ENGLISH GRAMMARIntonation & Stress

ENGLISH GRAMMAR Intonation

You may need some knowledge of English intonation patterns if you are to understand English grammar. This is because the features of intonation are important for signalling grammatical distinctions; such as that between statements and question. For example, a sentence like They are leaving can be a statement when said with falling intonation, but a question with rising intonation.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR

Here we concentrate on explaining those features with of stress and intonation which play a significant role in grammar, and which therefore need to be discussed and symbolized.

Stress; Symbolized with a stress mark (‘-) ‘over, an’alysis, transfor’mation ( stress on first, second and third syllabel respectively)

ENGLISH GRAMMAR Stress; The rhytm of English is based on stress. In connected

speech, we feel the rhytm of the language in the sequence of stressed syllabels. Between one stressed syllable and another there may occur one or more unstressed syllables. The stress syllables in these examples are preceded by the stress mark ‘ , and the unstressed syllables are unmarked.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR Examples: I ‘rang you on the ‘ way to the ‘ airport.

It went ‘ off ‘ smoothly that ‘ long ‘ meeting of the ex’ ecutive com’mitee.

This means that the syllabels in SMALL CAPITALS above are stressed.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR

The normal rules for placing stress are as follows. The syllables which are stressed are:

a one syllabels word which belongs to one of the major word classes (i.e nouns (WAY), verbs (RANG), adjectives (LONG), adverbs (OFF).

the accented syllables of words of more than one syllabel of major word classes ( i.e SMOOTHly, ‘ AIRport, com’MITEE).

ENGLISH GRAMMAR

The syllable which are unstressed are: a word belonging to one of the minor word classes (i.e

prepositions (to), pronouns (it), articles (the). the unaccented syllabels of words more than one syllabels (i.e

‘SMOOTHly, ‘AIRport. com’MITEE).

ENGLISH GRAMMAR

One point to notice is that a prepositional adverbs belongs to a major word-class and is therefore stressed, whereas a one-syllabel prepositions is usually unstressed. Contrast:

This ’bed has’ not been’ slept in. (in= prepositions). The’ injured’ man was’ carried ‘in. (in= prepositional adverb). The same contrast is sometimes seen between the particle of a

prepositional adverb & phrasal verb. He’s re’lying on our ‘help. (rely on= prepositional verb). He’s ‘putting ‘on a ‘new ‘play. (put on= phrasal verb).