LING2002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Phonetics, Fundamental Frequency, Aust
Monday, 29 May 2017
LECTURE 25
THE PHONOLOGY OF STRESS
-The nature of stress
•Stress is fundamentally a matter of the relative prominence of syllables
-i.e. Relative to other syllables in the same larger units
•There are no absolute levels of stress
-It is primarily a matter of whether syllable is more or less prominent than another syllable
•Ex/ [fɐ̀ʊnətɪ́
ʃən] ‘phonetician’
-Physical correlates
•Stress is a complex phenomenon phonetically and does not correspond to any single or consistent
phonetic quality
-Variations on intensity, fundamental frequency (pitch) and duration
•Not necessarily the syllable with the greatest intensity
-Sometimes despite perceived loudness
•In English, intonational pitch is associated with stress
-So, an abstract representation of prominence
-Levels of stress
•Stress can occur phonetically in multiple degrees
-Within words,
•The syllable with the greatest prominence: primary stress
•One or more other syllables in a word may have a lower level of prominence: secondary
stress
•Syllables with the least prominence are usually described as unstressed
-Typically grammatical words
-Ex/ [fɐ̀ʊnətɪ́
ʃən] ‘phonetician’
•[tɪ́
] has primary stress
•[fɐ̀ʊ] has secondary stress
•[nə] and [ʃən] are unstressed
(1
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Monday, 29 May 2017
-A note on notation
•Primary stress:
-IPA [‘] before stressed syllable
-Or acute accent over vowel: é
•Secondary stress:
-IPA [,] before stressed syllable
-Or grave accent over vowel: è
•[ˌfɐʊnəˈtɪʃən] or [fɐ̀ʊnətɪ́
ʃən] ‘phonetician’
-Speaker awareness of stress
•Speakers of stress languages such as English are of course aware of stress, at least unconsciously,
as an integrated part of the pronunciation of a word,
-And can readily identify stress in an unexpected position:
•Ex/ university [ jʏ̀nəvɜsətíː ]
-But many speakers have difficulty identifying stress locations and levels in standard
pronunciations
•Ex/ [ jʏ̀nəvɜ́ːsəti ]
-So, try stressing different syllables to exclude possibilities
•Vowels are commonly reduced to(wards) [ə] in unstressed syllables in English
-Ex/ melody [ mélədì ], melodic [ məlɔ́́dɪk ]
-Stress above the word level
•The primary stress on one word in an utterance may be greater or less than the primary stress on
another word in that utterance
-English tends to favour the right
-Ex/ With neutral declarative intonation (without trying to put special emphasis on any particular
part):
•The phònetícian told them a stóry.
-Phrasal structure
•Above the word level, stress largely reflects syntactic constituent structure
-Ignoring emphatic stress placement
(2
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Monday, 29 May 2017
•In English noun phrases, the final head noun usually has a greater prominence than the modifiers
that precede it
-(Again assuming neutral declarative intonation):
•‘Her two big black dogs’
•In English , the different principles of stress at the word and higher levels is much of what makes the
phonetic distinction between phrases and compounds
-The compound is a single word and the general principles of stress placement within English
words make the second last syllable of this word more prominent
-Emphatic stress
•Stress can also be used to indicate special emphasis on a word, phrase or larger structure
-Often contrastive emphasis: “It’s not YOUR book, it’s MY book!”
•This can partially override the default relative stress levels within the utterance
-It can maintain regular word-level stress placement; emphatic stress adds to regular word-level
stress
•“It’s not the phoneTIcian’s book, it’s MY book!”
-Override it
•“It’s illegal”
-It may also override phrase or higher level stress
•“Her two big black dogs”
-Stress and intonation
•Primary stress in words is the anchor for intonational melodies in many languages
•An English calling melody:
-Intonational melody is fitted to the words such that the peak (H*) is associated with the primary
stressed syllable of most prominent word:
•ìsadóra vs ísadòre
(3
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Document Summary
The nature of stress: stress is fundamentally a matter of the relative prominence of syllables i. e. relative to other syllables in the same larger units, there are no absolute levels of stress. It is primarily a matter of whether syllable is more or less prominent than another syllable: ex/ [f n t n] phonetician". Physical correlates: stress is a complex phenomenon phonetically and does not correspond to any single or consistent phonetic quality. Variations on intensity, fundamental frequency (pitch) and duration: not necessarily the syllable with the greatest intensity. Sometimes despite perceived loudness: in english, intonational pitch is associated with stress. Levels of stress: stress can occur phonetically in multiple degrees. Within words: the syllable with the greatest prominence: primary stress, one or more other syllables in a word may have a lower level of prominence: secondary stress, syllables with the least prominence are usually described as unstressed.
