Role of stress in English

1. Role of stress in English to
become a powerful
communicator

2. Overview:
Definition and role of stress in English
language.
Nature of stress
Presentation of stressed syllables
Production and perception of stressed
syllables
What makes a syllable prominent
1-loudness 2-length 3-pitch 4-quality

3. Types of stress
Which words are stressed and which are
not
Levels of stress
Placement of stress levels within the word
Strong and weak syllables
Stress in two syllable words
Stress in three syllable words
Conclusion

4. Introduction
Stress is an important feature of English
pronunciation and to become a powerful
communicator of English one needs
proficiency while using different stress
patterns in his communication.
In the field of trade and commerce, travel
and tourism, banking, administration,
aviation and above all education, English
has become necessary for everyday affairs
of the modern world.

5. .
The desire to learn English is not new and it is
constantly growing by the day.
It is so because spoken English has assumed a
far greater role than it did before.
TV and telephone have become an important
means of business and non business transactions.
Many more people go on international tours and
participate in international seminars and
conferences.
Telephone interviews for selection of lucrative
posts also need listening and spoken proficiency.

6. Why stress is crucial in English
Stress is crucial in English
pronunciation. It can be called a
grammatical device in English.
Part of the meanings of a word
depends on stress. It serves to mark
the function of words in spoken
English.

7. Why students are weak in using
stress
Most of our students learn English
grammar from books.
That’s why their sense of stress
remains undeveloped.
It should be kept in mind that English
words are pronounced with one
dominant syllable while the other
syllables tend to get squashed and
reduced.

8. What is Stress?
 Stress is the relative degree of force
with which a syllable or a word is
uttered.
 It is also defined as the degree of
prominence a syllable has.
 Words with more than one syllables
have a stressed syllable. In /’teibl/, the
first syllable is prominent.
 In com’mittee and recom’mend, the
second syllable is stressed.

9. Nature of stress
The nature of stress is simple enough
that everyone can understand that
words like father, open, camera, have
their first syllables stressed.
In potato, apartment and relation the
middle syllable is stressed, whereas
in about, receive and perhaps the
final syllable is stressed.

10. Presentation of stressed syllables
A stressed syllable is denoted by
placing a vertical line(‘) high up just
before the stressed syllable. Receive
will be transcribed as /ri’si:v/
Re’lation, po’tato, a’bout, ‘camera are
some examples to show stress in
transcription.

11. Production and perception of
stressed syllables
Production of stressed or unstressed
syllables depends mainly on the
speaker.
While producing stressed syllables,
the muscles that are used to expel the
air from the lungs are often more
active.
From the perceptual point of view all
stressed syllables have a common
characteristic of prominence.

12. What makes a syllable prominent?
1-Loudness Many people seem to feel that
stressed syllables are louder than unstressed.
Loudness is a component of prominence. Take as
an example a non sense word such as
(ba:ba:ba:ba)
2-Length: The length of a syllable has an
important part to play in prominence. If one
syllable is made longer, it will be heard as
stressed.
3-Pitch: Every voiced syllable said with relatively
high pitch will produce an effect of prominence.
4-Quality: A syllable will become prominent if it
contains a vowel, different in quality than that of a
weak syllable. We can look at stressed syllables
as occurring against a background of weak
syllables, /i/, /u/, /ә/.

13. .
Examples
Crazy /’kreizi/
Book /’buk/
Near /’niә/

14. Types of stress
1-Word stress: It shows what syllable in a word is
stressed e.g. “useful” is stressed on the first
syllable, “advantageous” has a primary stress on
the first and a secondary stress on the third
syllable.
2-Sentence stress: It shows which words in a
sentence are/should be stressed.
Examples:
1-’Take a ‘book out of the ‘bag.
2-’Where are you ‘going?
3-It’s a ‘door.
4-’Bring me a ‘pencil.
5-’When will she ‘go?

15. Which words are stressed and
which are not
Stressed words
(Content words)
Unstressed words
(Function words)
Nouns Pronouns
Demonstrative+inter.
pronouns
Prepositions
Main verbs Conjunctions
Adjectives Auxiliary verbs
Adverbs

16. Examples
1-Her complexion is ‘fair .(Adjective)
2-’Who is there? (Interrogative)
3-I ‘went to Milan. (Main verb)
4-‘Naila is a good ‘girl. (Noun)
5-John went there ‘quickly. (Adverb)

17. Rules of word stress
Stress on words in English is not tied to
any particular syllable for the entire
vocabulary. The stress pattern of the each
word in English has to be learnt
individually. There are certain groups of
words which follow some regular stress
pattern that allows so few exceptions that
they may be regarded as the rules of word
stress. These rules are based on the use of
prefixes and suffixes or word endings.

18. 1-Rules related to prefixes
Many prefixes do not have any regular or
predictable effect on the location of word
stress. The few that do are discussed
below.
1-Prefix re
This prefix behaves in two different ways:
A-It carries the secondary stress when it
adds the sense of “again” to the word to
which it is prefixed. In such situation it is
pronounced as /ri:/
Examples: re’write, re’visit, re’issue

19. .
B- “re” remains unstressed when it does
not stand for “again”. Also, in this case it is
pronounced /ri/
Examples: re’pair, re’member, re’duce.
2-The prefixes, il, im, in and un are
employed to form the opposites of words to
which they are attached. Their effect on
word stress can best be studied by
examining the following examples closely
in respect to primary and secondary stress.

20. .
A B
il’legal ,ille’gitimate
il’literate ,ille’gality
im’movable ,imma’ture
im’modest ,imma’terial
in’accurate ,incon’sistent
ir,regular ,irre’spective
un’able ,una’voidable

21. Rules related to suffixes and word
endings
There are two types of suffixes:
1-Inflexional suffixes
2-Derivational suffixes
1- Inflexional suffixes
These are those suffixes that:
when attached to words do not change
their part of speech or grammatical status.
 when attached to some word no other
suffix can be added.
Such suffixes do not affect the stress of
words.

22. .Examples
Words After adding
inflexional suffix
‘Picture ‘Pictures
‘Table ‘Tables
‘Simple ‘Simpler
‘Enter ‘Entering
‘Play ‘Played
‘Heavy ‘Heavier

23. 2-Derivational suffixes
Derivational suffixes are those which
we use to derive new words.
They may or may not change the part
of speech of the word to which they
are attached.
Some times it is possible to add more
suffixes.
Some derivational suffixes do not
affect stress while others do.

24. Derivational suffixes that do not
affect the stress
Examples
Words After
adding the
suffix
‘Person ‘Personage
‘Hermit ‘Hermitage
‘Differ ‘Difference
‘Utter ‘Utterance

25. Derivational suffixes that bring
about a change in stress
Examples Millio’naire Addres’see
Cava’lier Tru’stee
Engi’neer Ru’pee

26. Levels of stress.
1-primary level
2-secondary level
3-tertiary level
4-zero stress (unstressed)
Primary stress is represented with a high
mark and secondary stress with a low
mark. However, it is worth noting that
unstressed syllables containing schwa, /i/,
/u/, or a syllabic consonant will sound less
prominent.

27. .
In English, most of the words have only
one stressed syllable, fairly long words or
those containing certain prefixes, such as
“re” and “some”. Compound words may
have two stressed syllables.
Examples: understand, revisit, recommend,
inability.
In such cases, one of the syllables has the
main or primary stress and other the
secondary stress. Primary stress is marked
with a high mark and secondary stress with
a low mark.

28. Examples
Word Syllable
having
primary
stress
Syllable
having
secondary
stress
Examination nei zæ
Possibility bi p∂
Rewind waind ri:
Revisit vi ri:
Inability bi in
organization zei o:r

29. Functional stress
There are a number of two syllable
words which function both as noun or
adjective and verbs.
For example conduct, convict etc.
These words have stress on the first
syllable when they are used as noun
or adjective.
Stress falls on the second syllable
when they are used as verbs.

30. Examples
1-Her ‘conduct is good. (noun)
She con’ducts herself well. (verb)
2-What is our ‘import policy. (adjective)
We im’port this item from the USA (verb)
3-He was ‘present here yesterday (adjective)
Please pre’sent your case . (verb)
4-Tell me the ‘object of your case. (noun)
I ob’ject to your ideas. (verb)
5-What are your ‘subjects of study? (noun)
He was sub’jected to torture. (verb)

31. Various stress patterns
Stress in English words
varies from word to word. In
some words stress falls on
the first syllable, while in
other words it falls on the
second, third, or fourth
syllable.

32. Words stressed on the first
syllable
Two syllable
words
Three syllable
words
Longer words
‘husband ‘literature a’ristocrat
‘stomach ‘character ,bene’factor
‘dozen ‘advertise ,compre’hensi
on
‘stupid ‘industry ‘melancholy
‘splendid ,atmos’phere ‘pomegranate

33. Words stressed on the second
syllable
Two syllable
words
Three syllable
words
Longer words
nar’rate ap’pendix par’ticipant
bal’loon ef’ficient ri’diculous
be’gin de’velop re’sponsible
draw’ee sa’liva ap’preciate
ru’pee an’tenna rhi’noceros

34. Words stressed on third syllable
Three syllable
words
Four syllable
words
Five syllable
words
guaran’tee appl’ication irre’proachable
ciga’rette opp’osition Irre’sponsible
engi’neer appa’ratus satis’factory
corre’spond
corre’spondence
irre’pressible
elec’tricity

35. Words stressed on the fourth
syllable
de,dica’tee ,civili’zation
e,xami’nation ,mechani’zation
,partici’pation ,inferi’ority

36. Rules for placement of stress
In spite of having some exceptions there
are some rules for the placement of stress:
1-Whether the word is morphologically
simple or complex (containing one or more
affixes) or whether it is a compound word.
2-What the grammatical category of the
word is. (noun, verb ,adjective)
3-Number of syllables.
4-Phonological structure of the syllables.

37. Strong and weak syllables
There are two basic categories of syllables
1-strong syllables
2-weak syllables
Strong syllable: A strong syllable has a
rhyme which either has a syllable peak
which is a long vowel or diphthong or a
vowel followed by a coda (one or more
consonants). For example: die, heart, bat.

38. Weak syllables
Weak syllables have a syllable peak
which is a short vowel and no coda
unless the syllable peak is schwa. For
example “re” in reduce, “bi” in
herbicide, “pen” in open.
One important thing is that only strong
syllables can be stressed. Weak
syllables are always unstressed.

39. Stress in two syllable words
In two syllable words either the first or the
second syllable will be stressed, not both.
1-Verbs:
a: If the second syllable of the verb is
strong then this second syllable will be
stressed. For example: apply, arrive, assist,
attract.
b: If the final syllable is weak then the first
syllable is stressed. For example: enter,
envy, open, equal.

40. 2-Adjectives:
The same rule will be applied for two-
syllable adjectives. For example: ‘lovely,
di’vine, ‘even, cor’rect, ‘hollow, a’live.
3-Nouns:
Nouns require a different rule. If the second
syllable contains a short vowel, then stress
will usually fall on the first syllable.
Otherwise, it will fall on the second syllable.
For example: ‘money, de’sign, ‘product,
‘larynx, bal’loon.

41. 4-Adverbs and prepositions:
Adverbs and prepositions seem to
behave like verbs and adjectives.

42. Three syllable words:
1-VERBS:
a-In verbs, if the final syllable is strong, it will
be stressed e.g. enter’tain, resur’rect.
b-If the last syllable is weak then it will be
unstressed and stress will be placed on the
preceding syllable if that syllable is strong.
For example: en’counter, de’termine.
C-If both the second and third syllables are
weak then the stress falls on the initial
syllable e.g. ‘parody.

43. 2- Nouns + 3- Adjectives (same
rules of stress)
a-If the final syllable is weak or ends with
the diphthong /әu/ then it is unstressed.
b-If the syllable preceding this final syllable
is strong, then the middle syllable will be
stressed. E.g.: po’tato, di’saster, sy’nopsis.
c-If the second and third syllables are both
weak, then the first syllable is stressed as
in: ‘quantity, ‘emperor, ‘cinema, ‘custody.

44. Conclusion
English pronunciation depends a great deal
on stress. In order to become a powerful
communicator of English it is advisable that
we learn all the rules of stress mentioned
earlier. English is a language that borrowed
words from about 8,000 languages of the
world. All the rules regarding the stress
patterns of these languages are impossible
to learn; however, if we learn some basic
rules we can improve our oral English a lot.
So, learning about stress leads us to better
communication.

45. Questions
What is stress?
How is a stressed syllable marked in
transcription?
Which are the factors to make a
syllable stressed?
How many types of stress are there?
Which words are stressed?
Which words are unstressed?