CHAPTER 11

COMPLEX WORD STRESS NOR SYAHIRAH BT NORIZAN

NURUL HAZWANI BT MAT SAYUTI

11.1 Complex words• Two major types:

- Basic word form (stem) + affix

- Compound words ( two / more independent English words) e.g.: ice-cream,armchair

• Words + affixes

- Prefixes prefix ‘un’ + stem ‘pleasant’ = ‘unpleasant’

- Suffixes stem ‘good’ + suffix ‘-ness’ = ‘goodness’

• Affixes have 1 of 3 possible effects on word stress:

- The affix itself receives the primary stress e.g.: semicircle, personality

- The word is stressed as if the affix were not there e.g.: unpleasant, marketing

- The stress remains on the stem, not the affix, but is shifted to a different syllable e.g.: magnetic

11.2 Suffixes• Common and productive

• Distinguish between a stem (remains when affixes are removed) and a root ( the smallest piece of lexical material that a stem can be reduced to)

- e.g.: ‘personality’

• Suffixes carrying primary stress themselves

- e.g.: ‘refugee’, ‘volunteer’, ‘cigarette’, ‘picturesque’

• Suffixes that do not affect stress placement

- e.g.: ‘comfortable’, ‘anchorage’, ‘powerless’, ‘glorify’

• Suffixes that influence stress in the stem

- e.g.: ‘photography’, ‘climatic’, ‘perfection’, ‘reflexive’

- Primary stress is on the last syllable

• Suffixes ‘-ance’, ‘-ant’, ‘-ary’ (e.g.: ‘guidance’, ‘sealant’, ‘ dietary’) + single-syllable stems the stress is almost placed on the stem

• The stem has > 1 syllable the stress is on 1 of the syllables in the stem

- Use a rule based on syllable structure Chapter 10

• If the final syllable of the stem is strong, that syllable receives the stress

- e.g.: ‘importance’, ‘centenary’

• Otherwise the syllable before the last one receives the stress

- e.g.: ‘inheritance’, ‘military’

11.3 Prefixes• Effect on stress does not have the comparative regularity,

independence and predictability of suffixes

• No prefix of one / two syllables that always carries primary stress

• Stress in words with prefixes is governed by the same rules as those for polysyllabic words without prefixes

11.4 COMPOUND WORDS

Written forms: One word

•Eg: armchair, sunflower

Two words separated by a space

•Eg: desk lamp, battery charger

With hyphen•Eg: gear-change, fruit-cake

When is primary stress placed on the first constituent word of the compound & when on the second?

Stress on the first element

•Compound of 2 nouns:

Eg: ‘typewriter, ‘car-ferry, ‘sunrise, ‘suitcase, ‘tea-cup.

•It is safest to assume that normally the other compounds also fall in this way, however, a variety of compounds – the second element.

Stress on the second element•Compounds with

First element : adjectival

Second element : the –ed morpheme

Eg: bad-’tempered, half-’timbered, heavy-’handed

•Compounds which

First element : number

Eg: three-’wheeler, second-’class, five-’finger

•Compounds functioning as adverbs:

Eg: head-first, North-’East, down’stream

•Compounds functioning as verbs

First element: adverbial

Eg: down-’grade, back-’pedal, ill-’treat

11.5 VARIABLE STRESS

• Stress pattern (English) – not fixed & changing

• Reasons - variable of stress position:

Stress on other words occurred next to the word in questions (connected speech- CH 14)

The stress on a final-stressed compound tends to move to a preceding syllable if the following word begins with a strongly stressed syllable.

bad-’tempered a ‘bad-tempered ‘teacher half-’timbered, a ‘half-timbered ‘househeavy-’handed a ‘heavy-handed ‘sentence

Not all speakers agree on the placement of stress in some words

Different pronunciation:

• Controversy

• Ice-cream

• Kilometre

• Formidable

11.6 WORD-CLASS PAIRS

• 2 syllable words – identical spelling but differ from each other in stress placement, apparently according to word class (noun, verb, or adjective)

• RULE! :

IF A PAIR OF PREFIX + STEM WORDS EXISTS, BOTH

MEMBERS OF WHICH ARE SPELT IDENTICALLY, ONE OF

WHICH IS A VERB AND THE OTHER OF WHICH IS EITHER A

NOUN OR AN ADJECTIVE, THEN THE STRESS IS PLACED

ON THE SECOND SYLLABLE OF THE VERB BUT ON THE FIRST

SYLLABLE OF THE NOUN OR ADJECTIVE.

• For example:

Abstract

Conduct

Contract

Desert

Escort

Esport

Import