STRESS

Module: 4 
Posted by: Lieni Immarie R. Monteron   
Sources:1. EFCOM by Milagros Castillo-Espina
          2. Effective Speech Communication in Various Situation    
                         by Judy L. Igoy and Apolinario S. Saymo          
         3. Speech and Oral Communication for College Students           
                    by Rafaela H. Diaz    


 
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At the end of this topic, the learners are expected to:
  • Define stress;
  • Identify the different types of stress;
  • Use the stress in the word.
Stress – sometimes called accent.
-          it is the loudness or softness with which the vowel, diphthong or a syllable is uttered.
-          The most important syllable bears the primary stress at the next must important has the secondary stress as in the word organization.

Types of stress
  1. (/) primary or loudest stress, in a unit of speech.
  2. (\) secondary or second loudest stress in a unit of speech.
  3. (^) tertiary or third loudest (next to softness) stress in a unit of speech.
  4. (˘) weak or the least stress given to any element of the unit.
Note: a unit of a speech means what some linguists call a phonemic phrase, an utterance with primary stress and only one.


Some Basic Rules on Stress

  1. Content words carry lexical meaning in themselves, such as manual, jeopardized, pretty and gradually traditional content words are stressed.
Ex. Nouns – Patience is a virtue. (trait, gift, quality)
                       Answer the call.(phone, letter, charge)             
     I demand a change.(warning, renewal, trial)
Verbs – The collector changed the man (found, accused, reported)     
                        Please write legibly (draw, record, account)
                     I heard the noise (detected, recognized, traced)    
 Adjectives – they look sad (weary, lonely, desperate)
  It is an exciting day! (lively, bright, lifting)
  She is a lovely  bride (shy, pretty, petite)
            Adverbs – talk clearly (audibly, glibly, articulately)
He delivered his speech glibly (clearly, calmly, persuasively) The delivered the goods hurriedly (quickly, cautiously, promptly) 

Function words have little or no lexical meanings but merely indicate grammatical relationships. They serve to vary the functions of the content words with which they appear.

Function words are unstressed:
  1. preposition – I went to movies yesterday.
  2. articlesthe men are on strike.
  3. correlatives or determinersneither work is advisable.
  4. relative pronounce – the man who came is my uncle.
  5. personal pronounceI am the chairman.
  6. the pronoun one as a substitute:
take the red one
I met the bright one
      7. helping verb or auxiliaries:
She is sleeping
            I have known him for a long time now.
(Note: “to have” forms as principal verbs as stressed)
                        Ex. I have a gift.
      8. linking verb – he is pleasant to talk to.
            Note; these verbs are stressed.
            a)when they are found in the final position.
            b.)when used in reiterative patterns or tag questions.
Ex. Didn’t they?
      Are you?
     Isn’t it?

  • Can’t also is slightly stressed in order to distinguish its meaning from the positive can which is unstressed.
Ex. Can we swim?
       No, he can’t.
 
  • The first of two nouns used together generally receives primary stress:
Ex. College student                           cocktail party
      Term paper                                  guest room
       Desk pan                                    water color
 
  • In two word verbs, which are composed of a verb and adverb the second component receives the primary stress while the first component receives the secondary stress.
Ex. Come in               stand up                     put on
       Get off                  pick up                        take off

The general rule of sentence stress does not apply when:

    1. The speaker wants to call attention to a word which normally is unstressed.
=you’ll find the back on the desk.(not under)
    1. Because of a succession of stressed syllables the speaker lends to unstressed an intervening stress:
=that’s Ryan’s best composition.
(/)- survey                   (˘) - ălone
      Teacher                      ăbove
      Concert                      bĕlow
Guide Questions:
Place the primary stress on the following words.
  1. articulation
  2. cemetery
  3. colleague
  4. seventy seven
  5. desert (v)
  6. semester
  7. professor
  8. coupon
  9. committee
  10. tolerance
  11. orator
  12. indigent
  13. adolescence
  14. ceremony
  15. association

1 comments:

Unknown said...

is there a so-called special stress?thanks for the response.:)

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