Primary Words Stress And Utterance Intonation

Question 1

Segmental aspects of English

Answer 1

Vowels and consonants which make up syllables

Question 2

Non segmental features of English

Answer 2

Stress
Speed
Resonance
Prosody

Question 3

Stress

Answer 3

Higher pitch and loudness

Question 4

Speech

Answer 4

Rate

Question 5

Resonance

Answer 5

The quality of sound

Question 6

Prosody

Answer 6

Difference pitches, rhythms and tones of voice

Question 7

Lexical stress

Answer 7

Emphasis on syllable within a single word

Question 8

Prosodic stress

Answer 8

Emphasis at the level of the phrase of sentence

Question 9

Fixed stress

Answer 9

Where stress is located on the same syllable in each word eg first or penultimate syllable

Question 10

Free stress

Answer 10

Where stress placent is variable across words

Question 11

What kind of stress does English have?
Fixed stress or free stress?

Answer 11

English has free stress. This means it doesn’t occur on the same syllable in all words.
Assignation of stress happens in English on all words of 2 syllables and more (primary stress)

Question 12

How do we produce lexical stress

Answer 12

Increased air pressure generated in the lungs
Increased effort in articulatory movements in the vocal tract

Question 13

What do stressed syllables tend to do when we produce lexical stress

Answer 13

Show pitch prominence
Be longer
Be louder

Question 14

What is pitch prominence

Answer 14

A pitch level that is different from that of neighbouring syllables

Question 15

What are the 3 rules about the use of stress in English

Answer 15

• For bi syllabic words, nouns and adjectives have the stress on the first syllable, whereas verbs have the stress on the second syllable eg table (noun), special (adjective), demand (verb).
• Words ending in ‘ic’, ‘tion’, ‘sion’ always place their stress on the penultimate syllable eg supersonic, dedication, attention.
• Most words ending in ‘ous’ with 4 syllables usually have their stress on the second syllable eg anonymous, superfluous, luxurious.

Question 16

Primary stress

Answer 16

• Primary stress- The loudest syllable in the word.
  Most one syllable words have primary stress except for sum short function words such as ‘the’ or ‘a’ which may not be stressed at all.
  Marked with ̍ at the beginning of the syllable.

Question 17

Secondary stress

Answer 17

• Secondary stress- Syllables that aren’t completely unstressed but aren’t as loud as the primary stress.
  Marked with a lowered vertical line at the beginning of the syllable.

Question 18

Unstressed

Answer 18

• Unstressed- Syllables that have no stress at all.
  In English almost all of these have a schwa for their nucleus or a sonorant consonant.

Question 19

Syllable reduction

Answer 19

• Syllable reduction- usually results in use of a schwa (centralised vowel, sometimes /ɪ/ or a syllabic consonant (or omission of the syllable completely)

Question 20

Vowel reduction

Answer 20

Vowel reduction- is where vowel in a syllable (usually) becomes a schwa or syllabic consonant- this only occurs in the unstressed syllable

Question 21

Why is awareness of stress important

Answer 21

• An awareness of stress is important- because stressed/accented syllables form the framework for intonation (the melodic pattern of an utterance)
• In an English utterance there ill be one word which carries the main stress but there will still be unstressed syllables in that word

Question 22

Syllable timed

Answer 22

• Syllable timed.
  Syllables are perceived as being approximately equal in length.
  Little variation in word stress and no reduced vowels
  Eg French, Spanish, Welsh

Question 23

Stress timed

Answer 23

• Stress timed.
  Syllables can last different amounts of time- but there appears to be a fairly constant amount of time between stressed syllables.
  Eg English, German, Russain
  The stressed syllable in a word can change when its put into a sentence eg:
  Dessert vs Chocolate dessert
  Waterloo vs Waterloo station

Question 24

Tone unit structure

Answer 24

• Each utterance is composed of a ‘tone unit’
• There are four elements: pre head, head, nucleus and tail.
• Only the nucleus (tomic syllable) must be present.
• The nucleus is the most significant syllable in the tone unit (non necessarily the loudest or most prominent stress)
• The nucleus is where the main intonation or ‘tune’ of the utterance starts.

Question 25

As a speech and language therapists any word on word and sentence stress usually focuses on

Answer 25

Single word production
Simple sentence production

Question 26

Intonation

Answer 26

• Intonation- changes in pitch used in an utterance
• Intonation is divided into individual intonation contours in sentences. Often these align with syntactic constituents, usually clauses.
• This can be a simple sentence eg it’s a red car.
• Or part of a compound or complex sentces eg
  They went on ho li day/ and saw the py ra mids.

Question 27

Low fall pitch pattern

Answer 27

Definitive, commands, questions

Question 28

High fall pitch pattern

Answer 28

Definitive, strong, commands, enthusiasm

Question 29

Low rise pitch pattern

Answer 29

Query, politeness, question, requests

Question 30

High rise

Answer 30

Surprise, disbelief

Question 31

Fall rise

Answer 31

Doubt, hesitation

Question 32

Rise fall

Answer 32

Sarcasm, humour

Question 33

Mid level

Answer 33

Neutral

Question 34

What is the rule of lexical stress for bi syllabic words, nouns, adjectives and verbs

Answer 34

For bi syllabe words, nouns, adjectives the stress is on the first syllable, whereas for verbs the stress is on the second syllable

Question 35

What is the rule of lexical stress for words ending in ‘ic’ ‘tion’ and ‘sion’

Answer 35

They always place their stress on the penultimate (second to last) syllable eg superSONic

Question 36

What is the rule of lexical stress for words ending in ‘ous’

Answer 36

Most words ending in ‘ous’ with 4 syllables usually have their stress on the second syllable eg aNONymous