Suprasegmentals
6 Word Stress
Zoe Zawadzki
- To define word stress and its characteristics
- To demonstrate why word stress is important
- To explore how to teach word stress
- To understand how word stress can be represented when written
- To provide exercises for word stress
6.1 What is word stress?
Word stress occurs when a syllable, or syllables, are emphasized in a word when pronouncing it. It is considered to be a suprasegmental feature, but in English, it also affects vowels. Often, when a syllable is unstressed, the vowel changes and becomes a schwa (the unstressed vowel). For example, in the word “guarantee” (/ˌɡɛr.ən.ˈti/) the vowel in the second syllable becomes unstressed. However, the vowel is also affected in a stressed syllable because the vowels in those syllables tend to be lengthened. This is a technical way of thinking about word stress. An alternative that many pronunciation materials use is to think of the vowel in the stressed syllable as being “longer, louder, and higher in pitch” (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010, p. 184).
Schwa: This is a reduced vowel that is represented in IPA as /ə/. Schwa is the most common vowel, accounting for approximately 35% of vowels that occur. It is a mid-central vowel and is always reduced. Any pure vowel can be reduced to /ə/ (Woods, 2005). However, it may not always be reduced, even in an unstressed syllable. It is less likely for a vowel that is r-colored (followed by /r/) or in a closed syllable (ending in a consonant) to be reduced. Diphthongs also typically are not reduced.
Word stress occurs in words with more than one syllable. It is a feature that occurs at the syllable level, with certain syllables being stressed and others being unstressed. Words that have one syllable do not have word stress. Words that have 3, 4, or more syllables can have multiple stressed syllables, with a primary stressed syllable and a secondary stressed syllable. For example, in the word “phenomenon”, the second syllable, ‘no’ has primary stress and the fourth syllable, ‘non’, has secondary stress (phe.NO.me.NON) . It is important to make sure students are aware of this so they don’t confuse secondary stress for primary stress.
6.2 Why is it important in English Speech pronunciation?
Word stress is not the same across languages. In some languages, such as English, Dutch, and Spanish, stress conveys meaning, whereas other languages, such as French, do not rely on stress to convey meaning. Another way to think of this distinction is that there are fixed-stress and free-stress languages. English is a free-stress language meaning that stress can be placed on any syllable in the word, whereas fixed-stress languages have one syllable that is always stressed (i.e., the penultimate syllable in Polish). When listeners come from a language such as French or Polish where the stress is fixed and it does not convey meaning, they are likely to have difficulties with perceiving, and therefore producing, word stress in English.
Additionally, word stress is important because it can impact a speaker’s intelligibility and comprehensibility. For example, if a speaker stresses the second syllable instead of the first syllable in “publish”, (PUB.lish instead of pub.LISH ) it might take the listener a moment to understand the intended word. Making this mistake may even change the part of speech of the word, for example, the word “perfect” is an adjective when the first syllable is stressed and a verb when the second syllable is stressed (adj.- PER.fect ; verb- per.FECT ). The degree of the loss of intelligibility can also be affected by the direction of misstressing, with rightward mistressing impacting intelligibility more (Ghosh & Levis, 2021). For example, if a speaker says ce.LE.brate instead of CE.le.brate .
This word could be impacted by the speaker thinking of the word “celebrity”, which would affect both the stress and vowels resulting in pronouncing celebrate as /sə.ˈlɛ.bɹet/. However, it is not simply a matter of if the correct syllable is stressed or not. Not de-stressing the unstressed syllables can also have an impact. Producing a full vowel instead of a reduced vowel will impact intelligibility. For example, if a student says the word “optional” as /ɑp.ʃɪ.nɑl/ instead of /ɑp.ʃə.nəl/ they might not be understood, or if they are, then it might take some effort by the listener to understand them.
Regional variations:
Varieties of English, such as General American and British, may have words that differ based on stress. However, only about 1% of words vary in pronunciation based on stress (Berg, 1999).
Stress commonly varies in words that end in -ate, -ess, -ist, -ive, -ly, and -ory, compounds, and zero-derived words. Zero-derived words are those that are created from an existing word that doesn’t change its form but changes part of speech (e.g. record as a noun and verb).
Lexical type (proper vs. common noun) and origin (French vs. non-French) may also affect stress between the two varieties.
6.3 How can we represent word stress when teaching?
One way of representing word stress is by having stressed syllables represented with capitals. Secondary stress might have capitals and a smaller font size. Notice how primary stress is in capitals and bigger than the secondary stress, which is also in capitals.
Example: PRE.si.DEN.tial
In this book, primary stress is represented with capitals and is bold while secondary stress is represented with capitals that are not bold.
Example: PRE.si.DEN.tial
In other resources, you might see words with circles above the syllables to represent stress. Note that the primary stress is the biggest circle and the secondary stress is smaller than that, but still bigger than the unstressed syllables.
If you’re using IPA in your classroom, then stress can be represented with a straight apostrophe to indicate primary stress and a straight comma to indicate secondary stress. These diacritics are placed before the stressed syllable. These diacritics may also be used when using standard orthography.
Example: /ˌprɛzəˈdɛnʧəl/
It is up to you how you represent word stress for your students, but make sure that you are consistent. You might also want to consider ease. The circles look really nice, but it is much easier to use capitals.
6.4 How to approach teaching word stress?
When teaching word stress, it’s impossible to ignore the rules. There are many rules, so many in fact, that a whole book can be made out of them (e.g. Fudge, 1984; Poldauf, 1984). However, considering how many rules there are, it can be overwhelming to try and memorize all of them, especially when it is based on affixes. Therefore, we will present a prediction system that was created by Dickerson (2004). As a reminder, words that are only one syllable do not have stress. Therefore, these rules only apply to multisyllabic words. According to this prediction system, the stress falls on one of two syllables: the key syllable or the left syllable. The key syllable is directly left of an ending and the left syllable is directly left of the key syllable. There are only four rules to remember with this system.
Rule 1:
The Key Syllable is stressed when a word ends in a consonant followed by an i+vowel such as -ia, -io, -iu, and -ien. Keep in mind there could be more letters following the i+vowel for example, pre.si.DEN.tial, co.MMO.tion, GE.nius, con.tri.BU.tion, CON.science.
Rule 2:
Adjectives that end in -al, and -ous and adjectives/nouns ending in -ant, -ance, -ancy, -ent, and -ence should be stressed on the left syllable if the key syllable is spelled with a vowel or a vowel followed by a consonant. For example, FED.e.ral, MAR.ve.lous, EL.e.gant, VI.gi.lance, VA.can.cy, and PRE.ce.dence.
Rule 3:
Words that have 3 or more syllables and end in -y, -ate, -ated, -ator, -ating, -acy, and- acies have left stress. This means that the key needs to be found and then the syllable to the left of that is stressed. For example, COM.pa.ny, FOR.tu.nate, OB.li.ga.ted, A.lli.ga.tor, A.ccu.ra.cy, FA.lla.ci.es
Rule 4:
Words that end in -ary, -ery, -ory, -ive, -ure, -ative, -atory, and -ature should have key stress if the left has a prefix or part of a prefix such as de-, per-, ob-, and ex-. Otherwise, the left syllable should be stressed. Examples of words with a prefix: de.BA.u.che.ry, o.BLI.ga.to.ry, per.SUA.sive. ex.PEN.sive. Examples of words without a prefix: AU.di.to.ry, PLE.na.ry
6.5 Technology Corner
Perception
- YouGlish: The learner can type any word to hear how it is spoken paying close attention to their word stress;
- Tools for Clear Speech: This website gives learners an overview of word stress with some additional rules and exercises
Production
- AmPitch: This website allows users to speak and shows the amplitude and pitch which can be helpful in identifying where the speaker is placing stress;
- Praat: This free to download computer program shows both the waveform and spectogram (and pitch can be added) of recorded speech, therefore, this is also helpful for identifying where stress is placed by the speaker. However, a word of caution as this tool has a bit of a learning curve for unfamiliar users.
6.6 Activities
Description and Analysis
Listening discrimination
Exercise 6-1. Same or different?
Directions: Guess if the word is stressed the same or different. Select the correct option.
Controlled Practice
Exercise 6-2. Which vowel is stressed?
Directions: Mark the main stress of the word. Select the stressed vowel.
Guided and communicative practice: Word Forms
Pronunciation feature: Changing word stress on etymologically related words.
English word stress is connected to the suffixes on related words. Thus, a word may be stressed in one way on a particular word form, while it is stressed on a different syllable when it has a different suffix.
Exercise 6-3. Filling the table
Directions: Work with another student. Fill in each blank and decide on the stress of each related word. Say each word.
| Example | Noun | Verb | Adjective |
|---|---|---|---|
| period | Periodicity |
|
Periodic |
| ecónomy | Economy/economics |
|
|
| eléctric |
|
Electrify |
|
| álcohol | Alcoholic |
|
Alcoholic |
| pérson |
|
|
|
| májor |
|
Major |
|
| méthod |
|
|
|
| phótograph | Photography, photographer |
|
|
| Japán |
|
|
Japanese |
| ábsent |
|
Absent |
|
| philósophy |
|
|
Philosophical |
| méchanism |
|
Possible answers:
| Example | Noun | Verb | Adjective |
|---|---|---|---|
| Period | Periodicity |
|
Periodic |
| Economy | Economy/economics | Economize | Economic, economical |
| Electric | Electricity | Electrify | Electrical |
| Alcohol | Alcoholic |
|
Alcoholic |
| Person | Personality | Personalize, personify | Personal |
| Major | Major, majority | Major | Major |
| Method | Methodology |
|
Methodical |
| Photograph | Photography, photographer | Photograph | Photographic |
| Japan | Japanese |
|
Japanese |
| Absent | Absence, absentee | Absent | Absent |
| Philosophy | Philosopher | Philosophize | Philosophical |
| Mechanism | Mechanic | Mechanize | Mechanistic, mechanical |
Guided and Communicative Practice
Exercise 6-4. Reading a passage
Directions: Read the passage silently, then read it aloud. Pay special attention to the stress of long words. Record yourself and then compare your recording to the model.
Preparation for Disasters
Cities, states, and nations must always live with a high degree of readiness for disasters such as hurricanes, furious storms, earthquakes, and a wide variety of man-made problems. These emergencies often create large complications in normal life. Characteristically at these times, electrical power is knocked out, and large numbers of people are reduced to living at a basic level, one where hard, constant physical labor becomes a necessity and where people show both selfish and altruistic behavior. Medical clinics are more likely to be closed because of damage. The economic base is also likely to be compromised, so that even simple things such as buying bread, milk and ice require long waits and frequent dissatisfaction. For these reasons, whenever such a difficulty hits, sufficient civic preparation is critical.
6.7 References
Berg, T. (1999). Stress variation in British and American English. World Englishes, 18(2), 123-143. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-971X.00128
Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D. and Goodwin, J. (2010). Teaching pronunciation: A course book and reference guide. Cambridge University Press, New York.
Ghosh, M., & Levis, J. M. (2021). Vowel quality and direction of stress shift in a predictive model explaining the varying impact of misplaced word stress: Evidence from English. Frontiers in Communication, 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2021.628780
Poldauf, I. (1984). English word stress: A theory of word-stress patterns in English. New York, NY: Pergamon Press.
Woods, H. B. (2005). Rhythm and unstress: Revised edition. Canada School of Public Service, Quebec, Canada.