STRESS

BASIC BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Theory:
Mott, B. 2011. English Phonetics and Phonology for Spanish Speakers. Chapter 9,
section 9.3.
Practice:
Hewings, M. 2007. English Pronunciation in Use: Advanced. Units 10-20.

Introduction

• The stress pattern of a word is an important part of its identity.

• Misplaced word stress can cause significant intelligibility problems for both
native and non-native speakers. Word stress in English helps L1 listeners to
recognize words.
• English word stress is ‘marked’: it is more complex and more dynamic than in
many languages, like Spanish, in which word stress is much more predictable.
• Rules are subject to a great many exceptions.

1. Definition of stress

In English phonetics the concept of stress is used with different

perspectives. We consider two types, according to the units concerned.

a) Word stress or lexical stress

It takes the word as an independent unit, as in dictionaries or the lexicon.
Lexical stress can be described as the phenomenon by which a syllable in a
disyllabic or polysyllabic lexical word stands out over the other or among
the others.
In monosyllabic lexical words, that prominence can only be perceived if
there are unstressed syllables around, which will logically correspond to
grammatical words, e.g. a team of.
Lexical stress is, therefore, a property of lexical words.

b) Sentence stress or accent or prominence

A property that is associated with a word by virtue of its function as a
constituent of a tone unit.
When words are put together to form utterances (phrases and sentences),
they are subject to rhythmical variation.
Many of the potential stresses of word stress are lost in connected speech
because of the presence of other strong stresses in surrounding syllables.

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The meaning and use of “prominence”
When we analyse authentic spoken texts as pieces of discourse, the
distinction between typically stressed words and typically unstressed ones
(i.e. lexical -or content- words versus function words) does not always
provide reliable results. The case is that, in certain pieces of discourse, you
often end up detecting or identifying stress and even accent at word or
sentence positions (syllables) which should not carry them in theoretical
terms.

Prominence is a property associated with a word by virtue of its function

as a constituent of a tone unit; making any word prominent, whether
lexical or not, constitutes a meaningful choice.

Therefore, sometimes it does not make much sense to refer to those

syllables as ‘stressed’ or ‘accented’ when the case is that the dictionary or
the general rules do not indicate so. Consequently, authors like Hewings
(English Pronunciation in Use) prefer to speak of prominence occurring, or
of the existence of prominent syllables, when they have to discuss actual
instances of stress and accent.

2. Levels of lexical stress

There is not a binary distinction between stressed and unstressed
syllables, but different levels or degrees of stress:

a) Primary stress. (raised vertical mark /  /placed above the line). The
syllable made most prominent in a word, associated with potential pitch
change, accompanied by loudness and the occurrence of a strong vowel
(long vowels and /G,],8,3/).

Mott (2011: 188) observes that English generally follows Latin in the
placement of primary stress, in that it tends to apply the following rule: a
syllable will attract stress if it is HEAVY, that is, if it contains either a long
vowel (or diphthong), or a short vowel + two consonants, of which the
first belongs to the same syllable as that vowel. That is, both consonants
can be the coda of the heavy syllable or one is in the coda, the other is in
the onset of the following syllable. This is because the two consonants
give the vowel additional weight, as if it contained a long vowel.

b) Secondary stress. (lowered vertical mark / / below the line), only used
in pre-tonic position. Pre-tonic position is any position inside a word

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before the syllable that carries the primary stress, e.g. e.g. afternoon
/]HV-"-PWP/. According to Cruttenden (2014: 248) the main tendencies
(not rules) are:

-If there is only one syllable before the primary stress, this is usually
unstressed and has a reduced vowel (that is, vowels /+,K,7,W, "/), e.g.
apply, concern, deceive.

-If there are two syllables before the primary stress, the first will often
receive a secondary stress, e.g. represent, magazine.

-Where there are more than two syllables before the primary stress, a
secondary stress will fall two or three syllables back according to the
position of the primary stress on the base, e.g. in'ferior > inferiority —
modify > modification.

c) Unstressed. It can be pre- or post-tonic. The list below does not contain
all the possibilities:

idea: i-dea, pre-tonic with a strong vowel

ago: a-go, pre-tonic with a weak vowel
mother: moth-er, post-tonic with a weak vowel
yellow: yell-ow, post-tonic with a strong vowel
yellowish: yell-ow-ish, remote with a weak vowel (remote: at least two
syllables before/after primary stress).

NB: there is another type of stress: Tertiary stress (lowered stress mark / À
/). In very long words (7 or 8 syllables), where primary stress is towards
the end and there is a suffix that attracts stress, e.g.
internationalization.

NB: Cruttenden (2014: 244) establishes four degrees of prominence:

primary, secondary, minor (produced by the occurrence of a full vowel
without potential pitch prominence, e.g. –NIZE in ORGANIZE, /1I–"–
/), and non-prominent (a syllable without potential pitch prominence
and one of the reduced vowels, e.g. –A- in ORGANIZE, /1I– – PC+\/).

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 3. (Primary) stress placement

Some languages have a fixed stress: it overwhelmingly falls on a syllable in

a particular position in the word, as in French, or Farsi, for example, in
which stress always falls on the last syllable, or Italian, normally on the
penultimate… Languages like English and Spanish have variable word
stress, but Spanish is more predictable: most Spanish words have
penultimate stress and most words ending in consonant have final stress.

In English, although it is fixed for each individual word (it is said to be a

property of the word), stress can occur at any point in the word. This is
called lexically designated stress: you have to learn each lexical item
along with its stress pattern.

Furthermore, there may be variable stress within the same word, due to
two very different reasons:

a) Due to intrinsic factors of the word, be them sociolinguistic or of

‘usage’. This is called variable stress. We can see it when dictionaries
give us two different –but equally acceptable– stress patterns for the
same word, e. g. dispute (noun), or controversy. Sometimes variable
stress is just due to ‘preferences in use’ of native speakers.
Listen to stress preferences of a random sample of native English
teachers (see Mott’s survey, section 9.3.8).

Mott 2011, track 18, p. 201.

b) Due to extrinsic factors, that is, phonetic factors. This is called stress
shift. English tends to avoid stress on adjacent syllables, that is, a
stress clash of two primary stresses in contact. When that happens,
usually the stress of the first syllable moves to another one.
For example, afternoon
It uses a shifting stress pattern. That means that, depending on the words
after it, it could be stressed on the first syllable, or on the third:
1. afterˈnoon
2. ˈafternoon

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Stress pattern 1: it should be used whenever afternoon is said alone or at
the end of a sentence/unit. E.g. Good afternoon, What a lovely
afternoon!, Shall we meet this afternoon?

Stress pattern 2: If afternoon appears before another lexical/content

word with primary stress on the contact syllable (the first), stress shifts,
and the secondary stress becomes the primary one. E.g. Let’s have
afternoon tea, This afternoon’s weather looks terrible.

Primary stress moves back to the first syllable that is able to receive it, i.e.
the one that originally has secondary stress. If a strong stress immediately
precedes these words, then they lose their secondary stress:
Piccadilly Piccadilly Circus
Bombay Bombay duck
inside inside out
Undone it came undone
Picturesque quite picturesque

English stress placement is to some extent rule-bound, but there are

numerous exceptions.

General tendencies

- There is a general tendency towards fronted stress (words tend to have

their stress nearer the beginning than the end), even for borrowed words
(e.g. garage).
- Two strong stresses do not often occur together in two consecutive
syllables in the same polysyllabic word. So, the syllable preceding primary
stress is necessarily unstressed, e.g. revolution /rev--lu5-"P /. However,
there are a number of disyllabic words with double stress, e.g. upstairs,
weekend, unknown… all of which will be subject to rhythmical variation
in connected speech.
- More than two completely unstressed syllables together is relatively
infrequent, and it never occurs at the beginning of a word.

3.1. One-syllable words

They are generally unstressed if they are function words. But, when
uttered in isolation from other words, they receive primary stress, e.g.
Who? , You! , Me!

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 3.2. Two-syllable words (disyllables)
Two basic rules for stress placement in disyllables:
a) The ‘Germanic’ rule: Words of German origin are normally stressed
on the first syllable, except those beginning with a- be-, for-, and with-

Examples: abroad, forgive, withdraw (retirar), bequest (legado).

b) The ‘Latin’ rule: With disyllabic nouns and verbs of Latin origin,
nouns are stressed on the first syllable, while verbs do it on the
second.
Cf.:
1. A perfect day he’s trying to perfect his technique
2. I object strongly what’s your object?
3. He conducts well his conduct was good
4. Your work permit, please Permit me to carry your case,madam
5. I protest! Our protest went unnoticed
6. What a subject! They subject us to humiliation

In general, two-syllable nouns are stressed on the first (especially proper

nouns). However, if the second syllable is strong (long vowels and /e ] 8
3/), the stress goes to the second, e.g. design, or estate.

Final syllable stress on two-syllable nouns is rare and is often related to

borrowed words, e.g. saloon, canteen.

3.3. Three-syllable words

In the case of verbs, there is a tendency to put the stress towards the end
of words, e.g. entertain, understand. The first syllable has secondary
stress.

For nouns and adjectives, the Latin Stress Rule (LSR) establishes that, if
the penultimate syllable is strong (long vowels and /e ] 8 3/), it is
stressed; otherwise, stress falls on the antepenultimate. E.g. illusion,
celibate, authentic, eminent.

3.4. Four-syllable words

Final stress is uncommon, and the LSR also applies to many words of four
syllables, e.g. obligatory, enthusiast, certificate, advertisement.
However, there are words with stress in the first, e.g. ceremony.

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 4. Word stress placement: the effect of affixes

[Link]

They do not affect the tonic stress of the word to which they are attached
(they are stress-neutral), but they may bear