself e.g. account - accountant), -ary (m), -ce, -cy, -dom, -en, -er
(m) (agent-noun-forming use; stress-neutral when coupled with a free stem e.g. fly - flyer), -er
(abstract-noun-forming use e.g. disclaim - disclaimer), -ery (m), -ess, -ful, -hood, -ier (m),
-iour, -ise (verb-forming use, e.g. energy - energise)/-ize (m), -ish, -ism (m), -ist (m), -ite (m)
(noun-forming use in words meaning native of x or supporter of x; stress-neutral only when
coupled with free stems e.g. Jacob - Jacobite), -less, -let, -ly, -ment (m), -ness (abstract-nounforming use; stress-neutral only when coupled with free stem, e.g. ugly - ugliness), -or (m)
(agent-noun-forming use; stress-neutral only when coupled with free stem e.g. confess confessor), -ory (m), -ous (m), -ry, -s, -some, -t (m), -th, -ty, -ure (m), -ward, -ways, -wise, -y
(adjective-forming use, e.g. rain - rainy), -y (m) (noun-forming use; stress-neutral only when
coupled with a non-compound free stem e.g. baker - bakery) .
Also a number of derivational prefixes is excluded from the stressable portion, most
notably negative prefixes a-, an-, il-, im-, in-, ir- and un-, as well as the locative prefix a- (e.g.
abroad, astray), reversive prefix dis- and causative prefixes em- and en-. Completing the list

11

are prefixes be- (e.g. belittle), co-, de-, ex-, mal-, mis- and re-. Thus if we were to strip the
word unfavourably, singing or friendliness to their SPs, we would get favourab, sing and
friend.
If a words SP is monosyllabic, the single syllable bears the stress. Thus the stress in
the word sing, singing or any other of its forms is always on the first syllable (`singing) just
as it is in the word `friend, `friendly, `friendliness etc. (thus, due to the lack of stress the
vowel in the suffix ness is always reduced to ).
If the SP is polysyllabic but contains no prefixes or suffixes, main stress will be placed
as follows:
1) if the SP is disyllabic, stress is usually penultimate (`favour)
2) if the SP is trisyllabic or longer, its stress is either penultimate or antepenultimate
following these rules:
1. if the final syllable is strong, stress falls two syllables back from it, i.e.
three syllables from the end of the SP of the word (e.g. `asterisk)
2. if the final syllable is weak then:
a. if the penultimate syllable is strong, it is stressed
b. if the penultimate syllable is weak, then the syllable before it is
stressed
Points 2.1 and 2.2 deserve further explanation.
For a student to be able to distinguish between weak and strong syllables, they must
first understand the structure of a syllable. A syllable generally consists of a vowel portion
called the peak of the syllable. This portion may sometimes be occupied by a consonant
instead of a vowel, most commonly by a nasal such as m or n (as in sudden, where the e is
usually not pronounced in the second syllable [s.dn]) or a liquid such as l or r. Often this
missing vowel is present in the spelling of the word and for phonological purposes it is best

12

to treat the syllable as if it contained the vowel. Before the peak, there is a string of
consonants within the syllable called the onset. This may include anything from zero (e.g. ice)
to three members (strength) in English. After the peak, there is again a string of consonants
called the coda of the syllable which in English may contain zero to four consonants. It is
important to note that the boundaries of syllables do not necessarily have to represent the
boundaries of words (e.g. at all is phonetically transcribed as a single word: [.t:l]). Using
the abovementioned terminology, a weak syllable is defined as a syllable with a short vowel
in its peak and no coda or in case of word-final syllables a coda consisting of up to
consonants. All other syllables are strong, i.e. syllables which contain a long vowel in the
peak, or syllables with a short vowel peak but a coda of at least one consonant in non-wordfinal syllables, or a coda of two or more consonants in case of word-final syllables. It is
important to emphasize that these distinctions are made on the basis of phonemic
representation. Therefore for example combinations of two letters which represent single
sounds such as ck in lock count as single consonants for the purpose of determining syllable
strength. Of course, there are exceptions such as the consonant combination ng which always
counts as two consonants, or r which counts as a consonant even though it may not be
pronounced as one.
Using the abovementioned rules, let us now analyze the word cranberry as an
example: the SP of the word is trisyllabic [krn.b.r], thus it falls under the rule 2. The final
syllable of the word is weak because it includes a short vowel in its peak and has an empty
coda, thus it falls under the rule 2.2. Its penultimate syllable is also weak since it contains a
short vowel (shwa) in its peak and has an empty coda, thus it falls under the rule 2.2.a and it
will bear antepenultimate stress: `cranberry.
In longer words, some of the syllables preceding the one with main stress can be more
prominent than neighbouring syllables (same is not the case with syllables after the main

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stress). These carry the secondary stress within a word. If there is only one syllable before the
one bearing main stress, there will be no secondary stress within the word as in be`fore. If
there are two syllables before the one with main stress, the secondary stress is always placed
onto the first one. In case there are three or more syllables before the one which bears main
stress, then the syllable quality must be taken into consideration. If there is a strong syllable
two syllables back from the syllable with main stress, it takes secondary stress. If the syllable
two syllables back from main stress is weak, then the syllable before it takes secondary stress.

4.1 Influence of Suffixes

The presence of suffixes can unfortunately complicate this otherwise quite
straightforward system. If a words SP contains one or more suffixes, the last suffix
determines how the main stress is placed. If the SP contains two or more suffixes, the suffix
before the last one often influences the placement of secondary stress, though not always (this
depends on the combination of suffixes used).
From the perspective of stress placement, suffixes can be divided into three groups:
stress-neutral, autostressed and pre-stressed. The stress-neutral suffixes do not affect the
placement of stress, and are usually disregarded in determining the SP of a word. (For a full
list of these see page 12.)
The autostressed suffixes alter the stressing of the word by placing the main stress
onto the syllable they appear in. Therefore while the word `million bears initial stress, the
word millio`naire bears final stress since the suffix aire moves the main stress onto itself.
The stress on the first syllable is reduced to secondary. The complete list of autostressed
suffixes and endings consists of the following 28 members: -ade, -aire, -aise, -ate (m) (verbforming use; autostressed only in disyllabic SPs e.g. create, elate), -ee (m), -een, -eer, -elle,
-enne, -esce, -ese, -esque, -esse, -et (m), -ette, -eur, -ier (m), -ine (only autostressed as a noun-

14

forming ending pronounced [-i:n] e.g. magazine), -ique, -ise (noun-forming use pronounced
[-i:z] e.g. expertise), -ite (m) (verb-forming use; autostressed only in words of two syllables,
e.g. unite), -ment (m), -ness (in place names, meaning cape e.g. Inverness), -oo, -oon, -ose
(m), -otte (m), teen.
Finally, the pre-stressed suffixes are by far the largest group of suffixes. These, as the
name suggests, alter the stress by placing it a certain number of syllables back from the
syllable these suffixes appear in. These can be further subdivided as follows:
Pre-stressed 1 suffixes are suffixes which cause the stress to fall on the syllable
immediately preceding them. This group is quite small, containing only eight suffixes: -erie,
-ic, -id, -ion, -ish (m), -itory, -ity/-ety, -uble.
Pre-stressed 2 suffixes are suffixes which cause the stress to fall two syllables before
the syllable containing the suffix: -able (m), -acy (m), -ast, -ate (m) (verb-forming use; prestressed 2 in words of three or more syllables), -ate (noun-forming use in chemical terms such
as hydrate), -cide, -ene, -er (m) (agent-noun-forming use; pre-stressed 2 only if the stem is not
free e.g. astronomer), -fy, -gon, -ine (noun-forming ending pronounced [-an] e.g. turpentine),
-ise/-ize (m), -ism (m), -ist (m), -ite (m), -ite (m) (noun-forming use in words meaning native
of X or supporter of X; only pre-stressed 2 if the stem is not a free form e.g. Muscovite), -ite
(noun-forming use in chemical terms pronounced [-at] such as in anthracite or graphite),
-ment (m), -oir (m), -ose (m), -tude, -y (m) (noun-forming use; pre-stressed 2 only if the stem
is not a free form or if it is a compound with a weak penultimate syllable e.g. apathy or
geometry).
Finally, there is a large group of so called pre-stressed 1/2 suffixes which place stress
by principles similar to those for SPs of three or more syllables ending with a weak syllable:
1) if the syllable before the one containing the suffix is strong, it is stressed

15

2) if the syllable before the one containing the suffix is weak, then the syllable before
it is stressed
This group contains the following 36 suffixes: -ad, -age (m), -al (adjective-forming use), -an,
-ance (m), -ant (adjective-forming use), -ant (noun-forming use; pre-stressed 1/2 only when
the stem is not free e.g. adjutant) (m), -ar, -ary (m), -ate (noun- or adjective-forming use,
usually pronounced [t]; e.g. climate), -ative, -ature, -ee (m), -e, -ence, -ent, -ery (m), -ible,
-ide, -ile, -ine (adjective-forming use, pronounced [-an]; e.g. alkaline), -ine (chemical-nounforming use, pronounced [-i:n] e.g. morphine), -ine (adjective-, noun-, or verb-forming ending
pronounced [-n], e.g. clandestine, discipline), -is, -ive, -oid, -on, -or (agent-noun-forming
use; only pre-stressed 1/2 if the stem is not a free form, e.g. ambassador) (m), -or (abstractnoun-forming use e.g. stupor), -or (adjective-forming use e.g. superior), -ory, -our, -ous (m),
-um, -ure (m), -us.

4.2 Influence of Prefixes

As mentioned before, some, quite productive, prefixes do not influence the placement
of stress and are automatically excluded from the words SP (for a full list see page 12). These
are the so called stress-neutral prefixes. The important thing to note is that although these
prefixes may not influence the placement of stress, it does not mean that they cannot be
stressed in certain circumstances. For example, if the prefixes are used contrastively (I bet all
my money on that driver and he lost! And its your fault. I said his success was highly
UNlikely, not likely!) they can bear main stress. Also, since these prefixes are removed from
the SP of a word before stress placement is determined, they do not count towards the
syllables of the word as far as stress placement is concerned. Therefore, even though the word
improper is trisyllabic and with the last two syllables being weak should bear
antepenultimate stress (`improper), due to the fact that the stress-neutral prefixes are removed

16

from the SP, the word is treated as disyllabic and receives penultimate stress instead
(im`proper).
However, there is also another group of prefixes called the stress-repellent prefixes. As
the name suggests, these prefixes resist the stress being placed on them, instead they move the
stress onto the syllable after the one the prefix appears in; however, it is important to
emphasize that they reject only stress placed on them by the basic rules explained on page 13.
If an SP of a word contains suffixes and its stress pattern is thus influenced by their presence,
the stress-repellence of the prefix is negated. The stress-repellent prefixes can usually be
differentiated from stress-neutral prefixes by the fact that they usually appear with bound
stems and are less likely to have a constant meaning in all words they appear in (while for
example the stress-neutral prefix un- always negates the meaning of the stem, while the prefix
com- in compromise or command does not have a fixed meaning). There is generally
speaking no need for a list of stress-repellent prefixes, as stress-repellence and stressneutrality are the only possible relations prefixes can have towards stress. Therefore, if a
prefix is not included among stress-neutral prefixes, it is automatically stress-repellent.
Some prefixes behave differently in regards to stress placement depending on whether
they appear in a noun or a verb. For example, in the noun increase, the prefix in- is not stressrepellent, the word bears penultimate stress and is pronounced `nki:s while in the verb, the
prefix is stress-repellent and the word is final stressed (n`ki:s). Usually prefixes which form a
weak syllable are stress repellent in both verbs and nouns; however there is a number of
exceptions to this principle as can be seen in the example of re- in the noun-verb pair refuse
(`refuse in noun but re`fuse in verb form). However, invariably, if the stem bears the stress in
the noun, it will always bear stress in the verb as well (e.g. de`mand). In adjective-verb pairs,
the prefixes in most cases behave the way they do in nouns as can be seen in e.g. ab`stract
(verb) - `abstract (adjective, noun).

17

4.3 Stress in Compounds

So far, we have mainly dealt with words in isolation and described how stress is placed
depending on the properties of a word. However, connected speech does not consist of
individual words, but rather uses larger units. While stress within individual words behaves in
a certain way and is regulated by certain rules, the issue becomes more complicated when
words are put next to each other as is the case with compounds.
While compounds can, technically speaking, be taken as two words (e.g. ice cream),
they in many ways act as a single word not only semantically but also accentually. In English
it can generally be said that words tend to have main stress on one of the first two syllables
(mostly antepenultimate or penultimate stress, rather than final stress). Thus, since
compounds behave as a single word, they tend to bear primary stress on one of their initial
two syllables as well i.e. within the compounds first component (so called compound initial).
However, since a word can not bear more than one primary stress, the compound initial tends
to bear the primary stress while the second member does not (`ice cream). Same remains true
if the compound becomes even more complex (such as ice cream cone), that is, the primary
stress will still remain within the initial member of the compound. Note, however, that while
the initial member of a compound is the most prominent due to its stress, it is not the most
prominent from the semantic point of view. While the word floorboard does bear primary
stress, it is a type of board, not a certain kind of floor, just as ice cream cone is a kind of cone,
not a kind of ice cream.
Not all words put next to each other are compounds however. Though they both may
signify a single object, a distinction must be made between a compound and a phrase.
Generally speaking, the relationship between words in a phrase is much looser than that
between words in a compound. The individual words of a phrase can quite easily be modified

18

and extended as can be for example seen in the noun phrase black board (i.e. a board which is
black). There can be a pitch-black board; there can be a very big, black, broad board, while
there can hardly be a very `blackboard (i.e. a board for writing on with chalk). Thus phrases
are not treated as a single word but rather as a sequence of multiple individual words and tend
to bear primary stress within their last component (black `board).
Unfortunately the distinction between compounds and phrases is sometimes not as
clear as one might hope. There exists a number of constructions which take phrasal stress
patterns while being almost, or indeed completely, indistinguishable syntactically from
compounds. While Christmas cake takes on the usual compound stress pattern (`Christmas
cake), Christmas `pie or Christmas `pudding are stressed as if they were a noun phrase, even
though there is syntactically no difference between the three. Similarly, while proper names
containing the words gate or Street (such as `London Street) take stress on the compound
initial, combinations with other words of the kind (such as Avenue or Road) take final stress
as a noun phrase would. It is therefore necessary to draw a certain set of rules when dealing
with the issue:
1) Noun1 + Noun2 = Noun compounds are in the majority of cases initially stressed. The
exceptions to this rule can be categorized into six groups:
a. Noun1 is a location (e.g. kitchen `table) or a time/season (e.g. morning `rain)
b. Noun1 is a material which Noun2 is made out of e.g. wooden `plank
c. Noun2 is a geographical term, a type of thoroughfare etc. and Noun1 is the
name applied to it (often proper noun) e.g. Ohio `Valley
d. Noun1 and Noun2 are two parts of a proper name of a person, place or thing
(e.g. Peter `Parker, Buckingham `Palace)
e. Noun1 specifies the value of Noun2 (e.g. dollar `bill)

19

f. Noun1 is central from semantic point of view and Noun2 only further specifies
it, which is the opposite of a usual noun + noun compound (e.g. Mother
`Superior)

2) Adjective + Noun = Noun constructions normally form a noun phrase and are final
stressed. If the relationship between the two members is so close as to not allow
extension or modification, the unit forms a compound noun with initial stress. This
happens if the compound signifies a person or a thing characterized by having (noun)
which is (adjective). A model example of this would be a `redskin (a member of a
race with red skin = Native American) or a `highbrow (a person with a high brow =
intellectual). Alternatively, the same relationship can develop if the compound
signifies a person or a thing whose characteristics are specified as or which is
metaphorically related to what the adjective + noun phrase signifies, e.g. tightrope (it
is a tight rope, however it is a one used specifically for walking in circuses and similar
acts).
3) Adjective + Noun = Adjective constructions may sometimes form from adjective +
noun noun phrases. As an adjective compound, they usually bear initial stress (e.g.
`old-time).

4) Noun1 + s + Noun2 = Noun phrases (final stress) can sometimes be transformed into a
more close-knit compound noun with initial stress. Usually has metaphorical meaning
e.g. `bullseye.
5) Numeral + Noun + -er = Noun compounds (e.g. six-shooter) bear final stress.
6) Adjective + Noun + -er = Noun compounds (e.g. `flat-racer) normally bear the same
stress as the Adjective + Noun combination would on its own (`flat race). The -er
suffix is stress-neutral.
7) Verb + Noun = Noun combinations bear initial stress (e.g. `runway).

20

8) Noun + Verb = Noun combinations bear initial stress (e.g. `sunset)

9) Noun1 + Noun2 + -ed = Adjective compounds are final stressed (e.g. eagle-`eyed)
10) Numeral + Noun + -ed = Adjective compounds are final stressed (two-`headed).
11) Adjective + Noun + -ed = Adjective compounds are final stressed (strong-`willed).
12) Noun + Adjective = Adjective compounds with the meaning (adjective) to the extent
of (noun) or as (adjective) as (noun) e.g. blood-`red, dirt `cheap are final stressed;
compounds meaning (adjective) with respect to (noun) are initial stressed (e.g. `water
proof, `homesick).
13) Noun + Verb + -ed = Adjective compounds are initial stressed (e.g. `hen-pecked,
`disease-ridden) except for all compounds with -made and -plated.

14) Noun + Verb = Verb compounds are initial stressed (e.g. `babysit).
15) Noun1 + Noun2 = Verb compounds without a derivational suffix follow the stressing
of the original compound noun (e.g. stone`wall).
16) Adverb + Verb = Verb compounds are final stressed (e.g. cross-`reference).
17) Perposition + Noun = Adverb compounds are final stressed (e.g. over`board).
18) Preposition + Noun = Adjective compounds derived from the type 17 compounds
above are initial stressed (`downstream).
19) Verb + Particle = Noun compounds bear initial stress (`setback).
20) Particle + Verb = Noun compounds bear initial stress (`uprise).
21) Partice/Adverb + Verb + -er = Noun compounds are initial stressed (`outrunner).
22) Noun + like = Adjective compounds are initial stressed (`ladylike).

4.4 Rhythm and Stress-Timing

Moving further upwards from the level of words and compounds, we arrive at the
sentence/utterance level of the language. Phonetically, the boundaries of individual words

21

may disappear as they are chained together in a rapid succession of syllables. Within this
stream of syllables, the most semantically important words stand out the most (bear sentence
stress) by virtue of the syllables bearing primary stress within the given word becoming more
prominent than those within words which do not bear sentence stress. Or rather, the stressed
syllables of less important words become less prominent or reduced in comparison to those of
the important words. Thus in a sentence I have not played the guitar this week, depending
on the context, any one of the words I, not, played, guitar, this or week can bear primary
sentence stress if the circumstances permit it. Words which would not usually bear stress
individually (mostly monosyllabic prepositions, conjunctions, particles (except in phrasal
verbs), forms of the verb to be, pronouns and other function words) can bear sentence stress
in the correct context (Im sure he `was a soldier but he is not anymore) while monosyllabic
words which would bear multiple stresses of varying strength can be so reduced in
prominence that their primary stress can reach the strength of another words secondary or
low level stress. (Kingdon, 1958, p. 1)
The stretches between the most prominent stresses within a sentence are called stress
groups (Fudge, 1984, p. 1) or phonetic words. When analyzing an English sentence in this
manner, there is a noticeable tendency for these strong stresses of an utterance to occur at
more or less predictable and regular periods of time, producing a rhythm. The prominent
syllables within a sentence tend to be prolonged, while the less prominent syllables tend to be
shortened and reduced, one being followed by another in a very rapid succession in spoken
language. Thus while the word him is in isolation pronounced hm, in a sentence in which it
does not bear special importance, it will be pronounced as m due to lack of stress.
The tendency described above makes English one of the stress-timed languages (such
as German or Swedish), since stresses within a sentence occur at approximately equal
intervals of time. Naturally, the English rhythm must not be taken literally, as the regularity of

22

intervals between stressed syllables is only approximate and relative (Roach, 1992, p. 120).
This stands in contrast to the so called syllable-timed languages such as French, Finnish,
Vietnamese or Czech, which instead of basing their timing on stress put emphasis on having
individual syllables occur at approximately even periods of time. Consequently, this stresstiming tendency makes the already complex studies of stress even more puzzling, since
though words individually do bear stress on always the same syllable (except for contrastive
or otherwise emphatic context) when put together in a sentence their stresses may change not
only depending on their importance but also depending on their surroundings.
Due to the fact that English is a stress-timed language, there is a tendency for strong
stresses not to occur on adjacent syllables but rather be separated by at least one unstressed
syllable. This causes various stress shifts within the spoken language. For example, while the
word nineteen bears main stress on the second syllable (nine`teen), in the phrase nineteen
feet the word bears stress on its first syllable (`nineteen `feet) since stressing the second
syllable would cause the two strong stresses to neighbour each other. This phenomenon can
quite often be observed on the case of final stressed compounds used as adjectives before a
noun (e.g. blood-`red v. `blood-red `wine).

4.5 Presence v. Absence of Stress and Influence on Vowel Quality

So far we have dealt in depth with the complexities of where stress is placed within a
word and what determines its placement. However, the absence of stress can have as much
impact on the pronunciation of a word or indeed the meaning of a phrase/sentence as can its
presence. In a strongly stressed language like English, vowel quality is so frequently
influenced by the presence or absence of stress, wrong stressing disguises words far more
effectively than does wrong intonation. (Kingdon, 1958, p. xi) In Fudges (1984) system this
is best explained on the example of three related words: explain, explanatory and explanation

23

(p. 193). When pronouncing these three words, we immediately notice that the vowel of the
root is pronounced differently in each case. In explain and explanatory, it is pronounced as a
full vowel (e and respectively) while in explanation, the only one of the three words where
main stress does not fall on the syllable pla-/-plai-, the syllable is pronounced as reduced ().
Also, among the full vowels, explain is pronounced with a long vowel, while explanatory
with a short one. Similarly we can observe a difference in pronunciation of the prefix ex-: in
explain and explanatory, the vowel is pronounced as reduced () since secondary stress does
not fall on it due to the fact that the following syllable bears main stress; as said before, due to
the rhythmic nature of English language, strong stresses do not occur next to each other. On
the other hand, in explanation, the main stress is placed on the syllable na- (expla`nation),
allowing for the secondary stress to appear on the prefix, giving it the pronunciation with a
full vowel [e].
From this example alone it is quite apparent that the absence or presence of strong
stress (main or secondary) greatly influences vowel quality: in the absence of stress, vowels
are reduced; in its presence, they are pronounced as full. In some cases (Fudge, 1984, p. 193),
vowel length is sufficient to prevent reduction regardless of the assignment of secondary
stress as can be seen in the verb advocate (pronounced `dvket). For these reasons, the low
level stress mark is introduced into the English stress system to indicate vowels which,
though not bearing a strong stress, are prominent enough (by virtue of their length etc.) to
avoid reduction (thus the word is correctly transcribed as `dvket). Though this mark is
most commonly used to indicate non-reduced syllables after the main stress, it can generally
be assigned to vowels which are not strongly stressed but do not undergo reduction regardless
of their position (e.g. rela`xation). There are several conditions which prevent syllables from
being reduced regardless of the placement of strong stresses within the word:
1) Reduction would cause the distinction between a pair of words disappear.

24

In this case, reduction may be prevented in one or both of the words. For example if
the verbs exercise and exorcise would undergo stressing and reduction by the rules
explained, both would be pronounced the same. However, instead the vowel of the
second syllable does not undergo reduction and the distinction between the words is
preserved. Generally it can be said that the less used word of the two is protected from
reduction while the other is reduced as usual by the rules. However, this condition is
not entirely regular, as some word pairs are pronounced the same regardless (e.g. the
adjective dependent and the noun dependant).
2) First syllable of a word is strong.
In most varieties of English this rule does not apply to stress-repellent prefixes even if
they form a strong syllable. Monosyllabic stress-neutral prefixes, however, do fall
under this rule and are not reduced. Though this rule might appear quite simple and
clear, difficulties arise in cases where syllable boundaries are not entirely obvious. If a
short vowel is followed by an s plus one or two consonants, the boundary may fall
either before the s or after it, producing a weak initial syllable in one case and strong
in the other. For example in the word prospective, the syllables are divided as
pro.spec.tive, the initial syllable is weak and undergoes reduction (prspektv) while in
prosperity the division stands as pros.pe.ri.ty, the initial syllable is protected from
reducing and is pronounced with a full vowel (prspert).
3) If stress-shift occurs in the noun of a noun-verb pair. The root syllable normally does
not reduce in this case as described in (chapter 4.2)
4) A short vowel is followed by a consonant or consonant cluster of a certain type.
Mostly, unstressed short vowels reduce in open syllables (syllables with an empty
coda) and in syllables ending with m, dental or alveolar consonants and in certain
consonant clusters. However, in other types of syllables, unstressed short vowels

25

maintain full quality unless the preceding syllable is weak and stressed. Thus, for
example, the unstressed final syllable of syllabub is pronounced with a full vowel
since the short vowel is followed by a b which is a bilabial consonant, not a dental or
alveolar one. Nevertheless in cherub, the final vowel of the final syllable is reduced to
since it is preceded by a weak stressed syllable.
Returning to the initial example of explain, explanatory and explanation, attention was
drawn to the fact that in explain and explanatory, though the first syllable of the root was
stressed in both cases, they differ in length. While the etymological basis among these words,
explain, contains a long vowel in its root (e), its derivate, explanatory, contains a short one
(). The process occurring in this case is known as trisyllabic shortening. The only thing
necessary to take into account when dealing with trisyllabic shortening is the final three
syllables of the SP of the word. As long as the antepenultimate syllable is stressed with empty
coda, the penultimate syllable unstressed with empty coda and the penultimate and the final
syllable have at least one consonant in their onset, the vowel of the antepenultimate syllable
will be shortened. Thus when the suffix atory is added to the word explain, the
antepenultimate syllable (-na-) will be stressed with empty coda, (-to-) unstressed with empty
coda and (-ry) will have one consonant in its onset, fulfilling the conditions for trisyllabic
shortening and thus transforming the vowel of the penultimate syllable. A similar
phenomenon occurs when the final syllable does not contain a consonant in its onset,
however, it is only limited to the vowels i and y. All other vowels in this context lengthen
instead (vowel lengthening rule number 2).
Secondly, certain suffixes, when added to a word with long vowel in its final syllable
cause the vowel to be shortened: -ative, -atory, -(e)fy, -(i)fy, -ic, -ical, -ics, -itive, -ity, -tude,
-ual, -uant, -uate, -uous. Addition of several of these suffixes in fact fulfils the conditions for
trisyllabic shortening, while in others, shortening happens by virtue of the suffix accentual

26

properties. However, though trisyllabic shortening does not appear exclusively in suffix
derivates, it is oftentimes faster to analyze a word by its suffix and stem, rather than
investigate the conditions for trisyllabic shortening.
On opposite process may also take place in English. A vowel will be lengthened in
these cases:
1) A stressed vowel precedes another vowel. For example in a word like chaos, the
vowel of the second syllable is pronounced as long since the vowel before it is
stressed.
2) The antepenultimate syllable is stressed with empty coda, the penultimate syllable
unstressed with empty coda and at least one consonant in its onset and the final
syllable contains no consonant in its onset. All vowels except for i and y are
lengthened in this context.
3) Vowels o and u are always long when word-final (e.g. stereo, hero).
4) If the initial open syllable (syllable with empty coda) of a disyllabic word is
stressed, its vowel will be lengthened (e.g. China).

27

28

5. Czech

Stress System and its Conflicts with English

Having described in depth the stress system of English, we can now proceed to the
description of Czech stress patterns. As discussed in chapter 4.4 Czech belongs among the
languages with stress on a fixed syllable and thus its stress system is rather straightforward:
except for certain words which do not bear stress (prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs
etc.), all Czech words bear stress on their first syllable (Palkov, 1994, p. 157). Thus
understanding the Czech system is quite simple, as stress does not have to be learned as the
property of a given new word or determined by a complex system of stress described in the
previous chapter and its subchapters. Furthermore, Czech differs from English in that it is not
a stress-timed language but a syllable-timed one, meaning that the intervals between two
strong stresses are irregular and their length is determined by the number syllables standing in
between. While English has the tendency to elongate the stressed syllables and speed up the
flow of syllables in case of a large number of unstressed syllables occurring one after another,
Czech syllables tend to have approximately the same duration regardless of stress placement.
These fundamental differences between the two languages make acquiring the habits
of correct stress placement in English an especially daunting task for a Czech native speaker,
though the acquisition of correct stress placement in Czech for an English speaker poses a
similar, though not quite as serious a problem; stress in Czech does not influence the quality
of vowels due to the fact that it is always in the same place, thus the incorrect stressing in a
word such as saying Pardu`bice instead of `Pardubice has little effect on its pronunciation and
understandability. The occurrence of the strongest stress at the beginning of a word is not a
phenomenon appearing very commonly in English, thus making for only a minimal overlap
between the two languages. When we analyze Kingdons (1958) list of possible stress patterns
within words in English (p. 15) we will notice that of the nineteen stress patterns listed
(monosyllabic words notwithstanding) only four carry the strongest stress on the initial
29

syllable. Moreover, only in disyllabic and trisyllabic words are these a common occurrence; in
words of four or five syllables, primary stress on the initial syllable is not very frequent when
compared with the other possible stress patterns.
This leads to major problems with not only acquiring correct stress placement habits
for students of English (especially those whose mother tongue is as different from English in
its stress system as is for example Czech or French) but also results in major issues with
understandability. Though Jennifer Jenkins (2001) in her book The Phonology of English as
an International Language correctly claims that it is not necessary for a second language
learner to sound as a native speaker in order to be understood (p. 126), in the same book and
in her article on understandability she then makes the, in the authors opinion, erroneous
claim that word stress is not among the features of the English language that the learner needs
to acquire in order to be understood (Jenkins, 2009, p. 12). Yet within the so called LFC
(Lingua Franca Core), a list of features necessary for intelligibility, she lists vowel length
contrasts and nuclear (or tonic) stress production/placement as two of the four main features,
disregarding the fact that word stress, as explained in chapter 4.5 greatly influences vowel
quality. Furthermore, it is impossible for a student of English to produce the correct nuclear or
tonic stress in a word within a sentence unless the speaker has first mastered correct
placement of stress within the word. Thus, if the rest of the LFC were to be taken as correct,
proper production of word stress is no less than one half of the features necessary for
intelligibility.
To support this statement, Hill, Kingdon, Fudge and Tibbitts all make assertions to the
same effect. To name a few:
I was therefore led to the conclusion (which is contrary to opinions that have been
expressed by some authorities) that a foreigners intelligibility may depend quite as
much on correct stressing as on correct intonation. (Kingdon, 1958, xi)

30

Because English rhythm is stress-timed, a wrong stressing will lead to a wrong and
misleading rhythm, even if the principle of stress-timing is correctly handled by the
speaker. Comprehensibility depends on rhythm, and therefore the placing of stress
within words can play a large part in determining how well a native English hearer
will understand the foreign speaker. (Fudge, 1984, p. 4)
We gather that command of stressing and accentuation is imperative: a command of
the usual habits of intonation may be desirable. People can often put up with quirks of
human temperament, but both speaker and listener tend to get frustrated, impatient and
out of humour if what is uttered cannot be understood. The safer course for foreigners
is to concentrate on stress and accentuation patterns rather than intonation, in order to
ensure as high a degree of intelligibility as possible. If the rhythm is right, the
speaker has a fair chance of using an appropriate intonation. (Tibbitts, 1967, p. 14)
An interesting point made by these authors, as well as mentioned above in relation to
the LFC, is the fact that stress is inseparably linked to multiple aspects of the English
language. Thus, should a student not master the correct stress placement, the resulting errors
will impact not only stressing within words, but also placement of nuclear or tonic stress
within a sentence, pronunciation, intonation as well as vowel quality which may result in loss
of distinctions between words (e.g. peach/pitch).

31

6. Grammar

School Survey Analysis

Since correct stress placement is such a fundamental feature of language, intertwined

with most of the basic abilities necessary for a speaker to be understood, and since the main
purpose of second language acquisition is to teach the student the ability to communicate in
the given language, it should come as self-evident that teaching English stress system to
second language students should be one of the main goals. Yet when browsing through
frequently used English textbooks such as Headway, Opportunities, Project or Destination,
exercises dedicated exclusively to English stress placement are sporadic at best, in fact often
missing completely from even the more advanced level books. In the occasional exercises or
vocabulary lists with phonetic transcriptions of words, stress marks are generally missing. In
other words, the issue of stress is mostly or completely ignored in favour of grammar,
vocabulary and pronunciation, with the hope that stressing habits will be acquired through
listening to the teachers speech as well as to recordings provided with the textbooks to the
teacher.
The question arising is then, whether the Czech system of second language acquisition
indeed teaches students how to correctly deal with English stress placement. In order to
answer this question, a survey was undertaken on one of the major grammar schools in Brno.
The students were presented with two recordings (Appendix 2) of the following text:

How I lost my job

My boss invited me to a company skiing trip to the Alps last month. I really dislike
him so I didnt want to go, but one of my older colleagues warned me that the boss doesnt
like it when people refuse his invitations. In fact, he said, most people who decline his
invitation get fired within a year. I took his advice and accepted the offer. After all, I thought,

32

a little exercise wont do me any harm. Also I didnt want such a silly thing to ruin my career.
Unfortunately, my decision didnt have the desired effect.
On our way to the chalet, we stopped in a hotel for the night. As it happened, there was
a wild party going on and all the guests were invited to join. From what Ive been told, I
drank three bottles of wine in record time during the event and got into a horrific argument
with the boss. By the end of it, I punched him in the face and ran away. Needless to say, I was
fired before I even saw the first sign of snow.

The first of the recordings contained a total of ten errors in stress placement: `invited
(twice), co`lleagues, `refuse (pronounced efju:s), `advice, `career, `hotel, re`cord (pronounced
k:d), `event and `horrific, while the other recording used correct stress. The students were

presented with a questionnaire (Appendix 1) containing the full text and a single question: the
students task was to recognize which one of the recordings used correct stress. A total of 137
students were presented with the questionnaire, ranging from the first year to fourth year of
secondary education. The results were as follows (Table 1):

33

Table 1
Survey Results
Class

Correct answers

Incorrect
Total students
Success rate
answers
1.D
16
9
25
64%
1.C
6
3
9
66.66%
3.C (group 1)1
10
6
16
62.5%
3.B
7
5
12
58.33%
2.B
17
9
26
65.38%
4.C
14
9
23
60.86%
3.A
10
2
12
83,33%
3.C (group 2)
8
6
14
57.14%
Total
88
49
137
64.23%
Most of the classes made use of the opportunity to listen to both recordings again
before filling in their answers. Also, most of the classes first had to be told what the phrase
English stress means, indicating that they have never heard it mentioned in class before, or
infrequently enough not to remember. With the exception of class 3.A which overall scored
particularly well, classes did not know the correct translation of the term after it was
explained to them (most either did not know the translation at all or translated the term as
pzvuk, while a much better and accurate translation is draz). Looking at the results we
will notice several trends among the classes:
1) With the exception of 3.A only one class scored over 65%, that being the first year
class 1.D. Considering the fact that the questionnaire contained only two questions,
there was a 50% chance that students choose the correct answer simply by guessing.
The total average of the classes surveyed was 64.23%. In theory, if from the 137
students ca 19 could tell the correct answer from the recordings and the remaining 118
were merely guessing, the result would have been the same.
2) There is no particular correspondence between the length of study and success rate.
Indeed the first year classes scored slightly better than most of their older schoolmates.
Regardless of how long the students have been studying English there seems to be no
1

Group 1 was a less advanced group of students.

34

improvement in recognition of stress patterns. Even among the classes which scored
relatively well when compared to the other classes, stress recognition seemed to be
largely passive, as during the remainder of the lesson, a large number of quite common
words such as technology have been pronounced with typically Czech stress
(`technology) and have been left uncorrected by the teacher. The length of second
language education with the current education system seems to have no effect on the
students ability to recognize stress.
3) In the case where the advanced and the less advanced groups of students were not
examined together (3.C), the less advanced group scored better than the more
advanced one. Though this has only been a singular occurrence, it would seem that
regardless of whether a particular group of students was deemed inferior in terms of
their English language skills or not, there was no correspondence between the success
rate and the level of language skills. Though between different classes and different
years of study the disparities in language skills could be accounted for simply by the
language level at the time of arrival on the grammar school (a group of 1st year
students could have had better previous second language education than a group of 3rd
year students and are thus slightly more advanced in comparison), one of the groups
from the same class was clearly marked as possessing worse language skills than the
other, yet the results of the survey do not correspond with this assessment.
4) The class of the oldest students (4.C) achieved the 3rd worst score, even though they
were told the correct stressing of the word hotel by their teacher before the recordings
were played (the only class to be given such an advantage), and regardless of the fact
that ten students, i.e. slightly less than half of the class, have been preparing for the
English graduation exams for the majority of this school year. Thus it would appear
that regardless of the special preparation the students have undergone during their

35

studies for the graduation exams (which by the time the survey was done were only a
few weeks away) had no effect on the success rate of the class. Moreover, even though
the class was told beforehand which stressing of the word hotel was correct and had
therefore only to identify the stressing within this one word in the recordings in order
to recognize which one uses correct stress, the success rate of the class did not
improve.
After the results have been evaluated, 3.A, which did above average when compared
to other groups, was further interviewed on their experience with the English language and
specifically stress. Though responses could not be obtained from all the students who
participated in the survey, feedback was acquired from the majority. All of the students study
English ten to eleven years and none of them was exposed to exercises dedicated to stress
recognition in a larger scale during their studies; only one of them actually remembers doing
an exercise focused on stress. There was, however, a number of factors which could have
influenced the students performance: One of the students was born in the United States of
America and is a native speaker of English. Two other students spent a week in the United
Kingdom. While one of them claimed that the experience had no effect on his ability to speak
English, the other emphasized the fact that it was the first time he ever had to communicate
with native speakers and felt that the opportunity benefited his English language skills. One
other student attends Spanish courses. She especially highlighted the fact that in Spanish,
word stress is clearly indicated in the written word as well (e.g. the spelling of espaol
indicates that the syllable containing the is stressed; similarly the spelling of the name Jos
symbolizes that the second syllable of the word bears the main stress) which helps her
recognize stress better in languages. Another student has attended English classes outside of
school for the entirety of his English studies, i.e. for ca ten years. The classes were focused
not only on grammar, but also on communication; nevertheless, he does not feel that the

36

lessons greatly impacted his ability to recognize stress. However, almost universally, the
students mentioned the fact that they watch sitcoms in English regularly in their free time and
are thus regularly exposed to native speaker English for extended periods of time. Also, as is
the trend with films and other types of series as well, the goal of the sitcom is to convey
emotion and humour and thus pronunciation and word and sentence stress are oftentimes
exaggerated to better express and emphasize the characters emotions.
It would consequently appear, if the overall results were to be generalized and expanded,
that the Czech system of secondary education is wholly insufficient in regards to stress
recognition in spoken text alone. Naturally, it can be presumed that the resulting ability of
students to produce correct stress will by similarly, if not more impacted. Yet more substantial
is the fact that the basic supposition on which the education system is founded, that being that
students will acquire stress placement habits through exposure to spoken text (Hill, 1965, p.
vi), is fundamentally flawed due to the fact that, as the survey proves, a large portion of the
students is in fact unable to correctly recognize stress in a spoken text even when presented
with the most common examples such as hotel or record. On the other hand, students which
regularly and voluntarily expose themselves to the English language or another strongly
stressed language for extended periods of time outside of school seem to acquire the ability to
recognize stress better than their schoolmates. While this data was acquired from only a small
portion of the students surveyed, and thus might not be universally applicable, it would appear
that while in-class exposure to the spoken word is wholly insufficient, it is possible for the
students to acquire correct stress placement habits simply by listening to the English
language, if done at a large enough scale, just as a native English speaker acquires stress
placement habits from childhood simply by constant exposure to the English language used
around them without being taught the rules of English stressing.

37

It is therefore necessary, in order to correctly teach English stress placement and

consequently improve the students ability to produce speech easily intelligible to a native
speaker, to try to teach stress by practice and to incorporate stress teaching into the very basis
of the second language acquisition system from the very beginning, since, as is apparent from
the survey, advanced study of the language does not provide the learner with the ability to
recognize correct stress placement independently unless specifically tutored to do so. Since
English stress placement is marked by such complexity, it is necessary to introduce
simplification into the system (Hill, 1965, p. vi) for easier teachability, and preferably employ
stress exercises throughout the entirety of second language education, i.e. from the earliest
stages, through practical exercises such as clapping or drumming (Tibbitts, 1967, p. 9) in
order for the students to acquire the rhythm of the language physically.
Alternatively, or preferably in addition to the abovementioned improvements in
teaching, students exposure to the English language should be greatly expanded in the form
of film or series presentations or homework, in order for the students to listen to the English
spoken word from native speakers for longer periods of time. Doing so in an entertaining
form, such as popular films or series, would greatly influence the students interest in
understanding the spoken word as much as possible, and thus the acquisition of stress
placement within the English language would become much more intuitive.
Also, workbooks, textbooks and vocabulary books should include stress patterns of
new words, or exercises where students mark the stress themselves. Overall, stress teaching
should become one of the main goals of second language acquisition and should be
incorporated into lessons regularly, since little and often is better than a lot at rare intervals
(Hill, 1965, p. vii). Textbooks with only sporadic stress exercises or worse yet textbooks with
no exercises of such kind should be abandoned in favour of books making frequent use of
such exercises or even dedicated textbooks focused on stress placement or overall phonetics

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alone. Both Tibbitts, Hill as well as authors not cited in this thesis have produced textbooks of
this kind yet are being ignored by second language teaching on secondary schools where they
could be of most use, since the basic knowledge of the language has already been acquired at
that point, and refinements and corrections to ones understandability can thus be successfully
made. Moreover, the ability to correctly place stress based on the properties of a word will
then greatly improve the students ability to correctly pronounce new and previously unknown
words.

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Conclusion
Due to the incongruence between the stress systems of Czech and English, special
attention must be paid to stress in secondary language teaching. The current system as has
been evidenced above does not help students improve their stress recognition in spoken word
and by extension fails to teach students the correct stress production as well. Especially the
supposition that students will acquire correct stress placement habits through listening has
been proven as fundamentally flawed. The resulting lack of the ability to correctly produce
stress within the English language greatly affects the students ability to be understood, since
it is closely linked to such basic features of language as rhythm, intonation, nuclear or tonic
stress and pronunciation all of which are necessary for understanding the spoken word.
The complexity of the English stress system has always greatly hindered the ability to
teach English word stress and has thus forced the education system to resort to a less direct
approach. However, this approach appears to be wholly insufficient for the needs of the
student, as it forces them to learn the correct stress placement for each individual word instead
of providing a set of rules by which to abide. The stress system introduced in this thesis must
therefore be simplified and shaped into a more accessible form (such as Tibbitts rhythmic
exercises) and be presented to students repeatedly and frequently in order for the students to
acquire the ability to sense English stress almost physically. Such practices will then result not
only in increased ability to produce understandable speech, but also to improve the students
pronunciation of unknown words and thus increase the efficiency of independent study and
reading.
Though one of the main purposes of this work was to clearly and concisely present the
word stress system of English for students as well as other interested parties, it is the authors
hope for the results of this effort to not be limited to this task alone. On the contrary, the use
of the data and evidence presented in the survey to inspire a new initiative on the field of
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second language teaching as well as textbook production is encouraged in order to better

accommodate the needs of the students to acquire the habits of correct stress placement in
English speech. The benefits resulting from this initiative would, in the authors opinion,
greatly improve the quality of second language education and improve the students ability to
communicate on an international level, thus opening new opportunities for future.

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Works Cited
Chomsky, N., & Halle, M. (1968). The sound pattern of English. New York: Harper & Row.
Fudge, E. C. (1984). English word-stress. London: George Allen and Unwin.
Hill, L. (1965). Stress and intonation step by step. London: Oxford University Press.
Jenkins, J. (2001). The phonology of English as an international language. Honk Kong:
Oxford University Press.
Jenkins, J. (2009). (Un)pleasant? (In)correct? (Un)intelligible? ELF speakers perceptions of
their accent. In A. Mauranen & E. Ranta (Eds.), English as a lingua franca: Studies
and findings (pp. 10-36). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Kingdon, R. (1958). The groundwork of English stress. London: Longmans, Green.
Palkov, Z. (1994). Fonetika a fonologie etiny. Praha: Karolinum.
Roach, P. (1992). English phonetics and phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tibbitts, E. (1967). English stress patterns: Practice material. Cambridge: W. Heffer.

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Appendix 1
Listen to the two recordings of the text below; then determine which of the recordings
uses the correct stress placement.
How I lost my job
My boss invited me to a company skiing trip to the Alps last month. I really dislike
him so I didnt want to go, but one of my older colleagues warned me that the boss doesnt
like it when people refuse his invitations. In fact, he said, most people who decline his
invitation get fired within a year. I took his advice and accepted the offer. After all, I thought,
a little exercise wont do me any harm. Also I didnt want such a silly thing to ruin my career.
Unfortunately, my decision didnt have the desired effect.
On our way to the chalet, we stopped in a hotel for the night. As it happened, there was
a wild party going on and all the guests were invited to join. From what Ive been told, I
drank three bottles of wine in record time during the event and got into a horrific argument
with the boss. By the end of it, I punched him in the face and ran away. Needless to say, I was
fired before I even saw the first sign of snow.

Underline which of the recordings uses the correct stress:

a) Recording 1
b) Recording 2

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Resum
The thesis deals with the issue of the English word stress and the rules it follows. Its
main purpose is to clearly and concisely explain the complex and often misunderstood system
of English word stress to the reader, and then contrast it with the Czech system to expose
problems arising between the two languages. Then a survey is conducted to analyze whether
the Czech second language education system properly compensates for the differences
between the two languages.
Eric Fudges English word-stress (1984) is used as the main source for the description
of the English stress system. The description is divided into subchapters, each dedicated to a
different phenomenon: simple roots, prefixes, suffixes, compounds, rhythm within a sentence
and the effects of stress on the quality of vowels are all discussed in depth. A concise
description of the Czech stress system follows, highlighting the differences between the two
languages. Especially emphasized is the impact of English word stress on intelligibility, a
phenomenon not shared between the two languages.
The practical section of the thesis focuses on investigating the quality of second
language education on secondary schools in relation to English stress. The results of the
survey are then thoroughly analyzed and adjustments to the current education system are
proposed.

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Tato prce se zabv problematikou anglickho slovnho pzvuku a pravidly, ktermi

se d. Jejm hlavnm elem je srozumiteln a strun teni popsat komplexn a asto
patn pochopen systm anglickho slovnho pzvuku, a pot jej porovnat se systmem
eskm ve snaze odhalit problmy vznikajc mezi tmito dvma jazyky. Pot je proveden
przkum za elem zjistit zda systm esk vuky cizch jazyk dostaten vyvauje rozdly
mezi anglitinou a etinou.
English word-stress (1984) od Erica Fudge je pouvn jako hlavn zdroj pro popis
anglickho systmu slovnho pzvuku. Tento popis je rozdlen do podkapitol, z nich kad
se zabv jinm jevem: jednoduch slovn zklady, pedpony, ppony, sloeniny, rytmus ve
vt a inky pzvuku na vlastnosti samohlsek jsou dkladn popsny. Nsleduje strun
popis eskho systmu pzvuku, s vyzdvienm rozdl mezi tmito dvma jazyky. Obzvlt
se zdrazuje inek slovnho pzvuku v anglitin na srozumitelnost, co je jev, kter tyto
dva jazyky nesdlej.
Praktick st prce se zamuje na vzkum kvality vuky cizch jazyk na stednch
kolch ve vztahu k anglickmu pzvuku. Vsledky przkumu jsou nsledn dkladn
rozebrny a jsou navreny pravy stvajcho vukovho systmu.

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