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Stress. Kuiper and Allan Chapter 6.3. Stress. Speakers perceive some syllables to be more prominent than others. A number of factors contribute: length loudness pitch quality. Exercise. Look at the following polysyllabic words.
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Stress Kuiper and Allan Chapter 6.3
Stress • Speakers perceive some syllables to be more prominent than others. • A number of factors contribute: • length • loudness • pitch • quality
Exercise Look at the following polysyllabic words. Find the syllable with the greatest stress and any other stressed syllables. industrial obligation explanation
Degrees of stress • Any word spoken in isolation has a syllable with primary (heavy) stress. • Other syllables may have lesser degrees of stress. • Some syllable are unstressed.
Notation for stress • Primary stress can be marked by a raised vertical mark at the beginning of the syllable. • Secondary stress by a low vertical mark at the beginning of the syllable. • «expl´»nation • Unstressed syllables have no mark.
Stress in connected speech • Stress patterns give rhythm to connected speech. • Some words are commonly unstressed in connected speech. • function words like the, a, and, for etc. • In English the approximate period between primary stressed syllables is equal. • stress timed rhythm • cf syllable timing ,e.g. French
Unstressing and vowel weakening • When a syllable becomes unstressed in connected speech the vowel quality often changes. • derive vs derivation • Some vowels are elided under reduced stress giving rise to syllabic consonants. • lessen > [lesn] • pedal > [pedl]
Rhythm and metre • Some traditional forms in poetry have metre. • Metre is a rhythmic template of stressed syllables to a line. • Two aspects: • the number of stressed syllables to a line • the sequence of stressed to unstressed syllables
Traditional metre • line lengths: • dimeter • trimeter • tetrameter • pentameter • hexameter
Traditional metre • stress sequences: • iamb ´»loun • trochee »lounli˘ • anapaest Int´»si˘d • dactyl »ter´bl
Rhythm and metre • No good poem’s rhythm totally adheres to its metre (otherwise it would be rhythmically boring). • Shakespeare uses iambic pentameter but it is hard to find a single line whose rhythm absolutely follows that metre.
Example Metre: Now 'is the 'winter 'of our 'discon'tent made 'glorious 'summer 'by this 'sun of 'York. Rhythm: 'Now is the 'winter of our 'discon'tent 'made 'glorious 'summer by this 'sun of 'York.