LECTURE 12

LATANOVA R.U.
ENGLISH WORD STRESS

Plan:
• Accentual structure of English words
• Place of word stress in English
• Degrees of stress
Word stress is a crucial aspect of English pronunciation that can
significantly affect how words are understood. Stress involves the
emphasis placed on certain syllables within a word. English is a
stress-timed language, meaning that stressed syllables tend to have a
regular time interval between them, while unstressed syllables are
shorter and more variable.
• In speaking, we recognize the stressed syllable by the loudness of it within the word. Most
stressed words are content word (nouns, adjectives, lexical verbs, and adverbs) while the
unstressed words are function words. And we have some rules guiding word stress in
English.
• 1. Most monosyllabic words are stressed if they are content words and unstressed if they are
function words: DOG
• 2.Two syllable words with the same spelling are stressed based on their noun and verb forms.
The nouns are stressed in the first syllable while the verbs are stressed in the second syllable:
EXport—exPORT; SEcond—seCOND
• 3. A syllable with the weak vowel sound /ə/ is not stressed. The stress is always on another
syllable in the word: WOman, DOCtor
• 4. A syllable with a long vowel or a diphthong has a high chance of being stressed: MARket,
enterTAIN
• 5. Most words ending with ogy, phy, cal, ant, ment, tude, ate, ity, ify, and
ise/ize(in three syllable words) are mostly stressed on the third syllable
counting from the back of the word: biOlogy, phoTOgraphy, CHEmical,
parTIcipant, deVELopment, Educate, iDENtity, inTENsify, ADvertise(ize)

6. Most words ending with ism, able, ive, ure, ry, and ize(in four syllable
words) are stressed on the fourth syllable counting from the back:
JOURnalism, PROfitable, DEcorative, AGriculture, Generalize.
• 7. Most words ending with (a)tion, sion, tal, and ic are stress on the second
syllable from the back: congratuLAtion, eduCAtion, comMIssion,
fundaMENtal, matheMAtic.
• 8. Suffixes and prefixes are not stressed in words: QUICKly, DANcing, deCAMP,
exWIFE
• 9. A syllable with syllabic consonants /l/ and /n/ should not be stressed: BOTtle,
ORphan.
• 10. Most adjectives are stressed in the first syllable or they retain the stress on the
noun they were derived from: FAtal, COlourful.
So, these are all the rules guiding syllable stress in words.
But it is important to note that there are exceptions to the rules. So when you’re not
sure which of the syllables should take the stress, you can quickly check your mobile
dictionary.
And lastly, note that in all polysyllabic words, we count the syllables from the back
inorder to get the syllable that is stressed.
• Word stress is the emphasis we place in a specific syllable of
a word when pronouncing it. In English words that have
more than one syllable, we usually don’t pronounce every
syllable with the same weight, so each syllable in a word can
be stressed or unstressed. Stressed syllables are louder than
the others - i.e. air comes out of our lungs with more power;
but they might also be longer, or pronounced with higher or
lower in pitch. Syllables that are not pronounced with such
emphasis are usually referred to as unstressed syllables, and
they are usually not pronounced as clearly as the others.
Accentual structure of English words
• Nature of Word stress. Stress is defined differently by different
authors.
• 1. According to B. A. Bogoroditsky – stress is defined as an increase
of energy, accompanied by an increase of expiratory and articulatory
activity.
• 2. D. Jones defined stress as the degree of force, which is accompanied
by a strong force of exhalation and gives an impression of loudness.
• 3. H. Sweet also stated that stress, is connected with the force of
breath.
• 4. According to A. C. Gimson, the effect of prominence is achieved by
any or all of four factors: force, tone, length and vowel colour.
• According to the most important feature different types of word stress
are distinguished in different languages. 1) If special prominence in a
stressed syllable or syllables is achieved mainly through the intensity
of articulation, such type of stress is called dynamic, or force stress. 2)
If special prominence in a stressed syllable is achieved mainly through
the change of pitch, or musical tone, such accent is called musical, or
tonic. It is characteristic of the Japanese, Korean and other oriental
languages. 3) If special prominence in a stressed syllable is achieved
through the changes in the quantity of the vowels, which are longer in
the stressed syllables than in the unstressed ones, such type of stress is
called quantitative. 4) Qualitative type of stress is achieved through
the changes in the quality of the vowel under stress.
• Now we should like to distinguish the notions of word stress
and sentence stress. 1. They are different in their sphere of
application as they are applied to different language units:
word stress is naturally applied to a word, as a linguistic unit,
sentence stress is applied to a phrase. 2. Secondly, the
distinction of the rhythmic structure of a word and a phrase is
clearly observed in the cases when the word stress in notional
words is omitted in a phrase, e. g. I 'don't think he is 'right or
when the rhythmic structure of the isolated word does not
coincide with that of a phrase, e. g. 'Fifteen. 'Room Fifteen.
'Fifteen 'pages.
2. Place of word stress in English. Degrees of stress

• Languages are also differentiated according to the place of word stress. The
traditional classification of languages concerning place of stress in a word is
into those with: - a fixed stress - a free stress. In languages with a fixed stress
the occurrence of the word stress is limited to a particular syllable in a
polysyllabic word. For instance, in French and mostly in Kazakh the stress
falls on the last syllable of the word (if pronounced in isolation), in Finnish
and Czech it is fixed on the first syllable, in Polish on the one but last
syllable. In languages with a free stress its place is not confined to a specific
position in the word. In one word it may fall on the first syllable, in another
on the second syllable, in the third word — on the last syllable, etc. The free
placement of stress is exemplified in the English and Russian languages, e. g.
English: 'appetite - be'ginning - ba'lloon; Russian: озеро - погода - молоко.
• There actually as many degrees of stress in a word as there
are syllables. The British linguists usually distinguish three
degrees of stress in the word. A. C. Gimson shows the
distribution of the degrees of stress in the word examination.
The primary stress is the strongest, it is marked by number 1,
the secondary stress is the second strongest marked by 2. All
the other degrees are termed weak stress. Unstressed
syllables are supposed to have weak stress. The American
scholars B. Bloch and G. Trager find four contrastive degrees
of word stress, namely: loud, reduced loud, medial and weak
stresses.
• Other American linguists also distinguish four degrees of word stress
but term them: primary stress, secondary stress, tertiary stress, weak
stress. The difference between the secondary and tertiary stresses is very
subtle and seems subjective. The criteria of their difference are very
vague. The second pretonic syllables of such words as libe'ration,
recog'nition are marked by secondary stress in Br. E, in Am. E they are
said to have tertiary stress. In Am. E tertiary stress also affects the
suffixes -ory, -ary, -ony of nouns and the suffixes –ate, -ize, -y of verbs,
which are considered unstressed in Br. E, e. g. 'territory, 'ceremony,
'dictionary; 'demonstrate, 'organize, 'simplify. British linguists do not
always deny the existence of tertiary stress as a tendency to use a
tertiary stress on a post-tonic syllable in RP is also traced.
• We always learn English according to the rules, but all the
rules have exceptions and the learner of English should know
that the rules are so complex that sometimes it is best to learn
the stress for each word individually when the word itself is
learned. Besides, learners of English should be aware of the
fact that some words have two variants of stress and they are
both considered to be correct: kilometer [kɪ'lɒmɪtə],
[ʹkɪləmɪ:tə].
• Mastering word stress is a key element in achieving clear and
effective English pronunciation. Through practice and
attentive listening, learners can enhance their ability to stress
syllables accurately, ultimately improving their overall
communication skills. Remember, effective communication
is not just about the words you use but also how you stress
and pronounce them. Practice regularly and stay attentive to
the nuances of word stress in English.
Questions:

• 1. What is a word stress?

• 2. Name the types of word stress? What is the difference
between them?
• 4. What are the functions of word stress?
• 5. What the degrees of word stress?
• 6. What factors determine the place and different degree of
word stress?
• 7. What are the rules of word stress in English?
Exercises:

1. Read the words below paying attention to the position of the secondary
stress:

• centralization, modification, composition, nationalization,

administration, organization, anticipation, intersession,
overbalance, justification, hospitality, satisfactory,
sentimentality, impossibility, artificial, uncountable,
qualification, consideration, examination, temperamental,
pronunciation, ornamentation, fundamental, distribution,
representation, characteristic, interrogation.
2. Put down stress marks in the words below. Consult the
dictionary. Translate them into Russian and read according to
the stress pattern:
• ascertain, acquiesce, grotesque, cigarette, antique,
saloon, employee, career, lemonade, atomic, phonetic,
phonological, familiarity, beneficial, efficient, aqueous,
residual, impetuous, propriety, active, relative,
gratitude, attitudinal.
3. Transcribe the words and put down stress marks in
these verbs and nouns. Translate them into Russian.

• absent n – absent v; compress n – compress v; consort

n – consort v; combine n – combine v; concert n –
concert v; desert n – desert v; outlay n – outlay v,
export n – export v, present n – present v.