Word stress in english кратко

Обновлено: 05.07.2024

The sequence of syllables in the word is not pronounced identically. The syllable or syllables which are uttered with more prominence than the other syllables of the word are said to be stressed or accented. Stress in the isolated word is termed word stress; stress in connected speech is termed sentence stress.

Stress is defined differently by different authors. B.A. Bogoroditsky, for instance, defined stress as an increase of energy, accompanied by an increase of expiratory and articulatory activity. D. Jones defined stress as the degree of force, which is accompanied by a strong force of exhalation and gives an impression of loudness. H. Sweet also stated that stress, is connected with the force of breath. According to A.C. Gimson, the effect of prominence is achieved by any or all of four factors: force, tone, length and vowel colour.

If we compare stressed and unstressed syllables in the words contract ['kσntrækt], to contract [kən'trækt], we may note that in the stressed syllable:

(a) the force is greater, which is connected with more energetic articulation;

(b) the pitch of voice is higher, which is connected with stronger tenseness of the vocal cords and the walls of the resonance chamber;

(d) the quality of the vowel [æ] in the stressed syllable is different from the quality of this vowel in the unstressed position, in which it is more narrow than ['æ].

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.

English word stress is traditionally defined as dynamic, but in fact, the special prominence of the stressed syllables is manifested in the English language not only through the increase of intensity, but also through the changes in the vowel quantity, consonant and vowel quality and pitch of the voice.

Russian word stress is not only dynamic but mostly quantitative and qualitative. The length of Russian vowels always depends on the position in a word.

Now we should like to distinguish the notions of word stress and sentence stress. They are first of all 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. 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.

So in a speech chain the phonetic structure of a word obtains additional characteristics connected with rhythm, melody, and tempo. Though the sentence stress falls on the syllable marked by the word stress it is not realized in the stressed syllable of an isolated word but in a word within speech continuum. Since the spheres of word stress and sentence stress fall apart their functions are actually different. Sentence stress organizes a sentence into a linguistic unit, helps to form its rhythmic and intonation pattern, and performs its distinctive function on the level of a phrase.

Stress difficulties peculiar to the accentual structure of the English language are connected with the vowel special and inherent prominence. In identical positions the intensity of English vowels is different. The highest in intensity is /a:/, then go /о:, з:, i:, u:, æ, σ, e, υ, i/.

All English vowels may occur in accented syllables, the only exception is /ə/, which is never stressed. English vowels /i, и, ə υ/ tend to occur in unstressed syllables. Syllables with the syllabic /1, m, n/ are never stressed. Unstressed diphthongs may partially lose their glide quality. In stressed syllables English stops have complete closure, fricatives have full friction, and features of fortis/lenis distinction are clearly defined.

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Word Stress in English

Word stress is your magic key to understanding spoken English. Native speakers of English use word stress naturally. Word stress is so natural for them that they don't even know they use it. Non-native speakers who speak English to native speakers without using word stress, encounter two problems:

They find it difficult to understand native speakers, especially those speaking fast.

The native speakers may find it difficult to understand them.

To understand word stress, it helps to understand syllables. Every word is made from syllables. Each word has one, two, three or more syllables.

number of syllables

Notice that (with a few rare exceptions) every syllable contains at least one vowel (a, e, i, o or u) or vowel sound.

In English, we do not say each syllable with the same force or strength. In one word, we accentuate ONE syllable. We say one syllable very loudly (big, strong, important) and all the other syllables very quietly .

Let's take 3 words: photograph , photographer and photographic . Do they sound the same when spoken? No. Because we accentuate (stress) ONE syllable in each word. And it is not always the same syllable. So the shape of each word is different.

total
syllables

stressed
syllable

PHO TO GRAPH ER

This happens in ALL words with 2 or more syllables: TEACHer, JaPAN, CHINa, aBOVE, converSAtion, INteresting, imPORtant, deMAND, etCETera, etCETera, etCETera

The syllables that are not stressed are weak or small or quiet . Native speakers of English listen for the STRESSED syllables, not the weak syllables. If you use word stress in your speech, you will instantly and automatically improve your pronunciation and your comprehension .

Try to hear the stress in individual words each time you listen to English - on the radio, or in films for example. Your first step is to HEAR and recognise it. After that, you can USE it!

There are two very important rules about word stress:

One word, one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. So if you hear two stresses, you have heard two words, not one word.)

The stress is always on a vowel.

Word stress is not used in all languages. Some languages, Japanese or French for example, pronounce each syllable with eq-ual em-pha-sis. Other languages, English for example, use word stress.

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

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

This is a simple example of how word stress helps us understand English. There are many, many other examples, because we use word stress all the time, without thinking about it.

There are some rules about which syllable to stress. But. the rules are rather complicated! Probably the best way to learn is from experience. Listen carefully to spoken English and try to develop a feeling for the "music" of the language.

phonetic spelling:
dictionary A

phonetic spelling:
dictionary B

There are two very simple rules about word stress:

One word has only one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. If you hear two stresses, you hear two words. Two stresses cannot be one word. It is true that there can be a "secondary" stress in some words. But a secondary stress is much smaller than the main [primary] stress, and is only used in long words.)

We can only stress vowels, not consonants.

Here are some more, rather complicated, rules that can help you understand where to put the stress. But do not rely on them too much, because there are many exceptions. It is better to try to "feel" the music of the language and to add the stress naturally.

1 Stress on first syllable

Most 2-syllable nouns

PRESent, EXport, CHIna, TAble

Most 2-syllable adjectives

PRESent, SLENder, CLEVer, HAPpy

2 Stress on last syllable

Most 2-syllable verbs

to preSENT, to exPORT, to deCIDE, to beGIN

There are many two-syllable words in English whose meaning and class change with a change in stress. The word present , for example is a two-syllable word. If we stress the first syllable, it is a noun (gift) or an adjective (opposite of absent). But if we stress the second syllable, it becomes a verb (to offer). More examples: the words export , import , contract and object can all be nouns or verbs depending on whether the stress is on the first or second syllable.

3 Stress on penultimate syllable (penultimate = second from end)

Words ending in -ic

GRAPHic, geoGRAPHic, geoLOGic

Words ending in -sion and -tion

For a few words, native English speakers don't always "agree" on where to put the stress. For example, some people say teleVIsion and others say TELevision . Another example is: CONtroversy and conTROversy .

4 Stress on ante-penultimate syllable (ante-penultimate = third from end)

This time I am going to draw your attention to some delicate item of the English language. To begin with, you’ve got to remember that each time you learn new vocabulary, it is important to make sure you

know the following:

• the meaning of the word you’re learning;
• collocation (which other words commonly go with it);
• “currency” - whether or not the word is restricted to certain situations or can be used widely;
• its spelling;
• and pronunciation.

- feeling that you have no hope and are ready to do anything to change the situation you are in (desperate with sth) ;

- needing or wanting something very much (desperate for sth, desperate to do sth );

- a desperate situation is very bad or serious.

Collocation

desperate attempt/bid/effort; desperate battle/struggle/fight

quite frequently used (especially by pessimists)

desperate (not disparate or whatever else)

Pronunciation

Although the last point is crucially important, very often it’s neglected by students and even by teachers. There are two interesting features of English pronunciation which give you the key to understanding and being understood and these are STRESS and INTONATION. Today we’ll start by considering WORD and SENTENCE STRESS (наголос).

English is considered a stressed language while many other languages are considered syllabic. What does that mean? It means that in English, certain words have stress within a sentence, and certain syllables have stress within a word. And it is this stress that allows our ears to understand the meaning and also to pick up the important parts of the sentence. We give stress to certain words while other words are quickly spoken (some students say eaten!). In other languages, such as French or Italian, each syllable receives equal importance (there is stress, but each syllable has its own length). English however, spends more time on specific stressed words while quickly gliding over the other, less important, words.

What is word stress?

enGAGEment

SUB stitute

TECH nical

underSTAND

In order for one syllable to be perceived as stressed, the syllables around it need to be unstressed. Have another look at the groups of words in the table above. In the word SYLLABUS, we said the first syllable was stressed. This logically implies that the final two are unstressed. Also, in the word BANANA, the first and third syllables are unstressed, and the middle one is stressed. In order to improve your pronunciation, focus on pronouncing the stressed syllable clearly. However, don't be afraid to "mute" (not say clearly) the other unstressed vowels.

But how do we recognize where the stress falls? Well, there are a couple of ideas:

1. Try putting this word in the end of a short sentence, and saying it over a few times: for example, It’s in the syllabus; He had a prior engagement; I don’t understand.

2. Try saying this word as though you have been completely taken by surprise: for example, SYLlabus? baNAna? kangaROO?

In dictionaries we spot the stress with help of a mark before the stressed syllable like in the following examples: /bəˈnɑː.nə/, /ɪnˈgeɪdʒ.mənt/, /ˌʌn.dəˈstænd/.

The table below is a kind of a ‘rough guide’ to stressed syllables. Though these are rather tendencies than rules, since they only tell us what is true most of the time, and it is always possible to find exceptions.

In longer words with many syllables, there can be a primary stress and a secondary stress . So the primary stress would be the highest in pitch and perhaps the longest, but there might also be another syllable that is important. For example, the word EMBARRASSMENT (ɪmˈbær.ə.smənt ). So there it is the last two syllables that are not stressed. And it is the second syllable that is stressed. But the first syllable is also somewhat important and higher in pitch than the last two. So, the first syllable there has a secondary stress, and the second syllable has the primary stress. The last two syllables are unstressed.

There are several ways of indicating stress when it comes to making notes as you are learning a new vocabulary item. And I strongly advise you to use one of them. For this, of course, you will need to consult your dictionary all the time.

What is sentence stress?

Sentence Stress is actually the “music” of English, the thing that gives the language its particular “beat” or “rhythm”. In general, in any given English sentence there will be particular words that carry more “weight” or “volume” (stress) than others. Believe me, we do convey a lot of meaning through how much stress we place in a sentence and which word the stress is on.
Consider the following example:

I did not say you stole my red hat.

At the moment, nothing is particularly stressed. The meaning seems fairly obvious. But what if some stress is placed on the first word - I:

I did not say you stole my red hat.

Then the meaning contains the idea that someone else said it, not me. Stress the second and third word and you get another shade of meaning:

I did not say you stole my red hat. (Strong anger and denial of the fact.)
I did not say you stole my red hat.
I did not say you stole my red hat. (But I implied it that you did. Did you?)
I did not say you stole my red hat (I wasn't accusing you. I know it was someone else)
I did not say you stole my red hat. (I said you did something else with it, or maybe borrowed it.)
I did not say you stole my red hat. (I meant that you stole someone else's red hat)
I did not say you stole my red hat. (I said that you stole my blue hat.)
I did not say that you stole my red hat . (I said that you stole my red bat. You misunderstood my pronunciation)

Analyzing this way, you can see how important stress is in English. Now, you need to understand which words we generally stress and which we do not stress. Stressed words carry the meaning or the sense behind the sentence, and for this reason they are called content words – they carry the content of the sentence. The example below gives us three content words – LIVES, HOUSE and CORNER:

he LIVES in the HOUSE on the CORNER.

These three content words carry the most important ideas in the sentence. Unstressed words tend to be smaller words which we need in ord er to make our langu age hold together. They help the sentence “function” and for this reason they are called function words.

The syllables in the word are not pronounced identically: some syllables are more prominent than the others. They are called stressed syllables. Stressis a greater degree of prominence of a syllable or syllables as compared to the other syllables of the word. A particular combination of varying prominence of syllables in a word forms its stress pattern.

The effect of prominence of the stressed syllable is achieved by a number of phonetic parametres such as pitch, loudness, length, vowel quality or their combination. As a result there appears a contrast between stressed and unstressed syllables.

There is another term widely used in phonetic literature to describe this phenomenon – accent.

The natureof word stress сan be studied from the point of view of productionand perception.The productionof stressed syllables requires more muscular energy.Greater muscular effort and muscular activity produce higher subglottal pressure and an increase in the amount of air expelled from the lungs. On the acoustic level this extra articulatory activity leads to the increase of intensity, duration and fundamental frequencyof the stressed syllable. On the perceptionlevel it corresponds to the increase of loudness, lengthand pitch.

Table1

Production and Perception of the Stressed Syllables

Production and Perception	Stressed syllable
Production level	Greater muscular effort
Acoustic level	Increase of intensity, duration, fundamental frequency
Perception level	Increase of loudness, length, pitch

The balance of these components may be different in different languages. There are two main types of word stress in the languages of the world: dynamicand musical (tonic). The dynamic stressis achieved by greater force with which the syllable is prononuced. Greater intensity and duration of the stressed syllable which contains a vowel of full articulation contribute to the effect of prominence. European languages such as English, German, French, Russian, have dynamic word stress. Musical stressis observed in Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and other languages. This type of stress is the result of the change of pitch in the stressed syllable.

English word stress is a complex phenomenon formed by interdependent components: loudness, pitch, length and vowel quality.

Degrees and position of word stress

Degrees of word stress

The syllables in a word are characterized by different degrees of prominence. Objectively, there are as many degrees of stress in a word as there are syllables.

In English they generally distinguish three degrees (levels) of stress: primary (strong, main, principal), secondary (half- strong, half-stressed)and weak (unstressed). In the word examination the primary stress is the strongest (marked 1), the secondary stress is second strongest (marked 2), all the other syllables (3,4,5) are weak. So, all the other degrees of stress are termed weak.

American phoneticians (B.Bloch, G.Trager, H.Gleason) distinguish four contrastive degrees of word stress: primary, secondary, tertiaryand weak. Tertiary stress does not show much difference from secondary stress, but it has a different placement in a word. It is generally associated with American English, where it marks the last but one syllable in the words with suffixes –ary,- ory –ony (revolutionary,dictionary, ceremony. It is argued that the secondary stress preceeds the primary stress and the tertiary stress follows it. For example, in the verbs with the suffixes –ate, -ize, - y tertiary stress can be observed (demonstrate, organize, simplify). Some British linguists share this point of view, because there is a tendency to use a tertiary stress in a post-tonic syllable in the words with an unreduced vowel in the last syllable in British English (blackboard, demonstrate, realize).

In terms of teaching English as a foreign language the British conception of three degrees of word stress is more acceptable.

Placement of word stress

According to its placement in a word stress can be fixedandfree. In languages with a fixed stress the position of the word stress is restricted to a particular syllable in a multisyllabic word.

In languages with a freestress its location is not confined to a specific position in the word. Stress can be placed on any syllable of the word.

In English (as well as in Russian) the word stress is not only free, but it is also shifting,which means that it can change its position in different forms of the word and its derivatives: contrast – contrast, music – musician, habit – habitual, воды – вода – водяной, чудная – чудная.

It is difficult to predict the location of English word stress. Some linguists suppose that the speaker has to memorize the stress pattern of each word as it is learned.

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