STRESS
Book: AN INTRODUCTION TO PHONETICS
Author: Parviz Birjandi
Page: C5-P99
The word stress means “loudness.” Stress is a term that we apply to words in isolation which have more than one syllable. It refers to the property that certain syllables carry which makes them stand out from the rest of the word. It seems certain that stressed syllables are made with more effort than unstressed ones; the muscles in the lungs seem to expel air more aggressively than for unstressed syllables. Before we identify what stress means, try this short exercise: Say this sentence aloud and count how many seconds it takes.
This simple example makes a very important point about how native speakers speak and use English. Namely, English is considered a stressed language while many other languages are considered syllabic. What does that mean? It means that, in English, speakers give stress to certain words (or more precisely syllables) while other words are quickly spoken. In other languages, such as French or Italian, each syllable receives equal importance.
Many speakers of syllabic languages do not understand why English people quickly speak, or swallow, a number of words in a sentence. In syllabic languages each syllable has equal importance, and therefore equal time is needed. English however, spends more time on specific stressed words while quickly gliding over the other, less important, words. For example, native speakers quickly glide over the modal verb "can" and it is hardly pronounced when it is used in the positive form.
As you can see from the above example the sentence, "They can't come on Friday" is longer than "They can come on Friday" because both the modal "can't" and the verb "come" are stressed. So, you see that stress adds to the length of the syllable that carries it. We mentioned earlier that only some syllables in a word carry stress. Any good dictionary provides you with information regarding the stress-carrying syllables of a given word. Take the following examples:
In these examples, primary stress is marked with a raised vertical line, and secondary (or medium) stress is marked with lowered vertical line. In British dictionaries, both marks come at the beginning of the stressed syllable where as in American dictionaries they come at the end of stressed syllables. They apply to the entire syllable, not to any single segment within the syllable.
