Transcript 08-09.5B.Stress

English Phonetics and Phonology
Lesson 5B
Stress
1
Stress for Italian learners of
English
English stress patterns are generally rather irregular.
Let’s make a comparison with a language like Italian,
which is highly regular.
Any native speaker of Italian will know where the stress
should lie on the following nonsense words:
toderno
entedettoli.
Unusual stress patterns are marked orthographically,
e.g. calamita/calamità
meta/metà
2
English not sure
• Native English speakers cannot be so sure
about placement of stress in words they
have never heard.
• Accents (ò,à,ù etc.) are not used in the
writing system.
3
Where is the stress?
4
Where is the stress?
5
i TOLD you to go
6
i told YOU to go
7
Word and Phrasal Stress
• The conventions for marking stress are: an
upper vertical bar before primary stress
e.g.
/ ’ kreizi /
8
What is word and phrasal
stress?
• A series of factors combine to give us
what is known as word stress:
1) Pitch
2) Vowel quality
3) Length
4) Loudness
We can illustrate these factors by using
nonsense words.
9
Pitch
In the following word the third syllable will
be perceived as being stressed given its
falling intonation.
/di:di: di:di:di:/
10
Vowel quality
In the following word the third syllable will be
perceived as being stressed as it has a different
vowel phoneme.
di: di: da: di: di:
This seems to be an important factor in English, as
central vowels are often used in unstressed
positions.
11
Length
Vowel phonemes tend to be longer in
stressed positions. The only example we
can give with length having phonemic
value in English is:
da da da da: da da
Obviously stressed syllables do not necessarily
have long vowel sounds, e.g explicit
12
Loudness
In the following word the third syllable will be
perceived as being stressed as it is louder.
/di: di:
di:
di: di:
13
Combined factors
Note that usually all four factors combine to
give us what is known as word stress. So
much so that it is in fact difficult to utter the
preceding examples e.g. that of loudness
without involving the other three.
14
Speaker and Regional Variation
Stress placement is by no means uniform all over the
English-speaking world.
• Some differences are regional, e.g. magaZINE (GB)
vs. MAGazine(NZ)
• Other differences are between individuals in the same
geographical area (e.g. kiLOmeter, KIlometer).
15
Consequences of misplaced
stress
Placing stress on the wrong syllable in a single
word usually does not usually lead to
comprehension problems, although it does
require extra effort by the listener.
Stress (together with intonation) has important
functions, misplacing, or not placing enough
stress may make communication ambiguous.
16
Acquiring stress patterns
• English word stress is not totally random and
many authors have proposed systems to explain
its functioning.
• While some recommend that learners utilise
these rather complicated systems, others feel
that it is better to take words one-by-one.
• Clearly if words are to be taken individually the
learner must do a lot of listening and/or
dictionary work.
17
Schwa = unstressed
@
• Photograph
@
@
• Photographic
@
@
@
• Photographer
18
Quiz
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Apply
Arrive
Japan
Attract
Assist
Estate
Balloon
Correct
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Enter
Envy
Equal
Open
Money
Product
Hollow
• entertain
19
Stress in verbs and nouns
• One problematic
point is that of words
that have one stress
pattern if nouns and
another if verbs e.g.
Noun
Verb
DEsert
deSERT
IMport
imPORT
EScort
eSCORT
REcord
reCORD
PROtest
proTEST
20
Compounds
Compounds usually have main stress on the first, qualifying item, e.g.
• Hole
• PLUGhole
• MANhole
SMART card
CAR park
SWImming pool
AIRbag
NIGHTclub
N.b. many compounds are present in other languages as loan words.
Italian speakers usually place the stress on the second element, e.g.
airBAG, and do the same when speaking in English.
21
Notebooks (1)
• Write down the words whose stress you always
get wrong
• e.g.
apply
process
Japan
secretary
airbag etc.
22
Notebooks (2)
• Write down the stress patterns of English
• Put one pattern at the top of each page
23
Notebooks (3)
• Write down the difficult words under the correct
pattern
apply
Japan
secretary
24