Transcript Lecture 1 - Introduction

LESSON 5 – STRESS
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father
happy
thank you
open
radio
influence
When we talk about weak forms in the
phonetics of English this regards a series of
words which have one pronunciation (strong)
when isolated, and another (weak) when not
stressed within a phrase.
e.g. what FOR? v
strong
I bought it for nothing
weak
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Prepositions
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Auxiliary verbs
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Conjunctions
Pronunciation
Spelling
preposition strong form weak form
to
tu:
tǝ
for
fɔ:
fǝ
from

frǝm
into
ɪntu:
of
ɒv
ɪntǝ
ǝv
as
æz
ǝz
at
æt
ǝt
Auxiliary
verbs
Strong
Weak
do
du:
a:
wɒz
wɜ:
wʊd
kʊd
ʃʊd
kæn
m^st
dǝ
ǝ(r)*
wǝz
wǝ
wǝd
kǝd
ʃǝd
kǝn
mǝs(t)
are
was
were
would
could
should
can
must
Other words
and
but
than
that (as a relative)
you (object pronoun)
Strong form
ænd
b^t
æn

æt
æt
ju:
Weak form
ǝnd, ǝn, n
bǝt
ǝn
ǝt
jǝ
your
jɔ:
her (as object pronoun) hɜ:(r)
jǝ(r)
(h)ǝ(r)*
a
an
the
ǝ*
ǝn
ǝ, i:
æ, ei
æn
i:
(before a vowel)
Ə
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Photograph
Ə
Photographic
Photographer
Ə
Ə Ə
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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
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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.
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The conventions for marking stress are: an
upper vertical bar before primary stress
e.g.
/ kreızı /
/ ˈkreızı /
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Stress placement is by no means uniform all over the
English-speaking world.

Some differences are regional
e.g. magaZINE (GB) vs. MAGazine(NZ)
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Other differences are between individuals in the same
geographical area
e.g. kiLOmeter, KIlometer).
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Apply
Arrive
Japan
Attract
Assist
Estate
Balloon
Correct
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Enter
Envy
Equal
Open
Money
Product
Hollow
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entertain
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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
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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.
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Write down the words whose stress you always get
wrong
e.g.
apply
process
Japan
secretary
airbag
etc.
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2-syllable words
3-syllable words
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1
3
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2
4
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5
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6
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7
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8
18
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Write down the difficult words under the correct
pattern
apply
Japan
secretary
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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.
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Full structural evaluation of your TED talk, to
include strategies, points and language
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Please send the homework before midnight
on TUESDAY
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
Repeat phonetics test for students who
haven’t reached 60%
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Homework 5 evaluation
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Oral presentation guidelines
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Calendar for April
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