the study of stress in English

The Study of Stress in English 【Abstract】In Western languages, English is the most significant stress factors in

a language .For native English-speaking people, the location and severity of stress contrast between the sounds of their knowledge through the hearing to identify the dominant factor of the word, once the speaker grasp the error of stress, it will result in communication barriers. In other words, if the time when you learn English accent did not read the words accurately, and in English it is very difficult to listen to accurate identification. Without using the dictionary in the case, even if the encounter did not know the words, but also the ability of accurate pronunciation is an important part of English literacy. It can be seen to understand that stress of the English language is the basis for learning English.

【Key words】stress word stress sentence stress

【摘要】在西方语言中，英语是重音因素最为明显的一种语言。对于以英语为母语的人士来说，重音位置和轻重音之间的对照是他们通过听觉识辨识单词的主导因素，一旦说话人对重音把握出现错误，就会造成交流障碍。反过来，如果学习英语单词时重音没有读准，在听英语时也很难准确辨识。在不借助词典的情况下，即使碰到不认识的词，也能准确发音的能力，是英语素养的重要部分。由此可见，了解掌握英语重音是学好英语的基础。英语重音分为单词重音与句子重音， 【关键字】英语重音 单词重音 句子重音

1. Introduction

This article is about stress. Stress is a large topic and despite the fact that it has been extensively studied for a very long time. There remain many areas of disagreement or lack of understanding. To begin with a basic point, it is almost certainly true that in all languages some syllables are in some sense stronger than other syllables; these are syllables that have the potential to be described as stressed. Like many other languages, there are stress in the English words and sentences.

2. Four major types of stress 2.1 Unmarked tonic Stress The term tonic stress is usually preferred to refer to this kind of stress in referring, proclaiming, and reporting utterances. Tonic stress is almost always found in a content word in utterance final position. Consider the following, in which the tonic syllable is underlined:

 I'm going.  I'm going to London.  I'm going to London for a holiday. A question does arise as to what happens to the previously tonic assigned syllables. They still get stressed, however, not as much as the tonic syllable, producing a three level stress for utterances. Then, the following is arrived at., where the tonic syllable is further capitalized:

 I'm going to London for HOliday.

2.2Emphatic Stress One reason to move the tonic stress from its utterance final position is to assign an emphasis to a content word, which is usually a modal auxiliary, an intensifier, an adverb, etc. Compare the following examples. The first two examples are adapted from. Roach (1983:144).

a) It was very BOring. (Unmarked) b) It was VEry boring. (Emphatic)

Some intensifying adverbs and modifiers (or their derivatives) that are emphatic by nature are (Leech & Svartvik, 1.975:135): Indeed, utterly, absolute, terrific, tremendous, awfully, terribly, great, grand, really, definitely, truly, literally, extremely, surely, completely, barely, entirely, very (adverb), very (adjective), quite, too, enough, pretty, far, especially, alone, only, own, -self.

2.3Contrastive Stress In contrastive contexts, the stress pattern is quite different from the emphatic and non-emphatic stresses in that any lexical item in an utterance can receive the tonic stress provided that the contrastively stressed item can be contrastable in that universe of speech. The contrasted item receives the tonic stress provided that it is contrastive with some lexical element (notion.) in the stimulus utterance. Syllables that are normally stressed in the utterance almost always get the same treatment they do in non-emphatic contexts. Consider the following examples:

a) Do you like this one or THAT one? b) I like THIS one.

2.4New Information Stress In a response given to a wh-question, the information supplied, naturally enough, is stressed. The concept of new information is much clearer to us of English in responses to wh-questions than in declarative statements. Therefore, it is best to start with teaching the stressing of the new information supplied to questions with a question word:

a) What's your NAME b) My name's GEORGE.

a) Where are you FROM? b) I'm from WALES.

The questions given above could also be answered in short form except for the last one, in other words, 'given' information is omitted, not repeated. In the exchange:

a) What's your name? b) (My name's) George.