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3.2 Stress Stress refers to the degree of force used

in producing a syllable. In transcription, a raised vertical line [│] is often used just before the syllable it relates to. A basic distinction is made between stressed

and unstressed syllables, the former being more prominent than the latter, which means that stress is a relative notion.

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At the word level, it only applies to words with at least two syllables.

At the sentence level, a monosyllabic word may be said to be stressed relative to other words in the sentence.

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Stress in English

The stress pattern in English is no easy matter (see Gimson, 2001: 224-35 and Roach, 2000: Chapters 10 & 11 for detailed descriptions).

In principle, the stress may fall on any syllable. They also change over history and exhibit regional or dialectal differences.

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Changing English Stress Pattern

Becoming norm inTEGral coMMUNal forMIDable conTROVersy

Considered conservative INtegral COMMunal FORmidable CONtroversy

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RP laBORatory DEBris GARage

GA LABoratory deBRIS gaRAGE

RP vs. GA

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Verb conVICT inSULT proDUCE reBEL

Noun CONvict INsult PROduce REbel

V vs. N

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BLACKboard

BLACKbird

black BOARD

black BIRD

Compound Phrase

Compound vs. Phrase

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For long words, there are often two stressed syllables, one being more stressed than the other.

The more stressed syllable is the primary stress while the less stressed syllable is known as the secondary stress. The latter is indicated by a preceding symbol [ ].

In the word phonetician, for example, the primary stress falls on -ti- while the secondary stress falls on pho-. All other syllables are unstressed ones.

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Primary vs. Secondary Stress

epiphenomenal unsatisfactory discrimination standardization communication industrialization

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Sentence stress is much more interesting. In general situations, notional words are normally stressed while structural words are unstressed.

Nevertheless, sentence stress is often used to express emphasis, surprise etc. so that in principle stress may fall on any word or any syllable.

Sentence Stress

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a. John bought a pink bicycle. b. John bought a pink bicycle. c. John bought a pink bicycle. d. John bought a pink bicycle. e. John bought a pink bicycle.

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3.3 Pitch The pitch of a sound is dependent on the r

ate of vibration of the vocal folds within the larynx.

A sound with a high pitch has a higher frequency of vibration than a sound with a low pitch.

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Frequency is a term used in acoustic measurement to reflect this rate of vibration, referring to the number of repetitions (cycles) of the regular waveform within one second.

The unit of frequency measurement is the Hertz, abbreviated as Hz. If the vocal folds make 100 complete opening

and closing movements in a second, then the frequency of the sound is 100 Hz.

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Part of the sound wave of the vowel [] as in father at

100 Hz The arrows indicate a section that is repeated every one-hundredth of a second.

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Part of the sound wave of the vowel [] as in father

(200 Hz) When the same vowel has the higher frequency of 200 Hz, it is said on a pitch an octave above the sound in the last figure and it has a higher pitch.

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In languages like English, “different pitch contours produce differences of attitudinal or discoursal meaning”.

The classic sentence of Jenny gave Peter instructions to follow illustrates how it can have very different meanings when stressing instructions and when stressing follow.

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When instructions has the highest pitch of the sentence, it is stressed to mean that Peter must follow whatever instructions Jenny happens to give him.

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When follow is emphasized, it changes the meaning to “Jenny told Peter to follow (something)”.