Stress

Stress means prominence. The quality of sound is noticeable. It attracts attention.

Stress is a term that we apply to words in isolation which have more than one syllable. It refers to the property that certain syllables carry which makes them stand out from the rest of the word.

It seems certain that stressed syllables are made with more effort than unstressed ones; the muscles in the lungs seem to expel air more aggressively than for unstressed syllables.

The prominence that these syllables exhibit is usually shown in four ways.

1. PITCH 2. LENGTH 3. LOUDNESS 4. QUALITY

Any of these four factors can occur alone, or in combination, to produce the prominence that marks a stressed syllable from an unstressed one.

The notation of stress is the high mark demonstrated in the following examples:

/ˡIŋglIʃ/ for stress on the first syllable./əˡgen/ for stress on the second syllable./ʌndəˡstænd/for stress on the third syllable.

In some, usually longer words, it is possible to pick out a second, weaker, stressed syllable from the primary stress. This is known as secondary stress and it is notated with the low mark eg:

/ ˌfeʊtəˡgræfIk/

In this example, the third syllable is more pronounced than the first syllable, but the first syllable is still more prominent than the other syllables and so carries the low mark.

1. PITCHPitch is an auditory sensation that places sounds on a scale from high to low. Every syllable has pitch, however, any syllable that is articulated with a noticably different pitch will be said to carry stress. This can go either way: if all the syllables are said in a low pitch except one, then that higher pitch syllable will be recognised at carrying the stress of the word.Pitch also plays a central role in intonation.

2. LENGTHLength seems to play a role in stress. Generally, if one syllable has a longer length than the others in the word then it is recognised as the one carrying stress. Length is one of the more important determiners of stress.

3. LOUDNESSIt seems obvious that if one syllable is articulated louder than the others then it will have achieved some prominence from the other syllables. This prominence would then make that syllable the stressed syllable. However, it is very difficult to make a sound louder without affecting the LENGTH , PITCH or QUALITY of that syllable. If you could only change the loudness of a sound then the perceptual change is not as great as you would expect.

4. QUALITY A syllable will carry prominence if it contains a vowel that is different in quality from the surrounding vowels. This effect is usually achieved by having a strong vowel in the midst of weak ones. The prominence of the strong vowel is contrasted with the weaker vowels.

How to determine where stress lies.

English is not a language that follows precise rules for the placement of stress. In French, the last syllable is usually the stressed one; in Polish, it is usually the penultimate one; and in Czech, it is the first syllable that is stressed. Unfortunately, English has a very complex set of procedures that determine stress. Nearly all English speakers agree on where stress should be placed in individual words so our system of stress does have some method to its madness.