Mastering Syllables & Word Stress in English Pronunciation

1. English Pronunciation Practice英语语音技巧突破 Lecture 5 Syllables and Stress 音节与重音

2. Warming up activity • tap pet sit myth tape Pete site myarm warm her first care here there fire • Do you think reading English is like singing a song?

3. Definition of syllables 音节的定义 • A unit of spoken language consisting of a single uninterrupted sound formed by a vowel, diphthong, or syllabic consonant alone, or by any of these sounds preceded, followed, or surrounded by one or more consonants.

4. Application of syllables 音节的应用 • There are four kinds of syllables: open syllables, closed syllables, -r syllables and –re syllables. • Open syllables: A syllable ending in a vowel. eg. name, go, use • Closed syllable: A syllable ending in a consonant. eg. tub, not, cap • -r syllable: A stressed syllable composed of a vowel and –r eg. fur, thirty, her • -re syllable: A stressed syllable composed of a vowel and –re eg. tire, sure, before

5. Practice 练习 • Read the following words by oneself and then in pairs, paying attention each word’s pronunciation in different syllable. • time type home new huge hot pet met let • term nursery or party cure pure more fire

6. Stressed Syllables and Unstressed Syllables

7. What does Stress in Speech mean? • In speech, stress may be defined as the degree of intensity or loudness placed on a sound; the amount of force one puts on a syllable or a word to give it importance.

8. What is Word Stress? • A word stress means a prominent/stressed/strong syllable within a word.

9. Stressed Syllables & Unstressed Syllables Stressed syllables are strong syllables. Unstressed syllables are weak syllables. Stressed syllables: • are long • have a pitch change • have full vowel sounds. Unstressed syllables: • are short • often have a reduced vowel sound.

10. Three degrees of stress • Primary stress: strong emphasis • Secondary stress: less strong emphasis • Zero stress: no emphasis • Eg: timetable operation

11. How to pronounce word stress? When a syllable is stressed, it is pronounced • longer in duration • higher in pitch • louder in volume

12. How do you say teacher?

13. Different types of weak syllables • The schwa • a -- attend, character, barracks, again, ballad, necklace, workaday, workable, elephant ar -- particular, molar, monarchy • ate -- intimate, accurate, desolate • o -- tomorrow, potato, carrot • or -- forget, ambassador, opportunity • e -- settlement, violet, postmen • er --perhaps, stronger, superman • u -- autumn, support, halibut • ough -- thorough, borough • ous -- gracious, callous

14. Any English vowel letter can be pronounced with the schwa // allow a firemen e possible i // command o support u

15. Some Rules for Word Stress

17. General Rules of Word Stress

18. 1. Most English word of two or three syllables, the stress falls on the first syllable, e.g. 'apple 'carry 'problem 'holiday 'primary

19. 2.Words of three or more syllables, the stress normally falls on the third syllable form the end: 'family 'recognize de'mocracy phy'losophy e'conomy

20. 3.Words of two or three syllables with one of the following prefixes (前缀), the stress usually falls on the syllable following the prefix a- a'bove a'long be- be'come be'low com- com'bine com'pare con- con'tain con'nect de- de'tect de'sign em- em'bark em'ploy en- enc'ourage en'gage es- es'cape es'pecial ex- ex'change ex'cuse im- im'portant im'ply in- in'form in'tend ob- ob'tain ob'serve per- per'mit per'form pre- pre'pare pre'pay pro- pro'pose pro'mote sub- sub'mit sub'ective trans- trans'form tran'slate

21. 4. Words with the following suffixes, the stress nearly always on the syllable preceding the suffix -ian mu'sician poli'tician -ic a'tomic demo'cratic -ical 'physical po'litical -id 'solid 'stupid -ial 'social 'partial -ion revo'lution dis'cussion -ify 'simplify 'beautify -ible 'possible 'terrible -ient suf'ficient 'patient -ience 'patience ex'perience -ity possi'bility responsi'biity -ish 'foolish 'punish -eous cou'rageous 'hideous -ious 'conscious de'licious -ive 'native pro'gressive -ant im'portant de'pendant

22. Note: The following suffixed do not influence the place of word-stress: -ed, -es, -er, -est, -or, -ary, -ory, -ment, -ous, -cy, -ry, -ty, -al, -ure, -ute, -ble, -ar, -ly, -less, -ness, -ful, -ing. • 'prision-'prisoner move-'movement • 'conquer-'conqueror 'carry- 'carrying • 'custom-'customary 'beauty-'beautiful • 'proper-'property 'sorrow-'sorrowness • quick-'quickly help-'helpless

23. 5. Some suffixes attract the primary stress (主重音) onto themselves. There is a secondary stress on the first syllable in words with such suffixes. Suffixed of this kind are as follows: -ain, -ee, -eer, -ier, -ade, -ival, -itis, -mental (-ental). Examples: • 'refuge- ,refu'gee • em'ploy- ,employ'ee • 'engine- ,engi'neer • 'mountain- ,mountai'neer • 'fundament- ,funda'mental • 'accident- ,acci'dental • 'lemon- ,lemo'nade

24. Note: But there is no stress on the prefix • if the word which is formed by means of the strong prefix is in common use, e.g., im'possible, un'uaual, • if the word to which it is addes is not in common use, e.g., un'bounded, un'wieldly used). • if the word does not correspond to the meaning which it has without the prefix, e.g., over'come, mis'give (not commected in meaning with the verb 'to come' and the verb 'to give').

25. *The semantic factor in English word-stress gives way to the rhythmical factor. Since there is a tendency to alternate stressed and unstressed syllables, a double-stressed word may lose one of its stresses if a stressed syllable immediately precedes or follows. e.g. • 'thir'teen, • but 'thirteen 'hundred • or 'just thir'teen • 'sea'side • but 'seaside 'sports • 'unknown • but the 'unknown 'soldier

26. Lecture 6Definition of stress 重音的定义 • The relative force of sound or emphasis given a syllable or word in accordance with a metrical pattern

27. Application of stress 重音的应用 • In a sentence such words are stressed as noun, numeral, adjective, notional verb, adverb, pronoun, interjection; on the other side, such words are not stressed in a sentence as article, pronoun, conjunction and preposition.

28. Practice 练习 Read the following sentences paying attention to the stress of each sentence. • An elephant is an animal. • Her skirt is blue and white. • John is nine. • Mary loves her dolls. • He speaks English slowly and carefully. • Dear me!

29. Stressed Words and Unstressed Words in a Sentence • Sentence stress is the music of spoken English. Like word stress, sentence stress can help you to understand spoken English, especially when spoken fast. • Sentence stress is what gives English its rhythm or "beat". Word stress is accent on certain syllables within a word. Sentence stress is accent on certain words within a sentence.

30. Most sentences have two types of words: content words/ information words structure words/ function words Content words are the key words of a sentence. They are the important words that carry the meaning or sense. Structure words are not very important words. They are small, simple words that make the sentence correct grammatically. If you remove the structure words from a sentence, you will probably still understand the sentence.

31. Imagine that you receive this telegram message:

33. Rules for Sentence Stress in English The basic rules of sentence stress are: • content words are stressed • structure words are unstressed • the time between stressed words is always the same

34. Content words - stressed Structure words - unstressed

35. If you stress all the words in an utterance, you may sound unpleasant or even cause misunderstanding because 1. You are giving too much information, and 2. English speakers usually stress all words only when they are impatient or angry.

36. Three levels of stress in a sentence • Strong stress on focus words • Stress on content words • No stress on function words

37. Different Focus Stress expresses different meanings. Eg: He's back again.