/ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/ Phonetics & Phonology
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MODULE 7
Stress in simple words
Instructor: Lam Hoang Phuc
7.1. The nature of stress
▪ The nature of stress can be studied from two closely
related but not identical points of view:
o Production: what the speaker does in producing
stressed syllables.
o Perception: what characteristics of sound make a
syllable seem to a listener to be stressed.
▪ Regarding production, when we produce stress the
muscles that we use to expel air from the lungs are often
more active, producing higher subglottal pressure (more
muscular energy). It seems probable that similar things
happen with muscles in other parts of our vocal apparatus.
7.1. The nature of stress
▪ Regarding perception, stressed syllables are recognised as
stressed because they are more prominent than
unstressed syllables.
▪ Prominence is produced by four main factors:
o Loudness: stressed syllables tend to be louder.
o Length: stressed syllables tend to be longer.
o Pitch: if one syllable is said with a pitch that is noticeably
different from the others, prominence tends to be
produced. Placing pitch movement (e.g. rising or falling)
can also produce prominence.
o Quality: a syllable tends to be prominent if it contains a
vowel that is different in quality from neighbouring
vowels.
7.1. The nature of stress
▪ Generally these four factors work together in combination.
▪ However, they are not equally important: pitch has the
strongest effect, followed by length; loudness and quality
have much less effect.
▪ While it is a rather artificial situation, looking at words in
isolation does help us see stress placement and stress
levels more clearly than studying them in context of
continuous speech.
7.2. Levels of stress
▪ While levels of stress can be simply divided into “stressed”
and “unstressed” (two-level analysis), it is more accurate
to include intermediate levels.
▪ Stress normally has three levels:
o Primary stress: the strongest type of stress, resulting
from pitch movement; marked with (ˈ) symbol.
E.g. ˈfɑːðə
o Secondary stress: weaker than primary stress but
stronger than unstress syllables; marked with (ˌ)symbol.
E.g. ˌænθrəˈpɒlədʒi
o Unstressed: the absence of any recognisable amount of
prominence.
7.2. Levels of stress
▪ Unstressed syllables containing ə, ɪ, i, u, or a syllabic
consonant will sound less prominent than an unstressed
syllable containing some other vowel.
🡪 A third level (tertiary stress) may be needed, which is
marked with (o) symbol.
E.g. ˌɪndɪovɪzəˈbɪləti
▪ However, the introduction of tertiary stress create an
unnecessary degree of complexity. Thus, in this course,
tertiary stress will be treated as secondary stress.
E.g. ˌɪndɪˌvɪzəˈbɪləti
7.3. Placement of stress within simple words
▪ English is not one of those languages where word stress
can be decided simply in relation to the syllables of the
word. Thus, according to some writers, it is best to treat
stress placement as a property of the individual word.
▪ However, when English speakers come across an unfamiliar
word, they usually can pronounce it with the correct
stress. Therefore, it is better to attempt to produce some
stress rules (even if they are rather crude and inaccurate,
and there are exceptions to these rules) than to claim that
there is no rule or regularity in English word stress.
7.3. Placement of stress within simple words
▪ Stress placement on a word depends on some or all of the
following information:
o Whether the word is morphologically simple or complex
(words with affixes, compound words).
o Grammatical category (e.g. noun, verb).
o The number of syllables.
o The phonological structure of those syllables (e.g. strong
and weak syllables)
🡪 Although we do find unstressed strong syllables (e.g.
ˈdaɪəlekt), only strong syllables can be stressed. Weak
syllables are always unstressed.
▪ For single-syllable words, if they are pronounced in
isolation they are said with primary stress.
7.3. Placement of stress within simple words
❖ Two-syllable words
▪ For verbs, adjectives and adverbs: stress tend to be placed
on the final syllable:
o If the final syllable is weak, then the first syllable is
stressed (e.g. ˈentə).
o A final syllable is also unstressed if it contains əʊ and the
first syllable is strong (e.g. ˈfɒləʊ).
o If the final syllable is strong, it is stressed even if the first
syllable is also strong (e.g. meɪnˈteɪn).
▪ For nouns: stress tend to be placed on the first syllable:
o If the first syllable is weak and the final syllable is strong,
stress will be placed on the final (e.g. bəˈluːn).
7.3. Placement of stress within simple words
❖ Three-syllable words
▪ For verbs:
o If the final syllable is strong, then it will receive primary
stress; the first syllable will also receive secondary stress
if it is strong (e.g. ˌʌndəˈstænd).
o If the final syllable is weak and the second is strong,
stress will be placed on the second syllable (e.g.
ɪnˈkaʊntə).
o If both the second and third syllables are weak, then
stress is placed on the first syllable (e.g. ˈmɒnɪtə).
7.3. Placement of stress within simple words
❖ Three-syllable words
▪ For nouns, adjectives and adverbs: stress tends to be
placed on the first syllable (e.g. ˈkwɒntəti).
o If the first syllable is weak, stress is placed on the next
syllable (e.g. pəˈteɪtəʊ).
o The final syllable will not usually receive stress even if it
is strong (e.g. ˈɪntəlekt).
7.3. Placement of stress within simple words
❖ Notes on stress placement
▪ The above rules only cover lexical words, not function
words; also, there are exceptions.
▪ There are many cases of English words with alternative
possible stress patterns.
▪ Some words can change stress pattern according to the
context they occur in.
REFERENCES
Roach, P. (2009). English phonetics and phonology – A
practical course (4th ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.