One Stress Pattern
I. The majority of the English lexicon is comprised of monosyllabic (one-syllable) or disyllabic (two-syllable) words. Word stress in two-syllable words usually falls on the first syllable of the root. Thus, in case when the second syllable is stressed we actually deal with a word containing a prefix, sometimes of a very ancient origin.
Listen to the examples:
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'table e'lect 'cancel re'peat 'edit 'teacher sur'prise |
'manage 'listen be'low a'bove 'under post'pone a'llow |
co'llect 'limit 'vanish be'lieve 'village pre'fer 'after |
Do the exercises:
II. Word stress in English can distinguish morphological classes of words. For example, the noun record and the verb record have a similar spelling but different word stress patterns.
Listen and compare:
|
nouns (the 1st syllable is stressed) |
verbs (the 2nd syllable is stressed) |
| 'record 'contrast 'desert 'export' object 'present 'produce 'protest 'rebel |
re'cord con'trast de'sert ex'port ob'ject pre'sent pro'duce pro'test re'bel |
1. The group has just recorded a new record.
2. Imports have gone up recently. In fact, we are importing twice as much as last year.Note: There is not always a change of stress pattern in words that are both nouns and verbs. For example, answer, picture, promise, reply, travel, visit always have stress on the same syllable.
III. Words with one stress pattern also consist of more than two syllables in case when they are formed with the help of suffixes and prefixes. Many suffixes and prefixes do not change the word stress pattern of the original word - the place of the word stress remains the same.
Here are some suffixes which do not change the position of stress in a word (neutral suffixes).
Listen and repeat:
-age ('patron – 'patronage)
-al (a'rrive – a'rrival)
-able (de'sire – de'sirable)
-ness (a'lert – a'lertness)
-ful ('grace – dis'graceful)
-less ('character – 'characterless)
-fy ('simple – 'simplify)
-er (a'nnounce – a'nnouncer)
-y ('fun – 'funny)
-en ('sweet – 'sweeten)
Other neutral suffixes are:
-like (bird – 'birdlike)
-ly ('hurried – 'hurriedly)
-ment ('govern – 'government)
-ous ('poison – 'poisonous)
-wise ('other – 'otherwise)
Sometimes the pronunciation of the vowel in the stressed syllable changes when a suffix is added, although it does not affect the stress pattern of the word.
Listen to the words and compare the pronunciation of the highlighted vowels. Repeat the words after the speaker:
|
extreme sane derive bible type wise explore know nation defame compare declare drama compete intervene obscene assume presume |
extremity sanity derivative biblical typical wisdom exploratory knowledge national defamatory comparative declarative dramatize competitive intervention obscenity assumption presumption |
In some words, as well as a change in the pronunciation of the vowel in the stressed syllable, there is also a change in the pronunciation of the consonant (s) that follows it.
Listen to the words and compare the pronunciation of the highlighted vowels and consonants. Repeat the words after the speaker:
|
ignite sign produce introduce |
ignition signature production, productive introduction, introductory |
IV. Some suffixes and prefixes added to a word influence the position of the word stress. Listen to the examples below, observe the change in the position of the word stress in the derivatives and in the pronunciation of the vowels in the stressed syllables.
ad'mire – 'admirable
com'pare – 'comparable
'prior – pri'ority
'minor – mi'nority
'super – su'perior
re'fer – ˌrefe'ree – 'reference
ad'dress – ˌaddres'see
ad'vantage – ˌadvan'tageous
'courage – cou'rageous
'recognize – ˌrecog'nition
'person – per'sonify
a'nalysis – 'analyze
'famous – 'infamous
'office – o'fficial
'music – mu'sician
'politics – po'litical
'luxury – lu'xurious