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Word Stress - Coggle Diagram
Word Stress
The syllables in a word have different degrees of prominence. In English they generally distinguish three linguistically relevant degrees of stress:
Primary (strong, main, principal)
Secondary (half-strong, half-stressed)
Weak (unstressed)
To define the position of word stress in an individual word it is helpful to consider the following factors:
Phonological structure of the syllables or syllable weight is related to the status of a particular syllable in terms of the degree of sonority
The number of syllables in a word influences the number of stresses and to a certain extent the position of stress
The morphological factor , in particular, whether the word is simple, complex or compound. In complex the placement of stress depends on the type of suffix
Suffixes are divided into:
Stress-neutral do not affect the stress placement in the stem: -al, -able, -en, -ful, -ing, -ish, -less, -ness, -ly, -ment,-ous
Stress-fixing suffixes determine the placement of stress on a particular syllable of the stem: suffixes –ion, -ic, -ity, -ial, -ive attract stress to the syllable that precedes them
Stress attracting carry stress themselves: -ade, -eer, -ee, esque, -ette
According to its placement in a word stress can be fixed and free
In languages with a fixed stress the position of the word stress is restricted to a particular syllable in a multisyllabic word.
In languages with a free stress its location is not confined to a specific position in the word. In one word it may fall on the first syllable, in another on the second syllable, in the third word – on the last syllable and so on.
Difference between term “accent” and term “stress”
Accent
Generally refers to the pitch component of syllable prominence
Stress
Is more general term than accent because it includes both pitch and other components of syllable prominence
Dynamic part of word stress
Is achieved by greater force with which the syllable is prononuced.
Greater intensity and duration of the stressed syllable which contains a vowel of full articulation contribute to the effect of prominence. E.g.: English, German, Russian have dynamic word stress
The nature of word stress
Stress is a greater degree of prominence of a syllable or syllables as compared to the other syllables of the word.
The effect of prominence of the stressed syllable is achieved by a number of phonetic parameters such as :
pitch
loudness
length
vowel quality
Tonic (musical) type of word stress
This type of stress is the result of the change of pitch in the stressed syllable. E.g.: Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese