Unit 12 English Phonetics Lecture 18

7/27/2019 Unit 12 English Phonetics Lecture 18

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English Phonetics

Unit 12 Lecture 18.

Lexical stress

Overview

Preliminary remarks

Lexical/word stress in English

Stress beyond the word domain

1. Preliminary remarks

Preliminary remarks

physical cues

levels of stress

notation

lexical stress placement in languages


Preliminary remarks:physical cues

Stress is the greater prominence in pitch of aparticular syllable/s in a word as perceived by alistener

There are certain physical cues on the perception oflinguistic stress patterns

In stressed syllables.

vowels are longer (greater duration) intensity and ampliture are greater fundamental frequency (F0) is higher


Preliminary remarks:physical cues

record (v) record (n)

Oscillogram displays evolution of amplitude against time


Preliminary remarks: levels of stress

In polysyllabic words, the most prominent syllableis said to be (primarily) stressed

Syllables other than the primarily stressed are

unstressed -no prominence at all- (e.g. letter)

or secondarily stressed -prominence intermediate

between the primary stress & unstressed syllable(s)-(e.g. demographic)


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1. Preliminary remarks Preliminary remarks: levels of stress

3 levels of stress: primary, secondary and no stress

If stressed, a word

always has a primary stress has a) 0 to 2 secondary stresses

b) 0 to several unstressed syllables

1. Preliminary remarks Preliminary remarks: notation

In monosyllabic words, lexical (or word) stressmarking is unnecessary since there is ony onesyllable and that syllable carries the stress

In polysyllabic words, itsnecessary to mark the (primarily)stressed syllable -marking secondarystress(es) is not so important-

1.Preliminary remarks

Preliminary remarks: notation

Standard IPA phonetic notation:

high vertical stroke [ ] (primary stress)

low vertical stroke [ ] (secondary stress) -if marked-

No mark for unstressed syllables

Other conventions (textbooks, monolingual dicts, etc.)prime mark after the stressed syllable (/la-de/)

acute accent on a syllables vowel (e.g. ldy)

bold, capitals, underlining, etc. (e.g. lady, LAdy, lady)


Preliminary remarks: lexical stress placement in langs

Where does the primary stress fall?

Fixed-stress languages (always on a given syllable)

On the same syllable: 1st (e.g. Finnish),penultimate (e.g. Polish), final (e.g. Czech), etc.

On different syllables but predictably (e.g. Latin)

Variable-stress languages (-at least partly-unpredictable though orthography may help)

E.g. English, Spanish, Italian, German, etc.


Preliminary remarks: lexical stress placement in langs

In variable-stress langs, stress is contrastive (otherwisehomophonous words may differ only in stress pattern)

e.g. English (an) abstractvs. to abstract

German hnterlassen (to go behind) vs.

hinterlssen (to bequeath)

Spanish mando (I/the command) vs.

mand (s/he commanded)

2. Lexical/word stress in English

Lexical/word stress in English

factors involved

simple words

complex affixed words

prefixes

suffixes

Non-stress imposing suffixes

Stress imposing suffixes

complex compound words

Early stress (ES)

Late stress (LS)


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Lexical stress in English: factors involved

Lexical stress refers to the degree of prominence ofsyllables within the domain of the phonological word

Where to place the primary stress?

Highly complex in Eng. (rules with many exceptions)

Factors to take into account:

Kind of phonemes it contains (complex rules) Grammatical category of the word (N, V, Adj) Morphological complexity (simple vs. complex)


Grammatical category

of the word (N, V, Adj)

Word-class pairs

(notice vowel quality

changes)

Lexical stress in English: factors involved


Lexical stress in English: simple words

Morphological complexity: simple words

Any rules that can be provided have manyexceptions

Best to learn them individually?

There are even words with two different stresspatterns (e.g. Al-Quaida / Al-Quaida, contribute /contribute, controversy / controversy)


Lexical stress in English: Complex AFFIXED words

Prefixes: stress in words with prefixes is governed bythe same rules as those for words without prefixes(e.g. judging vs. prejudging)

Suffixes: effect on stress placement?

No inflectional (e.g. -(e)s, -ed, -ing, etc) Often derivational

(e.g. -ic(al), -ation, -ity, etc)



Non-stress imposing (neutral) suffixes

comfortable, memorable

anchorage, garbage

refusal, spiritual

commander, lecturer

realize, criticize

dangerous, mischievous

falsify, classify

< etc >



Stress-imposing suffixes: stress-carrying

absentee, employee

launderette, statuette

arabesque, picturesque

Chinese, Portuguese

engineer, volunteer

millionaire, doctrinaire

< etc >

(but cigarette / cigarette)


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2. Lexical/word stress in English Lexical stress in English: Complex AFFIXED words

Stress-imposing suffixes: stress on syll. before suffix

advantageous discography

proverbial, adverbial climatic, emphatic

perfection, imagination injurious

complexity, stupidity .

Frequent vowel quality changes in affixed words

2. Lexical/Word stress in English

Lexical stress in English: COMPOUNDS

Spelling: The elements of the compound can be written:

separately (e.g. beauty contest)

with a hyphen in-between (e.g. tea-cup)

together (e.g. bedtime)

Patterns: Early stress (ES) vs. Late stress (LS) i.e.primary stress on the first (early in the word) or secondconstituent (late in the word)-



Early stress (ES)

The typical stress pattern in English compounds

The first element is nominal (i.e. functions as a noun)

irrespective of its original grammatical category

The 1st element has primary stress,

the 2nd either secondary (e.g.wheelbarrow) or none (money()box)



Early stress (ES)

1. N+N

application form, beauty contest, light bulb

2. A+N (A is no longer or not truly adjectival):

bluebell, darkroom, gentleman, White House



Late stress (LS)

The 1st constituent is typically adjectival irrespectiveof its original grammatical category

The 1st constituent has secondary stress or none andthe 2nd primary stress

Also typical of phrases (the latter are not compounds!)

A blue bell a bluebell


Lexical stress in Eng:

Complex COMPOUNDwords


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Lexical stress in Eng: Complex COMPOUND words

Late stress (LS): continued

A+N

fast food good manners

running water second hand

Compound adjectives/adverbs

long-haired faint-hearted

pitch-black sky-blue

1.Word/lexical stress rules Lexical stress in Eng: Complex COMPOUND words

Late stress (LS)

N+N when the first constituent refers to a(n)

-number: four-wheeler, three-piece-period of time: afternoon tea, Christmas Eve-ingredient in a concoction: apple pie, fruit salad-material sth is made of: gold ring, rubberduck

-thoroughfare name: Fifth Avenue, Melrose Road

Except those with cake, water,juice and street(e.g. chocolatecake, soda water, lemon juice, Oxford Street)

Stress beyond the word domain

Contrastive focus

Stress shift

Lexical stress vs. Rhythmic stress

3. Stress beyond the word domain 3. Stress beyond the word domain

Contrastive focus

ES/LS patterns can be reversed for contrastivepurposes in connected speech

beauty contest but.

its not a beauty contest, but a beauty commercial

running water but.I said running water, not stagnant water

eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen

3. Stress beyond the word domain

Stress shift (simple & complex words)

Original primary & secondary stresses swapped roundwhen the latter found in N phrases. Plausible reason:to avoid 2 primary stresses together.

Affixed words: academic vs. academic year

princess vs. Princess Di thirteen vs. thirteen people

Compounds: week-end vs. week-end party second-hand vs. second-hand books full-time vs. full-time job



Lexical stress patterns are potential stresses (theyonly tell us what syllable/s would be stressed/unstressedif the word is stressedand under normal conditions)

But in connected speech (in the context of atone/intonation unit), any word may be

stressed (and show predictable stress patterns)

stressed (but have a different stress pattern fordifferent reasons, e.g. stress shift)

unstressed (not prominent at all)


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Because of this, in the transcription ofconnected speech, only are rhythmic stresses aremarked, not lexical/word stresses. This means that

Monosyllables may have a stress mark (if they arerhythmically stressed)

Polysyllables may have no stress (no stress markis used then) or may have a different stress pattern

References Compulsory reading:

Roach, P. 2001.English Phonetics and Phonology. A PracticalCourse. CUP. Chaps. 9, 10, 11 & 12 (Strong & Weak Syllables;Stress in simple words; Complex word stress; Weak forms).

Recommended readings:

Monroy Casas, R. 1991.Acento Lxico. Reglas de AcentuacinInglesa. Madrid: SGEL.

Clark, J., & Yallop, C. 199].An Introduction to Phonetics andPhonology. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell. Chap. 8. Prosody:section 8.6. Stress in English & section 8.7. Stress assignment.

Snchez Benedito, F. 1994.Manual de pronunciacin inglesacomparada con la espaola. Madrid: Alhambra-Longman.Chap. 5. Acento, Ritmo y Entonacin. Section 5.1. Acento

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Unit 12 English Phonetics Lecture 18