Semblanza de Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO)

acrobat celebrate telephone

The first syllable of all three words receives major stress, the second syllable is unstressed and the final syllable receives minor stress. Notice that it is only the second syllable, the one that is unstressed, that is reduced to schwa.

Thus, our generalization about unstressed syllables reducing to schwa does not apply to syllables receiving minor stress.

P lacem ent o f w ord stress

Given the relationship between stress and the pronunciation of vowels in English, ESL students may want to know if there is any rule for the placement of stress. Unfortunately, there are no hard and fast rules. Thus, stress patterns must often be learned with each vocabulary item. However, in the sections that follow, we provide a few generalizations regarding the placement of stress in English.

Two-syllable words

The major stress on two-syllable words is more likely to fall on the first syllable if the word is a noun, and on the second syllable if the word is a verb.

If you look carefully at the two-syllable words on page 68, you will see that most of the words in group A, which are stressed on the first syllable, are nouns, while most of the words in group B, which are stressed on the second syllable, are verbs. More than 90 per cent of all English nouns of two syllables are stressed on the first syllable, and more than 60 per cent of all English verbs are stressed on the second syllable. Try to have your students come to this conclusion themselves. One way to do this is to have them volunteer two-syllable words. You can then help them to discover that the vast majority of nouns are stressed on the first syllable while many verbs are stressed on the second syllable.

A good example of the difference in stress on nouns and verbs involves related noun-verb pairs in English. These are words that function as nouns when stressed on the first syllable, and as verbs when stressed on the second syllable. Consider the following two sentences, paying attention to the placement of stress in the italicized words.

a. The unhappy customer may insult the manager.

b. That’s an insult.

In (a), the verb ‘insult’ receives major stress on the second syllable. In (b), the noun ‘insult’ receives major stress on the first syllable. There are many noun-verb pairs of this type. Here are some more examples:

The sound system o f English

With words of three syllables, the major stress usually falls on the first or second syllable. In list A below, major stress falls on the first syllable; in list B, major stress falls on the second syllable.

List A List B

In Lists A and B, all of the syllables without major stress are unstressed and therefore, the vowels of these syllables are pronounced as schwa. With many three-syllable words stressed on the first syllable, the final syllable receives minor stress. Some examples are provided below:

• • •

In compound words, stress placement is very regular. Consider the words

‘drug’ and ‘store’, which form ‘drugstore’ when combined. Notice where the stress falls on this compound; the first word receives major stress and the second word receives minor stress. All of the compounds listed below have this same stress pattern. These compounds are sometimes written as one

Word stress and vowel reduction

word and sometimes as two separate words. The way in which they are writ­

ten, however, does not affect their stress pattern.

• • • • • •

In order to illustrate further the stress patterns of compounds, it is helpful to consider the differences between adjective-noun phrases and adjective-noun compounds. In the adjective-noun phrases below, major stress falls on the noun and minor stress falls on the adjective.

• #

That’s a black board, (a board that is black) He works in a green house, (a house that is green)

I saw a black bird, (a bird that is black)

In the adjective-noun compounds below, however, major stress falls on the adjective and minor stress falls on the noun.

# •

That’s a blackboard, (a board for writing on— green or black) He works in a greenhouse, (a place to grow plants)

I saw a blackbird, (a kind of bird)

The difference between adjective-noun phrases and adjective-noun com­

pounds illustrates the importance of stress in determining meaning. For this reason, it is beneficial to have students distinguish between phrases and compounds on the basis of stress.

Suffixes

With certain suffixes in English, the placement of major stress is predictable.

Sometimes this results in what is termed a stress shift. For example, the related words:

t « • . • • • • • • • photograph photography photographic

all receive major stress on a different syllable. This change in stress is caused by the addition of the suffixes -y and -ic.

The following rules describe the effects of particular suffixes on stress place­

ment. Most of the examples we provide below are words of Greek and Latin origin. These words will often be familiar to Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, and Greek students because they exist in their native languages.

This familiarity can cause problems for such students because the stress pat­

terns will almost always be different in English than in the students’ native languages.

The sound system o f English

-ity

Major stress is always on the syllable before the suffix -ity:

• •

Major stress is always on the syllable before the suffix - ic.

• •

Major stress is always on the syllable before the suffix -ical:

Notice the changes: alphabet

Word stress an d vow el reduction

-tion

Major stress is always on the syllable before the suffix -tion:

• •

Notice the changes: accuse accusation

perspire perspiration students as it can save them the trouble of memorizing the stress patterns of many vocabulary items. Once your students have discovered the correct placement of major stress in words such as the ones above, ensure that they pronounce the vowels in the unstressed syllables as schwa.

Exercises

1 Consider the stress patterns of the following word pairs:

Noun Verb

What is the difference between the pronunciation of the final vowels in the nouns and the verbs? What is the stress pattern of the nouns? What is the stress patterns of the verbs?

2 Consider the following word pairs:

Noun Adjective

government governmental instrument instrumental development developmental department departmental

What is the difference between the pronunciation of -ment in the nouns and the adjectives? What is the stress pattern of the nouns? What is the stress pattern of the adjectives?

The sound system o f English

3 In Polish, major stress generally falls on the second-to-last syllable of a word. Thus, a Polish speaker might pronounce the words below in the following way (we use italics to indicate where the stress is placed):

^lieve aA as

conceive Canada

table mzzjtard

economical cigarette economics midget

dividend paper

ab^wdon picture

apprehend disagree

acrobat dilemma

Determine which of these words is stressed correctly and which is stressed incorrectly.

4 Consider the pronunciation of the following words when the suffix -y is added:

Group 1

democrat democracy

aristocrat aristocracy photograph photography

diplomat diplomacy

Group 2

literate literacy

secret secrecy

pirate piracy

consistent consistency

private privacy

confederate confederacy

Group 1, stress shifts upon the addition of the suffix -y whereas in Group 2, stress does not shift. What generalization can you make regard­

ing the effect of the suffix -y on stress? Describe any changes to the vowels of Group 1 which are associated with the stress shift.