Stress

Question 1

What is stress?

Answer 1

Stress is a relative force with which a given sound, syllable or word is pronounced. A stressed word syllable or sound will have a greater degree of loudness than an unstressed word, syllable or sound.

Question 2

Degrees of stress

Answer 2

5 degrees of stress:

1. Main stress - found on the prominent syllables of prominent words in the sentence.
2. Secondary stress - in addition to the main stress, words of several syllables can have second stress (conversation)
3. Subsidiary-main stress - a degree of stress somewhat weaker than the main stress but stronger than the secondary stress (don’t leave it)
4. Emphatic stress - very strong, used for the sake of emphasis (I want YOU to take it)
5. Weak stress - the absence of stress

Question 3

Kinds of stress

Answer 3

There are two kind of stress:

1. Word stress - every word containing two or more syllables can have a type of stress.
2. Sentence stress - certain words and syllables will have a particular kind of stress according to their function, significance and importance they have in the sentence.

Question 4

The effect of loss of stress on vowels

Answer 4

1. Reduction from main to secondary: it undergoes a loss of quantity only
2. Vowels in unstressed syllables:
   - all long vowels become short and lax
   - the vowels /e/ and /i/ when unstressed are pronounced /i/