Stress: is the power that we put on the syllable to make it longer and stronger , i.e. to make the syllable prominent distinguished.
There are four items decide the place of stress:
*Grammar : lexical & functional word.
*Word class .
*Number of syllables.
*Morphology : simple & complex.
Lexical & Functional Words
Almost the functional words are weakened. But in four situation they are given stress :
* If they are at the end of the sentence:
e.g. It is 'you.
*When they are contrasted :
e.g. It is from 'him not to 'him..
*When they are emphasis :
e.g. It’s 'him who told me.
*When they are cited or quoted:
e.g. You never put “'and” at the end of a sentence.
Word class & Number of syllable:-
The word with a syllable:- is stressed .
Words with two syllables :-
_ Verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, nouns : if the final syllable is having long vowel or diphthong or ends with more than one consonant, we get it stress . If it’s not; check the syllable before.
e.g. 'doctor
a'long
Words with three syllables :-
_ Verb , adverb : start checking the final syllable, if it is having long vowel or diphthong or ends with more than one consonant, we get it stress . If it’s not; check the syllable before.
_ Nouns , adjective : start checking the first syllable, if it is having long vowel or diphthong or ends with more than one consonant, we get it stress . If it’s not ; check the next syllable.
_ Some suffixes carry the stress:
ese -- Ja pa'nese
ain --
ee -- re fu 'gee
eer -- mou n tia 'neer
ette -- ci ga 'rette
eque -- pic tu 'resque
_ Some suffixes don’t effect in the stress of the original word.
ish -- 'de vi lish
ing -- co 'cer ning
ful -- 'beau ti ful
en -- 'spo ken
age -- 'an cho rage
able -- 'com for ta ble
al -- re 'fu sal
_ Some suffixes don’t carry the stress, but effect in the stress of the word, i.e. words end with these suffixes , the syllable preceded these suffixes carries the stress:
eous -- ad van 'ta geous
graph -- pho 'to graph
ail -- pro 'ver bial
ic -- cli 'ma tic
(s/t )ion -- in for 'ma tion
ion -- per 'fec tion
ent -- pro 'mi nent
ance -- im' por tance
ive -- re 'fle xive
_ Some words end with the suffixes below , count three syllable from the end of the word, the third is stressed (antipenttimate):
ity
ly
y
Compound Word:-
The general rule is the first element carry the stress . But sometimes thestress moves to the second element :
_ If the first element is a number.
e.g. four-'wheels.
_ If the first element is adjective and the second ends with (ed).
e.g. bad-'tempered.
_ If the compound word is functioned as an adverb.
e.g. South-'East.
_ If the compound word is functioned as a verb.
e.g. ill-'treat.