The degrees of word stress.

An object - to object

Words Stress.

I saw her rise.

I saw her eyes.

Not at all one.

Not a tall one.

Syllabic structure of English words.

Speech is a continuum and it’s divided in small units which are called syllables. A syllable may consist of one sound or a number of sounds [I, twice]. Syllables organize the sound sequences into words and mark the boundaries between words. This can be seen from the following example:

How to distinguish the meaning phrases? The meaning of each of these sentences is based upon the grouping into syllables of the phonemes [ə] and [t] in the first example and phonemes [h], [ə] and [r] in the second example.

In the first two sentences we have either an open syllable formed by [ə] with a diminution of energy at the end and an increase of energy marking the articulation of the sound [t] which begins a new syllable, or a close syllable with a diminution of energy at the end of the sound [t] and a new rise of energy at the beginning of the sound [ɔ] which begins a new syllable.

In the second two sentences we have a close syllable with a diminution of energy at the end of phoneme [ɜ:] and an increase of energy marking the articulation of the sound [ai] which begins a new syllable.

Several theories had been used to explain this phenomena but the best explanation was given by the professor Scherba who explained this phenomena by combining muscular tension impulses with the three types of consonants. Each impulse has its strongest and its weakest points. The weakest point corresponds to the boundary of two syllables. The end of one syllable and the beginning of the next is determined by the type of consonant which takes part in forming the syllables. Consonants may be of three types.

One or more syllables in a polysyllabic word have greater prominence than the others. Such syllables are called stressed syllables. In English loudness (force), pitch, sound quantity, sound quality may render the syllable more prominent than the others. In similar phonetic contexts a vowel is more prominent if it is louder, longer and more distinct. Vowels of unstressed syllables are not so long and tend to be reduced in the unstressed position. Word stress arranges syllables in words thus fulfilling the constructive function. Its distinctive function can be traced in the oppositions of words consisting of the same morphemes thus the meaning of these words can be differentiated by the part of speech:

чУдный - чуднОй

There are three degrees of word stresses in English:

pstressed syllables (primary stress);

phalf-stressed syllables (secondary stress);

pweak/unstressed syllables.

A large group of polysyllabic simple words has both types of stresses:

,converSAtion