1
Q
What is stress?
A
Stress is a relative force with which a given sound, syllable or word is pronounced. A stressed word syllable or sound will have a greater degree of loudness than an unstressed word, syllable or sound.
2
Q
Degrees of stress
A
5 degrees of stress:
- Main stress - found on the prominent syllables of prominent words in the sentence.
- Secondary stress - in addition to the main stress, words of several syllables can have second stress (conversation)
- Subsidiary-main stress - a degree of stress somewhat weaker than the main stress but stronger than the secondary stress (don’t leave it)
- Emphatic stress - very strong, used for the sake of emphasis (I want YOU to take it)
- Weak stress - the absence of stress
3
Q
Kinds of stress
A
There are two kind of stress:
- Word stress - every word containing two or more syllables can have a type of stress.
- Sentence stress - certain words and syllables will have a particular kind of stress according to their function, significance and importance they have in the sentence.
4
Q
The effect of loss of stress on vowels
A
- Reduction from main to secondary: it undergoes a loss of quantity only
- Vowels in unstressed syllables:
- all long vowels become short and lax
- the vowels /e/ and /i/ when unstressed are pronounced /i/
