FUNCTIONAL STRESS/ WORD ACCENT

 

UNIT-II

1.    FUNCTIONAL STRESS/ WORD ACCENT

 

Question: Illustrate the rule for Functional Stress with examples.

 

Answer:

 

Functional Stress: Word stress in English serves a grammatical function also. In verbs with two syllables, stress falls on the second syllable. In nouns and adjectives with two syllables, the stress falls on the first syllable.

 

Examples:

1.    Differences in meanings, caused by the choice of stress, with which the words are used in both the places:

Word Category                                           Meaning

1.    (a) to re’cord (verb)                     --          to note the observations

(b) ‘record                                    --          a special book

            2. (a) to ob’ject (verb)                       --          to disagree with something

                (b) ‘object (Noun)                         --          thing

            3. (a) to pro’ject (verb)                      --          to show

                (b) ‘project (Noun)                        --          carefully planned enterprise

 

2.    In English,  the syllable with /ə/ is never stressed.

Example – Verbs:

1.    (a) Conduct (verb)  -- /kənˈdʌkt/ - con’duct

(b)  Conduct (Noun) -- /ˈkɒndʌkt/ - ‘Conduct

2.    (a) Perfect (verb) -- /pəˈfekt/ -- per’fect

(b) Perfect (Adjective) -- /ˈpəːfɪkt/  -- ‘perfect

3.    (a) Record (verb) -- /rɪˈkɔːd/ -- re’cord             

(b) Record (Noun) -- /ˈrekɔːd/--  ‘record                                 

4.    (a) Object (Verb) -- /əbˈdʒekt/ --ob’ject

(b) Object (Noun) -- /ˈɒbdʒɪkt/ -- ‘object

 

Stress in ‘Disyllabic Words’:      

In ‘disyllabic’ words, stress may fall either on the first or the second syllable as given in the examples below:

            Examples:

Stress on the first syllable: ‘English,  ‘able,  ‘doctor,  ‘baggage

Stress on the second syllable: ad’dress, a’bout, de’sign,  be’came

 

Stress in ‘Polysyllabic Words’:  

In ‘Polysyllabic words’, the stress varies considerably. The stress may fall on the first or the second or the third and final syllable, as given in examples below:

Examples:

oc’casion                               discon’nect

re’actor                                   fa’miliar

im’possible                            disem’bark

sul’phuric                              des’cribing

in’flation                                half-‘finished

fi’nancial                               inex’perienced

pro’duction                            insin’cere

de’pendent                            il’logical

 

Stress in Compound Words:

A Compound word consists of two independent words functioning together as one word.

Example: Notebook (Note + book); four-wheeler (four+ wheeler); North-East (North + East); downgrade (down + grade)

In compound words with two nouns  (like notebook), normally the first noun is stressed.

In all  the other cases like four-wheeler, north-east, down-grade, the second word is stressed.

Therefore, observe the following examples:

1.    notebook   -- ‘notebook

2.    four-wheeler  -- four ‘wheeler

3.    north east  -- north ‘east

4.    downgrade – down ‘grade

 

 

Rules for Making stress:

There are some rules which will help us articulate words correctly.

Rule-1: Words with weak prefixes are accented on the root.

Example:  a’rise,  be’low,  com’pose,  a’lone,  be’come,  de’velop, a’loud,  be’fall, re’duce, ad’mit,  be’tween

Rule-2: The inflexional suffixes –ed, -es and –ing do not affect the accent.

Example:      -ed :    recom’mend  -           recom’mended

                                    re’late – re’lated

                                    sub’mit – sub’mitted           

                        -es:     com’pose – com’poses

                                    dis’ease   - dis’eases

                                    ‘focus – ‘focuses

                        -ing:    ad’vance – ad’vancing

                                    com’mit – com’mitting

                                    ‘happen – ‘happening

                                    ‘reason – ‘reasoning

 

Rule-3: The derivational suffixes –age, -ance, -en, -ess, -ful, -hood, -ice, -ish, -ive, -less, -ly, -ment, -ness, -or, -ship, -ter, -ure and –zen do not normally affect the accent.

-age    ‘carry  - ‘carriage;     ‘cover – ‘coverage;   ‘marry – ‘marriage

-ance  ap’pear – ap’pearance;  at’tend – at’tendance;  per’form – per’formance

-en      ‘bright – ‘brighten;  ‘light – ‘lighten;

-er       ‘be’gin – be’ginner; ‘common – ‘commoner;  per’form – per’former

Rule-4: Words ending in –ion take the primary accent on the penultimate (second from end) syllable

Example:      admi’ration                prepa’ration

                        appli’cation               determi’nation

                        exami’nation             deco’ration

                        ‘station                       ‘nation

Rule-V: Words ending in –ic, -ical, -ically, -ious, -ial and –ially take the primary accent in the syllable preceding the suffix.

-ic        apolo’getic,  sympa’thetic,   ter’rific

-ical    bio’logical, e’lectrical, psychol’ogical

-ious   a’trocious,  cere’monious,  no’torious

-ial       com’mercial,  confi’dential

ially     cate’gorically,  dra’matically

Rule-6: Words ending in –ity take the accent on the ante-penultimate syllable (third syllable from the end)

Examples:    a’bility,            gene’rosity,   ca’pacity,  elec’tricity,  oppor’tunity,  fu’tility

EXERCISES:

Mark Stress for the following words:

(1)  angry  --  ‘angry        ; (2) nteen  -- can’teen;  (3) family  -- ‘family;

(4)  committee – co’mmittee;  (5) employee  --  emplo’yee;  (6) democracy  -- de’mocracy

(7) apology  -- a’pology;  (8) compulsory  -- com’pulsory;  (9) frustrate  -- ‘frustrate;

(10) corruption  -- cor’ruption;  (11) administration – admini’stration;

(12) biological – bio’logical; (13) ceremonies – ‘ceremonies;  (14) suitable  -- ‘suitable;            (15) suitable  -- ‘suitable;  (16) homoeopathic – homoeo’pathic;                                                    (17) examination – exami’nation;  (18) sincere  -- sin’cere;  (19) related  -- re’lated;                  (20) describing – de’scribing;  (21) essential  --  e’ssential;------------- 

Reference: 

Communication and Soft Skills - Volume-I by Orient Blackswan

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