Lecture 5 - Stress of Lecture Phonetics & Phonology has content: Definition, Types of stress, Nature of stress, Placement of stress within words (Simple words, Derived words, Compound words), Word class pairs, Strong form and weak form. | Lecture 5 Stress • Definition • Types of stress • Nature of stress • Placement of stress within words • Simple words • Derived words • Compound words • Word class pairs • Strong form and weak form 1 Definition • Stress is an extra force exerted on a particular syllable or a particular word in spoken language. The stressed syllable or word is said with greater energy, and stands out in a word, phrase or sentence. Examples: father /«få ∂\/ information /»ˆnf\«meˆßn/ John bought a new car yesterday 2 Types of stress 1. Word stress: is an extra force put on a particular syllable of the word. It is usually fixed. For example: invite 2. entertain Sentence stress: is an extra force put on a particular word in a sentence. Sentence stress is not fixed. It depends on the speaker’s feelings and attitudes and the message that he wants to get across to the listener. For example: John bought a new car yesterday. 3 The nature of stress • 1. We can study stress from the point of view of production and perception. From the production point of view, the production of stress is generally believed to depend on the speaker’s using more muscular energy than for unstressed syllables. From the perception point of view: all stressed syllables have one characteristic in common, and that is prominence. At least four factors make a stressed syllable prominent: loudness, length, pitch and vowel quality. Generally, these four factors work together in combination though syllables may sometimes be made prominent by means of only one or two of them. 4 2. Levels of stress 1. Primary stress (tonic/nuclear): is the strongest type of stress. It is marked by a small vertical line high up just before the syllable it relates to. Secondary stress (non-tonic): it is weaker than primary stress, but stronger than unstressed syllables. It is usually found in words of four or five syllables. It is represented in transcription with a low mark. For examples: photographic anthropology economical nationality 2.
