1. 2016 January 14
Stress

2. What is stress? Syllable-level property Increased volume/amplitude
More prominence
Higher in pitch
Longer in duration

3. Diacritic for stress [ˈ] = used for primary stress
Placed before the stressed syllable.
Controversy
RP: conˈtroversy
SAE: ˈcontroversy

4. Properties of stress Some languages have stress in a fixed position:
French
aˈmi ‘friend’; amicaleˈment ‘kindly’; heuˈreuse ‘happy (fm sg)’; heureuseˈment ‘happily’
Final stress

5. Properties of stress Finnish
ˈkiitos ‘thanks’; ˈanteeksi ‘excuse me’; ˈisomaa ‘large’; ˈpikkunen ‘small’
Word-initial stress

6. Properties of stress Some languages have weight-dependent stress
Syllable weight
Some languages distinguish between “heavy” and “light” syllables
“Heavy” syllables attract stress

7. Rhythm English is a stress-timed language
Stress-timed language: tendency for stressed syllables to occur at regular intervals
Most other languages are syllable-timed

8. Rhythm BIRDS EAT WORMS The BIRDS EAT WORMS The BIRDS EAT the WORMS
The BIRDS will EAT the WORMS
The BIRDS will have EATEN the WORMS
The unstressed words will have schwas.

9. What are heavy syllables?
Sometimes a syllable with a coda
Sometimes a syllable with a long vowel
Language dependent

10. Question of the day
Can you think of any two English words that are minimal pairs through only stress (placement)?

11. Stress in English English has lexical stress
We can form near-minimal pairs with stress placement
ˈreject vs reˈject
ˈobject vs obˈject
ˈsubject vs subˈject
First syllable stress – nouns; second syllable stress - verbs

12. Word stress
There are some general rules where you can predict stress placement in many – but NOT ALL – words.
Noun rule: stress the penultimate syllable if heavy
If penultimate syllable is light, stress the antepenult.

13. Word stress Penultimate – one before the final syllable
Antepenultimate – two before the final syllable
a.RO.ma
a.GEN.da
DI.sci.pline

14. Word stress Verb rule: stress the final syllable if heavy
If the final syllable is light, stress the penult
o.BEY
u.SURP
a.TONE
TA.lly
HU.rry

15. Now, let’s take a look at this…
Flapping
[ɾ]
Why do native English speakers “flap” when we see words like “butter” and “water”?

16. Take a look at the following data
[ɹaɪd] ‘ride’ [ˈɹaɪɾɚ] ‘rider’
[ɹaɪt] ‘write’ [ˈɹaɪɾɚ] ‘writer’
[daɪɹ] ‘dire’ [taɪɹ] ‘tire’
[ˈɹaɪɾɪŋ] ‘riding’ [ˈɹaɪɾɪŋ] ‘writing’
[ˈlɛndɚ] ‘lender’ [ˈistɚ] ‘Easter’
[əˈtæk] ‘attack’ [əˈdobi] ‘adobe’

17. Where does flapping take place?
Between vowels
First vowel must be stressed; second vowel must be unstressed
What’s the rule for this?

18. Phrasal stress
When words are combined into phrases or sentences, one syllable receives greater stress than all others
Only one primary stress per phrase/sentence (much like only one primary stress per word)

19. Examples
Tight + rope  A TIGHTrope ‘a rope for acrobats’ A tight ROPE ‘a rope pulled taut’ Hot + dog  A HOTdog ‘frankfurter [sausage]’ A hot DOG ‘an overheated dog’

20. Examples
Red + coat  A REDcoat ‘a British soldier’ A red COAT ‘a coat that is red’ White + house  The WHITE house ‘the President’s home’ A white HOUSE ‘a house that is white’

21. Examples
How about these?
Glass flower case
Garbage can collector

22. Phrasal stress
What other compound nouns vs. adjectival phrases can we come up with (with the same words in each)?
Does this phrasal stress tendency work?

23. So, what does phrasal stress do here?
Stress on first part of each pair
Indicates compound nouns
Stress on second element of each pair
Indicates adjective + noun combination