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Word Stress & Sentence Stress Huang Wanmei Review of Vowels Three factors for the description of English vowels I. The height of the body of the tongue – highest point of tongue (vertical axis); II. The front-back position of the tongue – highest point of tongue (horizontal axis); III. The degree of lip rounding - lip posture The height of the body of the tongue The front-back position of the tongue Description of the vowels • Front & Central Vowels • • • • • • /:/ // /e/ /æ/ /:/ /ə/ high, front, unrounded vowel lower high, front, unrounded vowel mid, front, unrounded vowel low, front, unrounded vowel mid, central, unrounded vowel mid, central, unrounded vowel • Back Vowels • • • • • • /:/ // /:/ /u/ /u:/ // low, back, unrounded vowel low, back, rounded vowel mid-low, back, rounded vowel lower high, back, rounded vowel high, back, rounded vowel lower mid, back, unrounded vowel Unit 8: Word Stress • English is a stress timed language The English language is often referred to as stress-timed. Stress in a spoken sentence occurs at regular intervals and the time to say something depends on the number of stressed syllables rather than the number of syllables itself. • 1234 • 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 • 1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4 • 1 and then a 2 and then a 3 and then a 4 Word Stress • A word stress means a prominent syllable word pattern tea.cher •. beau.ti.ful •.. un.der.stand ..• con.ti.nue .•. How to pronounce word stress? When a syllable is stressed, it is pronounced • longer in duration • higher in pitch • louder in volume How do you say teacher? Longer Higher teeeeeeeeeeee cher tea cher Louder TEA cher All three combined TEEEEEEEEEEE cher Word Stress Rule Where is the stress? Examples Nouns on the first syllable center object flower Verbs on the last syllable release admit arrange on the first part desktop pencil case bookshelf greenhouse Word type Two syllables Nouns (N + N) (Adj. + N) Compound Adjectives (Adj. + P.P.) Verbs (prep. + verb) on the last part (the verb part) well-meant hard-headed old-fashioned understand overlook outperform Word type Phrasal Verbs Where is the stress? Examples on the particle turn off buckle up hand out -ic the syllable before the ending Word with added ending economic Geometric electrical -tion, -cian, -sion Technician graduation cohesion -phy, -gy, -try, -cy, -fy, -al Photography biology geometry -meter the third from the last syllable Parameter Thermometer barometer Sentence Stress in English • Sentence stress is the music of spoken English. Like word stress, sentence stress can help you to understand spoken English, especially when spoken fast. • Sentence stress is what gives English its rhythm or "beat". You remember that word stress is accent on one syllable within a word. Sentence stress is accent on certain words within a sentence. Most sentences have two types of word: content words structure words Content words are the key words of a sentence. They are the important words that carry the meaning or sense. Structure words are not very important words. They are small, simple words that make the sentence correct grammatically. If you remove the structure words from a sentence, you will probably still understand the sentence. Imagine that you receive this telegram message: SELL Will you CAR SELL my SELL my CAR CAR GONE I’ve because GONE I’ve FRANCE to GONE FRANCE to FRANCE 2 Will 1 you SELL my 3 CAR because 1 I’ve GONE to FRANCE Rules for Sentence Stress in English The basic rules of sentence stress are: 1. content words are stressed 2. structure words are unstressed 3. the time between stressed words is always the same Content words - stressed Words carrying the meaning Example main verbs SELL, GIVE, EMPLOY nouns CAR, MUSIC, MARY adjectives RED, BIG, INTERESTING adverbs QUICKLY, LOUDLY, NEVER negative auxiliaries DON'T, AREN'T, CAN'T Structure words - unstressed Words for correct grammar Example pronouns he, we, they prepositions on, at, into articles a, an, the conjunctions and, but, because auxiliary verbs do, be, have, can, must