Word Stress & Sentence Stress Huang Wanmei

Review of Vowels Three factors for the description of English vowels I. The height of the body of the tongue – highest point of tongue (vertical axis); II. The front-back position of the tongue – highest point of tongue (horizontal axis); III. The degree of lip rounding - lip posture

The height of the body of the tongue

The front-back position of the tongue

Description of the vowels Front & Central Vowels /:/ high, front, unrounded vowel // lower high, front, unrounded vowel /e/ mid, front, unrounded vowel /æ/ low, front, unrounded vowel /:/ mid, central, unrounded vowel /ə/ mid, central, unrounded vowel

Back Vowels /:/ low, back, unrounded vowel // low, back, rounded vowel /:/ mid-low, back, rounded vowel /u/ lower high, back, rounded vowel /u:/ high, back, rounded vowel // lower mid, back, unrounded vowel

Unit 8: Word Stress English is a stress timed language The English language is often referred to as stress-timed. Stress in a spoken sentence occurs at regular intervals and the time to say something depends on the number of stressed syllables rather than the number of syllables itself. 1 2 3 4 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4 1 and then a 2 and then a 3 and then a 4

Word Stress A word stress means a prominent syllable word pattern tea.cher • . beau.ti.ful • . . un.der.stand . . • con.ti.nue . • .

How to pronounce word stress? When a syllable is stressed, it is pronounced longer in duration higher in pitch louder in volume

How do you say teacher? TEA cher Longer teeeeeeeeeeee cher Higher tea Louder TEA cher All three combined TEEEEEEEEEEE

Word Stress Rule Word type Where is the stress? Examples Two syllables Nouns on the first syllable center object flower Verbs on the last syllable release admit arrange Compound Nouns (N + N) (Adj. + N) on the first part desktop pencil case bookshelf greenhouse Adjectives (Adj. + P.P.) on the last part (the verb part) well-meant hard-headed old-fashioned Verbs (prep. + verb) understand overlook outperform

the syllable before the ending economic Geometric electrical Word type Where is the stress? Examples Phrasal Verbs on the particle turn off buckle up hand out Word with added ending -ic the syllable before the ending economic Geometric electrical -tion, -cian, -sion Technician graduation cohesion -phy, -gy, -try, -cy, -fy, -al the third from the last syllable Photography biology geometry -meter Parameter Thermometer barometer

Sentence Stress in English Sentence stress is the music of spoken English. Like word stress, sentence stress can help you to understand spoken English, especially when spoken fast. Sentence stress is what gives English its rhythm or "beat". You remember that word stress is accent on one syllable within a word. Sentence stress is accent on certain words within a sentence.

Most sentences have two types of word: content words structure words Content words are the key words of a sentence. They are the important words that carry the meaning or sense. Structure words are not very important words. They are small, simple words that make the sentence correct grammatically. If you remove the structure words from a sentence, you will probably still understand the sentence.

Imagine that you receive this telegram message: SELL CAR GONE FRANCE SELL my CAR I’ve GONE to FRANCE Will you SELL my CAR because I’ve GONE to FRANCE

2 1 3 Will you SELL my CAR because I’ve GONE to FRANCE

Rules for Sentence Stress in English The basic rules of sentence stress are: content words are stressed structure words are unstressed the time between stressed words is always the same

Content words - stressed Words carrying the meaning Example main verbs SELL, GIVE, EMPLOY nouns CAR, MUSIC, MARY adjectives RED, BIG, INTERESTING adverbs QUICKLY, LOUDLY, NEVER negative auxiliaries DON'T, AREN'T, CAN'T Structure words - unstressed Words for correct grammar Example pronouns he, we, they prepositions on, at, into articles a, an, the conjunctions and, but, because auxiliary verbs do, be, have, can, must