PRONUNCIATION Unit 8

1. PRONUNCIATIONUnit 8 Stressed Syllables/Words & Unstressed Syllables/Words

2. General Introduction • Stress and rhythmare two more essential elements in English pronunciation.Stress is such an important feature of spoken English that it determines not only the rhythmic flow of words, but also the quality of the vowels. Correct word and sentence stress in spoken English can mean the difference between good communication and no communication at all.

3. Listening Ex. 2 & Speaking Ex1. Summary A Stressed syllable may contain any one of the vowel sounds except /ә/, but any vowel except the diphthongs /ɔi/and /au/ can be reduced to /ә/ and /i/.This explains why the two vowels/ә/ and /i/, are the more frequently used vowel sounds in spoken English. Stressed Syllables & Unstressed Syllables

4. Listening Ex. 2. 4 Summary When we join two nouns to form a compound word, we usually stress the first noun more than the second. Stressed Syllables & Unstressed Syllables

5. Stressed Syllables & Unstressed Syllables • Compound proper nouns normally have a primary stress on the second elements, except for the names of stress, like Forest Street. • When the first element of a compound adjective is an adjective, equal stress is used. E.g. middle-aged, old-fashioned, softhearted.

6. Listening Ex. 6 Summary Most words of English origin receive the strong stress on the first syllable Disyllabic words with a meaningless prefix have the strong stress on the second syllable: believe, rely, Stressed Syllables & Unstressed Syllables

7. Wordsof French origin are usually strongly stressed on the final syllable or the suffix. E.g. machine, regime, employee. Words of three syllables have the strong stress either on the first or the second syllable. E.g. socialist, phonetic, remember, misfortune. Stressed Syllables & Unstressed Syllables

8. Stressed Syllables & Unstressed Syllables • Words of three syllables ending in “-ize, -fy, -ate” are usually stressed on the third syllable from the last. E.g. modernize, exercise, beautify, specify. • Most words of four syllables are stressed on the third syllable form the last. E.g. development, similitude, phenomena.

9. Stressed Syllables & Unstressed Syllables • Words with certain suffixes( except ‘–able’) bear the strong stress on the syllable immediately preceding them. E.g. generation, economical, peculiar, infinitive, photography.

10. Stressed Words & Unstressed Words • Brief Introduction

11. Stressed Words & Unstressed Words • Sentence stressrefers to the word or words in a sentence that receive a strong accent. In most sentences you will find a series of both stressed and unstressed words. Stressed syllables are long, have a pitch change and have full vowel sounds while unstressed syllables are short and often have a reduced vowel sound. A reduced vowel sound is a short, unclear vowel sound.

12. Stressed Words & Unstressed Words • What to stress in a sentence? • In an English utterance, stressed words give information to the listener and unstressed words join the information words together. Correct pronunciation of stressed and unstressed words is thus extremely important for effective communication in English.

13. Stressed Words & Unstressed Words • Information words & function words • Information words are usually nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Unstressed words are usually function words like articles, pronouns, possessives, preposition, auxiliary verbs, and conjunctions.

14. Stressed Words & Unstressed Words Notes • If you stress all the words in an utterance, you may sound unpleasant or even cause misunderstanding because: • 1) You are giving too much information, • 2) English speakers usually stress all words only when they are impatient or angry.

15. Stressed Words & Unstressed Words • Reinforcement • Ex. 1 P95; • Ex. 1 P96; • Ex. 3 P97; • Ex. 4 P100.