Stress, in linguistic terms, denotes the additional emphasis applied when articulating a specific word or syllable. Essentially, it signifies a characteristic of syllables that sets them apart, making them more noticeable than others.
Another way to conceptualize stress is as the contrast between varying degrees of breath force allocated to syllables in the English language.
Stress encompasses three distinct categories: word stress, sentence stress, and emphatic stress.
Word Stress
Word stress tends to be relatively fixed, with each word having strong/weak stresses, particularly content words such as nouns, adverbs, verbs, and adjectives in English. The stress typically commences strongly at the beginning of the stressed syllable and diminishes towards the end, often maintaining a stable pitch.
In spoken language, words vary in syllabic structure, ranging from one to multiple syllables. In words with more than one syllable, one syllable is stressed, while the others typically have a lesser degree of stress. English recognizes three degrees of stress:
- Primary/strong stress
- Secondary stress
- Unstressed/weak syllable
Stress placement is indicated by:
(i) Placing a mark (‘) at the beginning of the stressed syllable, e.g., ‘contest con’test.
(ii) Capitalizing the letters of the stressed syllable, e.g., CONtest, contest.
Primary/Strong/Stressed Syllable
This type of syllable is pronounced with more significant effort. It is denoted by placing a stroke (‘) or a mark at the top before the syllable sound to be stressed. In this context, stressed syllables will be represented in capital letters.
Primary stress can occur on the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd syllable, as exemplified by words such as CAPtain, comMAND, democratic, RUbber, supPORT, teleVIsion, PAINter, reJOICE, inhiBItion, JOURney, meTAlLIC, acaDEmic, SUBject, humILITY, pessiMIStic, inVENT, deVOTE, and reCEDE.
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