DEFINITIONS AND INTRODUCTION:

World languages, according to Todd (1991), seem to be divided into two types, 'syllable-

timed' languages like French where syllables are produced at regular intervals of time and

where and stress occurs randomly; and 'stress-timed' languages like English where stresses

occur at regular intervals with a random number of syllables occurring between stresses. In

the above mentioned types of languages, stress seems to be the 'bone of contention.'

Questions may arise in one's mind about what is stress and how much importance does it

carry in a language. Following are some of the areas explored relating to stress in English,

since it is a 'stress-time' language.

Many linguists have defined the term "stress" differently, although the purpose they serve is

almost the same. Some of the definitions are given as under:

"Stress is the label given to the pattern of stronger and weaker syllables in a word, or in a

string of words." (Townhead & Walker, 1998).

"By stress is meant the relative loudness of a syllable (in comparison to that of other syllables

in the same utterance).” (Friend, 1967)

And according to Lyons (2003), stress is essentially a matter of the greater prominence of one

syllable in relation to other syllables in the same form (or accompanying forms).

Stress, along with intonations, pitch, tone, volume and speed is dealt as a group of features

known as Supra-segmental Phonology, or Prosody.

The syllable which is pronounced with a bit of strength is said to be the stressed syllable. For

example, "in a word such as garden the stress is on the first syllable, gar-, while in forget, the

stress is on the second syllable, get." (Townhead & Walker, 1998)

But, in viewpoint of Friend (1967), this is not a matter of special emphasis. Such normal

stress differences are built into the structure of the language though they are not indicated in

our writing-system.
The question then arises that how we can identify the stressed syllables from unstressed

syllables. One thing is obvious. There are no hard and fast rules for the indication of stress on

certain syllables. So we need to consult some good dictionary and memorize the

pronunciation of the given word as it is. Another way of approaching question is that "we can

study stress from the point of view of production and of perception; the two are obviously

closely related, but are not identical." (Roach, 2003)

Can stress be measured? If yes, how? There are certain levels and degrees, on the basis of

which we can compare and analyze the stress pattern of that word in comparison to other

levels. By degree or level of stress we mean that how much a syllable is to be stressed in

order to make it prominent in listening. "Modern English has four such significant degrees of

stress—four phonemes of stress, as many linguists would say. These are called primary,

secondary, tertiary, and weak; they are conventionally marked with the acute accent, the

circumflex accent, the grave accent, and the breve, respectively. In such a phrase as

"wáshǐng mǎchìne rěpairmǎn" one can hear all four." (Friend, 1967)

HOW STRESS PATTERNS FUNCTION:

Change in stress can be tricky sometimes i.e. with the change in stress pattern of a word, the

sound as well as the meaning of the word can be changed. "A shift in stress pattern can

indicate a shift in the way a word functions. Thus, when 'permit' functions as a noun, the

stress is on the first syllable:

This is your ΄permit.

When it is used as a verb, however, the word takes the stress on the second syllable:

Per΄mit me to say. (Todd, 1991)

Let's take another example of the same sort. Take the word contract. It can give two different

sounds and meanings with a little bit of change in the stress. "Ćontract is a noun, meaning a
legal agreement … while con'tract, a verb, means to become smaller …" (Townhead &

Walker, 1998)

From the above given examples, we can draw a general conclusion that in two syllable

words, on nouns or adjectives, the stress is normally on the first syllable e.g. ΄accent, ΄export,

΄object, ΄perfect, con΄summate, ΄present etc. And in verbs, second syllable is the one usually

stressed e.g. ac΄cent, consum΄mate, pre΄fect, ob΄ject etc. There are some cases where both the

syllables are stressed e.g. Chinese, canteen, cheesy etc.

STRESS IN CONNECTED SPEECH:

In extensive conversations and long speeches, not all the words are stressed. There are some

unstressed words that often take the weak form. An example given by Townhead and Walker

(1998) would be helpful here. The exampled sentence goes like this:

The girls and boys had cake for tea.

And its pronunciation, according to the native professional speakers using what may be called

as the BBC English, will be something like as under:

The girlz mm boyz hag cake fuh tea.

The word 'm' for and is a weak form. Other weak forms of and are un, und, 'n, 'nd etc. Many

of these have the sound /ә/, not the sound of /ă/. A weak form is an unstressed version of a

word.

Another example of a common weak form given by Townhead and Walker (1998) is /әv/. If

written separate, one can hardly tell that it is the weak form of of, as in 'it was good of you to

come', or a weak form of have, as in 'you could have (could've) done this'. So the same weak

forms are used for of and have. "This explains how the erroneous phrase 'should of' has crept

into the language, because in the weak form, how is a child to know whether the fully

extended word is have or of?" (Townhead & Walker, 1998)

ENGLISH STRESS PATTERNS:

Another typical pattern in English stress patterns in connected speech is dependant on the

type of words being used. Usually there are two types of words in connected speech;

1. Content Words 2. Functional Words

Content words are the ones which normally carry the major stress in continuous speech.

These words keep on changing as we move along the text and include the nouns, the verbs,

and the adjectives etc. Functional words, unlike the content words, are the little grammatical

words that take the weak form in continuous speech and are fixed. This can, sometimes, be

difficult for learners because many of these small, unstressed words have the same vowel

sound, the schwa sound /ә/ in continuous speech as the above given examples indicate.

UNUSUAL STRESS PATTERNS:

This situation is directly in contrast to the couple of above stated paragraphs on weak form of

stress. Sometimes, there are situations where small grammatical words are stressed to denote

something significant. For example if your friend tells you that ENGL 303 is 'an interesting

and difficult course at the same time', you will perceive that although this course if

interesting, this will be demanding as well. "The stress on a word that is normally weak

contributes significantly to the implied meaning." (Townhead & Walker, 1998)

REFERENCES:

• Friend, Joseph H. (1967). An Introduction to English Language. Ohio: The

World Publishing Company.

• Todd, Loreto (1991). An Introduction to Linguistics. England: York Press.

• Townhead, J., & Walker, J. (1998). Structure of Language, Spoken and

Written English. England: Whurr Publishers.

• Lyons, John (2003). Language and Linguistics, an introduction. England:

Cambridge University Press.

• Roach, Peter (2003). English Phonetics and Phonology. England: Cambridge

University Press.