Stress mark names?

[hamptroneus]

Is there a special name for the stress mark itself (sometimes in the phonetic explanation there are forward-slashes and back-slashes)? Do they have names? I thought the rule was: one word, one stress? Please Help.

 

[BobK]

Is there a special name for the stress mark itself (sometimes in the phonetic explanation there are forward-slashes and back-slashes)? Do they have names? I thought the rule was: one word, one stress? Please Help.

I don't know about the name for the mark, although I imagine it has one. You need to be aware that sometimes stress may coincide with another mark - as, incidentally, doesn't happen in the old spelling of "coïncide". In that case, the diaeresis doesn't coincide with stress, but in 'naïve' it does; so the name for a diacritic over a vowel that happens to be stressed in one word isn't necessarily a stress mark. (In a sense, it might be argued - though I wouldn't agree - that the diaeresis in "naïve" marks stress, to the extent that it makes clear that - unlike the 'i' in "waive" - it's 'i' is pronounced. Can anyone spell "straw man"? ;-))

But your rule is wrong. In polysyllables there's often primary stress and secondary stress - in 'polysyllable', for example.

b

 

[BobK]

PS

I defy anyone to say 'antidisestablishmentarianism' with only one stress.

b