Secondary Stress

So far our discussion has been around primary stress (or ‘strong stress’). In texts describing the sound patterns of English, it is commonplace to see mention made of a secondary stressed (or ‘lightly stressed’) syllable. This refers to situations where, in many words (especially longer words), there is prominence of more than one syllable. For example, if we consider the words photography and photographic, we see different patterns; while in the first word [fətɑgɹ̣əfi], we have one prominent syllable (second or ‘antepenult’ syllable), we have two prominent syllables in the morphologically related word [fotəgɹ̣æfɪk] (first and third, or ‘pre-antepenult’ and ‘penult’). When we have more than one prominent syllable in a word, we speak of a secondary stress, which is exemplified by the first syllable of the word photographic.

In agreement with Ladefoged’s (2001a) account of stress patterns, we will likewise treat the difference between the primary stress and the secondary stress as a difference in pitch instead of stress. In other words, both syllables (primary and secondary stressed) have prominence, and their difference results from the superimposition of the pitch pattern; the syllable that is commonly known as the primary stressed syllable is the one with the major pitch change. Thus, both the first and the third syllables of photographic have prominences, but only the third will show the major pitch change, which is called the tonic accent. Thus, we can say that (a) an English syllable is either stressed (+stress) or unstressed (−stress); (b) if there is only one prominent syllable in the word, then it necessarily is the stressed syllable and has the tonic accent, while if there is more than one prominent (stressed) syllable, then only one of them will have the major pitch-changing ‘tonic accent’; and (c) a stressed syllable necessarily has a full vowel (no vowel reduction can take place in a stressed syllable); thus, vowel reduction is a question relevant only for unstressed syllables. We can illustrate these dependencies in the following diagram:

Thus, we have the following combinatory possibilities for English syllables:

Primary stressed syllable: +stress, +tonic accent, +full V.

Secondary stressed syllable: +stress, −tonic accent, +full V.

Unstressed syllable: −stress, −tonic accent, +/−full V.

Let us now look at the two words we have been discussing:

In photography, we have one prominent syllable, which necessarily carries the tonic accent. Since it is the stressed syllable, it will also have a full vowel. Among the remaining three unstressed syllables, only the last one has a full vowel; the others have reduced vowels. In the second word, photographic, we have two prominent syllables, the second of which carries the major pitch change (i.e. tonic accent). As suggested by Ladefoged, this system can easily be converted into a traditional numerical system. A syllable with three pluses will get 1, two pluses will get 2, one plus will get 3, and the syllable with no pluses will get 4. Thus, the numbers for photography will be 4 1 4 3, and for photographic 2 4 1 4.

Some students, while not having any problem in detecting the syllable with the primary stress (syllable with the tonic accent), do have difficulties in identifying the ones with secondary stress. The following generalizations, some more consistent than others, are usually helpful in detecting the secondary stress:

(a) The longest sequence of reduced vowels in an English word is predominantly two.

(b) A full vowel will have stress

unless

– it is in the final open syllable;

– the word has two other more prominent syllables;

– it is one of the alternating cases of /i, o, u/ with [ə].

(c) In general, secondary stress comes before the primary stress (major pitch change tends to be on the last stressed syllable).

If there is only one syllable before the primary stress, this is usually unaccented (so as not to place two stressed syllables next to one another) (e.g. divinity [də.ví.nə.ti], urbanity [ɚ.bǽ.nə.ti]). However, there are exceptions (e.g. martini [mɑ́ɹ̣.tí.ni], cucumber [kjú.kΛ̀m.bɚ]).

When there are more than two syllables before the primary stress, a secondary accent will fall two or three syllables back according to the presence of a full vowel (e.g. gratification [gɹ̣æ̀.tə.fə.ké.ʃən], bibliography [bì.bli.ɑ́.gɹ̣ə.fi]).

We can now analyze the word pronunciation in light of what has been said so far:

The second and the fourth syllables are the prominent ones and receive +stress and consequently +full V; all others receive −stress. The fourth syllable, in addition, is the major pitch-changing syllable and receives +tonic accent. All others are − for this feature. Two of the −stress syllables (the first and the last) have reduced vowels, [ə], and get − for full V, whereas the third syllable has a + for full V because of /i/. This word is quite typical in many respects: a long, five-syllable word with two prominent syllables; the primary and the secondary stresses are not next to one another; and the first syllable, even if uttered with a full vowel /o/, will not be eligible for the secondary stress because it is alternating with [ə].

In some long words (four syllables or more), we may encounter two syllables with secondary stresses (e.g. Afghanistan [æ̀f.gǽ.nə.stæ̀n], reconciliation [ɹ̣ὲ.kən.sì.li.é.ʃən], excommunicate [ὲk.skə.mjú.nə.kèt], expugnatory [ὲk.spΛ́g.nə.tɔ̀.ɹ̣i].

Finally, mention should be made of another group of words in relation to secondary stress. While we generally see secondary stresses in longer words (three syllables and longer), there are some disyllabic words with both syllables stressed. As shown below, both logical possibilities are entertained: