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Syllabic structure and lexical stress

11 important questions on Syllabic structure and lexical stress

What are the four phonentic variables indicating stress in English?

Intensity

Greater breath effort and muscular energy associated with stressed syllables. Closely related to what the listener perceives as loudness.

Pitch variation

Most important determinant of stress
Higher pitch tends to be associated with stronger stress

Vowel quality

Whether the vowel is central or peripheral also determines stress. The noun present /ˈprezǝnt/ as opposed to the verb (to)present /prǝˈzent/. The stressed syllables contain the peripheral vowel DRESS /e/, whereas the unstressed syllables have a central vowel /ǝ/.

Vowel duration

Vowels are shorter in unstressed rather than in stressed syllables

Language invariable stress?

some languages have allot of stress on an syllable in a particular position in the word, like Czech, Slovak ect.

Lexically designated stress

In English and many other languages (e.g. German, Russian, Danish, Dutch), not only can stress occur at any point in the word but, crucially, it is fixed for each individual word. In such languages, stress is furthermore of great importance for the phonetic structure of the word and cannot as a rule be shifted in connected speech. The stress is on a given syllable always

Two types of stress in English compounds?

Initial element stress (IES)

Main stress on the first part of the compound, e.g. 'apple pip, 'office boy.

Final element stress (FES), also named double stress, equel stress

Main stress on the last element of the compound e.g. apple 'pie, office 'desk.

Mora? An how do you count mora en what are they then called?

a timing unit smaller than a syllable that indicates teh wieght of a syllable

Onset consonants do not have mora
Nucleus

Checked/short vowel = 1 mora
Free/long vowel or diphtlong(count double in CVV) = 2 morae

Coda consonant = one mora

Syllable with:
1 mora = light (CV)
2 morae = heavy (CV, CVV, CVC)
3 morae = superheavy (CVVCC)

Stress and the effects on vowel duration?

Stressed syllables have longer durations than unstressed ones
Stressed-unstressed differences within words

ˈcompany: ˈkʌm > pə, ni

Stress-timing: stressed syllable is about as long as adjacent unstressed syllables put together
Focus may change SENTENCE STRESS & duration

Would you ˈlike ˈCOMpany?
Oh, I’d ˈLOVE ˈcompany

What for stress language is English and the factors that affects stress placement?

Stress-timed language
stressed syllables at equal intervals
factors that affect stress placement are

number of syllables
syllable weight
word class: nouns, adjectives, verbs
these factors are not 100% predictive with these rules

How do you make a metrical stress grid?

Transcribe broadly and mark syllables and CV..
Indicate extrametricality

Noun the last syllable
Verbs and adjectives the final consonant

Mark every syllable with a asterisks
Form metrical feet, from van right to left (first make morae (light, heavy, superheavy)
Richt-most foot primary stress

The thing with the most stress under there is the primary stress.

Where is the stress on bisyllabic nouns, polysyllabic nouns (hevay and light)?

Bisyllabic nouns --> stress on the first syllable, becaus ethe second syllable is extrametrical.
In polysyllabic noun word >2 syllables, stress the right-most foot

If the penultimate (prefinal) syllable is heavy, nouns have primary stress on the penultimate syllable

E.g., Ariˈzona, apˈpendix, deˈtergent, Oklaˈhoma

If the penultimate syllable is light, nouns have primary stress on the antepenultimate (pre-prefinal) syllable

E.g. Aˈmerica, ˈemerald, asˈparagus, ˈpresident

When do you use weak vowels and weak forms? (see slide for the most important weak forms)

Predominate in unstressed syllables.
weak vowels means unstressed
weak froms are mostly grammatical words

What is the difference between strong forms and weak forms?

The strong form is the pronunciation used when the word is stressed, as when citing it in isolation or giving it special emphasis in a sentence. The weak form is the pronunciation the word has when it’s unstressed.

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