THE SOLUTION TO

ENGLISH WORD-STRESS

Bekim BEJT A

THE SOLUTION TO
ENGLISH WORD-STRESS

L'Harmattan
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75005 Paris
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L'Harmattan Hongrie
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L'Harmattan Italia
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10214 Torino
ITALlE

cg L'Harmattan, 2003
ISBN: 2-7475-4775-2

All praise is due to Allah,

the Light of the heavens and the earth,
He Who taught the use of the pen,
taught man what he knew not.

Louange Allah,
la Lumire des cieux et de la terre,
qui a enseign par la plume
a enseign l'homme ce qu'il ne savait pas.

PREFACE

In general, studies of English word-stress propose numerous rules

that essentially indicate position of stress according to the suffix.
However, these studies are unable to explain the reason why
some endings impose penultimate stress whereas others impose
antepenultimate stress (or even as far as four syllables back).
The present work is an attempt to explain English word-stress
through two word-stress types which are confirmed and
exemplified by nearly exhaustive lists. It is aimed primarily at
applying these word-stress types to a large corpus of examples, in
an approach which is completely different from those in previous
books.
The theoretical aspect of word-stress in English is not presented
in this book since many works have already been devoted to
theoretical analysis of English word-stress. Besides, the present
work tends to show that word-stress in English displays rigorous
logic which can be simply formulated in concrete terms. This
study is based on tens of thousands of words; moreover, it has
required at the same time the exploration of different linguistic
levels and analysis of a considerable number of languages
(beyond studying word-stress in English).
The aim of this work is to offer the specialist, the professor of
English and the English-speaker, the answer to unsolved
questions concerning word-stress in English. It can also be of
practical use to students since knowledge of the stress system
makes proper pronunciation of an English word easier.

WORD-STRESS
Word-stress means that one syllable is accentuated within a word (main
stress [I] ; secondary stress [I])'
Word-stress in English
There are two main types of word-stress in English. Both of them are based
on Latin stress.
Position of the stress in Latin
Long vowel (i, , etc.) ; short vowel (a, e, etc.).
In Latin, stress falls on the penultimate or antepenultimate syllable.
Stress falls on the penultimate syllable:
- if it contains a long vowel, e.g.
apparens
decorum
panaca

- if it contains
alauda

a diphthong, e.g.
thesaurus

althaea

- if

it contains a vowel followed by a double consonant or any group of

consonants other than those consisting of plosive + r or I, e.g.
agenda
armilla
momentum
Stress falls on the antepenultimate syllable:
- if the penultimate syllable contains a short vowel followed by a single
consonant (or by one of the groups consisting of plosive + r or I), e.g.
aglntas
legans
tenebras

- if the penultimate

syllable contains a short vowel (one ending its own

syllable), followed by another short vowel, e.g.
imperIum
materIa
fOvea
Disyllabic words are always stressed on the fIrst syllable.

Word-stress types in English

Original stress
Main stress falls on the same syllable as in Latin if the final syllable of the
Latin ending has not disappeared in English.
Examples:
I
lante cedent
antecedens

be'nevolent

sponltaneous

cenl sorious

spontaneus

censorlus

con'spicuous
consplcuus

ci 'tation
cltatl0

ve'locity
velocltas

benevolens

-ity contains two syllables

-ltas contains two syllables

'ultima
ultIma

e1pitome
epItome

'solidi
soI1di

am'brosia
ambrosIa

,collec'tanea
collectanea

Ipana1cea
panacea

e'meritus
emerItus

de'tritus
detrtus

Derivational stress
If the last syllable of the Latin ending (e.g. -tudo) has disappeared in English
(-tude), the stress pattern of sollicitude follows the pattern of the Latin word
soficltus from which is derived soficltdo. This is derivational stress.
Examples:
,appre'hensible from Latin apprehendo > (apprehenslbllis)
'eligible from Latin efigo > (efiglbllis)

10

doc'trinal from Latin doctrlna > (doctrlnalis)

'animal from Latin anIma> (anImalis)
'ambulate from Latin ambiilo > (ambiilatiis)
in'spissate from Latin inspisso > (inspissatus)
'insular from Latin insiila > (insiilaris)
pul'vinar from Latin pulvlnus > (pulvlnaris)
Some suffixes display a derivational stress pattern in certain words while in
others they are stress-neutral.
Derivational stress:
'numeral from Latin numerus> (numeralis)
Stress-neutral:
re'fuse
re'fusal

Il