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Stress and rhythm of English speech

Stress and rhythm of English speech. 1. Stressed syllables and unstressed syllables 2. Stressed words and unstressed words in a sentence 3. Rhythm of English speech. 1.1 What is stress? In speech, stress may be defined as the degree

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Stress and rhythm of English speech

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  1. Stress and rhythm of English speech

  2. 1. Stressed syllables and unstressed syllables 2. Stressed words and unstressed words in a sentence3. Rhythm of English speech

  3. 1.1 What is stress? In speech, stress may be defined as the degree of intensity or loudness placed on a sound; that is, the amount of force one puts on a syllable or word to give it importnace.

  4. 1.2 Some important rules • A stressed syllable may contain any one of the vowel sounds except the schwa. • Any vowel except /aʊ/ and /ɔ i/ can be reduced to /ə/ or /i/. • In spoken English, there are many more unstressed syllables than there are stressed syllables. This is why the two vowels, /ə/ and /i/ , are the most frequently used vowel sounds in spoken English.

  5. 1.3 Pronunciation tips There are three ways to signal the stressed syllables. Lengthen it: The vowel in the stressed syllable is longer. Say it louder with clear vowel: The stressed syllable has a full, clear vowel. Raise the pitch: The stressed syllable has a higher pitch.

  6. 1.4 There are three levels of stress in English words • primary stress • secondary stress • unstressed

  7. 1.5 Stress in compound proper nouns Compound proper nouns normally have a primary stress on the second element, except for the names of streets, like Forest Street. eg. Thanksgiving Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Long Island, New Jersey, New York, New York City, Forest Road, United Nations

  8. 1.6 Word stress for information (1) Compound nouns: stress the first word eg. BLUEprint (a plan for achieving something) Descriptive phrases: focus on the last word eg. blue PRINT (a pattern which is blue)

  9. Exercises: 1) Be careful with that ______ a. yellow JACKet (yellow article of clothing) b. YELlow jacket(yellow and black insect that stings) 2) I’ve always wanted a _______ a. green HOUSE (house painted green) b. GREENhouse (glass house for growing plants) 3) My father is a successful______ a. head DOCTOR (chief of staff) b. HEAD doctor (psychiatrist) 4) He is used to working in the ______ a. dark ROOM (a room with little or no light) b. DARKroom (a special room for develping film)

  10. 1.7 Word stress for information(2) Some nouns and verbs are spelled alike but are pronounced differently: the stress falls on different syllables. The vowels in the unstressed syllables sound unclear and like a schwa in many cases, especially in rapid informal speech.

  11. Exercises: 1) a. We need a PERmit to park here. b. Please perMIT us to park here. 2) a. That sounds like an INsult. b. Don’t inSULT the visitiors. 3) a. They sell PROduce at the market. b. Cars proDUCE a lot of smog. 4) a. Handle the OBject carefully. b. Do you obJECT to the change?

  12. 2.1 What to stress in a sentence? In an English utterance, stressed words give information and unstressed words join the information words together.

  13. 2.2 Information words and function words • Information words: nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. They give information about who, what , when, where, why and how. They carry the message and therefore are usually stressed. • Function words: articles, pronouns, possessives, prepositions, auxiliary verbs, and conjunctions. They only connect the information words to form grammatical sentences, so they are usually unstressed.

  14. 2.3 Excercises: 1) For MEN may COME and MEN may GO; 2) Would you LIKE an APPLE or a BANANA?

  15. 3. Rhythm of English Speech Every lang. has its own rhythmic patterns. English is very different from Chinese in its rhythmic patterns. eg. mississippi

  16. 3.1 Tips to sound rhythmic: 1) Make some parts of words stronger and clearer than other parts 2) Join parts of the words together 3) Arrange words into groups and join them together 4) Make some words stronger and clearer than other words

  17. 3.2 Rhythmic pattern in English 1 ONE /TWO /THREE /FOUR ONE and /TWO and/ THREE and/ FOUR 2 /Tom /John /Steve /Sam /Thomson /Johnson /Steven /Samson /Thomson and /Johnson and/Steven and /Samson /Thomson and then/Johnson and then/Steven and then/Samson

  18. 3.3 Practice: 1) Dialogue A: /Dinner’s / ready. / Come and / get it. B: /What’s for / dinner? A: /Something / special. B: /Something / special? A: /Chicken / curry. / Don’t you / like it? B: /Yes, I / love it. / What’s for / pudding? A: /Wait and / see.

  19. 2)Passage:There is an old saying: “Give a man a fish, you have fed him for today.Teach a man to fish, and you have fed him for a lifetime.” This saying, however, may no longer be true today. The reason is overfishing. The problem of overfishing is spreading. Since anyone can fish, many people do. Around the world, the number of fishermen and fish farmers is growing. The total has more than doubled in the past 25 years. When too many people fish, too many fish are caught. The days of teaching people to fish may be over. New solutions to this problem must be found, before there are no more fish to eat.

  20. THANK YOU!

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