WORD STRESS PATTERNS IN PROSODIC PHONOLOGY

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• WORD STRESS PATTERNS IN PROSODIC PHONOLOGY
• Charlotte Stice

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What is prosody?

• Prosody consists of distinctive variations of
  stress, tone, and timing in spoken language
• In linguistics, prosody refers to intonation and
  vocal stress in speech

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What is stress?

• Stress is a term that we apply to words in
  isolation which have more than one syllable. It
  refers to the property that certain syllables
  carry which make them stand out from the rest of
  the word. Stressed syllables are made with more
  effort than unstressed ones the muscles in the
  lungs expel air more aggressively than for
  unstressed syllables.

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THERE ARE SEVERAL WAYS TO MARK STRESS IN A WORD

• Stress can be marked by an acute accent ( )
• Stress can also be noted by a high mark in front
  of the stressed syllable
• In certain textbooks, stress is marked with large
  and small circles
• º
• amazing

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More ways to mark stress

• Use a 1 for primary stress and a 2 for secondary
  stress
• 2 1 2 1
• Fundamental introductory

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HOW STRESS CAN POSE PROBLEMS FOR THE ELL

• In many languages, word stress follows a set
  pattern (ie in French the stress is almost
  always on the final syllablealler, avertir,
  absolument.
• How do you explain to an ELL the difference
  between the pronunciation of the word record in
  the following examples
• Please keep a récord of all of your work.
• Please recórd your voice on the tape.

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Consider the following English verbs. Those in
column A have stress on the next-to-last
syllable, whereas the verbs in column B and C
have their last syllable stressed.

• A B C
• astónish collápse amáze
• exit exíst impróve
• imágine resíst surpríse
• cáncel revólt combíne
• elícit adópt recáll
• práctice insíst atóne

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Transcribe the words under A, B and C phonetically

• A B C
• ?staniš k?læps ?mez
• eks?t egzist impruv
• imæj?n r?zent s?rprajz
• kæns?l r?volt k?mbajn
• ?lis?t ?dapt r?kal
• præct?s insist ?ton
• What is the difference between the final
  syllables in columns A and B?

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What kind of rule would predict where stess
occurs in the verbs in columns A and B?

• RULE In words that end with more than one
  consonant, the stress falls on the second
  syllable.

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In the verbs in column C, stress also occurs on
the final syllable. What must you add to the
rule to account for this fact?

• Hint look at the vowels
• Rule If the second syllable of a verb contains
  a long vowel or dipthong, the second syllable is
  stressed.

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HOW TO DETERMINE WHERE STRESS LIES

• Unfortunately, English has a very complex set of
  procedures that determine stress. However, since
  nearly all English speakers agree on where stress
  should be placed in individual words, there is
  some method to our madness.
• Check out the following websites
• http//www.celt.stir.ac.uk/staff/HIGDOX/STEPHEN/PH
  ONO/PHONOLG.HTM
• http//www.onestopenglish.com/ProfessionalSupport/
  ask/methodology_bowen_pronun.htm