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English Phonetics
Unit 12 Lecture 18. Lexical stress
Preliminary remarks Lexical/word stress in English Stress beyond the word domain
1. Preliminary remarks
Preliminary remarks physical cues levels of stress notation lexical stress placement in languages
1. Preliminary remarks
Preliminary remarks: physical cues Stress is the greater prominence in pitch of a particular syllable/s in a word as perceived by a listener There are certain physical cues on the perception of linguistic stress patterns In stressed syllables. vowels are longer (greater duration) intensity and ampliture are greater fundamental frequency (F0) is higher
1. Preliminary remarks
Preliminary remarks: physical cues record (v) record (n)
1. Preliminary remarks
Preliminary remarks: levels of stress In polysyllabic words, the most prominent syllable is said to be (primarily) stressed Syllables other than the primarily stressed are unstressed -no prominence at all- (e.g. letter) or secondarily stressed -prominence intermediate between the primary stress & unstressed syllable(s)(e.g. demographic)
1. Preliminary remarks
Preliminary remarks: levels of stress 3 levels of stress: primary, secondary and no stress If stressed, a word always has a primary stress has a) 0 to 2 secondary stresses b) 0 to several unstressed syllables
1. Preliminary remarks
Preliminary remarks: notation In monosyllabic words, lexical (or word) stress marking is unnecessary since there is ony one syllable and that syllable carries the stress In polysyllabic words, its necessary to mark the (primarily) stressed syllable -marking secondary stress(es) is not so important-
1.Preliminary remarks
Preliminary remarks: notation Standard IPA phonetic notation: high vertical stroke [ ] (primary stress) low vertical stroke [ ] (secondary stress) -if marked No mark for unstressed syllables Other conventions (textbooks, monolingual dicts, etc.) prime mark after the stressed syllable (/la-de/) acute accent on a syllables vowel (e.g. ldy) bold, capitals, underlining, etc. (e.g. lady, LAdy, lady)
1. Preliminary remarks
Preliminary remarks: lexical stress placement in langs Where does the primary stress fall? Fixed-stress languages (always on a given syllable) On the same syllable: 1st (e.g. Finnish), penultimate (e.g. Polish), final (e.g. Czech), etc. On different syllables but predictably (e.g. Latin) Variable-stress languages (-at least partlyunpredictable though orthography may help) E.g. English, Spanish, Italian, German, etc.
1. Preliminary remarks
Preliminary remarks: lexical stress placement in langs In variable-stress langs, stress is contrastive (otherwise homophonous words may differ only in stress pattern) e.g. English (an) abstract vs. to abstract German hnterlassen (to go behind) vs. hinterlssen (to bequeath)
Except those with cake, water, juice and street (e.g. chocolate cake, soda water, lemon juice, Oxford Street)
Lexical stress patterns are potential stresses (they only tell us what syllable/s would be stressed/unstressed if the word is stressed and under normal conditions) But in connected speech (in the context of a tone/intonation unit), any word may be stressed (and show predictable stress patterns) stressed (but have a different stress pattern for
Compounds:
week-end vs. week-end party second-hand vs. second-hand books full-time vs. full-time job
References
Compulsory reading: Roach, P. 2001. English Phonetics and Phonology. A Practical Course. CUP. Chaps. 9, 10, 11 & 12 (Strong & Weak Syllables; Stress in simple words; Complex word stress; Weak forms). Recommended readings: Monroy Casas, R. 1991. Acento Lxico. Reglas de Acentuacin Inglesa. Madrid: SGEL. Clark, J., & Yallop, C. 199]. An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell. Chap. 8. Prosody: section 8.6. Stress in English & section 8.7. Stress assignment. Snchez Benedito, F. 1994. Manual de pronunciacin inglesa comparada con la espaola. Madrid: Alhambra-Longman. Chap. 5. Acento, Ritmo y Entonacin. Section 5.1. Acento
Because of this, in the transcription of connected speech, only are rhythmic stresses are marked, not lexical/word stresses. This means that
rhythmically stressed)
Polysyllables may have no stress (no stress mark is used then) or may have a different stress pattern