Stress and Rhythm (1)

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Asignatura: Pronunciación de la lengua inglesa

Grado en Estudios Ingleses: Lengua, Literatura y Cultura (UNED)

Unit 5: Stress and rhythmEva Estebas Vilaplana

UNIT 5. STRESS AND RHYTHM: A THEORETICAL

APPROACH

1. Introduction

This document includes a brief introduction to some basic theoretical concepts for the

study of suprasegmentals. In particular, it deals with the phenomenon of stress and it

also examines the effects of stress on rhythmical patterns in English. This unit covers

the following topics.

• Suprasegmentals

• Lexical stress

o Levels of stress

o Predicting the location of stress

Stress in simple words

Stress in complex words

• Stem + affix

• Compounds

o

Stress reorganizations Stress shift

Consecutive stresses

• Rhythm

o Syllable-timed languages

o Stress-timed languages

2. Suprasegmentals

As briefly presented in Unit 1, suprasegmentals are those features that occur at a higher

(supra) level than the segmental level which is where vowel and consonants operate.

The domain for the realization of suprasegmental features is the syllable (see Unit 4 for

more details). Suprasegmentals include phenomena such as stress, accent, length (or

duration) and intensity (or loudness). According to these four parameters, syllables can

be stressed and unstressed, accented and unaccented, long and short, and loud and soft.

Stress has to do with the degree of prominence with which a syllable is produced. A

stressed syllable is more prominent than an unstressed syllable. This means that stressed

syllables are produced with more energy and muscular effort than unstressed syllables.Stressed syllables are usually longer and are perceived as being louder than the

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equivalent unstressed syllable. For instance, the nonsense sequence *bee-bee is

produced with two syllables which are equal in terms of their segmental structure but

differ in terms of stress since the first syllable is stressed (marked with an asterisk) and

the second one is unstressed. If we could measure the duration (length) and the intensity

(loudness) of the two syllables, we would see that the stressed syllable is longer and is

produced with a higher intensity making it louder. Stressed syllables may also be

produced with a relevant pitch movement. In this case, the stressed syllable becomes

accented. Thus, we can have:

1. An accented syllable which has pitch prominence and is always stressed.

2. An unaccented syllable which has no pitch prominence and which can be

stressed or unstressed.

For example, the sentence *Mary’s *singing alternates stressed (S) and unstressed (U)

syllables. In the first production, the two stressed syllables (* Ma- and *sing-) become

accented, that is, they are produced with a relevant pitch movement (a peak in theintonation contour represented with the line in bold). In the second sentence, only the

first stressed syllable (* Ma-) is accented. The other syllables are unaccented (produced

with no relevant pitch movement). In the second production, the syllable *sing- is still

stressed but it is not accented.

*Ma ry’s *sing ing *Ma ry’s *sing ingS U S U S U S U

Stressed but unaccented

(with no relevant pitch

movement)

Stressed and

accented (with a

pitch movement)

In this unit, we will study the main characteristics of English stress and we will also

present how the distribution of stresses in a sentence is responsible for rhythm in

English. In the next unit, we will examine the most common accentuation (pitch or

intonation) patterns in English.

3. Lexical stress

Stress is a feature which is specified at the lexical level. That is, each native speaker of a

language has a mental lexicon which includes all the words of that particular language.

For each word, speakers know its meaning, its grammatical category and distribution,

and its pronunciation both in terms of segments (vowels and consonants) and in terms

of stress patterns. Thus, for example, an English native speaker knows that the word

orange means “a fruit”, is a noun and therefore cannot be used, for instance, as a verb,

and its pronunciation is [rnd] with a stress on the first syllable.

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3.1. Levels of stress

As briefly presented in tip 39 in the book, one of the main differences between English

stress and Spanish stress has to do with the degrees or levels of stress attested in the two

languages. Whereas in Spanish, as in many other languages, stress operates on a two-

level analysis (i.e. stressed syllables vs. unstressed syllables) in English there are fourlevels of stress, known as, primary stress, secondary stress, tertiary stress and

unstressed . These levels of stress only occur in long words (with at least three or more

syllables). Thus, a word such as orange, with only two syllables, only has a stressed

syllable and an unstressed syllable.

The main characteristics of the four levels of stress in English are summarized in the

following table. The lack of a tick () indicates that this characteristic is not present.

Stress levels Nuclear Pitch prominence Rhythmic beat Strong vowel

Primary

Secondary Tertiary

Unstressed

Primary stress (PS) is the strongest type of stress and it is always accompanied by a

pitch movement and a rhythmic beat. It is the main (or nuclear) stress of a word and the

syllable always contains a strong vowel. Secondary stress (SS) has similar

characteristics to primary stress but is non-nuclear, that is, it is not perceived as the

main stress of the word. As presented in tip 39, a secondary stress always precedes the

primary one. The tertiary stress (TS) is weaker than the secondary one. It is produced

with a rhythmic beat and a strong vowel but with no pitch movement. Usually a tertiary

stress is located between the primary and the secondary stresses of a word. Finally, an

unstressed syllable (U) has no pitch or rhythmic prominence and it tends to be produced

with a weak vowel, such as [], [i], [ ], [u] and [] (sometimes strong vowels can also

occur in unstressed syllables but these cases are in the minority). The following

examples, reproduced from the book, illustrate a word with three stress levels (PS, SS

and U) and a word with four stress levels (PS, SS, TS and U). Remember that, in

transcription, primary stress is signalled by the diacritic [] and secondary and tertiary

stresses by the diacritic []. Sometimes a tertiary stress is signalled by a small circle

under the syllable. However, in this course we will use the symbol [] for both

secondary and tertiary stresses.

*in tro *duce *dis con *ti nu *a tion

[n tr djus] [ds kn t nju e n]

SS U PS SS U TS U PS U

Thus, in words with two stresses, the last one is PS and the first one is SS. In words

with threes stresses, the last one is PS, the first one is SS and the one in the middle is

TS. Note that in the book we have referred to secondary and tertiary stresses as pre-primary stresses, that is, stresses that occur before the main (or primary) stress and that

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have a weaker prominence that the primary one. Even though from a theoretical

perspective it is interesting to be acquainted with the four levels of stress in English,

from a practical point of view it is easy for students to operate with only three levels:

primary or main stress, pre-primary and unstressed.

3.2. Predicting the location of stress

As presented at the beginning of section 3, stress is a feature which is specified at the

lexicon and thus native speakers of a language know which syllables of a word are

stressed and which syllables are unstressed. It has been observed, though, that the stress

patterns of words can actually be predicted by looking at certain parameters such as the

word category, the number of syllables and their structure. In the following sections we

will briefly describe how stress placement can be predicted in simple words and in

complex words. Simple words are made up of one grammatical unit. Complex words are

composed with more than one grammatical unit. They can be of two kinds: 1) word +affix and 2) word + word (compound).

3.2.1. Stress in simple words

The prediction of stress placement in simple words only refers to words containing two

or three syllables and produced with a primary stress. Words with pre-primary stresses

are excluded. In order to predict the location of stress in simple words, we have to take

into account three parameters:

1. The word category: noun, verb or adjective

2. The number of syllables: two or three

3. The phonological structure of those syllables

The phonological structure of syllables has to do with the segments (vowels and

consonants) that make up a syllable. Syllables can be categorized as strong or weak.

A strong syllable contains a long vowel or a diphthong (except for []) or

ends with more than one consonant. Examples of strong syllables are provided

below.

[si] it contains a long vowel

[na] it contains a diphthong rather than []

[kl] it contains a long vowel[mst] it ends up with more than one consonant

A weak syllable contains a short vowel (or []) and one (or no) final

consonants. Examples of weak syllables are provided below.

[b] it contains a short vowel and no final consonant

[bet] it contains a short vowel and only one final consonant

[n] it contains a short vowel and only one final consonant

[n] it contains [] and no final consonant

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Once we know the word category of the word, the number of syllables and the

phonological structure of those syllables, the following rules can be stated. Note that

these rules have loads of exceptions and they should be regarded as tendencies.

1. Two-syllable words

a) Verbs and adjectives

1. If the last (ultimate) syllable of the verb/adjective is strong, then it will be

stressed.

Examples: verbs ap*ply as*sist o*bey

[pla] [sst] [be]

adjectives di*vine a*live content

[dvan] [lav] [kntent]

2. If the last (ultimate) syllable of the verb/adjective is weak, the penultimate

syllable will be stressed.

Examples: verbs *enter *open *follow

[ent] [pn] [fl]

adjectives *happy *little *hollow

[hæpi] [ltl] [hl]

b) Nouns

1. If the last (ultimate) syllable of the noun contains a short vowel, the penultimate

syllable will be stressed. Otherwise, the last syllable will be stressed.

Examples: *letter *product *cottage

[let] [prdkt] [ktd]

de*sign ac*cord i*dea

[dzan] [kd] [ad]

2. Three-syllable words

a) Verbs

Three-syllable verbs behave in the same way as two-syllable verbs.

1. If the last (ultimate) syllable of the verb is strong, then it will be stressed.

Examples: enter*tain resur*rect

[entten] [rezrekt]

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2. If the last (ultimate) syllable of the verb is weak, the penultimate syllable will be

stressed.

Examples: en*counter de*termine

[kant] [dtmn]

b) Nouns and adjectives

1. If the final syllable of the noun/adjective is strong, the first (antepenultimate)

syllable will be stressed.

Examples: nouns *intellect *stalactite

[ntlekt] [stælktat]

adjectives *insolent *opportune

[nslnt] [ptjun]

2. If the final syllable of the noun/adjective is weak and the middle syllable is

strong, the middle syllable is stressed.

Examples: nouns po*tato di*saster

[ptet] [dzst]

adjectives e*normous a*mazing

[nms] [mez]

3. If the final and the middle syllables of the noun/adjective are weak, the first

(antepenultimate) syllable will be stressed.

Examples: nouns *quantity *emperor

[kwntti] [empr]

adjectives *similar *probable

[sml] [prbbl]

Self-evaluation activities

Exercise 1

Look at the following simple words produced with one stress (as indicated by the

asterisk). First, transcribe the words. Then, decide whether the stress distribution of

these words agrees with the previous rules or on the contrary they are exceptions to the

rules. Give reasons.

Example: *difficult [dfklt]

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The stress pattern of this word agrees with rule (2-b-1). It is a three-syllable adjective with a strong final

syllable and thus the first (antepenultimate) syllable is stressed.

1. *father 5. ca*thedral

2. *yellow 6. *honest

3. at*tract 7. *furniture

4. *improvise 8. *accident

3.2.2. Stress in complex words

Complex words are composed with more than one grammatical unit. There are two

major types of complex words: 1) words made up of a stem + an affix (prefix or suffix)

and 2) compounds (made up of two separate words). Complex words containing an

affix may consist of a prefix + a stem or a stem + a suffix. Examples of complex words

with some kind of affixation are provided below.

un-kind speech-less care-ful-ly dis-grace-fulprefix + stem stem + suffix stem + suffix + suffix prefix + stem + suffix

Compounds consist of two independent words which are strung together and constitute

a new semantic entity. They can be written as one word, such as such blackboard , as

two separate words with an intermediate hyphen as ice-cream or as two separate words

with no hyphen as desk lamp.

In the following sections, we will examine the stress patterns of complex words.

3.2.2.1. Stem + affix

The addition of a prefix to a word does not change the location of the main stress in the

stem. In most cases, the prefix will get a secondary stress but the primary or main stress

will remain in the original syllable. Look at the following examples reproduced fromthe book. The words in the second column contain a prefix which is produced with a

secondary stress. The main stress is located on the same syllable as in the words with no

prefix.

a*gree [ri] *dis-a*gree [dsri]

ef*fective [fektv] *in-ef*fective [nfektv]

de*cided [dsadd] *un-de*cided [ndsadd]

ca*pacity [kpæsti] *dis-ca*pacity [dskpæsti]

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The addition of a suffix, on the other hand, may cause differences in the stress

distribution of a word. Suffixes have been grouped into three categories according to

their effects on the stress placement in the word:

1. Stress-attracting suffixes (suffixes that attract the primary stress)

2. Stress-neutral suffixes (suffixes that do not affect stress placement, that is, the

primary stress remains in its original position)

3. Stress-fixing suffixes (suffixes that change the location of the main stress into

another syllable which is neither the originally stressed syllable nor the suffix

itself)

Some examples of the three types of suffixes and their effects on stress placement are

provided below.

Stress attracting: -ette, -eer, -ese, -ee

ci*gar *cigar*ette Ja*pan *Japan*ese

[s] [sret] [dpæn] [dæpniz]

Stress-neutral: -able, -ish, -ful, -less, -ous

*comfort *comfortable *wonder *wonderful

[kmft] [kmftbl] [wnd] [wndfl]

Stress-fixing: -ic, -ion, -ive

*climate cli*matic *perfect per*fection

[klamt] [klamætk] [pfkt] [pfekn]

Note that in words with a stress attracting suffix not only the main stress is displaced

towards the suffix but also a secondary stress is produced on the first syllable of the

word. This causes changes in the quality of vowels, as in the example of Ja*pan-

*Japan*ese. For further details on the effect of stress on vowel quality, see tip 38 in the

book.

[dpæn] [dæpniz]

weak vowelstrong vowelstrong vowelweak vowel

3.2.2.2. Compounds

Compounds are words made up of two separate elements. The main tendency in

compounds is to have a primary stress on the first element of the compound. This is

illustrated in the following examples.

*typewriter *baby-sitter *suitcase[taprat] [bebist] [sutkes]

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As presented in tip 41, differences in the location of the main stress can help to

distinguish a compound from a noun phrase when they contain the same words.

Compounds have the primary stress on the first element and noun phrases on the

second. An example from the book is reproduced below.

Noun Phrase Compound

*yellow *hammer *yellowhammer

[jel hæm] [jelhæm]

(martillo amarillo) (verderón, pájaro)

Despite the tendency of stressing the first element of a compound, there are many

exceptions to this rule and we can find several compounds with a primary stress on the

second element. See tip 41 in the book for a list of the most typical compounds with

stress on the second unit.

Finally, it is also interesting to note that there are compounds in English whose stress

distribution may vary from speaker to speaker. This is the case of ice-cream which is

sometimes produced with early stress ([askrim]) and other times with late stress

([askrim]).

3.3. Stress reorganizations

As discussed in more detail in tips 43 and 44, it is possible in English to relocate the

position of certain stresses when two or three stressed syllables happen to come oneafter the other. In the next two sections, we will briefly review the two most common

cases of stress reorganization in English: 1) stress shift and 2) consecutive stresses.

3.3.1. Stress clash and stress shift

A stress shift involves the relocation of a primary stress into a secondary stress position

as a result of a stress clash. A stress clash involves the consecutive (or almost

consecutive) production of two stressed syllables in different words. An example of a

stress clash and the subsequent stress shift is reproduced below from the book. The

word *Portu*guese has a primary stress on the last syllable and a secondary (pre-

primary) stress on the first syllable. When this word is in contact with another wordwhich is stressed on the first syllable, such as *history, the primary stress of

*Portu*guese is displaced into the syllable with an initial secondary stress. See tip 44

for more examples.

*Portu*guese *Portu*guese *history *Portuguese *history

[ptiz] [ptiz hstri]

primary

stress

stress clash stress shift Relocation of the

primary stresssecondary

stress

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Note that stress shifts only occur if the first word is double or multiple-stressed. If the

first word has only one (primary stress), there is no possibility to displace this stress into

another position and thus the stress clash is unavoidable. In this case the two

consecutive stresses have to be produced, as in the following example.

*old *history

3.3.2. Consecutive stresses

As described in tip 43 in the book, in English when three stressed lexical words with

one or two syllables come together in connected speech, the word in the middle tends to

lose the stress. This is illustrated in the following example, where the words *nice,

*little and *baby are originally stressed but when they are produced consecutively the

word in the middle loses its stress. Refer to page 164 in the book for further examples.

*nice *little *baby

*nice little *baby[nas ltl bebi]

4. Rhythm

As presented in more detail in tip 42 in the book, the rhythmic pattern of a language has

to do with the repetition of a linguistic event which tends to occur at approximately the

same interval of time. Languages are classified according to the event that is repeated,

namely, the syllable or the stress.

4.1. Syllable-timed languages

A syllable-timed language is a language in which syllables (no matter whether they arestressed or unstressed) tend to be produced at equal time intervals. Thus, all syllables

take approximately the same amount of time. Examples of syllable-timed languages are

Spanish or French. See page 158 for more details.

4.2. Stress-timed languages

A stress-timed language is a language in which stressed syllables tend to be produced at

equal time intervals. Thus, there is more or less the same amount of time between

stresses. An example of a stress-timed language is English. In stress-timed languages,

the unit of rhythm is the foot . The foot begins with a stressed syllable and includes all

the following unstressed syllables (if any) up to (but not including) the following

stressed syllable. The sentence below, for example, has four feet containing a different

number of syllables.

*Jonathan had *seen *elephants in the *jungle.

[dnn hd sin elfnts n dl]

4-syll. foot 1-syll. foot 5-syll. foot 2-syll. foot

Sometimes sentences begin with an anacrusis, that is, one (or more) unstressed

syllable(s) that do not belong to any foot. For example, the following sentence containstwo initial unstressed syllables that are not part of any foot.

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The re*sults were *very *bad.

[ rzlts w veri bæd]

anacrusis 2-syll.f. 2-syll.f. 1-syll.f.

The tendency in stress-timed languages to keep the same amount of time between feet

(from one stressed syllable to the next stressed syllable) is called isochrony. Remember

that a stress-timed rhythmic pattern has an effect on syllable duration (Tip 45). The

higher the number of unstressed syllables between stresses the quicker they will have to

be uttered so as to maintain a similar amount of time between feet.

Finally, it is important to note that the distinction between syllable-timed languages and

stress-timed languages is sometimes not that clear-cut. Studies have shown that it is

virtually impossible to keep the same amount of time between feet and that theproduction of feet with an exactly equal duration would sound rather unnatural. Thus,

the two types of rhythmic patterns have to be regarded as tendencies rather than norms.

Even though the production of a stress-timed rhythm is not as precise as the theoretical

tenets would suggest, it is crucial for foreign students of English to become acquainted

with this tendency since it is essential to understand other related issues, such as stress

reorganizations or the presence of weak forms, among many others.

Self-evaluation activities

Exercise 2

Transcribe the following sentences with stress marks. For each sentence show the

number of feet and indicate how many syllables are included in each foot. State if the

sentence starts with anacrusis.

Example: My sister`s shorter than your brother.

[ma sstz t n j br] three feet (+anacrusis)

anacrusis 2-syll. 4-syll. 2-syll.foot foot foot

1. Amanda deserves a better luck.

2. The plane was delayed for more than seven hours.

3. What a beautiful day!

4. They’re going to organize the conference in February.

5. Don’t take the bus to go to school.

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Solutions to the self-evaluation activities

Exercise 1

1. *father [f]The stress pattern of this word agrees with rule (1-b). It is a two-syllable noun with a short vowel in the

last syllable and thus the first (penultimate) syllable is stressed.

2. *yellow [jel]

The stress pattern of this word agrees with rule (1-a-2). It is a two-syllable adjective with a weak final

syllable (containing the diphthong []) and thus the first (penultimate) syllable is stressed.

3. at*tract [trækt]The stress pattern of this word agrees with rule (1-a-1). It is a two-syllable verb with a strong final

syllable and thus the final (ultimate) syllable is stressed.

4. *improvise [mprvaz]The stress pattern of this word is an exception to rule (2-a-1). According to this rule, we would expect to

stress the last (ultimate) syllable of the verb since it is strong. However, the stress falls on the first

syllable.

5. ca*thedral [kidrl]The stress pattern of this word agrees with rule (2-b-2). It is a three-syllable noun with a weak final

syllable and a strong middle syllable which attracts the stress.

6. *honest [nst]The stress pattern of this word is an exception to rule (1-a-1). According to this rule, we would expect to

stress the last (ultimate) syllable of the adjective since it is strong. However, the stress falls on the first

syllable.

7. *furniture [fnt]

The stress pattern of this word agrees with rule (2-b-3). It is a three-syllable noun with weak final and

middle syllables and thus the first syllable is stressed.

8. *accident [æksdnt]The stress pattern of this word agrees with rule (2-b-1). It is a three-syllable noun with a strong final

syllable and thus the first (antepenultimate) syllable is stressed.

Exercise 2

1. Amanda deserves a better luck.

[mænd dzvz bet lk] four feet (+anacrusis)

ana. 3-syll.f. 2-syll.f. 2-syll.f 1-syll.f.

2. The plane was delayed for more than seven hours.

[ plen wz dled f m n sevn az] five feet (+anacrusis)

ana. 3-syll.f. 2-syll.f 2-syll.f. 2-syll.f. 1-syll.f

3. What a beautiful day!

[wt bjutfl de] three feet (no anacrusis)

2-syll.f. 3-syll.f. 1-syll.f

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Stress and Rhythm (1)